The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 19 Machine Guns and Fortifications

"Hello, sir, I have been ordered to bring the heavy machine gun platoon here and follow the command of the officer."

The leader of the machine gun platoon who led the team was an old second lieutenant in his 30s, with a set of brand-new second lieutenant collar badges hanging on his old military uniform. The platoon leader’s surname was Wang. He had an unimpressive appearance and looked very honest. He was an old machine gunner from Shandong. He was originally the sergeant squad leader of a machine gun company. He was promoted to second lieutenant platoon leader shortly after the previous platoon leader was killed in action.

Because he was a newly promoted sergeant, his mentality and habits were still that of a soldier, and he was ordered by Fu Chen to be under the command of He Wei. Therefore, although his military rank was the same as that of He Wei, as a second lieutenant platoon leader, he still subconsciously He Wei is called "sir" with the mentality of a soldier.

Platoon leader Wang reported to He Wei in a row of trenches. Next to He Wei's feet, two machine guns with gun bodies and tripods simply assembled were placed aside. Next to them were several wooden wooden chains with bullet chains attached. Made of ammunition boxes, two cooling wooden water tanks with rubber tubes and four or five loose canvas heavy machine gun cartridge belts, copper-yellow [-]-point heavy machine gun bullets were inserted into the dark green canvas cartridge belts.

After taking a look at the soldiers in this platoon, He Wei estimated that there were less than thirty people in their early thirties.

He Wei: "Platoon Commander Wang, your platoon is only thirty years old. Did you have casualties just now? How many people did you bring?"

"Sir, I have excluded these two heavy machine guns. I also brought [-] rounds of heavy machine gun bullets, including [-] rounds of ordinary heavy-pointed bullets, [-] rounds of steel-core bullets for fighting tanks, and [-] rounds of tracer bullets. , four boxes of cooling water, and the ammunition soldier also carried ten Zhongzheng rifles, thirty grenades, eight military shovels, and six pickaxes."

"Um"

He Wei groaned, squatting down and putting his hands on the heavy machine gun at his feet. The gun body is short and thick. The front half of the gun body is a cylindrical water-cooling sleeve. The muzzle is opened at the front of the cooling water barrel, above it. There is a circular flame shield hanging on it. On the top and right side of the gun body at the rear, there are mottled charging handle handwheels, thin iron chains, disassembly buttons and front sights, and bullet feeding ports. At the end of the gun body are two vertical handles. Hand-shaped shooting handle.

Engraved on the top of the gun is the factory emblem of Jinling Arsenal and the factory number - 14514. Next to the factory number is a set of words: "Type [-]"

These two machine guns are the current standard equipment of the heavy machine gun company of the National Army Adjustment Division Battalion—the 24-year-old Republic of China heavy machine guns produced by Jinling Arsenal.

1934年（中华民国23年），金陵兵工厂取得了德国7.92mm 08式马克沁重机枪的工作图纸。随即按图纸开始仿制，于1935年（民国24年）仿制成功并正式出品。

The total weight of the gun is 49kg, the frame weighs 29kg, the gun body weighs 20kg, the gun body length is 895mm, the theoretical rate of fire is 600 rounds per minute, and a 100-round or 250-round ammunition belt is used as the ammunition supply method.

In the German adjustment division, each infantry battalion is equipped with a total of six machine gun companies.

"Yes, a good gun." Hearing He Wei praise this machine gun, Platoon Commander Wang grinned.

"Sir, don't worry. There is always something wrong with this gun when it is fired, but with us here, it will never fail to fire. You can arrange it wherever you want and hit it wherever you want, just give me your orders."

"Platoon Leader Wang doesn't need to call me "Sir". You and I have the same military rank, and you have served in the military for much longer than me. Logically speaking, I should call you "Old Squad Leader". You can just call me Platoon Leader He. But since Platoon Leader Wang said this, then where do you think the heavy machine guns should be placed?"

He Wei asked, but he was actually a little curious and wanted to take a test. He wanted to see how an officer with an old sergeant background would choose a combat method, and what are his usual tactics?
Platoon Leader Wang thought for a while and said: "Follow the usual way of fighting, find a place to build a shooting position in the trench, place two machine guns in the repaired machine gun position, and wait for the Japanese to come. When you see the Japanese, they will fire fiercely. , fight with them, fight with them, just be careful with the enemy's cannons, that's what the officials teach you."

"Platoon Leader Wang, if we fight like this, your two machine guns may not be able to fire many bullets before they have to be scrapped." He Wei said with a disappointed bitter smile.

Indeed, according to Platoon Leader Wang's style of play, the Japanese army's 10mm grenade launchers, Type [-] [-]mm infantry cannon, [-] level artillery, and close-range mountain artillery will all form a fixed machine gun position for continuous firing. A deadly threat, once the Japanese army starts attacking, they may not be able to hold on for even [-] minutes!
The layout of a heavy machine gun position is the best reflection of the current lack of tactical literacy in the national army, even though He Wei is in the Central Army Adjustment Division at the forefront of the Chinese army!
Platoon leader Wang's shooting skills and heavy machine gun repair and maintenance level may be very strong, but his tactics and combat methods for using heavy machine guns are not to be praised. Although there is a slight attack on the Japanese army's artillery fire against heavy machine guns There are precautions, but the consciousness and understanding are still too weak and insufficient. He is a sergeant who is stronger in technology but weaker in tactics, but he is by no means a qualified officer. He is an officer promoted from soldiers and has not received formal education in a military school. Therefore, Tactically it is not enough. "Platoon Leader He, then..."

He Wei waved his hand to interrupt and stood up. "Platoon Commander Wang, since you obey my command, you will fight as I say, right?" He Wei's tone left no room for doubt.

"Yes! We will do whatever Platoon Leader He tells us to do!"

Platoon Leader Wang showed extremely high obedience. Like most soldiers in the national army, he did whatever his superiors asked him to do. This may be the greatest advantage of these honest soldiers.

"Tao Heiwa, here's the order, the squad leaders and deputy squad leaders are here for a meeting!" While chatting with Platoon Leader Wang, He Wei had actually been thinking about it, and already had an idea of ​​how to reinforce a platoon's position.

It would be simple to reinforce a platoon's position, which would increase its ability to resist artillery fire and reserve more combat power for the platoon when the Japanese infantry rushes over during the next attack.

The current defensive position, which is more than 200 meters long, is not a qualified defensive position at all in He Wei's opinion. There are problems everywhere. Not to mention, there is not even a breast wall tamped with soil outside the trench, just a simple sandbag. Stacked in a circle, there are big holes.

Not to mention trenches, cliff holes, observation bunkers and simple bomb shelters as well as various covering and shielding operations. As for various shooting equipment and fortifications, horizontal firing equipment, longitudinal firing equipment, ammunition discharge stations, traffic trenches, and trench anti-aircraft Concealing operations, covering materials, differentiated security on the left and right lines of the position, and obstacles that should be piled up in front of the position, such as horse-proofing, deer villages, and barbed wire fences, there is nothing, just bare!
The first row of fortifications were barely qualified as simple civil fortifications. They could only be said to be simple fortifications built in a hurry. The soldiers in the trenches lacked good support for shooting, and they also lacked good concealment fortifications. The casualties in the last attack were not large. It was purely due to luck that the focus of the Japanese artillery bombardment was on the rear positions and the villages behind the positions. The shelling intensity on the front row was not strong. Most of the shells fell on the positions behind the row. Otherwise, this row of people would be A bad thing.

But this cannot be blamed on the soldiers in the first platoon. The war situation was really urgent and they did not have the time and energy to strengthen the fortifications.

Before the last round of Japanese attacks, He Wei had just been accidentally shot unconscious by his own people. He was carried back to the position. He had no thought or time to renovate the fortifications. After he woke up, he didn't dig a few shovels when the Japanese artillery shells came over and started the first round of attacks. A round of attacks! How can there be time to reinforce?
In the center of the trench, He Wei squatted on the ground, surrounded by a row of several existing squad leaders and deputy squad leaders, as well as Platoon Leader Wang and the squad leaders and deputy squad leaders of the heavy machine gun platoon.

"Everyone, the Japanese attack is imminent. This attack will be more fierce. To defend, you must first defend against artillery. To defend against artillery, you must first build construction. I order the entire platoon to reinforce the fortifications. Time is limited now. First: everyone in the trenches must Caves are dug on the cliffs to hide people and ammunition. Each squad digs at least six cliff holes to hide people and one cliff hole to hide ammunition."

"Second: Construct four heavy machine gun shooting positions. Our platoon will assist Platoon Leader Wang in constructing the heavy machine gun positions. Don't waste the excavated soil. We should take it to the trenches and compact it to build the parapets. Don't waste any of it. The remaining soil after repairing the parapet will be put into sandbags for later use!”

He Wei said it happily, but after Nai He gave the order, the monitors and deputy monitors around him all stood there with their mouths wide open, without responding, looking at a loss.

He Wei slapped his head, thinking that he was just patronizing, but with the level of field work of these brothers, they were completely unable to strengthen the fortifications according to his verbal orders. Some things still had to be taught step by step.

"Platoon leader, the cliff hole you are talking about is a hole dug on the edge of the trench, right?"

Sure enough, the squad leader Ge Guicai was knowledgeable and understood He Wei's intention.

"You're right, but it's not just about digging holes. We have to build two kinds of cliff holes, one to hide people and one to store ammunition. Several people from each squad will come and follow my instructions to dig holes for hiding soldiers and holes for storing ammunition. One for each, and then each class will dig according to these two, do you understand?"

Several squad leaders said: "Understood!"

(End of this chapter)