Episode 101 The first amphibious battle

On November 29, after a day of fighting, the first line of defense in the southeasternmost corner of the Central Plains Corps of the Qing Army, the defense line of Suqian-Yanwei Port, had been broken through the entire line.

But after this series of hard battles, the Ming army also suffered the greatest losses since the war. The Fifth Armored Division of the People's Guard, which served as the main attack, had a total of 4,396 killed, wounded, and missing; 55 tanks were completely destroyed, 67 tanks were damaged (repairable), and 224 other vehicles were damaged or damaged.

And that's just the number of one division of the 5th Panzer Division. Army Group Right consisted of 90 divisions, of which 60 divisions took part in the offensive. The entire 59 divisions that participated in the Central Plains War lost at least ten times as many as the Fifth Panzer Division.

The Great War of the Central Plains gave the Ming army a taste of the "normal exchange ratio" for the first time. Although the exchange ratio between the two armies of the Ming and Qing dynasties was still relatively large, in terms of casualties alone, the Ming army still exchanged one for a few. But at least it is already within the normal ratio, and there is no exaggerated ratio of 1:00 or 1:00 as in the early days of the war.

Even so, the Nanjing Command was still unwilling to stop for the time being, and still ordered the Right Army Group to continue to move north and attack Haizhou without stopping. It was only to let the right army group take advantage of the short gap between the offensive on the night of the 28th and the break in the offensive to quickly replace the most seriously damaged division for rest and recuperation, and draw elite replacements from the 30 divisions in reserve.

The Fifth Armored Division of the People's Guard Corps withdrew to the rear to rest and recuperate, and the Third Armored Division of the new force began to move eastward from the direction of Xuzhou. In this way, there are only the first and second armored divisions facing the direction of Xuzhou and Shangqiu.

From the 29th to the 30th, all roads in the land of Xuhuai in northern Jiangsu were crowded with tanks, armored vehicles, automobiles, and artillery. The Qing army on the other side also wanted to learn from the Ming army's hand: launch a strike when the opponent changed defenses. However, they did not dare to break away from the position and fortifications and took the initiative to throw themselves into the arms of the Ming army, so they sent a lot of scouts and artillery observers, riding horses and bicycles in the middle of the night, infiltrating the Ming army's defense area, observing the long headlights, and then reporting the coordinates back.

The artillery positions of the Qing army roared all night, and the shells covered the south headlessly. Unfortunately, the distance is too far, generally more than 15,000 meters, and more are 20,000 meters away. Although the Qing army had a lot of artillery, it was not motorized, and there were not as many heavy trucks as the Ming army. The artillery was mainly towed by military horses. This also means that in addition to shore defense guns and train guns, the number of large-caliber guns equipped with ordinary artillery is limited, and there are very few more than 150 mm.

Therefore, although the observers discharged by the Qing army were very bold and conscientious, the actual losses suffered by the Ming army due to the shelling were very, very limited and almost negligible.

Among the various armies that changed defenses, the 3rd Armored Division and several other motorized infantry divisions were the most mobile. They are the first to move from the rear to the designated position. At 5 a.m. on the 30th, these divisions were already in place in time as required. Several of the most damaged divisions have also been withdrawn. Although more reserve infantry divisions have not yet come up, the existing units are enough to form the next attack wave.

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Haizhou, at that time, was called "Lianyungang". Its area is roughly demarcated by three mountains, one large and one small. The largest mountain, the famous Huaguo Mountain, is completely on land. From here, 4-5 kilometers to the northeast, there is another mountain that is about the same size: Yuntai Mountain. Yuntai Mountain is half on land and half into the sea. Further east, passing through a strait about two kilometers wide, is the smallest mountain, Renjima.

The so-called "Lianyungang" in later generations is the collective name of Lian Island, Yuntai Mountain and the port area. The traditional port area is the one that stretches into the sea from Yuntai Mountain. It is almost a section of the strait between Yuntai Mountain and Liandao, and the port area stretches for about ten kilometers. On land, that is, at the end of Yuntai Mountain, is the main port area. At the other end of the strait, on the other side of the island, there are mainly fishing ports.

In later generations, because a 6.7-kilometer-long "West Embankment" was built at the northwest end of the strait, connecting the land with Liandao, that is, sealing one end of the strait, making the original strait a closed bay with calm waves, and Lianyungang became a big port and a good port.

But in this time and space, there is no such west embankment, and Haizhou is still just a small port. The Ming army chose to take this place, because the entire coastal area of Jiangsu is a gentle alluvial plain, and there is not even a small wharf, and Shandong, which is full of good ports, has not been taken. There are two mountains along the coast of Haizhou, the water is quite deep, and more importantly, it is close to the land army. Attacking Haizhou can achieve a flank attack on both land and sea. As for the small port in Haizhou, that is, make do with it, and wait for the later to hit Shandong, and some are good ports.

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The attack on Haizhou was the first amphibious campaign in the Ming and Qing wars.

This amphibious landing campaign was formulated by the General Staff of the Navy of the High Command. The soldiers who landed in the first wave were not the Army, but the Marines. Since the war of the Ming and Qing dynasties, there has been nothing to do with the navy, and there is no navy in the credit book. The navy was in a hurry, and now the army has finally gnawed a large piece in the southeast corner of the Central Plains Corps, and finally threatened Haizhou.

The Navy finally seized the opportunity and made a careful plan to fight a good fight. Once Haizhou is successfully taken and a sea transportation line is established, then the figure of the navy will be very important in future wars. In the future, as the war unfolds in Shandong, there will be a series of port battles. Rizhao, Langyatai, Longwan, Guzhenkou, Lingshan Bay, Lying Island Bay, Qingdao Port, Jiaozhou Bay, Nanyao Bay, Aoshan Bay, Hengmen Bay, Liujiagang, Sanggou Bay, Weihai Port, Yantai Port, Penglai Port......

It can be said that in the future, half of the military medals of the Northern Expedition will be half of the army and half of the navy.

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First of all, during the "pre-dawn darkness" period, that is, at 4:30, the mixed fleet of the Ming army sailed to the sea 10,000 meters northeast of Liandao according to the predetermined plan to carry out pre-dawn artillery bombardment.

The shelling before dawn was more favorable to the Ming fleet. Because of the darkness, there was little visibility, and both shore and naval guns had little chance of hitting each other by visual inspection. However, the position of the sea fleet is not fixed and is difficult to observe from the shore. However, the position of the shore battery was fixed for a long time, and it had been observed and calculated countless times by the destroyers and aircraft of the Ming army before the war, and its approximate coordinates had been mastered. Now, with the help of long-term observation of the coordinate data, it is possible to "blindly snipe" in the dark. Although the effect is still far less than that of the day, at least it is very advantageous and does not lose money.

The six destroyers left the main fleet and formed a detachment to make the final coordinate calculations close to the coast of Liandao, and by the way, to clear the Qing torpedo boats that might be loitering in the coastal waters.

At the same time, the entire fleet will also begin the "echelon configuration" before the shelling:

Destroyer detachment, 24 ships. Arranged within 2,000 meters of the coast, the task is to irradiate the Liandao Mountain, visually detect the precise position of the artillery and fortifications on the mountain, report to the entire fleet at any time, and alert the Qing torpedo boats in the harbor to hunt them at any time. In addition, shoot at direct aim to actually knock out the shore gun batteries and machine gun forts that you can see. It can be said that the tasks of the destroyer detachment are the most onerous and the most dangerous.

Light cruiser detachment, 8 units. Arranged at about 3500-4500 meters, the task is to carry out medium-range artillery bombardment, and the task is to bombard the batteries on the mountain more accurately according to the coordinates reported by the destroyer. At the same time, if the line of sight allows, shoot directly at the same point as a destroyer. If the Qing torpedo boats broke through the destroyer's defenses, they had to be flexible enough to dodge and kill them with rapid-fire guns so that they could not threaten heavy cruisers and battleships in the distance.

Heavy cruiser detachment, 6 units. Arranged at about 6000-7000 meters, medium and long-range artillery bombardment was carried out, and the task was also to bombard the batteries on the hill according to the coordinates reported by the destroyer. At this distance, indirect aiming and shooting is carried out completely according to the coordinate data.

Battleship detachment, 2 units. Arranged at about 8000-10000 meters, long-range shelling is carried out. For the shelling of battleships, it was not required to directly hit the targets on the mountain. The main thing was to use the huge guns of the battleships to cover the mountains with great power and destroy the Qing defenders of Germany.

Aircraft carrier detachment, 2 ships. Arranged at about 20,000 meters. There are a total of 160 carrier-based planes, all of which are fighters, and their mission is to form an "air supremacy circle" over Haizhou, so that land-based dive bombers taking off from Sihong Airport, 120 kilometers away, can attack the ground without any scruples. At the same time, these fighters had to dive close to the surface of the sea and strafeze possible Qing torpedo boats.

However, the aircraft carrier formation will not begin to function until after dawn.

This is just a pre-dawn shelling arrangement. After daybreak, there will be another round of official shelling. At that time, the visibility will be greatly improved, and whether it is the shells of the Ming army or the shells of the Qing army, they will be much more accurate. After daybreak, the actual damage on both sides will increase exponentially.

At this time, the weaker destroyers and light cruisers had to retreat, while the heavy cruisers and battleships had to bravely move forward, meet the Qing artillery shells with their heavy armor, and deal devastating blows to the Qing batteries on the island with their huge cannons. Then, the troop carriers began to dock and transport the marines to seize the island.

After taking Liandao, the Ming army had a springboard and a bridgehead off the coast of Haizhou, and it was possible to drive the fleet into the strait and further bombard Yuntai Mountain. After capturing Yuntai Mountain, the port can be considered in hand, and a large number of troops can be transported ashore.

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At 4:30 a.m. on the 30th, the first amphibious campaign in the Ming and Qing wars began.