The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 378 The most tragic day for the Japanese Marines 1
After wiping the blood off his command knife, Tsuchi Kitaro said to his adjutant with a sinister look on his face, "We have never heard of this assault corps of the Chinese army before. Today, we see that not only are their equipment excellent, but the will and tenacity of their soldiers are also so high. Although they are not as strong as the fighting will and bravery of our Imperial Army, they are rare in the Chinese army."

The adjutant stumbled and fell to the ground. He quickly got up and spat at the severed head of the corporal, saying, "These damn Chinese soldiers, what qualifications do they have to compare with our Imperial Japanese Army!"

Tsuchi Kitaro stared at the corpses on the ground for a long time. After thinking for a moment, he said, "The equipment and quality of the soldiers of this Chinese army are not ordinary. Judging from the previous battle, the 4th Special Marine Corps that crossed the river must have been defeated by them. This unit should be an elite force temporarily added by the Chinese. They are likely to be near us. Order all troops in the position to be on guard and all available soldiers in the position to be ready for battle!"

The adjutant bowed and said, "Yes! Sir, we have followed your previous orders and distributed weapons captured from the Chinese army to the baggage troops and non-combat soldiers. Now in addition to the three infantry squadrons, a heavy machine gun squadron, an artillery squadron and the artillery squadron of the 4th Special Marine Corps, the baggage troops have also been temporarily organized into three combat squadrons. Except for a small number of communications and baggage troops, most of our officers and soldiers have taken up their weapons and entered the positions, ready to fight at any time."

After the adjutant finished speaking, he seemed to want to show his diligence in front of Tsuchi Kitaro, and seemed to want to cover up the embarrassment of being knocked down by the Chinese prisoners. His mouth was like a machine gun firing and continued: "The deployment of the troops is also carried out in accordance with your instructions. The three infantry squadrons and the heavy machine gun squadron of the 5th Special Marine Corps are deployed in the first-line positions, the three squadrons composed of logistics troops are deployed in the second-line positions, and the two artillery squadrons are deployed in the center of the positions. With our two thousand brave warriors and solid fortifications, even the most elite Chinese army can't do anything to us?"

After listening to his adjutant repeating his defense deployment, Kitaro Tsuchi felt relieved. Although he was very uncomfortable with the Chinese soldier he had just killed who preferred death to surrender, Kitaro Tsuchi was still quite confident in the position he designed and constructed. He added, "In short, tell all the troops to be careful."

The adjutant stood at attention, then whispered to Tsuchi Kitaro, "Sir, should we deal with the hundreds of prisoners from the 18th Division of the Chinese Army as soon as possible? If we deal with these prisoners, our army won't have to devote more energy to guarding them."

In the Japanese position, in addition to about two thousand Japanese Marines, there were also hundreds of captured soldiers from the 18th Division of the National Army. After these prisoners, who had become coolies for the Japanese army, finished building fortifications for the Japanese army, they were also ordered to be imprisoned by Kitaro Tsuchi.

The "deal with them" mentioned by the Japanese adjutant naturally meant killing these prisoners.

What the Japanese adjutant said was not without reason. The Japanese troops in the position were currently very tight, and hundreds of prisoners with resistance were indeed a hidden danger in the position. However, the adjutant had just been teased and bumped by a Chinese prisoner. At this moment, the words of killing the prisoner coming out of his mouth seemed to be a kind of impotent rage and killing to vent his anger.

Tsuchi Kitaro looked at his adjutant coldly and said, "Soldiers should kill the enemy on the battlefield in an upright manner, rather than taking prisoners to vent their anger. Don't kill the prisoners yet. When the war starts, our fortifications will surely be damaged and need repairs. We still have some use for them, so keep them for now."

"Yes, sir!"

Upon seeing this, the adjutant stood at attention, saluted, and quickly ran away to pass on the order.

Kitaro Tsuchiji stared blankly at the head and the bodies of several other Chinese soldiers on the ground, sighed softly, and followed the observation port of the command post to the night outside, which was full of unknowns and dangers.

"Tonight is destined to be a sleepless night!" Tsuchishi Kitaro thought to himself.

At 3:30 in the morning, in front of the Japanese obstacle area, Fu Chen, the commander of the 1st Infantry Battalion of the Assault Corps, was covered in mud and half-crouched in the communication trench, looking carefully towards the Japanese position.

After intensive deployment and coordination, Fu Chen completed various adjustments from personnel to firearms for the First Battalion and its attached troops in half an hour in accordance with the basic ideas and principles of the Storm Commando tactics. After reporting to He Wei for approval and determining the coordinated attack tactics with He Wei and the heads of various units, the main attack force immediately began trench operations against the Japanese positions.

The feint attack just launched by the special forces company more or less played a role in tiring out the Japanese troops in the position. In addition, the officers and soldiers of the assault corps possessed excellent tactical qualities and good earthwork skills. Therefore, the main attack force's close trench operations in front of the Japanese positions were not discovered by the Japanese army, and they successfully dug three communication trenches under their noses.

The main attack force, with the 1st Battalion as its core, also used these three communication trenches to successfully advance to the front of the obstacle area of ​​the Japanese position.

"Captain, the time is up. The commander just sent someone to pass on the order. The mountain artillery company and the reserve force are all in place."

The company commander of the headquarters company of the first battalion crawled behind Fu Chen and whispered to him.

Fu Chen took a deep breath, withdrew his gaze from the Japanese position, clenched his fist, and swung it fiercely into the air. He looked at the battalion commander and roared with confidence of victory: "Attack begins!"

The company commander of the battalion headquarters company gritted his teeth, raised his signal gun high, and pulled the trigger.

Whoosh-Suddenly

A green flare suddenly flew diagonally into the air.

The sharp whistling sound of the signal flare broke the silence. After more than ten seconds of silence, suddenly, bursts of loud noises rang out one after another, like a gust of strong wind, suddenly rising from the rear of the three communication trenches of the first battalion's attack troops and sweeping towards the Japanese army's obstacle area. That was the effect of the concentrated volleys of the 60mm mortar squads under the infantry platoons of the three infantry companies of the first battalion and the 81mm mortar company of the first battalion.

In order to achieve the greatest destructive effect on the Japanese army's obstacles, Fu Chen withdrew the nine 60mm mortar squads under the nine infantry platoons of the three infantry companies of the first battalion from his organization, and organized the eighteen 60mm mortars of the nine 60mm mortar squads and the four 81mm mortars of the battalion mortar company of the first battalion into a mortar group for this attack, which was responsible for the task of carrying out artillery destruction on the Japanese army's obstacles and opening a path for the main attack force.

Although the mortar's shooting effect is not as powerful as that of the mountain artillery, the effect of twenty-two mortars firing together is also quite spectacular in the dim night. The obstacle area in front of the Japanese position seems to be swept by a gust of wind. It is the mighty momentum of the rows of shells fired rapidly by the mortars that break through the air.

As a large number of French 1.33mm instantaneous blasting grenades with a charge of 60 kg and French 2mm heavy delayed blasting grenades with a charge of 81 kg landed and exploded, dazzling flashes suddenly appeared in the obstacle area in front of the Japanese position. Although the power of 60mm mortar shells is small, they have a fast firing rate and a large projection volume. At a high firing rate and a large projection volume, the destructive power formed on the barbed wire, wooden stakes and chevaux de frise in the Japanese obstacle area is not bad.

The four 81mm French Blonde mortars of the mortar company of the first battalion fired all 81mm heavy grenades for offensive purposes that were imported by the Nationalist Government from the Blonde Company of France. The explosive power of a single shell was equivalent to that of an ordinary 75mm mountain artillery grenade. It was extremely powerful and was equipped with a dual-purpose v181r dual-purpose fuse with both delayed and instantaneous blasting functions.

Therefore, although this type of artillery is a mortar, it has the ability to destroy civil fortifications, and the gunners of the 81mm mortar also switched the fuse to delayed mode during the current obstacle-breaking shooting. After the 81mm shells fell into the Japanese obstacle area, they all penetrated into the soil layer before exploding, which could uproot the Japanese barbed wire and stakes. Therefore, the artillery group composed of these two types of mortars has quite impressive shooting power!
As a result, a large amount of barbed wire, soil, and barricades were blown into the air by the dense mortar and grenade explosions, and the shock waves generated by the dense artillery explosions blew up the dust on the ground, forming a series of smoke screens like smoke columns. The deafening sound of explosions came from the Japanese obstacle area that was hit, and at the same time surged towards the communication trench where the main attack force of the first battalion was located.

The fierce mortar bombardment lasted for more than a minute. More than 60 81mm mortar shells and mm mortar shells successfully opened a passage in the obstacle area in front of the Japanese position. The commander of the first battalion, Fu Chen, suddenly jumped out of the communication trench, waved a submachine gun, turned around and shouted: "Brothers, charge, it's time to serve the country, kill!"

Along with the attack order from the first battalion commander Fu Chen, a loud charge horn suddenly sounded.

Suddenly, nearly a thousand officers and soldiers from the three infantry companies assigned to the 1st Battalion and the engineering company directly under the assault corps assigned to the 1st Battalion issued an overwhelming shout of killing and jumped out of the communication trenches in an instant.

The riflemen were holding Czech-made VZ24 rifles with bayonets, the submachine gunners were carrying MP28 submachine guns, and the light machine gunners of each squad and the machine gun shooters of the general-purpose machine gun squad were also carrying Czech-made ZB26 light machine guns and MG34 general-purpose machine guns, and they rushed towards the Japanese positions in a low posture and roared.

However, the ones rushing in the front were not the three infantry companies of the first battalion, but the engineering company directly under the assault corps.

Under the command of the engineering company commander Zhao Jiansan, the officers and soldiers of the engineering company quickly rushed to the passage in the Japanese obstacle area that was blown open by mortar bombardment, placed a large number of explosive packs on the barbed wire and stakes in the passage that had not been destroyed by mortar bombardment, and after igniting the fuse, quickly hid on both sides of the passage.

Boom
Boom
Amidst the loud explosions, a large number of explosive packs exploded one after another in the passage, completely destroying the barbed wire and barricades that had not been completely destroyed in the passage opened by the mortars, while further widening the passage.

After the violent explosion of the explosive pack, the officers and soldiers of the engineering company crawled into the passage again, regardless of the smoke and dust raised by the explosion of the explosives in the passage. They raised their needle-nosed pliers, waved their engineering shovels to cut and split the barbed wire and the thick wooden stakes that tied the barbed wire that were still intact in the passage, and completely opened a passage for the main attacking infantry unit in the obstacle area of ​​the Japanese army.

"Brothers, it's time to kill the enemy and serve the country. Charge!"

"kill!"

"Come on!"

After the officers and soldiers of the engineering company cleared the passage, the officers and soldiers of the three infantry companies of the first battalion shouted and killed, and in the dim light of the summer night, under the command and guidance of the officers and soldiers of the engineering company on both sides of the passage hidden in the obstacle area, they rushed into the entrance of the passage in a column assault formation accurately and quickly, shouting and killing.

After successfully passing through the Japanese army's obstacle area, the main attacking officers and soldiers shouted and rushed towards the outer trench in front of the Japanese main position with overwhelming momentum.

Boom
Boom
The roar of the mortar group's firing rang out again. The mortar group, which had completed the obstacle-clearing mission, immediately advanced the barrage and fired fiercely in the direction of the outer trench in front of the Japanese main position with 18 60mm mortars and 4 81mm mortars. While the mortar group was shifting its firepower, the tank defense artillery company hidden in the rear of the communication trench of the main attack force of the first battalion also began to move.

The officers and soldiers of the tank defense gun company pushed, lifted and carried the Soviet-style M1932 45mm tank defense gun out of the communication trench and quickly rushed to the designated gun positions of each gun. They completed the unloading and loading operations, and quickly adjusted the shooting parameters, aiming the tank defense gun at the Japanese outer trench bunker firepower point that the special forces company had detected during the feint attack.

Soon, with the command to open fire, the sound of shells being fired was heard, and the five 45mm tank defense guns began to roar. One after another, 45mm armor-piercing shells were fired from the muzzles, passing through the two sides of the attacking formation of the main attacking force officers and soldiers, and accurately exploded at the firepower point of the Japanese bunker in the outer trench.

Thanks to the intelligence obtained by the special forces company from the feint attack in advance, everyone from He Wei to the platoon leaders and even sergeants of the main attack force had a clear understanding of the structure of the Japanese positions and the locations of the firepower points. It can be said that every aspect of the Japanese positions was completely transparent to the officers and soldiers under He Wei.

With detailed information about the enemy's deployment, He Wei naturally formulated targeted attack tactics for the attacking forces, and thus, this extremely standard infantry attack took place.

At the beginning of the attack, the enemy's obstacle area was first destroyed by a group of indirect fire artillery composed of mortars, initially opening an attack path for the infantry in the enemy's obstacle area. Then the combat engineers coordinated with the infantry to launch an attack. After the engineers carried out additional blasting and thorough destruction of the path in the obstacle area, the infantry quickly charged forward along the path in the obstacle area.

While the infantry was charging along the passage, the mortar group quickly shifted its firepower, pushing a barrage of bullets toward the Japanese outer trench behind the obstacle area and in front of the main position. The tank defense guns also opened fire at the same time, carrying out precise roll-call bombardment of the bunker firepower points in the Japanese outer trench!

Accurate enemy situation brought about targeted tactical plans, and the targeted tactical plans coupled with good combat qualities led to this smooth breakthrough attack in front of the enemy!

Amidst the loud shouts of killing, in just two minutes, the three main attack companies of the first battalion successfully broke through the Japanese obstacle area and approached the outer trench in front of the Japanese main position.

(End of this chapter)