Chapter 823: The Purgatory of the T-28 Tank (1)

As the fighting in the Soviet Far East intensified, the commander of the Kwantung Army, General Kenyoshi Ueda, commanded the troops of the First, Third and Fourth Armies, totaling more than 400,000 troops, to storm the 270,000 troops of the Second Army of the Soviet Far Eastern Military District under the command of General Timoshenko.

After a few days of fighting, the casualties of the Kwantung Army were close to more than 100,000, and the casualties of the Soviet Army were slightly less, reaching nearly 100,000.

On the night of the end of the air battle, Timoshenko sent a telegram to the General Staff in the headquarters to report on the fighting situation in the past few days, "The General Staff and Comrade Stalin have not caused many losses to the Kwantung Army in five days of fighting, and the cumulative casualties of our troops have reached more than 100,000 so far, and the bullet can still support about a week." ”

"The main purpose of the Kwantung Army at present is to gather and annihilate our group army in the Arsenyev region, defeat our military forces in the Far East in one fell swoop, and then occupy the entire Far East.

"Now, the best outcome is that the troops of the Second Army can have a section to break out of the encirclement, and I plan to carry out a resolute breakthrough after the Transcaucasian Front arrives in Khabarovsk, and at that time, the breakthrough troops of our group army will break through in the direction of Khabarovsk, and I hope that the General Staff will coordinate and receive the troops."

The Transcaucasian Front came to reinforce, which gave Timoshenko great comfort and confidence, and until now, the casualties of his troops have reached more than 100,000, and the number of troops that can be put into battle is only 150,000 or 60,000, and it can hold out for a few days, and the casualties of the Kwantung Army should be greater, and it depends on the speed of action of the Transcaucasian Front, and if necessary, it is necessary to use the tank troops that have been hidden to break through the encirclement of the Kwantung Army, Timoshenko secretly thought.

Tang Qiuli, who was in Beiping, constantly received information from Tang Qiuquan in Haishanwei, and clearly grasped the entire situation of the war in the Far East, and at the same time, he also learned about the specific difficulties of Qiuquan at present, and the captured sailors of the Soviet Pacific Fleet, which were guarded by the Japanese marines, were still unable to penetrate the water, and Qiuquan exhausted all kinds of methods, that is, he was unable to send the officers of the ancient border guards of the rebel regiment to the prisoner of war camp.

Tang Qiuli's instructions to Qiu Quan were to "wait patiently and look for the right time," the fighting between the Japanese and the Soviets in the Far East will not end soon, and the Japanese have not yet achieved their goal, and they will never stop, especially when they have the upper hand, they have a red eye with the Soviets and are temporarily free to deal with the prisoner of war issue.

This is a major event involving tens of thousands of people and more than 100 warships, a little carelessness, or a violent attack on Brother Qiuquan's whereabouts, the Japanese are aware of it, and the warship is transferred, Tang Qiuli is not distressed to death, so although he is anxious, he can't urge Brother Qiuquan to take action, especially when it comes to the issue of the warship Nòng to Qingdao.

In the Far East at the end of September, when a thin frost could already be seen in the morning and the sea breeze blowing from the Sea of Japan carried a chill, it was an ordinary morning, but it came into people's attention because of a tragic tank duel.

Before the sun rose, the mist-shrouded swampy area, emitting water vapor, dotted with puddles of water, dotted in the Arsenyev area, an earth-shattering loud noise, the Kwantung Army concentrated all its artillery units, and carried out a fierce artillery bombardment of the Soviet defensive positions, from the front line to the depth of the defense, batches of shells, constantly whistling and falling.

The commander of the Kwantung Army knew that time was important to him, and if he did not annihilate Timoshenko's troops before the arrival of the Soviet Transcaucasian Front, the battle would have been a long one, and just yesterday, he had already divided three divisions and regiments of about 80,000 troops and sent to the area of Boli to prepare to block the Soviet troops who came to help.

The Second Army was not yet free, and the Soviet troops in Kamchatka fought fiercely, and although they had the upper hand, it would take some time to resolve the battle.

Kenkichi Ueda set the time for breaking through the Soviet positions today, and he gave death orders to all troops, not to capture the positions of the Soviet troops today, and the commanders at all levels of the main attacking troops to commit suicide by disembowelment to apologize, however, Ueda Kenkichi did not let the soldiers use their bodies to meet the bullets of the Soviets.

Concentrated all the artillery fire, fiercely bombarded the Soviet positions, before the infantry charged, opened a passage, the Soviet artillery in the encirclement was not to be outdone, opened artillery and returned fire, on this day, the two sides first fought an artillery battle, the artillery battle fought from dawn to noon, and the artillery losses on both sides were strict.

At this time, the fatal disadvantage of the Soviet army came out, there was no supply in the encirclement, the consumption of shells was too large, and it gradually became a state of exhaustion, and the artillery battle was fought with the caliber of artillery, the number of shells, and the courage of the soldiers.

For the artillery of the Kwantung Army, it was no less than a shot of strength, yīn cold weather, the Japanese gunners were shirtless and loaded with shells, and the more they fought, the more crazy they became, and the Japanese shouts came and went, forming a frenzied làngcháo.

In the afternoon, the artillery fire of the Soviet army had been completely suppressed by the artillery of the Kwantung Army, and the Soviet defensive position east of Arsenyev was finally blasted open a hole several kilometers wide, and almost all the troops of a division of the Soviet army defending this section were killed under the artillery fire of the Kwantung Army.

Ueda Kenkichi was overjoyed and immediately ordered his troops to carry out a general attack, and a large number of Kwantung Army soldiers rushed in along the breach, and Timoshenko, seeing that the front line was in danger, immediately blocked an infantry division that was left as a reserve to the breach.

A tragic fight, the soldiers on both sides were close to each other, shouting and killing, if it was a bayonet, the Soviet soldiers were really not the opponents of the Kwantung Army soldiers, although the Soviet troops resisted hard, they still kept screaming and fell under the bayonets of the Kwantung Army soldiers.

In the crowd of the Hún battle, the Soviet soldiers were getting fewer and fewer, but there were more and more Kwantung Army soldiers pouring into the breakthrough, relying only on the infantry, it was no longer possible to repel the attack of the Kwantung Army, nor could it block the breakthrough.

In desperation, Timoshenko had no choice but to dispatch the fist troops he had been preserving his strength, four tank brigades of about 1,200 tanks, which were the assault force he used when he stayed in the breakout.

More than 1,000 Soviet tanks roared out, rushing towards the Japanese infantry like a sea of mountains, and so many Soviet tanks suddenly appeared, and the impact on the soldiers of the Kwantung Army was amazing.

The large-caliber machine gun bullets hit the soldiers of the Kwantung Army, constantly blooming with blood, and the body was a big hole at that time, hitting the arm and tuǐ, and the whole arm was cut off at that time.

With such a dense crowd, a machine gun bullet can penetrate two people, the Soviet tanks just counterattacked, and nearly 10,000 Kwantung Army soldiers fell under the fire of the tanks, and the remaining Kwantung Army soldiers retreated in a panic, and the Soviet tanks chased after the Kwantung Army soldiers' butts, and the intention of the commander of the armored cluster was nothing more than to take advantage of this opportunity to recover all the lost positions.

This time, the fist troops used by Timoshenko were four tank brigades equipped with T-28 tanks, which were the main battle tanks equipped by the Soviet army at that time, the prototype was completed in 1931, and it was officially produced the following year, equipping the front-line troops of the Soviet army.

The T-28 tank, as the main battle tank of the Soviet army in the early days of World War II, has very good xìng ability, weighs 28 tons, has a speed of 37 kilometers per hour, can march 220 kilometers on continuous tracks, has an armor thickness of 20 to 80 millimeters, and is even more ferocious in weapons, equipped with a cannon of 76.2 millimeters, a 7.62 millimeter machine gun and three tǐng, and a crew of six people.

Kenkichi Ueda, who was in the forward command, saw that the success was lost, the troops were counterattacked by the Soviet tanks, and there were heavy casualties, so angry that he split the combat map in front of him in half with a single sword, and now the only ones who can deal with the tanks are tanks, the planes can't be counted on, the infantry is still entangled with the tanks of the Soviets, and the artillery does not work, so he viciously ordered the commander of the tanks: "I order, all the tanks will attack immediately, and the tanks of the Soviets will be destroyed and attacked."

The commander of the Kwantung Army's tank hesitated, he didn't want to use tanks to cover the infantry attack, nor did he want to beat the Soviets' tanks into smoke, but the quality of his own things, he knew in his heart that the main battle tank equipped by the Kwantung Army was a Type 95 light tank (that is, the Izu tank that was contemptuously called "a thin-skinned iron coffin" by the Allied soldiers), with a weight of 15 tons, a small body and a light body, fast running, and commendable maneuverability.

But this guy's armor really doesn't dare to compliment, let alone an anti-tank gun, even the heavy machine gun that the Soviet army is now equipped with, can also punch a number of big holes in the armor of the Type 95 light tank, not to mention the Soviet T-28 tank with an armor thickness of 80 millimeters, it can only be a live target.

This is also the only reason why the Kwantung Army has not used large-scale armored clusters to carry out assaults on Soviet positions, on the Chinese battlefield, against a squadron with only a very small number of tanks, that is an absolute show of strength, in the squadron at that time, artillery is a rare thing, even heavy machine guns are rare, not to mention anti-tank guns or artillery, even the Central Army is like this, those local miscellaneous troops, the family is even less pitiful.

The backwardness and scarcity of the squadron's weapons and equipment have made the Japanese Izu series of combat vehicles famous on the Chinese battlefield, and the Chinese soldiers can only exchange their lives for blowing up a Japanese tank.