If viewed from the air, the 33rd Division has formed a Z-shaped layout in the small town of Pawabi. In this undefeable town, the 213th Regiment is on the left front and the 214th Regiment is on the right front. The three brigades are arranged into It looks like a pincer-shaped position, with the artillery squadron leaning on the rear.
The 215th Regiment was in a parallel formation, blocking the front of the Mountain Artillery Regiment and the Heavy Artillery Regiment. It was only 2 or 3 kilometers away from the 213th Regiment and the 214th Regiment. The tank regiment was mixed in between the three. In the middle of the brigade, three columns of chariots were formed that could attack at any time.
In view of the strength of the enemy and the possibility of night fighting, Sakurai Shozo and Iteng Nobunaga ordered the troops to be in a combat-ready state, that is, once the order is received, the little devils can stand up and fight at any time.
If faced with a normal Allied force, the deployment of the 33rd Division is watertight, and even the elite divisions of the US military will not be able to take advantage.
But Gao Jianwu is not an ordinary person.
...
The main artillery force, two 155mm heavy artillery regiments and two 105mm heavy artillery regiments, were all mobilized to the Meiktila front line. 48 M1 155mm howitzers and 72 M2A1 105mm howitzers were divided into 4 different artillery positions. It's better than all the little devils.
According to the latest intelligence information, the Gaojian Military General artillery position is 12 kilometers away from the Little Japanese artillery position, which is just out of their reach. Although the range of the M2A1 105mm howitzer is equivalent to that of the Little Japanese 150mm howitzer, But the M1 155mm howitzer can reach a height of more than 14 kilometers, which is enough to kill them all.
At 2 o'clock in the morning, after various ministries reported that the movement was in place, Gao Jianwu gave an order and the artillery immediately opened fire!
The 75mm artillery battalions of the three major attack groups and the four heavy artillery regiments opened fire at the same time according to the strike coordinates provided by Gao Jianwu. At one time, nearly 200 flying bolide meteors in the sky directly hit the 33rd Division camp.
Soon, the observation post lurking near the enemy camp reported the impact points of the artillery shells to the command headquarters, which were summarized in Gao Jianwu's hands. Most of the artillery shells hit the target area, and only a small number of the artillery shells. After Gao Jianwu made a slight revision of the coordinates, Readjust the bombardment of Zhu Yuan and immediately launch the second round of bombardment.
Sakurai Shozo and Iteng Nobunaga were awakened by the sound of artillery at the same time. Their headquarters was leaning against the 215th Regiment headquarters, and they happened to see that the artillery position had been bombarded by hundreds of cannons and turned into a sea of fire!
"How is this possible?" Sakurai Shozo looked in disbelief. He accurately found his main artillery position in the first round and was able to strike accurately. This completely subverted Sakurai Shozo's past common sense.
"Sakurai-kun, I have read the battle report. The enemy does have extraordinary artillery command capabilities in Jin. It's just that we think the people who reported it on the front line exaggerated to reduce their own culpability. Now it seems that the enemy's artillery is indeed very powerful." , and are well aware of our location and deployment. Now we have to transfer and let the tank regiment rush out to find the enemy's artillery positions and annihilate them. This is our only chance of victory!"
[In view of the general environment, Iteng Nobunaga looked at the huge losses on his side and his mind was buzzing. However, now is not the time to explore these. He must respond before the enemy completely destroys his artillery. On the one hand, he can save On the one hand, one's own artillery destroys the opponent's artillery. ….
The chariot regiment is their biggest trump card. With an order, the chariot regiment sets off with a rumble! Go in the direction of the expeditionary force's artillery fire.
Although there were a lot of enemy artillery positions in this direction, the tank regiment directly chose the direction of the artillery positions of two 115mm heavy artillery regiments and divided them into two columns for a quick assault.
Based on simple calculations of the trajectory of artillery shells in the sky, the little devil has roughly estimated that the expeditionary force's heavy artillery group is about 10 kilometers away, and the direction is also quite clear. At the speed of the Type 97 medium-sized tank, it will only take about 20 minutes. You can find these heavy artillery!
As soon as the enemy moved, the observation posts lurking in the nearby jungle discovered their movements and reported them immediately.
"Dongyao calls the tank regiment, Sun Desheng, your job is here!" Gao Jianwu smiled, he had expected it, and he kept the two tank battalions stationary, just waiting.
Follow the chariot regiment of the opponent's little devil.
At the moment, the two tank battalions are led by Sun Desheng, the former cavalry battalion commander of the Ping An Independent Regiment. Because of Gao Jianwu's butterfly wings, Lao Sun was fine during the anti-mopping battle last year, and even managed to build a cavalry battalion with Gao Jianwu's support.
After the news that Gao Jianwu wanted to send people to learn to drive T34 tanks spread, Sun Desheng went crazy and approached Gao Jianwu and asked to switch careers to tanks. He looked a little anxious, but he was not too old. Less than ten.
It's just that a cavalry battalion commander of the main force wanted to be a tank soldier. This matter caused controversy among the upper levels of the independent regiment, which made Li Yunlong feel a little dizzy. He called Sun Desheng over and scolded him, but he couldn't do anything. After Zhao Gang's mediation, , Sun Desheng was able to become a member of the study team going north, which really allowed him to drive a tank.
Then Lao Sun got attached to the tank like a demon. He only rested for less than 6 hours a day. The rest of the time was completely devoted to the tank, researching, operating, repairing, and following Da Mao's coaches in all tasks. There is a language barrier, but action is the best language.
Being so eager to learn made Sun Desheng, a literacy class student, a leader in the tank learning army. Gao Jianwu noticed him and promoted him from tank learning captain to company commander of Jinyang's tank company, until he was taken to Burma. Come to the British Territory and serve as the leader of a tank regiment!
"Copy that, Commander Gao, brothers have been prepared for a long time. This time we will make sure that the Little Devil Tank Regiment has no way to come back!" On the other side of the walkie-talkie, Sun, the commander of the tank regiment, was guarding the positions of two 155mm howitzers. Desheng looked very excited.
The little devil has a chariot, how could Gao Jianwu ignore it.
According to his prediction, the most likely way for the Little Devil Chariots to attack the artillery positions is to raid the artillery positions, and the most lethal 155mm heavy artillery position is obviously their first choice target, so Gao Jianwu deployed two tank battalions there in advance. .
Sure enough, the little devil thought of this as soon as he was beaten.
They also know that artillery duels are no match for the opponent, so they use tanks as a surprise force.
Of course they also knew that the tank regiment of the expeditionary force group could not hide such a big thing. However, whether it was the division commander Sakurai Shozo or the chief of staff Nobunaga Anten, they would not be interested in the tanks of the expeditionary force group. The troops are still somewhat underestimated. ….
Tanks are not rifles. It takes two and three months of training to become relatively proficient. If you want to hit the opponent while the tank is marching, this kind of elite tank team cannot be trained in just two and three months.
Each of their own tank groups has several years of combat and training experience, so even their own Type 97 tank is worse than the opponent's Sherman tank. Sakurai Shozo and Itan Nobunaga Still believe in your own tank regiment.
And the opponent may not necessarily deploy tanks on artillery positions.
But this time they were destined to miscalculate.
The scout who was responsible for the peripheral observation of the heavy artillery position reported the dynamics of the Little Japanese tank regiment in real time, allowing Sun Desheng to know every move of the Little Japanese.
The Jaap artillery observers were indeed very experienced. The position and distance of the expeditionary force's heavy artillery positions they locked were less than 1 kilometer away, allowing the two men of the 33rd Tank Regiment to make almost no detours.
Looking at the hot shells flying towards his camp from time to time in the sky, Nobuo Ueda, captain of the 33rd Tank Regiment, was anxious. He knew how much damage each of these shells could cause to his troops. The 155mm heavy artillery, It is possible that one shot can take away everyone within a 200-meter diameter range.
In extreme cases, half of the squadron may be gone!
So Nobuo Ueda almost stepped on the accelerator and rushed towards the expeditionary force artillery position.
His tank wing has a total of 54 tanks and 11 artillery tanks, of which 36 Type 97 medium tanks form 3 squadrons, and 18 Type 95 light tanks form 1 squadron, plus 1 Type 1 There are 5 squadrons of artillery tanks in total.
Following him at this moment were two squadrons of medium tanks and a squadron of Type 1 artillery tanks, a total of 35 vehicles heading towards a heavy artillery position in the expeditionary force group.
In a dense bush on the road more than one kilometer ahead of him, Sun Desheng and 30 tanks of the 1st Tank Battalion had long been quietly hiding around the bush for several hundred meters, forming a large pocket. At this moment, the muzzle Facing the direction where the little devil is coming.
According to Gao Jianwu's deployment, if the Little Japanese tank regiment really dares to come out, then by taking advantage of our preset observation posts, the tank regiment will ambush the enemy's tank regiment on the only way to make a sneak attack!
Even if the performance is superior, wouldn't it be easier to win if you can sneak a wave of attacks?
Gao Jianwu's principle is that the best tactic is to kill the Japs at the least cost.
Although Sun Desheng had only just left the Independent Regiment, he had already understood Gao Jianwu's tactical thinking and had no intention of confronting the Japs head-on.
"Attention all units, the Japs tanks are approaching us!
After we put all the Little Japanese tanks into the ambush circle, and listened to my order to light up the ambush circle with flares, remember to follow our battle plan, select targets individually, and confirm that two of them form a group to focus fire on one tank. They must be in the first round. Knock out half of the enemy tank! "After Sun Desheng heard the rumble of tanks in the distance, he turned on the full channel of the walkie-talkie and issued an order.
"Yes! Captain! The second tank combat team received it!"
"Tank Combat Team 3 received!"
.......
After a noisy reply came from the public channel of the walkie-talkie, everyone fell into silence again. ….
The 30 tanks of the first tank battalion were divided into 15 groups. Sun Desheng also formed a group with another Sherman tank and ambush in the front closest to the Little Japs. According to the deployment, he had to wait until all the Little Japs tanks Only after passing in front of him would he give the order to light up flares and fire!
The entire ambush spread out over a kilometer, leaving the center of the encirclement nearly 600 meters wide. If the Little Japanese tank entered the encirclement, it would be no more than five or six hundred meters away from everyone.
The Sherman tanks that Sun Desheng and others accepted, even if they are older models, once the 75mm main gun on them can hit the enemy, it is enough to inflict heavy damage on the opponent at this distance.
However, it is very difficult for the main gun of a tank to hit a moving object. The gunners of the tank regiment have almost zero experience. They only have static target training and towed moving target training. For the sake of safety, Sun Desheng made a plan for two to focus fire on one. The tank's tactic is to aim and attack while stationary, thus ensuring the hit rate of the first strike.
The Little Devil Tank Regiment is completely unlike the newly formed tank regiment. They fought all the way from the mainland, and then swept across Southeast Asia. They fought many Western powers and also had some tank battles. It can be said that they have experienced hundreds of battles.
If hard steel were used under normal conditions, it would be extremely difficult for Sun Desheng's tank battalion to defeat more than 30 tanks of various types led by Nobuo Ueda.
Because of this consideration, in addition to placing Sun Desheng's tank battalion in front of the heavy artillery position for defense, Gao Jianwu also moved the battle defense artillery company there.
Closest to the heavy artillery position was a company of bazooka rocket launchers.
In other words, Gao Jianwu established three defensive fronts in the heavy artillery position.
Even if Nobuo Ueda breaks through the interception of Sun Desheng's tank battalion, he will still have to face two interceptions from combat anti-aircraft artillery and bazooka rocket launchers. Under these three defensive strikes, Nobuo Ueda's fate is actually doomed.
The 33rd Tank Regiment was now heading into Sun Desheng's trap. Without realizing it, Ueda Nobuo took the lead in driving a Type 97 tank into the encirclement. He never expected that his opponent, sitting on a tank with superior performance, would still act like this. Insidiously hide and ambush them!
So as he watched the direction of the cannonball flashing in the sky getting closer and closer to him, and the height of the cannonball crossing the sky getting lower and lower, it was obvious that he was very close to the target, and Nobuo Ueda began to boil in his heart.
"Kill!" Ueda Nobuo shouted forward, but the roar of the tank limited his scream to the people around him. This shout was just to vent his emotions.
The Japs tank regiment is not equipped with walkie-talkies yet. If it wants to issue orders at this moment, it can only go through the radio correspondent on the tank.
Send a message.
Compared with Sun Desheng and the others who have direct voice calls, they are a whole generation behind in terms of communication!
One after another, the Japanese tanks and chariots rumbled past Sun Desheng. When the last artillery tank was about to enter the encirclement, Sun Desheng turned on the full channel of the walkie-talkie to issue orders!
"Launch flares, each group aims at the opponent and prepare to attack!" Sun Desheng shouted, and several artillery crew soldiers who had been ambushing in the bushes immediately began to fire flares with mortars, illuminating the sky above the encirclement section. It was so bright that Nobuo Ueda was temporarily blinded by the bright light. ….
"There is an ambush, order all units to disperse immediately!" Nobuo Ueda, who was originally adapted to the dark environment, was caught off guard. His eyes were blinded and he could not see anything, but he still subconsciously issued the order.
But at this time, their communication still requires the communication personnel in the vehicle to send messages through the radio station. The speed of dissemination of this command is naturally lagging behind. The correspondent needs to translate his command into Moore code and encrypt it before publishing it. Within a few minutes, other tanks I can't accept it.
At this moment, several flares have illuminated the entire sky. One by one, Nobuo Ueda's tank regiments clearly appeared in the eyes of the soldiers of the 1st Battalion of Sun Desheng Tanks. The tank gunners who had long been prepared to take the lead in adapting to the bright environment, Quickly take aim at the slowing down tanks and artillery tanks of the Japs. Taking advantage of the moment when the march of the Japs tanks and artillery tanks temporarily paused due to the light, they fired decisively one by one!
On the tank commanded by Sun Desheng, the gunner also aimed at the last Little Japanese Type 1 artillery tank and fired. At a distance of less than 400 meters, the artillery shells barely paused and exploded with a bang, blasting the artillery tank on the spot.
For the Little Japanese artillery tanker with almost no armor defense, it is almost as vulnerable as an egg to the 75mm artillery.
Not only that, one of the tanks saw that the Little Japanese artillery tank was poorly defended, and the rear part of the vehicle it drove past was undefended. It immediately started machine gun fire, beating the members inside the artillery tank into a hornet's nest and stopping!
Sun Desheng directed the tank to turn, and the gunner continued to fire high-explosive shells at the passing Little Japanese artillery tank. It hit the shell directly and caused a fatal explosion, blowing up the artillery tank next to it!
In a short period of time, Sun Desheng's tanks achieved two results!
At the same time, the sound of shelling and explosions continued to sound in this bush. The tank battalions lying in ambush on both sides of the bush showed their power one by one, destroying the Little Devil 97 tanks one after another almost at the same time. Start a blazing fire!
There was also the faint sound of the little devil howling!
At this moment, before receiving the order, the remaining tanks and artillery tanks of the Imps began to maneuver like frightened rabbits. Sun Desheng had already activated the tanks and began to press on the accelerator to catch up with a Imp 97 tank.
Although the little devil ran away like he was waking up from a dream, it was already too late.
The first tank battalion, which was in a stationary state and aimed at the enemy, focused its fire in the first round and aimed calmly, so the accuracy was amazing. Almost all of them hit the opponent, and nearly half of Ueda Nobuo's main force of 2 tanks was wiped out at once!
A strong man with quick hands like Sun Desheng even killed two artillery tanks!
What's even more terrible for the little devils is that now the ambushing enemies can see them clearly, but they don't know the enemy's specific position at all. They are very passive in the combat position and can only increase the accelerator and start snake-like maneuvers to avoid.
This kind of unruly high-speed maneuver really caused Sun Desheng and his tank gunners' hit rate to drop sharply.
But even so, almost every tank in the First Tank Battalion is chasing after an opponent. The speed of the two tanks is not far apart. It is difficult for the Little Devil Tank to get rid of the pursuer. In the battle, the Nine-Seven The 57mm small water tube cannon of the Sherman tank may not be effective even if it hits the opponent's armor. ….
However, once the Sherman 75mm artillery hits the opponent, it will almost certainly obtain new results. Therefore, in the melee, several tanks of the Little Devil Tank Wing were soon beaten and unable to move!
Nobuo Ueda, who narrowly escaped the first round of shelling, had a splitting vision. He didn't think about it.
Seeing that his opponent was so insidious and even ambushed him when he had such an advantage, he showed no regard for martial ethics. In the battle that had just begun, with just a few sap blows, he lost most of his chariot troops, allowing Sun Desheng to quickly gain victory. Huge advantage of 2 versus 1!
With a huge advantage in quantity and quality of tanks, Sun Desheng's tank battalion, with a serious lack of combat experience, used convenient walkie-talkies to communicate in real time, and through 2-on-1 concentrated fire, group fights completely destroyed the opponent. , and finally annihilated the tank brigade led by Nobuo Ueda at the cost of three tanks being wounded and lying in the nest.
Including killing Nobuo Ueda on the spot!
Due to the timely retreat of the crew members on the injured tank, the tank crew members were almost unscathed in this battle!
At almost the same time, near the heavy artillery position on the other side, another tank brigade of the Little Devils, consisting of a Type 95 light tank and a Type 97 medium tank, was ambushed and attacked by the Second Tank Battalion and finally managed to escape. Several Type 95 light tanks.
The Second Tank Battalion adopted almost the same tactics as the First Tank Battalion. The difference was that the Type 95 light tank was much more maneuverable, allowing the little Japs to seize the opportunity and escape in the darkness after the flares disappeared.
However, these fish that slipped through the net are completely useless to the tank regiment.
In terms of battle damage in this ambush battle, the 2nd Tank Battalion lost 5 tanks. They were also injured by the enemy and the crew members successfully escaped.
After Gao Jianwu received the news of the tank regiment's victory, he immediately ordered them to go to the battlefield and prepare to attack the positions of the 213th Regiment and 214th Regiment of the Little Devils in front of them together with the First Attack Group and the Second Attack Group!
This time Gao Jianwu is going to let the little devils taste the power of infantry-tank collaboration on the basis of infantry-artillery coordination!
...
The enemy's endless and fierce artillery fire often hit the key points on his own position. Only then did Sakurai Shozo realize the desperate mentality of the 15th Division and the 22nd Division. Even if he ordered the troops to regroup and move, But whenever the team just assembled, it was always met with a fierce bombardment.
It's either a 75mm howitzer or a 105mm howitzer, as if the enemy has a pair of eyes staring at them all the time. No one knows why in the dark night, the opponent's bombardment is so accurate.
However, the speed at which one squadron after another was destroyed, and the bad news Sakurai Shozo continued to receive, let him know that the 33rd Division suffered very heavy casualties under the opponent's bombardment.
The enemy's artillery seems to have precision guidance, achieving the effect of hitting wherever it is pointed.
Not only that, after Sakurai Shozo received the news that the tank regiment was almost annihilated, enemy tanks appeared at the front of the 213th Regiment and 214th Regiment. According to Sakuma Joei Ozuho and According to reports from Miyazuke Yusuke and Dazuo, no fewer than 20 Sherman tanks were found in front of them!
Behind the tank, a large group of infantry was charging with the tank.
The enemy's simple and straightforward tactics are almost incomprehensible to the two infantry regiments without fortifications in the field. Machine guns hitting the tanks have almost no effect, but once the tanks aim at the machine gun fire point and fire, they often take away a machine gun with one shot. Group!
This state of affairs drove the commanders of the 213th and 214th Wings almost crazy.
And when they mobilize artillery to prepare to attack the tanks, the artillery shells in the sky often fall before the artillery can start fighting!
The enemy's infantry, artillery, and infantry-tank coordination is an almost unsolvable strategy for Sakurai Shozo.
The battle lasted for more than three hours, and the 33rd Division, which had suffered huge casualties, finally couldn't stand it any longer. Sakurai Shozo finally ordered the entire army to disperse and shift tactics!
They didn't even dare to assemble and retreat again.
To put it bluntly, the right army of the 33rd Division was completely defeated! .
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