After driving for so many days, there were a lot of cynicism and blank eyes before, and there were several air raids on the way from Lingzhi to here, and the mixed third brigade can be said to be holding back the fire in their stomachs, and now they have finally found someone to vent to.

With Heights Zero as the core, Task Force Wilson set up a ring-shaped defensive position that looked fairly solid, and planned to defend it on the spot until dawn.

However, the hastily laid out defensive line was incomplete and incomplete in many places, such as the failure to clear the horizon and firing range, the irrational planning of firepower, and the lack of time to lay mines and barbed wire.

In the night sky, the lighting tubes hanging under small parachutes emit a dazzling white light, illuminating the ground like a full moon night.

As far as the eye could see, there were dense figures moving throughout the field and in the distant woods, and the British and Indian soldiers leaning on foxholes and bunkers were stunned at this.

The Ming army, which launched an attack on Heights Zero in multiple echelons, was suddenly attacked by the British and Indian firepower points, and at least two dozen Vickers heavy machine guns and Lewis light machine guns were firing wildly!

"Da-da-" The shooter of the Anglo-Indian machine-gun team looked almost crazy, his index finger pulling the trigger and pouring bullets into the hazy night, as if he was afraid that if he released the trigger, he would be captured by the demon.

The minds of the other riflemen were almost blank, except for the mechanical repetition of the "pull-aim-pull-trigger" action with both hands, and the SMLE rifle, which was known for its fast rate of fire, never stopped.

Under the cover of the roar of mortars, the positions of the British and Indian troops were constantly covered by explosions, and more than 20 machine-gun firing points were also intermittent.

In the sharp whistle of "beep", the Ming soldiers who launched the attack were alternately covering the leap. When the environment is lit by flares, they fall to the ground in unison; When one of the flares was about to burn out, they got up and rushed forward.

As soon as it was bright and dark, the Chinese teleported a distance?

Such a scene seemed like a thriller to the British and Indian soldiers, as if as soon as they closed their eyes and opened their eyes, countless monsters moved a little closer in an instant.

And now the most tricky are the tanks, the A9 cruiser and the Carden-Lloyd ultralight tank parked on the front line of the ring position, which are equivalent to solid fire points for fearless mortars. The tankmen inside were also red-eyed, and the yellow bullet casings were piled up at their feet.

"Listen to it—" On both flanks of the Ming army's attack starting position, more than a dozen heavy machine guns were also firing constantly, and empty shells and bullet plates were also all over the ground.

In fact, when the heavy machine guns were to cover the onslaught of their own infantry, they were placed on both sides of the starting position - if the infantry attack area was an isosceles trapezoid, then the heavy machine guns would be placed at the lower corners.

At the same time, it is necessary to calculate the safe firing limit according to the shooting meter, and insert the firing limit position rod next to the barrel to prevent the left and right deflection from being too large and accidentally injuring friendly troops.

In film and television dramas, the scene of "infantry charging in front and machine gun strafing cover in the rear" will hardly appear. As for the mythical "transcendence shot", it is a special method of fire that is only used in rare cases, such as when the infantry assault route passes through a low-lying area.

[Schematic diagram of the attack covered by a heavy machine gun]

Occasionally, tracer bullets bounced off the tank's armor, and the flying tracer bullets cut through the dark curtain like knives.

The Anglo-Indian 4th Artillery Battalion was given the upper hand by the Ming army due to its slow movement, and the 80mm mortars fired non-stop at the artillery positions they were in, and the shells were fired one after another, so that they could not raise their heads when they were suppressed.

The 4.5-inch howitzer was suppressed by an 80mm mortar so that it could not move? This is really like a joke, and it will be an indelible shame for the Anglo-Indian Fourth Artillery Battalion.

The battalion of the Ming army was 80mm mortars to suppress the enemy's artillery positions, and the 64mm mortars were scattered to support their own troops, constantly attacking the enemy's exposed fire points.

And now, the precarious Anglo-Indian army seems to have to rely on those tanks, because the light and heavy machine guns in the civil bunkers are suppressed intermittently by the mortars of the Ming army.

However, this situation did not last long, and two platoons of the brigade's combat defense artillery were about to join the battle.

Four Type 35 tank defensive guns were dragged by the artillerymen to a position about 300 meters in front of the starting position of the attack, and then lined up at fifteen-meter intervals.

"Unfold the column!"

"Three gunners, tracer bullets!"

"Tracer bullets, reload!"

"Put!"

A platoon of No. 1 guns was ordered to direct the attack, so the artillerymen loaded armor-piercing tracer rounds to mark and indicate targets.

"Boom!" The muzzle of the gun flashed with dazzling fire, and a 25.6mm armor-piercing tracer shot out of the chamber, dragging a bright trail out, but brushed shoulders with enemy tanks firing in the distance.

At a distance of more than 700 meters from the enemy's position, it was not easy to get the first hit, not to mention that it was still dark.

The artillerymen quickly corrected the landing point of the tracer bullets, and in an instant, the four anti-aircraft guns opened fire at the same time.

A cruiser tank hit by two armor-piercing shells was still firing its machine gun frantically one second, and the next second it was instantly silent, and the tankmen, covered in blood, opened the hatch and crawled out.

The Type 35 anti-aircraft gun was designed and finalized by the Shenyang Arsenal, and was a greatly improved version of the Hatch Chase Mle-1934 25mm anti-tank gun, in addition to changing the caliber to eight points, that is, 25.6mm, many adjustments were also made in the structure, which reduced the weight of the original 455kg to 305kg, and several people could push it around.

Its appearance is very low, the upper edge of the gun shield is a wavy line, the muzzle is equipped with a flared flame suppressor, semi-automatic bolting, the theoretical rate of fire is as high as 20 rounds per minute, and the muzzle velocity is 900m/s; It can penetrate a vertically placed nickel-manganese steel plate with a thickness of 36mm at a distance of 500 meters, and can rise to 42mm if a tungsten core armor-piercing projectile is fired.

[French research has found that it is easier for the naked eye to spot horizontally and vertically and regularly shaped objects on the distant horizon, while destroying the silhouette through the shape of waves or broken lines can increase concealment.] 】

The reason why such a small-caliber thing was chosen instead of a better-looking 37mm anti-tank gun was because the Ministry of War thought it was unnecessary - it was a heavily armored combat vehicle that could not be penetrated, and it was enough to change to a 37mm gun, so why not choose a lighter and cheaper one?

At this moment, the British and Indian soldiers on the circular position saw the shells that were constantly breaking through the air, and the armor-piercing tracer bullets were like shining silk threads, but these silk threads could easily pierce through the thin-skinned cruisers and ultralight tanks.

The flames of the detonated tanks were faintly audible from the cracks, and the mournful wails could be faintly heard.

In this case, the 5th Royal Tank Battalion had almost no means of countermeasures, and was purely passively beaten. Originally, the tanks were scattered and deployed as firing points, and the communication between them was not smooth, so most of the tanks did not find out where the anti-tank fire of the Ming army came from until they were hit.

Besides, even if it is discovered, it is helpless to attack a low anti-tank gun seven hundred meters away in low visibility conditions with only the light of flares? With the pitiful range of a 2-pounder tank gun's high-explosive shell, it was no joke.