Chapter 297: Reasons why Yang Zhen attaches great importance to it
At this moment, Yang Zhen, who was meeting with the deputy commander of the 1st Armored Brigade, who was responsible for commanding all the armored troops in the Linxi battlefield, was carefully observing the battle situation and constantly evaluating the gains and losses. How could he care about his sudden appearance here? What kind of impact does a deputy leader bring?
After asking his guard platoon to assist Qi Zhibiao in cleaning up the remnants of the Japanese army, he quickly shifted his eyes and thoughts to the battlefields where he had already been in contact with the Japanese army. This was the first battle between the anti-alliance tank unit and the Japanese tank regiment since its establishment. The troops fought the first regular tank battle, and it was also the first face-to-face battle with the enemy's tank troops.
It can be said that this is the first face-to-face showdown between Chinese and Japanese tanks since the July 7th Incident. In the war that has been fought for four full years, the previous National Government also equipped some tanks. First, the number was not enough. Secondly, there are quite a few misunderstandings in its use, just like the Japanese army.
In addition, the tanks of the Chinese army were either lost early on the battlefield due to errors in use, or were abandoned during the retreat due to lack of fuel replenishment, as well as some deliberate actions to preserve strength, so even if they were invested On the Songhu battlefield, which had the most strength, the tanks of both sides basically never met each other. Therefore, this fierce battle on the 12th line can be said to be the first tank showdown on the Sino-Japanese battlefield.
Therefore, Yang Zhen attached great importance to this battle. He even rushed to the Twelve Tu front lines to watch the battle in person when the battle situation had entered a critical point. However, although Yang Zhen rushed to the Twelve Tu front lines, he did not Instead of participating in the actual command, he just observed the battle situation from the side. The specific command was still the responsibility of the deputy brigade commander of the armored brigade.
I have an advantage in terms of military strength, and my advantage in equipment is not comparable to that of the Japanese army. Although this battle is the first tank duel between China and Japan on the Northeast battlefield, there is still a certain gap in the strength comparison between the two sides. Although losses are inevitable, But Yang Zhen believed that this was a rare opportunity to train his troops.
Although Yang Zhen is also aware that due to differences in national strength and operational thinking, the scale of the Japanese armored force is far from comparable to that of European countries, but it has local design and production capabilities. Although there is a certain gap in performance with Western powers, it is completely able to gain a foothold. Under its own production conditions, the Japanese army can expand its armored forces on a large scale at any time.
What we encountered this time was a Japanese tank regiment. Next time we may encounter two or even more Japanese tank regiments, and training on the training ground is always just training and cannot replace real actual combat. It can only be done on the battlefield. Only by fighting a real actual battle with the Japanese tank troops can the troops truly grow up and test out the shortcomings of their own troops so that they can better improve their tactics.
Although Yang Zhen also knew that on the Northeast battlefield, and even on the entire Chinese battlefield, due to the comparison of strength between the two sides, there was almost no possibility of a large-scale tank battle like that on the Soviet-German battlefield. As an island country with poor resources, in the military In terms of construction and development, the Japanese are destined to focus on the navy, a metal-devouring behemoth.
The development of the army can always be placed second. Even if the Japanese fight for their lives, they will not produce too many tanks, let alone a large-scale tank battle like the one on the Soviet-German battlefield. Tank battles at the armored division level are not easy.
Even in the near future, the scale of tank battles that the two armies may engage in on the battlefield will probably be more at the regiment level, or at most the so-called brigade level by the Japanese army. Under this situation , this tank battle at the Japanese regiment level and the Anti-Japanese Alliance reinforcement battalion level on the Twelfth Front is undoubtedly a rare opportunity for the Anti-Union armored forces.
Because a battle of this scale will be the main scale of battle they will fight against the Japanese armored forces for a long time in the future. It will also be the first time to fight against the results of the previous training of the United Nations against the Japanese tank troops. A real test.
In order to use this rare opportunity to hone the ability and awareness of the troop commander, and to consider that he is responsible for on-the-spot command of the armored forces, he has a non-professional academic background. During this battle, he went to the front line to watch the battle in order to show his importance, but he still took a hands-off approach.
This time he came to the front line of Twelve Tu to observe the battle. He still wanted to observe the performance of the armored brigade on the battlefield and the gains and losses in the use of tactics. What adjustments needed to be made in training and tactical use in the future? It was not to personally command these tank units. Fight a decisive tank battle with the Japanese Third Tank Regiment.
In order not to interfere with the command, he didn't even say a word at the beginning of the battle. He just held a telescope and carefully observed the battlefield. However, although he didn't say a word, he sat there and let him be the commander. Wang Ziyang, deputy commander of the armored brigade, felt a lot of pressure.
In fact, this counterattack was somewhat hastily organized for Wang Ziyang. At this moment, the main force of the tank regiment of the armored brigade and the motorized infantry regiment were assigned to the two battalions of the cavalry brigade. A regiment of the first division was commanded by Li Mingfeng on the left side of Bahrain. Fighting in Banner territory, the tank troops remaining in Linxi territory, except for five tank companies, were mostly tanks that had been injured on the battlefield and were currently being repaired.
Even among the only five companies, the tank troops stationed on the Sunjiayingzi front line did not participate in this battle. They stayed in place to prepare for possible counterattacks by the Japanese army. The two tanks behind the Twelve Tu first line Because they were already in a relatively unimportant position after seizing Linxi, these two companies were actually temporarily formed from three tank companies after excluding the battle-damaged tanks that were being repaired in Dajing.
The two tank companies were originally supposed to have a total of twenty-eight tanks according to the establishment of the Anti-Union Armored Brigade. However, in fact, these two companies currently only have a total of nineteen tanks, three of which were imported from the Soviet army warehouse in Outer Mongolia. The second-hand tanks we obtained have not yet been equipped with additional armor and explosive reactive armor due to spare parts. According to the standards of the Anti-Japanese Alliance, these three tanks cannot be used in front-line operations for the time being.
In previous battles, although the Japanese tank unit did not cause much trouble to the 1st Armored Brigade, its main equipment, the 37 rapid-fire cannon, could not penetrate an anti-alliance tank on the battlefield, but the 23rd Division The crazy energy of the regimental infantry in the battle caused considerable losses to the 1st Armored Brigade.
Although the infantry cover was relatively effective and the number of tanks that were unable to be repaired and completely lost did not exceed fifteen, the number of lightly and seriously injured tanks was quite a lot. Most of the main battle-damaged tanks of the 1st Armored Brigade that participated in the battle were damaged. The Japanese drove the struggling infantry to death, using grenades to break off the tracks, or blow up the road wheels.
This kind of battle-damaged tanks, about twenty or so, was the main cause of battle damage to the tank troops in the Linxi battle of the Anti-Japanese Alliance. In addition, other engines were damaged, or artillery malfunctions, and other damages.
Tanks. After the main battle in Linxi ended, the number of injured tanks undergoing emergency repairs reached more than 40, and three companies were temporarily organized to perform emergency repairs on the Dajing front line.
In addition to the tank units deployed on the front lines of Twelve Tu and Sunjiayingzi, the number of complete tanks organized into the entire reserve force is actually only two companies. This is also the case when the outflanking troops continue to seize the left and right flags of Bahrain in the north.
Under this, Wang Guangyu can deploy the maximum mobile force.
The reason for this situation is mainly because after capturing Linxi County, Wang Guangyu devoted his main efforts to the northern line, trying to seize the big board in the shortest time, the Lindong line, and open up the direct connection with Du Kaishan.
Contact and stabilize the entire northern front at the same time to concentrate forces to face the Japanese counterattack.
In order to achieve this tactical goal, he incorporated the main forces of the 1st Armored Brigade into the troops heading north. Although he had a certain reserve force in Linxi, the main force of the Japanese army in Linxi under consideration had been defeated, except for those in Linxi.
In addition to deploying a small number of tank troops on the Sunjiayingzi front line and the Twelve Tu front line to prevent possible counterattacks by the Japanese, only two companies of troops were concentrated in the reserve force.
At the same time, all the battle-damaged tanks will be left behind. On the one hand, we will seize the time to repair and restore the combat capabilities of these battle-damaged tanks. On the other hand, we can also restore these battle-damaged tanks in the shortest possible time when necessary.
Tanks are used as a mobile force.
Although Wang Guangyu had not previously thought of using tank troops to fight a tank battle with the Japanese Third Tank Regiment deployed in Linxi, the tanks currently stationed in the northeast and southeast of Linxi and in Wengniute Banner
The remnants of the 23rd Division have not completely lost their ability to launch counterattacks.
Especially the third tank regiment, which has not used all its strength before and only dispatched a small number of troops to participate in the battle, is still a considerable threat to Wang Guangyu. For the time being, it is necessary to concentrate its forces to seize the left and right flags of Bahrain.
After doing his best to repair these battle-damaged tanks, Wang Guangyu also had a trump card in his hand.
If it weren't for the repair battalion of the 1st Armored Brigade, the two repair companies left in Linxi worked so well that they would have ignored the Japanese artillery fire and infantry counterattacks on the battlefield, and would have immediately dragged down the tanks for repairs as soon as they found any battle-damaged tanks.
In the case of insufficient spare parts, all means were used to carry out repairs day and night.
Before the reserve team was dispatched, most of the battle-damaged tanks were repaired. The two tank companies on the Twelve Tu front line alone had a total of nineteen tanks. Without mobilizing the Sunjiayingzi front-line tank unit to participate in the battle, it was basically impossible.
It would be impossible to gather enough troops to fight.
Although they still have a clear advantage in terms of equipment performance, when more than 40 tanks fight against the Third Tank Regiment, which still has 60 tanks of various types even after the previous battle losses are removed, the chance of victory is still not good. Ant
If there are too many, the bear will be killed in many cases.
However, the sixty-one tanks participating in the battle, except for the four unsatisfied companies originally deployed in the 12th direction and the reserve team, were still in good condition. The tanks that had just come out of the repair camp, due to time
It was too hasty, and quite a few of them had more or less defects that had not been completely repaired.
Some tank artillery can only stay on a horizontal line when firing, and cannot shoot upward or downward. Some tanks' road wheels that were damaged in previous battles were still used from destroyed Japanese tanks because they could not be replenished for a while. It was dismantled and temporarily replaced after modification.
The anti-aircraft machine guns on some tank turrets were knocked out by Japanese rapid-fire cannons or artillery fire. Due to the lack of spare supplies, they could only be temporarily replaced with Soviet-made DP machine guns, or they were not installed at all for the time being. A considerable number of them were even destroyed by Japanese infantry fire. The damaged additional armor had not had time to be replaced, but because of the emergency situation, it was reluctantly sent to the front line to participate in the battle.