Chapter 20: The Bloody City (I)

The Second Battle of Vaham

The history of the Tasman Empire truly exposes the historical facts covered up by the victors, and the army of the United Empire of St. Roman, the great power of the victorious army, was a sea of corpses and blood at that time. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoThe real battle situation of history plays the triumphant song of the former deceased, the ancient Tasman Empire, the once powerful imperial army, is still producing brilliant victories when it is about to fall. Did you know that the victory trumpets of the Imperial armies have been echoing on the battlefield for millennia. On the occasion of the death of the country, the horn of victory sounded again, the victory series of the dead country, the fourth article "The Storm's Blood Sea Fortified City".

The year 96 of the B century was the year of the fall of the Tasman Empire. The Tasman Empire, a huge country built by the people of the empire who were born into a barbarian race, fought again and again, and was once the third most powerful country in the world, it was once so powerful and glorious. The people who founded this country were warlike and valiant in battle, and even at the moment of the fall of the empire, they fought actively, and won many major victories, enough to shine in the annals of history, but these victories that should have been brilliant in the annals of history were covered up as much as possible by the final victors, and it was difficult for ordinary people to see their traces, and only in the internal books of the army that recorded the true history, the victories of these fallen countries still existed almost real.

This article is the result of the compilation and collation of confidential military materials left by all parties in the Tasman Empire War and the Assenstan Founding War, which can ensure 100% historical authenticity, but these are definitely not the history told by the authority of history, and will never be open to the public. (Public history is not necessarily true history.) Students, you must be clear that what is in history textbooks is not necessarily real history, but more propaganda and education. )

At the last moment of the Second Battle of Vaham, the Battle of the Corpse Mountain and the Sea of Blood, the defenders of the Tasman Empire, who were about to be wiped out, actually sounded the horn of victory.

The large-character inscriptions on both sides of the Waham Battle Memorial Hall - iron fist against the old enemy, scimitar lost edge. But in the eyes of those who participated in this battle, this is simply a fart, and on the real battlefield, the victors are not as glorious as the memorial describes, they are the remnants of the mess, and some are not even as good as the losers who died with a smile. The real battlefield is by no means as lofty as in literary and artistic works. In this battle, the troops who thought they were iron fists before the battle were full of casualties, while the entire army of the Empire army was not extinguished, and their sacrifice was enough to prove that the Tasman Empire's scimitar was still extremely sharp and radiant.

The Second Battle of Vaham can be called the most tragic battle of the Tasman Empire's Demise War, and it is also the first tragic battle of Operation Storm.

Basic information on the Battle of Vaham

Both sides of the campaign

Attackers: The new army of the Empire of St. Romain and Sanssunia and part of the rebel army of the Republic of Assenstan. Cumulative total investment of more than 500,000 troops, commander General Valentin Ksendel.

Defenders: The defenders and volunteers of Vaham City and the surrounding areas were not evacuated, with a total strength of about 220,000 troops. Commander: Hero of the last Battle of Vaham, Lieutenant General Rum Geru.

Purpose of the campaign

Our Army: Capture the important city of Waham, clear the way to the west, and open the way to attack Samral.

Tasman Army: Hold on to the city of Waham and buy time for the rest of your forces to defend themselves.

Campaign time

11 August B96 to 20 August B96.

The main place of battle

The city of Vaham and its environs in western Yasenstan.

The outcome of the battle and the losses of both sides

Our army captured the city of Waham, and the Tasman Empire as the defenders of Vaham was completely defeated.

The Tasman Empire defending the city of Vaham was annihilated except for a few who broke through at the beginning of the battle, and the loss of more than 100,000 enemy corpses after the battle was carried and counted. Counting the losses of the repulsed rescue forces, the actual personnel losses of the Tasman Imperial Army in this battle were definitely more than 200,000.

The losses of our army were also very huge, and it was announced that the coalition forces had lost more than 45,000 casualties and a total of 110,000 casualties (including the Assenstan army).

Many years after the war, foreign military historians who wanted to experience the thrill of being assassinated published a research report saying that the actual losses of our army and the Assenstein army in this battle exceeded 230,000 people, and the number of casualties on the side of the United Imperial Army alone reached a staggering 73,653, and the actual number of casualties should be more than 100,000. (Experts claim: At that time, our army deliberately invested the original Tasman Empire surrender troops that lacked sufficient heavy artillery and lacked the ability to attack fortifications, and used the hands of the Tasman Empire Army to solve these unreliable troops.) This is also one of the purposes of Operation Storm launched by our army. )

The historical background and specific course of the Battle of Vaham

Campaign Background:

On the part of our army and the rebel army, in early July B96, in order to defend the fruits of victory and ensure the smooth digestion of the original territory of the Tasman Empire, Speaker Caesar proposed to fully support the pro-Japanese North Yasenstan army and launch a fatal blow to the Tasman Empire, which still maintains a strong military force. The proposal was unanimously adopted by Parliament. Failing to achieve the goal of armed intervention, our army (United Imperial Army of San Roman) planned to organize 43 newly formed divisions rebuilt from the former Imperial Army units in the control area, 16 field divisions of our army's former Southwest Frontier Military Region, and a large number of supplementary troops from the former Imperial Army insurgents, totaling more than 1.2 million elite troops in the name of volunteers to join the Northern Rebel Army's battle sequence. From mid-July to early August B96, the first "volunteers" entered the territory of Assenstan and were immediately deployed to the front. On August 10, the United Imperial Army of St. Roman-St. Sunia launched a military offensive in the Asenstan region, codenamed Storm, and a series of ensuing campaigns pushed our old enemy, the Tasman Empire, into the abyss of destruction.

On the Tasman Empire side, in early August B96, the Imperial Army failed to achieve the desired victory in the Battle of South Asiasenstan, and the strong intervention of the United Imperial Army and the Imperial Army of St. Mary's made the situation on the battlefield deteriorate sharply. After the no-man's-land sweep of the newly occupied rebel-controlled areas, the Imperial Army decisively carried out a strategic retreat, comprehensively reduced its forces and switched to strategic defense. The Tasman Empire planned to use a number of river geographical barriers in the Siasenstan region to form a defensive line where it would stubbornly hold back the enemy forces, so as to continue to control the economically developed and densely populated areas east of the Karan Canal, such as the West Senstan region and the Kalymia region, as the basis for future domination; At the same time, fortifications were intensified along several river-dense areas along the border of Siasenstan, and a strategic line of defense called the "Imperial Eastern Barrier" was established, with a section of the Krag River as the focus of defense. The Tasman Empire's original plan to "hold the old territory of the main empire of Asenstan and stop the offensive of the rebel army, the United Imperial Army, the St. Mary's Imperial Army in the central plateau of Asenstenstan, Grienral, Vaham and other areas" was almost impossible to achieve. Faced with enemy forces with strong armoured assault forces fighting in these plains, the Tasman Empire had no chance of winning and had to gradually abandon these areas. The Tasman Empire intended to hold on to the Krag River, the Mochinaya River, Samlar and other areas. The remnants of the Tasman Empire were intensively fortified in all these areas, building defensive lines to the standards of permanent frontier fortifications in non-border areas that were originally part of the Empire's deep hinterland. Pessimism and frustration grew in the Imperial army, and some generals privately discussed that they might build such fortifications on the outskirts of the capital. The remnants of the Imperial Army on the Eastern Front were becoming warlords, and some of the generals with heavy troops began to support themselves and did not listen to their commands.

Military Geography Situation and Battlefield Environment Construction in the Vaham Region:

Vaham is the capital of West Yasenstan Province, located in the north of the West Senstan Basin, east of the Khammul Mountains, west of the Feser River, the north and south of the terrain is undulating, easy to defend and difficult to attack, for the entire Assenstan region of the strategic location. After hundreds of years of operation in this place, the Tasman Empire has built a wide variety of peripheral strongholds, deep positions and city fortifications, so that the city of Vaham and the entire surrounding city defense zone constitute a multi-level, large-depth circular large-depth defense system that combines various fortresses and trenches and underpasses, relying on each other, and there are more than 12,000 large blockhouses in the main defense area. In the east of the city, the camel city, the twin tower temple and other key points, with the blockhouse group as the backbone of the permanent fortifications, become the main military defense barrier of the main city of Waham - the eastern fortress. In the last siege of Vaham launched by the rebel army, the Imperial Army's defense of the fortress in the eastern district was relatively weak (Lieutenant General Rumgeru had only arrived at that time, and he did not know anything about the fortress area in the eastern part of the city), and retreated after only a symbolic defense, and the fortifications around the fortress suffered some damage, but the main fortifications were basically intact. After the war, Lieutenant General Rum Geru realized the value of these forts after a field trip. He ordered the defenders to expand and repair the fortifications, mobilize the labor force of the whole city to rebuild the surface fortifications on the bullet-ridden positions, absorb the lessons of the last defensive battle, dig trenches in the outer ring, spread barbed wire, and build a number of interlocking ring fortifications with pillboxes as the core. After repairs, these damaged fortresses have become more defensive.

The commander of the garrison, Lieutenant General Rumgeru, was not absolutely satisfied with his troops, but had twelve points of confidence in the fortifications. Each of the bunkers here has been carefully researched, and has ingenious ideas and practical value in terms of construction and weapon configuration. They have different styles, many names, from the shape of the square block, round block, plum blossom type block, mother and son block, herringbone block, ring block, product word block, T-shaped block, etc.; From one to three storeys in height; In terms of scale, there are small bunkers for machine gun groups, semi-squad bunkers, medium bunkers for squads, large bunkers at the platoon level, and extra-large bunkers at the company level; In terms of firepower configuration, there are artillery bunkers, machine-gun bunkers, and gun-gun mixed fire bunkers; From the building materials, there are brick bunkers, stone bunkers, and reinforced concrete bunkers. Lieutenant General Rumgayru also gave these bunkers names in a literary and artistic manner, such as "Tiger Fortress", "Heroic Fortress", "Crouching Tiger Fortress", "Captain of 100 Fortress", "God of War Fortress", "Victory Fortress" and a series of other resounding names to strengthen their momentum.

A neutral journalist who has been to the Waham front described: "Anyone who arrives at the city of Vaham will be amazed at the countless bunkers, high, low, long, round, triangular, and even hidden underground, forming an impossibly tight network of firepower. This is perhaps the most powerful group of fortifications I've ever seen. ”

A senior Tasman general put it this way: "Most of the rebels' attacks relied on a large number of people and artillery, and a round of heavy artillery bombardment blew up the defenders and then charged in waves, attacking to destroy the remaining defenders and seize the position." In the final analysis, the victory they achieved by this method of warfare was won by relying on that round of heavy artillery fire, and if the defenders could not defend against this round of heavy shelling, they would inevitably fail. We relied on the stronghold fortification group composed of pillbox groups to preserve our defensive strength, give full play to our firepower superiority, and achieve the exchange of bullets for human lives, no matter how many rebels there are, there is no way. ”

Deployment of defenders, firepower and ammunition reserves:

In order to strengthen the defense force, the Tasman Imperial Army transferred the only two new elite infantry divisions from the South Asiansenstan front to strengthen Waham's defenses; Through various means, such as training their own civilians as supplementary troops, reorganizing battle-damaged troops, upgrading the police and security forces into regular troops, and forcibly integrating foreigners into the troops, the defenders of the city were expanded into 6 military headquarters, 17 infantry divisions, 4 independent divisions, 3 independent heavy artillery regiments (originally planned to participate in the next stage of the offensive campaign, transferred from the rear, were pitted), a reconnaissance bomber brigade, together with 4 civilian unarmed supplementary divisions, the actual total number of defenders increased to 220,000, It has more than 1,000 artillery pieces (including mortars). The city of Vaham is divided into 1 central defense zone and 4 outer defense zones to the east, south, west, and north. Its deployment is as follows: 4 corps and 11 divisions to serve as the defense of the eastern, southern, western and northern regions; defend the central part of the city with direct troops; With 2 corps, 6 divisions, and 2 independent divisions, it was used for mobile operations. The focus of the defense is on the two defensive areas that are easier to attack on the terrain of the southern and northern regions.

In terms of heavy firepower configuration, the three independent heavy artillery regiments transferred from the rear are equipped with 24 160mm howitzers (2,500 rounds of their own artillery shells, of which 1,800 rounds are chlorine bombs) and 72 120mm howitzers (12,600 rounds of ammunition are brought with them); The corps and divisional artillery were armed with 80 to 100 mm guns in varying quantities and had an abundant amount of ammunition. In terms of weapons and ammunition reserves, Waham City is the general logistics supply station in this area, and it is also the Tasman Empire's national combat ammunition storage place and ammunition transportation transit station, so it has a large amount of ammunition in reserve.

In addition, the Tasman Imperial Army captured 136,200 rifles with 70 million to 84 million rounds of ammunition in the two districts of Lumslar and Makaral; 14,300 submachine guns with 42 million rounds of ammunition - 70 million rounds, 1,600 light machine guns with 15.8 million rounds of ammunition. There are also 16 150mm heavy howitzers, 54 old howitzers from 105mm combat readiness stocks, more than 100 mortars of various calibers, and up to 120,000 rounds of various shells. A considerable part of these weapons are stored in Vaham. In the middle of the campaign, the defenders began to use these weapons heavily to enhance their melee firepower.

The first phase of the attacking side participating troops and basic firepower configuration:

United Imperial Forces Participating Units:

The new 7th Infantry Corps: N (new) 19th Division, N 20th Division, N 21st Division, and another four-regiment reserve supplementary division with only a small number of light weapons and a total of about 10,000 personnel. (This department is reorganized from the rebel units of the Imperial Army in the area controlled by our army, and the regular divisions under its jurisdiction use the B85 division of our army to simplify the establishment)

The new Ninth Infantry Corps: N 25th Division, N 26th Division, N 27th Division, and another four-regiment reserve supplementary division with only a small number of light weapons and a total of about 10,000 personnel. (This department is reorganized from the rebel units of the Imperial Army in the area controlled by our army, and the regular divisions under its jurisdiction use the B85 division of our army to simplify the establishment)

New 10th Infantry Corps: N 28th Division, N 29th Division, N 30th Division. (The basic unit of the ministry is extremely reliable, and there are also a large number of Hallelujah among the officers and soldiers, and the three divisions under its jurisdiction all adopt the standardized establishment of B85 divisions, and have a heavy artillery regiment under the jurisdiction of the army, and 54 150mm howitzers.) )

The First Independent Armored Brigade of the Southwest Frontier Military Region was newly established (77 light tanks, all of which are B-M light tanks, with a total combat weight of 7t, a main gun caliber of 45mm, and 32 23mm self-propelled machine guns based on this type of tank)

The 2nd Separate Armored Brigade of the South-Western Frontier Military District was newly established (the armament configuration is the same as above).

The First Garrison Division of the Southwest Border Field Army was newly established (the former officers of the reserve field troops of our army, filled with the officers and soldiers of the Imperial Army's surrender troops, B85 standard establishment)

The Third Garrison Division of the Southwest Border Field Army was newly established (the former officers of the reserve field troops of our army, filled with the officers and soldiers of the Imperial Army's surrender troops, B85 standard establishment)

As early as the time of formation and training, the above-mentioned units began to conduct military training for future combat operations in a targeted manner, focusing on the study and training of offensive and defensive tactics, explosives, and civil engineering operations. These trainings were aimed only at ordinary defensive lines of a general nature, and the officers and men and their instructors could not have imagined that the fortifications under the city of Vaham would be so numerous, so dense, so strong and complex, that they would pay an unprecedented number of lives.

Standard establishment of the B85 Division of the United Imperial Army

This type of infantry division has about 21,000 men per division and a three-regiment division. The division has three infantry plus one artillery regiment.

The infantry division has a heavy artillery regiment with four battalions, two armed with 18 105-mm howitzers, two armed with 18 150-mm howitzers, and a baggage transport brigade. (The simplified division is equipped with only 1-2 105 howitzer battalions)

The infantry regiment has four infantry battalions, a search company, an engineer company, a medical team, and a baggage brigade.

There are 80 people in the regimental headquarters, 60 people in the reconnaissance and alert platoon directly under the central government, and 160 people in the medical team. The regiment has four infantry battalions and one 75-mm field artillery battalion (18 guns). (Simplified divisional and regimental firepower is only composed of one 75mm field artillery company)

The infantry battalion has four infantry companies and one gun company. The gun company has two machine gun platoons of 40 men each, and 6 Maxim heavy machine guns, a total of 12 guns; 2 platoons of heavy infantry artillery with 30 men each, 2 150 mm infantry guns, a total of four, a baggage platoon of 40 people, 10 people in the company, and 190 people in the whole company. The battalion headquarters is 30 people.

The infantry company consisted of 260 men, divided into three infantry platoons, one infantry artillery platoon, each infantry platoon had 30 riflemen or carbines, divided into three rifle squads; a submachine gun squad of 10 submachine gunners, a companion support machine gun squad (three light machine guns), divided into three machine gun groups, a total of 12 people; 6 grenade grenadiers (carrying assault blasting grenades), one platoon commander and one deputy platoon, 60 people per platoon. The infantry artillery platoon consisted of 35 men and was armed with three 75-mm infantry guns as fire support weapons for the whole company. The baggage team consists of 35 people. 10 people in the company. The battalion has a total of 1,260 people. 4 150mm infantry guns, 12 75mm infantry guns.

(The simplified division does not have a battalion of 150 infantry guns, and no battalion belongs to a heavy machine gun platoon, and the original company's 75mm infantry guns are concentrated at the battalion level and used as a battalion support artillery reinforcement company, and the number is usually 6 to 8 guns.) )

The total heavy firepower of the division is 36 150 howitzers, 36 105 mm howitzers, 54 75 mm field guns, 48 150 mm infantry guns, and 144 75 mm infantry guns.

The situation of the Asenstein rebels in the war has not been investigated due to the lack of relevant historical information. (The Republic of Yasenstein deliberately concealed the destruction of the relevant historical archives. )

Campaign Begins:

On August 10, our army launched a storm military operation. The enemy troops on the front line were caught off guard and retreated one after another under the offensive of our army, and our army made rapid progress.

On the morning of August 11, our troops attacked and advanced to the city of Waham. In the afternoon of the same day, an exchange of fire between our troops and the defenders began, and the Battle of Vaham began.

On August 12, our army began a perimeter clearance operation in the area around Vaham. In the afternoon of the same day, the siege of the city of Vaham was reached.

On the night of August 12, after learning that the city of Vaham was besieged, the headquarters of the Tasman Imperial Army directly overstepped the level and issued an order to Lieutenant General Rumgayru to defend Waham and buy time for the main force to deploy defenses. However, Rumgeru's immediate superior, Zacharhan, ordered Lieutenant General Rumgairu to break through the siege, and on the 13th, he personally led his troops to attack near the west of the city to meet them.

From 13 August to 14 August, our army launched an all-out attack on the Sagarkhand reinforcements with all the elite units that could be mobilized, including most of the newly formed 10th Infantry Corps, two armored brigades directly under the Military Region, and the newly established 1st Garrison Division of the Southwest Frontier Military Region. Admiral Sacharhan received only a very small number of breakthrough troops, and he himself was wounded by our artillery fire in the battle, and died of his wounds the next day.

On the afternoon of August 14, our army achieved a complete and complete siege of the city of Vaham.

Earlier, on August 13, our army had already begun siege operations.

The first phase of the Battle of Vaham - the storming of the Eastern Sector Fortress

At noon on August 12, the siege troops of our army under the city of Vaham were deployed in place. The main attacking force is the new Seventh Infantry Corps under the jurisdiction of various departments and part of the Republic of Yasenstan troops, the new Ninth Infantry Corps as a reserve, and the rest of the troops as encirclement alert troops to send reinforcements or prevent the enemy from breaking through.

In the afternoon of the same day, 1,500 tons of various types of artillery ammunition needed for the attack on Vaham were dispatched in a timely manner, and the logistics unit also prepared 300,000 grenades, 400,000 TNT explosives, 200,000 blasting canisters, and 100,000 explosive packs for the siege.

At four o'clock at dawn on August 13, the signal flares of the United Imperial Army's attack rose into the sky, and the attack was launched at the same time in the four eastern fortress positions of Camel Village, Woma Mountain, Sheep's Head Mountain, and Wuyunling. This was the beginning of the most brutal battle of the East Side Fortress in the Battle of Vaham. This day, Friday the 13th, was an extremely bloody day. Both sides threw their main forces into this narrow position, which was only 8 kilometers in front and up to two and a half kilometers in depth. Due to the hilly terrain, tanks could not be used, so a large number of infantry could only be put into the attack.

In order to restore the specific battle situation in that place at that time, we found a number of old soldiers who survived that year. The winner is king, but on the frontline, only the remaining survivors are the victors, and they have the opportunity to look at their experiences from a new perspective.

Amyan Kesmir, an 83-year-old veteran of the Yasenstein rebel army, was a witness to the bloody battle of Waham. When he joined the Battle of Waham in August 996, he was only 16 years old and a new recruit. From June B96 onwards, the balance of power between the Imperial Army and the Rebel Army underwent a major change, and with the large military assistance of the United Imperial Army, the number of rebel armies in the Empire swelled dramatically, and a large number of young people living in poverty who were not of the Imperial Nationality joined the Rebel Army, and many joined the newly formed United Imperial Army. Some of them are doing it to make meritorious contributions, some are to avenge their families, and some are just to have something to eat and not starve to death. It was against this background that the veteran fighters such as Amian Kesmir, who were interviewed by our army, threw themselves into the battlefield. There is often no effective way for the Tasman Army's elaborate and permanent defensive system outside of Waham, which lacks battlefield experience and the associated training of recruits. In front of the rock-solid fortifications of the Tasman Imperial Army, the United Imperial Army suffered heavy losses in the first attack, and the corpses of the participating troops were strewn all over the field, and a few crows and wild dogs rushed to the dinner, which looked quite desolate from the side of our army on the battle line.

Amyan Ksmir (a surviving veteran of the Battle of Vaham, then a private): "Following the company commander and rushing forward, the pillbox formation arrived, there were on the east hill, there were on the street under the mountain, there were buildings on the street, some were semi-underground, some were plum blossom pills, there were cross pillboxes, there were many pillboxes, there were pillboxes everywhere. There was a squad in the Imperial Army, some with heavy machine guns, some with light machine guns. ”

Klitafix (a junior officer who participated in the Battle of Vaham, then an infantry platoon commander): "A pillbox must have at least two machine guns, and he has the main shot and the reserve (secondary shot). If you want to have a machine gun, whether you have a light machine gun or a heavy machine gun, you will always have intermittent fire. After fighting for a while, he didn't have bullets, so people took the opportunity to come up. Not here, two machine guns are fighting alternately, and the infantry can't rush at all. ”

Ulzems (veteran of the Battle of Vaham, deputy shooter of infantry artillery): "The bunker on the hill is very high, I have seen a plum blossom pillbox, the shape is the same as that plum blossom, the command post of a battalion or a regiment. People have this shooting gap, there is such a round hole, there is such a gap in the middle, such a alignment, they see you, a pair is shot, and the angle of your gun is not appropriate. No matter how you fight, you can't get in. With artillery bombardment, dozens of artillery bombardments, it can be regarded as opening a hole, and the people set up machine guns again, so they bombarded again, but there were shells, and the shells were enough, and the infantry rushed to capture them. ”

Klitafix: "If you attack their bunker group, you won't be able to do it with just one infantry regiment. Go up to a regiment, as long as the firepower in the regiment is not good, you can't beat it at all if the enemy doesn't surrender. Later, the solution I thought of was to blow it up, blow it up, blaster grenades, and stuff them into the eyes of the bunkers. Many people died on the bombed bunkers. Some of the big bunkers are very well protected, you have to blow up the barbed wire outside the bunker first, then the outer trench, then the barbed wire, then the outer trench, and then blow up the innermost big bunker, which can kill a lot of people. ”

The infantry of the newly formed units of the United Imperial Army launched round after round of assault in company units, and a large number of soldiers fell on the charging line, crippled one and replaced another. On the first day, the participating troops carried out a full day of assault, killing and wounding thousands of people, and still unable to break through the permanent fortifications built by the Imperial army in the east of the city.

In the offensive and defensive battles of the fortress in the eastern part of Waham, the troops participating in the battle successively put into the battlefield as many as 21 regiments (each supplementary regiment is a recruit training unit, which is dismantled and used to participate in the battle), accounting for more than half of the total number of troops participating in the battle.

In the face of the stubborn resistance of the Tasman Empire army, which relied on strong fortifications, the troops involved in the battle seemed to be at a loss. However, any strong line of defense, if one point is broken, the entire line of defense will be useless. The next day, the United Imperial Army began a focused offensive.

Located directly east of Waham City, about two kilometers away, the Womaling defensive position is the closest position to Waham City, in order to take this position, the United Imperial Army launched several charges, and the Waham defenders also gave death orders to the forward positions, and those who retreated were all shot on the spot. Due to the arduous fighting and fierce competition, both sides used the tactics of crowding and indiscriminate firepower coverage. The front fell, the back pounced, and the commander had already completely disregarded the casualties, as long as the position. The two sides that were fighting on the battlefield were blown up by the firepower of one side in the blink of an eye. At noon that day, the Tasman Empire used poison gas warfare for the first time, inflicting considerable casualties on the United Empire Army. The UEF then fired poison gas shells from 150mm guns and retaliated with gas shells in populated areas of the city, resulting in numerous civilian casualties.

Ulzemus: "The tunnels dug underground outside the fortress here are connected to the outer moats outside the city, and the enemy can come from the tunnels to reinforce them. We haven't taken it yet, but in the blink of an eye, the reinforcements came up, and they counterattacked us, and the counterattack came out, then let's fight, fight, come out and fight back, come out and fight back, come out and fight back, come out and fight back, come out and fight back, repeat many times, both sides are a large number of casualties of the whole battalion and the whole regiment. You went back and forth, fought for two whole days, our division did not even have a complete battalion, the division commander and the chief of staff went to the line of fire to supervise the battle, they were all killed, and the commander of the whole division was also dead. …… Later, our division was withdrawn. ”

Many of the generals who participated in the war mentioned in their memoirs the bloody scenes of the three-day tug-of-war on August 14, 15 and 16, and many of them wept bitterly when they recalled the scene on the battlefield at that time.

Admiral Valentin Xendall put it this way: "Every position captured must go through one, two, three or more assaults, to consolidate a position, to repel the enemy's counterattack five, six, seven or more. Some positions were sometimes captured by us, and sometimes recaptured by the enemy, and they were repeatedly tugged at. …… At that time, there was no way to count the casualties, and people were blown apart...... I thought it was the remnants of a regiment that had been withdrawn from the battle, but the broken flags held high by the soldiers told me that it was a division, and that there were only those men left in a division......"

The two sides on the battlefield fought with all the weapons at their disposal, with planes being used to drop bombs and bombard each other's artillery positions, and planes from both sides engaged in aerial battles, with dozens of planes shooting at each other in the sky. At that time, the theory of air combat was not mature, there were no professional air superiority fighters, and bombardiers used carbines, submachine guns, and light machine guns to shoot at each other. In the afternoon of the same day, the United Empire brought in thirty large bombers and equipped the two bombardiers on board with the best light machine guns. The entry of the new forces allowed the United Empire to gain the upper hand in an air battle the next morning (August 15), which is called air supremacy in modern parlance. It was easy to win in the sky, but the ground offensive was still difficult, and every step had to pay the price of blood, and the consumption of ammunition was even more alarming.

Ulzems, a veteran of the war, put it this way: "I hit an enemy bunker (a hidden bunker covered with earth cover), and I don't know how many cannons were fired at that time, but this kind of bunker is very strong, and a 75mm shell can't do it, and it can't be solved." Some of the bunkers were so strong that we had fired a dozen shells and blown up almost all the walls of the bunker, but they were still not completely destroyed, and the machine guns inside were still clattering. ”

To the east of Vaham, the ring of fortifications carefully constructed by Lieutenant General Rumgayru was the biggest obstacle to the attack of the United Empire forces, and these pillboxes spewed out dense firepower and could not be approached at all. A large number of attacking rebels and soldiers of the United Imperial Army fell in front of the pillbox. In order to take the defensive belt of the pillboxes, all the attacking troops gave death orders, the machine gun groups covered the infantry artillery detachments to shoot at close range, and the artillery destroyed these pillboxes with direct fire; When the infantry artillery of the unit was completely damaged, the assault team was organized to blow up the pillboxes one by one by using the method of continuous rotational blasting. Blowing up a medium-sized bunker often requires a dozen blasts, killing and wounding dozens of people; Large bunker groups are usually scattered around the corpses of hundreds or even hundreds of attacking officers and soldiers. Compared to the munitions that come out on the production lines of military factories, human life, which should be more valuable, seems to have become a cheap consumer product, or just a number on the statement.

Today, on the large and small hills of the old site of the camel village fortress, there are still traces of the war of that year. There is a large bunker standing on the top of the camel village, called MIKA (the mythological hero of the people) fortress, which is the highest position and the most solid large bunker in the bunker group built by Lieutenant General Rumgeru, and it is also the core position of the four major fortresses in the east of the city. The MIKA fortress is also equipped with four small pillboxes, which constitute a core fortress defense system, between the large fortress and the four small fortresses, there are outer trenches, communication trenches, barbed wire blocking belts, reserved machine gun mobile firing fortifications, squad-platoon firing positions and anti-shelling shelters. In total, this nuclear fort defense system can accommodate about one battalion of troops. The retaining wall of the MIKA fortress is made of granite built outside the concrete structure, with a total thickness of about 1.5 meters, and there are more than a dozen shooting holes on each side. According to internal records, the first attack on the MIKA fortress by the United Imperial Army that year resulted in more than 1,100 casualties.

Military knowledge has been popularized, pay attention to it:

Sandwich wall fortifications:

In the later stage of the Liberation War, the Kuomintang army often used the natural terrain to build solid and permanent mountain sandwich wall fortifications in the outlying strongholds of the city defense, especially in the terrain where the mountains were full of rocks and little or no soil and trees. The sandwich wall fortifications protrude from the ground, and its bunkers have triangles, circles, squares, irregular polygons, or stepped shapes according to different terrains, and the strongholds are connected by sandwich walls. The wall is built with a sandwich wall fortification for individual shooting. The main advantage of the fortification was that the defenders could make use of the mezzanine wall communication trenches, which facilitated the movement, mastery and command of the troops. There is a concealment part in the wall, which can be used to station troops to reduce the lethal effect of our curved artillery fire. The bunker has a wide shooting range and few dead spots. Shooting holes were built at intervals in the sandwich wall to eliminate the dead spots of fire between the forts. The main disadvantage of the fortification is that the fortification protrudes from the ground and the target is obvious, which facilitates the destruction of our fire blockade. The sandwich wall is thick and high, and the shooting hole on the wall itself has a large shooting dead angle. The lighting conditions in the sandwich wall are extremely poor, and it is inconvenient to observe visually, so my sneak attack is easy to succeed. If the fortifications of the sandwich wall are broken through at one point, the entire defense system will be divided, and it will be difficult to take care of the end and the defenders will be inconvenient to counterattack, and they will be in a passive situation.

On 15 August, the situation on the battlefield was at a stalemate, and the troops involved in the battle suffered heavy casualties, and General Valentin Xendall ordered all available personnel to participate in the battle. In the afternoon of the same day, Admiral Valentin Kosender personally went to the front to supervise the battle. The tragic battle situation on the front line shocked this battle-hardened general, and all the vegetation on the small hills in the eastern region was carbonized by artillery fire. On the small ridge several tens of meters high, the scorched earth of some positions was actually half a meter thick, and the corpses of officers and soldiers killed on both sides were staggered and piled up, filling the trenches as deep as two meters. Weapon parts and wooden handles of grenades littered the battlefield, and the stench of corpses filled the air. The huge casualties of the officers and men on the front line frightened Admiral Valentin Xsendel, who had long been accustomed to bloody scenes from a military family, but all this must continue, otherwise all the price paid before would be in vain.

Attack, only attack! The offensive must be carried out to the end!!