Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 678 Goal Change
At this time, the drunken Indian company commander was standing on the balcony of the three-story villa, holding a bottle of wine in his hand. He had been drinking with his men just now, in order to rejoice that he escaped from the terrible battle during the day and saved his life. Then he heard the movement of tanks outside, but he was not sure if one of his platoons got the news from the radio and rushed over to share the spoils.When he heard the sound of the engine was not right, it was too late.

About 20 Chinese tanks broke through the grape trellises from all directions and surrounded them. Instead of rushing to fire, they went around to the rear of the villa to make sure that there were no other tanks. They looked at each other for a while.

When the Chinese tanks decided to leave, the last few tanks turned their gun barrels together and destroyed all the challengers by shooting in unison from tens of meters away. The Indian company commander watched these Chinese tanks go eastward. There is no way to fight back except a wine bottle.The bullets in the exploded tank crackled and ignited the house and the wine cellar, and then the dry grape racks also began to burn, which soon turned into a sea of ​​flames.

Standing on the top of the hill, Spanga suddenly noticed the fire from the west. He was surprised that he didn't get a report from the westernmost security force. He didn't know how the drunk commander dereliction of duty.

At this time, Spanga was about to release the last main force from the two wings to pinch the enemy in the front. If he won this battle, his remaining troops would probably be able to retreat completely, but seeing the plan, he discovered a new enemy situation , it seems that today is really an unlucky day.Now the troops he can use here have been reduced to less than 100 tanks, not even as many as the Pakistani troops that are attacking frontally. There is also a battalion equipped with relatively backward Indian T55 tanks, which have very low night combat capabilities.

He ordered a company and a half of tanks to move westward to prevent accidents, and at the same time transferred the last airborne troops to the same direction, hoping to resist for a while.

Huang Dexing ordered the tanks to disperse. His troops are currently carrying a blaze of fire, which makes it possible for opponents without night vision to shoot at him, but the fire is also good, it will make his troops appear more in front of the enemy. Spread out the formation and be ready to counterattack at any time.

Everyone in Lin Huaisheng's headquarters was busy dealing with various small-scale battles on the new front, as well as the transportation of supplies and the evacuation of prisoners of war.Not capturing and destroying the Spanga Command is the only shortcoming of this big victory.The sudden outbreak of the eastern encounter was based on Lin Huaisheng's calculations. He estimated that the enemy would launch a medium-scale counterattack as far away as possible from the range of his artillery. Withdrawing troops can gain some time to breathe and retreat, and at the same time can save some face, and after the sun goes down, it should be a good time for them to fight back, because the power of the air force will be reduced.Of course, the scale of this counterattack will not be large. According to his experience, except for a few elites, most of the Indian Army will take a long time to recover from failure, so Spanga can only invest in some troops who have not fought during the day. The reserve force is only at the brigade level at most.

He immediately ordered the air force in Chandigarh to dispatch to complete the reconnaissance of the general deployment of the enemy on the ground, and at the same time ordered the artillery to immediately put on alert and be ready for combat at any time.

At present, most of his artillery are still west of the Yamuna River, and only a few companies of 155mm self-propelled howitzers can hit the target, and the remaining ammunition is not much, with an average of about half a base per gun; in fact, Even if Spanga doesn't fight back, he will have to stop and maintain the front line, and it is impossible to pursue endlessly. It's just that the easternmost troops turned encirclement and annihilation into pursuit during the day, and the number of annihilated enemies is not ideal. Unwilling to withdraw troops, he created a prominent area on the front line.Of course, with Lin's current strength, even a partial division can attack to the outskirts of New Delhi alone, so he did not limit Wang Zhenbei's limited offensive in this area.But now he needs to immediately stop such unnecessary risky assaults. So far in the war, he no longer wants to win some unsightly exchanges. Avoiding unnecessary casualties has become an important goal.

Huang Dexing's troops were scattered on both sides of the road. The terrain here was very open and there was basically no shelter. The thermal imager quickly captured the enemy tanks 3 kilometers ahead. There were 6 tanks, about half a company.It is difficult for him to distinguish the model from the incomplete outline, but it is likely to be the same type of tank as the Challenger that was eliminated just now. These NATO tanks usually have no difference between the command type and the normal type, so he does not know that he has eliminated a company commander department.

The enemies in front began to hesitate. Obviously they also saw the Chinese tanks, and they didn't know whether to bite the bullet and move forward or retreat immediately.If you want to retreat, you must rely on the terrain, otherwise any careless turn will easily expose the weak area on the side and rear. This is common sense in tank warfare. Usually those experienced guys would rather reverse and fight back than hasty Turn the chassis around.

The Indian tankers who lost their command soon became timid. The Chinese tanks rumbled forward to them. A dozen range-finding laser beams jumped in the air and moved on the armor of the Challenger tank. These beams triggered the alarm in the tank. , even if they haven't caught fire yet, it's enough to make their hearts jump.

A platoon leader who temporarily took over the command found that the enemy was advancing without fear from the rapidly jumping distance numbers. Obviously, the opponent did not hesitate at all, and was simply scrambling to be the first.Although last night, the platoon leader was still fighting bravely, thinking that his tank was invincible, but after experiencing a huge failure all day, now his faith is beginning to waver, he believes that he is facing a triple enemy case, there is still a chance to win.

The platoon leader called on the radio for all to reverse and retreat, but unfortunately his order was not followed, and the other platoon began to turn around, trying to escape the battlefield first.The acting company commander's psychological defense immediately collapsed, and ordered his driver to turn around quickly, so as not to escape and disappear. The two tanks next to him that did not receive the order immediately turned on the spot. The opponent did not fire a single shot, and the engagement has turned into a rout .

Huang Dexing saw the enemy's cowardly appearance from a distance, and his heart blossomed with joy.This is obviously the same army as they fought against themselves on the border a month ago. At that time, the Challenger was the main force of the Indian [-]st Armored Division and became the core of all their tank tactics. When attacking, the Challenger was pressed behind as a heavy firepower , as a support point in the front when retreating, with the style of Dinghaishenzhen.

He didn't know why the enemy made such a low-level mistake, but he didn't have time to think about it, so he ordered the crews to seize the opportunity to fire on their own. It was not easy to hit a moving target 2800 meters away, but he had 17 tanks in the When the shooting area is good and unobstructed, even if they bombard randomly, there will always be some hits on the target.

The 17 tank guns fired one after another. The shells separated from the shells and dragged the four tail fins. They flew towards the long-distance target with a small arc trajectory. The uncertain crosswind over the long flight distance determined the hit rate of these shells.

The unlucky deputy company commander's car was the first to be hit. He was in the middle of the formation, which was an attractive position.

Unfortunately, the tank stopped on the soft mud, which made the turn extremely awkward. This suicidal left turn not only exposed the tank's largest side projection area to the opponent's fire, but also exposed the tank commander standing on the right. (and acting company commander) Liang gave the enemy.

The side armor of the Challenger is very strong and thick, but it cannot protect against 125mm tungsten-core armor-piercing rounds.

The shell directly pierced through the armor, splitting the fearful commander under Zhou Shiyi into two pieces, and then crashed and destroyed the cannon's high-low gear and the balance weight. After drilling into the turret, the lower body of the loader who was about to climb out of the turret and escape was cut off. The high-speed tungsten alloy debris was ignited in the air, and the tank was instantly engulfed in flames; the automatic fire extinguishing device activated within a few tenths of a second. As a result, the high-pressure fire extinguishing smoke was sprayed, which instantly extinguished the spreading fire; but at this time, the third shell drilled into the chassis from a lower height, and this time it directly detonated the ammunition under the floor.

The heavy tank turret was thrown high by the explosion, and the four members with limbs were scattered into the air, and then slowly fell down like torn clothes.All this happened within a second; at the same time, the remaining five Challengers in the vicinity were hit by at least one shell.Under normal circumstances, the accuracy of tank artillery will be greatly reduced after a distance of 1 meters. The ballistic computer cannot improve the long-distance accuracy. As the velocity of the shell decreases, the impact of external wind speed on the tail of the armor-piercing shell will become greater and greater.Huang Dexing was simply lucky, his shooting hit rate was more than half.

A J-10 fighter jet flew through the sky, and the night reconnaissance pod it carried transmitted the intelligence deployed on this line to the rear in time through the data link.Usually, before attacking or retreating, Spanga will arrange a large number of false targets to confuse aerial reconnaissance. Lin Huaisheng's staff needs a lot of manpower to judge and verify the collected image data.But this counterattack was different. Spanga had no time to plan these measures that would confuse the opponent's command.Correspondingly, Lin Huaisheng's headquarters did not have time to distinguish the authenticity, and the staff immediately marked the strike area and simultaneously issued firing instructions to the artillery.

The Pakistani tank regiment, which is attacking from the front, has lost more than half of it at this moment. With the help of night vision equipment, Indian T90 tanks gradually gain the upper hand, but the shelling from the enemy's rear is getting stronger and stronger. A tank unit waiting for the final attack is gathering on the starting position , was attacked head-to-head, and the overwhelming artillery fire blasted this densely-arranged new force to the ground. At the same time, Huang Dexing's attack from the side was going very smoothly. He didn't know that he was far away from Spanga. The headquarters is only 4 kilometers away.

A battalion carrying anti-tank missiles from the 50th Airborne Brigade of India arrived urgently in Mi-17 helicopters, preparing to land in an open area. They were ordered to immediately intercept the offensive of Chinese tanks from the side.

It is a pity that their whereabouts were discovered by the second J-10 reconnaissance plane that flew over the battlefield.In the field of view of the thermal imaging equipment, two helicopters flying at low altitude began to slow down and hover. Obviously, the landing site was just below.

Landing a helicopter at night is a bit risky, let alone such a large-scale operation, the pilot can only use searchlights to illuminate, keep the rotor speed, and slowly descend to the ground.Before stopping, the impatient airborne troops quickly filed out from one side, and they could be seen carrying a large number of anti-tank missiles and rocket launchers.

The howitzer company that was firing received the instruction to adjust the target, and then used the fastest speed to correct the shooting. They had to compete with the fastest troops in India. After the White Tiger Division was annihilated, they have been fighting The Indian 50th Airborne Brigade, which is looking for trouble in various battlefields, has become the top priority for annihilation. If the artillery is fast and accurate, they can be solved now.

The shells roared and fell in the crowd, and those soldiers who hadn't dispersed were swept up by the air waves and thrown onto the rotor of the flying helicopter, where they were torn into pieces; The helicopters that left were not spared either. Wherever the explosion went, the helicopters caught fire and fell one after another.

The headquarters captured the sudden appearance of the fighter plane and judged the location of the enemy's landing field. The artillery, without test firing and correction, tilted a large amount of ammunition to the landing field of less than 1 square kilometer in a rapid firing manner, and sent all 20 Mi-17s and They bring 3 even engulfed.

Huang Dexing quickly passed through the burning open area. He knew that the artillery had done a good job here just now. Judging from the wreckage of the helicopters in the state of parts, almost none of them slipped through the net, and the timing was just right.He reckoned that he had already penetrated into a place where the enemy could not save them, that's why they dispatched the motor landing troops in such a haste.

He once again observed rows of enemy tanks blocking the front. From the thermal imaging camera, he observed them as low-slung T72 or T90, but the rear artillery fire did not continue to extend to hit them. The cooling effect of the thermal imaging camera was weakening, but the 99 tanks It still has an advantage in detection distance.Before he could issue an order, the troops had already started firing on their own. At a distance of 2400 meters, the armor-piercing projectiles were not fully sure to penetrate the T72. Some vehicles simply fired with grenades. This is also a reasonable choice in the case of a one-way transparent battlefield. .

The troops transferred by Spanga to block the opening waited for the airborne troops to start. According to the plan, the paratroopers would use flares to indicate the target, but because the helicopter squadron could not find a flat place on the map that could land, the landing field Pushing forward for one kilometer made the tanks and paratroopers a little out of touch. Due to the poor communication, this tank unit still doesn't know that the paratroopers have been wiped out.

The Type 99 tanks started shooting 2.5 kilometers away from the night, and they stunned the group of tanks. They can't see the existence of their opponents at all, so they can only fire indiscriminately.Some fast-moving Indian tanks were hit by grenades and immediately lost all sensors and sighting equipment on the turret, which is equivalent to losing combat effectiveness.

Huang Dexing fought all the way from 2500 meters to 400 meters away from the enemy, destroying more than 20 enemy tanks without any casualties on his side.He was sure that by rushing there, he could eliminate the headquarters of the 1st Armored Division, and even more important targets.He reported to his superiors that he found an important target and asked for fire support, but he never waited for further artillery support, and only waited for an order from the Supreme Command asking him to stop fighting.

Throughout the whole day, Lin Huaisheng didn't care about his situation here, but the first time he intervened, he was asked to stop the attack, and the headquarters only told him one thing: the shells were gone.

Huang Dexing was not a soldier like He Fan who would act on his own, he chose to stop the attack, of course, this did not mean that he understood such an order.

He didn't know that with the end of this battle and the annihilation of more than half of the entire 21st Army, the strategic goal of the Chinese army has quietly changed. Annihilating the enemy's main force is no longer the overriding and primary task. Complete military failure is not far away, how to reduce losses while forcing the enemy to surrender has become a new goal.Turning an enemy's ambush into a hasty attack was not what Lin Huaisheng wanted. Spanga was no longer in the mood, and he didn't want his men to take risks.

(End of this chapter)