Chapter 2222 Decisive Battle at the Fifty Degrees Line
9pm Chang'an time.om
An Yi was discussing frontline material support and supply issues with General Chang Baofang, Director of the General Logistics Department, and Lieutenant General Shen Yanxiang, Director of the General Logistics Department at Longtan Base Camp. Lieutenant General Li Yufu, Director of the General Staff Communications Department, walked into the office and whispered to An Yi:
"President Roosevelt sent a telegram to thank the Chairman for his congratulatory message on his successful election as President of the United States for the fourth time. President Roosevelt hopes to meet with the Chairman, Chairman Chiang, Prime Minister Churchill and Stalin at an appropriate time to discuss post-war policy Japan and Germany, as well as consultations on post-war world arrangements, as well as Poland, Eastern European countries, Asia-Pacific, America, the United Nations and other issues."
Due to the unusually intense war in North America, with Japanese and American troops fighting fiercely on the west coast and central regions of North America, the U.S. election was postponed by one month compared to the same period in history. The election that was supposed to be decided on the 17th of last month has been postponed to the 10th of this month. At the end of seven days, Roosevelt won the election by a narrow margin of 502%, defeating Republican presidential candidate Thomas Dewey, and his running mate Truman became the 34th Vice President.
When the dust settled on the election results, An Yi immediately sent a congratulatory telegram to Roosevelt.
An Yi took the telegram from Li Yufu and after reading it, he closed his eyes and thought silently.
According to the time, this conference initiated by Roosevelt should be the Yalta Conference in the previous life. Different from history, the three powers of Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union were severely weakened. South China rose strongly, and the National Government was stronger than the same period in history, so it was expanded from the three countries to Five countries.
Today, in order to maintain the line of communication with South China, the German army clings to Ukraine and the lower Don River and the Caucasus region on the southern line of the Soviet-German battlefield. The Soviet army has not made a breakthrough in the south, and the Crimean Peninsula is still firmly in German hands. Here, I guess there won’t be a meeting in Yalta.
As for the Tehran Conference held in the previous life, because the Soviet Union is far more difficult than the same period in history, there is no sign of it being held until now. Depending on the situation, it will be held with the five-nation summit meeting. It is not possible to hold it separately.
In this case, An Yi's heart moved, he opened his eyes, took out a pen and paper from the drawer in front of him, drafted a message at his desk, revised it slightly and handed it to Li Yufu: "Send it out immediately!"
After Li Yufu was ordered to leave, Chang Baofang and Shen Yanxiang saw that it was late and stood up to leave. Now An's army was fighting in Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia at the same time. The work of the General Logistics Department was complicated, and An Yi did not hold back and sent the two out of the office. Then he returned to Xuan Huang Palace, still thinking about the meeting in Tehran.
At eight o'clock in the morning the next day, it was dawn on Sakhalin Island. Although the sky was filled with snowflakes, the commander of the Anton Military Region, General Mu Zhuiyi, who rushed to the Parevo front line, still issued an order to the troops to attack across the entire front. , for a time, thousands of heavy artillery roared like an overwhelming roar, throwing hundreds of tons of hot steel at the 50° north latitude defense line that the Japanese army was proud of.
At the foot of the West Sakhalin Mountains in the western section of the defense line, amid the loud sound of the charge, the officers and soldiers of the 422nd Infantry Regiment of the 91st Infantry Division of the 31st Group Army took the lead and violently attacked the Japanese defense line. However, they were blocked by solid fortifications.
Although the previous long-term shelling had plowed up the barbed wire fences and minefields built by the Japanese army, most of the solid fortifications built by the Japanese army over the years were still there and did not suffer much damage from the covering shelling by the Anjia Army. The first division will face a tough battle.
Due to the snow falling in the sky, strong winds and extremely low visibility, the Anjiajun Air Force and Army Aviation Force did not send out reinforcements, and had to rely on the Army to fight a bloody path on its own.
Over the years, the Anjia Army has become accustomed to fighting operations with air support. Two days ago, when the General Staff was reviewing the battle plan of the Andong Military Region, they made a decision based on cloud images taken by meteorological satellites and atmospheric information in Northeast Asia detected by radar.
Weather forecast. It is recommended to choose another date and wait until the weather is clear before going out to fight, so as to facilitate air-ground coordination.
But An Yi has a different view.
The climate in Northeast Asia, especially Sakhalin Island, is complex. We have to wait for suitable weather, and we don’t know how long the war will be delayed. Also, retreating when encountering difficulties will make the troops arrogant. In the two years since the establishment of the Andong Military Region,
What I have been practicing is fighting in extremely cold areas at high latitudes. It is time for the mule or the horse to be pulled out. The 50° north latitude defense line built by the Japanese army in front of me is the best touchstone.
In this case, the battle plan of the Anton Military Region was approved.
At this moment, on the front line, the officers and soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the 422nd Infantry Regiment who were rushing at the front were blocked by eight large Japanese bunker groups in a line. The Japanese soldiers continued to attack them with light and heavy machine guns and cannons hidden in the fortresses.
Fierce fire was coming from the front, but the Type II and Type III rocket launchers in the hands of the Anjia Army infantry, as well as the mortars and recoilless rifles assigned to the company platoon, seemed helpless in the face of the reinforced concrete fortifications on the gentle slope ahead.
Seeing a squad of soldiers fall on the charging road, Major He Renjun, commander of the first battalion, ordered the troops to spread out and hide, took the walkie-talkie from the hand of the correspondent carrying the walkie-talkie, and shouted loudly: "Regiment headquarters? Firepower
Support! We need fire support!"
As a veteran who joined the army in Jining City in 1937, He Renjun, who has been in the army for seven years, will not let his soldiers use their flesh and blood to attack the Japanese army's strong bunkers. Before the war, the group army put two independent heavy tank brigades
Attached to the front line, as a strong support for the attack, there is currently a tank company on standby behind the first battalion, so He Renjun called for support through the walkie-talkie.
"What's your name, He Renjun, you damn fool, don't let me off the hook at the critical moment..." The Sichuan dialect of the regiment leader, Colonel An Chuzhou, came from the headphones on He Renjun's head.
An Chuzhou was an orphan adopted in Ya'an, the capital of Xikang Province, in 1932 after An Yi took over the Xu government. He was already twelve years old at the time. An Chuzhou's skin has been dark since he was a child, and his parents are probably Tibetan or Yi.
However, when he received systematic cultural knowledge education at the Boy Scout School and established a correct outlook on life and world view, he did not hesitate to identify his ethnic group as Han. He was fifteen years old at this time.
In the summer of 1936, when An Chuzhou was sixteen years old, he successfully graduated from the Boy Scout Academy. However, because he was not very enthusiastic about learning, he directly signed up to join the army when filling out his application form and was assigned to the Independent Division Model Camp in North China.
Later, he participated in the Anti-Japanese War in North China, narrowly escaped death and was seriously injured. He was awarded the second-class personal merit.
After recovering from his injury in 1938, he was recommended by the General Political Department to the Xufu Military Academy to study special majors. After graduating in 1940, he was assigned to the 31st Group Army as a captain and company commander because of the lack of cadres in the north. In the following four years, he
He has successively served as deputy battalion commander, battalion commander, regimental chief of staff, deputy regimental commander, regimental commander and other positions. At the age of 24 this year, he is only two steps away from becoming a general.
He Renjun knew the temper of his regiment commander, so he pretended to be aggrieved and said: "If we really make up our minds, grit our teeth and fight to destroy our battalion. I can also take down the position... But since we have heavy weapons support, we can't
It’s easy to pay for it with human lives, don’t you think so, Captain?”
"What a fool, of course you can't use human life to fill it. Your son insists on it. To fight, you have to learn to use your brain..." After An Chuzhou praised him, he said seriously: "Don't worry, I will send you a heavy tank platoon.
, we will arrive within five minutes and ask your soldiers to quickly vacate the position of the tank!"
The main body of the Japanese army's 50° defense line is built between the West Sakhalin Mountains and the East Sakhalin Mountains. The mountains on both wings are between 400 meters and 600 meters above sea level. They are easy to defend and difficult to attack. Therefore, the Anjia Army's main attack direction can only be on the two mountains.
There is a plain area of nearly 40 kilometers between them. At the same time, this is also the area with the most dense fortifications in the first line of defense of the Japanese army. The division headquarters and regiment headquarters have already equipped the assault battalion with sufficient support firepower, that is, the powerful Tiger tanks
.
He Renjun felt relieved, put down the intercom, and ordered the soldiers to get out of the way. Not long after, he heard the roar of the tank engine. He couldn't help but be overjoyed: "Our tanks are here!" He turned around and saw four big guys crushing him.
He drove towards himself through the dirty snow.
After the four huge Tiger tanks crossed a small ridge, they could already see the Japanese bunker 700 to 800 meters away. This position was at a good direct range. All four tanks stopped automatically.
The tank crews planned to rely on their heavy-armored artillery and precise fire to fire at the Japanese bunkers one by one.
However, before the tank platoon leader, Second Lieutenant Wang Peng, issued the combat order, the Japs' artillery had already opened fire. A 75mm shell accurately hit the command tank in front, sending shrapnel flying in all directions. This made the soldier hiding behind a rock
He Renjun looked worried for a while.
After the Tiger tank was hit by a shell, nothing happened. Not even a dent was left on the sloped armor, but the splattered shrapnel wounded three infantrymen hiding around it.
Second Lieutenant Wang Peng, who was observing the enemy situation through the periscope in the Tiger tank, felt the slight vibration from the vehicle body, and calmly issued the order: "Each vehicle enters combat mode, aim at the enemy and hit hard!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the 105mm main guns of the four Tiger tanks that were ready to go fired in unison. Among them, the Tiger tank where Wang Peng was located accurately hit the largest bunker. However, due to the cold weather, the surface of the bunker was frozen a few times.
The ice layer was ten centimeters thick. When this shell passed through, the ice and snow flew several meters away, but the bunker itself remained intact.
This was a duel between four Tiger tanks and a fortification group composed of eight bunkers. More than ten cannons from both sides fired at each other. This made the soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the 422nd Infantry Regiment surrounding the tanks extremely uncomfortable. The Japanese army
Mountain artillery and field artillery pose no threat to Tiger tanks at all. It is rare to hit one out of ten shots, but the sputtering shrapnel makes the officers and soldiers hiding behind rocks or in bomb craters complain endlessly.
The Anjia Army infantry who were not protected by bunkers were not the only ones complaining at this time. The Japanese in the bunker were also complaining. They found that the 75mm mountain guns and field guns they were equipped with were unable to deal with the Anjia Army tanks. Even the two heavily relied on
The Men 38-type 105mm field gun is also helpless against it.
Wang Peng saw that the Japanese bunker group could not threaten his own artillery fire, so he was determined and ordered to move forward a certain distance before firing again, and he must knock off the Japanese turtle shells.
"Prepare the rocket launcher and explosives and follow the tank!"
Upon seeing this, He Renjun loudly issued an order, which was conveyed to every squad platoon through walkie-talkies. Soon, the soldiers rushed out from their hiding places and advanced behind the four tanks.
At a distance of 500 meters, the four tanks stopped again and there was another round of shelling. However, the Japanese bunker was made of reinforced concrete with a thickness of 1.5 meters. In addition, the outer layer of ice and snow covered the bunker and combined it into a tight structure.
On the whole, the artillery shells that can easily penetrate 100 mm steel plates at this distance are strangely unable to penetrate the opponent.
"What the hell! The little devil's bunker is so strong, it's unscientific!" complained the commander of the Tiger tank at the west end of the attack column.
"Who says it's unscientific?"
A train commander replied: "As far as I know, Lou Gui, Cao Cao's counselor during the Three Kingdoms period, came up with a plan to pour water into walls in winter and build a city overnight on the sandy land of Xiliang. Now these reinforced concrete are mixed with a lot of cold water.
The ice must be even harder than it was back then, so is it not surprising that it has such a miraculous performance?"
"What now?" someone asked.
Wang Peng replied angrily: "What else can we do? The Japs' artillery fire poses no threat to us anyway. We can only rush forward in one go, cover the infantry attack, and let the infantry blow up those bunkers at close range."
In fact, these tank soldiers looked up to the Japanese. The early covering fire of heavy artillery and the close-range shelling of tanks were not without effect. A brigade of Japanese troops who originally guarded this bunker group, after the covering shelling, the outer open air and semi-permanent fortifications were destroyed.
It had basically been destroyed. Even the Japanese soldiers who had retreated to the bunker were killed by shrapnel fired in all directions. They were suppressed by the general-purpose machine guns, mortars, recoilless rifles and Tiger tanks of the Anjia Army infantry.
They were unable to come out of the bunker to fight, so they could only passively be beaten.
In addition, seeing their bunkers being hit by tank shells all the time, and the fear of not knowing when the bunkers would collapse and bury them, made the Japanese soldiers' morale plummet, making them appear weak and helpless when retaliating with fire.
Four Tiger tanks rumbled forward. Although the one-meter-and-a-half-meter-thick reinforced concrete barrier miraculously blocked the armor-piercing projectiles that the 105mm tanks were afraid of firing, it could not stop the tracks of the Tiger tanks. The Japanese soldiers screamed in terror.
Amidst the sound, four steel monsters rushed directly towards the group of bunkers despite the artillery fire.
The Tiger tank of the platoon leader, Second Lieutenant Wang Peng, was the first to rush to a distance of fifty meters from the central bunker. The ammunition hand stuffed an armor-piercing round into the cartridge chamber. The gunner aimed at the muzzle of the central bunker's artillery and looked through the gun.
Through the scope, he could even clearly see the Japs loading ammunition in the bunker.
"Damn you little devil, let's meet you at the Yasukuni Shrine!"
As the gunner roared, the Tiger tank body shook violently, and fire and gunpowder smoke appeared from the firing hole in the center bunker in front. An armor-piercing projectile with a muzzle velocity of 905 meters/second was shot straight into the bunker through the firing hole in the bunker.
Cause a violent explosion!
There was no time to imagine what was going on in the bunker now. Under the guidance of the commander Wang Peng, the gunner turned the gun in time, aimed at the bunker on the right, and fired another shot.
After two rounds of shells, the Tiger tank re-shifted into gear and rushed onto the high ground. The infantry was responsible for the rest of the battle.
There is nothing to say. Once the infantry is allowed to approach the bunker, the end of the Japanese army will officially come. The rocket launchers rush to a distance of twenty or thirty meters and accurately shoot the rockets into the Japanese shooting holes.
At this time, the Japanese machine gunners in the bunker were being beaten down by the dense rain of general-purpose machine gun bullets, and the result was naturally disastrous.
Some soldiers carrying explosive bags and blasting tubes went directly to the back of the bunker and sent all the Japanese inside to see Amaterasu.
The most tragic thing was the Japs who were attacked by the fire-breathing soldiers. The raging flames went straight through the shooting holes. Soon all the Japs soldiers in the bunkers and fortifications were covered with napalm, wailing and burned to death miserably.
The pain endured is the longest of all ways to die.
After seven or eight minutes of fierce fighting, the officers and soldiers of the first battalion completely captured the high ground, and the first battalion only suffered 32 casualties.
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