afterglow

Chapter 488: A desperate move; the most elite troops receive the worst treatment

The fall of Highland 92 meant that the integrity of the defense line at Edson Highlands no longer existed. The Ming army could place various weapons here to directly threaten Richard Airport to the north.

Unlike the 39st Marine Regiment, which fought hard for many days, the nd Marine Regiment, which attacked along the coastline, had a clean and tidy offensive. In the past few days after advancing to the Longa River, it had been fighting with the US th Regiment on the east coast. The combat teams faced off across the river.

"Since the day before yesterday, the staff department has lost more than 530 people due to illness, half of whom are combatants... The current situation is good, and the full rate of each team is 70%..."

However, as time goes by, the supply problem becomes more and more obvious, and now it has gradually become a problem facing the 1st Marine Brigade.

It has been about ten days since the landing, and the consumption of ammunition, food, and medicine has been more than expected, and the consumption of ammunition has exceeded half of the expectation.

The group of U.S. troops that seized the opportunity to take off after the Battle of Guadalcanal-Tulagi Strait carried out an air attack on the Ming Army's landing point at Cape Españas, resulting in the loss of nearly a hundred tons of supplies.

Afterwards, the Rabaul base dispatched two airlift units and airdropped more than 30 tons of supplies to the 1st Marine Brigade in two days, but it could only be said to be better than nothing.

However, the impatient officers and soldiers felt that the remaining supplies were more than enough, enough to kill the US troops trapped on the east side of the Longa River like a whirlwind.

With Zhou Changfeng's permission, the Second Marine Regiment launched an attack on April 4 and forcibly crossed the Longa River with the artillery support of the brigade's mountain artillery regiment.

During seven days and nights of fighting on the east bank of the Longa River, he alternately used a Type 27 semi-automatic rifle and a Type bolt-action rifle, with clear results for more than people. He even used it in the early morning of the th. The Type rifle hit an American engineer at Richard Airport more than meters away.

More than 26 tanks and more than 105 infantrymen completed the tactical deployment on a front about 5 meters wide. In the deep zone, the remaining three 75mm howitzers of the th Field Artillery Battalion and nine of the th Marine Regiment The mm howitzers opened fire together.

Now, these few nails that have persisted on the east bank have become an excellent fulcrum for the Ming army's large forces to forcefully cross the Longa River, making the US military's counterattack impossible.

Instead of retreating steadily in the future, it is better to try a desperate counterattack now.

What was guarding this place was just a reinforced platoon from the 5th Battalion of the 2nd Marine Regiment. They were able to hold their position with the full support of the large forces on the west bank.

These are proof of the failure of the 39th regimental combat team in trying to force these "nail households" into the river in the past few days.

But there were also some astute people who chose to dig trenches and hold on, becoming the nails driven into the east bank, and they have been able to persist to this day.

This is the most powerful reserve team that the 39th Regimental Combat Team can produce at the moment. Colonel Wadsworth hates gambling by nature, but he knows that there will always be times when battlefield decisions require a gamble.

In front of a horseshoe-shaped position on the upper reaches of the Longa River were the remains of four tanks, three M2A4 light tanks and one M2 medium tank.

尚能正常运转的16辆M2A1中型坦克和29辆M2A2轻型坦克排开了阵势，与两个状况最佳的步兵连一起向隆加河扑去。

At the end of the offensive a week ago, some officers and soldiers of the 2nd Marine Regiment who were inspired to fight took it upon themselves to cross the river in pursuit with light equipment. Some boldly advanced in depth, and were finally repelled by the U.S. troops who reacted.

The Second Team of the Sixth Battalion, which was the first to cross the river, launched a tentative attack on the enemy in front of them. As a result, they ran into the US 120th Tank Battalion who was launching a counterattack.

Colonel Wadsworth knew that the Longa River was the only terrain advantage he could rely on. If the counterattack failed, there would be no hope of successful defense.

Chen Shuyu, a name that may be mistaken for a woman at first glance, is indeed handsome in person, but he is actually a famous marksman of the Second Marine Regiment. As early as the Battle of Darwin, he won his first merit due to his outstanding performance. Once, he was awarded the third-class Sound Medal.

To be fair, it was indeed unexpected to encounter such a large-scale and powerful counterattack in a short period of time.

In addition, there are dozens of rotting, maggot-wriggling corpses scattered within a fan-shaped area with a radius of 300 meters...

Under the cover of artillery fire, the engineer battalion went into battle collectively and braved the constant sporadic bullets to build pontoon bridges on the Longa River. A total of two light pontoon bridges and a heavy pontoon bridge for tanks or artillery were erected from north to south.

Naturally, the degree of difficulty is not the same if there is someone to respond to it or if there is no one to respond to it.

At the most critical moment, a dozen enemy soldiers rushed to the front of the position, so close that one could see the color of their eyes. However, the Americans suffered heavy casualties in the face of hundreds of steel balls and short steel rods bursting out from the directional mines, and they were full of hatred. And return.

The field artillery group fired three and a half rounds of ammunition in two hours - a total of 80 rounds of 343mm artillery shells and 112 rounds of 252mm artillery shells, completely suppressing any movement of the US defense line on the east coast.

The massive movement of a large number of tanks together gave the demoralized U.S. soldiers a bit of a mental boost.

The Second Team of the Sixth Battalion, which bore the brunt, fought hard with two reinforced recoilless rifles issued and destroyed five tanks in a row. However, the huge flames and smoke when the recoilless rifles fired easily exposed themselves, so they were quickly defeated by the troops who had the numerical advantage. The U.S. military concentrated fire and destroyed it.

The Second Team of the Sixth Battalion was repulsed within twenty minutes, but it also bought a certain amount of reaction time for the follow-up troops.

"Keep going! Don't stop, we can do it!" Major Marcus, the battalion commander, shouted eagerly.

Since the land is still wet, dozens of tanks moving together do not have the dusty oppression. In a sense, this invisibly weakens the power of the counterattack.

The U.S. tank group rushing forward was brave and powerful, but the infantry accompanying the counterattack could not continue to move like this.

As the shells from the Ming army's field artillery group began to fall, the American soldiers had to lie down and find cover nearby, and the formation suddenly became much sparser.

The Ming army, which had just crossed the river, had an unstable foothold, but still used all the anti-tank weapons at hand to deal with the fiercely charging US tanks.

Explosive tubes, anti-tank grenades, rocket launchers, recoilless rifles... The whole battlefield was filled with shouts of killing, and the sounds of metal collisions and engine sounds were intertwined.

The Type 37 combat grenade is a large wooden-handled grenade, which is a rarity for the Ming army who are accustomed to oval-shaped grenades.

When using it, pull out the latch on the projectile, and after throwing it out, the stabilizing umbrella stuffed in the hollow wooden handle will pop out, allowing the grenade to hit the target at an angle.

The destroyed tank burst into flames, and the gasoline fire spread so quickly that in the blink of an eye the entire tank turned into a coffin of crackling flames.

These short-range anti-tank weapons are actually not very efficient, but they can't stand up and are everywhere, which does cause great trouble to the impacting US tanks.

Seeing the melee between the enemy and ourselves, the Tianshi Youyuan carrier-based aircraft formation that came to help the situation circled for several times but did not dare to drop bombs.

The pilots saw it and were anxious in their hearts. By coincidence, they were hit by anti-aircraft machine gun fire from the US second-line positions, so everyone took their anger out on these exposed anti-aircraft machine gun positions. Under the fire of aviation machine guns, the American soldiers were beaten to pieces!

Subsequently, the 12.7mm anti-aircraft machine gun turned into twisted scrap metal in the flames of the bomb explosion, and the entire bunker was covered by rising smoke.

The combat artillery battalion of the 1st Marine Brigade will cross the river as the second echelon of units, so more than a dozen anti-tank guns are still on standby on the west bank.

Seeing that the battle situation was critical, without waiting for Zhou Changfeng to issue an order, the combat artillery battalion immediately deployed on the spot and fired across the Longa River at the US tanks rampaging on the east bank.

Different from the 48mm tank gun, the Type 48 anti-tank gun uses 192×500mm ammunition, which is more powerful and can penetrate a vertically placed 60mm thick rolled nickel-manganese armor steel plate at a distance of m.

This kind of power is enough to deal with most tanks at the moment, and the stuff that the Americans built behind closed doors is even more vulnerable.

The armor-piercing explosive shell easily penetrated the 2mm thick armor on the front of the M1A51 medium tank body. The bottom fuse took effect on time after completing the penetration. The shell exploded inside the car body, killing or injuring six crew members.

The hit tank emitted black smoke from the gaps in the observation window and hatch cover, and still rushed forward for more than ten meters before stopping.

Suddenly, firework-like flames shot out from the turret seat ring and the top hatch, leaping several meters away. Nearly two hundred artillery shells and more than a hundred gallons of gasoline exploded together, turning the entire tank into an automatically cremated steel coffin. !

The 120th Tank Battalion, which was out of touch with the infantry, suffered huge losses. The fierce battle continued until 12:15 noon. The tank battalion, which was destroyed and injured two-thirds of its tanks, had to retreat.

The two infantry companies that coordinated the counterattack were equally unlucky. The Ming army's artillery fire never stopped from beginning to end, and aircraft in the sky swooped and fired from time to time.

They did not take any effective action at all during the two-hour counterattack. The recorded results were only 25, but they themselves suffered 111 casualties or missing.

The Second Marine Regiment that forcibly crossed the Longa River also suffered a lot of casualties. There were 254 casualties, including 72 officers and soldiers killed in action, but most of them were caused while fighting bravely with US tanks.

The design of US military tanks is conservative and mediocre, and they can be equipped with too many machine guns - the M2A1 medium tank has as many as 7! This makes it very difficult for the Ming Army Marine Infantry to attack them.

Because of this, the officers and soldiers of the Second Marine Regiment are even more disdainful of the U.S. Army.

The performance of the American infantry that cooperated with the tank troops was extremely poor, timid, clumsy, and slow in action.

As long as they can be more active and brave, I am afraid that today's operation to forcibly cross the Longa River will end in failure.

"Looking at it this way, the U.S. Army and Marines can be said to be completely different."

Zhao Hanfeng had heard about the bloody battle of the Marine Regiment in Edson Heights, and Zhou Changfeng also told him in detail.

However, the performance of the US Army's 39th Regimental Combat Team in front of him was so indescribable that Zhao Hanfeng could not believe that there was such a big gap between the armies of the same country.

"This is a formidable enemy. According to common sense, such a strong army should be given the best treatment, the most sophisticated weapons, and used as elite strikers." Zhu Lizhuo was also puzzled. He pointed On the battlefield in the distance where the smoke has just dissipated, "these army soldiers and horses all use semi-automatic rifles. They are so luxurious, but they are of little use."

"It can be considered a good thing. The enemy's mistakes are my blessing." Zhao Hanfeng let out a long sigh of relief.

Zhou Changfeng, who was mysteriously calm, muttered: "We must be more cautious in the future. If we find out that the opponent is a Marine Corps, we must try our best to ensure superior strength and firepower, otherwise we will definitely suffer a loss."

To be honest, everyone has some strange emotions.

They are also the Marine Corps. The Ming Army Marine Corps is affiliated to the Ming Dynasty Navy. It is not an independent service. It enjoys a higher level of treatment than the Army. The weapons and equipment, food and salary are all the envy of the Army officers and soldiers.

On the other hand, the U.S. Marine Corps, the most difficult enemy it has encountered so far since the beginning of the war, as an independent service, achieved brilliant glory in the European War. The officers and soldiers trained hard and had excellent military quality, but they used backward weapons and equipment.

the next day.

The D-42 Squadron received reinforcements from two ammunition supply ships in the past two days and replenished a batch of ammunition, so it was finally able to start shelling support on the shore again.

Xiong Zhuguo believes that the US military on Guadalcanal is at the end of its rope and will collapse soon, and will definitely retreat eastwards.

Therefore, he ordered the light cruiser Luohe to lead three destroyers to the waters near Dawujiao in the east, preparing to wait and beat the American troops who retreated when the time came.

This decision was approved by Zhou.

Days of fighting have reduced the remaining supplies, especially ammunition, of the First Marine Brigade to a dangerous level - the infantry weapons still have about two bases on average, and the artillery only has one base left.

The transport fleet setting off from Rabaul was ambushed by a US submarine. One of the merchant ships was sunk. The transport fleet would not arrive until the day after tomorrow.

Five of the fourteen Type 38A medium tanks in the brigade's combat convoy were completely destroyed, and another three could not be completely repaired due to lack of spare parts. Currently, only six tanks are left that can be put into combat.

"As the same saying goes, it's difficult for us, but it's even more difficult for the enemy. Let's drive them away with all our strength!"

After summarizing the confessions of the US military prisoners, Zhou Changfeng was convinced that the enemy in person would never be able to resist, and finally decided to let the exhausted troops continue to fight and crush the final resistance of the US military on Guadalcanal with the end of a powerful crossbow.

At dawn, 6 Type 15 medium tanks and Type amphibious tanks lined up in the usual right ladder formation, launching an attack eastward together with two battalions of more than Marine infantry.

In order to build momentum, Zhou Changfeng ordered all power trolleys using single-cylinder diesel engines to be brought to the front line, start the engines and follow behind the tanks.

The roar made by dozens of trolleys was no less than that of a tank, especially the loud chug of the single-cylinder diesel engine.

The sky was twilight, and the American soldiers huddled in the foxholes heard more noise than before. The sound of engines coming like a flood was frightening.

Colonel Wadsworth had ordered a retreat to the east as planned, but the partial fall of Edson Heights added huge trouble to the retreat. The Ming army used anti-aircraft guns and recoilless rifles on Hill 92 to fire at the U.S. forces in the north, seriously disrupting the retreat. order.

Explosions were heard one after another from the aircraft bunkers around Richard Airport, and fire suddenly appeared. It was U.S. military engineers blowing up intact aircraft.

"Sir, sir, bad news!" A second lieutenant rushed to the headquarters in panic and reported to Wadsworth: "Chinese ships appeared in the sea at Dawu Cape."

(End of this chapter)