The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 354 Sinking
On the Yaeyama minesweeper, Masaichi Tsuboi looked gloomily at the Banbi Mountain in the distance, and kept shouting out firing orders through the command tower's microphone. The officers in the command tower were also very busy under Masaichi Tsuboi's rapid orders, constantly conveying the firing orders to other ships.

However, in the midst of all the chaos, neither the fleet commander Shoichi Tsuboi nor the other officers in the Yaeyama command tower mentioned the second and third ships in the Japanese fleet.

Because these professional naval officers are well aware of the current situation facing the two warships and the tragic ending they are about to face.

Given the width of the nearby river and the hydrological conditions, after the first ship in the fleet formation, the Xinshan, and the fourth ship, the Hinoki destroyer, were sunk, the Tao and Kashiki destroyers, which were located between the Xinshan minesweeper and the Hinoki destroyer, could not continue to sail forward, let alone return via the original route.

The warships could not go ashore, and unless the two destroyers trapped in the middle took the initiative to rush onto the river beach and run aground, there was absolutely no way they could survive.

Of course, even if these two destroyers ran aground on the river beach, they would end up with a tragic ending where both the warships and the sailors would become spoils of war and prisoners of the Chinese army on the shore.

What lies before them is clearly a dead end.

Perhaps it was because they had foreseen the inevitable fate of the Momo and Kashiki destroyers that all the Japanese naval officers in the command tower of the Xinshan minesweeper tacitly ignored the two destroyers, and fired at Banbi Mountain with continuous firing orders and as much naval gun fire as possible, hoping to suppress the Chinese army artillery on Banbi Mountain with naval gun fire, delay the survival time of the blocked Momo and Kashiki destroyers, and vent their anger and resentment at the impending loss of two destroyers. This was the only significance of the Japanese ships' fierce bombardment of Banbi Mountain on the river.

Bombardment is the only thing the Japanese fleet on the river can do at the moment.

boom

boom

The guns on the Japanese ships spit out orange-yellow flames. In this almost impotent and furious bombardment, the guns on each Japanese ship were doing their best to fire at the fastest rate. Even some machine guns on Japanese ships that were closer to Banbi Mountain opened fire.

All the Japanese ships on the river that had not been sunk used almost all of their available firepower, while the Momo and Kashishi destroyers that were blocked in the river channel were even more crazy, as if they knew that their time was up. The two destroyers were like two mad dogs running around, maneuvering repeatedly in the narrow waterway while concentrating all their artillery and machine gun fire on Banbi Mountain.

After sinking two warships in succession, the remaining Japanese ships on the river could no longer remain calm. They no longer cared about the basic tactical principles of precise positioning, measurement and then shooting, and all of them went crazy and poured heavy artillery fire at those places on Banbi Mountain that were most likely to have Chinese artillery hidden, and smashed a large number of shells at Banbi Mountain.

The 120mm naval guns, 7.7mm and 6.5mm carrier-based machine guns equipped on each Japanese ship formed a fierce firepower network and rushed towards Banbi Mountain. The tail smoke left by the high-speed flying naval gun shells whizzing through the air and the red and green tracer trajectory shot by the carrier-based machine guns intertwined to form a colorful fire network.

咣咣
bang
The loud noises produced by the collision of a large number of shells with the mountain echoed repeatedly on the surface of the river. After a large number of shells loaded with high explosives exploded on Banbi Mountain, a large amount of vegetation on the mountain was ignited. Suddenly, thick smoke billowed and flames shot up into the sky on Banbi Mountain.

Some near misses that missed the mountain stirred up columns of water, while the Japanese ships' shipborne machine gun fire also rained down a large amount of fine gravel and loose soil on the mountain of Banbi Mountain. The flying fine gravel hit the surface of the river, forming large areas of water waves and ripples.

Although the Japanese warships' mad-dog bombardment method had no tactics at all, they still achieved certain results thanks to their huge amount of ammunition.

Among the Chinese artillery deployed on Banbi Mountain, the 150mm mechanized heavy artillery battalion hidden in the permanent concealed fortifications was sitting on the Diaoyutai, not caring about the bombardment of the Japanese fleet at all. Thanks to the protection of the solid fortifications and the advantages brought by the completely indirect aiming and indirect fire tactics, the bombardment of the mechanized heavy artillery battalion was basically not disturbed.

However, the artillery positions of the assault corps artillery battalion and the naval artillery team, which were deployed in temporary artillery positions and had no permanent artillery fortifications as cover, were inevitably hit by falling shells from Japanese naval guns.

At Banbi Mountain, in the artillery position of the artillery battalion of the assault corps, the battalion's twelve mountain guns and six tank defense guns were firing freely at the two Japanese destroyers that were blocked in the waterway.

The six Type 94 75mm mountain cannons captured from the Japanese by the First Mountain Artillery Company and the 76mm mountain cannons donated by the Soviet Union by the Second Mountain Artillery Company were continuously pouring artillery fire onto the river. The firing positions of the two mountain artillery companies were placed behind a mound on the top of a mountain, forming a semi-sheltered field artillery position and constituting indirect firepower.

The barrel of each mountain gun is wrapped with branches and leaves tied with tree bark as a concealment measure. Although its firing concealment position is not as safe and stable as the permanent artillery position of the 150th Mechanized Heavy Artillery Battalion, it still creates relatively good concealment and shooting conditions with the help of the terrain and natural conditions of Banbi Mountain, as well as the concealment and camouflage operations of the artillery itself.

The two mountain artillery companies used high-throw ballistics to allow mountain artillery shells that could not penetrate the enemy ship's armor to launch continuous attacks on the enemy ship's deck, killing and wounding a considerable number of Japanese sailors and enemy ship superstructures.

The good concealment of the two mountain artillery companies also meant that apart from a dozen gunners who were slightly injured by shrapnel from Japanese artillery shells, there were no other major casualties.

Boom
Boom
The muffled sound of the mountain artillery was mixed with the crisp sound of thumps. In front of the shielding fire of the two mountain artillery companies, the officers and soldiers of the tank defense artillery company of the assault corps artillery battalion were attacking the Japanese ships on the river with direct fire.

Compared with the mountain artillery company with a semi-covered firing position, the tank defense artillery company's position was much more dangerous and required direct aiming at the Japanese ships. Therefore, the Japanese ships' return fire also hit the tank defense artillery company's position from time to time.

"Hoho-ho"

At the position of the tank defense gun, there was an extremely piercing whistling sound and the sharp sound of shells breaking through the air, followed by several deafening explosions, and two naval gun shells fell near the position of the tank defense gun.

A shell exploded near a gun position. The exploded 120mm naval gun shell instantly covered three ammunition soldiers who were carrying ammunition boxes. With a loud bang, the three ammunition soldiers were torn to pieces, and their limbs, arms, flesh and blood flew everywhere under the air wave and shock wave of the explosion.

A Soviet-made 45mm tank defense gun was also hit by the flying shrapnel. The gunners hiding behind the gun shield avoided direct damage from the shrapnel with the protection of the steel shield. Only two gunners were hit by shrapnel and suffered minor injuries, but several wheels of the tank defense gun were broken. Then, another naval gun shell landed squarely in a shallow pit where empty ammunition boxes and shells were piled, lifting the wooden ammunition boxes and polished brass shells into the sky.

During the explosion, a large amount of soil was lifted up and fell down with the broken branches and leaves of trees.

For a while, the sound of artillery roared, not only the tank defense artillery company's position, but the exploding high-powered naval artillery shells made the positions of the entire assault corps' artillery battalion tremble.

The tank defense battery's firepower also came to a halt due to this round of falling shells. However, after being bombarded, the tank defense battery's firepower against the Japanese ships did not stop. After treating their wounded comrades and dragging away the bodies of their fallen comrades, the gunners quickly resumed their firepower attacks on the Japanese ships on the river.

He Wei's order had already been conveyed to every officer and soldier in the artillery battalion of the assault corps, from the battalion commander to the grooms. Everyone knew that no matter how fierce the Japanese firepower was, it had nothing to do with the artillery unit on Banbi Mountain.

All the artillery units on Banbi Mountain have only one mission, and that is to concentrate their firepower to kill the two Japanese destroyers that are blocked in the waterway!

After receiving the order to concentrate fire on the two ships, the tank defense gun company changed the type of ammunition used from explosive grenades to armor-piercing shells that had the ability to destruct the hulls of Japanese ships.

Subsequently, the company's purpose of participating in the bombardment of Japanese ships changed from training shooting to actual annihilation of the enemy. After changing the type of ammunition, they quickly drilled dense bullet holes on the hulls of the two Japanese destroyers that were the targets of concentrated fire.

Under He Wei's rigorous training, the officers and soldiers of the tank defense artillery company, who had already formed strict combat discipline, almost ignored the casualties caused by the Japanese warships' artillery fire. The gunners with red eyes fired one armor-piercing shell after another. All the officers and soldiers participating in the battle had only the mission and the goal in their minds, and they only wanted to destroy the two Japanese warships that were already trapped in the jar!

The same scene also occurred at the position of the naval artillery. The naval artillery also adopted direct shooting to attack the Japanese warships. Therefore, there were many shells falling on their positions, and the naval artillery also suffered casualties.

But these naval officers and soldiers all came from the sunken naval gunboat Xianning. Now they were blood-thirsty and only wanted to sink the two Japanese ships to avenge their hatred. Under the command of the naval artillery captain Lei Zhongwei, the naval officers and soldiers also successively operated a 120mm large-caliber naval gun, a 76mm dual-purpose naval gun, two 57mm machine guns and an Oerlikon 20mm machine gun to fire wildly at the Japanese ships.

Especially the 20mm Oerlikon machine gun, which showed extremely fierce power in the attack on the Japanese ships on the river. This machine gun adopts a fully automatic shooting mode with magazine feeding. Each magazine can hold 20 rounds of shells. It is like an oversized machine gun when used. The crazy naval officers and soldiers did not aim carefully. After aiming the machine gun at the Japanese ships on the mountain, they stepped on the firing pedal of the machine gun and fired fiercely.

The intensive firing of machine gun shells not only severely damaged the upper deck structures of the two Japanese destroyers and killed many Japanese sailors on the decks, but also killed many Japanese naval sailors wandering in the river.

Although the minesweeper Xinshan and the destroyer Hui were sunk, many sailors on board managed to escape. The uninjured sailors followed the surging river wind and water and swam downstream to the river where the Japanese fleet was located, hoping to be rescued by subsequent friendly ships.

The wounded Japanese sailors could only desperately grab wooden boards or life buoys and wait for death in the cold river water. These densely packed Japanese sailors in the river naturally became the best targets for the Oerlikon machine guns.

Under the rounds of 20mm machine gun explosive grenades, screams rang out on the river surface one after another. Many Japanese sailors who were struggling to swim for their lives in the river were shot into several pieces by the 20mm machine gun shells that carried the anger of the naval artillery officers and soldiers before they could swim far. Their bodies were smashed into pieces and buried in the cold river water.

Soon, a large number of broken limbs and incomplete corpses appeared on the surface of the river, and even the muddy yellow river water was dyed blood red.

The artillery battalion and naval artillery team of the assault corps fought bloody battles under the fierce firepower of the Japanese naval guns, launching rounds of attacks on the Japanese ships on the river with vengeful artillery fire. The 150mm mechanized heavy artillery battalion, which was protected by complete fortifications, would naturally not be slack, and the eight 150mm heavy guns also fired at the maximum rate of fire, attacking the two Japanese ships.

Under He Wei's strict command, all the artillery units on Banbi Mountain tried their best to fire at all costs. The sound of artillery of various calibers mixed together, forming an extremely powerful and terrifying ensemble.

Although the Japanese fleet's counterattack fire was also very fierce, setting Banbi Mountain on fire, the artillery units on Banbi Mountain seemed to completely ignore the Japanese ships' artillery fire and focused their wholeheartedly on attacking the two trapped Japanese ships with their extremely fierce artillery fire, as if they were in an attitude of "No matter how strong the wind is from the east, west, south or north, I will remain unmoved."

The tactical principle that He Wei had just stated in the order, "He fights his, we fight ours", has now been fully implemented and turned into reality.

The river surface where the Tao and Kashiwa destroyers were located between the sunken Xinshan minesweeper and the Hinoki destroyer was boiling like a boiling pot, and countless near misses raised high water columns around the warships.

The two Japanese destroyers had nowhere to hide under the terrifying and intensive artillery attack from Banbi Mountain, and the blocked waterway also prevented them from maneuvering quickly to evade.

The two destroyers were soon damaged by the fierce artillery fire from Banbi Mountain and caught fire, emitting black smoke. These two destroyers, like the Hinoki destroyer that had just been sunk, were built with cement and had very poor protection. After being damaged, their speed dropped rapidly and the hull tilted.

Seeing that two Japanese ships were damaged, the artillerymen on the hill increased their firepower and the intensity of the shelling reached its peak.

The smoke of gunpowder and artillery mixed together, blocking the sun in the sky, as if the night had arrived early. Only the flames from the artillery firing illuminated the sky and river covered by gunpowder like a sunset glow.

In such a beautiful yet terrifying scene, the two Japanese destroyers were also obscured by the thick smoke on the river. Finally, amid several earth-shaking explosions that were even more violent than artillery fire and seemed to reach the clouds, the Momo and Kashiwa destroyers, which were trapped in a jar, quickly capsized and disappeared on the blood-stained river.

(End of this chapter)