On the Northeast battlefield, the Ming army continued to make breakthroughs with an absolute advantage. Although it could not be called "destroying", it was definitely overwhelming. Even in the unification war, the Ming army had never used armored forces and aircraft so intensively.
The battlefield of the Unification War was much wider, and at that time the Ming Army had far fewer tanks and aircraft than it does now. Compared with the North China Plain now, the Heilongjiang Plain is only a little bigger, and the Ming Army's steel, both in the sky and underground, is too concentrated.
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The Japanese army fought bravely and was neither afraid of hardship nor death. The training and quality of the soldiers were generally better than those of the Ming army. However, after all, the Ming army had been fighting for more than a year, and it was a nationwide war.
, basically every division and every regiment has been fully baptized on the battlefield, and more than 90% of them are veterans. However, the Japanese army only has war experience.
It was more than a month of fighting from July 7th to August 15th. From officers to soldiers, it can only be said that they have "been on the battlefield and seen blood", which is still far from the standard of "veteran". Moreover,
The Ming Army's current scale of armored warfare and three-dimensional air-ground warfare has never been experienced by the Japanese army. Even in the previous month or so, the intensity was far less than this general offensive.
For more than a month, the two armies have been constantly fighting in the Northeast. The battle lines have changed rapidly. First, the Japanese army strategically attacked, the Ming army strategically retreated, and then the Ming army strategically attacked, and the Japanese army retreated strategically. The Japanese army has never been able to maintain a stable position for a long time.
Battle lines, no good
It was a good opportunity to build fortifications. That is, less than ten days before the Ming army's general attack, the Japanese army was able to build their own positions. This time was too tight, and the trenches were built in a hurry, without forming several layers in depth.
A huge system of defense system.
The civil engineering officers of the Japanese army were also extremely rigorous, and they carried out construction in full compliance with the specifications of the "Field Fortification Regulations", strictly and meticulously. At this time, the design ideas of the "Field Fortification Regulations" of various countries were still completely based on the routines of the First World War, and basically did not include "anti-tank"
" taking into account...
Now, facing the first wave of huge casualties caused by the bombs and incendiary bombs of the Ming army aircraft, and then facing the large number of tanks that had rushed in front of them, the Japanese officers and soldiers were completely confused and at a loss. In the previous battles, they had never
I have never seen such a raging tank, and I have never heard such an overwhelming force.
Roaring. The Japanese anti-tank artillery crew went crazy, shouting and aiming desperately, firing, retracting, reloading, and aiming again... But there were too few artillery. Facing the densely packed tanks in front of them, there was really a "
I don’t know who to hit”, or even feel like “it doesn’t matter whether I hit or not”.
The artillery shells and machine guns of the Ming army tank group came over like a storm. The anti-tank artillery groups that exposed the trenches and fired were quickly dropped one by one. Only some Japanese soldiers holding anti-tank guns were left.
Low, the casualties were relatively low, and he kept firing with red eyes.
For the Ming army tanks, especially those "Lightning 4" and "Lightning 3" that led the battle, the anti-tank guns were basically ineffective. The Japanese soldiers watched in despair as the tanks roared, drove right in front of their faces, and then downwards
One fall, then another, and then he drove over the trench...and then turned around
Suddenly, the first batch of tanks was already behind him. He wanted to catch up and attack the rear of the tanks, but at this time, there were already Ming tanks on the front, back, left and right. Machine guns were fired from all directions, and the Japanese soldiers who had just climbed out of the trench were not
Being beaten into a sieve means being knocked down and crushed into meat patties.
Within two hours, both Japanese defense lines were fully breached. More armored units continued to tear apart, the gap became wider and wider, and the Ming army poured in faster and faster. By the evening of August 15, both sides
The Ming army had advanced 50 kilometers and 65 kilometers respectively, leaving at least five Japanese divisions in the middle far behind - in other words, they had them in their pockets.
On the 16th and 17th, the Ming army continued to advance north and east. More and more troops entered the battle, and the encirclement gradually thickened and closed. The Japanese army in the middle fought to break through the encirclement with a desperate effort, but to no avail.
Compared with the Ming army, the Japanese army had a serious shortage of artillery and ammunition.
There was even a shortage of vehicles and fuel, and most of the heavy weapons and supplies were pulled by horses. The light weapons in the hands of the soldiers could not be compared with those of the Ming army. Except for the small proportion of light and heavy machine guns, the rest were all "three
"Eight Great Gai". Even if the Ming army only used light weapons to exchange fire, they could completely suppress the Japanese army.
On the fifth day of the battle, on August 20, at least 15,000 of the 100,000 Japanese troops in Heilongjiang, and about 20,000 of them, retreated eastward in time before the encirclement. At this time, outside the encirclement, there were scattered
In the Xingkai Lake-Ussuri River area, ships are being collected along the Ussuri River in preparation for crossing the river into the Soviet Union in the east.
The remaining more than 80,000 Japanese troops are now all surrounded by the Ming army.
Xiang Xiaoqiang has not been idle at all in the past few days. He is sitting in an armored command vehicle and leading several military vehicles and People's Guard guards, running around the Northeast to see which areas have just been recovered and which areas are the most fiercely fought.
He ran over to the labor force, ate a big pot of food with the soldiers in their lunch boxes, and gave a few speeches to boost morale.
In the past few days on the armored command vehicle, he has been receiving telegrams from the Nanjing headquarters, mainly about the macro-level strategic situation. The Ming army's battle situation in Central Asia, the Ming army's battle situation at sea, etc. Among them.
What Xiang Xiaoqiang is most interested in is the progress of submarine warfare.
Now the total number of Ming army submarines in the "four theaters" at sea has reached 35. As expected, the "Western Pacific Theater" has the highest results. Since the beginning of the war, it has sunk 6 freighters and 3 oil tankers, with a total tonnage of
80,000 tons. This theater is a large coastal city in Japan, with the largest concentration of large ports, the busiest shipping routes, and naturally the highest results.
The results of the "Sea of Japan Group" were second, with 50,000 tons sunk, half of which were Soviet ships. The results of the "East China Sea Theater" and "Northern Theater" were much less, both less than 20,000 tons.
These results are spread evenly to every submarine, so naturally they are not small. But in terms of total volume, they are certainly far from enough. Let alone cutting off Japan's maritime transportation lines, I am afraid it is not enough to attract Japan's attention. This is
Of course, this was because the number of submarines was too small and the time for conducting submarine warfare was too short.
However, now the Navy Department is gradually tilting towards submarines. More and more small slipways are allocated to submarines every day.
One advantage of small ships like submarines is that they have "high berth compatibility", in other words, they do not compete with the berth very much. As a traditional naval power, the Ming Dynasty naturally has very strong shipbuilding capabilities. However, no matter how large a naval power is, a
country's large
There are not many slipways and docks. Now, the large slipways and docks have all been used to build aircraft carriers and heavy cruisers. And more small shipyards and slipways that cannot build cruisers or even destroyers can be allocated for submarine construction.
What makes Xiang Xiaoqiang happy is that as submarines are launched from these small slipways one after another, his envisioned goal of "submarines cutting off Japan's blood vessels" is getting closer step by step. Now it is possible to keep about 30 submarines in place.
It won't be long before Japan can maintain a hundred or dozens of submarines in the four theaters around Japan, and Japan will not be far away from being completely defeated.
In the submarine war, what Xiang Xiaoqiang is most concerned about is the two anti-aircraft submarines Aoji and Eten. Now they have successfully crossed the Ryukyu island chain and entered the "Western Pacific Theater", that is, they have sailed on Honshu Island and
South of Shikoku Island. In the past few days, the two submarines shot down 11 bombers, 3 water reconnaissance aircraft, and 4 fighter jets. They also seriously damaged a large cargo ship and sank an oil tanker.
Because the anti-aircraft submarine has no torpedoes or main guns, they can only use the heaviest weapon-40mm Bofors to hit the freighter after seeing it. The freighter they encountered was too big, at least 8,000 tons, and they used 40mm guns.
It could only damage but could not sink. But that tanker was different. Although the shell was small, it ignited the oil inside and exploded the tanker into a big fireball.