It’s just that Lieutenant General Yuan Mamoru has been looking forward to it, and it is also the aviation support promised by the North China Front Army. It is not yet known when it will arrive. However, around the battlefield where he is located, the sound of artillery that has been silent for a whole night is the first to attack it.
The front and flanks of the house echoed intensively again.
The artillery shells fired from the depths of the Anti-Japanese Alliance hit hard on the heads of the main force of the 9th Division on the front line of Hulangzhuang and the Marine Corps on the left. From Hulangzhuang to Sunzhengzhuang, all Japanese troops were submerged.
In the midst of a pouring rain made of steel.
With the sound of artillery, senior Japanese generals including Okamura Neiji, Uchiyama Eitaro, the commander of the 47th Army, Kametsuki Yoshio, and Hara Mamoru, the newest lieutenant general to join the war, and the division commander, etc.
It was a question that was quite puzzling to everyone. With this intensive cannon fire, the truth was finally revealed.
The anti-alliance tank cluster that the entire North China Front Army had tried so hard to find had finally appeared. The location of the appearance was absolutely unknown to Lieutenant Generals Yuan Mamoru and Sekihara Sixth, who were fighting on the front line, and their subordinates.
Not a good thing.
Lieutenant General Yuan Shou finally waited for the arrival of dawn in panic. But as the morning light rose and the sound of anti-Union artillery sounded again, the frontal battlefield of Qikou started from Sunzhengzhuang in the north and ended in the south.
On the front line of Sanhuzhuang, a large number of anti-alliance tank groups appeared. Under the cover of infantry, they launched a full-line attack on the two wings and front of the Japanese army in front of the entire Qikou battlefield.
Facing the front and the two flanks, a group of tanks seemed to suddenly appear from the ground, as well as a large number of infantry. As well as the overwhelming artillery shells falling overhead, Lieutenant General Yuan Mamoru was dumbfounded.
Order all ministries to immediately switch to defense across the board.
He also ordered the Marine Special Marines under his command in Sunzhengzhuang, as well as the troops staying on the beach, to immediately move closer to Hulangzhuang and the main force of the Ninth Division. At the same time, he telegraphed Lieutenant General Sekihara Six, hoping that his four
The Fourteenth Division also moved closer to Hulangzhuang at the same time in order to hold the two divisions together to form a complete defense system.
However, Lieutenant General Sekihara No. 6 never gave any reply to his opinion. Looking at the telescope in the direction of Sanhuzhuang, he saw the billowing smoke and flames rising into the sky, as well as the continuous circling of the heads of the 44th Division.
Lieutenant General Yuan Shou sighed slightly and never ordered to contact the 44th Division again.
The actual ground operation had just begun, but contact with the neighboring 44th Division was lost, which undoubtedly cast a dark shadow on the operation. What made Lieutenant General Yuan Mamoru even more troubled was that now he not only
Lost contact with the 44th Division, and all radio communications with his superior, Lieutenant General Yoshio Kamizuki, including with the North China Front Army Headquarters, were also interrupted at the same time.
Watching the radio operators desperately calling the army commander, but never getting any response, several high-power radio stations in the division headquarters were as silent as death. Lieutenant General Yuan Mamoru, who had an ominous premonition in his heart, immediately
Contact the beachhead defenders and ask them to hold on to the beachhead position at all costs and reserve the last channel for the entire army to retreat when needed.
But the beachhead also remained silent in response to his call. The only answer that could give him was the billowing smoke and fire rising from the beachhead. He hesitated, and after confirming that the radio contact was lost.
Lieutenant General Mamoru dispatched one of his best staff officers, immediately returned to the beachhead, and conveyed the order to Colonel Okunobu who was stationed at the beachhead.
Although the situation on the beachhead is not very optimistic at the moment. Lieutenant General Yuan Shou still has some luck. After all, it has only been bombed and has not been attacked by the ground for the time being. Maybe the losses will be huge.
It's serious, but there may be hope of saving the situation.
Lieutenant General Yuan Shou's reaction must be said to be quite fast, but Du Kaishan, who has been planning for a long time, if he can achieve his goal, wouldn't it be that all his planning for so long was in vain? It was not easy to attract the Japanese troops who landed.
, how could he let go of this rare opportunity?
Moreover, the two armored divisions and an independent tank regiment in his hands accounted for more than half of the tanks in the entire Hebei battlefield. If he couldn't make a great success and swallow up the Japanese troops on the Qikou front line in one go, he would have to go back to Kaishan.
They didn't have the shame to show up to others. So when Du Kaishan came up, he went all out and played all the cards in his hand.
After launching a full-line counterattack, Du Kaishan used the 1st Armored Division and a tank battalion to strengthen the strength of a regiment and penetrated directly into Sunzhengzhuang. The main force of the 1st Armored Division merged with two infantry regiments, and the target was the Japanese 9th Division. Forty
The combined part of the two divisions of the Fourth Division, and attacked Sun Zhengzhuang's Marine Corps first.
At the same time, the Second Armored Division and an independent tank regiment were used to strengthen an infantry division and a strengthened infantry regiment to launch a two-wing attack from Taiping Town in the north and Xinzhuang in the south. Du Kaishan's determination was very clear.
All the Japanese troops participating in the battle from Sunzhengzhuang to Sanhuzhuang gave him a pot.
Du Kaishan planned to first deal with the weakest link among all the Japanese troops who landed in Sunzhengzhuang. The overall intention was very clear, which was to deal with the weakest group of Japanese troops first and break up the entire Japanese army in front of Qikou.
One arm, and its left wing serves as the entire breakthrough.
At the same time that Du Kaishan launched the attack, almost all the anti-Japanese aviation attack aircraft groups and some bomber groups stationed in the North China battlefield were dispatched. Using high-explosive bombs and napalm bombs, they attacked the Qikou line in the east and Sunzhengzhuang in the west.
Go to the front line of Sanhuzhuang to carry out large-scale air strikes.
The air support expected by Lieutenant General Yuan Shou did not arrive, and the bombs of the aviation forces dispatched by the Anti-Japanese Alliance fell overwhelmingly. Especially the troops who were left behind by Lieutenant General Yuan Shou on the Qikou front line and landed on the beachhead position were dispatched by the Anti-Japanese Alliance to attack.
The aircraft group and the bomber group bear the brunt of the ground attack.
The aviation force dispatched by the Anti-Japanese Alliance was very beneficial to the Japanese troops who stayed at Qikou and Zhangjuhe front-line beaches. Compared with the Il-2 attack aircraft and SBD dive bombers deployed on the front-line anti-Japanese forces at Hulangzhuang, plus all the gunships, they used light to attack the ground.
A fleet dominated by attack aircraft.
In order to give enough face to the Japanese troops who stayed on the beachhead at Qikou, a total of fifty-four B-25 bombers were dispatched, plus part of the British Wellington medium bomber group. Regardless of the sparse anti-aircraft fire on the ground, the Japanese troops dispatched a total of fifty-four B-25 bombers.
From a height of 100 meters, there was a direct carpet bombing of the Japanese positions in the entire Qikou beach area from north to south.
After first baptizing the entire Japanese beachhead from Qikou to Zhangjuhe with tons of high-explosive bombs, before the remaining Japanese troops could take a breath, more than ten B-24 heavy bombers followed, with thirty
Tons of napalm bombs ignited the line from Qikou to Zhangjuhe into sky-high fires.
On this unobstructed beachhead, the Japanese troops who were left by Lieutenant General Yuan to defend the beach in order to reserve a retreat route for themselves when the war situation was unfavorable. The bomber group dispatched by the Anti-Japanese Alliance carried out a carpet-type
Heavy casualties occurred under the cluster bombing.
The lethality of high-explosive bombs and napalm bombs turned the entire Qikou and Zhangjuhe lines into a living hell that continuously devoured Japanese troops. Fires ignited by dozens of tons of napalm bombs and a large amount of combat materials were ignited and then rose.
The black smoke can be seen clearly from more than ten kilometers away.
Although the supplies and heavy equipment that were finally delivered ashore were covered with camouflage nets, and some camouflage was used as much as possible in an attempt to protect these supplies that were extremely critical to subsequent operations, there would be no accidents before the transfer was completed. But unfortunately
What we encountered was carpet bombing, and those camouflage nets had no effect at all.
Piling up on the Qikou and Zhangjuhe lines, these trucks were either destroyed along with the landing ships or were bombed and sunk at the bottom of the sea, resulting in a serious lack of transportation capacity. Materials and heavy equipment that had not yet had time to play the role that the Japanese army expected them to play. Almost all of them were in
The remaining embers were lost in the bombing and fire. This included almost all the reserve ammunition of the Japanese army ashore, as well as a full seven days of combat rations.
In fact, the cost-effectiveness of carpet bombing field targets is actually very low. However, after the Anti-Japanese League stopped shelling, a large number of combat supplies were rushed to the beach in Qikou, and there was still time to evacuate due to transportation capacity constraints.
For the Japanese army, the effect of this bombing was exactly the opposite.
Although this bombing seems a bit wasteful, the results achieved are quite rich. In addition to the heavy casualties of the Japanese troops who stayed on the beach, almost all the Japanese supplies hoarded on the beach were destroyed. There is no doubt that Du Kaishan's next battle will be
, played a crucial role in removing fuel from the cauldron.
Du Kaishan's move can be said to have hit the waist of the two Japanese divisions that landed. Without ammunition and food, even if Du Kaishan cannot solve these two Japanese divisions in a short time, at least he can
Let them lose the ability to continue fighting.
At least the two Japanese divisions that landed have used up all the ammunition in their hands. Unless the Japanese army resupplies, all their guns will be silenced. This is a considerable amount of damage to their heavy weapons during the transportation process.
This was definitely not good news for the Japanese army, which was large and carried even less ammunition with its troops.
Similar to the fact that there was no longer a source of reserve ammunition, the two Japanese divisions participating in the war had no place to go to the war zone east of Jinpu Road after they had completed clearing the country. Even if they wanted to requisition them on the spot, they had no place to go to the war zone east of Jinpu Road. Or they had to use up the few field food they carried with them.
Before the battle is over, find a way to break through the resistance of the Anti-Japanese Alliance. Or, the whole army should show a style of disregarding hunger and fight the enemy bloody to the end.
Although the entire coast of the Bohai Bay has begun to turn green, and wild vegetables all over the ground are gradually beginning to appear. But for the Japanese who have never had the tradition of eating wild vegetables, it is impossible for them to eat those grasses. At least those are edible.
Yes, those are inedible, they can't tell them apart at all.
What really had a decisive impact on the battle situation during Du Kaishan's bombing of Qikou and Zhangjuhe beachheads was not how many Japanese troops were wiped out during the bombing, but the destruction of the Japanese troops that had been intercepted by his long-range artillery fire.
Even if there are not many reserve combat materials, it will greatly weaken the Japanese army's continuous combat capability, which is truly fatal to the Japanese army.
The Ninth Division, which finally managed to survive the bomber group of the Anti-Japanese Alliance, was left by the former Lieutenant General to hold on to the beachhead position to ensure the final retreat of the two divisions participating in the war. Colonel Okunobu, captain of the 35th Regiment, could only
I looked at the messy beachhead with tears in my eyes.
After losing the captain, the part of the 94th Regiment of the 44th Division that was placed under his command, together with the remaining four squadrons of his 35th Regiment, are now very few. Not to mention
He went to meet the main force of the division in front, even if he wanted to hold on to the beach, he no longer had the strength.