The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 382 The most tragic day for the Japanese Marines 5
"Come on!"

"Fight in!"

The deafening shouts of the officers and soldiers of the 1st battalion's main attack force almost drowned out the sound of the Japanese army's light and heavy machine gun fire and the loud noise of grenade explosions. After a burst of dense and short gunfire and grenade explosions, as the 1st battalion's main attack force broke into the Japanese army's front-line positions, the battle situation instantly changed from a field assault to close combat in the trenches.

The officers and soldiers of the first battalion rushed into the Japanese positions swiftly along the several breakthroughs torn open by the vanguard attacking forces. Amid loud battle slogans, they engaged in bloody hand-to-hand combat, close combat, and hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese army.

After the first battalion broke through and rushed into the Japanese trenches, the Japanese army that had been fighting hard in the trenches did not give in. Guarding the trenches were three infantry squadrons and a heavy machine gun squadron of the 5th Special Marine Corps of the Japanese Navy's Wu Naval District. More than half of the officers and soldiers had participated in the Battle of Shanghai. Faced with the first battalion that broke into the position, they naturally did not panic, but launched a swift counterattack.

Under the leadership of officers and non-commissioned officers at all levels, the Marines in the front-line positions of the Japanese army also roared, shouted, waved their command knives, and rushed towards the invading officers and soldiers of the first battalion with Type 1920 rifles and Swiss-made SIG submachine guns.

"Onboard!"

"Onboard!"

The screams and cries of the Japanese Marines soon merged with the shouts of the 1st Battalion's main attack force. Although the Japanese Marines were at a disadvantage, they were no worse than the 1st Battalion's main attack force in terms of momentum and psychology of fighting to the death.

These veterans of the Japanese Marine Corps have both the courage to fight in close combat and the spirit to fight to the death. The source of their courage and spirit comes from their rich combat experience and the relatively sophisticated weapons and equipment of the Japanese Marine Corps.

The Japanese Marine Corps officers and soldiers who rushed towards the main attack force of the first battalion without hesitation were absolutely convinced that with their rich combat experience in the Battle of Shanghai, excellent bayonet fighting skills and the close combat automatic firepower advantage brought by the two Swiss-made SIG1930 submachine guns equipped in each Marine infantry unit, they would be able to defeat the Chinese army, which has never been good at close combat, is physically weak and lacks close combat automatic firepower!
The crowds of people from the two armies soon collided with each other in the trenches and were entangled in a ball. However, as soon as the two sides fought, the aggressive Japanese Marines were hit hard on the head by the officers and soldiers of the First Battalion. The scene that the Japanese Marines expected, that they would quickly defeat the enemy that broke into the formation, did not occur. Instead, many Japanese soldiers were killed and wounded by the intensive firepower of the officers and soldiers of the First Battalion before they could rush up to fight in close combat with the officers and soldiers of the First Battalion, and there were heavy corpses.

The officers and soldiers of the Japanese Fifth Special Marine Corps in the position made the same mistake as the Fourth Special Marine Corps which was wiped out in the river crossing attack not long ago. They all used their previous combat experience to evaluate the officers and soldiers of the First Battalion who broke into the Japanese position. They believed that the officers and soldiers of the First Battalion were just like the Chinese troops they had fought before, with insufficient bayonet skills and lack of close combat firepower.

But the actual situation was just the opposite. The submachine guns that the 5th Special Marines were proud of and believed in for their powerful close-combat firepower were completely no match for the officers and soldiers of the 1st Battalion.

Each Japanese Marine Corps unit was equipped with two Swiss SIG1920 submachine guns. Their firepower was indeed not weak. However, the assault corps infantry squad of the same level as the Japanese Marine Corps was equipped with five submachine guns (Note 1). The submachine gun firepower of the assault corps infantry squad was more than twice that of the Japanese Marine Corps infantry unit.

The Japanese Marines in the position were no match for the soldiers of the First Battalion not only in terms of submachine gun firepower, but also in terms of bayonet and machine gun firepower.

In the narrow trenches, the 127.6cm long Type rifle equipped by the Japanese Marine Corps riflemen did not bring the so-called "an inch longer, an inch stronger" advantage in hand-to-hand combat. On the contrary, its excessive length greatly affected the flexibility of the Japanese riflemen in stabbing and drawing their guns.

On the contrary, the Czech vz24 short rifles equipped by the riflemen of the first battalion who broke into the position fully utilized the flexibility of the short rifles in the bayonet fight. Whether it was drawing the gun or blocking, it was much more convenient than the Type rifle.

The Czech light machine guns and mg34 general-purpose machine guns equipped by the main attack force of the st battalion also showed excellent performance. The strong and sturdy machine gunners of the st battalion carried the machine gun handles and cooperated with the submachine gunners and riflemen to fire fiercely in the trenches, mowing down the rushing Japanese Marines in large numbers.

The balance of victory in this close combat in the trenches tilted towards the soldiers of the first battalion who broke into the Japanese position at the very beginning of the battle.

After the two sides engaged in a melee, the sounds of cannons, gunshots, whistles, shouts and bayonet collisions almost resounded throughout the entire position.

In the center of the Japanese front-line trenches, Battalion Commander Fu Chen roared and advanced along the communication trench in the Japanese position while pulling the trigger of his machine gun to fire forward. The round barrel of the machine gun in his hand spitted out flames from the muzzle with a "boom boom" sound, and strings of 7.63mm pistol bullets swept forward like knives.

Amidst bursts of screams, several Japanese Marines in the communication trench ahead were knocked to the ground, lying in a pool of blood.

As the bullets in the magazine of the submachine gun in Fu Chen's hand were used up, the bolt made a light click. Fu Chen hurriedly squatted down and leaned against the inner wall of the communication trench to calmly change the bullets.

"idiot!"

As soon as Fu Chen's submachine gun stopped firing, four Japanese Marines in navy blue combat uniforms rushed over howling with Type 38 rifles. Seeing this, Fu Chen's messenger immediately raised his 20-shot box-action pistol, put the pistol flat and held the trigger, firing a row of bullets. Several soldiers from the first battalion around him also raised their rifles and submachine guns and opened fire, turning the four Japanese Marines who were rushing over into sieves with blood holes all over their bodies.

"well played!"

Fu Chen loaded a new magazine into the machine gun and cheered as he looked at the twisted bodies of the Japanese soldiers in front of him.

As soon as he finished speaking, Fu Chen's messenger shouted, "The enemy is coming again!"

Amidst a burst of shouting and killing, a dozen Japanese soldiers, who were blood-thirsty, swarmed over with submachine guns and rifles. Several Japanese submachine gunners rushed to the front and stepped over the bodies of their comrades who were still emitting white smoking. While rushing over, they raised their Swiss-made SIG1920 submachine guns and fired fiercely.

Fu Chen and the messenger, who were half-squatting, saw the Japanese army rushing towards them, and immediately threw themselves forward and lay at the bottom of the communication trench. Dense submachine gun bullets whizzed past Fu Chen's head.

Several soldiers from the first battalion nearby were caught off guard and failed to dodge in time. They were knocked down immediately and fell beside Fu Chen with groans and screams of pain.

Fu Chen was furious upon seeing this and raised his submachine gun to fire. At this moment, a burst of dense and continuous gunfire, like that of a cloth-tearing machine, suddenly came from behind Fu Chen.

I saw a tall sergeant from the first battalion, under the cover of several riflemen, rushing over with a light machine gun and an MG50 general-purpose machine gun with a 34-round belt box in combat mode.

The sergeant shouted loudly, holding the handle of the MG34 general-purpose machine gun in one hand and the grip of the machine gun with the other hand to pull the trigger, while swinging the gun to fire at the oncoming Japanese army.

The MG34 general-purpose machine gun continuously spewed out flames, and the bipod under the barrel kept swinging with the continuous roar of the machine gun. Streams of fire shot out like sharp knives, flying towards the Japanese soldiers who were rushing in. The dozen Japanese soldiers who were rushing in were instantly covered by dense machine gun bullets. The traffic trench was also hit by the dense mm heavy pointed bullets, leaving dense bullet holes on the bottom of the trench and the cliff. Suddenly, the rain of bullets was like a curtain, and the blood mist was scattered. Amid screams, more than a dozen Japanese soldiers were cleanly swept down in the trench. Then, several soldiers from the first battalion with bayonets rushed up and stabbed the Japanese soldiers lying on the ground wailing.
The same scene kept happening in various places in the Japanese communication trenches. The Japanese Marines who tried to counterattack the officers and soldiers of the First Battalion who broke into the trenches with close combat completely failed to achieve their goal. Instead, they suffered heavy casualties in the fierce hand-to-hand combat and hand-to-hand fighting with the First Battalion. However, the officers and soldiers of the First Battalion became more and more courageous, and brought their fierce firepower and excellent tactics to the extreme.

The officers and soldiers of the first battalion fully implemented the tactical requirements formulated by He Wei. Each squad and platoon was based on the squad and squad as the basic units. The squad leader commanded each squad within the squad, and the soldiers within the squad obeyed the command of their squad leader. The rifle squads and machine gun squads cooperated with each other in combat and soon inflicted heavy casualties on the three Japanese Marine Corps infantry squadrons that were fighting against them.

After fighting off wave after wave of Japanese counterattacks with submachine guns, bayonets and machine guns, the officers and soldiers of the first battalion quickly expanded their results, using machine guns, submachine guns, grenades and bayonets to clear a path and assault along the communication trenches, using fierce firepower to clear and drive out the Japanese Marines in the trenches, and using grenades to clear and attack the various bunkers and machine gun nests distributed in the communication trenches.

After nearly half an hour of fighting, the Japanese Marines in the position tried their best to resist the powerful offensive of the 1st Battalion Attack Force, which had overwhelming firepower advantage and excellent tactical qualities. They fought repeatedly in the communication trenches with the 1st Battalion Attack Force, for trenches and bunkers one by one.

However, in the face of the absolute gap in strength, the Japanese army was ultimately unable to withstand the offensive of the 1st Battalion. The three Japanese Marine Corps infantry squadrons and one heavy machine gun squadron in the position lost more than half of their troops in the fierce fighting in the trenches. The heavy machine gun squadron, which was mainly deployed in bunkers and machine gun nests, was almost completely wiped out by the 1st Battalion. From officers and soldiers to machine guns, all were killed or destroyed in bunkers and machine gun nests by the 1st Battalion.

The three infantry companies were all crippled, and some squads and detachments were even completely wiped out. Even though the Japanese troops in the position were mainly veterans, it was impossible for them to recapture the position from the First Battalion, which had already established a foothold in the Japanese position, when more than half of their combat power had been lost.

In the end, this close hand-to-hand combat ended with the victory of the first battalion, and the remnants of the Japanese army that lost their positions could only withdraw from the first-line positions where the counterattack had failed, and retreat along several communication trenches and open areas to the second line of defense trenches in the rear.

Seeing the Japanese troops in the front-line positions being forced to retreat in panic by the First Battalion, He Wei and the surrounding officers and soldiers who were closely observing the battle situation in the command post all cheered loudly.

By this time the sky was completely bright. Even without a telescope, He Wei could clearly see that a dark blue group of about 200 Japanese Marines who had been driven out of their positions were rapidly retreating towards the second-line positions of the Japanese army in the rear.

Seeing the Japanese army retreating in defeat, He Wei naturally would not miss the opportunity to strike hard at the fallen. He picked up the transmitter to the mountain artillery company and shouted excitedly, "See the retreating Japanese army? Open fire and use your artillery's area fire tactics to kill those retreating Japanese troops. Now that the Japanese artillery has been destroyed by us, I allow you to use all the shells. Don't let them retreat to the second line of position. Bombard their retreat route back and forth."

"Yes!"

The excited and loud voice of the commander of the First Mountain Artillery Company came over the phone, and then, more than half a minute later, rumbling sounds of artillery were heard again from the position of the First Mountain Artillery Company.

What He Wei called area shooting is actually an artillery shooting tactic specifically designed to attack infantry on the move. Simply put, after the organized artillery units are deployed, each gun is used to conduct concentrated firing at a certain distance in the target area, and the firing distance is gradually increased. Repeated concentrated firing is conducted at each firing distance to form a repeatedly moving barrage of bullets and an area-based killing zone in the target area, thereby killing the moving infantry units.

The mountain artillery company's shooting response speed was very fast. The six Type 6 94mm mountain cannons opened fire very quickly in a rapid-fire manner and began to pursue and shoot at the retreating Japanese Marines.

The shells hit the Japanese army's retreating route on the front line with a sharp whistling sound. The first round of shells hit the front of the retreating Japanese troops very skillfully, and there was a loud bang of explosions.

The second and third rounds of bombs followed and hit the Japanese army from in front of their retreating troops, forming a barrage of bullets moving in the opposite direction of their retreating troops. Under the bombardment of the fast-moving barrage, the more than 200 Japanese Marines who retreated in a hurry had nowhere to escape and were soon all caught in the barrage of area fire from mountain artillery.

The route that the Japanese Marines had to take to retreat was littered with fallen shells from 75mm mountain artillery, sparks of fire, and thick smoke. The shock waves from the exploding shells and flying shrapnel wreaked havoc on the Japanese retreating formation. No one was spared, whether they were retreating along the communication trenches or running wildly on the open ground.

Dense shrapnel tore through the Japanese army's formation, knocking down Japanese Marines in rows and groups like they were cutting wheat, or blowing them to pieces and then throwing them high into the air by the air waves and shock waves.

Under He Wei's order to use up all the shells, the six Type 6 mountain cannons of the first mountain artillery company almost reached the theoretical maximum firing rate of the artillery. The rolling barrage formed by one shell after another under the area firing tactics completely covered the area between the first and second line positions of the Japanese army. More than 94 retreating Japanese soldiers were completely annihilated in the artillery fire.

After two minutes of high-intensity bombardment, the commander of the first mountain artillery company shouted excitedly on the phone in He Wei's hand leading to the artillery position: "Captain, my company's forward observation post reports that the retreating Japanese troops have been completely wiped out by me, completely wiped out by me!"

After hearing the report, He Wei immediately raised his binoculars. After the smoke, fog and dust in the bombardment zone were blown away by the wind, what came into his sight were smoking craters of various sizes, bloody corpses, and damaged guns and helmets. In the entire bombardment zone, He Wei could not find any more living people except for about twenty figures staggering and fleeing in a panic.

Obviously, this round of area fire from the mountain artillery company has successfully eliminated most of the Japanese troops withdrawing from the front-line positions!
"Report to the commander-in-chief, my company has fired all its shells according to your order. Now, except for one grenade that can be used to destroy the gun when necessary, all the anti-personnel grenades and shrapnel shells have been fired!"

Although the commander of the first mountain artillery company was reporting that the ammunition had run out, his tone was full of excitement and excitement. The shooting effect of this round of area shooting obviously exceeded his expectations. After receiving the report that the ammunition had run out, He Wei said three words on the phone: "Good! Good! Good!"

At the same time, the highest commander of the Japanese army, Kitaro Tsuchi, was also observing the same area with He Wei, but He Wei was happy while Kitaro Tsuchi was furious. He had just witnessed the entire process of the close combat melee on the front line, and had a more realistic understanding of the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army in front of him.

Therefore, when he saw the troops on the front line retreating due to exhaustion, Tsuchi Kitaro did not stop them at all, because he knew that the combat quality of the Chinese army in front of him was no worse than those veterans under his command who had participated in the Battle of Shanghai, and their firepower was even stronger. If the troops on the front line did not withdraw, they would only end up being wiped out.

But just when the defenders of the first-line position were about to retreat to the second-line position, the artillery of the Chinese army in front of them suddenly burst out with such a fierce round of firepower, and almost wiped out the retreating troops under the full witness of Kitaro Tsuchi.

Looking at the tragic scene between the first-line positions and the second-line positions, Kitaro Tsuchi had no time to marvel at the quick reaction speed of the Chinese army commander and the accuracy of the artillery fire, nor did he have time to grieve over the near-total annihilation of his elite marines who had participated in the Battle of Shanghai.

Because, up to this point in the battle, three infantry squadrons, a heavy machine gun squadron, an artillery squadron and the Fourth Special Marine Corps, all of his most elite Fifth Special Marines, have been completely destroyed, and the elite infantry and artillery units have all been annihilated by the Chinese army.

Now the only troops he could command and control in the second-line position were three squadrons temporarily formed with baggage soldiers and service soldiers and some communications soldiers, with a total strength of no more than 600 people.

Tsuchi Kitaro knew very well that if he was dealing with an ordinary Chinese army, he might be able to resist a little with the temporary combat force composed of baggage soldiers and service soldiers, but if he was fighting against the Chinese army in front of him, he would definitely not be able to hold his position.

Looking at the smoke, dust and corpses scattered across the ground in front of the position, Kitaro Tsuchi seemed to see the end of himself and his few remaining subordinates. Suddenly, Kitaro Tsuchi became extremely sad.

(End of this chapter)