eurekapd Chapter 192: Occupation of Lingshi and Huo County, Sudden Change in Southwest Shanxi
Chapter 192: Occupation of Lingshi and Huo County, Sudden Change in Southwest Shanxi
"Air raid, it's the Japanese air raid!" Many people in the command center shouted at once.
At the same time, telegrams were sent from the front line that the armored divisions outside Lingshi County and the mechanized infantry divisions and motorized infantry divisions outside Huo County were all subjected to low-altitude attacks by dozens of Japanese fighter planes and bombings by bombers.
"How's the front line? What about the air defense regiment?" Wang Dafu asked without showing any worry.
The communicator replied: "Only the machine guns of each regiment are temporarily involved in air defense, and the troops have also temporarily suspended the siege!"
Fang Yue nodded in agreement: "What they are doing is right. First show the enemy that we are weak, so that the Japanese will think that our 88th Army is weak in anti-aircraft firepower. Then the Japanese will definitely identify this breakthrough point and increase the number of aircraft to attack our army!"
Wang Dafu also spoke up; "Well, tell the front line that each unit should seize the opportunity on their own. The air defense regiment has been idle for a day, and it's almost time for them to show their skills. Try to capture all the Japanese planes!"
Then he said with a hint of worry: "The bomber that just flew over our heads was heading towards the headquarters. I hope the Japanese won't regret making this decision."
Everyone in the entire command center mourned for the Japanese in their hearts.
Few of the air defense regiments of the front-line troops are capable of accurate automatic shooting. After all, there are not many educated people, and it is even more difficult to learn the automatic tracking and shooting of the fire control system.
In other infantry divisions, there is basically a direct air defense battalion. Xu Le took into account that the soldiers could not fully exert the power of air defense weapons, so he used the advantage of numbers to make up for it.
This is why each regiment was equipped with an air defense regiment.
But this will not cause waste. When anti-aircraft firepower is needed, the regiment's 54 machine guns and anti-aircraft guns are sufficient for defense. If air defense is not needed, these two types of anti-aircraft weapons can be fired horizontally and used as ground support firepower.
For example, the Type 72 85mm anti-aircraft gun can be used as a cannon, with a maximum indirect fire range of 20 kilometers. Although its caliber is a bit small and it is not enough as suppressive firepower, it is completely sufficient as infantry support firepower.
Not to mention the Type 74 anti-aircraft machine gun, which has a 37mm caliber shell. One shell can smash a Japanese soldier into pieces and turn a Japanese tank into scrap metal. Xu Le personally tested this during the Hejin Campaign.
.....
As expected, the two Japanese flying regiments did not attack the 88th Army's front line in the beginning. The main reason was that they received orders from their superiors that the former First Army Flying Brigade attempted to bomb Meidong Mountain, but was almost wiped out.
That's why these devils were so cautious and tried to test the anti-aircraft firepower of the 88th Army first.
However, the Japanese soldiers from the two flying regiments did not witness it with their own eyes after all, and thought that the people of the First Army were exaggerating. Now, after several rounds of low-altitude shooting, they only saw the 88th Army's light machine guns firing into the air, and their planes did not suffer any damage.
The Japanese were very happy about this. They believed that the 88th Army's anti-aircraft firepower was limited, so it was impossible to deploy it in large numbers on the front line, and it must be in key positions in the rear.
As a result, the fighter planes and bombers circling around the battlefield stopped hanging around and rushed towards the 88th Army's ground forces.
In the armored division headquarters, Liu Quanhua looked at the approaching planes through a telescope and shouted into the microphone: "The enemy planes are moving out in full force. The anti-aircraft regiment, open fire!"
At the order, the soldiers of the air defense regiment and the air defense battalions of each mechanized infantry regiment pulled down the weeds and branches piled up around them, and the Type 74 anti-aircraft machine guns and Type 72 anti-aircraft guns appeared.
Then the commanders issued orders, and each gun adjusted its parameters and immediately opened fire at the planes in the air.
For a moment, continuous explosions were heard over the two county towns, countless shells exploded in the air, and smoke filled the sky.
The Japanese in the planes were stunned. More than 100 of the 10 fighter planes were destroyed before they reached low altitude.
Today's planes are all propeller planes. The performance of the Japanese planes is still very backward and their maneuverability is very poor. They have no time to dodge or pull high.
Although the Japanese had their proud Zero fighters, whose performance was among the best in the world today, because the Tang Dynasty's air force was very weak, the Japanese navy believed that the army did not need a large number of equipment to fight against it, so they put a large number of Zero fighters into the navy's organization.
Therefore, the number of aircraft of the Japanese Army Air Force was very small, and most of them were Type 94 fighters with relatively backward performance.
As for bombers, their maneuverability is even worse.
As a result, when the first wave of attacks by the Japanese planes ended, more than 30 planes had been shot down, and several planes were seriously damaged, barely shaking in the air, and had lost their combat capability.
The Japanese had never experienced such losses.
However, the Japanese pilots seemed to have received a death order and did not choose to retreat after suffering huge losses. Instead, they reorganized their formation and launched a second wave of attack.
The bombers also increased their flight altitude and launched a second round of bombing.
But they ultimately underestimated the equipment of the 88th Army. Not to mention the Type 1 anti-aircraft gun with an effective firing height of 72 meters, even the Type 74 anti-aircraft gun had an effective firing height of 3000 meters, which could cause fatal damage to medium and low altitude aircraft, and even medium-altitude aircraft were in danger.
In this way, after several waves of attacks by the Japanese planes, only about 30 planes were left, and they finally chose to retreat.
It's not that they don't want to fight, but they really don't dare to continue. The bombers have only dropped a few bombs, and now there are only a few at medium and high altitudes left.
Watching the Japanese planes flying away, the soldiers of the anti-aircraft regiment shouted and celebrated their victory.
Seeing this, Liu Quanhua picked up the microphone and shouted: "All regiments enter the city and take down the county!"
On the front line, the walls on three sides of Lingshi County were almost destroyed, and the tanks started and drove into the city.
The same happened in the direction of Huo County. The artillery regiment stopped shelling, and the tanks swarmed into the city, followed closely by the armored vehicles of the mechanized infantry regiment.
The overall situation in Lingshi and Huo County has been determined.
The Japanese bombers that had flown towards Meidongshan earlier suffered an even worse fate. All 18 bombers from two bomber squadrons were wiped out, and not a single one escaped.
The headquarters' anti-aircraft firepower is not as strong as that of the front line, but the people operating it are from the guard team, and all of them are proficient in using fully automatic tracking shooting. Not to mention that they can hit the target with every shot, but with the limited ammunition, it is no problem to destroy a squadron.
The air defense hit rate of the armies of various countries in the world today is frighteningly low, at most one percent, which means that it takes an average of 100 shells to hit an aircraft.
This probability increased dozens of times in the 88th Army.
By 4 p.m., the four city walls of Lingshi and Huo counties were all hoisted with the national flag of the Tang Dynasty, but the battle was not over yet.
After the two divisions completed the occupation of the county town, they immediately conducted a statistics, but found that from the beginning of the siege to the complete occupation of the county town, the number of enemies killed and captured in the two cities combined was less than 8000, of which 2000 were puppet troops. The Japanese army's strength was not even enough for two infantry regiments.
However, according to the report from the armored regiment that entered the county town first, there were not many Japanese soldiers escaping from the reverse city gate, and there were only two regiments in the two cities combined.
This is seriously inconsistent with the previous intelligence that the three divisions had nearly 3 troops. [The early three-command division had 7 troops]
Wang Dafu was also confused, but he couldn't draw a conclusion now. He had to wait until the troops chasing the Japanese brought back more accurate information.
Just as the troops were celebrating victory, a shocking piece of bad news reached Xu Le and Wang Dafu.
The main force of the Japanese invaders suddenly appeared in the southeastern and southwestern areas of Linfen. Led by the charge of hundreds of tanks, they successively broke through several important towns in southern Shanxi under the jurisdiction of the Second War Zone.
As it was getting dark, the Japanese had already occupied Xiangling County and were approaching Quwo and other places. They cooperated with the Japanese in Jincheng area to encircle Quwo County, Xinjiang County, Jishan County, Yicheng County and other places.
A large number of Japanese troops also appeared in many places east of Hongdong County, south of Huo County, and cooperated with the Japanese troops from Changzhi area to encircle the junction of Zhongtiao Mountain and Taiyue Mountain, and gradually advanced towards the guerrillas' Taiyue Mountain base.
There were also Japanese troops in the northern part of the Taiyue Mountains, with a strength of about a regiment. They had deployed two blockade lines and advanced southward.
At the same time, the northwestern and northeastern parts of Shanxi, as well as the guerrilla bases in the Taihang Mountains, were also subjected to large-scale raids by the Japanese.
For a time, the entire Jin Province was in chaos, and most of the Tang Dynasty troops lost contact with each other.
Commander Wei's troops deployed in Zhongtiao Mountain had to retreat to the southwest under the fierce attack of the Japanese.
The 20 troops of the Second War Zone in the Linfen Basin retreated to the south of the Fen River overnight, handing over Quwo and other counties to the Japanese.
The Japanese field heavy artillery brigade finally appeared in Hejin. The Hejin garrison troops held on to resistance, but after suffering tens of thousands of casualties, they had to retreat in two groups.
Head north and enter the Huoyan Mountain Range.
They headed south and joined up with the rest of the troops in Wanrong County to resist the Japanese invaders heading south.
"Asshole, asshole! 20 Tang troops couldn't stop the devils for half a day, and dozens of counties and towns were lost. What does Commander Yan do for a living?"
It was already late at night when Xu Le learned the news. He immediately slammed the table and shouted angrily.