The Iron-Blooded Army of Beacon Fire

Chapter 66 The real bombardment

The next morning, there was a cold wind. After more than a day of bloody battles, there was a smell of rotting corpses in the air. In front of various positions in Xinkou, the Japanese army paid the due price for their attack. Xinkou On the high ground on the left wing, in Dabaishui, in the open land of Yanzhuang, and in the ravines of the central terraced highlands of Xinkou, there were corpses abandoned by the Japanese troops everywhere.

After a night of fierce fighting, the sound of gunfire in the central highlands of Xinkou gradually became sparse. In Yanzhuang, a night of silence passed, and a new round of brutal and deadly fighting was about to begin.

On the flank of Yongxing Village, Artillery Captain Kakihara Isao finally saw the full picture of Yanzhuang in the daytime through the Type [-] Artillery Mirror. Although he was mentally prepared, when he saw the Japanese infantry corpses scattered in front of the Chinese army obstacles, When the destroyed tanks and backpacks and equipment were everywhere, Isao Kakihara was still shocked. In the artillery position, some sergeants with telescopes and artillerymen observing the Chinese army positions through artillery sights were similar to Isao Kakihara. , several people almost vomited out the breakfast they had just eaten.

As an artillery officer, he actually cannot see the dead or corpses most of the time. The main tasks of the artillery are to shoot, capture positions, and fight hand-to-hand. That is the job of the infantry.

Artillery life is still very comfortable. Since entering Shanxi, Kakihara Isao and his field artillery squadron have rarely suffered casualties. They are even often ridiculed by the first-line infantry troops and ridiculed as "cowards" by the infantry troops.

Whether it is Chinese infantry or Chinese artillery, it is difficult to pose a threat to them. Various clues can be seen from the choice of artillery positions. Kakihara Isao set up the position of his mountain artillery squadron to the west of Yongxing Village. There were only a few low earth walls as cover in front of the position. Kakihara Isao was not worried about the safety of the artillery position at all. Not to mention that there was an open field in front of him, and it was impossible for the Chinese infantry to attack. What's more, the Tsutsumi detachment also sent a Small squads of infantry provide protection.

There is no need to worry about the Chinese artillery. Through the summary of previous battles, Isao Kakihara has a sufficient understanding of the artillery level of the Shanxi Local Army. Although the Shanxi-Sui Army has a large independent artillery unit, the artillery equipment is also They are all imitations of Japanese artillery such as the [-]-type mountain cannon and the [-]-type field gun, but their shooting skills are really unflattering.

Its shooting level basically stayed at the level of direct-aiming shooting before World War I and World War I. At best, it could only reach the level of using semi-shielded positions for direct aiming and shooting. The shooting principle was essentially the three-level shooting principle of a rifle. Click the line.

As for advanced artillery shooting combat methods such as the use of fully covered positions for indirect aiming shooting, aerial guided shooting using observation aircraft and large balloons, map plotting boards, and the use of actual geodesy to draw precise coordinate maps to conduct non-test firing shooting, these are fundamental. Won't.

The biting cold wind hit his face, resisting the feeling of nausea. Isao Kakihara glanced at the second lieutenant observer next to him. The field artillery observation station beside him had been opened. The artillery scope, telescope, telemeter, and steering wheel were arranged in order. Come on.

The Japanese army's field artillery shooting technology has been quite perfect. The squadron observer next to Kakihara Isao worked with great efficiency. The second lieutenant observer holding the steering wheel first aimed at the approximate location of Yanzhuang with the [-]-mark direction of the steering wheel. Then use the sight to aim each gun at each other, and then complete the assignment of the shooting direction after anti-targeting.

At the same time, the sergeant operating the telemetry machine began to calculate the high and low shooting angles of the artillery through the observed distance. When the high and low angles were calculated, the soldier responsible for operating the telephone reported the distance, high and low angles and other shooting factors to the artillery position. On the base gun, the gunner of the base gun began to adjust the scale elevator of the gun. The ammunition soldier loaded a Type 75 [-]mm grenade with a quick-fire fuse into the barrel of the gun and quietly waited for the moment of launch.

Isao Kakihara took the phone that was handed to him, and the report of the artillery squad leader came on the phone.

"Squadron leader, the baseline gun test firing is ready!"

"Let's start!" Kakihara Isao said, raising the binoculars.

On the artillery position, the gunners of a [-] mountain gun spread out. The artillery squad leader raised the red command flag and shouted: "First shot, aim at the point. [-] grenades are buried directly in front. Instant fuse, distance is [-] Qian Er, prepare, release."

A cloud of white smoke came out of the muzzle of a Type 75 [-]mm mountain gun, and the first shell was fired, which also opened up today's war clouds.

The shells fired accurately exploded 100 meters in front of the obstacles outside Yanzhuang. What was even more coincidental was that the impact point of the first shot happened to be a concealed anti-tank trap, and the violent explosion directly blew open the cover on it. The door panel revealed a large pit underneath.

Kakihara used the artillery scope to observe the impact point of the bullet. The second lieutenant who observed quickly reported the correction amount to the artillery position. Soon, the benchmark gun that had just completed the first shot was loaded and fired again. This time, the shell just landed on the obstacle. From the rear, the two shells, one in front and one in the back, sandwiched the obstacle area built by He Wei. From the perspective of artillery shooting, these two shells formed a 200-meter fork.

"Squadron leader, it's made up of forks!" said the observation lieutenant next to Isao Kakihara.

"Continue to shrink the fork, reduce it to 50 meters, cancel the straight shot, and after 50 meters, the whole squadron will directly switch to effective shooting!"

Isao Kakihara ordered, and then, the reference gun continued to shrink the forks. The principle was also very simple, that is, the average range of the previous fork shot was used as the shooting distance for the next shot, and the fork distance was kept to the minimum, and then The salvo fire started again, and for the Japanese artillery, this kind of shooting was already familiar. After five rounds of firing by the benchmark gun, the fork distance of 50 meters had been reached.

Then, Zhu Yuan of the four mountain cannons began to switch to effective fire according to the firing rate of the standard cannon. Qiwushan cannonballs roared out of the barrels one after another and smashed into the obstacle area built by He Wei.

Boom boom boom - artillery shells exploded one after another, and grenades equipped with instant fuses exploded almost as soon as they hit something. With the sound of explosions, the barbed wire fence laid by He Wei in Luzhai in the obstacle area was densely covered by air waves. It blew to the sky. At this time, He Wei was hiding at the front of the diagonal position, observing the situation with the captured telescope. He saw the obstacles that his people had worked hard to build. Yesterday, he successfully blocked the obstacles of the Japanese infantry. Today, He Wei was blasted into the sky by Japanese artillery fire. He Wei's heart was not only bleeding, but it was also very uncomfortable.

"Grandma, it's good to have a cannon."

He Wei cursed, and of course he could only curse people to his heart's content. He couldn't do anything else. After a night of reorganization last night, each platoon entered their respective predetermined positions. The contact signals and firing signals were also confirmed, and the flying thunder artillery fortifications were completed. It was also repaired. Fifteen mine cannon launch fortifications were built on the diagonal positions on both sides, and fifty mine cannon launch fortifications were built on the main position. The morale of the whole company was high, and He Wei also thought about another big fight. , He has done something good, but he saw such an unlucky thing so early in the morning, so he could only watch and be bombed.

This is the tragedy of insufficient artillery fire
As He Wei watched, he thought about why the Chinese army's ability to attack fortresses during the Anti-Japanese War was low. A large part of the reason was the lack of artillery. The Japanese army also built various obstacles on their positions. If they want to successfully attack fortresses, they must destroy the obstacles. , to open a passage in the obstacle, otherwise, relying on infantry to destroy the obstacle is basically nonsense. Many Chinese troops can only use their own flesh and blood to attack the Japanese solid obstacles and positions, and it is inevitable that the attack effect will be low. Yes.

"Blow it up, blow it up, if you blow me up now, it will be my turn to blow you up later!"

Looking at the obstacle area that was gradually being destroyed, He Wei cursed again. He prepared a pot of good food for the enemy in the position. If everything went well, he would still be able to show off his power later.

Now all platoons have entered the position, excluding thunder cannons. Now, the platoon guarding the main front line is Fang Jing's platoon, as well as the heavy machine gun platoon of Platoon Leader Wang, Fang Jing's platoon and Hu Zhaowu's platoon. The strength of the troops was not at full strength, and there were many casualties and shortages, but there was no loss of automatic firepower. The light machine guns of these two platoons were all at full strength.

This means that the automatic firepower of the main frontal position is two Type [-] heavy machine guns and three Czech light machine guns. The automatic firepower of the Hu Zhaowu platoon guarding the hidden anti-tank trench is three light machine guns.

As for the oblique position guarded by the protagonist - He Wei's platoon, the oblique position on the right is commanded by the old squad leader Ge Guicai. Two infantry squads, the first and second squads, are deployed. The Czech light machine gun originally controlled by He Wei , was returned to the second squad by He Wei, so the automatic firepower of the diagonal position on the right was two light machine guns.

He Wei led the third squad to guard the left wing. The third squad did not have light machine guns and was relatively weak in firepower. The strength of one squad was also slightly thin. In order to strengthen the firepower, He Wei brought a captured grenade launcher. Type [-] heavy machine gun and a considerable amount of ammunition.

Company commander Fu Chen personally took command of a reserve platoon transferred from the village, as well as a combat defense artillery platoon and a mortar platoon.

The riflemen and light machine gunners of the sixth company all replenished their ammunition. Each infantry squad was issued two additional boxes of grenades, which can be said to be sufficient ammunition. In terms of automatic firearms alone, the sixth company has eight light machine guns. Three heavy machine guns, two [-] mortars and two [-] anti-aircraft guns.

A dense fire net has quietly opened.

(End of this chapter)