The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 460 Artillery Regiment

"After cooperating with the friendly 150mm howitzer battalion in Banbi Mountain this time, I feel that the range of artillery is very important. We were able to defeat the enemy in Banbi Mountain, and the friendly German-made 150 heavy artillery really played an indispensable role. It can fire more than 94 meters, which is enough to suppress the Japanese artillery. At present, the Japanese-made Type mountain artillery and Soviet-made mountain artillery of the two mountain artillery companies of my battalion can reach a range of meters, but there are no field artillery and howitzers with a range of more than meters. So I still hope to add a field artillery company with a longer range, so that the artillery firepower system of my battalion will be more perfect. With field artillery with a longer range and greater power, my battalion will be more confident when dealing with the Japanese army's solid fortifications in the future."

"As for those Soviet mountain cannons, although their performance is not bad, they are not as suitable for us as those made by the Japanese. So, I think it is more convenient to replace them with Japanese mountain cannons."

He Wei certainly attached great importance to the development of the artillery unit of the assault corps. Artillery is the god of war, and fierce artillery fire is a good guarantee for attacking the enemy in wartime. Naturally, he hopes that the artillery of the assault corps will become bigger and stronger. Chen Xinsheng hopes to increase the field artillery, replace all of them with Japanese mountain artillery, and expand the mountain artillery unit. His appetite is not small.

He Wei thought for a moment and said, "What do you think of the current six-gun battery system of the artillery? Can it be continued?"

"Very good! Compared with the original four-gun artillery company, the six-gun artillery company has considerable advantages in firepower projection speed and reaction speed. With the logistics and ammunition support capabilities of our corps, it is enough to ensure the smooth operation of the six-gun artillery company of our battalion."

As soon as Chen Xinsheng finished speaking, He Wei said in a generous tone: "Okay! In this case, let's do the expansion and replacement you mentioned at the same time. The mountain artillery company of your battalion equipped with the Soviet-made 76.2mm mountain guns should be replaced with the Japanese-made Type 94 75mm mountain guns as soon as possible. After my expansion application to the Military and Political Department is approved, I will add another mountain artillery company and a field artillery company with a longer range. In this way, your battalion will have three mountain artillery companies equipped with Type 94 and 75mm mountain guns and one field artillery company. Each company is still a six-gun system. The whole battalion has a total of four combat artillery companies and 24 artillery of various calibers. What do you think?"

After He Wei finished speaking, before Chen Xinsheng could say anything, the other people got excited. The commander of the first battalion, Fu Chen, gave He Wei a thumbs up and said, "Captain, you are so generous! An artillery battalion equipped with 24 guns is equivalent to two artillery battalions of our army or two artillery battalions of the Japanese army. With such firepower as support and cover, I don't think there will be any position that we can't capture in the future!"

The commander of the 24rd Infantry Battalion, Hu Zhaowu, also said excitedly: "Damn it, if our artillery battalion is really equipped with artillery pieces, it's not an exaggeration to say that it's a small artillery regiment! We infantrymen know that there is an artillery regiment backing us up, so we will have more confidence when fighting the devils."

"The captain's artillery battalion organization is very good. In the past, my corps had two mountain artillery companies with 12 mountain cannons. If it is expanded to 24, the firepower will be doubled, and the strength of the artillery will be greatly improved. In terms of logistics and supply, this artillery battalion is also what my corps can currently maintain and support. Haha, I think we should do it this way. We should build up the artillery within our capabilities. Half of the credit for our assault corps' victory in the Battle of Banbi Mountain goes to the artillery. We must do a good job of building up the artillery."

Chief of Staff Wang Yuanling also expressed his agreement.

Chen Xinsheng was even more eager to fight and said, "Captain, don't worry, as long as this artillery battalion is up and running, just wait and see. When we face the Japanese army again, I will use these 24 mountain and field artillery to let the Japanese see what a sea of ​​steel and blood is like!"

In the battle to defend Banbi Mountain, the artillery of the Assault Corps, the 150mm heavy artillery battalion of the friendly forces, and even the naval artillery team and the artillery group formed almost went through the entire battle process. Before the Assault Corps withdrew from the Banbi Mountain defense line, dozens of large and small artillery pieces of the temporary artillery group deployed on Banbi Mountain assisted the friendly forces in destroying an infantry regiment of the th Division with fierce and fierce cross-river firepower bombardment.

All the officers and soldiers of the assault corps naturally had a deeper understanding of the important role of artillery firepower in combat. Therefore, the officers naturally responded enthusiastically to He Wei's proposal for a method of expanding the artillery battalion.

What Hu Zhaowu said about the "small artillery regiment" was not an exaggeration. Indeed, an artillery battalion with four companies, equipped with a total of 24 mountain and field guns, although nominally named an artillery battalion, its strength and firepower already had the flavor of a small artillery regiment.

Some of the National Army's equipment has special artillery models. For example, an artillery regiment equipped with 150mm large-caliber German heavy artillery has a full complement of 24 artillery pieces. Some artillery regiments equipped with mountain and field artillery and not fully staffed also have this number of artillery pieces. Therefore, once He Wei's expansion plan is implemented, the strength of the assault corps' artillery units will be taken to a higher level and will surpass the entire National Army's army.

Looking at the entire National Army, most of the army-level units are considered good if they can be equipped with a fully-staffed artillery battalion with 12 regular mountain and field guns. As for the current infantry division-level units of the National Army, there are very few artillery units that are properly equipped with mountain and field guns. Many divisions' artillery battalions do not even have a single mountain or field gun, and are simply equipped with 82mm mortars. The artillery suppression and strike firepower are basically equivalent to nothing. Needless to say, the strength and level of the assault corps' artillery battalion equipped with 24 regular mountain and field guns is beyond description.

In fact, with the current strength of the Assault Corps, it is no problem to directly expand it into a fully-staffed artillery regiment. At least, the number of artillery pieces is definitely enough. The Assault Corps seized a lot of Japanese artillery pieces in the Battle of Wuhan. These artillery pieces can fully meet the needs of the Assault Corps' artillery to expand into a regiment. The various captured Japanese artillery observation equipment, communication equipment, artillery vehicles, ammunition and other supporting Japanese artillery equipment filled the Assault Corps' warehouses.

Therefore, it is no problem to expand it into an artillery battalion with 24 guns. The mountain artillery does not need to be allocated by the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs. The assault corps can directly use the mountain artillery captured from the Japanese army to replace it and expand it. As long as the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs approves the establishment of two more companies and a full set of artillery equipment for a field artillery company with a longer range, the assault corps will be fully equipped for expansion. Once the new recruits arrive and a group of officers are added, this "small artillery regiment" will be formed soon.

Looking at the officers around him who were very excited about the "small artillery regiment", He Wei was also in high spirits. He chuckled twice and then said viciously: "Let's do this. We will use the mountain artillery we captured from Japan and the field artillery with a longer range. I'll ask Minister He for it later. Our artillery battalion organization is finalized. 24 mountain and field artillery, hehe, with a range of to meters. With such a fire network organization, such a firepower configuration system and artillery strike capability, we defeated a field reinforced brigade of the devils last time at Banbi Mountain. When we run into the devils next time, I'll dare to fight them even if they send a division!"

After finalizing the expansion plan of the artillery battalion, the framework of the overall expansion plan of the assault corps was finalized. In the following days, Wang Yuanling led the General Staff Office to make a series of more detailed arrangements and finally determined the troop structure after the expansion of the assault corps.

After the expansion, the assault corps still has three infantry battalions and one artillery battalion.

Each infantry battalion has four infantry companies, a mortar company, a heavy machine gun company and a battalion headquarters company. The infantry companies, heavy machine gun companies and mortar companies remain unchanged. The infantry company has slightly changed. It is composed of a company headquarters command squad, a cooking squad and three infantry platoons. An infantry platoon is composed of three infantry squads, a machine gun squad, and a 60 mortar squad.

Each infantry squad consists of 14 people, and an infantry squad is divided into an assault group and a light machine gun group. The assault group is composed of three three-person rifle squads, and each rifle squad is composed of a sergeant and two combat soldiers. The sergeant is equipped with a machine gun submachine gun, and the two soldiers are equipped with a Czech-made rifle.

The light machine gun team consists of three soldiers. The team leader, who is also the light machine gun shooter, is equipped with a Czech zb26 light machine gun and a German rapid-fire machine gun. The other two are ammunition soldiers, each equipped with a Czech-made rifle. There is also a squad leader and a deputy squad leader, each equipped with a submachine gun.

The organization of this infantry squad is exactly the basic combat squad organization of the current assault corps. Although the organization will remain unchanged in this expansion, the weapons and equipment will have to undergo slight changes.

If he could get rifle grenades from the Ministry of Military Affairs, He Wei decided to equip each infantry squad with one, and deploy it in a rifle corps under the assault group of each squad to strengthen the assault corps' infantry's close-range indirect explosive firepower projection capability.

The machine gun squad under each infantry platoon also has a staff of fourteen people, equipped with an MG34 general-purpose machine gun, and the mm mortar squad also has a staff of fourteen people, equipped with two mm caliber Brand mortars. The overall structure remains unchanged.

The battalion's heavy machine gun company is composed of four heavy machine gun platoons and one ammunition platoon. Each heavy machine gun platoon is equipped with two Czech-made ZB37 heavy machine guns, and the entire company is equipped with a total of eight Czech-made ZB37 air-cooled heavy machine guns. The battalion's mortar company is composed of two combat artillery platoons and one ammunition platoon. Each combat artillery platoon is equipped with two Brandt mm mortars, and the entire company is equipped with a total of four mm mortars. The combat structure of these two companies remains unchanged.

The battalion headquarters company will have an additional search platoon with the same organization as the infantry platoon in addition to the original communications platoon, baggage platoon, replenishment platoon and command platoon. This platoon will become the search and alert force of each battalion, and will take on the tasks of advancing search and combat reconnaissance for each battalion in wartime, becoming a powerful reconnaissance and search force for each battalion.

After reinforcement, each battalion of the assault corps will be composed of four infantry companies, a mortar company, a heavy machine gun company and a battalion headquarters company. The total strength of the battalion will reach more than 1,600 people. The manpower, firepower and overall combat effectiveness have been greatly improved. Its overall manpower and firepower have exceeded that of a field infantry battalion of the Japanese army.

As for the strength of the general troops of the National Army, the overall combat effectiveness of the infantry battalion of the assault corps is actually not much worse than that of the infantry regiment of the general troops of the National Army!

The artillery battalion was expanded into three mountain artillery companies equipped with Japanese-made Type 94 75mm mountain guns, each with six guns, and one field artillery company equipped with a field gun of a yet-to-be-determined model allocated by the Ministry of Military Affairs.

In addition, the corps' direct-affiliated troops have also been expanded. The expanded assault corps' direct-affiliated troops will include an engineering company, a communications company, a special services company, a baggage company, a medical team, and the newly expanded tank defense artillery company, a small artillery company and a search company.

Among them, the tank defense artillery company was originally under the artillery battalion, but now its affiliation has been changed and it has been changed to a direct unit of the corps. The company was originally equipped with six Soviet-made 45mm tank defense guns. After being changed to a direct unit, He Wei also decided to strengthen it and increase the number of its artillery equipment to eight.

The organization of the small artillery company was also finalized. Its organization was basically the same as that of the tank defense artillery company, except that the types of artillery it was equipped with were different. He Wei and the officers decided to equip this small artillery company, which had both air defense and anti-tank missions, with the most commonly equipped Soviet 20mm dual-purpose machine gun in the National Army. This type of small artillery was the most numerous small-caliber machine gun in the National Army's organization. I think there should be quite a few in stock in the military and political department's arsenal.

As for the organization of the direct search company, He Wei and the General Staff Office have not yet finalized it. As a direct search unit of the Corps, the search company must be an elite forward reconnaissance and search force with strong mobility and good firepower. Therefore, He Wei's original plan was to make this company into a large elite cavalry company, using horses as the main means of mobility to carry out mobile and flexible reconnaissance and search missions.

However, Chief of Staff Wang Yuanling raised an objection. According to Wang Yuanling, it would be better for this company to use motorcycles and other light vehicles as a means of mobility. The reason Wang Yuanling gave was that compared to horses, using motorcycles and other light vehicles as the search company's vehicles would allow the search company to be equipped and carry more heavy weapons when it is mobile, so that the search company would have strong mobility and decent firepower at the same time.

In addition, Wang Yuanling also proposed that He Wei could apply to the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs for a motor vehicle unit to be assigned to the Assault Corps to enhance the overall mobility of the Assault Corps. He requested that an additional motor vehicle unit be assigned to the Assault Corps, naturally, to defend against the Japanese airborne attacks.

After all, the landing area and time of the Japanese paratroopers were unknown. Once the Japanese took action, the assault corps must rush to the battlefield as soon as possible, and letting the troops take cars to the combat area was obviously the fastest way to advance.

He Wei readily accepted all of Wang Yuanling's opinions, so he decided not to decide on the organization of the search company for the time being, but to submit the already determined expansion plan and the application for additional weapons, equipment, vehicles and horses to the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs, and wait for the response and instructions from the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs or the top leaders of the Military Commission before making a decision.

After He Wei submitted the existing expansion plan and supplementary application, perhaps because of the sword of "Japanese airborne troops attacking the temporary capital" hanging over his head, within three days, the Military Commission and the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs approved and responded to He Wei's expansion and supplementary application.

(End of this chapter)