The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 501 Infantry-Tank Coordination and Anti-Japanese War Heroes

On the outskirts of Jeonju, at the 5th Army field training ground, the roar of engines rumbled, the friction and collision of tracks against the ground, and the twisting and friction sounds caused by rolling came one after another. The twenty-four tanks of the two tank companies of the Advance Detachment's 1st Battalion were deployed in two tank company attack formations. The six T26B tanks of the two medium tank platoons under each tank company were lined up in a horizontal row and moved forward in an orderly manner at almost the same speed. The black muzzle of the mm tank gun on the huge turret was pointing straight ahead.

The five Fiat CV35 tanks equipped by its subordinate light tank platoon were dispersed in front of the medium tank formations of each company and accelerated. Their forward formation was much faster and more chaotic than that of the medium tanks in the rear.

The tracks of tanks rolled over the soil of the training ground, turning over the soil that was originally covered with green grass over and over again. The rapidly rotating steel tracks rolled sand and dust into the air, creating a dusty scene.

Fifty meters behind the attack formations of the two tank companies were two infantry companies that had fully deployed their offensive combat formations. Whistles and shouts were heard continuously in the attack formations of the two infantry companies. Hundreds of infantrymen endured the mud stirred up by the advancing tanks, the exhaust smoke and dust spewed out by the engines, and followed the tanks' pace forward, launching an attack under the guidance of the tanks. These infantrymen were all wearing tactical vests unique to the assault corps.

Obviously, these infantrymen are all from the assault corps.

After the advance detachment was organized, He Wei did not let the troops sit idle and wait for the departure, but instead could not wait to start "special training."

This so-called special training is actually the infantry-combat coordination currently being performed on the training ground, or it can be said to be infantry-tank coordination tactical training.

He Wei attached great importance to the tanks assigned to the 5th Army. He had high hopes for these tanks. If he wanted to maximize the combat effectiveness of these tanks, good coordination between the infantry and the tanks was essential. Good infantry-combat coordination could greatly improve the combat effectiveness of the advance detachment entering Guangxi. In addition to the assault corps, the other main force of the advance detachment entering Guangxi was Dai Anlan's 200th Division. In He Wei's opinion, it was originally an internal unit of the 5th Army, and its infantry-combat coordination level should not be bad. Therefore, only his assault corps needed to make up for its lessons in infantry-combat coordination.

Therefore, He Wei hurriedly proposed to Du Yuming the request to conduct infantry combat coordination training between the Assault Corps and the 5st Combat Battalion assigned to the 1th Army. Du Yuming was also a straightforward person. He immediately agreed to He Wei's request. He not only allocated a large amount of combat oil to the 1st Combat Battalion, but also instructed the commander of the advance detachment entering Guangxi - the commander of the 200th Division, Dai Anlan, to fully cooperate with He Wei in training.

He Wei was very happy to get Du Yuming's permission. In his opinion, as the only unit in the Chinese army equipped with mechanized equipment such as tanks, the 5th Army should naturally have a high level of infantry-combat coordination. Therefore, He Wei naturally learned from the 5th Army for a while.

However, the result of learning from others disappointed He Wei, because He Wei found that the level of infantry-combat coordination training of the 5th Army was really mediocre. Their understanding of infantry-combat coordination was basically the level of infantry following tanks, and there was no profound experience worth learning from.

Greatly disappointed, He Wei even went to consult the Soviet military advisers and tank instructors in the 5th Army. He thought that these Slavic advisers were knowledgeable, but who would have thought that the current level of infantry and combat coordination of the 5th Army was cultivated by these Russian advisers. Naturally, the level of the 5th Army was the level of the Russian advisers.

It was not until after repeated setbacks that He Wei finally realized that the subject of infantry combat coordination had indeed not yet been widely applied in the world today, so not to mention the National Army, even the Soviet advisers were not very proficient in it.

This cannot be blamed on them. Some tactical combat training experience can only be acquired through large-scale actual combat, such as infantry combat coordination.

Therefore, He Wei, who was eager to improve the level of infantry combat coordination of the assault corps, had to use his advantage as a time traveler and use the infantry combat coordination tactics of later mechanized infantry and armored infantry to train his troops. Of course, this training was extremely difficult. Even in later times, infantry combat coordination was an extremely difficult subject and the training took a very long time.

After racking his brains, He Wei simply extracted a set of simple, crude and quick-to-learn tactical rules for infantry combat coordination based on the experience he brought from later generations that was not very applicable to the present.

He Wei's set of rules can be simply divided into three parts. The first part is infantry-combat communication, which refers to the communication operations between infantry and tanks. The tanks use flags of different colors to indicate their own conditions to the infantry, and the infantry use a few simple and easy-to-learn gestures to indicate the direction of advance to the tanks, as well as to shorten the distance between infantry and tanks, or increase the distance between infantry and tanks.

The second part is combat communication. In infantry-to-infantry coordination, infantry troops use red tracer bullets from machine guns to indicate the target of attack to tank guns and vehicle-mounted machine guns, so that tanks can assist infantry in eliminating enemy fire points that threaten infantry. Conversely, when tanks find targets that infantry cannot observe, they also use tracer bullets from the vehicle-mounted machine guns on the tanks to indicate firing, so that infantry can respond in time.

The third part is the coordinated formation. The coordinated formation of infantry and tanks is an extremely difficult and sophisticated subject. It is difficult and dangerous to train. Not to mention combat, just in terms of training, once there is a mistake, the infantry who are not properly trained in coordinated formation with tanks may be hit or even crushed to death by the tanks, which is even more likely to cause chaos during war.

Therefore, with time being so tight, He Wei did not dare to give the Assault Corps those more difficult infantry-combat coordination formations. He required the Assault Corps and the tank troops to master only two infantry-combat coordination formations. The first was the tank-leading formation with tanks in front and infantry following behind, and the second was the infantry-combat mixed formation with tanks dispersed and infantry following behind the tanks. Relatively speaking, these two types of infantry-combat coordination formations were safer and easier to master, and were just right for the Assault Corps to temporarily rush into assault training.

After He Wei's operation, the assault corps' quick version of infantry combat coordination began. The 1st Combat Battalion under the advance detachment into Guangxi undoubtedly took on the task of coordinated training. The battalion commander Zhao Huzhen also tried his best to cooperate with He Wei in the training. For more than ten days, the 1st Combat Battalion had dispatched two tank companies every day to cooperate with the assault corps in training.

Du Yuming was also very generous in ensuring the supply of combat oil for the assault corps' tank training. As a result, under this cost-effective crash course of training, the assault corps' infantry and combat coordination level improved rapidly. At least in He Wei's opinion, they had barely reached a level where they would not show weakness in front of the Japanese on the battlefield.

After all, the Japanese army’s current level of use of infantry-combat coordination and tank units should not be very good, so the infantry-combat coordination of the assault corps’ crash training is still useful.

On the training ground, tanks were advancing and infantry were charging, while on the small hill at the rear side of the dusty training ground, a dozen officers were observing the situation on the training ground from above with binoculars. Some of these officers were from the Assault Corps, some from the 200th Division, and some from the 1st Combat Battalion. However, no matter which unit they came from, these officers all had solemn expressions on their faces. Obviously, they were completely attracted by the infantry-combat coordination training on the training ground.

Although He Wei's intensive infantry-combat coordination training was a training subject that he came up with quickly and improvisationally, the entire content and organizational form of the training were all derived from the tactical knowledge that He Wei brought from later generations. Therefore, for the officers of the 5th Army, these things that He Wei came up with were actually quite advanced, and even exceeded the existing infantry-combat coordination level of the 5th Army, which was somewhat like a "dimensionality reduction attack."

Therefore, it is not surprising that the officers, especially those from the 5th Army, were amazed by the infantry combat coordination training they saw.

He Wei was also holding a telescope, looking with satisfaction at the quick infantry combat training that he had rushed through. It took only a dozen days to achieve this, which was already an overfulfillment of the task.

He Wei was also quite satisfied with this. Such training results were achieved, on the one hand, because He Wei had proper organization and planning, and had selected simple, easy-to-use and easy-to-learn subjects for the Assault Corps. On the other hand, the high combat quality of the officers and soldiers of the Assault Corps and the organizational and command level of the junior officers and sergeants also greatly accelerated the training process.

Putting down the telescope, He Wei smiled and nodded at Yang Chen in the distance. At this moment, a loud voice came over.

"He Wei, you lead your soldiers very well. The level of infantry combat coordination training in the past ten days is much better than that of our 5th Army. It's really good, really good!"

The speaker was a middle-aged officer, tall, with a full face, and his voice was full of energy. Of course, the most eye-catching thing was the rank of major general on the officer's collar.

He Wei shook his head and said with a smile, "Commander Dai, you are overpraising me. I am just pushing the issue and doing a quick training. It is one thing on the training ground, but it is another thing in real combat. To be honest, the troops will be leaving in two days, and we still don't know how it will turn out on the battlefield."

The man whom He Wei called Commander Dai was none other than the commander of the advance detachment entering Guangxi, the commander of the 200th Division, Dai Anlan, who was also a hero of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression whom He Wei had already heard of before he traveled through time.

(End of this chapter)