At 4:30 in the morning on Sunday, May 15, 1938, the military operation code-named "July Storm" began.
From the Qilian Mountains in the south to the Beishan Mountains in the north, the Ming army's offensive front was 200 kilometers long, using a total of 40 divisions, 20 of which were armored divisions at the front, and 20 motorized infantry divisions following up from the rear.
A sudden attack in the early hours of the weekend is an old tactic that the Ming army has used time and again. But this old trick has succeeded time and time again. This time is no exception. In addition to the paralysis and slackness of the Soviet Central Asian Border Defense Military District, it is also necessary to
Another "little trick" attributed to the Ming army. It was clearly a military plan for an attack in May, but it was named "July Storm", which was quite misleading. In fact, it stands to reason that the code name is different from the military plan.
The time and place of the operation itself are generally irrelevant. No one stipulates that the May offensive must be called "May Storm" and cannot be called "July Storm." But just such a one-word difference made the Soviet intelligence
Many people in the department got involved.
Three groups of twin-engine bombers taking off from Jiuquan Airport bombed Hami, 530 kilometers away, as well as dozens of military targets along the way. The Soviet highest headquarters in northern Xinjiang was in Dihua, but the distance was too far.
It exceeded the combat radius of twin-engine bombers taking off from Jiuquan. Hami was the location of the Soviet army's closest military-level headquarters to the Ming army.
In the dark sky of Hami City, there was a sudden rumble. As the roar became louder and louder, strong magnesium lights appeared around several bombing targets in the city, indicating the area. A few minutes later, a large number of bombs roared
It fell. Several places in Hami City suddenly burst into flames, and flares and raging fire illuminated the city as if it were daytime.
The bombing of the leading aircraft group was equivalent to using firelight to make a more obvious mark for the following aircraft groups. In just a few minutes, strings of bombs fell one after another in these burning areas. The Soviet headquarters and barracks,
Anti-aircraft gun positions, munitions depots, garages, ammunition depots, fuel depots, telephone hubs, power stations, radio transmission towers... burned together in the raging fire. One building after another collapsed.
In addition to bombs, the fleet also dropped a large number of leaflets, as well as tens of thousands of copies of the Quran. The leaflets were printed in Chinese, Uyghur, Mongolian, Tibetan, and Kazakh languages, telling everyone that the Ming army was about to attack, and you were about to gain
After liberation, everyone was called on to immediately rise up to resist, kill all Soviet officers and soldiers in sight, and cut off all visible telephone lines.
At the same time, a large number of bombs and artillery shells also fell on the Soviet positions. In the darkness, the desert fire flashed fiercely, the smoke and dust covered the sky, and the loud noises were deafening. It was like hell.
Half an hour later, the artillery fire stopped. At this time, the east had turned blue and the sky was bright. Each bomber group took advantage of the first light of dawn to return and land. On the ground, as the signal bombs rose one after another along the entire front,
Countless tanks and armored vehicles were launched one after another. The entire 200-kilometer-long desert was completely drowned out by the roar of the engines.
Roads of sand and dust rose up. All "Lightning-4" tanks rushed to the front, forming a wedge-shaped attack formation. The distance between each tank was about 50 meters, and they each dragged sand and dust dozens of meters high, forming a line of sand and dust.
A barrier that blocked out the sky and the sun. More "Lightning-4" and "Lightning-3" tanks followed behind, forming formations one after another.
The Soviet army's response was also very fast. In less than ten minutes, artillery shells began to fall between the Ming army's tanks. However, the Ming army was a pure tank phalanx, with no infantry between the tanks. The Soviet army was now using howitzers to diffuse,
There was no observation of artillery fire. Although the artillery shells were dense, the actual damage caused was very small.
The firepower preparations of the Ming army just now were carried out completely in the dark, and there was also a lack of observation. The significance of shock was more than the practical significance. Most of the Soviet positions were not seriously damaged. Now, the Soviet soldiers have been driven out of their tents and quilts.
They came out, hurriedly put on their clothes, grabbed their weapons, and entered the tunnel to stand ready. The soldiers grabbed their Mosin-Nagant rifles and lay with their upper bodies outside the trench, enduring the moderate wind and sand blowing in their faces, staring at the erratic sand and dust in front of them, and
There are circles of barbed wire swaying in the wind and sand.
The Maxim heavy machine guns were also rolled out, and they were set up behind the trenches and blocked by sandbags, aiming forward, ready to shoot at the charging Ming army. If any Soviet troops fled backward, they would also be targets of the heavy machine guns.
Between the long infantry trenches are anti-tank positions at intervals. Behind the low and medium-caliber anti-tank guns, Soviet artillerymen wearing helmets hid behind the baffles, squatting low, holding the shells in their arms.
Staring ahead. More anti-tank gunners were lying in the trenches, with their upper bodies lying outside, holding thick anti-tank guns, squinting and aiming ahead.
The large-caliber howitzer shells above my head flew straight past, which was being fired from the howitzer position behind me.
Every once in a while, a political commissar stood nonchalantly outside the trench, waving a pistol in one hand and a loudspeaker in the other, shouting to boost morale.
Gradually, the dust in the distance became thicker and thicker, and soon a visible "sand dust wall" was formed. The Soviet soldiers all knew that it was the Ming army's tanks coming. Everyone, including the political commissar,
My heart started to beat.
More than two thousand meters away, pillars of black and yellow sand and dust rose up among the Ming army tanks. The sand was like iron sand from a shotgun, grazing across the steel plates of the tanks at extremely fast speeds. The steel plates of many tanks
The armor skirt looked as if it had been sandpapered, and the paint was mottled.
Shi Shengli was sitting in his command tank, wearing a headset and his eyes pressed against the periscope, swaying with the ups and downs of the sand dunes while saying in a deep voice:
"Keep the formation...keep the speed...Boys, hold on, don't be nervous, just like in normal training...Remember, follow me closely, don't fall behind, don't mess up the formation...Remember, keep an eye on me.
Butt, don't worry about your own butt at the same time. Your butt will be looked after by those behind you... Remember, the faster we rush, the fewer casualties we will have... As long as we can maintain our speed and maintain our formation, this battle will be won.
Just win..."
The armored forces of the Ming Army expanded rapidly, and one-third of Shi Shengli's regiment were novices. Either they were on the battlefield for the first time today, or they had only competed with the Qing Army and had not yet competed with the Soviet Army.
Yes. Now on the Western Front battlefield, even if you are a "veteran" who has fought in the Unification War, as long as you have never seen combat with Soviet tanks, you will still be regarded as a "novice". Like Shi Shengli, who was established in Nanjing from the People's Guard
There were not many "hard-core veterans" who had fought all the way during the defense war. They, the backbones, shouldered more of the responsibility of guiding the novices.
But having said that, there are more novices in the Soviet armored forces, and their training level is also worse. Moreover, they don’t even have veterans with more than one year of actual combat experience. From tanks to tank crews, the overall quality level is far higher than that of the Ming army.
Moreover, now, as the powerful production capacity of the Ming Dynasty continues to be exerted after the reunification, and massive material resources are shipped in from the United States, the numerical advantage of the Soviet armored forces is not so obvious.