Chapter 655 Armored Assault

When the instructors of the Eighth Route Army captured Tianjin, 30 tanks, 60 armored vehicles, and 200 cars were captured in the Japanese warehouses in Tanggu. Later, the Eighth Route Army won successive battles and captured some tanks, armored vehicles and automobiles one after another. After the occupation of Qingdao and Jinan, the seizures became larger and larger, and the 1st and 3rd Regiments were also equipped with some tanks, armored vehicles, and automobiles. This time, the instructors of the Eighth Route Army expanded the troops, and all the tanks of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Brigades were gathered to form an armored regiment.

The newly formed armored regiment has two light tank battalions, a baggage battalion, a repair company, an engineer platoon, and a reconnaissance platoon. The two light tank battalions consist of three tank companies each, with a total of 10 Type 95 light tanks in each company. Together with the regimental and battalion headquarters vehicles, the regiment is equipped with 70 Type 95 light tanks, 12 armored vehicles, and 50 automobiles.

As for the other armored vehicles and automobiles, they were all equipped with the 1st and 2nd regiments, so that the two regiments were basically mobile regiments.

The Japanese Army's Type 95 light tank was designed by the Japanese Army's Technical Headquarters, developed by Mitsubishi Works, and finalized in 1935. This kind of tank, which the Japanese call infantry combat light combat vehicle, weighs 6.7 tons, weighs 7.4 tons in battle, and has three crew members: commander, driver, and machine gunner. The length of the car is 4.3 meters, the width of the car is 2.07 meters, the height of the car is 2.28 meters, the in-line 6-cylinder air-cooled diesel engine produced by Mitsubishi Company, the power is 120 horsepower, the main fuel tank capacity is 100 liters, the auxiliary fuel tank capacity is 30 liters, and the speed can reach 40 kilometers per hour; the armament is a 37 mm tank gun, the high and low firing range is -10 degrees ~ +24 degrees, the directional firing range is 10 degrees on the left and right, and the armor-piercing shells and grenades can be fired, and the ammunition base is 120 rounds; the auxiliary weapons are two imitation Czech-made Type 97 7.7 mm heavy machine guns, which can fire automatically in bursts, and the crew needs to shoot against the shoulder, and there are 20 machine gun shells in the magazine, with a 1.5 times the scope, one of which is a front machine gun, and the other is a turret rear machine gun, carrying a total of 3,000 rounds. The front machine gun was operated by the machine gunner, and the rear machine gun in the turret was operated by the commander. The firing range of the front machine gun is: high and low -10 degrees ~ +35 degrees, and the directional firing range is 25 degrees on the left and right; Machine gun behind the turret: high and low -10 degrees ~ +25 degrees, 25 degrees on the left and right sides of the directional firing range.

It should be said that the Type 95 light tank is very suitable for the Chinese battlefield, except that the squadron basically has neither tank troops nor anti-tank forces, the Type 95 tank has high mobility and reliability, and there is not a single broken down car for 1000 kilometers. Another point is that the 95 type uses an air-cooled diesel engine, which is relatively safe and easy to maintain, not afraid of cold weather, and fuel economy compared to the mainstream water-cooled gasoline engine in this era.

Of course, this is only suitable for fighting on the Chinese battlefield, and if it encounters a heavy tank of the US army, the weakness of the Type 95's thin armor and weak firepower will become a fatal wound.

When the armored regiment was established, the Eighth Route Army modified the tank, changed the two machine guns from the magazine to the chain supply, and installed a vehicle-mounted radio station to improve the tank's combat effectiveness and command and coordination capabilities.

As for the cadres and fighters of the armored regiment, they were selected from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd brigades, and the 2nd regiment was the most selected. After the troops completed their formation, they immersed themselves in the run-in drills near Jinan, summed up the lessons and lessons of past battles, and raised the level of contract tactics. In order to support the armored regiment, the units took out all the disassembled parts of the Japanese tanks captured in the past battles and handed them over to the armored regiment as spare parts.

The commander of the armored regiment of the Eighth Route Army was Zhao Dahe, the head of the second regiment of the original religion, and Wang Ping, the political commissar, was a native of Pingjiang County.

Zhao Dahe's posthumous post of head of the Second Teaching Regiment was taken over by Sun Manxi, the political commissar of the former Second Teaching Regiment and head of the new First Regiment, and the political commissar was taken over by Wang Chijun, the old Red Army of Xing nationality and deputy head of the former Second Teaching Regiment. The head of the new regiment was succeeded by political commissar Zhang Shuxiang, and the political commissar was succeeded by Zhang Zhengguang, director of the political department of the regiment.

After the signal flare of the general attack was lifted into the air, Zhao Dahe and Wang Ping boarded their command vehicles, commanded the whole regiment to drive out of the concealment point, and guided the assault group to start the assault.

Seventy tanks leading hundreds of armored vehicles and hundreds of vehicles to attack is definitely a tsunami-like force.

Zhao Dahe leaned out of the turret of the command vehicle, looked at the battlefield with both eyes, and issued an order through the on-board radio to command the whole regiment to assault forward.

According to the battle plan, the armored regiment is an assault arrow, which must catch up with the devils, tear apart the devils' attack positions, and let the heavy machine gun regiments of the 1st Brigade, the 3rd Brigade, the Cavalry Brigade, the New 1st Brigade, the New 3rd Brigade, and the Heavy Machine Gun Brigade that follow up drown the devils with firepower. Therefore, behind each tank, armored vehicles and cars are followed, and behind the cars are huge cavalry, infantry.

Zhao Dahe knew that the division commander was bullying the little devil, and he wanted to use his powerful superior forces to swallow the devil in one fell swoop. Think about it, after such a powerful artillery fire, where can the little devil keep the establishment intact? This has been verified in all the major battles in the past, such as the 21st Brigade, the 21st Division, the 8th Division, and the 10th Division.

Although it was night, so many cars and armored vehicles behind him had their headlights on, illuminating the terrain in front of the tank clearly, and Zhao Dahe was not sure whether he could observe clearly. In his eyes, the little devil is a rabbit covered by the light pillar of the hunter's mine, and there is nothing to hide.

By the time the artillery group extended the shelling, the armored regiment had already pounced. Tanks rushed across the Taifei Highway and ran over the little devils.

At this moment, the little devils who had gathered around Tai'an City, had just been scattered by the artillery group of the Eighth Route Army, and were stunned like rabbits, and some devils in the center of the shelling began to run around unconsciously in order to avoid the shelling.

It was when the commander of the 35th Division, Osamu Maeda, saw this scene that he ordered the troops to retreat westward.

The order given by Osamu Maeda at the beginning was to hold on to the spot and fight to the death with the offensive forces of the Eighth Route Army. However, the powerful artillery fire of the Eighth Route Army woke up Osamu Maeda, and his troops were on the offensive and did not build a strong defensive line, and if the troops were allowed to hold on, they could only become the target of repeated ravages by the artillery group of the Eighth Route Army. In particular, as soon as the Eighth Route Army assault group turned on its headlights and the East Group commanded by Lei Ming hit the torches, Maeda realized that the local resistance would not last long, and the end could only be the annihilation of the entire army. Therefore, he decisively gave the order to retreat to the west and join up with the 14th Division. The purpose was to seize time with the Eighth Route Army, and strive to join forces with the 14th Division before the Eighth Route Army assault troops caught up, strengthen the strength, repel the attack of the Eighth Route Army, build a defensive line, and support it until dawn.

An important reason why Maeda did this was that the 14th Division was attached to the heavy artillery brigade under his command. Maeda believed that the heavy artillery brigade could open artillery to counterattack and block the pursuing troops of the Eighth Route Army, so that his 35th Division and the 13th Independent Mixed Brigade could retreat relatively safely and join the 14th Division.

In this era, the Panzer Group operation was still in the stage of theoretical discussion, and the German army was the only one in the world organizing actual combat exercises and preparing for a blitzkrieg. Like the Japanese army, it was only at the top that it had been exposed to such theories. The dispatch of an additional armored brigade on the Eastern Front by the Japanese army should be said to be an experiment of the Japanese army's implementation of armored group operations. It is a pity that the Japanese army did not raise the armored group operation to the strategic aspect, and this armored brigade was only used to cooperate with the infantry to speed up the attack, and the Eighth Route Army on the Eastern Front was strictly ordered by Liu Yimin, but it only attacked and harassed and blocked small-scale attacks, so that the Japanese armored brigade could not exert its power, and also affected the Japanese army's high-level assessment of the effectiveness of the use of armored groups.

The armored regiment of the Eighth Route Army was different, and when they did not have tanks, they accepted Liu Yimin's advanced operational theories such as armored group operations and large-depth detours. In the previous wars, the tanks of the Eighth Route Army played a huge role in determining victory and defeat in actual combat, and the role and tactics of armored units were very clear from regiment commanders to tank troops. Tonight was the first battle after the establishment of the armored regiment, and every tank soldier, from the regiment commander and political commissar, was fiery in their hearts and was bent on showing the prestige of the armored regiment.

If this battle had started after the German blitzkrieg on Poland, Maeda would never have given the order to retreat, which was inconsistent with his military qualities. But now, Maeda Osamu does not have the concept of armored group operations in his mind at all, thinking that the tanks and armored vehicles of the Eighth Route Army assault group are also the same as the tanks and armored vehicles used by the Japanese army, and they launch offensive operations under the cover of infantry. In this case, if the 35th Division moves fast enough, coupled with the cover of the heavy artillery brigade, it should be able to get rid of the pursuit of the assault troops of the Eighth Route Army and realize the rendezvous with the 14th Division.

Of course, Osamu Maeda is not only an artillery expert, but also a high-ranking general with formal military training, and he will not scatter in a rush like bandits, but will stay behind to block and cover the troops, fight step by step, and cover the retreat of the main force.

Those who served as the queen of the palace were naturally the light and serious wounded in the Japanese army first. The seriously wounded were each given two grenades, and they died with the Eighth Route Army. The lightly wounded were organized and blocked on the spot. In addition to these, Maeda strictly ordered the 219th Infantry Wing to take on the task of blocking the Eighth Route Army, covering the retreat of the main force of the division.

The ignorant are fearless

In the assault operations of armored groups, the first problem is speed. Use speed to destroy all attempts at resistance by the enemy.

When the armored regiment of the Eighth Route Army lined up in a front and pounced on the little devils, Osamu Maeda, Masashi Morita and Takamasa Sekii, the commander of the 14th Division, found that the tactics of the Eighth Route Army were beyond their imagination, and it was a pure armored force operation. Tanks in front, armored vehicles, and automobiles in the rear, it is not at all a way of fighting vehicles covering infantry and infantry protecting fighting vehicles, but using tanks, armored vehicles, and cars to launch an assault, and it is necessary to use the tracks of the tanks and the wheels of the imperial army, armored vehicles, and cars to crush all resistance.

The tanks of the Eighth Route Army opened fire, and the front-mounted machine guns spat tongues of fire and rushed over with a roar.

The armored vehicles of the Eighth Route Army opened fire, the machine guns on the roof of the cars clattered, bullets sprayed out, and the little devils who hit them staggered.

The car of the Eighth Route Army opened fire, and the small steel cannons and light and heavy machine guns on the car roared and clicked, and the flames of revenge were blazing towards the little devil.

At this time, the 35th Division was no longer the 35th Division that had just entered the battlefield and ran away as soon as it heard the gunshots on the Jilu side. Under Maeda's strict order, the devil's rear blocking troops desperately blocked the attack, and machine guns and rifles fired non-stop. Occasionally, the artillery of the wing and the cannon of the brigade were fired incessantly, exploding in the attack formation of the assault troops of the Eighth Route Army.

At this time, the little devil also knew in his heart that if he couldn't stop the assault of the Eighth Route Army, everyone would have to die. If you block it, you can also escape some people and avenge them.

If it had been left before the bombing by the planes of the Eighth Route Army and the shelling by the artillery group, the 35th Division might still have the strength to fight in the face of the attack of the Eighth Route Army assault group. At the very least, their artillery wings and convoys can cover the infantry. Now, after two strikes, the heavy firepower of the 35 th Division has basically been lost, and the light firepower of the infantry is used to deal with the torrent of steel composed of tanks, armored vehicles, and automobiles, and there are no effective anti-tank means

People learn war in the midst of war. In view of the characteristics of many cars but poor car protection, the instructor welded a thin layer of steel plate on the carriage to protect the vehicle-mounted infantry. In this way, if there is no shelling by the little devils, it will be difficult for ordinary rifles and machine gun bullets to hurt the soldiers on the car, and the light and heavy machine guns and grenadiers of the Eighth Route Army can be fired directly on the car.

The militarist ideology is really killing people, and knowing that it is not an opponent, the little devil soldiers who left cover still stubbornly shoot and drop bombs. However, as long as the machine gun and a few infantry guns and grenadiers of the little devil fired, it was equivalent to guiding the attack target for the tanks, armored vehicles, and cars of the Eighth Route Army. In the end, the red-eyed little devil simply picked up the explosive bag and threw himself up like a grenade in a frenzy, trying to blow up tanks, armored vehicles and cars. It is a pity that the Japanese have a deep understanding of China and know that China does not have a sufficient number of armored troops, and there is no such subject as infantry fighting tanks and armored vehicles in the training subjects, and the soldiers lack training in this area, and they are exposed to the guns of the Eighth Route Army as soon as they make a move. They also did not develop any anti-tank mines, rocket launchers, and other weapons specifically designed to deal with tanks, let alone any earthen weapons such as Molotov cocktails that could not be put on the table. The only combat defense artillery that can be used is also very small, and I don't know if it has survived under the shelling of the artillery group of the Eighth Route Army. They can only rely on the bravery of their soldiers.

Those little devils who tried to blow up tanks, armored vehicles, and cars were basically beaten with strong holes, and lay on their backs on the cold ground with dead eyes. The tanks, armored vehicles, and cars of the Eighth Route Army ran over them, and the bones creaked slightly, and Amaterasu might have known that his people were throwing themselves into his arms in droves again.

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