Chapter Fifty-Five Using the Protruding Part of the Foot
When the anti-alliance attack aircraft group drained all the ammunition they carried, regrouped at high speed and left the battlefield. The first brigade of Japanese tanks on the ground, which was majestic an hour ago, except for a few tanks, luckily escaped the net and survived.
In addition, most of the tanks have been completely turned into a pile of scrap metal.
Not only was the tank group almost completely destroyed, but the infantry and artillery deployed by the Japanese army to cooperate with the first tank brigade in the counterattack also suffered heavy losses. The infantry brigade that cooperated was also bombed with corpses scattered all over the field. Several Japanese troops used on the south bank of the Cao River
The artillery squadron, including its men and artillery, had been reduced to piles of spare parts. From the south bank of the Cao River to the foot of Baoding City, the remains of Japanese tanks, artillery and infantry were everywhere.
PTAB bombs and various machine guns are very lethal to Japanese tanks. For Japanese infantry and artillery, the lethality is even more amazing. A bomb in a bomb box can be 200 meters long and 15 meters wide.
The area of meters covers a tight area.
This is tantamount to a devastating disaster for an unprotected infantry group. The dense rain of bullets leaves no place for the Japanese infantry to hide. This kind of bomb is almost all-pervasive, making you vulnerable even if you lie down.
There is no way to escape, because no one can predict whether one of such a dense rain of bullets will land on your back and explode.
If Liang Futang were not worried about using up all the ammunition, his troops would no longer be able to defend themselves once they were intercepted by Japanese fighter jets. Attack aircraft from each squadron participating in the battle were strictly prohibited from using their onboard 7.62mm machine guns to continue to shoot down below
Japanese infantry.
I am afraid that even the commander of the 1st Japanese tank brigade, Major General Ano Anri, and his headquarters are also in danger. However, although his headquarters escaped due to its secret location, looking at the wreckage of tanks everywhere,
, Major General Ano Anri almost did not suffer a nervous breakdown on the spot.
If the adjutant hadn't grabbed him and pulled out the pistol, which was about to be aimed at his head. I'm afraid this deeply stimulated man would have shot himself in the head to apologize to the emperor. As for Mr. Ano Anri
In the future, he will not be able to accept the facts before him.
The main force of a tank brigade with two complete regiments was completely defeated without firing a single shot, and even before the enemy was seen. Hundreds of tanks, armored vehicles, and a large number of trucks
and infantry, were beaten to ashes by a single enemy attack aircraft group, and not a single one of them was left alive.
What caused such heavy losses to themselves was only dozens of enemy light attack aircraft. Where did the promised cover fleet of the Imperial Air Force go? Where was the promised air protection umbrella? The large number of enemy aircraft
, they bombed themselves indiscriminately for an entire hour, but did not see a single plane of their own.
Even though he has been on the battlefield for a long time, this is the first time he has seen an enemy plane that took a dozen or even dozens of rounds of anti-aircraft machine gun bullets without caring. What are these? Are these planes stronger than his own tanks?
?After an air-to-ground battle, all of his first brigade of tanks were scrapped, but not even a single enemy plane was shot down.
This result undoubtedly caused Major General Anri to suffer a double serious blow, both mentally and physically. Especially in this air-ground battle that lasted less than an hour, the battle losses incurred by both sides were extremely disastrous.
The proportional result and the seal were hard for him to accept.
Although the pistol was taken away by the adjutant, the spirit and will of Major General Anri Anri were undoubtedly completely broken. For fear of the enemy attack planes returning, the remaining dozen tanks and cars were completely destroyed.
The pot was settled. Major General Anri Anri ignored the firm opposition of Lieutenant General Yasu Sakai and handed over the defense of Baoding North to the infantry.
He himself was afraid that Lieutenant General Sakai Yasu would jump out to disrupt the situation again, and commanded the remaining troops not even to enter Baoding City, but to bypass Baoding City and retreat to Shimen to rest. As for how Lieutenant General Sakai Yasu reported to the North China Front Army and the base camp, that was his business
The first tank brigade has been drained of blood.
The Il-2 attack aircraft group combined with the PTAB bombs produced huge power. Major General Ano Anri was not the only one who was stunned. There was also an ambush circle set up on the other side of the Chao River, waiting for his tank.
The opponent of the first brigade, Chen Hanzhang, and the pair of opponents, Lieutenant General Yasu Sakai, are currently in Baoding City, waiting for his victory.
PTAB cluster bombs are naturally familiar to Chen Hanzhang, a former commander of the armored forces. During the autumn exercises, he had seen the power of such bombs with his own eyes. The aviation force's special anti-tank tactics were also in his
The final decision was made only after participation.
He knew that this bomb was a production technology that was introduced by No. 1 after painstaking negotiations with the Soviets before the war. Moreover, regardless of its level, this bomb only weighed 2.5 kilograms, which was basically the same weight as a 60 artillery shell.
.But production is a bit complicated, and it still takes a lot of effort from introduction to mass production.
He had seen the power of this kind of bomb on the training ground, but he didn't think it was any more powerful than napalm bombs against armored clusters. After all, tank clusters are not stationary and are waiting for you to come.
Fighting. When tanks are in motion, there are strict tactical requirements.
When dealing with tank fleets that are in motion and have strict spacing requirements in their marching sequence, he believes that the accuracy of this bomb is still too low, and the power of 2.5 kilograms is too small, and its power is far inferior to that of napalm bombs that burn a large area at once. In addition,
Although this kind of bomb can form a dense rain of bullets, it requires a vertical angle to exert its maximum power.
If the angle of the hit is wrong, the enemy's tank will not be destroyed. As for high-speed aircraft, in Chen Hanzhang's opinion, this is purely a matter of luck. As a senior commander, Chen Hanzhang never believed that
There is no such thing as luck on the battlefield.
But exercises and actual combat are really two different things. No one would actually conduct experiments with hundreds of tanks. At present, there are only four squadrons of attack aircraft, but they have served as an entire armored division, which requires a lot of effort.
A result that could only be achieved at a high cost. Even though some things happened for a reason, this result still shocked him.
He did not expect that this kind of inconspicuous bomb would be so powerful against Japanese tank groups and infantry groups. Two entire regiments plus more than 160 tanks directly under them, even excluding those who were killed in the battle of Wangdu on the previous day.
Of the battle losses, there are still more than 130 tanks. Even if we dispatch an armored division, it will be enough to last for a while.
Now in just one hour, there are more than a hundred tanks, a large number of armored vehicles, artillery vehicles, a large number of trucks, artillery, and infantry groups. In such a short time, they have turned into piles of
Scrap metal and corpses. In this one-hour offensive and defensive battle between the two sides, the aviation forces invested by the Anti-Japanese Alliance could be said to have suffered zero casualties.
What accomplished this result was not dozens of heavy bombers carrying dozens of tons of bombs, nor those high-explosive bombs or napalm bombs that easily weighed hundreds of kilograms. Rather, it was less than a hundred aircraft carrying only six bombs.
A 100-kilogram attack aircraft, and thousands of small bombs weighing only 2.5 kilograms. No matter what the special reason is, this cannot but make people feel terrifying.
Although flying tanks such as the Il-2 attack aircraft were obtained from the Soviet Union on the 1st, and ptab cluster anti-tank bombs were also obtained. The Il-2 attack aircraft was modified and installed with two guns with limited anti-tank capabilities.
Thirty-seven millimeter cannon pod. But Chen Hanzhang still never thought that the aircraft would be a sharp anti-tank weapon.
In his opinion, using a bomb to hit a tank that is moving at high speed requires luck and skill, and if you can hit it 10% of the time, it is a fool's errand. And after installing an aerial gun, not to mention the smaller bomb load, the power is still quite limited.
.The aircraft cannon is so powerful that the aircraft body cannot bear it. As for the rockets, their accuracy is really poor.
Therefore, Chen Hanzhang never thought that aircraft would serve as the main force in anti-tank operations. Unless strategic bombers such as B-17, B-24, and Stirling were concentrated for a carpet bombing. But that kind of bombing would not be effective against
For any army, it is a heavy burden that is difficult to bear.
After all, anti-tank warfare is not like strategic bombing of cities. Use strategic bombers or medium bombers loaded with hundreds or thousands of tons of high-explosive bombs or napalm bombs to deal with dozens or even dozens of tanks.
Cluster, this cost-effectiveness ratio is simply too unreasonable.
However, this kind of PTAB cluster bomb far exceeded the power shown in the exercises in actual combat. As well as the flexibility and power displayed by the IL-2 attack aircraft when attacking the ground. Chen Hanzhang suddenly felt a feeling in his heart: "Is it possible?
In future wars, can air superiority really determine the direction of a war?"
"Does the fate of future wars really depend on whether they can master air superiority? In a war, the side without air superiority is doomed to be the loser? Is it true that the mechanized combat mode of large corps is the only way to defeat the enemy?
Can’t do without air cover?”
This question has been swirling in Chen Hanzhang's mind for a long time, but he has not found an accurate answer in the end. But whether he can find the real answer to this question or not. But for Chen Hanzhang, this fighter plane created by the aviation force,
If you still can't catch him, then it's not him Chen Hanzhang.
As early as when the Il-2 attack aircraft group dispatched by the aviation force took turns to rain down bullets on the position of the 1st Japanese tank brigade, from the reports of forward observers, I was keenly aware of the tactics I had originally formulated. I am afraid that only
Chen Hanzhang, who was capable of change, immediately adjusted his deployment.
He used two regiments and concentrated half of the artillery cover. With the support of a tank battalion, he forced across the Cao River from the front and launched another attack on the Japanese troops north of Baoding. At the same time, he concentrated an infantry regiment to strengthen all self-propelled counterattacks.
Tank guns and two tank companies forcibly launched intersecting attacks from Longhua and Mazhuang lines at the junction of Baoding and Xushui, between Baoding City and Caoheji.
Chen Hanzhang's purpose is very simple, to cut off the connection between Baoding City and the Japanese army cluster in the north of the city. Since the Japanese army went out of the city to actively fight and created a rare fighter opportunity for himself, he must not let the Japanese army retreat back to the city. Regardless of the remaining Japanese army
No matter how many troops there are, he must not be allowed to retreat.
Because for Chen Hanzhang, dealing with the Japanese army in the north of Baoding City will be more beneficial to his next strategic deployment. On the Baoding battlefield, the protrusion where the Japanese army penetrated deep into his depth, he was still fully prepared to use such a large battlefield.
The trap only attracted so many Japanese troops, which was enough to expose the weaknesses that I had consciously exposed to the Japanese troops.
Although his plan was disrupted to a certain extent when the aviation force attacked the fleet and wiped out the first tank brigade. Chen Hanzhang still wanted to test whether the Japanese army would really be willing to give up Baoding. Using Baoding
The crisis created for the Japanese army on the battlefield attracted more Japanese troops to come to this protruding part where "the stronghold could threaten the frontal resistance flanks".