Thunder Strikes Back

Chapter 735 The Vulnerable Line of Defense
The Indians here hastily made some preparations before the battle. As before, the preparations were not sufficient. They just used bulldozers to push out a mound of soil on both sides of the road. The height was very low, and the tanks were hidden behind just to expose the barrel.They deployed a tank force they had assembled here, hoping to launch an ambush, but had not had time to plant a mine in front of the position.

Amir's tank stopped near the burning centaur, and he had to watch while he waited for nightfall.His battle group contains a large number of elites, as well as a Khalid tank battalion and several mechanized infantry companies newly equipped with Chinese infantry fighting vehicles.The offensive strength is very impressive.

"Give them 6 hours to build a line of defense like this? Are they defending the capital?" Amir sneered. He had seen satellite photos before he set off and knew that the Indians were still pushing the trenches a few hours ago. Now it seems that the earth wall has been completed, but other firepower points have not been formed.He was still worried just now, whether there would be some facilities that the satellite did not see, but after a costly fire reconnaissance, no fixed firepower points or minefields were found.Obviously, the Indians have not had time to deploy an anti-tank missile position. These firepower should have appeared outside the range of the tank guns, but they did not.Perhaps the Indians no longer have those anti-tank missile launchers modified from the chassis of wheeled tanks.

"Sir, their anti-tank missiles didn't show up?"

"If you knew it earlier, you should have launched an attack in advance. The Chinese are too cautious." Amir said, he knew that the intention of the Chinese to delay the battle was to avoid the observation of India's various anti-tank firearms and artillery with poor night vision capabilities. It turned out that the deployment of the Indians was very chaotic, neither three-dimensional nor deep.As the sun completely sank to the horizon, the sky gradually turned dark. As the weather report indicated, the low-altitude clouds were very thick, completely blocking the moonlight, which was conducive to restraining the enemy's low-light night vision.

"The commander of the infantry battalion reports to you that we have arrived at the designated location."

"Why are you so sluggish?"

"There was a little misunderstanding just now. A friendly army opened fire on us. You know this kind of thing can easily happen at night, but it has been resolved now."

The infantry battalion commander explained the reason for the delay. The Pakistani army used a lot of western equipment, which made it easy for troops to update their equipment identification knowledge, especially at night.

"There is no need to explain. You immediately act as a team according to the plan. Turn on the lights to attract the attention of the enemy as much as possible. Don't walk on the tank route."

"clear."

"The 1st platoon of company A attacked from the west of the road, and the rest of the tanks of A followed up. Company B attacked from the east." Amir then issued an order to the tank troops.

"clear."

"Mahdi, fire 2 red flares and tell those infantrymen who can't be notified by the radio ... and Yahini, we are going to move."

Dozens of tanks restarted and rumbled towards the pitch-black Indian position.Yahini, 4 kilometers behind the battlefield, saw two red flares go up into the air. Due to the confusion of the communication methods of many troops, Amir believed that the signal flares could be the easiest solution. Of course, he also wanted to give the Indians a reminder in essence. Hope they get scared ahead of time.Every commander will get his own set of things based on his previous combat experience.Amir is different from Yahini. His experience tells him that bluffing is the most effective way to deal with India's second-rate troops.

Yahini stood on the hillside and watched the signal flares fall. From here, he could see the backward tactical code lights of the Leopard 2 tanks flashing from time to time (the Indians could not see them). It seemed that the formation was orderly and the tanks were very concentrated. The troops stayed in the rear for several months, ensuring training.The rear infantry fighting vehicles avoided this route and turned on the front and rear lights at the same time.

Yahini can roughly understand Amir's attack method now, and he also has some strategies. He hides the tank and attacks secretly, but lets the infantry fighting vehicle outside the range attract the enemy's attention from other directions.This is a direct and deceptive method of warfare that Yahini has never seen before.But he couldn't figure out why Amir didn't attack from the wings, but directly from the front.

"So that's how he attacked. Indians are not idiots, they will understand."

"But this Amir doesn't seem to be in vain." A company commander said.

"But he still chose the shortest path to hit the enemy's front. He should think more about the infantry behind him. Not all soldiers have decent night vision systems."

"It is said that he is very charismatic, and the soldiers are very supportive of him. Did you hear what he said on the radio just now?"

"I heard that saving the Chinese is indeed a bit deceptive, but I can see it much more if I can play tricks."

"Commander, when are we going to dispatch?"

"Don't worry, just wait," Yahini said, looking at his watch irritably, "Why hasn't the special ammunition that the Chinese agreed to arrive yet? Go and look around the landing site, are those gasoline barrels still lit?" , don't they can't find a place by then."

"Yes."

Apparently he was still thinking about the few shells that could delay the attack time, which puzzled his subordinates. According to intelligence, the frontal enemy was only Indian troops, and their tanks did not need special firepower to deal with it.

Attacking the situation on the battlefield head-on, Amir's tactics began to play a role.The Indian army, which lacked night vision capabilities, was indeed attracted by the dotted lights on both wings, which were far away and completely out of range from infantry fighting vehicles.The Indians may have a large mortar unit, and they began to roughly shoot at the infantry fighting vehicles, but the Leopard 2 tanks in the front were not attacked, which exposed their shortcomings of insufficient observation capabilities.

Amir's tanks still kept their formation, advancing step by step.Since the gun barrel of the Leopard 2 tank has been sufficiently cooled, and there are only a few low-light night vision on the frontier of India, and lack of thermal imaging reconnaissance equipment, the Indians may have to wait a little longer before they can detect threats.

Amir urged the tank not to fire all the way, but he could sense that the enemy's laser rangefinder beams had been shaking around him, and sometimes they would sweep into the vehicle body to trigger an alarm. Obviously, the Indians are not fools, and they are also concerned about the silence of the front feeling anxious.

"See those T72 turrets turning?" Amir said triumphantly to the gunner.

"See, they are using the gunner's scope to search for targets."

"Yes, it means that their commander can't see us at all. Their rags are like a piece of shit with a gun barrel at night. Are you sure you can hit it?"

"Of course." The gunner glanced at the reticle and estimated that the enemy was within one kilometer. Even if only the turret was exposed, it would be easy to hit.

"Calm down, wait for C Company to get closer, we must use our maximum firepower at once."

The infantry on the Indian position began to fire flares to the front, and they finally noticed that something was wrong.However, these actions without coordination with the tank still have advantages and disadvantages. When the flares fall, they will destroy the tank's low-light night vision reconnaissance ability for a long time.The interference time of these flares to the Leopard 2 thermal imaging system is very short.

"They were firing flares, we were exposed, the companies were free to fire, keep maneuvering and don't stop."

Most of the Leopard 2s with good range fire before the flares hit their heads.Due to the stagnation of the Indian tanks, the hit rate of the Leopard 2 is quite high. Half of the shells hit the target. The exaggerated reactive armor in front of the T72 turret has no effect on the kinetic energy bombs. Most of the shells penetrated the turret.

The Indian tanks immediately turned to the direction of fire, and the gunners immediately faced a large number of dazzling flares falling, and their vision was completely white, and they could see nothing.While switching white light aiming in a hurry, Leopard 2 advanced the distance by 300 to 400 meters and completed the second loading at the same time.

Amir was well aware that the efficiency of the Pakistani loaders would decrease over time, so his battles to break through the enemy's defenses had to be short.This is part of his intention to attack directly from the front instead of the two wings, of course it is beyond Yahini's understanding.

The Indian tankers began to fight back hastily. During the lengthy process from tracking to ranging and then ballistic calculation, the flares fell to the ground one after another, and the battlefield fell into darkness again. For shooting moving targets, it is necessary to grasp such uncertain opportunities. It was like a nightmare, and the opponent's shots were fast and accurate.

The Pakistani tanks quickly fired a second round, this time at a closer distance. After the shooting, the Indian tanks on the front of the position basically misfired.

At a distance of 400 meters, the commanders of the Leopard 2 tanks began to manipulate the howitzers on the weapon station to attack the infantry in the rear. The 76mm grenade launcher used by the weapon station was completely prepared for urban warfare and hand-to-hand combat. Tanks have always lacked curved-fire weapons to deter infantry enough.

At the same time, the rear 122 mm howitzers began firing in depth, and the rocket launchers also fired a salvo.

The most direct way to judge whether an Indian army is first-rate or second-rate is to look at the speed at which they collapse after the artillery fire is extended. Obviously, the Indian 4th Division rebuilt by Amir in person is far worse than the 4th Division when it attacked Multan. Much more, the firepower of resistance quickly disappeared.

The infantry fighting vehicle at the rear of the Leopard 2 turned off the front lighting, and began to accelerate and charge into the battle.

Company A of the Infantry Battalion is equipped with Chinese-made infantry fighting vehicles and has considerable night vision capabilities, which can well guide the rest of the tank companies in the rear.They used 30mm parallel artillery to name the enemies who were still fighting on the front line one by one.The Indian defense line collapsed in an instant.

After making great strides ahead, Yahini finally got three helicopters. The helicopters sent a batch of supplies, including more than 3 rounds of special ammunition, under the threat of being attacked by enemy missiles at low altitude.

Yahini had already fought the M1A2, and he knew that only with these ammunition would the battle be fairer.He just learned that Amir had successfully broken through the first line of defense at a very small cost, but the number of enemy tanks counted was not as many as expected.He estimated that either Amir doesn't need him anymore, or the tough battle is yet to come.

Overhead, several fighter planes that had been circling suddenly lost their fuel tanks and flew southeast. The flames of the fighter jets as they refueled were clearly visible from the ground.That direction was the area where Yahini maneuvered in a roundabout during the last battle. He knew that there were many artillery positions hidden there.

Amir was still charging forward, trying to get as close as possible to the enemy's retreating convoy, but the enemy's M270 rockets still fired at this area regardless of whether it was the enemy or the enemy, temporarily blocking his route. Two Leopard 2s had their tracks destroyed and had to stop Waiting in place, while the Indian troops suffered even greater losses, the chaotic rear guard fell into the fire net and was blown to pieces.

This interdiction shooting probably also showed that there are indeed no US troops in this area, otherwise they would not have attacked so hard.Amir could only step back and call for an air strike. The 6 fighters rushed towards the target quickly. If they moved fast enough, they could find the target and drop the bomb before the patriots in Agra reacted. The mobility is really good too.Once the opportunity is missed, the fighter plane must return immediately, so the game of cat and mouse is played all the time on this battlefield, and most of the time the experienced mouse can run away.

Amir's attack rhythm was disrupted, which meant the enemy had time to adjust their deployment to his route and bring in reserves, but he was unmoved and continued to advance along the road.

The bad news is that he noticed that the cooling effect of the thermal imager began to decrease, and with it, the search distance decreased.These tanks came from generous oil-producing countries in the Middle East. When they arrived, the night vision equipment had already suffered some training wear and tear, and due to the blockade of the origin, there were no spare parts to replace.Therefore, when Amir trained for night combat, he seldom used thermal imaging cameras to save its service life, and he was not sure about the continuous use time of this device in the battlefield environment (in principle, it can be used continuously for more than 12 hours, but the effect will decline).

There is absolutely no time to stop and wait for it to cool itself, it has to be rushed.He must fulfill his promise to save the Chinese people.The enemy's firepower stopped quickly, and it seemed that the air force's suppression had an effect. The Leopard 2 tank had no time to detour and continued to push forward.

First-class Lu Sayamura Masahiko was deploying his troops in a panic. It was a little late when he arrived at the second line of defense. The Indian defeated army had already occupied the road, which restricted the movement of his 90 tanks.Now it is necessary to coordinate with the Indian military police to block the Indian army first and let him cross the road first.But it is very difficult to stop a timid army.

The shelling by the U.S. Army just now bought him time to come from 5 kilometers away to strengthen the defense line of the Indian 108th Division.According to practice, they can choose to deploy in the rear of the Indian troops.After Lieutenant Maeda disappeared, he recovered the 13-type assault gun unit, and the entire mixed regiment was no longer divided as a mobile unit, so as to respond in all directions at any time.

He couldn't believe that the Pakistani army was advancing completely along the road. Of course, he admired this kind of spirit, but in fact it saved a lot of maneuvering time. If he had known that the enemy was coming so directly, Frings shouldn't have let the reserve team go In the middle position.

The fleeing troops retreating in despair on the road quickly infected the Indian soldiers on the second line of defense. Fear always spread extremely quickly among the Indian troops.Everyone's attention began to scatter.

A Weasel A2 infantry fighting vehicle, followed by a row of T72 tanks, sneaked into the rear of the Indian army's position from the gap in the road.About 2 battalions of Indian soldiers standing nearby, none of them recognized the tactical markings on this chariot, which actually belonged to the long-annihilated Spanga Group.

This brave chariot is sending a message to the Pakistani army behind through the radio.The commander reported along the way that he did not see any enemy M1 tanks, but the enemy only had some anti-tank missile launch vehicles modified from the BTR80 chassis. But wait a minute. He turned around the mirror and saw that the Indian military police had blocked the road, causing the rout troops to congest the road. A column of newly arrived enemy tanks, what appeared to be Western tanks, cut the road and passed in front.

(End of this chapter)