afterglow

Chapter 424 Chapter [-]: Laodang Yizhuangyuan’s Title; Undefended City

The "click-click" sounds of several Type [-] light machine guns came one after another. The gun-wielding Marine infantry calmly knocked down the Filipino infantry charging with rifles with short bursts of fire.

On the flank of this beachhead, the only Type [-] heavy machine gun was placed here. The machine gunner felt his heart pounding. The enemy's shells exploded not far away, and his skin could be clearly seen. Feel the warm blast of wind blowing.

"Thump, thump, thump—"

The Type 3000 heavy machine gun in high-rate mode spits bullets at a rate of 7.36 rounds per minute. The [-]mm machine gun bullet with more than [-] joules left a bloody wound close to the size of a fist after penetrating the human body!
Although the organization was chaotic and unsystematic, the well-trained and experienced officers and soldiers of the Second Marine Brigade still resisted the Philippine army's counterattack.

The Filipino soldiers were killed one by one by the fire net composed of machine guns and mortars, and fell to death on the beach screaming.

"Someone touched it!!!"

"I saw it, in the pit ahead."

"Give me blank bombs and blow them up!"

Only a few people approached the Ming army's position, but they were quickly killed by rifle grenades and hand grenades. The remaining people huddled in craters and bunkers at a loss.

The attack of the 11th Infantry Division stalled. This situation was completely beyond the expectations of the Philippine army. Brigadier General Wainwright frowned and murmured the word "unbelievable", and then was alarmed by the rapid ringing of the phone. interrupted.

"Sir! Our attack has no effect, we..."

At this time, a dazzling flash suddenly appeared on the distant sea.

Everyone's confusion and confusion lasted less than two seconds, and then their expressions all turned to panic.

Depend on!That was the shelling from the Ming fleet!
The battleship Yuanfeng faced the coastline on its port side and launched a standard salvo with four twin-mounted 352mm main guns.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

A thunderous roar came belatedly, coming from the distant sea, as if it penetrated the heaven and the earth, giving the officers a heavy hammer in their hearts.

Eight anti-explosive bombs weighing 615 kilograms were accurately distributed in the depth of the beach. The impact points on both sides were about 100 meters apart, and the place in the middle became the death zone without a doubt.

Before the thick smoke and dust caused by the explosion dissipated, scattered limbs and arms and weapons and equipment fell down one after another, followed by tattered military uniforms and canvas equipment...

Yuan Fenghao, who has always been strong and strong, performed well in cross-shore support, proving that he can still find work even if he is not suitable for modern sea and air warfare.

Then, the 128mm and 144mm anti-explosive bombs fired by the destroyers and cruisers also fell like raindrops, and the vast beachhead was almost swept away by intensive firepower.

The deafening sound of artillery made the people in the second-line command headquarters tremble, and some people had already collapsed on the ground uncontrollably.

"It's over, it's over..."

The two battalions and six infantry companies involved in the beachhead counterattack may have been completely wiped out.

It must be noted that although the battleship's bombardment was terrifying, most of the killing results actually came from the destroyers and cruisers that silently paid - the large number of medium-caliber shells they fired more completely covered the target area.

However, battleships have an irreplaceable morale buff when supporting their own landing troops.

"How dare you come here to seek death?!"

"I'll be a good boy! It's so good!"

"Look, it's all gone in the blink of an eye."

Although he knew that he had made a wrong decision and ruined the reserves of the 11th Infantry Division, Brigadier General Wainwright still looked serious and ordered the troops to continue to hold their positions for at least 48 hours.

Then he left in a hurry, intending to recheck the explosive arrangements along the way from Lingayen Bay to Manila, and immediately blast bridges and roads once the Ming army landed in large numbers.

However, how can the current 11th Division still have the ability to persist?Not to mention two days, just one night.

The seaplanes ejected from the Ming army's warships flew back and forth along the coastline, as if they were sightseeing, constantly feeding back to the fleet and landing troops the situation of the enemy in front of them.

"Report! The enemy's counterattack has caused heavy casualties and has retreated. The Second Battalion of the Fourth Regiment called back and said that it is doing its best to gather the troops. It is estimated that it will take half an hour to assemble."

"Let them move quickly. The troops that have gone ashore quickly reorganize to strengthen the battalion and launch a frontal attack on the enemy; then organize one or two teams into a partial division to flank the enemy from the east."

General Yan Chen regarded the 11th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army as an inferior opponent. He was unwilling to wait for the large troops to disembark slowly - it would take at least three days and two nights for the main force of tens of thousands of people to disembark.

So the Second Marine Brigade quickly assembled an offensive force with the available troops, without giving the enemy a chance to breathe!
They opened a gap in a corner of the enemy's position that day, and continued to carry out infiltration and surprise attacks after nightfall.

The Philippine army was completely unable to withstand such an offensive and reluctantly organized three small-scale counterattacks. However, it had no effect except the loss of hundreds of people.They were forced to retreat in the latter part of the night, but by then the sun was almost rising.

As a result, the retreating 11th Division of the Philippine Army was bombed twice by the Ming Dynasty Air Force. The entire army fell into a more chaotic situation and its organization was scattered.It didn't take long for the organized retreat to turn into a disorderly run, with thousands of people fleeing southward in chaos.

At the same time, what surprised the Manila headquarters even more was that intelligence showed that another Ming army was approaching the Batangas Strait in the south and seemed to be planning to land there.

This is the No. 40 Third Infantry Division from Fushan. Escorted by more than a dozen destroyers and light cruisers, they bypassed Manila Bay and arrived in Batangas further south.

Batangas is the local capital and a port city with ready-made dock facilities. It is connected to Manila by rail and highway, and is only about [-] kilometers away.

The main idea of ​​Operation Delay is to quickly attack from the south and the north, and try to inflict heavy damage and annihilate the effective forces of the US-Philippine coalition forces on the plains around Manila as much as possible.

The Philippine army stationed there immediately called for help. They suffered two consecutive rounds of air attacks and were suppressed by the intensive fleet firepower. They were in a dilemma. They could only attack the Ming army that had landed in large numbers with weak firepower. I am afraid they would not be able to hold on for long.

People in the headquarters just felt a chill down their spines - the anti-landing operation ended in failure, so when the Ming army comes ashore and fully deploys, can they still be stopped?

Although the surface ships of the Asiatic Fleet suffered losses, they were able to escape the Philippines, a land of disputes, and they would withdraw southeastward to Papua and Australia.

The Far East Air Force suffered heavy losses, with only a few dozen fighter jets left to take off for combat, and most of the air supremacy had fallen into the hands of the Ming army. Although the power of the remaining twenty or so bombers should not be underestimated, due to the gradual loss of air supremacy, their The space for performance is also reduced.

Therefore, now we can only rely on ground troops to resist the Ming army's all-out attack.

However, only one day after the Ming army actually landed on Luzon Island, the Philippine troops in the north and south were already in a state of collapse and retreating in embarrassment.Fortunately, the explosives pre-arranged on the bridges and roads worked. Booms and explosions occurred one after another. The collapsed bridges and destroyed roads forced the Second Marine Brigade, which came ashore from Lingayen Bay, to slow down its advance.

Historically, Douglas was still very confident at the beginning, believing that the U.S.-Philippine coalition forces could withstand a full-scale Japanese attack. Therefore, it was not until the situation became serious that he made the decision to withdraw the entire army to the Bataan Peninsula under very hasty and urgent circumstances. .

But it was different now. Douglas had psychological expectations for the rapid progress of the Ming army, so he quickly ordered an orderly retreat to the Bataan Fortress area as planned.

Bad news came one after another - Davao, an important port city in southern Mindanao, was also raided by the Ming army.

The paratroopers who displayed their skills and made outstanding achievements in Operation Blood Paralysis were not only praised to the sky among the people of the Ming Dynasty, but the Ming army also became more and more superstitious about the power of the paratroopers.

Therefore, when Operation Delay was formulated this time, the task of taking the vanguard of Davao was given to the Second Parachute Regiment.

Under the escort of 24 fighter jets, 47 Type [-] transport planes towed gliders, departed from Sulawesi, flew over the Sulawesi Sea, and appeared in the sky above Davao.

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According to the plan, one battalion carried out a parachute landing in the open area on the north side of the airport, and the other battalion carried out a forced landing directly on the airport runway.

After the paratroopers take control of the airport, the Philippine army stationed in Davao will definitely be shaken in fighting spirit and will definitely flee when the landing troops approach!
In fact, Zhou felt that this was a fancy operation of little significance. The Philippine army was not the Australian army, and there was obviously no need to risk airborne operations to expose it to enemies from both sides.

Moreover, he believed that it was not appropriate to carry out airborne operations against Davao - there were complex mountains and hills to the west, north and east, and the defenders also had some armored vehicles.

However, the Ming Air Force's desire for performance was particularly strong, and the confident military bosses finally approved this unnecessary action.

The operation was smooth sailing at first, exactly as everyone expected - the Ming army's magic troops descended from the sky, the Philippine army panicked, the airport was captured in one attack, and the remaining soldiers rushed like wolves...

However, as the large Philippine army in the urban area organized a counterattack, the situation took a turn for the worse.

The U.S.-Philippine coalition paid close attention to and analyzed the Ming army's previous offensives against the British and Dutch colonies, so it learned lessons from the experience to a certain extent.

Because they knew that the Ming army was equipped with an unknown anti-tank weapon, the Philippine army that launched the counterattack did not stupidly use the armored vehicles for direct attacks. Instead, they deployed them at a distance of about 300 meters as mobile firepower points.

The Philippine infantry, with the fire support of artillery and these armored vehicles, took turns to attack the airport just captured by the Ming army paratroopers.

The maximum range of the Type 14.4 rocket launcher is only [-] meters, which makes it useless. The officers and soldiers of the Second Paratrooper Regiment can only use a few Type [-] [-]mm anti-tank guns to fight back against the armored vehicles.

The two sides fell into a fierce battle. The Philippine army, which had sufficient supplies and strength advantages, did not stop from morning to afternoon.

With continuous artillery fire and continuous attacks, the Ming paratroopers were suppressed and were in a dilemma on the hastily constructed airport position.

The Third Battalion and the Regiment Headquarters, who came for reinforcements, braved artillery fire and forced a landing on the bumpy runway. Many transport planes were hit and caught fire as soon as they landed, dragging billowing black smoke towards the end of the runway...

According to the plan, participating units should carry out landing operations six hours after the start of the airborne operation.

When the paratroopers were in a bitter battle, the landing fleet finally appeared on the sea of ​​Davao Bay.

But at this time, the submarine USS Heavy Tooth Snapper (SS-188) patrolling the waters of Davao Bay discovered this fleet.

Only faint wisps of black smoke appeared on the sea, and soon afterwards, the silhouettes of ships appeared one after another. There were more than 30 troop transports, cargo ships, destroyers, and light cruisers in total, and aircraft formations continued to fly by in the sky.

"Captain, Captain, are we preparing to attack?"

"Of course. Lieutenant Clark, we ambush them from the 270 direction, calculate the launch data, and prepare for torpedo attack."

"Yes! Captain!"

The Heavy Tooth Seabream slowly moved to a suitable ambush position in a submersible state. This large ocean-going submarine with an underwater displacement of 2300 tons immediately prepared for battle.

All six 6mm torpedo launch tubes on the bow of the boat were inspected. A few minutes later, following the captain's order, six Mk533 torpedoes were pushed out of the launch tubes with a "puff puff".

The submariners were excited, and everyone was looking forward to the rumble of explosions a moment later.

This torpedo weighs 1400 kilograms, and the warhead charge carries 230 kilograms of high explosives, which is enough to cause fatal damage to warships.

Moreover, it is equipped with a unique Mk6-Mod1 magnetic fuse, which can explode directly under the target and break its keel, which is extremely powerful.

The magnetic fuses used by other countries are triggered by using the steel of the ship's hull to cause the internal magnetic needle to rotate, but the United States is different. The Mk6-Mod1 fuze first uses an induction coil to generate current, which is amplified by a vacuum tube and then triggers the detonator. It is theoretically more sensitive and efficient.

America, master the core technology!

Because he was so excited, the captain did not even order to dive, but stayed at periscope depth.

However, the captain observed an abnormal situation that made him almost unable to believe his eyes - the six torpedoes had clear tracks and went straight to the target. The freighter did not maneuver to avoid it, but except for a few splashes of water, there was nothing Something happened?

While the submariners of the Chongya Seabream were still confused and shocked, the Ming fleet discovered the daring US submarine. The destroyer Leling immediately broke away from the fleet, changed its course and rushed over.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the Heavy Tooth Seabream immediately dived and fled, using all its strength to avoid being pursued.

But she ultimately failed to win this cat-and-mouse game and was sunk by depth charges in the Gulf of Davao in the middle of the night, killing all her crew.

The fighting in Mindanao is relatively isolated, and the core of the war is still concentrated on Luzon.

As in history, Douglas publicly declared Manila an undefended city, but this time it was much more leisurely.

"...To prevent the capital region from being devastated by war, I declare Manila an undefended city without military deployment...The city government and the police will continue to perform their duties so that the safety and protection of life and property can be maintained..."

With the front almost collapsing, the U.S.-Philippine coalition forces began an organized retreat to the Bataan Peninsula.

The Pampanga River flows north of Manila. There is a road-rail bridge and a highway bridge built on the river. Both have become the only way for the coalition forces to pass, so the headquarters deployed all air defense units here.

Groups of soldiers, tanks, and artillery pieces formed a strange landscape, marching northwest across the bridge.

(End of this chapter)