A crippled tank with a broken chain destroyed two Japanese tanks in less than 20 minutes due to the flexible rotation of the turret, and the Japanese tanks on both sides gradually fell to the upper hand. Because the turret of the tank of the Eighth Route Army can rotate 180 degrees, it makes up for the lack of maneuverability and can lock on to the Japanese tank in all directions. With the passage of time, the tank artillery of the Eighth Route Army has exerted high efficiency. The battlefield was filled with the sound of artillery, and each side was looking for a target to strike. The Japanese army did not have anti-tank howitzers to cheer up, and the combat efficiency rapidly declined.

Gu Jun's tank was hit by three Japanese tank shells in the front, and due to the rough skin and thick flesh of the protective armor, the protection was good, and there was no danger. However, as an attacking team that broke forward, their battalion suffered heavy losses along the way. After entering the enemy line, 18 of the battalion's 24 tanks were destroyed and withdrawn from the battle, leaving only 6 tanks. Gu Jun seemed to be red-eyed, disrupting the formation of the Japanese tanks, and the middle of the Japanese formation was rushed open. "Battalion commander, what do you see ahead?" The driver makes an inquiry.

Gu Jun raised his binoculars and looked at it: "In front is the armored combat vehicle of the Japanese army!" "He made a bold decision on the spot." I am Gu Jun, and all the combat vehicles of the 2nd Battalion obey my command and launch an attack on the Japanese armored vehicles. He knew in his heart that the friendly troops were already entangled with the Japanese tanks, and took advantage of the chaos to simply attack the rear of the Japanese army. Gu Jun did not expect this bold move, and received unexpected results, almost causing the total annihilation of the Japanese army. The short-barreled guns on Japanese armored vehicles were only 40 mm, and for the Cheetah-1 tank, the level of threat was negligible.

The armored vehicles installed by the Japanese tank units are mainly responsible for protecting the artillery and logistics units from enemy infantry attacks. Tank duel armored vehicles did not have a chance to participate in the war, to be exact, did not dare to participate in the war. Originally, Kameda deployed the armored battlefield behind the artillery team in order to attack at any time and strike at the logistics units of the Eighth Route Army. However, seeing that the artillery team was defeated, the Japanese armored vehicles had no choice but to respond to the artillery team and retreat, in order to let the Japanese howitzers continue to build artillery positions and continue to strike. However, just as the artillery team was reconstructing a new artillery position, six enemy tanks pounced fiercely.

The Japanese armored vehicles were as vulnerable as iron boxes in front of the tanks. The Japanese armored vehicles hurriedly retreated and made an urgent report to Kameda Tofu. The Japanese artillerymen, who were redeploying howitzer positions from behind, saw the confusion and fled from the newly towed artillery. Shocked by the urgent report, Kameda immediately ordered all to retreat, and at the same time ordered armored fighting vehicles to intercept and delay the onslaught of enemy tanks. Because he knew in his heart that if the supply vehicle in the rear was impacted, the consequences would be unimaginable.

"It was reported that the commander of the 2nd battalion, Gu, led 6 tanks to attack the enemy's depth, and the Japanese army was completely defeated. Li Yunlong's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he quickly captured the fighter, "Gu Jun is good, order them to ignore the Japanese armored vehicles, get rid of the entanglement and quickly attack the Japanese supply convoy." In addition, all tanks were ordered to pursue with all their might, without giving the Japanese tanks any respite. Li Yunlong was in a hurry, immediately jumped off the command car, got into a jeep and turned back to the political commissar Zhou Ting and said, "Political commissar, you come to command the battle, I'll go up to the front to have a look!" Without waiting for the commissar's consent, he personally drove away in a jeep.

Li Yunlong asked Gu Jun to attack the supply vehicles of the Japanese army desperately, seeing an opportunity to expand the results of the war. He knew very well that the fuel tank of the 97 tank was smaller than that of the Cheetah tank, so without replenishing fuel, the 97 tank was compared with the Cheetah tank, and its itinerary was one-third longer than that of the 97 Cheetah. And Li Yunlong asked Gu Jun to attack the Japanese supply vehicles desperately, the purpose was to make it impossible for the Japanese tanks to obtain fuel. As an excellent commander, Li Yunlong can quickly find the enemy's weaknesses in the melee, which fully reflects his keen side.

Sure enough, as Li Yunlong expected, Gu Jun led 6 tanks, ignored the entanglement of the Japanese armored fighting vehicles, and went straight to the Japanese supply convoy. When the Japanese supply trucks found the enemy tanks suddenly rushing in, they were shocked and immediately fled at full speed. The tanks were unable to race on four wheels, and soon the Japanese trucks were far away. Kameda Takeo's command vehicle was also fleeing at high speed, and seeing that the enemy was pursuing with all his might, he understood his intentions and decisively ordered the trucks that were replenishing fuel to stop retreating, and to replenish the retreating tanks at any cost.

The Japanese tanks were designed with small fuel tanks, which was directly related to the fact that the armored forces fought in the Chinese theater. In order to meet the needs of Chinese battlefield operations, Japanese tanks were to effectively support the infantry attack. The tank design focuses on strike firepower, so the tank is required to meet the bomb load. The Japanese Army's Type 89 and even Type 97 tanks have always been designed according to this idea. That is, the Japanese army did not think at all about the contest between tanks and tanks on the Chinese battlefield. The Japanese Type 97 tank has two built-in machine guns, and the support fire is very fierce, and it carries 150 shells.

Among them, about 30 armor-piercing shells were rounds, and the other shells were high-explosive shells to support infantry operations. In order to accommodate more ammunition, Japanese tanks had to compress the space of other facilities. The small protective armor, small engine horsepower and even small fuel tank capacity of Japanese tanks are directly related to the design concept of the Japanese army. Later, the Japanese army appeared Type 3 and even Type 6 tanks, although the protective armor and other functions were greatly increased. However, with the Eighth Route Army's Cheetah 2 tank put into battle on the battlefield, the Japanese army's upgrading and transformation was cold.

Comparatively speaking, the Cheetah tank is not designed to support infantry operations, but is designed to fight between tanks. The Cheetah 1 tank has only one machine gun on board and carries only 34 armor-piercing shells, so it is reasonable that the Cheetah 1 tank has thick protective armor, large fuel tank size, and high engine power. At the beginning, Ouyang Jian had insisted on the design concept of the Cheetah 1 tank despite public opinion, and seemed to be unreasonable to veto other people's suggestions. The actual combat proved how advanced his ideas were.

Li Yunlong drove the jeep and stopped in front of the "disabled" No. 01 tank, "Report to the brigade commander, the chain of my tank has been blown up!" On the tank turret, Liu Xiaofeng and his three subordinates looked depressedly at the whirlwind pursuit of their comrades-in-arms, with a depressed expression on their faces. Boy, you're doing well, I didn't think I would see you anymore. "Brigade commander, when will the repair car come up, I checked it, there are no problems with the engine, fuel tank, and gun barrel, as long as the chain is replaced!" Liu Xiaofeng was obviously urgent. "You kid is too naïve, I'm afraid the battle will be over long ago after replacing the chain."

"What are you stunned about, you guys get into my car." Liu Xiaofeng immediately guessed what the brigade commander meant, and jumped down from the turret. "There's a submachine gun in the back seat, pick it! You come and drive"! Li Yunlong motioned for the tank driver to drive. The jeep sped up, "In a moment we'll start hunting, let your sight be on the hunt." "After the jeep was running for half an hour, several destroyed Japanese tanks appeared in front of it. In addition, at intervals, there were oil drums discarded by the Japanese army.

"You see the oil drum, Company Commander Liu, what's going on?" Liu Xiaofeng said with a smile: "I guessed your mind when I got in the car, these oil drums were deliberately discarded by the Japanese army to replenish fuel for the Japanese tanks." But we pursued the Japanese tanks with all our might, and there was no chance to replenish the fuel at all. Lo and behold, the Japanese tank was not destroyed, but blown up by the Japanese themselves. There was no trace of fire outside, indicating that the Japanese crew had detonated explosives in the cockpit before escaping, and what the brigade commander said was not wrong! ”

"Barely qualified!" "Report, 5 Japanese tank crews were found at 2 o'clock, 2500 meters away!" Li Yunlong picked up a handful of 38 big covers and said: "The little devil's 38 big covers are very good, Lian Commander Liu, let's try it." "Brigadier Commander, I'm not good at archery. I've heard of the brigade commander's marksmanship, and the three devils belong to you and leave them to me. "Hunting Li Yunlong will not let go of the opportunity, into the range of the submachine gun, without waiting for Liu Xiaofeng to exert his strength, the five Japanese tank soldiers were all eaten by Li Yunlong.

By 3 p.m., the tanks of the Eighth Route Army had pursued 80 kilometers, and Li Yunlong ordered to stop the pursuit and clean up the battlefield.

As night fell, the defeated Japanese tank units still retreated to Baotou. Inside a jeep, Kameda was pale and silent. After collecting the troops before dark, the battle damage report was reported. In service, the 18th Armored Brigade lost 65 tanks and 12 artillery pieces. Fortunately, the supply trucks desperately rescued, otherwise all the tanks would have to lie on their stomachs and become enemy targets, or they would have been forced to blow up the tanks themselves.

What made Kameda even more sad was that he fully understood the performance of the tanks of the Eighth Route Army, and the latest tanks under his command were not opponents at all, which made him the most difficult to accept. After a day of fighting, it was a big defeat and a crushing defeat. At this moment, he understood what it meant to be surprisingly victorious, and he also understood why the tanks of the Eighth Route Army dared to attack with swagger. However, there is also a gain, that is, anti-tank howitzers, which can pose a lethal threat to the tanks of the Eighth Route Army. This situation must be reported to the Taiyuan Command as soon as possible.

That night, Urat was silent in the joy of victory. A staff officer reports. “??? 65 Japanese tanks were destroyed, of which 15 had broken chains and could be repaired, and the rest were scrapped. 105 Japanese anti-tank howitzers were destroyed, 12 were destroyed. According to statistics, we lost 38 tanks, 18 of which were repaired, and the rest were scrapped. There were 88 casualties and 68 killed. Everyone was silent. After a long time, Li Yunlong cheered up and said: "First of all, I want to praise the two excellent commanders, Liu Xiaofeng, the commander of the first company, and Gu Jun, the commander of the second battalion. They??????. ”

"Comrades, our armored units of the Eighth Route Army withstood the test in the first attack and the first actual battle. Overall superiority, but relatively serious losses, or ignoring the power of the Japanese anti-tank howitzers, this responsibility lies with me. However, through actual combat testing, the combat capability of the Cheetah tank is qualified. Relying solely on the duel between tanks, the Japanese army's advanced Type 97 tanks were no opponent at all. Victory is gratifying, but it must not be underestimated. Japanese soldiers destroyed two of our tanks with bombs, and we must be careful of this method. ”

"Report, General Fu called, congratulating us on our former Kaide victory, and greeting all my soldiers." "Report, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army in the northwest called and asked our department to take photos and send them back as soon as possible!" "Haha! This time we want to be famous all over the world, call back General Fu Zuoyi and the headquarters, and our department asks to participate in the battle of Baotou! ”