The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 358 Assault Landing Plan
Tsuchi Kitaro saluted all the officers in the conference room, and bowed slightly to the commander of the 11th Squadron, Kondo Eijiro, who was sitting at the head. He then raised his baton and pointed to the location of Banbi Mountain on the large-scale wall map. He slowly spoke, "Commanders, colleagues, five days ago, our squadron attacked the enemy on Banbi Mountain from the water with nine warships, but suffered a slight setback. From this battle, we can see that the Chinese troops guarding Banbi Mountain are the best in the Chinese army in terms of firepower equipment and quality, and are also the strongest opponent our squadron has encountered since the Wuhan attack."

As soon as Kitaro Tsuchiji mentioned the three words "Banbi Mountain", many Japanese officers present at the meeting suddenly felt uncomfortable, especially those captains who had personally experienced the defeat at Banbi Mountain a few days ago. They were now extremely sensitive to the three words "Banbi Mountain". This place name had become a taut string in the minds of many Japanese captains, which would "bounce" if touched lightly.

Even though Kitaro Tsuchi's wording was extremely euphemistic, even describing the disastrous defeat in which four warships were lost as a "slight setback," the Japanese captains still inevitably had stress reactions. Some had strange expressions, some were angry, and some even gnashed their teeth.

Ignoring the captains' unusual movements, Tsuchi Kitaro continued, "Under the current situation, it is no longer realistic to continue to seek a breakthrough on Banbi Mountain by water. The enemy's artillery firepower on Banbi Mountain is extremely fierce, and the nearby waterways have been blocked by our sunken warships. Therefore, I propose to launch an attack on Banbi Mountain by means of a strong landing by the Marine Corps."

As soon as the voice fell, a Japanese officer said: "Master Tu, attacking from the land direction is a good choice. These days, my 11th Squadron has also been preparing for landing operations. However, I personally do not think it is a good idea to take landing operations. I wonder if Master Tu has ever thought that the enemy artillery fire on the half-walled mountain can even sink warships, so wouldn't it be even easier to attack our landing troops and landing craft? I hope Master Tu will think twice."

"Yes, and we only have two Marine battalions available for landing operations. I'm afraid this may not be enough."

Another Japanese naval captain interrupted.

In the past few days, under the decision of the 11th Squadron Commander Kondo Eijiro, the 11th Squadron has begun various preparations for the landing operation. Anyone can see that this landing operation is a foregone conclusion.

The different departments of the 11th Squadron, including the battle fleet, transport fleet and marines, were also put into operation and were carrying out pre-war preparations in an orderly manner. However, a considerable number of officers within the 11th Squadron had complaints about this landing operation.

As for the reasons, it is just as the two officers who spoke just now said, first, there are not enough troops, and second, they are afraid that they cannot capture Banbi Mountain. At today's military meeting, this group of officers with dissenting opinions finally expressed the objections that they had been holding in their hearts.

Kondo Eijiro cast his gaze towards Tsuchi Kitaro, who understood and said with a smile, "Indeed, the enemy's firepower on Banbi Mountain is too strong, and our available landing forces are too few. However, we don't have to land on Banbi Mountain. Instead, we can choose another landing site. The Fuchiguchi Fortress, which has been destroyed by the artillery fire of our 11th Squadron, is a very good choice."

As he spoke, Tsuchi Kitaro turned his baton to point at the Fuchikou Fortress and continued, "In the past few days, I have sent several small-scale Marine reconnaissance teams on landing craft to conduct reconnaissance at the Fuchikou Fortress and the entrance connecting the Fuchi River and the Yangtze River. It is certain that the Chinese military defense forces in the Fuchikou Fortress have been wiped out by the fierce artillery attack of my 11th Squadron, and no large Chinese troops have been found on the nearby river bank."

"Of course, according to the reconnaissance team's report, the enemy is suspected to have laid mines in the waters of Fuchi River (also known as Fushui) and Fuchikou. It can be seen that the enemy's deployment near Fuchi River is still quite tight. However, judging from the overall situation of the river bank near Fuchikou, this is still the best landing site. First, the distance between here and Banbi Mountain has exceeded the maximum range of artillery with a caliber of 200 mm or less. Therefore, when we carry out landing operations, we do not need to worry about enemy artillery fire. Second, no large enemy forces have been found near the river bank near Fuchikou, which is also a good landing condition."

"As for the problem of insufficient landing forces, I don't think you need to worry about this. During the Battle of Songhu, I was ordered to lead the Marines to land. I fought with the Chinese Army many times and inflicted heavy damage to the Chinese army. In my opinion, with the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army, even if the two special marine battalions of the 11th Regiment with more than people cannot quickly capture Banbi Mountain after landing, I am at least % sure that we can inflict heavy damage to the Chinese army and even form an encirclement of Banbi Mountain."

Kondo Eijiro nodded to Tsuchi Kitaro with an approving expression and said, "Tell me your battle plan."

Tsuchi Kitaro stood at attention and bowed to Kondo Eijiro, then spoke loudly with confidence: "Commander, colleagues, in the past few days, I have been using the Marine Corps to conduct advance reconnaissance on Fuchikou. According to the results of the on-site reconnaissance, my operational plan is to focus on the favorable situation that there are no large-scale Chinese troops on the river bank near Fuchikou. The 11th and th Special Marine Corps of the Wu Naval Base under the th Squadron, as well as the Special Tank Squadron and all landing craft, will land in one go near the Fuchikou Fortress, on the river bank west of the Fuchi River, under the cover of shallow-draft gunboats. After landing, we will quickly defeat the Chinese troops on the west side of the Fuchi River, and then cross the Fuchi River directly through bridge construction. After reaching the east bank of the Fuchi River, we will quickly attack in the direction of Banbi Mountain and launch an attack."

Then, Tsuchi Kitaro continued, "Considering that the enemy's firepower and combat power on Banbi Mountain are quite good, our troops will most likely not succeed in the first battle during the attack. But even if we cannot quickly capture Banbi Mountain, with the strength of our Marine Corps, we can break through their outer positions and occupy the starting positions for the attack. We are still confident of forming an encirclement of Banbi Mountain. When launching the attack, our Marine Corps must also actively contact the Army's Hata Detachment that is marching towards Banbi Mountain, urging them to speed up their march and rush to Banbi Mountain as soon as possible."

"If our Marine Corps can capture Banbi Mountain independently, that would be the best. If not, then we will have to settle for the second best option, which is to wait for the Army's Hata Detachment to arrive and then have our Marines and Marines launch a joint attack."

"This is my battle plan. I have now reported it to you. Commander, please give me your comments and guidance!"

Kondo Eijiro nodded slightly, and looking at Tsuchi Shi Kitaro who had finished his report, he smiled in appreciation and said, "Tsuchi Shi-kun is indeed an elite in my Imperial Navy who is proficient in both naval artillery and land warfare command. The plan you proposed is very good. I think it can become the first operational plan for my 11th Squadron to attack Banbi Mountain."

Hearing Kondo Eijiro's praise, Tsuchi Kitaro was overjoyed and quickly stood at attention, bowed and said, "Thank you, sir!"

Then, Kondo Eijiro said to the officers in the conference room in an unquestionable tone: "Given the enemy situation, hydrology and local conditions near Banbi Mountain, it is no longer possible to solve the problem of Banbi Mountain by simply attacking along the river with surface ships. The only effective tactic to annihilate the enemy in Banbi Mountain is to launch landing operations from both the land and water directions. The battle plan proposed by Mr. Tsuchi-kun is very sophisticated both in terms of surface ships and land operations. I order this squadron to immediately implement Mr. Tsuchi-kun's battle plan. The gunboat forces responsible for covering the landing of the Marines will be assembled. The concentration of landing craft and all supply and transportation matters before the landing of the Marines will be the responsibility of this squadron's logistics accounting department, and the detailed transportation scheduling arrangements will be the responsibility of this squadron's staff department."

"Yes!"

"Yes!"

Two Japanese Navy lieutenant colonels stood up almost at the same time and answered. Kondo Eijiro turned his gaze to Tsuchi Kitaro and said, "As for the command of the Marine Corps, it will be fully handed over to Tsuchi-kun. From now on, in addition to your duties as the captain of the 11th Special Marine Corps of the Wu Naval Base, you will also serve as the commander-in-chief of all our th Marine Corps units, commanding and controlling all Marine Corps units."

"Yes, sir."

Kondo Eijiro nodded slightly, glanced at everyone present, and suddenly raised his voice: "All units of this team continue to strengthen preparations for landing operations, and launch a landing operation on the river bank west of the enemy's Fuchikou in two days!"

The officers present at the meeting stood up and answered in unison: "Yes!"

After the meeting, under Kondo Eijiro's unquestionable combat order, the Japanese Navy's 11th Squadron, this war machine, continued to operate at a faster and higher efficiency. All departments were making final preparations for the landing operation two days later.

Kitaro Tsuchi, who was appointed as the commander of the Marine Corps, was excited and quickly began to arrange all the specific matters related to the Marine Corps' landing operations.

The history of the Japanese Marine Corps is quite long. As early as the Southwest War in the 19th century, the predecessor of the Japanese Marine Corps, the Marine Corps, was very active. It not only cooperated with the Army in combat many times, but also became famous for its landing operations.

During this period, Japanese naval soldiers would undergo land warfare training regardless of their military branches when they joined the army. Therefore, the Japanese Marine Corps during this period were often armed sailors temporarily transferred from warships. After decades of development, the Japanese Marine Corps had become completely regularized.

After the January 28th Battle of Shanghai, the Japanese Navy formulated a special order for the Marine Corps, dividing the Japanese Marine Corps into the Special Marine Corps and the Ship Marine Corps. The so-called Ship Marine Corps is a marine corps deployed on warships to perform land warfare missions, while the Special Marine Corps is a permanent force stationed in a certain area.

The 11th and 11th Special Marine Corps of the Kure Naval Base to which the th Fleet belonged were units of this nature. These two units had been stationed at the Kure Naval Base of the Japanese Navy before, and were temporarily transferred to the th Fleet of the Japanese Navy before the so-called Wuhan offensive by the Japanese military headquarters to serve as the navy's landing attack force upstream the river.

The organization and equipment of these two special marines are very similar to those of the Japanese Army's infantry battalions, but their organization is larger. Each special marine is equivalent to a reinforced infantry battalion of the Japanese Army, with three infantry squadrons, a heavy machine gun squadron and an artillery squadron. The total strength of each special marine is nearly 1,500 people.

The weapons and equipment and weapon organization of the Special Marine Corps are roughly the same as those of the Japanese Army's infantry battalion. The subordinate heavy machine gun squadron is equipped with eight Type 92 heavy machine guns, the artillery squadron is equipped with four Type 41 75mm mountain cannons, and the organization of the infantry squadron is also the same as that of the Japanese Army's infantry squadron. The rifles, light machine guns and grenade launchers they are equipped with are also the main models of the Japanese Army, such as the Type 38 rifle, the Taisho 11-year light machine gun, the Nambu Type 14 pistol and the Type 89 50mm grenade launcher.

However, the Japanese Navy, which is much richer than the Japanese Army, will not be satisfied with raising the level of weapons and equipment of the Marine Corps to the same level as the Army.

Compared with the Japanese Army's weak close-range automatic firepower, the Japanese Marine Corps has made great strides in this regard, equipped with a large number of SIG1920 submachine guns imported from Switzerland and S-100 submachine guns from Austria (both of which are improved copies of the German MP18 submachine gun), enabling the Japanese Marine Corps to possess close-range automatic firepower far superior to that of the Japanese Army.

For example, the 11th Special Marine Corps and the 1920th Special Marine Corps of the Wu Naval Base, to which the th Squadron belongs, each infantry unit in its subordinate infantry company is equipped with two Swiss-made SIG submachine guns, and its close combat firepower is quite impressive.

After making up for the shortcomings in close combat firepower, the various special marines of the Japanese Marine Corps are equivalent to an enhanced and complete version of the Japanese Army Infantry Battalion.

In addition to the 11th and th Special Marine Corps of the Wu Naval Base, the Japanese Marine Corps assigned to the th Fleet also had a special tank squadron equipped with six Carden Lloyd ultra-light tanks imported from the United Kingdom.

In general, the marines commanded by Kitaro Tsuchiji included the 4th Special Marine Corps and the 5th Special Marine Corps of the Wu Naval Base, a light tank corps, with a total strength of more than 3,000 troops, and a full range of light and heavy firepower.

The quality of the personnel in this Marine Corps is also excellent. After the 4th and 5th Marine Corps of the Wu Naval District were dispatched to China, they were supplemented by a large number of veterans from the former Japanese Navy's Shanghai-Nanjing Special Marine Corps who had participated in the Battle of Shanghai. These veterans had experienced the baptism and training of the Battle of Shanghai and had rich combat experience.

Therefore, the Marine Corps commanded by Kitaro Tsuchi can be described as a land combat force with powerful equipment and firepower and excellent combat qualities.

This powerful Japanese Marine Corps had sharpened its knives and selected the area near the Fuchikou Fort, which had been destroyed a few days ago, as the landing site for a surprise attack. At this time, neither the Fuchikou defenders nor He Wei were aware of this.

(End of this chapter)