The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 143 Cooperation with the Air Force

After the interview, He Wei had a good meal first. When he was about to return to his position, he was called to the conference room by Li Mo'an. In the conference room, apart from Li Mo'an, He Wei also saw Fu Zhaoqian, the acting chief of staff of the No. 14 Army. He Wei then stood at attention. Salute and say hello to the two officers.

Li Mo'an asked He Wei to sit down and said: "I discussed the battle situation with the chief of staff just now. You are the ones on the front line of the [-]th Division now. What do you need? Ammunition or supplies? If you need anything, just ask. I’ll try to supplement it for you.”

"There is really nothing we can do about the lack of men. Xinkou's units have suffered huge casualty shortfalls in the past few days, and there are no decent replacement soldiers to make up for it. The soldiers may not be able to make up for you."

Fu Zhaoqian then added.

He Wei thought about what he lacked now. To be honest, there is not much shortage of ammunition at the moment. There are enough grenades and [-]-caliber bullets. In today's battle, the most consumed items are actually artillery shells. [-]-caliber mountain bullets are enough. Cannonballs.

"Sir, we mainly rely on artillery fire to fight today. The ammunition consumption of infantry firearms is not large, but the loss of 75mm mountain artillery shells is a lot. It would be nice if you could replenish some for us."

"This is not under our control. We are an infantry unit. The ordnance and ammunition we receive are various infantry firearms. The independent artillery unit assigned to you for combat is under their own control. Their ammunition is under their own control. I will go and ask the Fifth Artillery Regiment later. Commander Shi, ask him to replenish artillery shells for the artillery battalion assigned to your operations as soon as possible." Fu Zhaoqian said.

"Anything else you need to add?"

Li Mo'an said.

He Wei really couldn't think of it for a while, but this time he didn't want to go back empty-handed. There was no shortage of ammunition, so let's get some explosives and go back. It would also be good to use the [-] blasting method to build a few flying thunder cannon positions.

"Sir, please give us some more explosives."

"no problem."

Li Mo'an readily agreed, and then changed the topic to combat.

"You also suffered a lot of casualties today. Do you need additional troops and support? In fact, it is the troops of your regiment that are fighting these days. Other units of the [-]th Division have not engaged the Japanese army. If the troops are needed, they will go to the front line. Filling in defenses and increasing troops is not a big problem. I have talked with Commander Peng Jieru of your [-]th Division, and at least two battalions of mobile troops can be mobilized to reinforce your Yanzhuang position."

"Absolutely not!"

He Wei immediately rejected Li Mo'an's proposal.

"As far as the Yanzhuang position is concerned, the current strength is sufficient. If more troops are added, it will cause heavy casualties. The Japanese army has very strong firepower, especially large-caliber heavy artillery. According to my estimation, the size of its artillery force is at least one brigade. , and is equipped with a 150 mm class large-caliber heavy artillery. The power of the enemy's heavy artillery has initially emerged in today's battle. The entire village of Yanzhuang was destroyed by the Japanese artillery fire. If we add more troops to the front-line positions , that is increasing the lethality efficiency of Japanese artillery fire."

Li Mo'an and Fu Zhaoqian were silent, seeming to be thinking about He Wei's words.

"Is the enemy's artillery really that strong? Can the two battalions of artillery assigned to you destroy the Japanese artillery and conduct a counter-artillery operation?"

Chief of Staff Fu asked.

"Chief of Staff, don't think about this. With the tactics and technical level of our army's artillery, it is more difficult to carry out counter-artillery operations. Our army does not have enough useful observation methods and observation equipment, and artillery operations all rely on the ground. Visual observations by observers revealed that the combat distance was extremely limited. The most critical point was that the enemy's 150 mm caliber heavy artillery had a greater range than our army's artillery. Although the Jin-made 1 field artillery assigned to our unit had a range of more than [-] meters , but the artillery shooting technology of the Shanxi-Sui Army is backward, and the Bofors Mountain Cannon equipped by our Central Army’s artillery is less than [-] meters, so it is almost impossible to use artillery to destroy the enemy’s artillery.”

"However, it is still possible to take out the enemy's artillery eyes, but we infantry can't do it either."

Hearing what He Wei said, Li Mo'an asked: "The eyes of the enemy artillery?"

"Today, the enemy artillery dispatched a school launch balloon before opening fire. This equipment is a large hydrogen balloon. The balloon is placed in the sky and a high-magnification large telescope is installed on the balloon. It can provide an unobstructed view of tens of thousands of meters in all directions. , the Japanese artillery observers rose into the air in balloons, and used telephones to communicate with the artillery positions. In this way, they could direct the artillery fire based on the observation in mid-air. With this thing, the Japanese artillery could achieve precise accuracy. Shooting, and can accurately observe the deployment of our army's troops and weapons."

"All movements of our army are under the control of the Japanese army. We suffered a loss today. The third battalion of our regiment, which was hiding in Zhuangzi, had actually withdrawn from Zhuangzi in advance. However, it was because of the precise artillery fire of the Japanese army that the retreating team The tail of the team was hit by several artillery shells, and many brothers died. If the Japanese army's school-launched balloons were destroyed, the power of the Japanese artillery would be greatly weakened, and the Japanese army would not be able to observe the mobilization of our troops."

"Can the heavy machine gun shoot down?" Li Mo'an asked with a frown.

He Wei shook his head: "Our army's Jinling-made 36-[-] heavy machine guns cannot hit even if they are equipped with anti-aircraft rods. One is that the [-]-caliber bullets are not lethal enough, and the other is that the distance is too far and there is no way to get close." "Military Commander, why don't you try small artillery? A small artillery company from the [-]th Division came from Nanjing not long ago. That company has six [-]mm small-caliber anti-aircraft guns. How about using this thing? I will coordinate." Fu Zhaoqian said. .

Not long ago, in order to strengthen the air defense and anti-tank capabilities of the Xinkou garrison, the Central Government specially transported the regiment-affiliated artillery company of the 30th Regiment of the Army No. [-] Sixth Division from Shaanxi to Xinkou. This company was equipped with six guns. The Breda [-]mm caliber machine gun made in Italy is a small machine gun of this caliber, commonly known as a small cannon in the Chinese army. It can be used for both anti-aircraft and horizontal fire. It also has anti-tank and anti-aircraft capabilities.

It is a tragedy that a large corps with tens of thousands of people can only rely on six small-caliber machine guns for air defense tasks.

"I remember that the shooting height of both the Soloton type and the Italian Breda 2000 cannon is 500 meters. The shooting height is enough, but the horizontal shooting distance cannot exceed [-] meters. Our position and the enemy school The distance between the shooting balloons far exceeds this value, I'm afraid, I'm afraid it's beyond our capabilities."

After He Wei finished speaking, everyone fell silent. For a moment, they were helpless against the Japanese army's school-launched balloons. They looked at Li Mo'an and then at Fu Zhaoqian. After He Wei was silent for a minute, he spoke at the right time and said A somewhat bold idea.

"Sir, actually, there is still a way, that is, the scope involved is relatively large..."

Li Mo'an said: "If you have any ideas, please tell me."

He Wei added: "Actually, the best way to attack school-launched balloons is medium and large-caliber anti-aircraft guns and fighter jets. Our army does not have suitable anti-aircraft artillery, but we can try to contact the Air Force and ask the Air Force to use aircraft to take them down. The Japanese army's school balloons Balloon shooting is actually a very backward equipment. It just bullies us because our equipment is too poor. However, fighter jets are flexible and the large-caliber machine guns equipped on the aircraft can easily attack school-shooting balloons. If the Air Force can dispatch and fight, I think it is completely It can be solved easily.”

As soon as He Wei said these words, the army commander and chief of staff fell silent. After all, this matter was of great importance and involved the coordination of the army and air force. However, He Wei did not hold out much hope. Moreover, with the current tactical level of the national army, , the coordination between the Air Force and the Army was very poor. Basically, each fought its own battles. This kind of coordinated tactics has almost never been used.

In addition, communication and coordination are also problems. After all, it involves two services. As far as He Wei knows, the main force and the most advanced fighters of the National Army Air Force are currently concentrated in the Songhu area and remain in North China. All the fighter planes are old and backward models. The air power of the National Army in North China can only be said to be better than nothing.

"Chief of Staff, please contact the Air Force and ask them if they can launch an attack tomorrow to shoot the Japanese military's school-launched balloons?"

After a while, Li Mo'an seemed to have made up his mind to fight for his troops and said to Fu Zhaoqian.

"Commander, let me contact you first to see what's going on with the Air Force."

Fu Zhaoqian quickly left to contact Taiyuan, leaving behind the uneasy He Wei and Li Mo'an. The two stayed in the conference room, quietly waiting for news from Taiyuan. Although they were trying their best, neither of them actually had any intention. What hope do you have? In fact, although the Chinese Air Force in North China is weak, it has been attacking. It just fights its own way with the Army. As far as the Air Force itself is concerned, there is no decent or thorough plan.

The tense wait yielded unexpected results. An hour later, the chief of staff brought back a piece of news that surprised both of them - the Air Force agreed to cooperate with the Army and asked the Army to provide coordination methods and At the same time, the Air Force unexpectedly came up with the idea of ​​conducting ground bombings on nearby Japanese troops to support the Army's operations.

Li Mo'an immediately asked He Wei to come up with a way to coordinate with the Air Force. He Wei had to rush into the air and find a temporary solution. If the plane took off from Taiyuan Airport, it would not take much time to fly to Xinkou, and the Japanese military's school-launched balloons, whether The process of releasing it into the air or descending and recovering it is extremely complicated. Once it is attacked by a fighter plane, there is no way to avoid it, and it will be a living target.

Therefore, He Wei believes that as long as the radio is used for communication, once the enemy's school launch balloon is discovered, the Sixth Company will immediately notify the Tenth Division via the radio station, and the Tenth Division will immediately forward the notification to the No. 14 Army Headquarters. The No. 14 Army Headquarters then forwarded it to Taiyuan Airport, and notified it step by step. Although it was cumbersome and time-consuming, it was enough to deal with the bulky school launch balloons.

Based on the current technical conditions of the national army, He Wei's approach is already the only option for air-to-air coordination. Without an air contact radio station, this is the only option.

As for the ground attack, it is necessary to indicate the target to the artillery. There are not many methods to choose from. The only way is to use the artillery to fire smoke grenades to calibrate the target. Therefore, He Wei quickly sorted out the general regulations. Li Mo'an immediately handed over the draft to the staff and forwarded it to Taiyuan Airport. A hastily determined air-to-air coordinated combat plan was finalized. As for what the fight will look like tomorrow, no one knows.

After finalizing everything, He Wei did not stop any longer. Accompanied by the adjutant director, he went to the ammunition depot near the military headquarters and applied for additional explosives. The replenishment was very generous. There were six carriages in total.

The adjutant chief also brought good news, that is, a batch of 75mm Bofors artillery shells just allocated by the central government had just arrived. They were transported by train from Taiyuan overnight. After learning that He Wei wanted to replenish the mountain artillery shells, The adjutant director directly handed over this batch of [-] rounds of mountain artillery shells to He Wei. He was also very good at supplying additional supplies of [-]-step machine shells and grenades for a carriage of He Wei, and dispatched troops from the military headquarters. A platoon escorted He Wei all the way back to the sixth company's position. After some operations, He Wei couldn't help but sigh, no wonder he became the director of the Adjutant Division!
. . . . . .
After returning to the position, He Wei did not rest. He first replenished this batch of mountain artillery shells to Cao Huiguo's mountain artillery camp. When Cao Huiguo saw this batch of mountain artillery shells, he felt like he had found a treasure. In today's battle, the Bofors Mountain artillery camp first attacked It wiped out the Japanese cavalry squadron, and then participated in the artillery bombardment of the Japanese infantry. The mountain artillery shells it carried were almost exhausted. Each mountain gun had only a dozen blasting grenades left. Now these thousand new rounds have arrived. The replenishment of artillery shells solved the urgent need of the mountain artillery camp.

After delivering the shells to the mountain artillery battalion, He Wei called out all the brothers in the company without stopping. The six carts of explosives he brought could not be brought back in vain. In fact, He Wei kept thinking about a question on the way. He was in Yan The position outside Zhuang has fought bloody battles with the Japanese army for such a long time. With the strength currently in hand, it is already the limit to be able to hold on to this point. The potential of the army's combat effectiveness has almost been exhausted. The Japanese army's breakthrough of the main position today is the best example. The combat effectiveness of an army has its limits, and so does the defensive strength of a position.

He Wei doesn't know what the Japanese attack will be like tomorrow, but it will definitely be stronger than today's attack. The position has been breached in today's battle, and tomorrow's battle is bound to be more brutal. If nothing else, it is the flames in the hands of the Japanese army. I can't even release the injector.

Now is the time and it is necessary to make the final preparations, that is, the preparations for the same fate. The six trucks of explosives brought in, together with the remaining explosives, as well as the explosive blocks and blasting tubes seized from the Japanese army, infantry artillery shells and grenades, All the grenades were ordered by He Wei to be buried at the bottom corners of the traffic trenches throughout the position. Each explosive point where explosives were buried was connected to the detonator with an electric fuse. As long as the detonator was pressed to detonate, the entire position would be destroyed.

Now that things have come to this, He Wei must make final preparations.

(End of this chapter)