The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 112 Bofors Mountain Cannon

Behind the Sixth Company's position, in front of Yanzhuang

With people shouting and horses neighing and dust flying, a fully-organized 75mm Bofors Mountain Artillery Battery came over in a mighty manner. Maybe He Wei had been working in the infantry, and his understanding of the number of people in a company-level unit was just that, but This mountain artillery company shocked it. The column of artillery ammunition and luggage of a company stretched for half a kilometer.

Artillery battalion commander Cao Huiguo looked at his subordinates who were approaching, pointed at the mighty troops with pride, and said to He Wei: "The artillery is no better than your infantry, they just rely on their feet and have a lot of baggage and baggage. My artillery company, The company headquarters alone has 17 people, as well as a 19-person communications squad, a 34-person Little Donkey Ammunition Team, a large baggage team, and a small baggage team of nearly 40 people. The battle artillery team has organized two artillery platoons with a total of 93 people. , the total number of officers and soldiers in the company is [-]."

"It's really a strong army, but I think the number of people is probably much more than that."

He Wei said.

Cao Huiguo said: "Yes, brother, you have good eyesight. In wartime, each of my artillery companies will add an ammunition team and a light machine gun squad. Each ammunition team will add ten soldiers, and each artillery will add two guns." workhorse."

On average, a company of four Bofors 75mm mountain guns requires more than 50 people to serve each one.

The marching column of an artillery company was indeed spectacular, stretching for half a kilometer. Four Swedish-made Bofors 75mm mountain guns, pulled by dozens of mules and horses, slowly drove to the rear of the sixth company's position. A lieutenant and a company attached quickly ran over, saluted Cao Huiguo, and said: "Report to the battalion commander, the fourth artillery company has been ordered to bring him!"

Cao Huiguo nodded and said to the company: "This is Platoon Commander He. He is now the acting commander of the infantry company. He is the front-line infantry commander and a student of the eleventh phase of the military academy."

The company saw that He Wei was a lieutenant and saluted He Wei.

"Platoon Commander He, I am a lieutenant attached to the Fourth Artillery Company and a student of the tenth batch of the military academy."

He Wei immediately returned the gift, damn, this is another senior.

"Hello, senior!"

After spending a morning with people from the artillery company, He Wei found out that basically every officer he met was from the Whampoa Military Academy, and the graduates were undoubtedly higher than his expectations, so regardless of their military rank, it would be a problem. I have to call you senior. This lieutenant company did not follow Cao Huiguo and others to the defensive position of the [-]th company in advance. In a Bofors Mountain artillery battery, the person who is usually responsible for troop training and directing daily marches is not the company commander, but the company commander. He was a lieutenant attached to the company, so the company commander and platoon leader could come to the sixth company's position to enjoy a sumptuous breakfast. However, this lieutenant attached could only lead the company on the march.

"Connect with your company commander immediately and start building artillery positions and company command posts!"

After giving the order, the incoming artillery battery immediately began to move. In order to increase the speed of construction, He Wei did not just watch, but mobilized the first platoon that had rested all night last night to assist the artillery unit under the command of Battalion Commander Cao Huiguo. As a result, the rear of the Sixth Company's position was quickly crowded with busy artillery and infantry. Since there was flat ground everywhere, the artillery had no ready-made shelter positions, so they could only get sandbags for the infantry to pile up the fortifications. Artillery was placed in front of the position to provide cover.

Although it was an artillery company, the actual artillery position to be constructed was actually the size of two artillery battalions. The workload was really not small, and it was here that He Wei came into close contact with the famous Bofors for the first time. Mountain cannon, a thick cannon, a downward-curved arc-shaped artillery shield, a fine sight, a heavy and powerful artillery frame, dark green camouflage, a shiny pitch handwheel and height machine, and that exquisite hydraulic The muzzle brake and the gun body all exuded a cold and murderous aura.

Although He Wei's physical body has been in the Central Military Academy for three years, and according to the training requirements of the Officer School, students studying infantry must also have a certain understanding of communications, artillery, cavalry and other subjects. In the Nanjing Military Academy, I once followed students from the artillery department to pull cannons and go out to fight in the field, but I only took a cursory look and had a brief taste. At most, I only saw a few such mountain cannons at close range accompanied by the artillery department instructor of the military school.

The unit price of this kind of artillery is only 130 U.S. dollars, which is 96 yuan, and each shell costs [-] U.S. dollars. The country spent huge sums of money and only purchased a total of [-] two guns. The main equipment was for the [-]st Artillery Brigade and The four artillery regiments of the Second Artillery Brigade have [-] guns. The teaching corps and the artillery battalion of the Fourth Army Division are each equipped with [-] guns. In addition to those equipped for field troops, the Army Artillery College also received eight guns, which are used to train junior officers. The Nanjing Huangpu Military Academy was only allocated a company of four artillery pieces for students' daily teaching exercises.

He Wei still remembers that when he was a field instructor at the Nanjing Central Military Academy, his group of infantry students were asked to learn basic artillery knowledge. A classmate from the infantry department secretly took a look at the sight of the artillery. The instructor in charge was furious when he discovered it. Angry, he ordered everyone to squat on the spot as punishment, and then said something that He Wei still remembers vividly.

"Your lives are not worth this cannon!"

Yes, in China, which is poor and weak, the life of a junior reserve officer trained in a military academy is probably not as good as an artillery piece, and what is more expensive is not just the majestic cannon, but even the observation of the artillery. Equipment, students studying on campus are also absolutely untouchable!

The troops equipped with the Bofors Mountain Cannon are equipped with a full set of equipment imported from Germany, ranging from the platoon commander and company commander's telescope to the Zeiss telemeter, Zeiss artillery team scope, Zeiss theodolite, and steering wheel, all of which are valuable imported from Germany. Equipment, a steering wheel alone costs as much as [-] oceans, and a Czech light machine gun imported from the Czech Republic only costs [-] oceans.

This is the bitter fact. The precious imported artillery equipment is worth more than the lives of military students!

Under the calm chants of the gunners and the command of the officers, the four mountain guns were pushed into the excavated artillery shelter. The four artillery were placed horizontally at an interval of 25 meters, forming an artillery battery position with a frontal distance of 100 meters. Then, the communication squad of the artillery company began to set up telephones and establish a communication network. The observation squad, under the command of the observer, began to open the observation post of the artillery company. The officers and soldiers of the ammunition team wielded shovels and picks to build an ammunition depot for storing artillery shells.

The light machine gun squad of the artillery company that was temporarily added during the war dug up a light machine gun shooting position with the help of the infantry platoon of the sixth company. The task of this light machine gun squad was to protect the artillery company and resist enemy infantry and cavalry attacks. Attack and harassment, equipped with a total of two Czech light machine guns.

All work is proceeding in an orderly manner.

Since there is currently no shooting mission, the officers and soldiers of the battle artillery squad set up wooden frames around the arranged artillery, and spread out a camouflage net covered with leaves and loess.

Walking to a Bofors Mountain Cannon, a sergeant squad leader who was setting up a camouflage net saw a lieutenant approaching and immediately ran over to salute: "Hello, sir."

He Wei smiled and waved, jumped into the shooting fortification, gently stroked the cold barrel, kept rubbing it, and then cranked up the height machine and the hand wheel. After playing with it for a while, the sergeant still wanted to get on. He stepped forward to stop him, but was stopped by a lieutenant platoon leader with a smile. He was also a Huangpu student. He also understood that infantry science students like He Wei were curious about the artillery itself. He might also have remembered all the interesting things about the artillery and infantry science students during the military academy. , there was also a knowing smile on his face, and all of them stopped the squad leader who wanted to stop him.

"Sir, our battalion commander invites you to come." He Wei was in the mood for fun when a soldier suddenly ran over. When he learned that Cao Huiguo was calling him, He Wei immediately ran to the field command post of the fourth artillery company. Cao Huiguo, who had just finished observing in front of the artillery mirror, pointed to the map on the table and said to He Wei: "The company I brought here has been laid out and ready for test firing. What do you infantry think?"

He Wei was a little surprised and said, "So fast?"

Cao Huiguo nodded: "That's the advantage of flat terrain. It's fast to set up positions, and it's convenient for test firing and observation. The commander of the fourth company has already gone up with the observation team and map. The map measured overnight yesterday is not accurate enough. It's still there now." If a supplementary test is needed, a call will be made shortly to organize a test firing. It is up to you infantrymen to decide what target to hit."

Cao Huiguo further explained: "The Bofors Mountain artillery battery operations rely entirely on observation and geodesy. During the operation, only two platoon commanders are left on the shooting position to listen to the phone. The company commander and the observer must carry the artillery mirror and steering wheel. Before going out, everything depends on the observation station. Let me introduce the situation to you again. The maximum visual observation distance of observers using German Zeiss artillery scopes and German-made [-]-type steering wheels is five kilometers. We have no calibration. The observation plane used does not have the large balloons of the Japanese, and five kilometers is already the limit."

He Wei asked: "As for the artillery test firing, I am worried about one thing. The Japanese artillery on the opposite side is not a vegetarian. The artillery test firing will inevitably expose the target. If it is discovered by the Japanese, once the Japanese artillery determines our artillery position, We conduct counter-artillery fire in a certain direction, what will we do then?”

Cao Huiguo seemed to have been prepared: "With such a long distance, it is impossible for the enemy to discover my artillery position."

"Then what if we observe the explosion point of the cannonball?"

"Don't worry, this has been taken into consideration. We won't be using ordinary bombs for the test in a while. We will use training bombs. That thing will not explode after landing, nor will it explode into billowing smoke. At most, it will stir up a pile of dirt. Ash."

"Coach bombs?...Can those things work?"

He Wei asked.

Cao Huiguo nodded with certainty and suddenly laughed obscenely: "Of course, not only can it be test-fired, but the training ammunition can also be used for combat."

He Wei was very puzzled and said: "I would like to hear the details."

The artillery company commander who led the observation team had not called yet. While there was still time, Cao Huiguo was willing to tell He Wei some artillery allusions.

It turns out that during the "Fujian Revolution" at the end of 1933, the 75mm Bofors Mountain Artillery had already participated in the battle. The 1nd Battalion of the 2st Independent Artillery Regiment equipped with the new artillery set out from the Tongguang Barracks in Nanjing, was loaded in Nanjing and transported by rail to Quzhou, and then Walking south in the mountains, they walked more than 100 kilometers of mountain roads to march towards Nanping. During the attack on Nanping, they discovered that the mountain artillery shells they carried were not ammunition with lethal effects, but training shells with sand and cement in the warheads.

In desperation, the artillery battalion had no other choice but to fire directly with training bombs to cover the infantry attack on Nanping City. As a result, after firing more than 30 training bombs, the defenders in Nanping City surrendered directly!

After hearing this, He Wei was also amazed.

Suddenly, the phone rang, Cao Huiguo immediately ran to answer the call, and then handed the phone to He Wei.

"Hey, hey, is this Lieutenant He?"

The voice of the commander of the fourth artillery company came over the phone.

He Wei hurriedly replied: "It's me, sir. What's the situation now?"

"I led the observation team three kilometers in front of your infantry position. There are many corpses of Japanese soldiers nearby. They are all rotten and smelly. I can only move forward here. I may encounter Japanese infantry as I move forward. My ultimate observation distance is five kilometers. From my position, for you, the current best shooting range of artillery is within eight kilometers. How do you want to shoot?"

Eight kilometers, the maximum range of the Bofors 75mm mountain gun with strong charge is 75 meters, which means that at the current optimal shooting distance of eight kilometers, the artillery can fully achieve full coverage. But in actual combat, the sixth company's The main fire battle area was three kilometers in front of the position. He thought about the combat performance of the Bofors [-]mm mountain gun. After thinking for a moment, He Wei spoke again.

"Sir, as far as I know, the minimum gap of the Bofors Mountain Cannon when firing can be 25 meters. The fire range in front of my position is three kilometers. The killing radius of the Bofors explosive grenade is 130 meters. I think Divide these three kilometers into thirty shooting areas with 100 meters as the boundary, and test fire in each shooting area with a gap of 25 meters. Is it possible for artillery to do this?"

"There is no problem. The accuracy of the Bofors Mountain Cannon is very high and it can be achieved. It's just that the two or three kilometers in front of your obstacle area are not going to be used as a shooting area?"

"You have to be able to see it if you want to fight. This is anti-infantry shooting. Your observation post must be withdrawn. The maximum observation limit of the artillery scope is five kilometers. Now that it has been tested, it can block and harass the Japanese army. , but our army’s artillery shells are limited, and I don’t want to use precious artillery shells for harassment shooting.”

The artillery company commander on the other side of the phone was very determined to fight, and said: "After we retreat, I can still see the first two kilometers of the position. It's best to attack. Bofors' test firing speed is not slow."

Since the artillery company commander said so, He Wei didn't waste any words: "Thank you, sir."

After hanging up the phone, the communication between the infantry and the artillery ended. One minute later, a loud noise came from the artillery array not far away. As a 1mm training round flew out of the gun barrel, the test firing of this company's artillery began. , and this unfolds.

(End of this chapter)