The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 352: Four consecutive hits on the river surface 1
"Yes! Captain He, leave it to us. Our mechanized heavy artillery battalion will take care of this fourth Japanese warship!"

Upon receiving the order, the battalion commander of the mechanized heavy artillery battalion, Hu Rizheng, patted his chest and gave He Wei a guarantee.

After conveying the order to the mechanized heavy artillery battalion, He Wei quickly called the assault corps artillery battalion and ordered the battalion commander Chen Xinsheng: "Captain Chen, Captain Chen, your two mountain artillery companies will follow the mechanized heavy artillery battalion from now on. Wherever the heavy artillery battalion's 150mm heavy artillery fires, your two mountain artillery companies will fire there. The tank defense artillery company is free to fire!"

Then, He Wei immediately picked up the phone to the naval artillery and said to the captain of the naval artillery, Lei Zhongwei, who had made the first record of sinking a Japanese ship: "Captain Lei, you fought beautifully. From now on, your naval artillery can fire freely!"

After He Wei transmitted the combat firing orders one after another to various artillery positions at an extremely fast speed and smoothly like flowing water, He Wei let out a long sigh, stood in front of the observation port of the command post, looked out at the river, and waited for the show to begin.

Just now, relying on excellent tactics and careful pre-war planning, He Wei successfully destroyed a Japanese warship with a displacement of 1200 tons.

However, he would not be carried away by the small victory in front of him and really think that he could destroy the entire Japanese fleet on the river with the artillery firepower at hand.

That's impossible, let alone unrealistic.

It was naturally impossible to destroy the Japanese fleet, but He Wei would not be satisfied with just sinking one Japanese ship.

The Xinshan minesweeper, which was sinking in the river in a horizontally capsized posture and blocking the river channel, instantly gave He Wei inspiration.

The width of the Yangtze River near Banbi Mountain is relatively narrow, generally only five or six hundred meters, and such a narrow waterway obviously cannot accommodate multiple warships sailing in parallel, so the nine Japanese warships in front of them are advancing in a single column formation, just like nine fish lined up in a single column formation, cruising one after another on the river. The conditions of the Yangtze River near Banbi Mountain destined that the Japanese fleet must and could only advance in such a formation.

In naval terminology, this formation can be called a single-column fish formation, but from the perspective of the army, the Japanese fleet's formation can also be seen as a long snake formation.

Now the first ship of the Japanese fleet, Xinshan, has been sunk, and the route for the Japanese fleet to sail forward has been blocked. If another warship in the middle and rear of the Japanese fleet formation can be sunk, the Japanese warships between the already sunken first ship of the Japanese fleet, Xinshan, and the sunken second Japanese ship will lose their retreat.

These Japanese ships, sandwiched between the two sinking ships in front and behind, were destined to have no way to advance or retreat. The only thing waiting for them was a tragic end of being shut in and beaten by the fierce artillery fire from Banbi Mountain!

Given the distance between the Japanese ships and Banbi Mountain, He Wei could only ensure that his own artillery fire could cover the first four enemy ships more accurately. As a result, the fourth ship in the Japanese fleet was unfortunately chosen by He Wei and became He Wei's tool to block the retreat of the waterway.

Sink the enemy's fourth ship, and then use the sunken fourth ship of the Japanese fleet to block the waterway. The second and third ships of the Japanese fleet between the first ship of the Japanese fleet, the Xinshan, which had just been sunk, and the fourth ship would naturally become turtles in a jar that could be squeezed and flattened by anyone. The first four ships in the single column formation of nine Japanese warships would also be cut in half!
The various combat orders that He Wei quickly issued and the firing targets he set for the various artillery groups on Banbi Mountain all served his tactical intention.

Although He Wei did not study artillery, his advantage as a time traveler and his long-term practical experience had already enabled him to possess the basic tactical qualities that an artillery officer should have. He was well aware of the entire process and clues of the sinking of the Xinshan ship.

In the recent artillery battle against the Japanese fleet's lead ship, Xinshan, the mechanized heavy artillery battalion fired only one round of battalion salvos and severely damaged the Xinshan with a hit record of two out of eight shells. However, it was the naval artillery team's naval guns that delivered the final blow and sank the Xinshan.

He Wei certainly knew why this happened. The officers and soldiers of the mechanized heavy artillery battalion were "robbed of their lives" by the naval artillery team. In fact, it was due to the difference in combat shooting methods between the mechanized heavy artillery battalion and the naval artillery team.

The eight SFH18 howitzers of the mechanized heavy artillery battalion are all hidden in the permanent and solid artillery fort on Banbi Mountain. Each gun fires in an indirect manner, and various firing parameters must be calculated by the observation officers of each artillery company and then transmitted to each gun position.

Therefore, after achieving the first round of hits, if the eight howitzers of the mechanized heavy artillery battalion wanted to launch a second round of shooting at the moving Xinshan ship, the observers had to calculate the new shooting parameters and then conduct the second round of shooting based on the latest shooting parameters.

The naval artillery team's naval guns were deployed in temporary artillery positions on Banbi Mountain, and they adopted a direct-fire combat method. The gunners operating the naval guns and the gun sights could conduct direct-fire fire on the Japanese ships on the river from the high vantage point of Banbi Mountain. In addition, the Japanese ship Xinshan had been half-crippled by the first round of shelling by the mechanized heavy artillery battalion, and its speed had been greatly reduced, or in other words, its speed was basically no different from a turtle's crawl.

The naval artillery team seized this opportunity and, between the first and second rounds of firing by the mechanized heavy artillery battalion, decisively fired at the Xinshan ship, which was almost a fixed target, with a directly aimed 120mm naval naval gun. The shot was a hit, completely destroying the Xinshan ship before the second round of firing by the mechanized heavy artillery battalion.

Although the achievement of sinking the first Japanese warship was attributed to the naval artillery team, in terms of reaction speed and the effectiveness of long-range bombardment, the direct-fire naval guns were actually far inferior to the mechanized heavy artillery battalion.

After all, the 150mm SFH18 howitzer of the mechanized heavy artillery battalion is a dedicated land combat artillery. It is stronger than naval guns in adjusting the artillery position, the speed of assigning the basic firing direction of the artillery, and the firing response speed.

In contrast, naval guns with slower reaction speeds are more suitable for "finishing up" shots at slower warships, or warships that have been severely damaged.

It was also for this reason that the naval guns opened fire and sank the Japanese fleet's first ship, the Xinshan, just before the mechanized heavy artillery battalion. For warships with faster speeds and that were not severely damaged, the shooting effect of the naval guns was actually very average.

Therefore, the task of sinking the fourth warship in the Japanese fleet and blocking the Japanese ships' retreat still had to be handed over to the howitzers of the mechanized heavy artillery battalion.

Although the two mountain artillery companies of the assault corps' artillery battalion had a poor destructive effect on Japanese warships due to their small caliber, He Wei could see in the previous battle that these mountain artillery had a good effect in destroying the superstructures of Japanese warships and killing the crews on the decks of warships. So he ordered Chen Xinsheng to have the twelve mountain artillery guns of the two mountain artillery companies follow the eight howitzers of the heavy howitzer battalion to concentrate their fire and cooperate with each other.

In this way, the heavy artillery shells fired by the heavy howitzer battalion can destroy the hull structure of the Japanese ship, and the dense and continuous mountain artillery firepower can not only destroy the superstructure of the Japanese ship but also kill the Japanese sailors on the ship. The two types of artillery work together to achieve the best shooting effect!
As for the naval guns and tank defense artillery companies, He Wei allowed them to fire freely.

After all, the caliber of the six 6mm tank defense guns of the assault corps artillery battalion was too small, and He Wei did not expect them to do anything. Letting them use the tank defense guns that were used to attack tanks to shoot at warships was purely to let the gunners train to shoot at moving targets and accumulate experience for future attacks on the Japanese tanks.

Although the naval artillery's naval guns are very powerful, their reaction speed is slow. If He Wei designates targets for them to shoot, it would be better for the captain of the naval artillery, Lei Zhongwei, to command on the spot and let them play freely!

In this way, He Wei quickly determined the next tactics in less than a minute, and then quickly assigned shooting targets to each artillery group under his command.

As the saying goes, one step faster leads to faster steps. Thanks to He Wei's quick decision and prompt command, the Banbishan artillery fire that had just sunk a Japanese ship immediately resumed its fire attack on the Japanese warships on the river. Soon, an even more violent artillery fire began to attack the Japanese ships.

As soon as He Wei gave the order, the commander of the mechanized heavy artillery battalion, Hu Rizhen, who had just been given a chance, became excited in the firing command post of the mechanized heavy artillery battalion. After receiving the order, he immediately picked up the phone to the two heavy howitzer companies under his command and shouted loudly: "Brothers, we just destroyed a Japanese warship, but unfortunately the last shot was taken away by the navy. We have given this warship to the navy. Now aim at the fourth Japanese warship on the river. All companies must fire rapidly to destroy it! Don't save shells. We have plenty of shells. Fire hard!"

The combat firing order that Hu Rizhen roared out was quickly transmitted to the two mechanized field heavy artillery companies. The battalion commander of the mechanized heavy artillery battalion, Hu Rizhen, was not only depressed because the navy had just robbed him of his lives, but also the officers and soldiers under his command had many regrets. Now that they had received the combat order to continue shelling the Japanese ships, combat firing parameter commands and various artillery operation commands rang out one after another in the artillery fortifications of the two artillery companies.

The officers and soldiers of the heavy artillery battalion, holding back their energy, immediately adjusted the aiming targets of the howitzers with extremely skilled artillery movements. In addition, with the permission of the battalion commander Hu Rizhen that there was no need to save shells, the eight SFH18 150mm howitzers soon completed the re-aiming and opened fire in succession, roaring one after another and firing 150mm caliber explosive grenades and armor-piercing shells.

Amid the rumbling sound, the recoil and return mechanisms of the eight SFH18 150mm howitzers kept reciprocating, and the slender and thick gun barrels, under the control of the balancing machine, steadily launched shells one after another.

Boom
Boom
The continuous and rapid firing sounds of the mechanized heavy artillery battalion on Banbi Mountain almost merged into one, and the deafening sound of artillery fire kept echoing between Banbi Mountain and the surface of the Yangtze River. In addition, the two mountain artillery companies also followed the mechanized heavy artillery battalion in firing. The fast, dense and extremely deterrent artillery fire soon gathered into a terrifying torrent, smashing into the poor Japanese destroyer.

The barrage of dense artillery shells instantly covered the fourth ship in the Japanese fleet formation.

The Japanese fleet on the river consisted of five minesweepers with a displacement of more than 1,000 tons and four destroyers with a displacement of 800 tons. Its formation was a long snake of one minesweeper (Xinshan) - four destroyers (Momo, Kashi, Hinoki, and Yanagi) - four minesweepers.

The fourth warship in the Japanese fleet selected by He Wei as the latest shooting target was the destroyer Hinoki with a displacement of more than 800 tons.

The Japanese naval officers and soldiers on the destroyer Hinoki had no idea that their warship would be selected as a target of artillery attack by the Chinese army artillery on Banbi Mountain. They only felt that the fierce artillery fire that was originally attacking the leading ship of the fleet formation suddenly came at them inexplicably.

Although the initial few rounds of rapid fire from the mechanized heavy artillery battalion and the two mountain artillery companies did not hit the Hinoki destroyer, the Japanese officers and soldiers on the Hinoki destroyer were caught off guard and were stunned by the sudden and fierce artillery fire.

Immediately, the Hinoki destroyer began to maneuver to avoid the artillery fire, and finally managed to sway left and right and narrowly avoid the fierce bombardment of nearly a hundred 150mm howitzers and 75mm and 76mm mountain artillery shells.

But soon, the Japanese officers and soldiers on the Hinoki destroyer felt firsthand the "sinister intentions" of the Chinese army commander on Banbi Mountain who diverted artillery fire to attack the Hinoki destroyer.

Faced with the fierce artillery fire from Banbi Mountain, the unlucky destroyer selected by He Wei was facing an even more dangerous situation than the Xinshan minesweeper that had just been sunk.

Although the Xinshan was the lead ship in the Japanese fleet and had to bear the brunt of the fierce artillery fire from Banbi Mountain, at least the Xinshan was located first in the Japanese fleet, with no friendly ships blocking its front, so it could avoid the artillery attack by moving quickly.

However, the Hinoki destroyer was in the formation of the Japanese fleet, with friendly ships in front and behind it, and it was unable to use the destroyer's high speed to avoid artillery attacks.

The Japanese officers and soldiers on the Hinoki destroyer felt that their warship was like a lightly-armed warrior with excellent martial arts skills but whose feet were bound. They had all the martial arts skills but could not use them.

Due to the narrow river surface and the presence of friendly ships in front and behind, the Hinoki destroyer had no way of accelerating forward or reversing quickly, and could only dodge with difficulty in the narrow river waters between the two friendly ships in front and behind.

Dense grenades and mountain artillery shells flew towards the Hinoki destroyer. After barely dodging several rounds of fierce artillery fire, the Hinoki destroyer, which was unable to move forward or backward, was finally hit by a 150mm explosive grenade.

Boom-boom

The shell grazed the water surface and hit the midship of the Hinoki destroyer, eventually exploding at the waterline midship. The fire, smoke and splashing water produced by the explosion mixed together, almost destroying half of the Hinoki destroyer's hull.

(End of this chapter)