At 2 o'clock in the afternoon of April 23, the three main regiments of the 200th Division came out together, nearly 200 artillery pieces opened fire first, and then nearly 100 American-made M4 and M3 tanks, more than 200 British-made Daim dingo armored vehicles, and more than 7,000 soldiers launched a general attack on the remnants of the Japanese 55th Division!

When the battle reached four o'clock, the 55th Division could not support it, and the division commander, Lieutenant General Takeuchi Kan, ordered all wings to burn the military flags, and each unit broke through on its own...... He's ready to commit suicide by caesarean section!

At this moment, the 56th Division, which had been reinforced by the rapid march, finally arrived!

Sensing the arrival of Japanese reinforcements, the attacking units of the 200th Division immediately retreated in an orderly manner and retreated to the positions of the Tonggu outer defensive line - thanks to the walkie-talkie provided by the theater commander, General Pan Sen, the orders of the division headquarters could be quickly transmitted to the company level, so that the command system was fast and efficient.

The 56th Division of the Japanese Army was the first to arrive at the 146th Wing, which advanced lightly, and after "successfully" saving the remnants of the 55th Division on the verge of collapse, they should have immediately retreated and joined the main force of the division, but because most of the surviving Japanese troops of the 55th Division were wounded, the 146th Wing could only rearrange the defense on the original position of the 55th Division and call on the main force of the division to come to the meeting as soon as possible.

——

In the front-line command headquarters in the same ancient city, Lieutenant General Du Yuming, who was appointed by Li Junhao as the commander-in-chief of the campaign, clapped his hands happily and said to Major General Dai Anlan, the commander of the 200th Division next to him: "Yangong (Dai Anlan's character), the matter is done!" You control your troops, don't fight too hard, and wait until the 56th Division is all in place before you act. ”

"Understood, I'll go and emphasize it to the troops." Dai Anlan agreed, and walked to the side to make a call.

Du Yuming asked the telegraph operator to send a report to the theater headquarters in Mula: "The 146th Wing, the vanguard of the enemy's 56th Division, has arrived in Tonggu and joined the remnants of the 55th Division. The plan went well. Du, Dai. ”

——

At 5:40 p.m., at the theater headquarters in Mula, Lieutenant General Luo Zhuoying, the chief of staff on duty, slapped his face excitedly after receiving the telegram, and asked the staff officer next to him: "Where is Commander Pan Sen?" ”

The staff officer replied: "General Luo, the commander has been in the barracks for the past few days, guiding the training of those British troops. ”

Luo Zhuoying nodded and said, "You go and send this telegram to Chief Pan Sen...... Oh, forget it, I'll go myself! At this time, he thought of something, and decided to ask General Panson for his own opinion.

——

There was originally a British and Burmese military station in the north of Mula City, which was enough for a division of troops to be stationed, but at this time it was requisitioned by Li Junhao to place two British brigades and the newly formed 109th Gurkha Brigade for training.

According to his plan, he planned to combine these three units into a light armored division with rapid response, with local fortifications and personnel casualties as the main combat objectives. To this end, he specially transferred the other four Gurkha mercenary battalions in the Anglo-Burmese army sequence and combined them with the previous two battalions to form the 109th Light Infantry Brigade.

For Gurkha mercenaries, although they can obey the orders of their commanders and know how to fight in teams, they can travel by car, and it is too difficult for them to operate tanks and armored vehicles, at least not enough time.

The 7th Armored Brigade of the two British brigades is basically completely formed, and the officers and men are very familiar with the operation of armored forces, but I don't know if there is a problem with the previous army building thinking, and this unit lacks the infantry force to cover.

The 63rd Brigade of the Anglo-Australian Army is a unit organized by Australian soldiers, which is also all white soldiers, similar to the pure British army, if there is any difference, it should be more capable of fighting and tougher!

However, the 63rd Brigade was basically a purely infantry brigade, with only two armored command vehicles in the command, in addition to transport vehicles and artillery vehicles, and neither other armored forces nor combat experience of armored units.

Li Junhao wanted to break up and reorganize these two British brigades, and for this reason he had already greeted the British General Staff through the Allied Far East General Headquarters, and obtained the right to reorganize and absolute command of the two brigades.

The two newly formed tank brigades abandoned the previous British equipment and switched to American-made armored vehicles.

Each brigade has six battalions, one of which is a brigade headquarters battalion, a 353mm self-propelled artillery battalion modified from a GMC-105 universal truck chassis, a medium tank battalion with 36 M4 "Shermans", two light tank battalions with 40 M3 "Stuart" each, and a reconnaissance battalion with 48 M3 wheeled armored vehicles; The infantry of each battalion was transported on M3 half-track personnel carriers on the march, and GMC-355 armored trucks were used for the transportation of supplies.

Two tank brigades of 5,000 men each, the regimental level was abolished, and all armored vehicles were equipped with voice radios......

Li Junhao consciously taught them some of the tactics of the armored forces of later generations, believing that with such equipment configuration and technical tactics, it would not be a problem to push the Japanese army with weak armored strength.

After this adjustment, the two tank brigades, which were renamed Allied 105 and 106, began to re-run-in, and the two brigade commanders, Brigadier General Lores and Brigadier General Montero, have been developed into his own people, and under their command, the training of the two brigades is very smooth, and they are rapidly forming combat effectiveness.

For the Gurkha Brigade, which now has six battalions, the value of the weapons and equipment invested is not high, mainly all kinds of light weapons, and the heavy equipment is only various modifications of the Dodge T214 medium jeep, Dodge WC54 military trucks with armored compartments.

It is simple to equip the 109th Brigade with these equipment, but Li Junhao has spent no less effort in other aspects than the two tank brigades.

The Gurkha people are brave and loyal to their employers, but they also have obvious shortcomings, they are not well educated, they are not willing to accept anything too new except for weapons, and it is difficult to train them to drive vehicles.

There is a simple example to prove that Li Junhao equipped the Gurkha with M1 Garand rifles, M1 carbines, and Browning M1918 automatic rifles, but the weapons they personally value the most are their own scimitars!

After discovering this, Li Junhao used the system mall to buy 5,500 ultra-high-strength Gurkha scimitars and gave them to them, and the loyalty he gained definitely exceeded the $30 salary!

Different from the management method of the British army, from the earliest time he began to receive the first Gurkha battalion, Li Junhao let them elect leaders at all levels, and now even the brigade commander has been replaced by a Gurkha named Kuka, and the actual effect is very good. Of course, some of the most capable and influential of them were subdued by him.

Thanks to various measures, the loyalty of the two tank brigades and the Gurkha brigade to him was fully guaranteed, and the results of the training were increasingly apparent. He believes that when the training is over, it will be a strong army!

(End of chapter)