Chapter 189: The Destruction of the Seventy-two Division One
Of course, in order to achieve the overall strategic purpose, Uchiyama Eitaro's painstaking efforts are not just so much. In order to support and protect the Zaonan battlefield, and ensure the safety of the 100 divisions marching north from Jinan, as well as the fourth independent tank brigade
, the most important thing is to allow the 72nd Division to persist as much as possible, Uchiyama Eitaro almost tried his best.
Not only did he invest all the dozens of aircraft he had left in his hands, but he also put all the aviation forces mobilized by the navy to support the battlefield. He even used all the Jinan city defense anti-aircraft guns and strengthened them.
To this hundred divisions.
In order to ensure the safety of the Jinpu Railway, he ordered the Japanese troops staying in various places to arrest the Chinese along the Jinpu Road and place them on the Jinpu Road as human shields. The bombers of the Anti-Japanese Alliance and the small units of the Shandong South Military Region of the 18th Army were
, cannot bomb and destroy the Jinpu Railway without scruples to ensure the smooth flow of the Jinpu Railway.
With Eitaro Uchiyama's heavy investment, in the entire Zaonan battlefield, except for the main attack direction of the 118th Division in the west, the fighting has been extremely brutal. In the southeast, the ground forces of the Chinese and Japanese armies have not yet come into contact.
, but the fierce battle in the air has already begun. Fighter groups from both sides continue to engage in large-scale air battles in the air in order to compete for air supremacy.
The attack aircraft groups and bomber groups on both sides are also constantly braving the enemy's ground firepower, pouring all the ammunition they can throw at the opponent's ground troops. However, compared to the Japanese army, which only has ordinary explosive bombs and incendiary bombs,
There are many more types of air-to-ground weapons that can be used by the anti-alliance attack fleet.
However, although Chen Hanzhang transferred the Il-2 attack aircraft group to the southeast of the Zaonan battlefield, they continued to brave the Japanese ground artillery fire and the interception of air fighter planes to carry out a large number of attacks against the Japanese 100th Division. But in the Japanese ground and air
The result of the pincer attack was unsatisfactory.
Fortunately, this attack aircraft has an advantage, that is, it is quite strong. The Japanese army's small-caliber anti-aircraft weapons and airborne weapons will not cause fatal losses as long as they do not hit the fatal part. Many attack aircraft groups were hit with holes all over their bodies.
They all struggled to return to the base. However, the excessive ground firepower of the Japanese army and the interception by aerial fighter planes also greatly reduced the effectiveness of the attack.
However, the attack fleet of the Anti-Japanese Alliance in this air battle was not all passive. In addition to covering the fighter jets in air combat with the Japanese fighter jets, the Il-2 attack aircraft also relied on their thick armor to surpass the firepower of the Japanese fighter jets and compete with the Japanese fighter jets.
There were air battles on more than one occasion.
Air combat between the Il-2 attack aircraft and enemy aircraft is one of the training subjects for the light attack aircraft unit of the Anti-Alliance Aviation Force. Moreover, this attack aircraft itself also has certain air combat capabilities. In the face of interception by Japanese fighter jets, it relies on thick armor and
The low-altitude performance, coupled with the rear firepower of two 23mm cannons and one 12mm machine gun, is not completely incapable of fighting back.
Since this attack aircraft was put into the battlefield, it has been swarming with anti-Japanese tanks and has become the most troublesome weapon for the Japanese army's air defense and aviation units. The Il-2 attack aircraft has thick armor and powerful firepower. In many cases, it took more than a dozen shots from the Japanese army.
Twenty-millimeter machine gun shells are nothing, so why bother doing it so arrogantly?
The main firepower of the Japanese infantry ground air defense is the 13mm anti-aircraft machine gun. There is no way to use this kind of aircraft. The bullets are all shot out and the aircraft is like nothing. The Japanese army is not equipped with various capabilities like their allies in the West, the Germans.
Excellent anti-aircraft gun. The performance of the 25mm anti-aircraft gun equipped by the army is still very poor, and the firepower density is also very insufficient.
As for the onboard machine guns of Japanese fighter jets, they are even more incompetent. It is extremely difficult for Japanese fighter jets with relatively weak firepower to shoot down such an aircraft. In many cases, the onboard ammunition is all used up, and it is not necessarily shot down.
One. You should be careful not to be bitten by this kind of aircraft.
During this battle, an Il-2 attack aircraft was flanked by two Japanese fighter jets when it raided the Japanese marching column. The pilot piloting this Il-2 attack aircraft was a veteran and cooperated with the machine gun shooter behind him.
Coupled with the two powerful 23mm cannons equipped on this aircraft, it actually shot down both Japanese fighter jets in an air battle.
Although the plane was riddled with holes in the air battle, the rear shooter was seriously injured, and even one of the landing gear was knocked off. However, it still relied on the pilot's excellent flying skills and its own thick armor.
He still struggled and flew back.
Although the Il-2 attack aircraft has thick armor, it also has a certain amount of air combat firepower. In previous battles, there are many examples of shooting down Japanese fighter jets. But shooting down two fighter jets at once was the first record. But under the full strength of the Japanese fighter jets
Under the interception and intensive firepower on the ground, the attack aircraft group deployed by the Anti-Japanese Alliance slowed down the speed of the 100th Division in the ground attack, but the effect was always unsatisfactory.
Coupled with Eitaro Uchiyama's painstaking calculations, the entire Fourth Independent Tank Brigade was dispersed and deployed from the station to the battlefield. Although the attached trucks suffered considerable losses, the tanks that were destroyed by the aerial anti-alliance attack fleet
There are only more than ten vehicles. Although this loss is considered to be a heavy loss for the Fourth Independent Tank Brigade, it is far from the point of damaging the muscles and bones, and its strength is basically maintained intact.
In other words, although the attack fleet invested by Chen Hanzhang weakened the Japanese army to a certain extent, it was far from reaching his original strategic goal. However, the desperate assault of the attack aircraft fleet also slowed down the Japanese army's advance speed, creating a new situation for the ground combat troops in the new era.
Before the reinforcements arrived, it took a considerable amount of time to completely eliminate the 72nd Division.
Hou Guozhong, who was in charge of the Zaonan battlefield, ignored the desperate attacks of the 118th Division on his left wing and commanded his troops to launch continuous attacks on the 72nd Division. Especially the 134th and 155th divisions that had been separated.
The few remnants of this regiment were facing increasingly fierce attacks.
Although the support aircraft deployed by Eitaro Uchiyama continued to carry out desperate attacks on the ground to cooperate with the remnants of the 72nd Division, they were struggling to support themselves. Although the fighter jets were entangled by the Japanese Army and Navy fighter groups escorting them, the anti-alliance ground artillery fire was also
Not for free.
The Anti-League ground air defense firepower cluster uses quadruple-mounted, twin-mounted 14mm anti-aircraft machine guns, dual 23mm anti-aircraft guns, and the Anti-League’s own improved twin-mounted 37mm anti-aircraft guns, forming a multi-layered anti-aircraft defense system.
Air firepower network. The attack aircraft group invested by the Japanese army did not have as thick armor as the Il-2 attack aircraft, and their strike resistance was far inferior to the Il-2 attack aircraft invested by the Anti-Japanese Alliance.
In the face of the ground anti-aircraft firepower of the Anti-Japanese Army in Zaonan battlefield, which was far superior to that of the Japanese army, the Japanese attack aircraft group suffered a heavy blow. Especially the four-unit 14mm anti-aircraft machine gun and the twin-unit 23mm anti-aircraft gun.
Intensive fire net. Within one day, more than ten Type 99 light bombers deployed by the Japanese Army and Comet attack aircraft deployed by the Navy were shot down.
For the Japanese pilots who had survived the disaster, this was the first time they had seen such intensive ground-to-air firepower. The intensive anti-aircraft fire and anti-aircraft machine gun fire left them with almost nowhere to hide in the air. Before the huge losses, the Navy
After losing more than ten attack aircraft, the aviation force first withdrew from the battlefield and switched to conducting air strikes on the rear of the anti-alliance front-line troops.
After the naval aviation withdrew its direct support to the 72nd Division, the strength left behind was already insufficient. After the withdrawal of the Hainan Airlines, the Army Aviation, which was even more helpless, had no choice but to give up its air support to the 72nd Division.
Without air support, and with reinforcements still unable to approach, the 72nd Division was even more difficult to support.
Deployed on the right wing of the Zaonan frontal battlefield, the 155th Regiment, which suffered the heaviest losses under the attack on the first day of the Anti-Japanese War, became the first straw to fall. The remaining strength of the 115th Regiment was originally
If we turn our full strength to relying on the villages to hold on, we will barely be able to hold on for a while.
However, under the order of Lieutenant General Chiba Kumaharu to use the cover of night to reduce the number of troops as much as possible and move closer to the friendly 134th Regiment. During the whole night attack, not only were they unable to attack the enemy
The scattered troops gathered together to change the overall divided situation.
After a whole night of night fighting, the troops that were originally in chaos completely lost their little vitality. The troops that could barely manage to fight as a squadron were under the cross fire of the Anti-Alliance.
After falling into a more fragmented situation, the anti-alliance troops attacked by it frontally were eaten and eliminated one by one under the cover of tanks.
In order to deal with the Japanese army as quickly as possible, not only did the Anti-Japanese Alliance invest in the tank troops that had completed the encirclement, they adopted the tactic of centripetal attack, squeezing and dividing them from the surrounding area. Even the artillerymen used the tactic of attaching bayonets to the cannons,
The 76mm cannon advanced to the Japanese position and eliminated the Japanese firepower points one by one.
In particular, direct-aimed artillery, which poses a greater threat to tanks, is unable to exert its anti-tank power under the close-range shooting of the 76mm cannon. As soon as it fires, it is quickly captured, and together with the gunner, it is captured by the 70-mm cannon.
The six-millimeter artillery shell exploded into a pile of parts.
The anti-Japanese artillerymen went crazy, and even put their 150mm howitzers into front-line fire. Wherever the artillery guide in front fired the signal flare, the artillery shells hit. It was like target practice, and the Japanese troops were firmly entrenched.
Villages were razed to the ground one by one.
After exhausting the last bit of vitality in the night battle, the 155th Regiment, which originally had only two brigades, failed to hold on until the dusk of the next day. By the afternoon of the second day of the battle, except for a few small groups of troops that had broken up,
, the main force was completely eliminated. Its regiment leader, Takaichi Nishioka, was crushed by the rushing anti-alliance tank troops together with his regiment headquarters in an underground hideout outside Caozhuang.
Compared to Colonel Takahiro Nishioka who rigidly followed Lieutenant General Chiba Kumaharu's orders, Colonel Sei Suzuki, captain of the 134th Regiment, was actually very smart. As for the division commander's order to gather the troops at night, he thought it was unrealistic.
He only carried out part of it. He just ordered the troops he could contact to move closer and then rely on the occupied villages to stand firm.
However, the 134th Regiment was still able to barely persevere. Not all of them were led by Takaichi Nishioka, who did not strictly follow the orders of their superiors. They just relied on the occupied villages to stand by and wait for reinforcements, which made the 134th Regiment stand firm.
He was able to retain as much vitality as possible during the night battle.
The most fundamental point is that the 152nd Regiment behind him, under the order of Chiba Kumaharu, managed to mobilize four infantry squadrons, and used the full cover of the aviation during the day the next day, as well as the Japanese aviation air strikes to counter the alliance's long-range artillery fire.
The interference caused by the reduced intensity of fire blockade brought opportunities.
They forcibly crossed the Qingliang River to bypass the Xuxintun line and joined the battlefield from Zhangxiutun to Encha. The four squadrons were actually intercepted by the anti-alliance firepower and blocking troops. Only a little more than two squadrons of reinforcements rushed over, becoming one, three, and four squadrons.
The team received a life-saving straw at a critical moment.