Chapter 733: Rescuing the Camphor Tree [1]
Not long after the two infantry brigades closest to the artillery positions of the Japanese army received the order to assemble and prepare for an attack, the explosion of shells was heard in the direction of the artillery positions, and just when they were in doubt, the order of the division commander to let them reinforce the artillery positions was conveyed. Although these two corps were the closest to the artillery position, and the distance in a straight line was only three kilometers, the distance in a straight line was actually separated from the artillery position by a hill more than 200 meters high.
Wanting to reinforce the artillery positions either climbed over this hill or bypassed it. The two captains looked at the hill, which was full of bushes and no roads at all, and gave up the idea of climbing over the hill after thinking about it. If you don't go over the mountain, you have to go around, this circle is more than ten kilometers, and they are all sheep intestine trails, not to mention that it is particularly difficult to walk fast.
On the side of the artillery position, the number of Japanese troops was quite large, but their weapons and equipment were extremely poor, and only one squadron that was responsible for the protection task was still well armed. However, this squadron was less than 300 men, and the mortar bombardment suffered a lot of casualties, so it did not do much. The reconnaissance regiment concentrated its mortar bombardment for ten minutes, and then launched a charge together with the anti-Japanese brigade.
The anti-Japanese brigade originally had more than 6,000 people, and in addition to the attack and harassment of the Japanese army, there were more than 5,000 people. Together with the nearly 3,000 men of the reconnaissance regiment, this is the 8,000-man force, and when these 8,000 men charged the artillery positions from three directions, they rushed forward like a tide, and the resistance of the Japanese troops was soon drowned in the tide.
More than 20 minutes passed, the anti-Japanese brigade and reconnaissance regiment successfully occupied the Japanese artillery position, the wing commander of the 52nd Mountain Artillery Wing, Taso Yoshinakasa, was killed, and nearly 3,000 Japanese troops were also completely annihilated. After occupying the artillery position, Xu Qun didn't even have time to clean up the battlefield, so he ordered the soldiers to repair the defensive position. Half of the anti-Japanese brigade was sent to assist the reconnaissance regiment in repairing its defensive positions, while the other half was busy cleaning up the battlefield and treating the wounded.
It took more than an hour for the two brigades to reinforce the artillery position to reach the periphery of the artillery position, but by this time even the daylily was cold. The reconnaissance regiment and some of the fighters of the anti-Japanese team were already in full swing on the positions that had been repaired. As soon as the two captains saw that the artillery position had fallen into the hands of the Chinese troops, they discussed and decided to launch an attack on the Chinese troops who had occupied the artillery positions in an effort to recapture the artillery positions.
But the two infantry brigades together were only about 3,000 people, and although there were only 1,000 defenders on the defensive position, it was because the position was too small, and there were 7,000 men and horses behind. Wang Weikuan and Xu Qunyi discussed and thought that they could not let the 3,000 Japanese troops go, so they decided to leave the two battalions of the reconnaissance regiment to defend their positions, and the rest of the troops went around behind the Japanese troops to encircle and annihilate the 3,000 Japanese troops.
The weapons and equipment of the two Japanese brigades were still good, and they also had more than 40 small cannons together, including 24 Type 92 infantry guns. In addition, there were more than thirty heavy machine guns, and even more light machine guns. As soon as the two infantry brigades set up their formations and prepared to launch an artillery attack on the Chinese positions, they did not expect the Chinese troops to open fire first.
The reconnaissance regiment itself had quite a few mortars, 18 of the 120 heavy mortars alone, and more than 70 light mortars. In addition to the 20 Japanese mountain guns that could still be used after capture, the intensity of this artillery fire was incomparable with the two Japanese brigades, so the Japanese army was simmered all of a sudden. When more than 40 small cannons returned fire, they were named one by one without much effort.
The ensuing infantry attack also broke the head in the face of the reconnaissance regiment's powerful automatic fire. Seeing that the situation was not good, the two major captains hurriedly reported to the division headquarters and prepared to retreat, but the anti-Japanese brigade had already circled behind them, and under the command of Wang Weikuan, the anti-Japanese brigade launched a charge against the Japanese army. The reconnaissance group also took advantage of the panic of the Japanese troops to rush out of their positions.
The Japanese troops of these two brigades were flanked by the front and rear, and they all collapsed after not resisting for long, and the soldiers scattered and fled. The reconnaissance regiment entrusted the matter of capturing the fleeing Japanese troops to the anti-Japanese brigade, and the fighters of the anti-Japanese brigade, who were accustomed to guerrilla warfare, were very handy in doing this kind of thing. Except for a few of the two brigades of Japanese troops who escaped, the rest were either annihilated or captured.
When the Japanese artillery position was in full swing, all the Japanese troops in ambush at Nantouling Mountain had already been killed. However, as soon as these Japanese troops rushed out of the mountains, they were discovered by the main force of the 462nd Brigade. The Japanese troops who rushed out were still five kilometers away from the two main regiments of the 462nd Brigade, and the soldiers who had detected the Japanese troops rushing out had already reported the coordinates of the Japanese troops' bearings.
The self-propelled howitzer and artillery regiment, which had been prepared, was given the azimuth coordinates, and the regiment commander Tang Weizhong gave an order, and 50 self-propelled howitzers and artillery guns spat out tongues of fire one after another. The flying shells caught the Japanese soldiers off guard, and the Japanese troops fell under artillery fire as soon as they left the mountains. Even though Lieutenant General Oshirodo Sanji was mentally prepared for the ferocity of the Chinese army's artillery fire, he was still startled by the sound of shell explosions.
The Japanese army ambushed in Nantouling Mountain had two wings, and after removing the two brigades that reinforced the artillery positions, there were still six infantry brigades with more than 7,000 men. Fifty self-propelled howitzers and artillery pieces alone could not stop the advance of the Japanese army, especially after the Japanese troops broke out of the mountain pass and quickly dispersed, the lethality of the howitzer and artillery regiments was very limited. Fortunately, the 878th Regiment and the 879th Regiment were prepared and rushed to repair a rudimentary fortification in a very short time.
The Japanese approached the positions of the 878th and 879th Regiments under artillery fire, and the 85th Infantry Wing, who was responsible for directing the attack, saw that the Chinese army was not far ahead, and although a rudimentary fortification had been built, the number was only a few thousand. So Neng Shirun Sanzuo felt that the opportunity had come, and after gathering the remaining troops, he grabbed the command knife and pointed at the Chinese army, shouting: "Kill it!" and let his men charge.
Originally, the self-propelled howitzer and artillery regiments had greatly reduced their lethality after the Japanese army dispersed, but the concentrated charge of the Japanese army gave them another opportunity. Tang Weizhong immediately asked the self-propelled grenade and artillery regiment to adjust the muzzle of the cannon and bombard the Japanese army, and the Japanese army, which had already adapted to the bombardment of the self-propelled grenade and artillery regiment, was still charging forward under artillery fire, and at this time, the rocket artillery battalion under the command of Li Changwu began to exert its might.
Li Changwu also seized the opportunity of the Japanese army's concentrated charge this time, and ordered the 18 rocket artillery guns of the rocket artillery battalion to open fire, and the 18 rocket artillery guns fired a salvo, and more than 300 bastards were fired out in more than ten seconds. More than 300* bombs exploded a large sea of fire in the ranks of the charging Japanese troops, and it was this salvo of rocket artillery that caused the Japanese army to completely collapse.
This kind of scene of a sea of fire, not to mention the Japanese army, even the officers and soldiers of the 462nd Brigade rarely saw it, and both sides were stunned. The morale of the Japanese soldiers who came to their senses was blown up, and they no longer charged, but turned around and ran backwards. Tang Yu, acting commander of the 462nd Brigade, saw that the opportunity had come, and immediately ordered the 878th Regiment and the 879th Regiment to attack at the same time, and the 2nd and 3rd Mixed Armored Battalions and the two regiments charged together.
The 878th Regiment and the 879th Regiment guarding the fortifications had not even fired a few shots before the Japanese army began to rout, and the officers and men of these two regiments were so angry that after receiving the order to attack, they jumped out of the fortifications shouting slogans, and then rushed towards the defeated Japanese army like a tiger descending from a mountain. The two mixed armored battalions guarding both flanks of the fortifications at the same time rushed forward at full speed amid the roar of engines.
Unwilling to accept defeat, he immediately let his escort squadron serve as a supervising team, set up a machine gun and fired it into the sky to warn the soldiers who had retreated. The dense gunfire startled the retreating soldiers and made them restrain their fledging footsteps. After sobering up and scolding the officers, the Japanese soldiers finally turned their heads again and prepared to continue the attack.
However, the Chinese troops, who had already rushed up, would not give the Japanese a chance to attack again, and the two mixed armored battalions that rushed forward at the front opened fire on the stopped Japanese troops with vehicle-mounted artillery and vehicle-mounted heavy machine guns. Faced with dozens of tanks and armored vehicles, the Japanese suffered another blow, and when they were left with no anti-tank weapons and the Chinese tanks were about to break through their ranks, the Japanese army, having lost confidence, was once again defeated.
This time, the overseer team also lost its usefulness, and the captain of the guard saw that the general trend had gone, and despite the opposition of Neng Runsan, he asked his soldiers to set up Neng Runzo and flee to the rear. The two mixed armored battalions and the 878th and 879th regiments pursued them all the way for several kilometers, until the Japanese army fled back to Nantouling, then stopped the pursuit and began to clean up the battlefield.
The Japanese troops in ambush at Nantouling Mountain were frustrated and defeated, and the 84th Wing of the Japanese Army ambushed at Matoushan Mountain did not fall well. The 84th Wing, under the command of Wing Commander Tokinosuke Osa Fukano, had just rushed out of Ma's Brain Mountain when it encountered the Chinese troops who had been prepared for a long time. Although the number of the Third Guard Regiment is less than 3,000 people, it can be said that Wang Haitao's personal guard unit has no weapons and equipment and combat effectiveness, plus a light armored regiment, it is even more powerful.
The 84th Wing had just spotted the Chinese troops who were waiting for them, and before they could launch an attack on the Chinese army, the artillery fire of the 130 Heavy Cannon Regiment arrived. The 130 heavy cannon is not comparable to the 105 self-propelled grenade and projectile, and the anti-personnel explosive grenade and bullet he fired are weapons from decades later, and its 50X.30 square meter killing area is enough to make the Japanese army fearful.
Fifty 130-heavy cannons were demoralized in just a few salvos, because there was no formation to dodge the bombardment of shells. Faced with this situation, Wang Haitao decisively issued the order to attack, the light armored regiment took the lead in the charge, the third guard regiment followed, and a standard infantry tank coordinated attack mode was fully launched.
Even without the bombardment of the 130th Heavy Cannon Regiment, an 84th Infantry Wing would not have been able to stop such an infantry-coordinated attack, let alone an infantry wing that had been scattered by the bombardment. The Light Armored Regiment and the 3rd Guards Regiment pursued the fleeing 84th Infantry Wing with little resistance. Seeing that the Japanese army was already fleeing, Tang Longzai, who was a little nervous, breathed a sigh of relief.