bookmarkrole #248 - The end of the Hedong devils
#248 - The end of the Hedong devils
Anda, the little Japanese devil's, desperate gamble didn't amount to much.
Faced with the powerful offensive capabilities of Li Yunlong's mechanized infantry independent brigade, simply relying on infantry assaults was destined to be futile.
When the tank battalion destroyed the Japanese artillery regiment's position, it basically signaled the annihilation of the Japanese attacking force.
When Anda, the little Japanese devil, received news of the loss of the artillery position on the battlefield, he became somewhat distraught.
He hadn't imagined that his artillery regiment and tank company would be so helpless against the enemy's tank battalion.
The Eighth Route Army was now powerful beyond his imagination.
Anda, the little Japanese devil, finally believed the cruel reality that, in field battles, an ordinary division-level force could no longer shake the Eighth Route Army's main force. This verified the previous annihilation of Takamori Eimori and his men, which wasn't due to command errors, but simply because their strength was no longer sufficient.
The enemy's tanks were too powerful; the Empire's light tanks were like chicks in front of them, without any ability to resist.
Now, in addition to the powerful firepower of the 107 rockets, the enemy also had tanks, an even stronger assault force.
Anda Nijusan was momentarily lost in thought, but suddenly perked up again. He wanted to struggle to return and tell the Empire that it needed to innovate its arsenal. Light tanks were no longer sufficient on the Asian battlefield. The Empire urgently needed more medium and heavy tanks to counter the enemy's increasingly powerful tank forces.
Otherwise, once the enemy's tanks matured, the Empire would no longer have a foothold in Asia.
The enemy tanks' 76mm guns were an overwhelming advantage over the Empire's tanks.
After figuring this out, Anda Nijusan suddenly had a new expectation for his mission.
Originally determined to hold the line for Goro Mano and prepare to fight to the death in the city.
But now, Anda Nijusan wanted to struggle to return and tell the Empire's upper echelons about his discovery, persuading them to immediately invest more resources in developing stronger tanks and more artillery.
Anda Nijusan telegraphed the current battle situation to Goro Mano, who was currently crossing the river.
On both sides of the Shaanxi Prefecture, the sound of artillery fire rumbled.
How many times had they charged the beachhead already?
Anda's 37th Division was finished.
The main force was basically lost.
Anda Nijusan had led the cavalry regiment from the south into the Zhongtiao Mountains and continued south, leaving the other troops behind to fight in the streets.
The time left for Goro Mano was running out.
Although he had left two infantry battalions behind in the Zhongtiao Mountains to cover his retreat, Goro Mano dared not think too much about it in the face of the fierce Eighth Route Army main force. Being able to buy him two or three days was already the limit.
Although the roads in the mountainous area were rugged and narrow, and the Eighth Route Army's tanks couldn't enter, Goro Mano knew that his rearguard would have a very difficult time under the enemy's flexible and mobile 107 rockets.
He hoped they would be smart and not concentrate, allowing the enemy to wipe them out in one wave.
Li Yunlong didn't know that Anda, the old devil, had run away.
It was already more than half a day after he finished fighting the Japanese and joined up with Kong Jie's New Second Brigade.
Leaving two battalions to block the road.
The rest gathered to prepare to attack the city.
Now that they had captured the Japanese artillery regiment's artillery, more than half of it was still usable.
When the tank battalion attacked, they paid attention to protecting the safety of the artillery. Most of the enemy were taken out with machine guns. Except for the 37mm anti-tank gun squadron, which was destroyed by artillery fire, the other cannons were captured.
As a result, most of the cannons only had some machine gun scratches and did not affect their use.
Just as well that Kong Jie's artillery hadn't arrived yet, so they could use these Japanese cannons for the time being.
However, since the next phase was mainly street fighting, these cannons wouldn't be of much use.
On the other hand, tanks could be used as natural bunkers in street fighting, coordinating with infantry to attack.
Hedong City was the first large city that Li Yunlong had attacked, and to be honest, he was a little unsure.
Before this, Li Yunlong had only attacked county towns.
But even if it was like a virgin on her wedding day, Li Yunlong had to bite the bullet and rush forward.
Fortunately, Ren Zhong's tactical books for the three of them contained a section on siege and street fighting. After all, the mechanized infantry brigade was not only for field battles; it was a sharp knife that had to be capable of both siege and field battles.
According to the pre-arranged plan, the independent brigade, with its strong mobility, would directly rush to the west side to launch an attack, while the New Second Brigade would directly start attacking from the east side of the city.
They turned the muzzles of the Japanese mountain guns and howitzers and directly started bombarding the city walls.
More than 30 field guns and howitzers were a powerful firepower that Kong Jie wouldn't have dared to imagine two years ago. Now, facing Hedong's east city, Kong Jie was able to command such powerful firepower.
Although the regular artillery was still on the way, the battalions and companies were now equipped with a large number of mortars. Although these artillerymen had little training with rifled guns, they could still use them without too many problems.
It was just that the accuracy was poor in the initial stage. After firing several shots to adjust the aim, the shells finally landed near the tower and the city wall. After the forward artillery observers relayed the situation back to the artillery position, the temporary artillerymen began a large-scale bombardment.
Shells landed on the city walls one after another.
One by one, the Japanese soldiers on the city walls flew up and then fell down.
The puppet soldiers trembled and lay on the ground.
Soon, someone couldn't bear it any longer, "I'm not doing this anymore!" Even though the puppet troops hadn't figured out that the Japanese devils had suffered a major defeat outside the city, they weren't stupid. Seeing such intense artillery fire, they could easily guess the final outcome.
If they didn't run now, they would all become cannon fodder.
The puppet troops near the city gate saw someone running away, and one by one, they followed suit.
The Japanese devils were also scurrying around under the artillery fire, with no time or energy to deal with these wavering puppet troops.
Not long after the shelling began, the two Japanese platoons near the city gate were also bombed, leaving few survivors.
Now that they had cannons for free, Kong Jie didn't need to control the amount of ammunition used. As long as the city walls didn't collapse, he would keep firing!
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However, the city walls couldn't withstand such intense artillery fire for long.
The city gate was the first to be breached. The New Second Regiment pushed four captured mountain guns to the city gate and bombarded it directly, opening the gate with little effort.
However, the city gate was narrow. Now that Kong Jie had a powerful weapon with fire coverage, he wouldn't sacrifice lives to fill this city gate meat grinder.
One cannon after another bombarded the area, killing almost all the Japanese devils near the city gate. When the city gate collapsed with a large opening, Kong Jie stopped the shelling.
In modern warfare, the role of city walls against artillery is becoming increasingly limited.
In the new city captured by the brigade commander, the city walls were no longer being repaired.
Since the ordnance industry exploded with production capacity and began mass-producing artillery, relying on city walls for defense has been removed from the Eighth Route Army's options.
Next is attack, attack, and more attack!
In the minds of people like the brigade commander, the era of passively taking beatings is over!
Seeing that the Japanese devils near the city gate were basically lifeless, Kong Jie waved his hand to let the assault battalion go up and control the city gate.
The main force then stormed into the city.
Organized by platoon as a combat unit, with the assault squad in the lead, the four soldiers in front formed a search-and-advance formation, using the cover on both sides of the street to advance in turn. Sharpshooters and RPG rocket launchers followed behind, with two soldiers bringing up the rear.
Although they hadn't undergone much training, the urban warfare tactics given by Ren Zhong quickly proved effective against the Japanese devils' snipers in the city.
Even if the soldiers searching in front didn't notice the enemy, the sharpshooters and rocket launchers would take care of the Japanese devils as soon as they exposed their firepower!
If the sharpshooters couldn't handle the situation, the rocket launcher would fire a shot directly, quickly completing the physical salvation of the Japanese devils.
Then, the soldiers behind would rush up to control the newly occupied street.
The Japanese devils were also novices when it came to urban warfare, lacking many tricks.
Besides blocking the streets with sandbags, they would retreat into the houses on both sides of the street.
However, all of this was useless. The Japanese devils exposed on the street would soon be wiped out by RPG rocket launchers, without any qualifications to confront the New Second Brigade.
Relying on RPG rocket launchers, the New Second Brigade's advance was steady and resolute.
On the other side, Li Yunlong's advance was even more explosive!
After directly blasting open the city gate, the tanks rushed up first, relentlessly sweeping the remaining Japanese devils. The infantry squad following the tanks used the tanks as natural cover, constantly clearing out the crazy Japanese devils who tried to hold explosive packs or cluster grenades.
Everywhere the tanks swept, there were corpses of desperate and unblinking Japanese devils!
Staying in the city to fight in urban warfare had already destined the Japanese devils to go to hell.
For the Japanese devils' field troops, these crazy beasts, one by one, dared to rush up to the tanks with explosive packs, sending themselves back to their hometown as soon as possible.
As for the Japanese devils of the engineering and logistics units, many of them who hadn't experienced much combat collapsed when the bloody urban warfare began.
Under the tank shelling and machine gun fire, the Japanese devils, already driven mad, rushed up to the tanks with their Type 38 rifles.
For these Japanese devils, the tank battalion didn't even need to shoot; they directly ran over them, crushing these crazy Japanese devils!
The tank battalion advanced wildly!
Pressing the Japanese devils to death one by one in the city.
Although it took some time to clean up these dregs, it took the Independent Brigade and the New Second Brigade a whole day to find and eliminate most of the Japanese devils in the city.
But after this battle, the Japanese devils' 37th Division, except for the escaped cavalry regiment, no longer existed.
The Japanese devils, a whole division, were reduced to this state, and could basically be removed from the roster.
Li Yunlong was somewhat unwilling that Andachi Nijusan had left without saying goodbye, showing no martial virtue.
From the mouths of the captured puppet troops, Li Yunlong learned that this old devil had actually taken the cavalry regiment and escaped first.
This coward!
After hearing the news, Li Yunlong spat fiercely at the Japanese devils and no longer paid attention to it, and began to coordinate city defense matters with Kong Jie.
At the same time, he was also waiting for the replenishment of ammunition and fuel from the rear.
It was very enjoyable for mechanized units to march and fight, but logistical support was also a headache. After Li Yunlong traveled hundreds of miles, the tank battalion was almost out of commission.
Not only was there not enough fuel, but now it was also necessary to repair the tracks and other vulnerable parts.
According to the plan, they needed to rest for a day before they could continue to move out.
However, the latest battle report from the scouts sent to Pinglu to inquire about news was that the local battle had become white-hot, and the Guofu Yellow River defense line was already crumbling. There was not so much time to wait for the rest to be completed before setting off.
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