Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 558 Light Howitzer

"From here to Amritsar, the enemy does not have any armored forces. We have more than [-] armored vehicles (mainly Pakistani troops). Just think about gathering such a large force under the enemy's nose. What an interesting thing."

Lin Huaisheng said proudly that since he experienced the battle of Assam, he seemed to have the confidence to be on his own; at least verbally, he no longer took the enemy seriously.

Of course, this force on the books has not actually assembled. Most of the Pakistani troops and the transport troops with 2 trucks are still in the dark. Where to attack; in order to prevent the enemy from discovering the intention, this part of the force can only be invested in the second phase of the campaign.Although such pre-war mobilization violates military principles, looking at the command and dispatch capabilities of the Indian army so far, it seems that it can be gambled.

"Old Lin, I always feel that the enemy will not be unaware. Although we are hiding underground, it is impossible for us to not miss any signs," Zhou Yaohua said, "The enemy suffered a lot in Assam. How could they Making the same mistake? Especially Pasade’s comeback itself shows that the enemy’s strategy will be adjusted.”

"I've always had a view that people who get fooled the first time are prone to the second time. Their problem is their fear of failure in 1962, and all their strategies revolve around that fear; Paz Adelaide's military strategy is certainly not positive."

"Your saying is really new. I only heard that wise people don't fall twice in the same place."

"Passard is a small and cautious person. The weakness of this kind of person is lack of imagination. He is always trying to figure out our intentions, but because of his character, it is not easy for him to think that your plan is so ambitious. Vigorous. Meneam, too, preoccupied with passive defense."

"I hope the enemy can really be fooled into a daze." Zhou Yaohua smiled wryly. Of course he made the plan, but the troops he hoped for were not composed of Pakistani troops with low morale.

"Leave the matter of deceiving the enemy to the intelligence department. American satellites can see some things, and they will also see fake ones. In the end, they found that except for ambiguous conclusions, they could not get precise conclusions; believe me, Xu Jingzhe does There is a set of things like this.”

"I don't know which day the attack will be launched?"

"It's better to be tomorrow. After all, things like keeping secrets are unreliable, and the enemy won't be confused forever."

The plane of Lieutenant General Meneyam, the supreme commander of India's Northern Military Region, finally arrived at Nagroda, 9 kilometers north of Jammu.This military town has always been the headquarters of the 16th Army, the largest army under its command; The headquarters are deep underground and have good communication facilities, which can serve as the supreme command.

When the battle against Fort *** was in progress, he had visited this place with his own son and commanded troops 190 kilometers away.Of course, those gossips accusing him of always being too far away from the battlefield have never stopped.He knows the in-depth strike capability of modern guided weapons, and he also knows that the CCP’s use of the Air Force’s beheading battle is not just talk.He simply turned a deaf ear to the outrageous accusations of those ignorant fools.

The 16th Army has always been the core force of the Northern Command, and it is also the ultimate reserve force of the active defense strategy from Pasad to Meneam. After fighting for more than half a year, this force has steadily expanded to nearly 11 people , but most of the troops under its jurisdiction are shrunk back, and a small part is confronting the enemy on some relatively quiet fronts. It has not fought a major battle so far. troops.

At this moment, Lieutenant General Olind, the supreme commander of the 16th Army, was standing behind Meneam with a face full of dissatisfaction. He was dissatisfied with the commander-in-chief's failure to let his troops go out of Sri's plane to support Leh.

"I read the report of the staff, saying that the Chinese army has used new artillery?" Meneam asked with a satellite photo. This is the artillery position just captured by the American satellite. The new artillery looks very thin , except for the thicker barrel, it is not as solid as the 122mm howitzer in all aspects, and even the gun shield is omitted.

"Yes, 39 times the 155 artillery. They boast that they can match our M777 howitzer, but the front-line units observed that their heavy helicopters cannot directly lift these weapons, they can only be transported by disassembly, and the preparation time is very long , It is very likely that a helicopter will be needed to transport a cantilever lifting device before the assembly can be completed, which is not comparable to our artillery response capabilities." Olinde said disdainfully.

"Once they cross Leh, the altitude they face on the battlefield will be reduced a lot, and transportation will be easier then."

"However, by then we should have regained air supremacy, and of course I'd be more than happy to go north now to prevent them from taking Leh."

"Brother, don't be too optimistic. Most of the time, the guarantees of the Ministry of Defense and the Air Force cannot be fulfilled. By the way, they also dispatched new mortars?"

"The 82mm rapid-fire type. The front line encountered rapid fire from this weapon, but I haven't seen the specific shape yet. It may use an off-road vehicle chassis, or it may be a traction type. In short, the counterattack speed is faster than any other firearm."

"What about other firepower configurations?"

"As always, recoilless guns and 120mm bazookas at medium range, sometimes 107 from behind hills, but these weapons are rarely seen these days, maybe their ammo replenishment is under pressure. Enemies are good at taking advantage of altitude advantage. In general, our troops suffer from range.”

"Everyone, I have to ask a serious question here. If you are not sure, you don't have to answer it." Meneam suddenly asked seriously.

"What I want to know is whether they really want to find a breakthrough from Leh." The commander turned around with his hands behind his back, his eyes swept over everyone present.

"I think the purpose is to drive through Kargil from Leh, cut off our forces at Siachen Glacier, and remove our threat to their land lines of communication. If they plan to increase their troops in Pakistan next year and then seize Fort ***, More land passages are needed, which is a safe way." Olinde said without hesitation.

"Do you really think that the Chinese will still carry out such a safe offensive today? They will go to fight for Fortress?" Meneam asked, and he really hoped that this assumption would come true, so that he would have More time to wait for new troop training to complete.

"This is the roof of the world, unless they underestimate us too much and cause confusion, what else can we do?"

"When I was in New Delhi, the atmosphere there was different. Many people thought that the enemy would have a surprise army. Spanga even thought that the enemy would launch a direct threat from behind us, specifically in the flat area near Amritsar. New Delhi's offensive."

"Hehe, I've known Spanga for many years, and he's always been the kind of idiot who talks endlessly. I don't want to make too many comments on this person." Olinde said coldly, as if that person Not worth discussing at all.

"Well, Admiral Pasad is also inclined to your judgment and mine. I just spoke to him on the phone. He thinks that if the enemy wants to attack New Delhi, it may also be from Uttarakhand instead of Punjab. If the enemy wants to It is impossible to assemble a large army under the eyes of satellites. The question now is whether they will launch an offensive from Leh or from the Sutlej River. We must guard against the Chinese tactics of attacking from east to west .”

In the end, Meneam locked the scope of the discussion in the two directions of his defense zone, which seemed a bit self-deceiving.He didn't know that Pakistan had a huge underground facility in Husab that could avoid satellites, and he didn't want to think about the possibility.

"Commander, we have lost a lot of reconnaissance planes recently, and it is difficult to conduct reconnaissance in deeper areas. According to radio reconnaissance, the Chinese have concentrated at least 11 infantry brigades across the wide front, and the deployment of troops is very even. focus."

"They can use our radio reconnaissance to create some illusions. I hope to use a force that the enemy has not noticed, in the middle of the rugged and long front, to conduct a sudden attack several kilometers in front, and test the enemy's deployment and reality. "

"Great, my troops have been confronting the enemy in the middle of the battle line, ready to attack at any time. I just don't know when and where to attack."

"I've already selected the location, come and see." Meneam said, pointing to a place in the middle of the crooked battle line on the map.All the generals gathered around.

The location he chose was in the Diemuke area south of Pangong Lake, which was the battle area in 1962. However, in this war, the Chinese army has not yet launched an offensive here, but only established on some high ground. Observation posts were opened and some artillery battles were launched, and the old borders are still largely maintained.But it's these too-quiet areas that worry Meneam most.

"Here?" Olinde couldn't hold back his excitement. If he breaks through here, he will actually reach the ALD area in China.

"Great, the 1st Battalion of my Kumaang United is here, and the rear is attached to the 4th Battalion of the Sikh United Honor. The battalion headquarters is about 1.5 kilometers away from the first-line enemy-occupied highlands, and the enemy's highlands are high; this is Chinese The most feared troops, and the morale is high, ready to go into battle."

"I just want to use this iron fist of yours to beat up the enemy's suspicion formation and see what they are hiding behind this area."

"When will the attack be launched?"

"The enemy's eyes and ears are everywhere, so any action cannot be delayed once it is decided. I decided to launch an attack 10 hours later, that is, at 8 am. The troops need to move in advance and lurk in front of the enemy's position during the night."

"In such a climate, dispatching in the early morning will inevitably cause frostbite. However, as long as there is strong fire support and air cover, it is not a big problem to capture several commanding heights here. It is a pity that my artillery unit is too far behind, and it is too late to mobilize. .”

"Leave air cover and fire support to me, and I'll give the enemy a surprise." Meneam said calmly and slightly mysteriously.

The seventh hour after the military meeting, 7:5 a.m.The heavy snow in the mountains had just stopped at this time, and 16 rumbling Chinook helicopters, 12 of which had howitzers hanging below them, secretly flew in the middle of the Ladakh mountains under the dim morning light in the east.They did not fly directly to the direction of Leh in the north, but flew east along the mountain.Their destination is the position hidden behind the mountain. Once deployed, these firepower will play a decisive role in the face of the Chinese army's mortars and 107mm rockets in this area.

The 25th Infantry Division of the Indian Army has already prepared to launch an attack in advance. The troops of my battalion have sneaked across the valley during the night and hid in the snow below the enemy's commanding heights on the ridge. The third battalion as a support also moved to the valley. west.As far as the Chinese army can observe, there are only about 2 companies scattered around the observation post on the ridge. The Indian generals really want to know what is behind the mountain.

The Honorary 4th Battalion of the Sikh United, which is the main attacker, is a unit with a long history. In the final stage of the 1962 war, when all the retreating Indian troops were confused by the sudden retreat of the Chinese army, they just entered The 4th Battalion in the battle was the first to approach and resumed the old position south of Aksai Chin. Although there was no exchange of fire during the entire battle, only some pots and jars discarded by the Chinese army were picked up, but the Nehru government, who was eager to clean up the morale of the people, , but impatiently awarded him an honorary title; in the subsequent India-Pakistan war, the unit performed well again, claiming to have destroyed 20 enemy tanks; The proud army has not made any achievements yet.This unit has been deployed in the northern region all year round and has experienced relatively strict combat training in cold regions. This is the reason why Olinde dared to put it into nighttime lurking. If it is not waiting for the dawn to transport artillery, it can launch an attack at night.

At 8 o'clock in the morning, the first shell fell on time near the designated high ground, about 100 meters away from the ambushing Sikh United skirmish line.The Chinese army on the commanding heights seemed to have a plan, and immediately abandoned the ridge position and began to shift to the reverse slope.Immediately, the corrected shells landed on the commanding heights one after another.The artillery fire stopped, and the 600 Indian soldiers hiding in the snow climbed up from the snow, shouting and attacking the commanding height of 3300 meters above sea level.Their hiding was very successful, and they reached the commanding heights almost at the same time as the Chinese troops who re-entered the position after the shelling.But it was still a step too late. The stunned Chinese army did not expect the enemy to be so close, and immediately launched a counterattack, and at the same time sent a report to the rear: encountering a sudden onslaught by the Indian army, it was obviously not the enemy army in the front.The Indian army suddenly fired anti-tank missiles from the opposite mountain and accurately destroyed two machine gun bunkers. However, the Chinese army moved up the 2mm machine gun from the slope and quickly suppressed the firepower on the opposite side. Waves of Indian soldiers rushed up.These Indian soldiers are all tall and big, with big beards, and their bravery is far higher than ordinary Indian soldiers.

(End of this chapter)