Chapter 685: The Battle of Yongzhou [8]
As soon as it was dawn the next morning, the troops of the 462nd Brigade and the 463rd Brigade were all gathered together, and today's offensive was different from the previous days, the Japanese troops were no longer scattered in various places, but concentrated in two strong strongholds, so the 462nd Brigade and the 463rd Brigade also concentrated their forces and prepared to fight a tough battle. Before the attack, Tang Longzai also repeatedly told the two brigade commanders to give full play to their superiority in firepower and not to lose too much in the attack.
The three battalions of the division's self-propelled howitzer and artillery regiments were also separated, with the first battalion supporting the 462nd Brigade, the second battalion supporting the 463rd Brigade, and the third battalion serving as a reserve. Each brigade also had a mixed armoured battalion to participate in the attack, although the mixed armoured battalion had fewer heavy tanks and more light armoured vehicles.
The 463rd Brigade faced the Japanese army guarding the Yongzhou Railway Station, which was originally surrounded by a wall, and now the Japanese army relied on the wall to build a ring fortification. After reconnoitering the situation at the Yongzhou Railway Station, Wei Erxi dispersed his troops, among which the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 880th Regiment launched an attack on the platform along the railroad tracks, and two heavy armored vehicles and four light armored vehicles were allocated to assist in the attack, and Wei Lixuan, commander of the 880th Regiment, personally served as the commander of the battlefield.
The 1st Battalion of the 881st Regiment and the 3rd Battalion of the 880th Regiment launched the attack from the south, and two light tanks, four heavy armored vehicles, and eight light armored vehicles were assigned to attack in coordination, with Chu Zhengyang, commander of the 881st Regiment, in charge of commanding the battle. The 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 881st Regiment were responsible for launching the attack from the southwest, and were allocated two light tanks, two heavy armored vehicles, and six light armored vehicles, with Lu Zhenghong, commander of the 2nd Battalion, in charge of commanding the battle.
The only battalion of the 882nd Regiment plus the regimental guard company had to be inserted from the junction between the division headquarters and the railway station, cutting off the connection between the division headquarters and the railway station. Because of the lack of troops, Wei Erxi handed over the remaining combat vehicles of the mixed armored battalion to Su Huiping, the commander of the 882nd Regiment, to command. A total of four light tanks, four heavy armored vehicles and eight light armored vehicles.
After the division of troops, only one brigade directly under Wei Erxi's side was left available, but now the Japanese army outside the stronghold has been basically cleared, and Wei Erxi is not worried about accidents. Among the three troops attacking the railway station, the troops commanded by Chu Zhengyang were the main direction of attack, because once they broke through the wall, they would face the Japanese troops in the waiting room, which was the headquarters of the Japanese troops stationed there, that is, the strongest defensive strength of the Japanese army.
Before the attack, there was another artillery bombardment as usual, and the second battalion had only 16 self-propelled howitzers and shells, and the power was a little worse, but there was no problem in dealing with a wall, and soon the wall was blown up and collapsed in many places. Although the wall has fallen, the trouble is the bunkers behind the wall, as well as sandbag bunkers. And the Japanese army was also desperate, and the soldiers, under the command of the officer, lay on the root of the collapsed wall and shot out with all their might.
Faced with this situation, Chu Zhengyang was also prepared, and more than 20 heavy mortars gathered bombarded the Japanese position. When the Japanese position was still shrouded in gunpowder smoke and dust, two light tanks, two heavy armored vehicles, and four light tanks took the lead in rushing forward, followed closely by the officers and men of the first battalion behind the battle-vehicle.
The heavy machine guns in the Japanese bunkers were helpless against light tanks, but the 85mm caliber vehicle-mounted guns on light tanks could destroy a bunker with a direct hit after using piercing and armor shells. In addition, among the fighters who followed the chariot operation, there were also four bazooka teams, and they dealt with bunkers, which were also a bunker with piercing and armor shells.
More than a dozen bunkers and sandbag fortifications behind the wall were destroyed without causing much damage to the attacking troops, and the Japanese soldiers at the base of the wall were also suppressed on the ground by various machine-gun fire, and as long as their bodies were raised a little, they would fall down screaming from machine gun bullets. It didn't take much for Chu Zhengyang's troops to break through the outer positions of the Japanese army at the wall, and drove the defeated Japanese soldiers to the direction of the waiting room to continue to attack and advance.
There is a distance of several hundred meters between the waiting room and the fence, and in addition to a small square, there are more than a dozen individual rooms, except for a main road with some trees. The Japanese also had a small number of troops in these separate rooms, and if they wanted to attack the waiting room, they had to clear the perimeter first. Chu Zhengyang didn't have so much patience and Japanese military consumption, so he directly ordered to destroy all these rooms with artillery fire.
Several wooden houses immediately collapsed into ruins under the fire of light tanks, and the Japanese soldiers inside were also killed and wounded. But there are still a few brick houses, although the artillery on the tank can penetrate the wall, but it can't collapse them, and in the end, Chu Zhengyang still sent a combat team to attack, which completely wiped out the Japanese soldiers in these brick houses.
After clearing the perimeter, it was about to face the waiting room directly, and when the chariot just rushed to the square in front of the waiting room, the sound of artillery suddenly came from the waiting room. Caught off guard, the tracks of a heavy armored vehicle were blown up, and two light armored vehicles were directly pierced and burned, and one of them was killed. This made Chu Zhengyang, who was taken aback, angry.
It turned out that a 37 mm rapid-fire gun squad of the Japanese army was hidden in the waiting room, which was the killer weapon of the Japanese army, which had not been willing to use it before, and now it was given to the attacking troops by surprise, and it really destroyed several combat vehicles in the square. This success also made the Japanese soldiers in the waiting room thunderous with joy, and their morale rose a lot.
And Chu Zhengyang was very unhappy, after the attack in the past few days, he had not suffered such a big loss at one time, Chu Zhengyang was angry, first let the chariot withdraw, and then asked Wei Erxi to mobilize the self-propelled howitzer and artillery battalion to shell it. Wei Erxi also immediately ordered the artillery battalion to support Chu Zhengyang's attack. More than a dozen self-propelled howitzers and shells opened fire at the same time, and the waiting room where the shells exploded was filled with gunsmoke.
For the reinforced concrete structure of the waiting room, the 105-caliber guns of the self-propelled howitzer and artillery battalion were a little less powerful, and many holes were blown out of the walls, and the casualties of the Japanese troops in the waiting room were not large, and the rapid-fire guns were not knocked out. In this case, there will definitely be a lot of casualties if the troops attack strongly. Chu Zhengyang forcibly suppressed the anger in his heart, forced himself to calm down, and just let the shelling continue, and the two sides were at a stalemate.
Chu Zhengyang's attack here was blocked, while Wei Lixuan's attack was very smooth. He led two battalions to attack in the direction of the railway tracks. There was no wall in this direction, and the Japanese only piled sandbags on the railroad tracks and made a fortification. This rudimentary fortification was an ornament in front of the charging armored vehicles, and two heavy armored vehicles and four light armored vehicles broke the Japanese defense line in one fell swoop.
Next, Wei Lixuan and the others did not encounter a decent resistance, and as for the more than ten machine gun fire points hidden in the train car, they did not use mortars, and only relied on the artillery and heavy machine guns on the armored vehicles to directly destroy them. It was only before two squadrons of Japanese troops set up defensive positions on the platform, and some fortifications appeared. These fortifications were made of sandbags, and there were no strong fortifications such as bunkers.
It's just that the platform is connected to the waiting room, and the windows of many waiting rooms have been changed into machine-gun fire points, and the Japanese army is also full of fire at this time, blocking the attack of the Chinese army with dense bullets. Wei Lixuan saw that the Japanese firepower was very fierce, and in order to avoid excessive casualties during the attack, Wei Lixuan also temporarily stopped the attack.
An hour later, the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 881st Regiment also solved the Japanese troops at the ticket office and came to the southwest of the waiting room. At this time, the Japanese troops in the compartment were surrounded by the 463rd Brigade from three directions. Wei Erxi also arrived at Chu Zhengyang, ready to personally command this final blow. After more than half an hour of artillery bombardment, the waiting room was already full of holes, and the Japanese soldiers inside were afraid of being sniped by sharpshooters, so they all looked for cover and hid except for the Japanese soldiers at the firing point who were still insisting on shooting.
Wei Erxi also understood that it was not easy to destroy this waiting room, and he didn't have so many shells to consume, so this final attack had to rely on the attack of the troops. After thinking for a while, Wei Erxi chose the south as the breakthrough, and he mobilized four light tanks in the south at once, but the armored vehicles were useless. Because only the frontal armor of a light tank could block the bombardment of Japanese rapid-fire guns.
After deciding, Wei Erxi asked Chu Zhengyang to start attacking, and the other two directions also launched a feint attack at the same time. Four tanks rumbled into the small square, and sure enough, the Japanese rapid-fire guns opened fire again, but the shells were blocked by the tank's frontal armor, and there were no losses to the tanks except for the tank. And the four tanks were not idle, and the vehicle-mounted artillery used piercing and armor shells to directly return fire at the Japanese rapid-fire guns.
The four tanks lined up, blocking most of the incoming bullets, and the infantry following behind the tank body did not suffer much loss, and Chu Zhengyang let the heavy machine guns strengthen the fire cover, and the sharpshooters were also scattered and played freely, and the target was also the Japanese machine gun fire point. In the confrontation with the Japanese rapid-fire guns, it was obvious that the tanks had the upper hand, and soon several Japanese rapid-fire guns were completely destroyed by the tank's artillery.
After the tank blasted open the sealed door of the waiting room with artillery, the infantry behind the tank shouted and killed the waiting room. As soon as Chu Zhengyang saw the troops rushing into the waiting room, he immediately sent all the troops in his hands out.
Chu Zhengyang took the lead in breaking into the waiting room, Wei Lixuan also annihilated most of the Japanese troops on the platform, and the other half of the Japanese troops also asked the division headquarters to retreat. Wei Lixuan knew that Su Guoping and his troops were intercepting between the division headquarters and the railway station, so he did not chase after the retreating Japanese army, but commanded the troops to fight from the platform into the waiting room.
The Japanese army in the waiting room was already in a dying struggle, and suddenly a Chinese army came in behind him, and the commander of the Japanese army, Otsubo, was in deep despair. But for the sake of the dignity and honor of Wutu, he still ordered to fight to the death. It wasn't until the gunfire and fighting outside his office grew quieter, and finally his office door was kicked open, that he knew that he had completely failed and that his wing was completely destroyed.