The strategic position of Meilin Bridge is extremely important. In order to ensure that "before the victory is decided on the two battlefields of Yuhu and Hetang, the position of Meilin Bridge must not be lost", Kanda Masane specially asked his most trusted brigade commander of the 11th Brigade Major General Miyamoto Zang Cunxiong led the 13th Regiment and the 6th Cavalry Regiment. The Park Mintae Regiment of the Korean Communist Army was responsible for the defense in the direction of Meilin Bridge. Regardless of the 13th Regiment and Park Mintae Regiment, the 6th Cavalry Regiment was the only Japanese army in the Xiangtan area. The tank unit of the Ministry has two heavy tank brigade, one heavy tank brigade and one tank destroyer brigade. After the change of equipment, it is considered to have the ability to compete head-on with the tank unit of the Xuexing Army. Therefore, This shows how much Kanda attaches importance to Meilin Bridge.
Aircraft, artillery and tanks were once the most trusted three-axe tactic of the Japanese army. Now, this tactic has become the patent of the Xuebing Army against them. When the Xuebing Army first used this tactic, the Japanese army did not The artillery counterattacks were the most frequent. Of course, the result was unquestionable. Although the artillery of the Xuebing Army repeatedly exposed the target first, giving the Japanese artillery the opportunity to strike later, the artillery of the Xuebing Army was basically the same. self-propelled artillery. As a result, the Japanese artillery failed to counterattack. Instead, it gave its coordinates to the opponent. After repeated defeats in artillery battles, the Japanese army began to speed up the development of self-propelled artillery. At the same time, it no longer dared to fight with The Xuebing Army engaged in an artillery battle. The Xuebing Army's three-axe tactic was almost completely plagiarized from the Japanese army. However, the Japanese army had nothing to do about it and suffered a huge loss. The Japanese dubbed it "rogue tactics" and believed that the Chinese lacked The quality and courage to engage in positional hand-to-hand combat with the imperial army can only be achieved with the help of these machines.
The war situation was critical. Miyamoto Zang Cunxiong had been sleeping in his clothes for the past few days. Therefore, only about three minutes after the sound of artillery, he appeared in the combat service office fully dressed. The officer on duty immediately reported to him that China The army fired two flares, one red and one green. The general attack may be at this moment. "Have you reported it to the headquarters?" Miyamoto asked, looking at the sand table on the table.
"It has been reported. According to Mr. Ishihara who is on duty at the headquarters, they received a report from the Hetang battlefield at the same time, where the Chinese Army launched an attack at the same time."
Miyamoto nodded slightly, picked up the phone, and asked the operator to call the 6th Cavalry Regiment. Soon, the voice of Colonel Keiji Sanada, commander of the 6th Cavalry Regiment, came from the headset: "I am Keiji Sanada. , Your Excellency, may I ask what your instructions are."
"How are the preparations for Toyota's support team?"
"They're always on standby."
"Let them set off and emphasize my request again. As long as they can get a mandrill, it will be considered a success."
"Hai."
Japan has high hopes for the Zero tank destroyer, believing that it will put an end to the unbridled situation of the Mandrill heavy tanks of the Academy Army. However, in view of the lessons learned from the New Type 99 heavy tanks, the front-line officers of the Japanese army are not convinced of the so-called domestically produced heavy tanks. We no longer dare to have high hopes for new weapons. This is why Anami Weiji did not include them as a decisive strategic force. Miyamoto was originally cautiously optimistic about this so-called new tank and was attacked at Shuangqiao Airport. , after a brigade of fifty special attack aircraft suffered a devastating blow, he became more cautious. The deployment of tank destroyer units required the cooperation of other units, and if it was to be the main force, then he would have to change his previous In order to ensure everything was foolproof, he decided to conduct actual combat trials before making a decision. The Toyota Team was the product of his implementation of this plan.
Miyamoto's previous defense system did not include the Zero tank destroyer. Before Miyamoto was promoted to the commander of the 11th Brigade, he was the head of the military advisory group of a certain unit of the North Korean Communist Army. He once participated in the defensive battle of Ningbo. It is precisely because of this experience that he is very clear about the combat characteristics of the mandrill. He knows that if the mandrill's advancement speed cannot be effectively curbed, no matter how deep the defense depth is, the mandrill will tear it apart, so he While emphasizing the depth of defense, he also paid special attention to the quality of each defensive echelon. However, due to the lack of sufficient anti-tank means, he had no choice but to focus on those Zero heavy tanks. The newly produced tank destroyer of the Japanese army was named Zero. Type, the newly produced heavy tank was also named Type Zero. This is related to the Type Zero complex that has recently permeated the top brass of the Japanese army. Before the emergence of the Type Zero fighter, the Japanese army was not only unable to confront the cadet army in air combat, but was also repeatedly restrained. Regarding the US Air Force and the Soviet Russian Aviation Volunteers, although the emergence of Zero War failed to completely change this situation, it at least helped the Japanese regain their ground against the US Air Force and the Soviet Russian Aviation Volunteers. Therefore, "Zero War" "" became an auspicious phrase in the minds of the Japanese military leaders and began to be widely used in the naming of various new weapons. Through this incident, we can also see that the Japanese military leaders are at a loss of skills and they no longer face everything with an objective attitude. Although they encountered difficulties, they began to become superstitious. Does this mean that Japan has begun to decline?
What's ridiculous is that the Zero heavy tank, which the senior Japanese officials at the Tokyo base camp had high hopes for, in their imagination should be used to charge into battles and seize territory to continue the imperial army's military prowess, was now used by Miyamoto as a fortress. Something that was enough to shame the designers of the Zero heavy tank into tears was that Miyamoto was worried that the armor of this new type of tank was not strong enough to defend against Mandrill's artillery, so he specially installed steel plates on the outside of their armor. Therefore, a good heavy tank that at least looked majestic on the outside has now been directly transformed into a pile of steel. Not only does it look like there is no change in the tank, but many of its original performances have also been affected. For example, the rotation speed of its turret has been reduced several times, and there will be a creaking sound every time it rotates.
Miyamoto used the Zero heavy tank as a fortress. This approach was tantamount to treating the Phoenix like a chicken. Naturally, it aroused the dissatisfaction of Sanada Keiji and the tank brigade commander Major Akino San. Among them, Akino San reacted particularly strongly. He even found Miyamoto directly put the command knife to his abdomen, threatening Miyamoto that if he did not take back this order, he would have a disembowelment to protest. In response, Miyamoto's few words made him look sad, and he did not dare to have any objections from then on. Miyamoto asked him at that time: "Major Akino, have you ever fought against the Xuebing Army?"
Akino shook his head,
"So do you know the performance parameters of the mandrill?"
"Know a little bit."
"Hmph, do you know the armor-piercing thickness of the tank gun equipped by the Mandrill?"
"I know this, fifty millimeters."
"Wrong, it's one hundred and five millimeters, and that's without using special armor-piercing bullets."
The reconnaissance planes and fighter planes of the Xuebing Army visited the Japanese position at Meilin Bridge several times every day. Therefore, when small dirt bags suddenly appeared on the Japanese position two days ago, this abnormality was immediately reported to He Zhengjiang. There,
Based on past experience, He Zhengjiang initially thought that these were bunkers built by the Japanese army. However, as subsequent bombing and shelling failed to destroy these bunkers, he began to pay attention to these bunkers and targeted them at the pre-war meeting. sexual arrangement,