What was even more difficult for Cao Yafan to accept was that the reason why he gave the task of encircling and annihilating the Japanese troops to the brigade of the advancing army was because when adjusting the deployment, the brigade commander and political commissar repeatedly asked his troops to shoulder this burden. , responsible for setting up ambushes along the way to encircle and annihilate the Japanese troops who broke through.
This brigade, which was formed by the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Army, with its brigade commander and political commissar all from the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region, obviously suffered a serious blow after another brigade, which was mainly formed from the Taihang Army, wiped out a strengthened Japanese brigade in a short period of time. Excitingly, since Cao Yafan had never won a major battle before, when Cao Yafan adjusted his deployment, he repeatedly asked to hand over the responsibility of laying ambush to himself.
Cao Yafan also considered that his troops were now being used to the extreme, and they still had to encircle and annihilate the remnants of the Japanese army west of Luofugou. It was really impossible to mobilize too many troops to implement this encirclement. The entire plan to annihilate the enemy on the move.
At the same time, considering that when the Japanese army broke through, although their strength was still there, the total number of troops had dropped to half of the previous one, the advancing brigade had an advantage in strength and firepower was not inferior to the Japanese army. The most important thing is that they Deploying them on the retreat route of the Japanese army and using them to undertake this task can save time to the greatest extent.
So after several considerations, we finally agreed to the request of their brigade commander and political commissar and gave them the task of setting up ambush along the way. However, the result was like this. Almost all of the reinforced battalion was killed. Old Bones suffered such a huge loss all at once. , how should he explain this to the headquarters?
Although a strengthened battalion completely annihilated three incomplete infantry squadrons of the Japanese army, plus an attached artillery unit, this was a first for the advancing army, but the number of casualties in this battle was It’s really hard for Cao Yafan to accept it.
If it weren't for the fact that the battalion commander was covered with wounds, Cao Yafan would not be able to control the anger in his heart even if he was a brother in the army, and would discipline him for their leader. However, although in front of the battalion commander, Cao Yafan held back his anger, but for The political commissar of their brigade who rushed over, even though they were from a brother army, he didn't have a good look on his face.
Compared to Cao Yafan's livid face, the political commissar of the brigade who rushed back from the Shijiazi Nangou battlefield is now also full of anger. There were so many casualties in the first battle, and even a reinforced battalion was wiped out. To say that I feel sorry for him I felt even more distressed than Cao Yafan. This battalion was originally composed of the Dagong Battalion of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region and the security company of the Political Department of the Military Region.
All the cadres and soldiers are old bones from Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei. There are even two company commanders who are old Red Army soldiers. Even the ordinary soldiers have at least one year of military service. There is not a single recruit in the whole battalion. It is them The brigade is currently the only fully-organized battalion.
One of the battalion commanders and instructors was the company commander of the 29th Army at that time. He had fought against the Japanese army at Marco Polo Bridge. After joining the Eighth Route Army, he made extraordinary achievements many times. The troops he led were always the fire-fighting troops in the hands of the boss. One is a top student at Peking Normal School and was trained at Yan'an Anti-Japanese University. He is a rare cadre with both military and political skills.
The previous battle in the Wei family shack was so difficult that the brigade commander was not willing to move them up to join the battle. The brigade commander and he were ready to use this steel knife to the edge. This time, they set up an ambush in multiple directions, and the brigade commander also laid down a lot of weapons. With great determination, the battalion was placed on the first ambush circle.
As a result, after the battle, not even a frame was left in this battalion, and a steel knife was just broken. As a political commissar, he didn't feel bad. You must know that this is the main battalion of their brigade, and also the whole brigade. The fist troops have always been used in the most critical places.
This is just a political cadre. This brigade political commissar who came down from the post of deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Political Department of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region, although he is also full of anger, can still suppress it. The battle has become like this. , now is not the time to hold people accountable.
Cao Yafan, who was afraid that the unit would be like this in the last ambush circle, did not dare to stay in Shijiazi for too long. After arranging for people to immediately take in the dead cadres, the remains of the soldiers, and treat the wounded, he sent their brigade political commissar He grabbed his jeep and immediately rushed to the battlefield from Shijiazi Nangou to Damai Gou.
Fortunately, although he had to hurry and take his time, and the straight-line distance between the two places was not far, Cao Yafan arrived in time, and finally reached the command of the brigade commander on the Shijiazi Nangou battlefield before he launched the general attack. Therefore, the scene where Shijiazi was on the front line was not replayed on another battlefield.
After the start of the Shijiazi front line, Colonel Okajima Shigetoshi, who was already surrounded by invincible troops in front and did not dare to look back, did not expect that he would bring only three remaining infantry squadrons, a machine gun squadron and a large artillery squadron. , when he entered the line from Shijiazi Nangou to Damai Gou, he plunged headlong into the last ambush circle arranged for him by Cao Yafan.
Facing the overcoming Japanese army, the brigade commander of the advancing army personally commanded the last ambush circle. He immediately mobilized the only two battalions in his hands. Under the cover of artillery fire that concentrated almost the entire brigade, he relied on the commanding heights he controlled to wait for work. Fight fiercely with the Japanese troops in front of them.
He strengthened the brigade's only six German-made MG three-four machine guns with two Maxim heavy machine guns to contain the front of Damaigou at the exit of the entire mountain road. With the high rate of fire of this German-made machine gun, he used the cover of the terrain to kill The Japanese army's breakout route was tightly sealed, and at the same time, twelve Type 92 heavy machine guns from two battalions and two heavy machine gun companies, as well as some strengthened light machine guns, were deployed in cross-firing circles around each commanding height.
The main force of the mountain artillery battalion of the brigade was deployed in the post-war flank direction of Damai Gou, specifically to suppress the enemy's group charge. The infantry artillery company of the regiment was deployed in Damai Gou Tun, specifically to attack the Japanese machine gun positions in advance, and Suppress the enemy's deep strength.
On both sides of the mountain road, he did not deploy the firepower points on the ridge, but placed them all on the front and flanks of the mountainside. At the same time, he moved all the mortars up the mountain and deployed them on the reverse slopes of the mountains on both sides of the mountain road. Field telephone lines were set up between the positions.
He also gathered a group of sharpshooters to form a combat team and used the terrain to ambush the enemy's grenadiers. In order to ensure the safety of the machine gun position, he repeatedly told these sharpshooters not to shoot, and nothing else. Never mind, the only thing they need to do is to absolutely not let the Japanese grenade launchers get within a hundred meters of the machine gun position.
This brigade commander, who had been dealing with the Japanese army behind enemy lines in North China for four years, knew very well the power of grenade launchers. Once the Japanese grenade launchers were allowed to get within a hundred meters of the machine gun position, the machine gun position would be vulnerable to such attacks. When it came over, it was an almost silent weapon with no defensive capabilities at all.
In previous anti-mopping operations in North China, the Japanese grenadiers brought great harm to the troops' machine guns. In the absence of heavy weapons, machine guns, especially light machine guns, almost outnumbered the firepower of all troops in North China. The pillars, once the small number of light machine guns are knocked out, the entire defense line will basically collapse.
Without the cover of the machine gun, it would be difficult to withstand the Japanese attack with a rifle with little ammunition and homemade grenades. With previous experience, the brigade commander knew very well that in this battle, in order to achieve For your own tactical purpose, each machine gun position is key.
Especially on the front line of Damaigou, only one company was deployed. Those German machine guns were almost the core of the entire defense. If these German machine guns were knocked out, the strength of the only company alone would be ineffective no matter what. It could not withstand the Japanese army's repeated attacks for a long time.
Once the front line of Damai Gou was broken through by the Japanese, the entire battlefield would collapse. He was not worried about the Japanese artillery. In his eyes, in this kind of close combat, no matter how good the Japanese infantry and artillery coordination capabilities were, they could not be used. What he was most worried about was the large number of grenade launchers that the Japanese army was equipped with and which posed the greatest threat to machine gun fire.
This device requires almost no position when launching, is extremely convenient to fight, and is silent. Not only the original Anti-Union, but also suffered countless heavy losses in the pass, whether on the battlefield behind enemy lines or on the front battlefield, but the Anti-Union is To deal with this thing, six-zero guns are equipped.
Although the advancing army is also equipped with some such light mortars manufactured by the Anti-League, the number of them is not large due to the production capacity of the Anti-League. The close support firepower is still based on captured grenades. Therefore, when it is necessary to target other directions, the limited 60 guns cannot be concentrated on this one thing.
It was also in the pass that he suffered countless heavy losses. During the preparations, he paid special attention to the Japanese grenadiers, specially arranged a group of sharpshooters, and equipped them with the best rifles. He gave these people The order was that even if the Japanese troops rushed in front of us, they would be left alone.
They have only one mission, which is to keep a close eye on the Japanese grenade launcher. They must not let the Japanese grenade launcher knock out a machine gun, and their own grenade launcher is reinforced by him in the machine gun position. On the top, only attack the Japanese tactical team and block the areas where the Japanese army may set up machine guns.
Compared with the Shijiazi front-line fight, relying on bayonets to see red, they killed the battalion commanders of three dissatisfied infantry squadrons of the Japanese army. After all, this brigade commander was a veteran cadre who had served as regimental commander during the Red Army, and he was responsible for the ambush. He is much more experienced, and his firepower deployment has certain characteristics and is quite targeted.
In his opinion, the line from Shijiazi Nangou to Damai Gou is the only way for the Japanese army to retreat from the battlefield east of Luofugou. This line is basically mountainous. Whether the Japanese army is heading towards Chaoyang or Jianping, He had to pass through here to break through, so he believed that there was no need to worry about the Japanese vanguard and scout troops. After discovering his ambush, he would choose other routes.
As long as you keep the Japanese troops who are breaking out of the encirclement here, the Japanese troops will have almost no choice but to desperately break out of the encirclement. And as long as you keep a few of the most important commanding heights, you can suppress the Japanese troops on the mountain road. At that time, he could calmly eat the surrounded Japanese soldiers one bite at a time.
Of course, he knew that even if he concentrated two battalions here, he would not have much advantage in terms of strength comparison, so he wisely chose to use firepower instead of troops to block the Japanese breakout route, and he deployed more firepower.
It was heavy at the front and light at the back. All machine guns were placed on the front line so as to inflict maximum damage to the Japanese troops who broke through in the shortest time.
Use the few artillery in your hands to divide them into several clusters, each locking the target, marking the entire mountain road's firing range, and specifically attacking the Japanese troop clusters, and absolutely not allowing the Japanese troops to gather together. In the entire firepower deployment, they also adopt
It combines points and surfaces, mainly using points, and using point-shaped cross-fire control surfaces.
In order to ensure that this battle can maximize the concentration of troops, he even moved a battalion deployed in Tangjiazhangzi and the attached artillery to the front line of Damai Gou, so that if necessary, he could attack Damai Gou as soon as possible.
Front-line reinforcements ensure the encirclement and annihilation of the enemy in front of you.