Rise From Eight Hundred Chapter 1514

Chapter 1514 Let's fight again!

"On July 3, the Chinese attacked the field hospital of the 116th Division of our 11th Army. Although our army suffered heavy losses, it can also be seen that the Chinese were at the end of their rope and had to risk their lives to sneak out of the defense line and use suicide attacks against us. The army fought back.

Now, the 3rd Division and the 27th Division have arrived, and the total strength of our army encircling Hengyang reaches 100,000. Hengyang is a small place, and our army can easily break it! " Yokoyama Isamu said this in a message sent to the four lieutenant general division commanders on the Hengyang front line.

For Yokoyama Isamu to be able to send such a confident message after repeated setbacks, it is natural that he has sufficient strength.

At this time, the 3rd Division was deployed in the east and north of Hengyang City. The 27th Division gathered to replenish troops with up to 10,000 soldiers. The 116th Division, which had returned to 20,000 troops, mainly attacked the south of Hengyang City. The 68th Division in the west of the city also added more than 7,000 troops. Welcomed his new division commander Lieutenant General Tsutsumi Mikio.

There are also two independent mixed brigades as reserves and as Hengyang's peripheral defense, stationed 15 kilometers away from Hengyang.

In addition, the Japanese army's use of two divisions to pave roads has finally yielded results. Not only have a large amount of supplies been transported to Hengyang through the roads that have been built, but a heavy artillery brigade equipped with 32 150-meter heavy artillery has also arrived in the south of the city, and a The Chinese Dispatch Army Headquarters specially mobilized the 3rd Tank Division for support.

The sharpest sword that Hengshan Yong thought he had prepared for the Hengyang defenders was in place.

The difference between the 3rd Tank Division and the 3rd Division is that there is an extra word "Chariot" in front of it, but the two are completely different.

The world war has entered its third year. Mechanized troops are no longer a new term to the Western world, but this new thing is extremely rare in the East, whether in China or Japan.

The 3rd Tank Division is one of Japan's very few mechanized units on the Chinese battlefield.

The division is organized into the 5th and 6th tank brigades, each of which has 2 tank regiments.

Take the 13th tank regiment that came to Hengyang this time as an example. The tank regiment has 1 light tank squadron, equipped with Type 95 light tanks; 3 tank squadrons, equipped with Type 97 modified medium tanks; 1 A squadron of artillery tanks.

Chariot Regiment 13 has a total of 14 combat light tanks, 57 medium tanks, 27 vehicles, and 1,071 regiment personnel.

The Type 95 light tank is easy to understand. It is an upgraded version of the Type 94 commonly known as Xiaodouding. It just has an extra 37mm rapid-fire cannon. The armor protection is still the same. The armor thickness is 6~~12mm. When it comes to big things like anti-tank guns, even the 12.7mm heavy machine gun equipped by the Four Lines Regiment can tear through its armor at a direct range of 300 meters.

The Type 97 medium tank is quite rare. According to the Japanese self-test, the protective armor of the Type 97 medium tank can withstand direct fire from the Type 94 rapid-fire gun at a distance of 150 meters, but it cannot withstand the Germanic weapons used by the Chinese at the same distance. 37mm anti-tank gun. However, its attack capabilities are not weak. It has a 47mm rapid-fire cannon that can penetrate 45mm thick steel armor at a shooting distance of 400 meters.

These two tanks are not comparable to the ultrlight tanks currently equipped by the Four Troops!

In addition to the 13th Tank Regiment, the 3rd Tank Division also sent combat units such as the 3rd Motorized Infantry Regiment, the 3rd Motorized Artillery Regiment, and the Division Search Team to Hengyang.

The 3rd Motorized Infantry Regiment is one of the few mechanized units of the Japanese army that has both combat vehicles and infantry transportation vehicles. In addition to a light armored vehicle squadron at its headquarters, the Regiment has three infantry brigades, a wing artillery squadron, and maintenance units. The squadron has a total of 25 combat vehicles, 15 armored personnel carriers, about 90 vehicles, and a total of 4,000 combat personnel.

The 3rd Mobile Artillery Regiment has 3 artillery brigades. The 1st Brigade is equipped with 12 Type 90 field guns towed by vehicles, and the 2nd and 3rd Brigades are equipped with 12 Type 91 105mm howitzers towed by vehicles.

The division search team has 4 squadrons, of which the 1st and 2nd squadrons are light tank squadrons, each with 15 Type 95 light tanks, while the 4th Squadron is a Type 97 medium tank squadron with 12 tanks. The 3rd Squadron is a mounted infantry squadron. The search team has a total of more than 800 people.

Even though the 3rd Tank Division transferred from Henan Province only has about 6,000 troops, it has hundreds of tanks of various types, nearly 30 artillery pieces, and its combat capability is even stronger than that of a Type B division.

This point has been vividly reflected in the recent battle of Yu Province!

After capturing Xuchang, the Japanese North China Front, with the 3rd Tank Division as the core, launched a lightning offensive to the flank areas where General Tang's troops were gathered at that time, Shaanxian, Linru and other places. In less than three days, they captured Tang Linru is the main city behind the general's headquarters.

At this point, the 12th Army, the main force of the Japanese army fighting in Henan Province, has completely succeeded in encircling the troops of General Tang. The 13th, 29th and 85th Army, the three core units of the direct lineage in the hands of General Tang, were all besieged. General Tang had to command his ministries to break out into the mountains around Song County, and the entire Henan Province campaign was completely defeated.

Although the 3rd Tank Division succeeded in the field battle, the attack on the city defense did not go so smoothly. Especially in the first attack on Luoyang City, the 3rd Machine Infantry Regiment suffered 215 casualties. Many Japanese tanks were destroyed by the Chinese 94th Division's combat artillery under Luoyang City.

The regiment also suffered heavy losses throughout the "Operation in Yu Province", with nearly a thousand casualties.

This also shows that the so-called mechanized division of the Japanese army is just a pseudo-mechanization. Its artillery fire attack capabilities and self-protection capabilities are far from a true mechanized division.

But, on the Chinese battlefield, it is enough!

China itself admitted in its summary report of the Yu Province campaign that the Japanese armored forces' participation in the battle was “like a gust of wind, which led to the complete defeat of the battle, which is extremely sad.”

At this point, the total strength of the Japanese infantry besieging Hengyang City reached 90,000, as well as more than 100 tanks of various types, and nearly 200 artillery pieces of various calibers, including 32 150-caliber heavy artillery and 24 105-caliber howitzers.

Just looking at the number of people and equipment, it seems that there is no need to fight. The numbers alone can crush Hengyang City.

To be precise, except for the time in 1937 when the Japanese 10th Army besieged the small town of Songjiang with 100,000 troops, the Japanese army had never attacked a Chinese-held city with such a crushing advantage.

Judging only from the amount of heavy equipment invested by the Japanese army, the pressure faced by Hengyang City this time is far greater than that of Songjiang in the past.

After all, the 30,000 Songjiang defenders that day received military orders only to defend the city for three days and nights to buy time for the army to evacuate.

At this time, Hengyang had no way to retreat.

Hengshan Yong even gave up the essence of siege warfare of "surrounding three towers and one tower" and surrounded Hengyang to death.

It is definitely an exaggeration to say that not even a fly can fly out of Hengyang City. It is possible for one or two people or even dozens of people to sneak out of the encirclement at night, but it is impossible to say that hundreds of people can leave Hengyang. Don't even think about it.

On July 8, as the Japanese independent 4th Infantry Regiment transported artillery shells to the suburbs of Hengyang, Isamu Yokoyama believed that the time was ripe for a second full-scale attack on Hengyang.

Hengyang City, which had been silent for 20 days, once again heard a deafening explosion.

It is said that the thick smoke rising in the direction of Hengyang can be clearly seen even 30 kilometers away.

The Japanese attack routine is still the trilogy of "aircraft bombing, artillery bombardment, and infantry charge". However, compared with the previous first round of attacks, this round of Japanese heavy firepower, especially the coordinated attack of air force and artillery, is stronger than the previous attack. Multiplied.

In the air, although the Japanese 5th Air Corps lost precious bombers and had no time to replenish them, with the full support of the Japanese Army Base Camp, more than 100 Zero fighters and 97 Explosive Fighters were added.

The 5th Air Corps, which had received huge reinforcements, had high morale and took the initiative to conduct air strikes on Zhishan Airport and several important airports in Guilin and Liuzhou. China and the United States dispatched hundreds of fighter jets to respond.

On this day, China and Japan moved their air combat from Hengyang to various parts of Guizhou Province. On July 9 alone, 29 Chinese pilots died and 39 fighter planes were lost, while 12 American pilots were killed and 28 fighter planes were lost.

The Japanese side had a record-breaking 87 downed fighter planes. Only 6 Japanese pilots who were downed by the fighter planes parachuted out and were captured. The rest were all killed in battle, setting a record for the number of fighter planes lost in battle between China and Japan since the war began!

In terms of the number of fighter planes lost, China and the United States should have achieved a small victory. However, several important airstrips were destroyed by crazy Japanese fighter planes by crashing into the ground, causing several important airports to take off and land aircraft in the next few days. The numbers had to be significantly reduced.

This was a disastrous victory, and air support for Hengyang was significantly reduced for at least the next week.

This also led to the fact that during the day on July 9, not a single Chinese fighter plane appeared over Hengyang. Instead, the Japanese army dispatched the last 32 fighter planes to bomb the urban area of HY and the hilltop positions in the south and west of the city.

Although the air defense battalion of the Fourth Line Regiment fought back hard, the bombs were carried by fighter jets this time, and they all dropped bombs at an altitude of 3,000 meters. Only the 40mm anti-aircraft guns could pose a threat to the Japanese aircraft. They only shot down 3 Japanese aircraft, but the Japanese aircraft The bombs were still dropped on the Chinese position. In addition, the Japanese army concentrated all artillery to bombard the south and west of the city, especially the 32 150mm heavy artillery, which posed a particularly huge threat to the Chinese positions.

The man-made cliff at Zhangjiashan Heights 221 was bombarded continuously by 150mm heavy artillery for four hours, and finally collapsed completely, turning into a **** that could be rushed up by running hard.

The ten-meter-deep trench in front was also destroyed by terrible artillery fire. Even the machine gun stronghold hidden in the trench was blown into ruins.

Even the 16 soldiers from a machine gun squad who were hiding in the military cave behind were shocked to death.

But the Japanese army was still not satisfied. They launched an artillery bombardment from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. for a full 10 hours, creating the best artillery preparations of the Japanese army on the battlefield.

According to statistics after the war, in this day's shelling alone, the Japanese army consumed 26,000 rounds of various types of artillery shells, including grenades, armor-piercing projectiles, poison gas bombs, etc. If calculated based on 10 hours and 36,000 seconds, there was an average of nearly one round per second. The shells fell on the Chinese position.

This intensity may not be comparable to the intensity in which the Americans fired 300,000 rounds of artillery fire on China a day in the Battle of the Five Sacred Mountains on the Northland Icefield in the next few years, but on the Chinese battlefield, it is already top-notch.

At dusk, the Japanese army launched a mountainous charge toward Hengyang!

North of the city!

The west of the city defended by the 7th Regiment of the 3rd Division was surrounded by Duxian Temple, Yanglin Temple, Qingshan Street, County Middle School and other positions. After being continuously bombarded by 105 howitzers and poison gas bombs, more than 500 soldiers were lost that day and died on the spot. Nearly 300 people!

Even with sufficiently complete fortifications, the battle damage was still 25%, which is enough to prove the terrifying nature of Japanese artillery fire.

But after suffering under artillery fire that lasted all day, they had to face the attack of the 68th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Division.

The 68th Infantry Regiment, which was the main force in the attack on the north of the city, directly dispatched its three infantry brigades. Under the cover of infantry artillery and heavy machine guns, they launched a charge against the six main positions defended by the 7th Regiment.

Even, there are 8 Type 97 tanks belonging to the 13th Tank Regiment accompanying the infantry in the charge!

The 47mm rapid-fire gun equipped on the tank is enough to penetrate any heavy machine gun bunker that dares to fire despite remaining in the artillery fire.

The 7th Regiment of the 3rd Division only had 2 combat anti-aircraft guns assigned to them. It was really insufficient to deal with the 8 Type 97 tanks that stayed 400 meters away and opened fire to cover the infantry charge.

No matter the troops or firepower, the 7th Regiment is far inferior to the Japanese army!

In normal times, the Chinese position with only 1,500 people remaining would have an 80% chance of being breached by the Japanese army's costly charge.

However, the Chinese officers and soldiers who have experienced a month of **** battles and have been constantly inspired during these more than 20 days are extremely determined!

And in the past twenty days, they did not wait for the Japanese army to attack. They had already connected the 1,800-meter-wide defense line with deep trenches.

Not to mention that the Japanese were dizzy after entering the criss-crossing trenches, the Chinese officers and soldiers who entered them did not know which infantry company the position belonged to without looking at the signboards with road signs.

The 7th Regiment has been storing most grenades in the past 20 days instead of bullets. On average, each officer and soldier has been allocated up to 30 grenades!

The tactics they adopted were very simple. They did not brave the rain of bullets fired from the Japanese heavy machine gun positions to suppress the fire. Instead, they allowed the Japanese troops to get close to a distance of forty or fifty meters. In the desperate roar of the observers, "Grenade, throw it." !”

Hundreds of grenades exploded in front of the position, forming a barrage and blasting the Japanese soldiers who were bending over and charging into pieces.

“Vote!”

Accompanied by roars, within 20 minutes, the 7th Regiment dropped nearly 10,000 grenades from various positions, consuming 40,000 rounds of various bullets.

This is the amount of consumption that originally took an infantry brigade a whole day to complete. The 7th Regiment completed it in only 20 minutes. It would have been unthinkable before.

Massive firepower coverage also achieved fruitful results. There were more than 400 Japanese corpses in front of each position, and the wails of wounded soldiers even overwhelmed the rumbling explosions several times.

The Chinese side did not remain silent either. There were also roars and howls of pain.

Some wounded soldiers had their arms blown off and some of their intestines leaked out. They had to take off their military uniforms and wrap them around them to prevent them from coming out of the body.

Under that kind of extreme pain, even an iron man made of steel would not be able to help but cry out to relieve his own pain!

“Hold on, brothers, hold on to me, I'm going to fight with the **** devils!”

Not to mention ordinary soldiers, even the colonel commander of the regiment had a nearly six centimeter **** on his face caused by shrapnel. The flesh was turned up on both sides and opened and closed slightly as the army colonel continued to roar. , like a baby's mouth.

This was caused by many crazy Japanese troops breaking through the grenade barrages made by the Chinese and brazenly throwing grenades at the Chinese trenches dozens of meters away.

Facing the melon mine that fell into the trench, the Chinese officers and soldiers in the trench had no room to hide. They could only stare with blood-red eyes, throw the grenade in their hands fiercely, and then crawl deep in the trench to wait for the fate of the decision.

If you die, you have no choice but to die!

Those who are not dead shake their groggy heads, shake off the dirt from their bodies, and get back into the fight!

If you can't hide, then don't hide. If you can't retreat, then stay where you are. Compared to the Japanese in the wild, they still have endless trenches to avoid.

This should be regarded as a relatively rare case in the history of war between China and Japan in which grenades were used to kill each other face to face.

The 68th Infantry Regiment was forced to retreat, and its position in the north of the city stood still.

However, in this crazy wave of shooting and grenades, the 7th Regiment once again suffered more than 100 casualties.

Due to the injuries caused by the explosion, many soldiers could not wait to be carried to the rear and bled excessively before taking their last breath.

In fact, even if these wounded soldiers were carried to a field hospital in the city, the probability of death would be higher than 70%.

It's not that they will die from wound infection, but that the massive blood loss will not give them a chance to wait for wound infection.

In this wave of battles of the 7th Regiment of the 3rd Division, the number of soldiers killed in battle almost filled up an infantry battalion.

However, they had no time to cry. In the afterglow of the setting sun, the second wave of Japanese charges came.

The commander of the 11th Army, Yokoyama Isamu, ordered that after a day-long artillery preparation, the infantry would attack until the early morning of the next day.

Waiting for the 7th Regiment, there are at least four waves of attacks.

But the intensity of the Japanese attack faced by the 7th Regiment, looking at the entire Hengyang battlefield, is not even ranked among the top five!

Huangchaling and Zhangjiashan are the two most important positions attacked by the Japanese army this time.

Looking at the Japanese troops that were all over the mountains and plains like locusts, attacking from three directions, even the well-informed 3rd Battalion Commander Li Jiujin, who had already practiced being calm everywhere, could not help but shrink his pupils!

Shinkuro Ochiai, commander of the Japanese 27th Division in charge of the Huangcha Ridge battlefield, stood in the field headquarters bunker only 1,200 meters away from Huangcha Ridge, looking at the Chinese position with a telescope at the many cliffs that had been blown down. , with a grim look on his face.

This battle will definitely be successful!

Chapter end

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