The establishment of the Japanese army's tank divisions is a very deformed organization if you look at it from the perspective of Germany. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 infoUsually a tank division has two tank brigades, each brigade has two tank wings, and the entire division has a total of 4 tank wings, and then together with a motorized infantry company and a mobile artillery wing, they form a tank division.

The most obvious problem here is that there are too few infantry. The reason for this problem is not that Japan places too much emphasis on the concentration of tanks, but on the contrary, the Japanese army has always adhered to the armored idea of decentralizing combat vehicles to support ordinary infantry divisions and regiments in operations, rather than building independent warfare.

Under this guiding ideology, there is no need for a tank division to be equipped with a large number of infantry, anyway, some infantry divisions and regiments are infantry, and the tank wing is the coordinated force of the campaign.

The tank wing under the normal establishment generally has 60-70 armored vehicles, and consists of 3 medium tank squadrons, 1 light tank squadron, 1 artillery tank squadron, and 1 maintenance squadron. The medium tank squadron has 3 squads (3 medium tanks per squad), 2 medium tanks and 3 light tanks (reconnaissance) at the squadron headquarters. In practice, the tank wing was the equivalent of a German armored battalion – and a pre-1943 armored battalion or a 3-company battalion in a Marine brigade.

After arriving in Ceylon and seeing that there were so many tanks and armored vehicles, and referring to the German formation, Yamashita Fumimi moved the idea of adjustment, and after obtaining the consent of the Tokyo base camp, he drew out the independent tank unit that was originally in the infantry unit to enrich the tank wing, and at the same time transferred a separate infantry company to take armored vehicles into a motorized infantry wing, and then turned a part of the artillery into a motorized artillery wing.

After this transformation, the strength of the 4th Tank Division has swelled, and each brigade can get 2 tank wings, 1 infantry wing and 1 artillery wing. Yamashita changed the structure of the two brigades to independent tank brigades on the grounds that the establishment was inflated, but the number was still under the 4th tank division.

Everyone is a smart person, and the commander's splitting method will soon form a de facto fixed formation, and even if it works well and then upgrades, it can conjure up a chariot division, this kind of hello, hello, everyone's good thing, is naturally unanimously supported.

As a result, the formation of a tank brigade began under the tank wing, and the new marshalling structure became 1 tank wing with 3 tank brigades (2 in 1 light) + wing headquarters, each tank brigade has 4 tank squadrons, and the squadron no longer has a squad but 6 tanks directly under the central government; The wing headquarters has four squadrons: a tank squadron, a maintenance squadron (maintenance), an artillery tank squadron (tank destroyer) and a reconnaissance squadron.

After Yamashita Fengwen's magic trick, the number of tanks (Tan Annihilation) in each tank wing reached a total of 96, which not only far exceeded the original tank wing in terms of quantity, but also even better in quality. Even the most critical admit that the modified Independent Tank Brigade is closer to the requirements of mechic warfare, more flexible, less powerful than the German Army's integrated armored divisions, but larger than the German Marine Brigade.

During the landing, the troops led by Takeda attacked a tank brigade (26 vehicles) and a tank squadron of the wing headquarters (6 vehicles), with these 32 tanks he could not defeat the 6th tank brigade of the British and Indian army, but the other two brigades of the wing were scattered nearby, so he commanded the troops and retreated, and at the same time used the radio to call the other two brigades to come for reinforcements.

Menzies did not know that the Japanese army's successive retreats were digging a hole for him, and he forgot the idea of "repelling the Japanese armored forces in front of him, providing cover for the infantry to retreat and buying time", but pursued them on a rampage, as if to eat the troops of the Takeda attack in one bite.

As the distance progressed, the slow Valentine tanks could not keep up with the Sherman, and the battle line of the 6th Tank Brigade was stretched.

As Toshiro Obata's protégé, and one of the few figures in the Japanese army who knew something about the Soviet Union's large-depth tactics and armored warfare, Takeda did not rush to let reinforcements help him block the pursuing Sherman, but let them concentrate on eating the slow Valentine troops behind.

The two reinforced tank brigades, one T-34 and the other T-60, immediately rushed to the British rearguard like a tiger descending from the mountain, and knocked the Valentines unconscious with skillful circle technology, and one after another Valentine was caught fire by the Japanese tanks that were rounded around the back and flanks.

Hearing the telegram for help sent in a hurry from behind, Menzies came to his senses, gave up the Takeda attack headquarters on his lips, and went directly to rescue his rearguard troops. Unexpectedly, he turned around and jumped into the second pit that Takeda had dug for them: six Su-76s were ambushed on the way the Shermans retreated, and then the British tank column broke out after half of the attack.

In a one-on-one hard fight, the Su-76 is certainly not Sherman's opponent, but this tactic of ambushing and fighting with a dull stick has made the British tank crews sad to death: the sky is getting darker, and they can't find the Su-76s in the bushes at all, and it is often the enemy's shells that hit them only to find that there are still tank destroyers hidden there, but the time is completely too late, but the Su-76 has first-class armor-piercing ability at close range, and the accuracy is also good.

In less than 15 minutes, 6 Su-76s took out 14 Shermans in one go, and with the losses he lost in the first confrontation with Takeda, Menzies's cold sweat came down his back - he had lost more than half of the Shermans, not to mention that Valentin and Sherman were still separated on different battlefields.

He gritted his teeth and gave the order: "All break through and retreat!" ”

"Sir, the enemy seems to be on the run."

Takeda laughed, "Don't you think it's too late to think about escaping now?" Tell the troops in front of them to relax a little and drive them in the direction of the 18th Wing......"

"Why is that, we are sure to annihilate them?" The subordinate asked puzzled.

"Leave some credit to others, we won the first place in the landing battle, and we are enough to be in the limelight." Takeda said with a smile, "You still need to have a helper in the war, and if you offend everyone, if you are in trouble on the battlefield in the future, who can you expect to save you?" Besides, if we completely annihilate them, our own losses will not be small. ”

"Taught!"

With Japanese tanks ambushed in several other directions, Menzies was dazed and rushed to the direction of the 18th Tank Wing with the remaining 30 or so Sherman and Valentine, who were already waiting for him on the other side.

"Sir, we're surrounded, and there's tanks ahead!"

Hearing the voice coming from the headphones, Menzies gritted his teeth: "Sherman rushed over, don't be afraid of sacrifice." ”

"Bang dang" and "bang dang" both sides handed in or, but then the radio station was full of surprised shouts: "Hell, what kind of tank is this?" So hard? 400 yards still can't move? This is not Matilda......"

"Ah, I was hit ......"

"Bypass, bypass......"

"No, there are enemies on the flanks as well...... Whew, it's actually a French b2. ”

"How many heavy tanks did the Japanese army have? This guy is definitely a heavy tank! ”

"Is it Tiger Pose?"

"It's not! The Germans are all staggered and overlapping load-bearing wheels......" Before the words fell, there was a "boom", and then a pig-like voice shouted, "I was hit." ”

"Sir, we can't move them, we can't move them......"

"Oh no, the Japanese tanks are coming again, and we are surrounded!"

At 20:10 that day, as night fell, the remnants of the 6th Tank Brigade, which had interception in front and pursuers in the rear, and then lost supply trucks, could no longer support it.

"What the hell is this tank?" He was so annoyed by what happened today that he made a request after being captured, "I want to see them up close." ”

"Absolutely." The Japanese agreed to their request and led them to the heavy tanks just now.

The officers leaned in to take a closer look, and they couldn't recognize the model, but one thing was certain: in terms of design, it was not German or Soviet, nor French, but rather a bit like the style of the British infantry tank - a huge hull, thick armor, and a thin toothpick cannon.

"This is ......" Menzies's face suddenly changed, and he muttered, "Damn Churchill, he actually lost Churchill to the Germans too!" ”

This sentence is reversed, and everyone was confused at first, but they immediately understood that this heavy tank should be the Churchill infantry tank that has not been finalized and mass-produced in China for a long time, and has not yet been deployed in the Far East.

"How many such tanks do you have?"

"A lot, and a lot of the chassis are still serialized, you guys have lost a lot in Africa......" and then laughed unbridled on the other side.

On the first day of the landing battle, the Japanese and German forces occupied Madras, the Germans cleared the northern flank, and the Japanese took the southern flank, but the most notable thing about that day was that Takeda attacked the British 6th Tank Brigade with a tank wing with the cooperation of other troops, eliminating the force with more than 80 Sherman and Valentine tanks, and its own losses were less than 30 vehicles, and more importantly, it also forced the other side to surrender, not only captured more than 20 tanks completely, but also pulled back the tanks that had been lost in front after controlling the battlefield to be repaired and restored.

Hearing that there were more than 70 tanks in the battle, even Yamashita Fengwen was very moved, and nodded again and again in praise: "In the end, it is the height of Toshikun Obata that the level can be seen......" (To be continued.) )