The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 398 Bloody Battle 3
"Mountain artillery company one, mountain artillery company two, maximum range, target, directly in front of the position, ten rounds per gun, rapid fire!"

Chen Xinsheng shouted into the two phones leading to the positions of the First and Second Mountain Artillery Companies of the Artillery Battalion of the Assault Corps.

Chen Xinsheng was very puzzled by the firing orders issued to the two mountain artillery companies. Not only did they fail to indicate the target area according to the prepared firing map, they also used ambiguous words such as "directly in front of the position" to refer to the target, and they did not even give specific instructions on the type of ammunition to be fired.

虽然接到了特殊的命令，但两个山炮连的官兵还是很快动作起来，在将火炮的各项战斗射击诸元调整为各自炮种的极限射程后，突击总队炮兵营山炮第一连的6门日本造94式75毫米山炮和山炮第二连的6门苏俄造m1909式76毫米山炮陆续开火。

在隆隆的爆炸声中，12门山炮很快将120颗75毫米和76毫米的爆破榴弹投射到了大小熊山高地前方约7公里处。

The maximum range of the two types of mountain artillery of the assault corps' artillery battalion was not much different, both of which could reach a range of 8 kilometers. Therefore, even though Chen Xinsheng issued a very vague shooting order, the landing points of the two companies' mountain artillery coincided with each other.

120 explosive grenades fell to the ground and exploded, creating a bunch of brilliant flowers. Several black smoke columns instantly appeared where the bombs fell, and black and red dust rose up. The shooting effect was also amazing.

If such a round of artillery fire had hit the Japanese infantry squadron that had just launched an attack on the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights, the shrapnel and killing circle formed by the explosion would be enough to wipe out more than half of the combat troops in the Japanese attacking formation in one go.

However, the shells from this round of shelling only hit an open space. They neither hit the Japanese infantry attack starting position nor the Japanese artillery positions, causing no casualties to the Japanese army. The only effect was to make the soil on the open space hot and smoking.

In the command post of the 1125th Regiment on top of the Big and Small Bear Mountains, Chen Xinsheng and Hu Rizheng didn't care at all about this round of bombardment which was a complete waste of shells. Both of them were turning their artillery scopes, searching for the movements of the Japanese heavy artillery units on the battlefield.

This round of shelling was of course part of Chen Xinsheng's fishing tactic. The sudden opening of fire from the two companies of mountain artillery was intended to attract and mobilize the Japanese heavy artillery units.

Based on the speed of the Japanese heavy artillery's counterattack fire on the mortar group position on the reverse slope, Chen Xinsheng and Hu Rizheng were both certain that the Japanese heavy artillery would definitely not miss the opportunity to actively open fire and expose their own mountain artillery positions.

As for whether the bombing killed Japanese soldiers or not, and whether the Japanese artillery positions were suppressed, it was not important at all in terms of the tactical goal of annihilating the Japanese heavy artillery units.

At the same time, in the command post of the Japanese heavy artillery battalion, the battalion commander Akamatsu Tomoichiro was shocked when he saw the sudden and violent explosion, and then shouted to the officers in the command post: "The enemy artillery is firing, quickly send the calibration balloon to observe the enemy artillery situation!"

"Yes!"

The Japanese officer answered loudly and immediately got through to the aerial calibration balloon. The Japanese observation officer on the calibration balloon also demonstrated extremely good tactical qualities. He used the artillery telescope, high-magnification telescope and rangefinder equipped on the calibration balloon to quickly calculate the approximate positions of the two mountain artillery companies behind the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights based on the falling shells and the not-so-obvious dust and smoke from the two mountain artillery shells behind the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights.

Immediately, the officer reported back to Akamatsu Yuichiro: "Report to the commander, the fire balloon report shows that the enemy artillery that launched the last round of artillery fire is deployed behind the enemy high ground. Judging from the shooting effect and range of the enemy artillery, it should be a 75mm mountain artillery or field artillery, and its deployment position seems to be close to the foot of the mountain behind the high ground."

After hearing the report from the school launch balloon, Akamatsu Tomoichiro was immediately surprised. He thought that all the artillery of the Chinese army in front of him were deployed on the reverse slope, but he did not expect that there was an artillery position of the Chinese army behind the foot of the mountain. After discovering a new artillery position of the Chinese army, Akamatsu Tomoichiro's first reaction was to shoot them down!

As for why the Chinese army's mountain artillery fired at an extremely empty space with no targets to shoot at, it was no longer within Akamatsu Tomoichiro's consideration.

Of course, he didn't have time to think about it.

Looking at the direction of the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights in the high-powered artillery telescope, Akamatsu Tomoichiro narrowed his eyes and snorted coldly, saying: "Order the first and second squadrons to quickly destroy the Chinese artillery behind the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights under the school's launch balloons!"

But the adjutant's next words poured cold water on Akamatsu Tomoichiro.

"Sir, the calibration balloon reports that the enemy's artillery positions are close to the side of the high ground, with a considerable blind spot, making it difficult to hit. Our battalion's positions are also too far from the enemy's high ground, and our battalion's howitzers have insufficient range. The calibration balloon suggests that our battalion quickly maneuver to the flank of the enemy's high ground to reduce the blind spot and shorten the range!"

"damn it!"

Akamatsu Touichiro cursed loudly and gave an order with a helpless tone: "Order, the first and second artillery squadrons, the battalion headquarters command post quickly switch to mobile status, take the tracked tractors and quickly maneuver to the northeast, advance to 8 kilometers away from the enemy's high ground, and quickly set up positions to destroy the enemy's artillery."

The distance between the deployed positions of Akamatsu Yuichiro's 150mm heavy artillery battalion and the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights was about 10 kilometers, and the maximum range of the Type 96 150mm howitzers they were equipped with was only 11 kilometers. It can be said that the range between the entire battalion and the target was basically at the edge of the artillery's maximum range, and the distance between the two sides was too far.

In addition, the two mountain artillery companies of the assault corps that had just been exposed were protected by the high mountains. Therefore, it would be extremely difficult, even impossible, for Akamatsu Tomoichiro's heavy artillery battalion to destroy the two mountain artillery companies of the assault corps in the existing artillery positions.

The corresponding solution, naturally, is to change the shooting position, while shortening the distance to the target, and avoiding the shooting blind spots caused by the high terrain of the Big and Small Bear Mountains as much as possible.

于是，赤松友一郎的150毫米炮兵大队很快开始了前进机动，两个各装备4门96式150毫米榴弹炮的炮兵中队和赤松友一郎的大队本部指挥分别搭乘着十几辆92式8吨野战重炮牵引车和十几辆94式卡车吉普车，艰难的在潮湿松软的泥土中开始了战术机动。

More than a dozen Type 92 8-ton field heavy artillery tractors emitted bursts of shrill roars and black smoke, towing eight heavy Type 8 howitzers and ammunition trucks, turning their thick gray-black tracks, and slowly and clumsily accelerating forward.

This tracked tractor was developed by the Japanese Army in 1936 and was specifically used to tow large field cannons and howitzers equipped by the Japanese Army's independent heavy artillery units.

However, this tracked heavy artillery tractor weighs 8.35 tons and looks like the agricultural tractor of the era before He Wei traveled through time. Its maneuverability on muddy roads is not good. The only thing worth mentioning is the good passability brought by the tracks.

After towing the Type 4 96mm howitzer weighing more than 150 tons and the ammunition truck loaded with a large number of shells, the situation became even worse for these tracked tractors. More than a dozen tractors were like a dozen old and stupid cows, swaying left and right as they drove with difficulty amid the roar of engines and the continuous rise of black smoke.

The situation of the Japanese heavy artillery battalion headquarters, which was advancing with more than a dozen Type 94 trucks and jeeps, was slightly better than that of the two artillery squadrons that relied entirely on tracked tractors, but it was only slightly better. The mobility of these light trucks of the Japanese army on muddy roads was also worrying. In short, although Akamatsu Touichiro was eager to change the artillery firing position, the mobility of his troops was too poor. The mobile marching column of the artillery battalion composed of trucks and tracked tractors was like a clumsy big insect, struggling to maneuver forward in a slow and difficult crawling.

In the command post of the 1125th Infantry Regiment on the heights of the Big and Small Bear Mountains, the commander of the 150mm heavy artillery battalion, Hu Rizhen, who was searching carefully behind a Zeiss high-power telescope, suddenly became excited and shouted, "Damn it, the enemy's artillery marching column has appeared, and it's quite large. It seems to be a fully motorized heavy artillery!"

Hu Rizheng was extremely excited when he saw the Japanese heavy artillery battalion's marching convoy, and his roar seemed to have the momentum to overturn the roof of the command post.

Due to the influence of the terrain, the mobile marching formation of the Japanese heavy artillery battalion was sparse. Not only was the speed slow, but the mobile marching column of the entire battalion was also very large. A large number of tracked artillery tractors, tracked ammunition trailers, trucks, and jeeps were mixed together, forming a large target.

Therefore, the mobile Japanese heavy artillery battalion was soon discovered by Hu Rizhen, who was searching closely for the traces of the Japanese heavy artillery units.

More importantly, although the Japanese Type 96 150mm howitzer was considered top-notch equipment in the Japanese army's equipment sequence, it was far inferior to the German-made SFH18 150mm howitzer equipped by Hu Rizhen's heavy artillery battalion.

In terms of range alone, the Japanese Type 96 howitzer was more than two kilometers shorter than the SFH18. Because of this, the commander of the Japanese heavy artillery battalion, Akamatsu Tomoichiro, had to lead his troops forward to make up for the lack of range of the howitzer, but Hu Rizhen had no such worries at all.

The longer range of the SFH18 howitzer allowed Hu Rizhen to boldly give the order to open fire as soon as the Japanese heavy artillery battalion came within the visual range of the artillery telescope.

Chen Xinsheng also rubbed his sore eyes and swung the gun telescope to observe in the direction pointed by Hu Rizhen. When he really saw the convoy of the Japanese heavy artillery battalion, he was also overwhelmed with emotion and said anxiously: "We really fished them out!"

Hu Rizhen did not leave the telescope, but shouted: "Come here, quickly calculate the combat firing parameters for me, let our battalion's artillery fire and attack, and destroy the Japanese artillery! Shoot immediately! Shoot immediately!"

Several officers and sergeants around Hu Rizhen quickly took action. Chen Xinsheng, commander of the artillery battalion of the assault corps, and Hu Rizhen, commander of the 150mm heavy artillery battalion, not only set up an additional artillery command post in the command post of the friendly 1125th Regiment, but the two artillery commanders also each brought a complete artillery observation team to facilitate shooting at moving targets and targets that were not on the pre-drawn shooting map.

And now is when the artillery observation team comes in handy.

Several observation officers and sergeants quickly operated the 32x scissor-shaped artillery telescope and steering wheel produced by the German Zeiss company, and methodically carried out the observation and calculation of the shooting parameters of the Japanese heavy artillery battalion convoy amid the deafening sound of artillery fire.

At this time, the Japanese artillery bombardment was still fierce. Although the Japanese heavy artillery battalion was in a mobile state, the 36 Type 94 75mm mountain artillery of the Japanese Taiwan Island Mountain Artillery Regiment were still firing continuously. Every minute and every second, hot air waves penetrated into the command post of the 1125th Regiment.

At this moment, several mountain artillery shells accurately hit the roof of the 1125th Regiment Command Post. Although the 75 mountain artillery shells did not cause any damage or casualties to the command post, the violent explosion still caused a lot of mud and dust to fall from the top of the shelter, and the entire command post was covered with a layer of black dust.

Although the officers and soldiers in the command post were hit and stimulated by the scorching air waves generated by the explosion of Japanese artillery shells, from Chen Xinsheng, Hu Rizhen, to the officers and sergeants of the artillery observation group and even the officers and soldiers of the 1125th Regiment in the command post, none of them were afraid. Instead, they looked at the officers and sergeants of the artillery observation group with expectant and excited eyes in the dust and scorching air of the command post.

Soon, a lieutenant officer from the observation team dropped his pencil, grabbed the phone to the 150mm heavy artillery battalion position, and then yelled into the phone with an excited and even ferocious expression.

"Everyone in the battalion, northwest of Big Bear Mountain and Small Bear Mountain Highlands, about 9 kilometers away from the highlands, one kilometer to the left of Xin's firing area, there is an enemy artillery convoy, instantaneous fuses, rapid grenades!"

Then, before the smoke had cleared, half a minute later, bursts of earth-shaking roars came from the positions of the 150mm heavy artillery battalion located behind the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights. Eight SFH8 18mm 150-caliber field howitzers produced by the German Rheinmetall company roared almost at the same time, firing high-explosive grenades weighing 30 kilograms.

Amidst the earth-shaking explosions, dense groups of grenades fired rapidly by eight howitzers flew at high speed and landed accurately in the slowly advancing marching column of the Japanese heavy artillery battalion.

The captain of the Japanese heavy artillery battalion, Akamatsu Tomoichiro, was sitting in the jeep angrily urging the troops to move forward and urging the officers and soldiers to reach the new firing position as soon as possible. But almost in an instant, before he could react to what was happening, a terrifying whistling sound came down on him.

Immediately afterwards, the jeep that Akamatsu Tomoichiro was riding in was hit by a 150mm grenade for some unknown reason. Both the person and the vehicle were torn into pieces by the 150mm grenade. In the dazzling firelight, they turned into pieces of minced meat and spare parts.

This Japanese officer, who had been active on the front line of the battlefield since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, was killed cleanly and inexplicably by a sudden heavy grenade and became the "defender of the nation" of the Japanese Empire.

Almost at the same time when Major Akamatsu Tomoichiro was killed in the explosion, a torrential rain of 150mm shells instantly covered the twisted marching formation of the Japanese heavy artillery battalion.

Dense artillery shells hit the ground, and the shrapnel produced by the explosion instantly killed a large number of Japanese soldiers riding on tracked tractors and trucks. The flying shrapnel swept down a large number of Japanese gunners amid screams, and also damaged the gun mounts and aiming mechanisms of several Type 96 howitzers. Several howitzers were also overturned to the ground by the violent explosion and shock wave.

As a tracked tractor towing a 150mm artillery shell was hit, a white fireball with gunpowder smoke emerged from the ammunition trailer behind the tractor.

Then, with a loud bang, all the ammunition on the ammunition trailer exploded, and the ammunition trailer, along with the tracked tractor pulling it, suddenly flew into the air in a huge explosion and flames. The tracks and the vehicle structure were blown into pieces and flew out, completely destroyed in the raging fire and a column of smoke more than 30 meters high. The marching formation of the Japanese heavy artillery battalion was instantly covered by a more violent and terrifying explosion.

Dense artillery shells fell repeatedly in the marching mobile formation of the Japanese heavy artillery battalion. The shrapnel of eight German-made SFH8 grenade whistled miserably, indiscriminately killing and injuring, wreaking havoc, and destroying all targets including Japanese gunners, gun carriages, tractors, ammunition trucks, etc.

The sounds of explosions, screams, and the twisting of steel were endless.

Just over ten minutes ago, this heavy artillery battalion, which was considered to be absolutely cutting-edge in the Japanese Army's artillery forces and equipped with 8 Type 96 150mm howitzers, caused certain casualties to the defending officers and soldiers on the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights in a fierce bombardment. It even hit the mortar position of the Big and Small Bear Mountain Heights on the reverse slope with one shot, which was a great display of its power.

But now, this elite 150mm heavy artillery battalion of the Japanese army was completely destroyed under the more fierce and determined fire retaliation and attack of the Chinese army's heavy artillery battalion, which was also the elite of the Chinese army and even equipped with 8 SFH18 150mm howitzers. It no longer had the opportunity to commit crimes or retaliate.

(End of this chapter)