afterglow

Chapter 200 Sharp Offensive; Quick Victory

At this point in the battle, the Italian army has missed several opportunities to turn the tide of the battle.

A counterattack that is not firm enough means that the strength and morale of the troops will be lost in vain. This is a typical useless effort. Now their failure is only a matter of time.

The 71st Battalion in the southwest immediately turned into an offensive posture. Under the command of Blake, the three companies deployed in a layout of one in the front and two in the back.

Although the entire frontal width of the attack is close to one kilometer, there are actually only three or four places that can be broken through.

For a time, on the battlefield with a radius of several miles, the sound of guns, guns, explosions, and wailing mixed into a grand symphony.Looking down from the sky, you can see that there are groups of gunpowder smoke bursting out from time to time, and those densely packed black spots are soldiers on both sides of the attack and defense.

Despite the obvious decline, the Italian army did not seem to intend to surrender. They hastily shrunk their defenses and retreated directly to the area adjacent to the Tejo River to continue their resistance.

In fact, the progress of the battle is very fast. From the early morning attack to 79 o'clock in the morning, in just over two hours, the seemingly complete and solid garrison of the Italian [-]th Infantry Regiment has been torn to pieces. fell.

"What are the Spaniards doing?! Are they watching a performance?!" The disgraced Lieutenant Colonel Archid yelled at the adjutant.

The latter replied helplessly: "The National Army doesn't have enough ferries! They don't dare to act casually. I don't know if there are any enemy troops on the north bank of the river. They may have crossed the river secretly in the lower or upper reaches of the river!"

"Stupid! If the enemy army has so many troops, they will definitely besiege us first!"

"Yes, Lieutenant Colonel, I will ask them to reinforce immediately!"

"Quick, fast! We are in a critical situation now!"

At the moment, two CV33 ultra-light tanks and several unknown armored vehicles became the biggest obstacles in the way of the International Brigade. The machine guns of "Da Da Da" fired continuously, suppressing the attacking companies while moving.

These Italian vehicles with an armor thickness of less than one centimeter are completely thin-skinned and large, but this is still not something that ordinary infantry bullets can penetrate, and offensive troops without professional anti-tank weapons cannot effectively damage them.

However, the over-excited 71st Battalion still tried two unnecessary attacks, but such aggressive approaches were undoubtedly wrong-both attacks were disintegrated by the intensive firepower of the Italian army, and dozens of British volunteers were strewn across the field.

Zhou Changfeng, who was on Height 109, watched the whole process in the artillery mirror. He was so angry that he turned around and picked up the phone, cursing into the microphone.

"Blake! Do you have a brain problem?! Such an attack is meaningless! How did you graduate from the Sandhurst Royal Military Academy?! The Germans' evaluation is absolutely correct!"

The so-called "German evaluation" refers to what they mentioned in their chat some time ago. Chretien said that he seized a diary on the eve of the end of the European War, which recorded from the perspective of a German lieutenant His evaluation of the military officers of Britain, France and the United States.

It said: "...the British army was stupid and slow during the attack, and it was not coordinated at all. But every British soldier was not clumsy, which may be because of their lack of cooperative training... Most British officers are brave and foolhardy , they are very brave, but they lack the calmness that an officer should have, which is quite unreasonable..."

A little later, the anti-tank detachment was belatedly arriving.

Although the Soloton S18-1000 20mm anti-tank gun is called a "gun", it is not impossible to call it an ultra-light anti-tank gun because the caliber has reached 20mm of the gun dividing line.

其全重高达45㎏，半自动射击，发射20×105㎜穿甲弹时可以在100m的距离上击穿40㎜厚度的垂直装甲钢板。

The four-person team divided the work in twos, with two carrying guns one behind the other, and the other two carried ammunition boxes and the other was in charge of observation.

After they found a suitable position, they put this bulky thing on the ground. The assistant shooter inserted a huge ten-round magazine for it, and the main shooter vigorously shook the joystick on the right side of the gun body, one, two, three, enough It takes three turns of the foot to be considered loaded.

Obviously, in order to launch such a powerful ammunition, the spring force of the recoil spring may require the strength of ordinary people to pull it open.In order to save effort and convenience, Soloton has designed such a mechanism that uses a rocker to assist loading.

"Boom! Boom!"

Two 20mm armor-piercing incendiary bombs were fired at a speed of more than 700 meters per second, and accurately hit a CV300 more than 33 meters away.

The brass of the bullet was crushed and deformed by the armor, and the steel core inside easily penetrated the 13mm thick steel plate on the front; at the same time, the aluminum-magnesium particles mixed between the core and the armor were squeezed and detonated. Along with the bullet core, it rushed into the interior of the car body.

This armor-piercing incendiary bomb just completed its mission. The driver of this CV33 was killed by the core on the spot, his clothes were also ignited, and the interior of the vehicle was a mess.

The anti-tank teams fired one after another, and the characteristic loud gunshots almost resounded throughout the battlefield.

The aftereffect of 20mm shells is obviously stronger than that of large-caliber bullets. Those fragile ultra-light tanks and armored vehicles were knocked down one by one, and wisps of gray or white smoke came out of the gaps in the wreckage.

Seeing that these obstacles no longer existed, the British volunteers who had been suppressed for a long time suddenly cheered, and immediately jumped out of the crater or bunker one by one, and continued to attack in depth.

After solving those armored targets, the anti-tank teams were not idle. The powerful anti-tank guns were also effective against those civil fortifications. All Italian machine guns that fired were mercilessly attacked.

A cloth bag filled with sand is beyond the reach of ordinary bullets, but it is easily penetrated by a 4mm bullet containing more than 20 joules of kinetic energy!
A Fiat M7914 heavy machine gun team was shooting desperately, and the deputy shooter was concentrating on loading new magazines for the strange magazine feeding device, but suddenly found that the machine gun stopped firing?

He turned his head to look in surprise, but his whole body trembled in shock—only a fraction of the main shooter's head was left, like a watermelon that had been opened.

As the firepower points were eliminated one by one, the Italian army completely lost the ability to effectively defend and retreated steadily.

And the last straw that broke the camel's camel was funny to say——

Because Zhou Changfeng on the 109th highland observed that the National Army on the north bank of the Tejo River came for reinforcements in several small boats, so he ordered a mortar platoon to get ready. , was blown away by a dozen mortar shells.

At this point, the 79th Infantry Regiment of the Italian Army collapsed on the spot, and several companies began to flee involuntarily to the river beach.

"Sir! The troops are out of control! The front-line units are retreating spontaneously!" The adjutant's big cap was tilted, and he said eagerly: "We should leave this ghost place now!"

"Order D Company to hold on for another 10 minutes! The regiment headquarters is ready to evacuate!" Lieutenant Colonel Archid knew that the situation was irreversible, so he quickly organized the troops to retreat to the northeast.

But most of the panicked soldiers didn't care about this. They regarded the high-morale international brigade as a scourge, so they just rushed regardless.

Some people even jumped into the Tejo River in a daze, trying to escape by swimming.

At 8:02 in the morning, the battle was basically over.

"The defeat of an Italian infantry regiment in four hours is not in a field situation, but here. There is no doubt that this is a glorious victory, and the world should know this battle!"

Chretien was very excited, and clamored to take people to the scene to take pictures, and then make it public, so that the whole world would know that although the weak beat the strong, it was a hearty victory.

At this time, someone ran over quickly, stood at attention and saluted, and reported: "Sir, Captain Blake is injured and is currently preparing for surgery."

"Huh?" Zhou Changfeng frowned slightly, and asked, "What happened? Is it serious?"

In the previous battle, Blake, the commander of the 71st Battalion, was injured by a stray bullet that flew from nowhere, but it was not very serious, so he refused to leave the front line and simply bandaged it.

In this way, he commanded the battle with wounds for more than an hour, and just now he was knocked down by shell fragments. It is said that the shrapnel cut a hole the length of his index finger in his abdomen.

"Tell him that only those who can correct their mistakes in time are qualified officers." Zhou Changfeng said casually: "I hope he will not be impulsive in the future, at least be responsible to his subordinates."

"Yes."

The national army on the other side of the river obviously did not expect the battle to end so soon. A regiment of Italian troops, standing still and defending a place that had been built for dozens of days, how could the birds and beasts disperse so quickly?
A company of the No.90 Sixth Infantry Brigade of the National Army who came across the river for reinforcements also suffered heavy losses. Most of them were retreated together by the rout of the Italian army. The rest were either killed or injured, and more than a dozen people were captured.

Walking around from the edge of life and death, the [-]th Brigade seems to have matured a lot...or in other words, those ignorant recruits have transformed after going through blood and fire, and those who were bragging last night are now Become reticent.

Collecting the captured equipment and escorting the captured enemy soldiers, on the battlefield where there are still wisps of gunpowder smoke everywhere, soldiers in twos and threes are cleaning up the scene.

In everyone's eyes, the biggest gain of this battle is probably the artillery. The original lack of heavy weapons suddenly disappeared.

仓惶离开的意大利炮兵们压根没有对这些火炮做任何的破坏工作，6门105/32型105㎜榴弹炮、12门70/15型70㎜山炮一动不动的放列在炮兵阵地上，地上堆满了空弹壳。

Further back, there were boxes of shells neatly stacked. Chretien, who came to inspect the trophies, took a casual glance and determined that there were at least two bases here.

Just as everyone was content to pick up all kinds of harvest, they suddenly heard someone shouting "enemy aircraft" sharply.

When everyone was looking up at the sky one after another, the roar of the plane engine just happened to come over, and nine biplanes were flying towards this side in a standard formation.

Even in later generations, the coordination between the air and the ground is quite complicated. The standard execution process of air support is so cumbersome that the title alone has a page.

Now, although the system construction is not yet perfect, coupled with the limited level of radio technology, the efficiency of air-ground coordination is actually not high, and it is often only applicable to targets that have been planned in advance, and it is difficult to cope with real-time changes.

You must know that many pilots are still accustomed to communicating with gestures and flags, and the efficiency can be imagined.

The nine CR.32 fighter jets that arrived belatedly were at a loss. From the perspective of the pilots, they took off non-stop after receiving the order. How could the ground troops have been defeated by the time they flew into the sky? up?It's only been an hour.

They descended one after another, flying past at low altitude and low speed, trying to figure out the ground situation.

"Damn! When is our plane coming?!"

Chretien was very anxious, because there was not enough anti-aircraft firepower, and the [-]th Brigade could only hide in the bunker honestly. He was afraid that these Italian planes would blow up the captured supplies and weapons.

Miller shrugged and replied, "It may arrive soon. We have applied for it a few days ago. According to the plan, the air support will arrive at about eight o'clock."

Italian planes hovered in mid-air like headless flies, neither attacking the supplies decisively nor choosing to leave. It could be seen that they were communicating with the headquarters and waiting for orders.

At this moment, several small black spots also appeared in the sky due south, and they were rapidly approaching.

In Miller's words, six He-51 fighter jets of the Republican Air Force approached the battlefield at an altitude of about 1000 meters, and then began to descend to prepare for combat.

The battle between biplanes is naturally more inclined to dogfighting. In fact, in this era when air combat tactics are still in the groping stage, many monoplanes also emphasize horizontal rotation speed in design to ensure dogfighting capabilities.

Seeing their own air force joining the battle, the soldiers on the ground looked up.

The Italian fighter jets responded immediately. They directly discarded the mounted aerial bombs to reduce weight, so that they could engage in close combat more flexibly.

The falling aerial bombs bloomed in clusters, and the explosions one after another made the 50th Brigade rush to find cover.A [-]kg aerial bomb hit a pile of food supplies, and all kinds of canned food were flying all over the sky in an instant. It seemed that there was a heavy rain of iron pieces, minced meat, and biscuits in the sky.

In a sense, a group of biplane dogfights are a good sight to watch, which is much more interesting than the one-shot escape of monoplanes coming and going like the wind, swooping up and down and strafing.

After a CR.32 was bitten by its tail, its fuel tank was shot many times, and the whole plane turned into a smoking fireball and fell almost vertically from the sky.

Seeing this scene, the people below cheered in unison.

The encounter in the sky lasted for more than ten minutes, and the two sides fought inextricably for a time. At the end, a total of two CR.32s were shot down and many more were injured.

Zhou Changfeng let out a long sigh of relief as he watched the Italian military planes that were getting farther and farther away.

Now, I can finally count the gains of this battle with peace of mind, and see what other equipment the transport brigade has transported.

He tilted his head and asked, "Miller, have the statistics been completed? How much have the Italians left for us?"

(End of this chapter)