During the night between the 7th and 8th, the Ming army in Anton City relied on its firepower advantage, especially the firepower advantage of small weapons, to tenaciously defend its position. The Japanese army of the Fourth Division was unable to advance a step all night.
.The Japanese troops of the 10th Division behind them also failed to land successfully.
But throughout this day and night, a worrying problem has always shrouded the Ming army in the city, and it has become more and more obvious. That is: ammunition shortage.
The Ming Army's heavy weapons also experienced ammunition shortages, but the problem was not too serious. The greatest threat from ammunition shortages was light weapons. A large proportion of the Ming Army's light weapons were automatic weapons, such as submachine guns, general-purpose machine guns, and light machine guns.
A bottomless pit for bullets. When they withdrew into the city, they were in a hurry and did not have a complete set of logistics reserves. That is to say, relying on the fact that the Japanese Fourth Division was on the opposite side and not very desperate attacks, the Ming army was able to hold on for a day with this little ammunition.
One night.
Throughout this day and night, the Ming army in the city repeatedly called the rear, reporting the shortage of ammunition in code words and requesting support. However, throughout the whole day on the 7th, the entire command system of the Ming army was still in a relatively busy state, with tens of millions of telegrams and phone calls flying in.
To Nanjing, thousands of people
I was so worried that I couldn't take care of it at all. On the contrary, Xiang Xiaoqiang of the People's Guard had been paying close attention to Anton's Ming army. It was only on the afternoon of the 7th that Lu Hang, with Xiang Xiaoqiang's intervention, began to make arrangements for Anton's Ming army.
Military airdrop of supplies.
At around four o'clock in the morning on the 8th, 15 DC-3 transport planes taking off from Shenyang Airport, loaded with ammunition, food, and medicine, roared over Andong City. The Army Airlines considered that the loss of night airdrops would be very small because they would not be attacked by Japanese fighter jets.
interception. Moreover, after returning from the airdrop at this time, it was just dawn over Shenyang, making it easy to land.
But a terrible scene happened. When the fleet flew over Andong City, they found that there were scattered burning flames everywhere below, the smoke was filled, various flares and tracer bullets were flying back and forth, and the Japanese anti-aircraft artillery troops were also shooting into the sky.
Shooting, searchlights illuminate the sky so brightly that nothing can be seen below...
The flashlight signal agreed with the Ming army in the city was of no use at this moment. The crew members in the sky couldn't tell which was the area controlled by the Ming army and which was the area controlled by the Japanese army below. After circling in a circle, they had to estimate the things.
Just cast it blindly and then return.
When the Ming army in the city heard the roar of planes in the sky, they immediately followed the agreed method and used more than a dozen flashlights to form a specific shape and wave them towards the sky. But they watched helplessly as the planes in the sky were bombarded by the searchlights and shelling of the surrounding Japanese troops.
It flew quickly overhead and dropped nothing.
The Ming soldiers on the ground shouted and jumped and waved their flashlights desperately, but it was of no use at all. The planes in the sky still flew over one after another. The weak light of the flashlights in their hands was completely drowned in the countless surrounding people.
Flames, searchlights, flares and other strong light sources were hit.
After a while, the aircraft fleet flew over their heads again, but this time it seemed to be an air drop. A burst of cheers immediately erupted on the Ming army's position. However, they soon discovered that they were happy too early.
They discovered that as soon as the fleet of aircraft flew over their heads, they stopped airdropping and gradually moved away.
Through the searchlights and the firelight on the ground, the Ming soldiers saw hundreds of parachutes floating in the air and descending. But within their control, it would be good to have a dozen or so.
In this airdrop, most of the supplies were dropped on the Japanese positions. It was a failure.
…
When the news came back to the Nanjing headquarters, Xiang Xiaoqiang was furious. He also hoped that Anton's regiment would hold on, and it would be best to keep the two Japanese divisions at bay. This was good, and they might fight for another day.
They all ran out of ammunition and food.
He almost scolded Army Aviation Commander Li Guoliang.
"Master Li! I'm not blaming you!" He said patiently, suppressing his anger, and said in a respectful tone, "This is not the first time the Army Air Forces have airdropped at night. When I volunteered for the Taihang Mountain Column, I have airdropped many times at night.
?When you supported the resistance organization behind enemy lines in the Northern Qing Dynasty
, how many times have we airdropped at night? Countless times, right? How could this result happen again? There is light interference on the ground, okay, then why did you make an appointment with the people of the 66th Division to send such a signal? The people of the 66th Division are laymen,
You don’t understand airdrops, are you, Mr. Li, a layman? Don’t you understand airdrops too?”
Although Li Guoliang has the same military rank as Xiang Xiaoqiang, they are both lieutenant generals, but when Xiang Xiaoqiang trains him, he still acts like a subordinate, his face turns red and white, but he does not dare to get angry with Xiang Xiaoqiang. Now in Li Guoliang's eyes, Xiang Xiaoqiang
Xiaoqiang is already His Royal Highness the Prince.
After a while, seeing that Xiang Xiaoqiang seemed to have relaxed a little, Li Guoliang sighed:
"Sir Xiang, airdrops have never been airdropped on the battlefield at night before! The ground is completely black. As long as our people don't care about flashlights or bonfires, we can see it from more than ten kilometers away. This time the ground is already dark.
They were all in a mess, with all kinds of strong light interference, those flashlights couldn't see at all... This is also our fault, we should have thought of this situation."
Li Guoliang told the reason, but he didn't use strong arguments, so Xiang Xiaoqiang didn't talk about him anymore. He sighed and said:
"Can it still be remedied? When will the next airdrop be available?"
Li Guoliang hesitated and said:
"It's daybreak now... In fact, if we want to airdrop again, we can reload the cargo and refuel immediately, and we can take off again within two hours. But airdropping during the day requires fighter escort, and there will be a lot of losses. In short, the cost will not be small.
."
Xiang Xiaoqiang thought for a moment and said:
"The cost is high, but the airdrop is necessary. The cost is high and the benefits are greater. If the airdrop is good this time, the 66th Division is expected to be able to persist in the support of the friendly forces in southern Liaoning. In the next few days, our army's large forces in the pass will enter Liaodong and take control of Liaodong.
Liaodong, southern Liaoning, and western Liaoning are connected together. Now that we have lost a few aircraft, we can exchange them for one in Anton.
It is worthwhile for a regiment to contain two Japanese divisions. In addition, you see, Anton is so close to Dadongou Port. If the nail in Anton is not removed, even if the Japanese army captures Dadongou Port, they will not be able to use it in a down-to-earth manner.
This port, Dadonggou, is very important because it will speed up the Japanese army’s transport of troops and cargo to Fengtian.”
Li Guoliang pinched his chin and nodded. Then he hesitated and said:
"This...I have not reported the results of the airdrop to the General Staff of the People's Republic of China, and the General Staff of the People's Republic of China has not given me an order for a second airdrop... Even if I go to ask for instructions now, I'm afraid we won't be able to take off until noon at the earliest."
Waved to Xiaoqiang:
"Master Li, you are really...the order given to you by General Staff Lu was to 'airdrop to support the Anton 66th Division'. Have you completed the order? No. Has he revoked the order? No. So, hurry up and prepare for the first
The second round of airdrops is serious. What report are you reporting!"
Li Guoliang thought about it and nodded:
"Yeah, that's right."
…
Li Guoliang hurriedly arranged for the second airdrop. Xiang Xiaoqiang also walked out of the lounge, entered the command hall, came to the Navy General Staff, and began to select and form his own "Aircraft Carrier Operation Planning Staff."
Xiang Xiaoqiang has already talked with Xiong Dingming. Of course, Xiong Dingming is also a big ship and artillery person. He almost sneered at Xiang Xiaoqiang's plan and thought it was nonsense. But after all, he didn't show it too much. Xiang Xiaoqiang still tried his best to do it well.
relationship pair
Xiang is also someone he must respect very much. More importantly, this plan has the support of Her Majesty the Queen. In addition, Xiong Dingming seems that although this plan is a bit absurd, it will not cause much interference to the current maritime operations.
, and reluctantly cooperated.
Xiong Dingming recommended several people to Xiang Xiaoqiang. They were all staff officers in the General Naval Staff who were usually not very successful. However, these staff officers had a common characteristic. They were all relatively young and liked to advocate "evil ways" - that is, aircraft carriers were the main force in naval battles, and they were used as the main force in naval battles.
Air supremacy replaced sea supremacy. Because of this, these people are usually not taken seriously and are relatively marginalized. This time Xiong Dingming took the opportunity to send them to Xiang Xiaoqiang.