"Why does this operation have to be completed by our division?" Major General Prashad, commander of the 4th Indian Division, took the case against Umrao. Lieutenant General Singh, the acting commander of the Northern Military Region, asked loudly: "If I carry out your order, we will lose the entire southern Tibet region, and the Northeast Border Special Zone will face any action taken by China from the north." Why couldn't the 33rd Army and the 4th Army 2nd Division be transferred from Nagaland and Manipurdy districts to carry out this task? ”

Umrao. Singh looked at Prashad, the commander of the 4th Division of the 4th Army, who did not treat himself as a dish at all, and said: "It is not up to you to decide who to transfer to carry out this task. Nagalan and Manipur have been demobilized, and the 33rd Army is now fighting with the Indian People's Liberation Army (IRA), supported by the Chinese, and both states could be occupied by the BJLA at any time. This task can only be carried out by your division. "After a moment's pause, Umrao. Singh looked dissatisfied and said to Major General Prashad, the commander of the 4th Division: "Major General Prashad, you can also not carry out this order, I am just doing my duty as the acting commander to convey to you the order of the Ministry of National Defense, and you can't tell me anything else." If you don't carry it out, you yourself go and explain it to the Minister of Defense, Mr. Menon and Prime Minister Nehru. ”

After saying that, he didn't bother to pay attention to Prashad again. Umrao. Lieutenant General Singh is very unconvinced of the 4th Division's style of holding big cards. The 4th Division, as a descendant of Nehru and Menon, is regarded as the "standard division" of the Indian army, and is the most effective absolute main division of Nehru and Menon in the army.

Prashad, commander of the 4th Indian Division, looked at Umrao. Lieutenant General Singh's cold face was also helpless, and he turned to the commander of the Air Force of the Eastern Military District. Lieutenant General Jing Nils said: "Lieutenant General Jing Niles, how much support can our division's actions have from your air force? ”

"Nope! There wasn't one," Kiniels shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands outward, saying, "Unfortunately, in the air raid on the 18th, all our planes were lost, and the airfield was seriously damaged. The great task of opening up Siliguri can only fall on the shoulders of your 4th Division, which was an ace unit that fought in the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe for six years during the Second World War. You are the pride of India, all of you".

"Enough, shut your mouth, what I need now is an Air Force bomb and not your worthless hymn, my Air Force commander!" The commander of the 4th Division, Major General Prashad, angrily greeted the horse. Lieutenant General Jing Nils shouted

33 Army Commander Umrao. The reason why Lieutenant General Singh insisted on letting the 4th Division of the 4th Army carry out this mission was, on the one hand, that it would take time and strength to gather troops in the east to deal with the Indian Liberation Army with all its might, and on the other hand, he wanted the 4th Division to break out a bloody road for the 33rd Army and other units of the Eastern Military Region in front of it, so that the troops of the Eastern Military Region could withdraw to the Indian mainland immediately afterward.

The first Indian army to launch an attack on the 1st Airborne Division parachuted into Siliguri was the 9th Infantry Division of the Indian Army in Kolkata of the Southern Military Region of India. Beginning at 13:10 p.m. on 19 April, the Infantry Division of the 9th Division of the Indian Army departed from Calcutta by train under the cover of ironclad cars and marched along the New Japeri Railway to the railway bridge over the Teesta Valley, where our 1st Airborne Division was stationed.

With bursts of gunfire, Li Fuen, the commander of the 1st Airborne Division and 1st Regiment, left 2 platoons of 3 companies to clean up the Indian unsystematic resistance in the town of Saktiga. He himself led a platoon of the 4th and 3rd companies in a non-stop rush in the direction of the New Japeri railway bridge over the Teesta. When they arrived, they saw a soldier of the 1st Airborne Division, with a head wound and a gauze wrap on his head, bandaging the wounds of an airborne sergeant who was wounded in the abdomen and lying in a dilapidated bunker, with the bodies of three martyrs lying around. There were four airborne soldiers who kept jumping in the Indian positions with thick smoke and piles of residual fire, shooting at the remaining Indian troops guarding the bridgehead position on the east side of the railway bridge from time to time in the broken walls, and constantly throwing handleless grenades at the remnants of the Indian army. From time to time, there were also sporadic British Plum in these positions. The sound of gunfire from Enfield rifles and Bren light machine guns.

These nine fighters deviated from the predetermined parachute landing area during the parachute landing and floated to the bridgehead position of the Indian army's railway bridge, and immediately after they landed, they fought separately and launched a fierce attack on the Indian troops guarding the bridge, who had not yet woken up from our army's air raids. The results of this kind of rigorous training in peacetime were finally reflected on the battlefield, and even if the Indian army lost 50 percent of its defensive position at the company level, there were still 60 or 70 people, but they were all defeated by these nine airborne troops. Of course, the Airborne Forces also paid a heavy price of 3 dead and 2 wounded.

Regiment Commander Li Fuen immediately led the soldiers of the 4th Company into battle, quickly cleaned up the Indian army's railway bridge bridgehead on the east side of the Tista River, and then led a platoon to rush onto the railway bridge with a length of more than 600 miles along both sides of the railway bridge. At this time, the Indian troops guarding the west of the bridge were not killed or injured, but they only hated his mother and gave them two legs, and they had already fled without a trace.

Regiment Commander Li Fuen and the others successfully occupied the bridgehead position of the Indian army at the platoon level in Hexi. The airborne troops of the 1st Airborne Division did not dare to slack off in the slightest, and under the leadership of the regiment commander, they immediately dismantled the railroad tracks and loaded sandbags to reconstruct and strengthen the fortifications.

The Teesta River originates from the Zemu Glacier on Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas, flows through Sikkim into India, and finally enters East Pakistan before joining the Jamuna River near Chirmari. The railway bridge over the Teesta River on the New Japeri Railway Line is located in the middle and upper reaches of the river, where the riverbed is about 500 meters wide, the deepest depth of the cold and clear water reaches 3 meters, the current is fast, the river on both banks is steep, and it is impossible to cross the river without a bridge, which is very conducive to the defense of our army. The bridgehead position in the west of the railway bridge is the outpost of our army, with the bridgehead as the radius of about 100 meters in front of the convex west of the river; On the left and rear sides of the bridge on the east bank of the river, a platoon-level defensive position of our army was set up, and the bridgehead on the west bank formed a triangular defensive position.

At 3 p.m., after a rapid whistle, an armored train of the Indian Army's 9th Infantry Division, departing from Calcutta, finally arrived. The train slowly moved towards the bridgehead of the railway bridge on the west bank of the Teesta River, which was defended by the 1st platoon of the 4th Company of our airborne troops. While driving, the fox and the tiger fired a cannon in front of him.

The ironclad train is an armored railway vehicle that conducts fire support and read-power operations against troops along the railway line, consisting of a combat train and a base train. The Indian army's armored train consisted of an ironclad steam locomotive, four base ironclad wagons, and two railroad flatbed cars for cover. The ironclad steam locomotive was located between the ironclad wagons, and the coal water wagon was facing the east of the defensive position of our troops, and it was evident from the long antenna on the locomotive that the locomotive was equipped with communication equipment. The ironclad train carriages were armed with 4 51-mm British guns, and 12 machine guns formed a powerful firepower, which were located on the sides of the carriages and in the rotating turrets. The cars are connected by a rigid surname to facilitate the passage of the light rail rail through the railway segments. The Tactical Command of the 9th Division of the Indian Army (equivalent to the forward command of our army) was set up in 4 base trains, and more than 600 Indian officers and soldiers of a reinforced battalion were carried.

The biggest advantage of the armored train is its high speed, even in the face of enemy ground and air attacks, the armored train can travel about 500 kilometers in 1 day, and ordinary light weapons and artillery shell fragments cannot penetrate its armor. Therefore, the Indian army is confident that the use of such armored trains will engage the Chinese airborne troops who lack heavy weapons, recapture the railway bridge over the Teesta River on the New Japeri railway line, and open up the Siliguri corridor.

At a distance of 1,000 meters from the bridgehead position of our army, 7 anti-tank missiles of our airborne troops, Red Arrow-54, flew to this armored train of the Indian army with a long wire. Seven single-cone warheads with a hollow charge of 120 mm in diameter, 854 mm in length and weighing 11.3 kg accurately hit this armored train with 4 carriages. "Boom, boom, boom" a series of loud sounds, I saw that the entire armored train was shrouded in a burst of fire, with gray-blue smoke and yellow-white flames straight into the roof of the armored train, the explosion shock wave threw the broken bodies of the Indian soldiers loaded in the armored car above the train into the air, the entire armored train was overturned under the roadbed, burning with raging fire, emitting smoke that soared into the sky, the walls of the car were torn, the armor on the car was shattered, and the stumps and broken arms of the smoked and blackened human bodies were blown up everywhere. Even the railroad tracks were blown up. Subsequently, the 3rd Company and 4th Company of the 1st Airborne Division covered the wreckage of this armored train with napalm from 107-mm rocket launchers.

The first Indian troops of the Indian army, who were confident of victory and came to attack, were thus finished in a completely unexpected attack.

This armored train used by the Indian army played an important role in the First and Second World Wars. In particular, the role played in the battle to defend the railway junction is irreplaceable by other weapons and equipment. However, in Geng's eyes, this kind of inability to fight off the rails, as long as there is a small damage to the rails, this kind of imposing armored car can lose the ability to maneuver. This outdated armored train can only serve as a dead target for 40 rocket launchers, 107 rocket launchers and Type 54 Red Arrow anti-tank missiles, especially after our first airborne division uses the Red Arrow 54 anti-tank missile, which is small in size and light weight, and is especially suitable for individual airborne troops, this kind of ironclad train inherited by India from Britain has no effect except for increasing the number of casualties to the Indian army.

This sudden blow spared no of more than 730 Indian troops, including Sabiasa, deputy commander of the 9th Division, on this armored train of the 9th Division. This blow almost wiped out the fighting spirit of the Indian troops who came to attack, especially the heart-rending wails that came from the roaring carriages, which caused the officers and men of the entire Indian 9th Division to fall into extreme panic and almost be on the verge of psychological collapse.

It was not until six hours later, when the troops in the rear came up and invited a few high-ranking monks to do a decent religious prayer ceremony, that an attack was organized.

This railway bridge over the Teesta River is the key to connecting East and West India. The 3rd and 4th companies of the Airborne Forces guarding this railway bridge became a thorn in the side and a thorn in the flesh of the Indian army. The Indian army was determined to capture the railway bridge position. So another regiment and a tank battalion of the 3rd Indian Heavy Armored Division were transferred, and 27 centenarian tanks were transferred. The Indian Ministry of Defense sent Major General Lom Sadi, assistant to the General Staff of the Indian Army, to personally supervise the battle. From 19 o'clock in the afternoon of 19 April to 19 o'clock in the afternoon of the next day, the Indian army organized five group charges at and above the battalion level, and four group charges at the battalion level were carried out in one day on 20 April alone. If you don't come up, I will go into the anti-artillery fortifications under the approach bridge to prevent the Indian army from shelling, and only 2-4 people will be left on the position to hide in the bunker to observe. Since our army has destroyed most of the Indian army's airfield facilities, there have been no Indian planes in the past two days, and the Indian army's artillery fire really cannot be called fierce, and the artillery fire cannot be called effective.

In order to save ammunition in peacetime, our army also paralyzes the enemy, and rarely fires artillery, and only when the Indian army comes up, when the Indian army comes up, the defensive positions on both sides of our army come together for a short artillery attack. In this 24-hour battle, more than 2,000 Indian troops were killed and wounded, and 20 tanks were destroyed, but they did not shake the bridgehead of our army in Hexi. The 3rd and 4th companies of our Airborne Forces also paid more than 80 casualties.

But the Indian army was still not reconciled, and their defeat, they transferred a company of more than 150 special forces from New Delhi to prepare for a night attack on the bridgehead of our army.

After nightfall, the moon quietly hid behind the thick clouds as if afraid to see the bloody battle scene below. The night was surprisingly quiet, only the tireless roar of the Teesta River, and if it weren't for the mixture of gunsmoke and bloody gases wafting in the air, people would not be able to imagine that this was a battlefield of life and death. Wang Weiguo, the leader of the 3rd platoon of the 4th company, and 3 other comrades-in-arms hid in the shelter of the bridgehead position, constantly observing through infrared telescopes, which was the guard post of the Chinese airborne troops guarding the railway bridge over the Tista River. Wang Weiguo half-knelt in the bunker, while observing the surrounding enemy. While thinking about the words of the deputy division commander Geng Zhi before taking up his post. "The Indian army has been storming for nearly two days, and it is likely that they will take advantage of the darkness to attack us. Everyone must be vigilant. "The Saketiga Railway Bridge is the main artery connecting East and West India, they will never give up like this, we must keep this bridgehead on the west side of the bridge, this position must not be lost." "In order to keep this position, more than 40 comrades-in-arms have fallen there" At this time, Wang Weiguo found through the infrared telescope that more than 100 Indian troops took advantage of the dark night and were quietly touching the position of our army along the drainage ditches on both sides of the railway base, and he quietly stabbed his comrades next to him and handed him the telescope and said: "Heavenly Maiden, the Indian army has really come up, you see, the directional mines have been set up, right?" ”

"More than 10 directional mines were set up in parallel every 30 meters in the ditch on both sides, and more than 20 were set up in total. Squad leader, you can rest assured," replied the warrior known as the Celestial Maiden.

"We'll wait for this group of Indian beards to come up in a moment, and we'll give them a goddess to scatter flowers first. Damn, these Indian army SBs really don't know how thick they are playing night battles with us. This time, give them a fresh one, and teach them a good lesson first. ”

The soldier nicknamed the Celestial Maiden was a mine-laying genius in the Airborne Forces, holding an infrared telescope in his left hand and pressing the index finger of his right hand on the button of the detonator.

Wang Weiguo quietly ran out of the shelter to inform the other two comrades-in-arms on duty, supervise the drainage ditch on the other side, and press the detonator when all the Indian troops entered the directional mine explosion area.

The bridgehead of our army was quiet, as silent as if it were undefended. The Indian special forces cautiously groped their way forward, getting closer and closer to our army's position, Wang Weiguo seemed to be able to hear the heartbeat of the Indian special forces, 50 meters, 30 meters, 20 meters "boom, boom" Suddenly more than 20 directional mines exploded almost at the same time, and immediately blew up these Indian special forces who came to sneak attack, and the flesh and blood flew sideways, and one by one they became a hornet's nest that constantly spewed blood and water outward. Smoke filled the gutters.

"Da Da Da, Da" Subsequently, Wang Weiguo's four automatic rifles opened fire along the drainage ditch in unison to clean up those possible survivors.

Wang Weiguo and the others were so excited to fight that they simply rushed out of cover and stood up to fight, shouting while constantly pulling the trigger.

Seeing that the special forces they sent were also unsuccessful, the Indian army immediately began to carry out concentrated bombardment of our army's bridgehead positions to cover the retreat of their special forces. Shells rained down, and Wang Weiguo was swept away by a wave of rubble and explosions. "It's over, this time it's definitely over," Wang Weiguo thought at the moment when he was blown up. What he didn't expect was that the magazine and bullets on his chest blocked a piece of 81mm mortar shrapnel the size of a walnut for him, and escaped this catastrophe that would kill him, but fortunately, he didn't even scratch the skin at all, he got up and rubbed his sore buttocks, and hurriedly retreated into the bunker with a curse.

(To be continued)