Chapter Ninety-Three: The Southern Offensive
After a day and a night of fighting, the Soviet-Mongolian forces managed to occupy the Japanese strongholds on both flanks, but did not deal much damage to the morale and combat strength of the Japanese army. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. biquge。 info They retreated to the Japanese assembly area in the middle, preparing to put up stubborn resistance and fight to the death against the Soviet-Mongolian forces.
The Japanese army was semi-surrounded by the Soviet army in a triangle area 17 kilometers long and 19 kilometers high, and their left and right flanks and front front were bitten to death by the Soviet troops, but because the Soviet army's north-south cluster was still not encircled, there was still a passage more than 10 kilometers long in the rear of the Japanese army, and materials and reinforcements were still continuously sent to the front line.
At the same time, after receiving news of the Soviet counteroffensive, the commander of the Kwantung Army, Kenkichi Ueda, ordered reinforcements from the 2nd, 4th, and 7th divisions of the RB to advance rapidly, and in a few days they would reach Nomenhan to support the front-line troops commanded by Ogishu Ribao and Komatsubara.
But before reinforcements arrived, the Soviet-Mongolian coalition had already begun a second wave of the offensive.
In the early morning of July 25, the southern cluster of the Soviet-Mongolian forces launched a second wave of offensives. In the first wave of the offensive, the southern group made good progress, repulsing three Japanese wings in one day, and successfully seized the Hulun Aobao Mountain from the Japanese 28th and 71st wings, and also assumed new artillery positions on the mountain, condescendingly, the Japanese army in the south no longer had a terrain advantage.
The 28th Division retreated to the northwest, a stronghold on the green heights in the central part of the Japanese army, and the 71st Wing and the mixed left flank detachment retreated to the direction of the headquarters of the 7th Division in the north, confronting the Soviets on the second line of defense.
The Soviet army in the south, with high morale, began to divide into two lines and attack the Japanese army. The 293rd Infantry Regiment, together with the 11 battalions of the 3rd Tank Brigade, as well as the infantry of the central cluster, launched an attack on the green and sandy heights.
The rest of the southern cluster (including 3 infantry regiments, 1 tank brigade, and 1 motorized brigade) advanced to the north and attacked the remnants of the Japanese 7th Division.
This time, the offensive of the southern cluster was even more difficult than the first wave, and the Soviet mechanized troops were hampered by the fact that the Japanese had set up a stronger defensive line in the rear and had received new anti-tank guns.
As on the first day, there was no longer a situation in which the Soviet tanks completely inflicted the Japanese infantry with zero casualties, and the devils had already prepared a certain number of anti-tank guns and anti-aircraft guns, which were erected in the second line of defense to meet the attack of the steel torrent.
Because the Japanese position was still 15 kilometers away from the Soviet artillery, it was difficult for the Soviet artillery to accurately bomb the anti-tank gun position there, and the effect of the previous shelling was actually not very ideal, although it destroyed the anti-tank and anti-aircraft forces of the Japanese front, but did not destroy the anti-tank guns and anti-aircraft guns of the Japanese rear positions.
As a result, the Soviet armored units of the southern cluster easily broke through the first layer of the Japanese defense line without anti-tank resistance on the first day, but when they reached the second layer of defense, they encountered a nemesis.
In the early morning of July 25, the armored units of the 6th Tank Brigade and the 8th Motorized Brigade, after receiving the order to attack, formed an offensive formation and, with the support of air power, rumbled towards the Japanese positions in front.
Just as the tanks were about to open fire and the planes were about to drop bombs, the Japanese army mercilessly fired at the Soviet tanks rolling in front of them with anti-tank guns.
Several concentrated anti-tank artillery aimed at several Soviet T-26 tanks and opened fire without hesitation. Several anti-tank shells entered the thin armor of several T-26 tanks, destroying several tanks.
Of course, the Soviet army will not rest on its laurels, and this anti-tank artillery bombardment exposed the position of the Japanese anti-tank guns, and as a result, they were bombed and strafed by tanks on the ground, and planes in the sky bombed and strafed, and as a result, the Japanese anti-tank units were planted behind.
In the rear, the main infantry forces of the Soviet army also followed the footsteps of the tanks and launched a charge. The Red Army soldiers, to the accompaniment of the Charge Trumpet, shouted "Ula! While rushing towards the Japanese positions in front, they rushed mightily.
At this time, the Japanese had only one company on that side (half of the 71st Wing + half of the left flank detachment), while the Soviet Army had the strength of 3 infantry regiments, a motorized brigade, and a tank brigade, which had an advantage in both strength and equipment.
Although the anti-tank guns and anti-aircraft guns of the devils blocked the attacks of tanks and aircraft, they could not stop the Soviet infantry, which was three times the strength of its own.
Even though they used field artillery to launch artillery attacks on the Soviet infantry, due to the small number of artillery and the large number of Soviet infantry, this shelling caused only very small casualties to the Soviet troops, while they themselves lost a lot of soldiers due to the bombing and strafing of Soviet planes and the fierce attacks of tanks and armored vehicles.
Under the fierce offensive of the Soviet army's air-ground coordinated operations and infantry, tanks and aircraft, the strength of the Soviet army was only one-third, and the RB devils, who had no air supremacy and no armored troops, could not stop the Soviet army's steel torrent at all.
Their anti-tank guns and anti-aircraft guns were also destroyed soon after, and eventually lost almost all their anti-aircraft and anti-tank capabilities, and the remaining soldiers, in order to deal with Soviet tanks, actually tied bombs to themselves.
These devils with bombs strapped to them formed an anti-tank death squad and rushed towards the Soviet tanks desperately. But before they could rush to the tank, they had already died at the muzzle of the machine guns of the armored vehicles and tanks, and only a few people were able to rush to the tanks, detonate the bombs on their bodies, and go with the tank crews to meet Marx.
After several hours of fighting, the Soviet troops on the southern front managed to break through the Japanese positions, and the troops on the left and right flanks of the Soviet army then detoured to the rear of the Japanese army and successfully outflanked all the Japanese troops on that side.
In the evening, the troops of the 14th Brigade of the Japanese Army came to reinforce and tried to attack the Soviet army from outside the encirclement and break the encirclement, the besieged devils were basically surrounded and annihilated by the Soviet army, which had an absolute advantage in strength, and could not be saved.
The reinforcements of the 14th Brigade of the Japanese Army not only could not save the situation of the two wings being encircled and annihilated, but also suffered from the fierce bombardment of the Soviet Air Force and the counteroffensive of the Soviet troops.
At the same time, the northern cluster also advanced to the northern side of the central cluster of the RB, assembling 2 km north of the Lemizov Heights and preparing for the next move.
The central cluster of the Soviet army has also been prepared for the final general attack, and after the two clusters in the north and south have encircled the Japanese army, they will shrink the encirclement together, preparing to encircle and annihilate the remaining main Japanese army.
However, there are still many uncertainties on the battlefield, the reinforcements of the Japanese 14th Brigade have already established positions in the northeast of the battlefield, which will threaten the encirclement plan of the southern cluster at any time, and the Japanese 30,000 reinforcements transferred from Kannai are also rushing to the front line.
If all the reinforcements of the devils can reach Nomenhan, Manturov will have to face more difficulties. Zhukov's plan to encircle and annihilate the Japanese army may come to naught, and the Soviet troops under his command may also be repelled by the reinforced imps, and the consequences will be unimaginable.