Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 630 Elastic Defense
"However, that idiot in Meneam just lost the airfield in Leh and the Ladakh area. I fear that in a few days, the enemy can deploy their long-range rockets there and occupy the 4000-meter altitude difference. Then they will It is possible to hit Chandigarh." White Tiger Division commander Makhani said.

"In the long run, there is such a possibility, but if they have already deployed this kind of thing with a long enough range, why don't they open fire on Jammu or Srinagar now?" Spaga seems to have found a far-fetched reason to convince himself subordinates, and myself. "Anyway, we have to fight a battle in Chandigarh as soon as possible, while we still have local advantages. The West is watching us and if we can fight a good fight, it will also be a guarantee of their confidence," Singh said. .I have always hated the planning of military operations, being kidnapped by politics, but at this point, we have no choice..."

"Maybe we should completely blow up the runway and airport facilities in Chandigarh, continue to retreat, and fight it right under the city of New Delhi. I always feel that...we should accumulate some more strength."

"If possible, of course I would like to exchange space for some time, but you have seen the current situation. The government is already crumbling, Srinagar is completely isolated, and the CCP took action in Sigurd yesterday. The battlefields are fragmented and cannot be supported. Here We can only rely on us, if there is no decent victory again, I am worried..."

"Are you worried about Western aid...or revolution?"

Instead of answering the question directly, Spanga pretended not to have heard the hypothesis, and continued to lean over and make new modifications to the counterattack.Makeni touched his head boredly, and continued to watch his superiors draw a counterattack plan on the map.

Less than 60 kilometers away from Spanga, Wang Zhenbei's assault force is gathering 12 kilometers west of Chandigarh. Most of the troops in the offensive sequence are moving closer, and a left and right outflank will be launched within a few hours , the offensive of a breakthrough in the middle, the assault distance of this offensive is not far away, it only requires the capture of Chandigarh, and the enemy's front is properly stacked to the southeast to maintain a certain depth.

The tank unit is undergoing the last overhaul before the war. Some seriously damaged tanks are forced to be dismantled to provide parts for other tanks. This is the first time this happened in the army.

Due to the rapid assault of the troops, many of the enemy's formed and organized troops were left behind. Now these Indians have begun to attack the transportation lines, among which the capable 50th Airborne Brigade has the highest destruction efficiency.

The tightness of the supply line has caused a shortage of parts for front-line tanks. On the contrary, the situation of the Pakistani troops is better. They have some tanks that can share ammunition with the enemy, and some captured Indian artillery.At present, Wang Zhenbei can still obtain enough fuel by seizing the enemy's base, but there are only more than 90 tanks that can be used to launch an attack.

As for the two Pakistani tank divisions on the flank, there are still about 2 older tanks.All kinds of intelligence and speculation indicate that the enemy will not continue to retreat, because the loss of the Chandigarh airport means that the Chinese army has obtained a starting position at the north gate of New Delhi where they can stockpile supplies. This is what they should be able to calculate .

Lin Huaisheng did not tell his subordinates about the deployment of the long-range rocket launcher, so Huang Dexing, the commander of the main tank battalion, had some doubts about the attack.

The weather report in the morning indicated that the weather was good today, without rain or snow, which was very suitable for tank operations, which of course also meant that it was beneficial for enemy tank operations.Judging from the information obtained from aerial reconnaissance, Spanga's troops are scattered and are constantly moving forward, probing, and retreating. It seems that they are a little afraid of the firepower of the Chinese army, but each time they do not retreat far enough; This situation is different from the Indian army that Huang Dexing has seen in the past. In the past, they always arranged rigid and dense formations in open areas.Spanga, on the other hand, makes full use of his mobility, disperses his troops into small groups, and keeps dealing with Chinese tanks and planes; just like a boxer with nimble feet walking around you, sometimes he will step into your body Within the firepower, sometimes it will retreat again, and the tricks cannot be seen, but it makes you upset.

Spanga is indeed different. Most Indian Army officers always lack the ability to dispatch on the battlefield, so they are used to concentrating the army in advance before attacking, so that it is easy to judge from the photos taken by drones or satellites. The main concentration of the Indians and the areas where they may attack, but Spanga's front seems to be chaotic, but it maintains the flexibility of advancing and retreating.Whenever the Chinese tanks saw the right time to attack, the Indian tanks in front of them always retreated. When the Chinese tanks protruded too far and chose to retreat, he would come back to restore their positions. This is Huang Dexing's most powerful tactic.

In the early hours of the morning, the Indian reconnaissance troops ahead and the Chinese troops made several more firepower tests. In the early morning, the enemy troops dispatched several T72s to provoke Huang Dexing's troops again, but this time they failed. When withdrawing, the helicopter brigade dispatched a miraculous armed helicopter with a millimeter-wave radar on it, and suddenly killed it. Through a continuous shooting, it was completely destroyed, and then the front fell silent.

After Huang Dexing arranged the repair work, he rushed to Wangzhenbei's frontline headquarters in a jeep. He hoped to express some opinions to his superiors. He didn't think it was appropriate to launch an attack now.

When he arrived at the command vehicle, Wang Zhenbei was observing the movement of the enemy's reconnaissance troops through drone video.Shown in the screen are several burning enemy tanks.

"Look, five of them came this morning. They sneaked in from the jungle south of Keller, but they were all rounded up. Our millimeter-wave missiles were finally activated. I'm afraid that we, who drive tanks, won't get any results in the future. gone."

"Brigade Commander, I think these are just the enemy's general tactical reconnaissance. Such trivial setbacks are within their acceptable range. The enemy's tanks still have an obvious advantage in numbers. Even if they don't have air supremacy, if they adopt appropriate tactics , it is possible to put the tank cluster under the protection of anti-aircraft fire and launch a counterattack."

Huang Dexing has been on the front line all the time, knowing that his troops are so weak that it is difficult to maintain a strong and continuous attack, so he is far less optimistic than Wang Zhenbei.In addition, he doesn't think that one or two new weapons can win all the battles that follow. The millimeter-wave anti-tank missiles that are left behind after launch have only just entered the battlefield to gain a bit of limelight, but they are not yet mature, at least in terms of range. Gunships are not invulnerable if the enemy has antiaircraft fire accompanying mechanized forces.

"Why do you suddenly lose confidence? We were in a shambles before."

"It is indeed overwhelming, but the real enemy has not been defeated. In the recent period, they have not dispatched tanks such as challengers and T90, while our aviation support capabilities are decreasing. I think Mr. Lin seems to underestimate the opponent. They Never give up Chandigarh, the northern gateway to New Delhi."

"Don't worry too much. I know Lin Huaisheng very well. He likes to play tricks, but he is not too stupid. He must have something behind him. Maybe he is wary of some spies in the Pakistan Army, so he didn't say anything."

"What backhand? I still don't quite understand."

"You just carry out the attack according to the plan. If Spanga is sensible, maybe there will be no counterattack. If he counterattacks and invests a lot of troops...you play by ear."

Huang Dexing frowned and withdrew from the command vehicle. He seemed to have heard some tricks, but he didn't seem to.Wang Zhenbei has never acted recklessly, but this time he must have something to hide from himself.He returned to his battalion headquarters in a jeep, ready to attack.

If the enemy really could deploy nearly a thousand tanks as the reconnaissance showed, Huang Dexing didn't know what confidence his superiors had, and thought that they could launch an attack with more than 200 tanks, especially the Pakistani armored divisions on the two wings were poorly equipped.When he passed by the garrison of the 6th Armored Division of Pakistan on the flank, he happened to hear the soldiers there singing military songs, showing high morale, and the tankers were taking advantage of their last leisure time to paint their tanks with pictures of "destroying the enemy" On the turret of a Type 59D tank, he saw inscriptions in English: "Revenge Fort Fortress!" on another tank: "When I get to New Delhi, I will dismantle her.".

At this point in the war, these low-morale Pakistani troops have changed their appearance. Now they are confident that they can easily capture New Delhi, but Huang Dexing is getting more and more uncertain. He hopes that Lin Huaisheng's self-confidence will at least not be the same as these ordinary soldiers , comes from the illusion that the enemy is obviously weak.

Huang Dexing left, and Wang Zhenbei began to talk to Lin Huaisheng on the back foot. He also wanted to know why Lin Huaisheng couldn't tell the commander of the army in front of him the overall plan, and had to hide it.

Lin Huaisheng told him that, first of all, it is impossible to be sure whether the enemy will counterattack, and secondly, Spanga is quite suspicious. If he sees any flaws, he may not be able to gather the troops so that they can be easily covered and wiped out with far-reaching fire. It is not necessary to know too much.

At 4 p.m., the air defense siren was raised in Chandigarh.This is Lin Huaisheng's carefully selected attack time, because the sun is setting at this time, and the optical sighting equipment of the enemy's direct firepower facing the west can play a certain role in interfering with the enemy's westward heading. The optical reconnaissance equipment of the aircraft will also play a certain role in interference.

The 155mm artillery of the Chinese army first launched an attack on the enemy strongholds around Chandigarh. Since there are still civilians in the city, it is forbidden to shoot at the targets hiding in the city. These enemies can only use the air force to carry out precise strikes; of course Such orders only apply to the Chinese army.When the Pakistani troops fired with their 122mm towed artillery, they always deliberately distorted the order and extended the strike to several civilian targets. However, the Pakistani artillery had not yet received the firing order at this time and was waiting excitedly.

The Indian infantry in the confrontation began to fight back with insufficient firepower, but the range was far short, and the counterattack seemed blind.

The drones in the air quickly found the anti-artillery radar in the city. After side measurement, these mobile radars of unknown type stayed on the open ground of a middle school playground, where they hid, providing their own artillery with counterattack elements for the opponent. Of course, the long-range firepower of 52 times the caliber used by Lin Huaisheng made them have no means of counterattack even if they saw the position.India's main long-range firepower, such as Tornado and AS90, are in the sequence of Meneam's army, and they are in a state of lack of ammunition, parts and cannot be replenished.

During the second measurement by the drone, it was found that the position of this radar had changed, and it was near the airport in the south of the city. It seems that the enemy has learned at least two things under the superior firepower of the Chinese army: one is to keep moving, and two It is to use cities and civilian areas for cover.

A J-16 stranded in the air immediately dispatched and fired an anti-radiation missile at the suspected Swedish "Arthur" positioning radar. Although it may not be able to hit it, at least it can prevent it from messing around for a period of time. move.Sure enough, the radar turned off and fled.Using the sensitive radar detection capability and the excellent all-terrain capability of the Bv206 crawler trailer, it has a good chance of evading the hit of anti-radiation missiles.

After the artillery reconnaissance radar threat was lifted, the Pakistani artillery with insufficient range was ordered to fire. About 200 122mm towed artillery pieces, as well as the captured American 105mm light howitzers, began to shoot. Weapons that can use Indian ammunition directly, become extremely useful.

The advancement of the air force has forced the ground enemy to abandon their positions step by step. The core air defense firepower of the 36th Division of India is still composed of Buk and India's homemade blue sky missiles. These two tracked air defense missiles have the ability to hit and run. But the range is too short to cope with the Chinese air force, which uses more and more weapons outside the region.

The battle was carried out in full accordance with Lin Huaisheng's rhythm. The gradually extended firepower exposed more and more technical weapons that the enemy invested in counterattacks, and then the air force dispatched to carry out precise strikes. After a few rounds, the enemy would lose the cost of continuing to resist at the technical level , and eventually as the main anti-aircraft firepower is destroyed, the ground defense will also fall apart.The defenders of Chandigarh may have studied similar battles in Sialkot, but they could not come up with a solution to this gradual oppression and strangulation tactics.

Lin Huaisheng sits at the command post 200 kilometers away, watching various videos and reports from the frontline troops, and is still deciding when to dispatch the ground troops.He gave 70 points to the enemy air defenses as they were still doggedly shrinking and not routing early.The situation is like his in Assam, the enemy's response level will increase after each strike, and the radar is always moving from one place to another; of course, during the entire attack, New Delhi and the Indian air force base in Bareilly, no A fighter plane took off to support, pretending that the battle here did not happen. Of course, this was completely within Lin Huaisheng's expectations.

(End of this chapter)