Chapter 108: The Battle of the Bridgehead (4)

Chapter 108: The Battle of the Bridgehead (4)

"Zhu Jixing!" I yelled over the walkie-talkie: "Immediately order the artillery to fire!" ”

"Yes!" Zhu Jixing answered, and immediately shouted loudly into the walkie-talkie. After a while, rows of shells flew towards the other side of the bridge with a whistling sound, only to blow up the Vietnamese soldiers on the other side of the river.

However, the artillery shells could only block the Vietnamese troops on the other side of the bridge, but they could not stop the Vietnamese tanks that had already rushed to our positions, and a T62 led by them was still showing off its might all the way towards our troops.

Blowing up the bridge may relieve our army of a lot of pressure. After all, in the eyes of most fighters, the threat from the south bank of the Ki Poor River was much less if the bridge was broken, and the Vietnamese army's attack on the bridgehead seemed to be meaningless.

But I don't think so, first of all, even if we blow up the bridge, the Vietnamese army will not let us go. Secondly, if the bridge is broken, it can be repaired again, right? Building bridges may be difficult for us during the period of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea, but for the army of this era...... But it was just a few tank-modified engineering vehicles to build a steel bridge at the broken point. Therefore, blowing up the bridge will not solve all the problems, unless we can blow up the bridge with the piers of the Qiqiao River into the sky. If we had done that, we would have blown up the Poor River and walked away before the enemy surrounded us.

Another disadvantage of blowing up bridges is ...... The fighters will think that we have completed the mission, and they can break out! For an army, the result of the loss of people's hearts and minds is very terrible, and we are afraid that only the whole army is lying here.

So I didn't order the fighters to blow up the bridge, but shouted into the walkie-talkie and ordered the bazooka 'shooter' to get ready. As for the tanks arranged by Battalion Commander Wu to the bridgehead, I didn't think about going over to command them. It's not that I don't want to command, it's that I can't command at all.

One reason was that it was difficult for the tank's communications equipment to receive my commands, and the other reason was that the tankmen could not see my signals in the dark. So it seems that the conductor of them can only play the harp to the cow.

This is also the sadness of our army's tanks in this era, and their ability to fight at night is very poor. Tanks, if they fought at night, seemed to rely only on infantry to fire tracer rounds to indicate their targets......

"Da Da, Da Da ......" Several infantry fired strings of tracer bullets at the enemy tank with submachine guns, these tracer bullets were like long ropes shining with fluorescency pointed directly at the T62 tank of the Vietnamese army, this end of the rope is our infantry, and the other end of the rope is the Vietnamese tank.

"Boom ......" With a few cannon shots, our tanks opened fire.

However, the effect was not satisfactory, although the distance was not far, but the position indicated by the tracer bullet was not very accurate, and the 'shooter' in the tank could only determine the position of the enemy's tank by the tracer bullet, so only one of the three shells hit. The shell that hit hit the T62's frontal armor, and the behemoth paused, and continued to drive forward without incident.

It continued to move forward, while turning the turret, and then "bombed" the 115mm smoothbore gun equipped with the 62 can be said to be a tank killer, and the 59mm frontal armor in 200mm could not stop the momentum of the smoothbore gun at all, and the tank that was hit immediately ignited a raging fire.

The other two tanks saw that their comrades' tanks were destroyed, and they couldn't help but redden, and fired at the T62 one after another, but the helpless thing was that our tanks did not have much night vision, and very few shells could hit the opponent. In addition, the armor-piercing ability of rifled guns is far inferior to that of smoothbore guns, and even if a few shells can hit, they will not be able to penetrate the opponent's armor.

"Chirp! "At this time, our bazooka 'shooters' opened fire, but because it was difficult to determine the target at night, neither rocket hit the enemy tank."......

Seeing that the T62 was about to fire a cannon with another tank of our army turning its turret, I hurriedly snatched a 'door' of rocket launchers loaded with rockets from the soldiers next to me, ran a few steps diagonally along the trench and then lay down on the tank's forward route.

"Battalion commander! The battalion commander ...... "I heard the bazooka 'shooter' following all the way and shouting: 'Fight from 10 meters away, ...... 10 meters away."

"Ten meters?" I looked at the T62 in front of me, which was getting closer and closer, and it seemed to be only a dozen meters. But whatever! If we don't stop it, I'm afraid our entire defense line will collapse.

Thinking of this, I '' the bazooka and aimed at the tank, but I didn't pull the trigger because I knew that even the 59 couldn't penetrate this guy's frontal armor, and I was afraid that this bazooka would be difficult to do. So I waited quietly with a bazooka, waiting......

The tank continued to drive forward with the sound of rumbling motors, and when it reached a bombed-out Golan trench, the turret was lowered and then cocked high above its bottom.

At this time, I pulled the trigger hard...... With a strong jolt over my shoulder, the rocket flew out with a whistling sound, and before I could react, I heard a loud "boom" and a fireball exploded in front of me. A wave of air came in, and my 'exposed' head outside the trench fell back as if it had been struck with a stick...... Then, his eyes went black, and the whole person squatted in the trench.

"Battalion commander! The battalion commander ......: "The bazooka 'shooter' behind me hurriedly supported me, pinching Renzhong and pulling the first aid kit.

I shoved him aside and scolded, "Go, go...... Not yet! ”

"Battalion commander, you're not injured!" The bazooka 'shooter' was a little surprised.

"It's fine!" I 'rubbed' my head, which was still a little dizzy, knowing that I had just let the explosion shake me.

"How's the enemy tank doing?" I asked.

"Exploded!" Bazooka replied excitedly: "It's still the battalion commander, and there is a big 'hole' at the bottom!" I'm afraid that the devils in it are all finished! ”

That's not all! I replied in my heart: This is all the experience I brought to resist US aggression and aid Korea, to say that at that time...... I'm still using anti-tank grenades! The same can blow up the Yankee's "Pershing".

Our artillery fire was tight for a while, and the other end of the Qiqiao River Bridge was blocked by our artillery fire, and the Vietnamese troops were divided into two by artillery fire, and the Vietnamese troops who had not yet rushed to the bridge could not come up, and the Vietnamese troops and tanks that rushed to the bridge could not advance or retreat.

Moving forward? It means that they will have to attack the bridgehead alone without reinforcements, which seems to be looking for death, and the Vietnamese army does not have many T62 tanks, they are generally used to take the lead. So as soon as the T62 in front was destroyed by us, the tanks behind did not dare to come up.

Backwards? The bridgehead has been blocked by our artillery fire, and there seems to be no way for them to retreat.

So the Vietnamese army was 'rioting' and 'chaotic' on the bridge for a while, and they wanted to just wait for our army to stop firing 'artillery', but after a few mortar shells landed on the bridge accurately, they were completely desperate.

Those mortars had already been aimed at the bridge and set up Zhuyuan, so even if we couldn't see it at night, it didn't affect us to accurately smash the shells on the bridge deck.

The Vietnamese army soon realized that waiting like this would only lead to the annihilation of the whole army, so they desperately rushed towards our bridgehead. But without the T62 tanks, their team was a piece of cake for us, and the tanks drove up and were quickly destroyed by army tank guns and rockets. The fire of the tank burned like a torch, and the infantry that followed it was clearly exposed to our machine guns.

So rows of bullets and shells passed, and the entire bridge was covered with burning tank wreckage and the corpses of Vietnamese soldiers, and in the firelight, the blood of Vietnamese soldiers continued to flow from both sides of the bridge deck to the river like rain......

The first charge of the Vietnamese army was quickly beaten down by our troops, and in this battle our artillery played a large role. Because I soon learned from the walkie-talkie that the defense line of He Liqiang's third battalion was almost broken through by the Vietnamese army several times, and each time it was because of the blocking and 'shooting' of our artillery fire that the Vietnamese army was unable to follow, so that the crisis turned into safety.

So to a certain extent, in this battle, we actually used dozens of 'guns' of the divisional artillery regiment to blow up a barrier around the position, and we had to deal with it...... In fact, there are only the "lucky ones" who can break through this barrier.

But even so, the impact of the Vietnamese army on us also caused great casualties to our troops, especially the two breakthrough points of the road next to the No. 1 high ground and the road between the No. 2 and No. 3 roads. Under the cover of more than a dozen tanks, the Vietnamese army launched a fierce attack on our positions from these two places, and our troops only kept them out of the line at considerable cost.

According to the report of Battalion Commander Wu, the night vision ability of the Vietnamese tanks is much more advanced than that of our army, they can move very quickly in the dark and lock on to our tanks, plus most of the tanks used by the Vietnamese army are T54 and T55 of the same level as our army's 59, so although our army destroyed and damaged more than ten Vietnamese tanks in this battle, four tanks have also been lost, and two tanks have failed.

That is to say...... Only two of our tanks are still combat-capable? "In an air-raid 'shelter', after listening to Battalion Commander Wu's report, I couldn't help frowning.

"Yes!" Battalion Commander Wu nodded, gritted his teeth and said, "I will ask the soldiers to troubleshoot the tank as soon as possible, but when can it be eliminated and can it come in handy in the next battle...... I can't guarantee it! ”

"Hmm!" I nodded. In fact, he can't be blamed for this, the technical work of troubleshooting tanks is not something that we can get up quickly if we want to. And it is not up to us to decide when the enemy's next attack will be launched.

"There are only two tanks left...... How will this battle be fought? He Liqiang couldn't help but be a little angry: "There are three breakthroughs in our defense line, a bridge and two roads, and these places are all places where the Vietnamese devils use a lot of tanks to break through, and we only have two tanks...... If you can't afford a tank in this place, then the next battle ......"

He Liqiang's worries are justified, there is a saying that the best weapon against tanks is tanks, and this sentence does have its truth. The bazooka is indeed a very effective anti-tank weapon, but it must be 'fired' at close range, and its defense is too poor. There are only tanks, which have both defensive power and offensive 'nature'. But we're ...... now Two tanks are nothing compared to the tanks that the enemy surrounded like ants.

"I have a way!" After thinking about it, Battalion Commander Wu replied: "Our two tanks can maneuver on the three breakthrough points and strike at the enemy who breaks through in any direction at any time......"

I couldn't help but shake my head: "If our tank is the enemy's T62, maybe it can still be considered, but ours is 59...... Does the night vision device equipped in 59 allow you to maneuver at three breaches? Do you have enough firepower? Is your armor thick enough? In case there is another T62, let alone maneuvering, we may not be able to fight with a T62 in the two 59s! ”

As soon as I said this, Battalion Commander Wu was silent, I didn't want to destroy my own prestige and grow the morale of others, what I said was the truth. On the battlefield, we cannot afford to tell the first half of a lie, because every lie will bring irreparable losses to our own troops and our own soldiers.

But now...... What can we do?

"Battalion commander!" He Liqiang suggested: "Can we let the artillery fire block these breakthroughs?" Then ask your superiors for more artillery support......"

This was a solution, and everyone quickly set their eyes on Zhu Jixing.

Zhu Jixing, whose face was blackened by the smoke of gunpowder, shook his head helplessly and said: "I have asked the artillery regiment about this, but in fact, the artillery regiment is also embarrassed now. It's not that our army doesn't have enough artillery, but that when we launched a general offensive against the Vietnamese army during the day, we ran out of shell reserves, and these shells for fire support were fired as soon as they were delivered! I don't know if we can guarantee such support just yet, let alone block two more breakthroughs with artillery fire! ”

Hearing this, the soldiers' eyes flashed with a hint of helplessness, because everyone knows that a large part of the reason why we were able to block the charge of the Vietnamese army in this battle was that we had strong artillery support. If even artillery fire cannot be guaranteed now, then the position is really dangerous.

"Battalion Commander......" The instructor, who had not spoken much, 'interjected' at this time: "Let's just blow up the bridge!" This can move the fifth company to defend in other directions, right? The more devils have one less breakthrough, we can also save some shells, right? ”

Before the instructor's voice fell, He Liqiang and Battalion Commander Wu nodded in agreement.

"There are only two breakthroughs, and our two tanks are exactly one for each person!" Battalion Commander Wu agreed: "With mines and bazookas, it is not impossible to resist the charge of the Vietnamese army!" ”

He Liqiang also agreed: "I also agree to blow up the bridge, so that we don't have to worry about the Vietnamese army ...... in the southern district."

"Don't we really have to worry about the Vietnamese army in the southern district?" I asked rhetorically: "The width of the Qiqi River is only more than 100 meters, and the Vietnamese army only needs to drive the tank to the river, and then the gun barrel can be aimed at the back of our army...... If we don't have troops to defend, will we be like a target and let the Vietnamese tanks blow up? ”

As soon as I said this, the fighters were silent.

"What does Camp Commander Cui mean......" He Liqiang cast an inquiring glance at me.

I anxiously walked around in front of the warriors, knowing that time was of the essence and I had to come up with a solution. Now the Vietnamese army did not know our predicament, or it was also the last battle that caused heavy losses to our army, for fear that the next attack would repeat the mistakes of the past, so they did not attack immediately.

However, I am sure that they will not stop there, and if I can't think of a way, then the next attack of the enemy will be the time when we are completely annihilated.

I looked at my watch, the time was only more than eleven o'clock, and there were at least five or six hours left to last until dawn......

"Battalion Commander Wu!" At this time, the deputy battalion commander came in and whispered to Wu Changhui: "Company Commander Xu asked me to ask you, due to the large casualties of the troops, can the soldiers who fired tracer bullets be transferred to the ......?"

This is actually a very normal sentence, the fourth company has a platoon of troops to use tracer bullets to indicate the target for Battalion Commander Wu's tank, and now that the tank troops have lost more than half, then naturally there is no need for so many people to shoot tracer bullets.

But the speaker had no intention of listening, and when I heard the words "tracer bullet", I suddenly had an idea, and I couldn't help but stand up and ask Battalion Commander Wu: "How is the communication system of the enemy's tank?" Do their tanks have a special way of identifying friend or foe? ”

"The enemy's communication system is not good either!" Battalion Commander Wu replied: "Their T54 and T55 tanks are almost the same as those in our army's 59, and there is no special way to identify them!" ”

"That's good!" I nodded, looked at the map and thought for a while, then said: "We will not blow up the bridge, not only will we not blow up the bridge, but we will also open the road between Heights 2 and 3 and let the Vietnamese tanks in!" ”

"What?" Hearing this, none of the warriors looked at me in shock.

"The battalion commander wants to eat the tank units of the Vietnamese army?" He Liqiang objected: "But our army only has two tanks, I'm afraid that this mouth will be too big......

"Our tanks are not moving!" I interrupted He Liqiang and said, "To be exact, it should be a few shots and then retreat to the tunnel!" ”

"What?" The soldiers looked at each other even more when they heard this, and no one understood what I was trying to do.

"Here's the plan!" Pointing to the road between the bridge and the No. 2 and No. 3 heights on the map, I said: "The bridge and Dong Nguyen Highway are almost in a straight line, and the tanks on the south side of the Vietnamese army are rushing north along the bridge, and the tanks on the north side are rushing south along the road. As long as we get the timing right, and then pick and pull in the middle with tanks and tracer bullets, we can make the two enemy forces rush together......"

"Hmm!" Hearing this, the soldiers reacted, and they couldn't help but have a surprise on their faces.