At present, when the main support artillery and 120mm heavy mortars of the main force of the Anti-Alliance Force have not been distributed in large numbers, the captured Japanese Type 92 infantry artillery was once the main support artillery of the Anti-Alliance regiment. In the previous battles, they achieved quite good results.
Although at the beginning of this year, the Anti-Japanese Alliance replaced the Type 92 infantry cannon as regimental support artillery with the imitated and improved Soviet M-38 120mm heavy mortar, the Type 92 infantry cannon has all withdrawn from the front line. The main force, but after all, it has not been long since the equipment change, and the troops are still quite familiar with this kind of artillery.
As the production quantity of heavy mortars is still insufficient, until now this Japanese-made light infantry artillery is still used by local troops, or the third batch of divisions and regiments that were upgraded from local troops before the war. The main force of the army is artillery, but now the main forces formed in the first two batches, especially the divisions formed in the first batch, have been replaced by imitation Soviet-style 120mm mortars.
The Third Division is the first batch of old main forces to be formed. All the original 92 infantry guns have been replaced with 120mm heavy mortars, which are the main fire support weapons of the original regiment. As the second batch of formations, The 18th Division of the main force division was not equipped with the 92 Infantry Artillery at all, and all regiment-level artillery was 120mm heavy mortars.
As the former main suppressor artillery at the regiment level, the troops of the 3rd Division, which had mainly participated in the war, were no strangers to the 92nd Infantry Artillery, and could even be said to be quite familiar with it. The 18th Division also had a considerable number of troops armed locally. , this Japanese-made light infantry gun was also used.
But it has only been less than half a year since the replacement, and the original experience of using the 92 Infantry Cannon has been lost. If these 92 Infantry Cannon can be fully utilized, recoilless rifles cannot be issued to every infantry platoon. Under such circumstances, it can still be quite effective to follow the movement of front-line attack troops and use them as direct firepower, or to destroy the Japanese anti-tank artillery positions on the reverse slope to open channels for tanks.
Although it is not powerful enough to destroy those permanent and semi-permanent fortifications, it can be used to a great extent for those large number of light and dark forts, which are mainly civil structures or reinforced concrete thickness and are far less strong than the permanent fortifications. Function, even if the 92 Infantry Cannon is still a bit bulky, it should be possible to use captured Japanese artillery to clear minefields.
Moreover, the Japanese army had an extremely large number of bunkers and the number of 14mm machine guns used as covering fire was insufficient to evenly distribute them to the front-line attack troops. The also captured Japanese 20mm anti-tank machine guns were just thrown there. Knowing how to use it, I just kept asking my superiors to strengthen the 14mm anti-aircraft machine gun as long-range cover firepower.
The method of opening passages in minefields is too rigid, so we still adopt the tactics of engineers demining little by little or using artillery fire to clear mines. When the forward attack troops are in urgent need of fire support from 82 and 60 mortars, a large number of artillery shells are used. All wasted on mine clearance.
Commanders at all levels knew that this operation was an operation without rear penetration, and they could only rely on supplies when the 18th Division was dispatched to cut off their retreat, but they preferred to use standard equipment that was relatively difficult to replenish ammunition. They were unwilling to put these captured weapons with relatively sufficient ammunition into the battlefield.
On the Bayantala front line alone, the three divisions participating in the war seized thousands of 92 infantry artillery shells. As for the 97-type 20mm infantry cannon and the Taisho 11-year-old 37 infantry flat-firing artillery shells, they were piled up like mountains. Although there has not been a detailed inventory, judging from the number of Japanese military equipment, it is at least about 2,000 rounds.
These ammunitions that have lost their owners are almost scattered on the entire Bayantala battlefield, and no one has thought about collecting them and using them in combat. No one has thought of using these lightweight weapons as support firepower to strengthen the firepower. Frontline attack force.
This also happened to the body-barrel artillery of the division artillery and the 120-heavy mortars of the regiment artillery. A large number of artillery shells were wasted in the minefield to clear mines, and even affected the various rocket launcher units while the troops were attacking. However, because of its limited effectiveness in this battlefield environment, a considerable number of artillery shells were accumulated.
Indeed, it was extremely rare for the Japanese army to use landmines on a large scale in this battle. It was the first time they had encountered this in their fight against the Kwantung Army after the Anti-Japanese Alliance came out. The Japanese army, which had never paid much attention to defense, was very concerned about purely defensive weapons like landmines. Without paying attention, almost no standard anti-infantry mines are distributed, and the standard Type 93 anti-tank mines are rarely used.
This time when they penetrated directly into Tongliao, the Kailu front line encountered the Japanese army using various landmines on such a large scale. This was the first time that the Anti-Japanese Alliance, which had been fighting with the Kwantung Army for many years, encountered them. However, among the landmines used by the Japanese army on the Tongliao front line, except for some In addition to the German anti-personnel mines and Type 93 anti-tank mines copied by the Japanese Fengtian Arsenal, a considerable number of anti-infantry mines and anti-tank mines were produced, but they were quite simple substitutes.
Many of the anti-tank mines equipped by the Japanese army on the entire Tongliao battlefield were basically made of tinplate pressed into boxes, and then installed with several kilograms of TNT explosives, plus quick-fire fuses on ** grenades used in grenades, or Type 97 grenades use collision fuses, and some use simple landmines modified from trigger fuses on mountain artillery shells.
Many even simply bundle several **-type grenades into a bundle, replace the middle one with a Type 97 collision fuze, and bury it on the ground to serve as an anti-tank mine. However, many of the fuzes of these anti-tank mines are unreliable, and It's not very lethal, but it can blow up the tracks of a tank without any problems.
As for anti-infantry landmines, they are even simpler. Many of them simply use cans filled with some explosives, and add the pull fuse of the Type 98 grenade, or install a crude compression fuse, or use the Type 97 grenade. Or modified from a ** grenade.
Although the number of landmines laid by the Japanese army was large, the laying patterns were still far behind those of the Anti-Japanese War. There were almost no tricks laid. A considerable part of the landmines were simply installed with fuses and then thrown on the ground. They were not even covered with a layer of landmines. There is no layer of soil as a disguise.
According to Chen Hanzhang's judgment, the ultimate purpose of the Japanese army's deployment of minefields was not to kill or injure many enemy troops, but to force the enemy troops to be exposed to machine gun and artillery firepower from behind for as long as possible. In other words, in addition to anti-tank mines, the Japanese army In addition, the real purpose of the remaining anti-personnel mines is to delay time and increase the time that the anti-alliance attack troops are exposed to their own fire range.
As for the real anti-personnel weapons, they still rely on light and heavy machine guns and artillery. In other words, the Japanese army only regards landmines as a means, and it is definitely not an anti-personnel weapon. Otherwise, except for anti-tank mines, the other anti-infantry landmines will not be used. It would be buried so hastily.
Although the production of these Japanese landmines is extremely rough, and quite a few of them are not very reliable, they, together with those core permanent fortifications, as well as the lightweight 37 infantry flat-firing guns and 20mm infantry anti-tank machine guns, became the basis for this anti-Japanese assault. The most threatening equipment.
However, although the number of these simple mines is large, it is not too difficult to clean them. The Anti-Japanese Alliance used imitation Soviet flamethrowers and captured Japanese-made 100-style flamethrowers, which can open thirty meters with a single blast. long passage.
No matter what kind of landmine it is, it cannot withstand a fire. Using a flamethrower to clear mines is a trouble-free and convenient tactic. If explosives or blasting ropes made of blasting tubes are used, Chen Hanzhang decided to use six blasting tubes to bundle them. A channel of at least ten meters wide can be opened.
Even if these blasting cords cannot completely destroy landmines, there is basically no problem in disabling those crudely made fuzes. Making and using these simple equipment is not too difficult for the troops, but no one I can think of it.
During the attack, once the attacking troops encounter a large minefield covered by cross machine gun fire, they will continue to call for artillery fire from behind to clear mines. This not only wastes a lot of artillery shells, but also directly affects the attack efficiency of the troops and delays a lot of troops. time.
For Chen Hanzhang, the rare large minefield deployed by the Japanese army in this battle, covering almost the entire theater, was just an accident. The large number of Japanese anti-tank guns and machine guns on the Tongliao front line was also a surprise to the entire attacking force. What happened was that the Japanese machine guns and anti-tank weapons on the Tongliao front line far exceeded the establishment of a Japanese division.
Among them, although the number of Japanese Type 94 37 rapid-fire cannons is not large and does not exceed the number of Japanese field divisions, the number of 37 infantry flat-firing cannons and Type 97 20mm automatic cannons is beyond them. Unexpectedly, just from the large number of seizures on the Bayantala line, which is one direction of the entire battlefield, it can be seen that the number of Japanese equipment is far beyond imagination.
Although these types of anti-tank artillery, which are not very powerful, cannot penetrate the improved Soviet-made tanks of the Anti-Japanese Alliance from the front, they are still quite powerful when attacking from the flanks and rear, especially using artificial earth slopes. When the anti-alliance tank rolls over to expose the weakest chassis, the power of continuous shooting at close range is still quite large, and it is designed from the side and rear direction to penetrate the weakly armored engine at close range.
Chen Hanzhang could never figure out where the Japanese army in front of him had obtained so many anti-tank weapons, which far exceeded the normal establishment. It was not until the end of the Battle of Bayantala that he captured a Japanese captain and squadron leader, as well as The mystery was solved only after the five 37th Infantry Level Fire Cannons were marked with Fengtian Arsenal and 1930.
As a deep strategic location for the Japanese army's war against the Soviet Union in Western Manchuria, in order to deal with the Soviet tank clusters after the Battle of Nomonhan, the quantity and quality of its own anti-tank guns could not meet the needs. The production of the latest one-type rapid-fire guns was slow. , when it is impossible to allocate a large number of troops in a short period of time.
In addition to establishing a large-scale equipment and ammunition reserve in Tongliao, the Kwantung Army also stocked the weapons of the Northeast Army captured during the September 18th Incident, mainly artillery and machine guns. Allocate part of it to the Tongliao garrison for use as inventory and defensive firepower in the fortification area.
In the view of the Kwantung Army, although these old-fashioned artillery have lagged behind the times in terms of range and power, at close range, they are still powerful when used as infantry support artillery or as anti-tank artillery. A Shanghai-made 70 If a five-millimeter mountain shell hits a tank at close range, even if it cannot destroy it, the shock will still kill the crew inside.
In particular, the 14-year-old 77mm field gun imitated by the Northeastern Army was captured. Its power is quite good, and its maximum range of 11 kilometers even exceeds the Japanese army's standard 38-type field gun. Although it lacks the standard armor-piercing projectiles, but the ordinary grenades it fired had no problem destroying Soviet tanks at close range.