Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 85 Xu Jin Danmu
Precisely because the gaps between infantry and artillery coordination are difficult to grasp, an advanced version of artillery support for infantry has been developed, called slow-moving barrage.

Of course, compared with the coordination between infantry and artillery, the combat requirements of Xu Jin's barrage are more difficult.

To put it simply, the Xu Jin barrage means that the artillery bombardment range gradually moves forward, so the attacking infantry follows the artillery shells as short a distance as possible. While the enemy is still defending against the artillery, the infantry enters the enemy's tunnels and defense lines, completing a breakthrough at the front.

It is actually very difficult to play Xu Jin's barrage well, because the killing range of artillery shells is limited, and the accuracy of artillery shells is also limited. Infantry attacks require extremely strong organizational capabilities, and the coordination with artillery must be very precise. If you are slow, the opponent will be ready, and if you are fast, they will be killed by their own artillery shells.

The following distance of Xu Jin's barrage is related to the training level of the infantry and the accuracy of artillery shooting, but the most important thing is the coordination ability between infantry and artillery.

You have to know that the battlefield is not a game where everyone has a God's perspective. It is very difficult to clearly know the changes in the artillery landing points, the infantry's marching positions and the positions they are about to arrive at.

All of this requires a lot of training and careful planning.

At the same time, this requires a very high level of organization for the army as a whole.

Sometimes we often say that a certain army is strong, but in fact it is strong in these details, and these details determine its combat effectiveness and thus determine victory or defeat on the battlefield.

The tactic of Xu Jin Barrage was first used by the German army during World War I, and it was used against trench tactics.

The fact that Dejun can adopt Xu Jin's barrage has fully demonstrated its powerful strength.

There is even a double-layer slow-moving barrage shooting method, which requires extremely high organizational skills.

After all, the scenes in the movies where the bombardment is over and the infantry are waiting for the enemy to charge unscathed are pure deception.

Sudden rapid fire can kill a large number of active forces in a position, and covering fire can effectively damage surface positions. Well-coordinated infantry can enter the enemy position in a very short time.

The maximum distance of Xu Jin's barrage is several dozen meters, and the defenders being bombarded are not sure when the artillery fire will be transferred, because the artillery preparation time is not fixed. It is entirely possible that there will be another round of rapid fire after 30 seconds and then two minutes later. Generally, an observation post is required to be set up.

Soldiers can only return to their positions after confirming that the shelling is over, and this is a process. The observation post itself is also very dangerous. All of this is not as simple as in the movies where you just squat in a safe place and wait for the shelling, and then rush back to reap the enemy at the command.

Whether attacking or defending, there are many tactical details and they also reflect a strong sense of organization. Whoever is well organized, well trained, and has a high level of technical and tactical skills will be able to capture or hold the position.

It is obvious that Ichiro Omoto's military skills were not good enough and he did not understand the essence of infantry and artillery coordination, which is why he suffered such a disastrous defeat.

Of course, in addition to the lack of Ichiro Yumoto's qualities, the more important issue is the terrain.

You should know that Wangjia Village is different from Yang Village. Wangjia Village was built on a flat area.

Everything within a few kilometers around was in sight, and because of this, Wang Gensheng was able to easily observe the firing from the Japanese artillery positions.

After all, if the terrain is not flat, if the Japanese artillery position is set up in a low-lying area or behind a hillside, then there is no way to observe the situation of the artillery position, so there is no way for the soldiers in the trenches to hide in the cat ear cave in advance.

It is precisely because of this situation that the killing effect of the Japanese artillery was greatly reduced.

boom!
As the gunfire rang out, a machine gun bunker that had just opened fire was overturned by a Type 92 infantry gun. The machine gunner and assistant gunner inside were also unknown whether they were alive or dead.

That's right, Captain Watanabe also came up with another method, which was to use direct artillery fire to knock out the machine gun fire points on Wang Gensheng's position one by one.

Wang Gensheng could only give the order:
"Tell the machine gunners in the machine gun bunker not to fire without my order and expose the firing point."

Sure enough, following Wang Gensheng's order, the machine gunner in the bunker stopped firing. Faced with the charge of only one squad and a dozen Japanese devils, the soldiers resorted to firing at each other with their rifles.

Although his marksmanship was not as good as that of the Japs, he was still shooting while standing in the trench with only half of his head exposed.

The Japanese soldiers were standing or half-crouching, charging and shooting at the same time.

The area of ​​the Japanese soldiers hit by bullets was naturally much larger than that here, and there was only one squad of a dozen Japanese soldiers charging. Even if they rushed into the trenches, they would not be able to cause much waves.

Soon after losing three squads in succession, the Japanese stopped this waste of manpower, because Captain Watanabe seemed to understand that the Eighth Route Army on the opposite side would not be fooled.

A head-on charge wouldn't work, and neither would trying to lure the enemy into exposing their firepower points. Captain Watanabe realized that the group of Eighth Route Army soldiers stationed in Wangjia Village seemed beyond the reach of his own regiment's forces.

Therefore, Captain Watanabe simply called on his superiors for reinforcements. Of course, in order to make it sound nice, Captain Watanabe could only say that he had encountered the main force of the Eighth Route Army.

This news was naturally reported to Yoshio Shinozuka, the person in charge of the raid.

In response to this, Yoshio Shinozuka immediately said without hesitation that he would transfer a regiment and an artillery regiment to reinforce the troops.

In fact, the reason why there is an artillery regiment and an artillery regiment for reinforcement is mainly because other battlefields do not have the same situation as the New Second Regiment. You must know that at present, in the entire western Shanxi and even the southwest, only the New Second Regiment is using positional warfare to resist.

The other regiments were all trying to break out in separate ways, so there was no way to launch an effective attack.

After all, most of the Japanese are infantry, so they all have two legs. What can you do if they don't fight you and just run away?

Therefore, when Yoshio Shinozuka heard that the Watanabe Regiment had a position that even the other regiment could not take, he was naturally very happy, thinking that he had caught a big fish this time.

Captain Watanabe was naturally happy about this situation, because the artillery regiment's guns were not comparable to the Type 92 infantry guns of his infantry regiment.

Those are all medium-sized guns over 100 mm. In fact, the caliber of the Japanese artillery is strictly classified.

Among them, guns below 100 mm are light artillery and can be deployed by infantry regiments, while guns above 100 mm are medium artillery and require special artillery regiments to transport and use.

Wang Gensheng was happy when he saw the Japanese had stopped attacking and the sky was gradually getting dark, because darkness meant that he could launch a sneak attack silently.

Of course, Wang Gensheng had no idea at that time that his New Second Regiment was actually regarded as a big fish by the Japanese, and that they would send a regiment and an artillery regiment for support!

(End of this chapter)