After the Kawaguchi detachment entered Mei Town, they did not move into the private houses in the town. Instead, they set up tents in the open space around the Mei family ancestral hall. The reason why Kawaguchi Heiji made such a decision at that time was because he was worried about the private houses. There are tunnels inside, and troops staying in civilian houses will be attacked by independent groups.
In fact, Xu Rui did have such a plan.
Xu Rui even imagined that the Independent Regiment might use ubiquitous and endless tunnel battles to exhaust the effective strength of the Kawaguchi Detachment bit by bit. When the strength of the Kawaguchi Detachment is reduced to a certain number, the main force of the Independent Regiment will be dispatched to attack the Kawaguchi Detachment. The final general attack eliminated the Kawaguchi detachment in one fell swoop.
Unfortunately, the Kawaguchi detachment did not move into residential houses in the town at all.
In this way, Xu Rui's tunnel warfare plan came to nothing.
In the past few days after the Kawaguchi Detachment settled in Meizhen, they have not been idle. Especially the engineering regiment to which the Kawaguchi Detachment belongs has been building fortifications day and night. At this moment, the Japanese have already built a fortification in the open space southeast of Meizhen. It is a simple fortress with military camps, command posts, field hospitals and other buildings. In addition to trenches on the outside, there is even a layer of barbed wire. Not only is there a suspension bridge at the gate to the military camp, but there are also machine gun bunkers on both sides.
If Xu Rui didn't drive out the captured Type 95 light tank, it would be really difficult to break through the Japanese defense.
However, even if there are armored troops participating in the battle, it does not mean that the battle will no longer be suspenseful. Although the more than 2,000 Japanese soldiers who stayed at the headquarters are not combat troops, they are also the same Japanese soldiers who have been brainwashed by militarism. Really? When pressed, these little devils dared to hold explosive packs to blow up tanks.
Therefore, you must also pay attention to protecting the safety of the tank.
When he was still 800 meters away from the gate of the Japanese barracks, Xu Rui asked Mo Zichen to stop the tank.
Mo Zichen was a swordsman and had driven a car before, so Xu Rui taught him twice and he learned to drive a tank.
Driving a tank is actually not much different from driving a truck. In a sense, driving a tank is easier than driving a truck, because you have to be careful when driving a truck, at least you can't drive into a ditch, but you can drive a tank and run rampant. , no scruples, so Mo Zichen just took a trip and fell in love with it.
After Mo Zichen stopped the tank, Xu Rui opened the flip cover and leaned out from the top of the turret.
"Shouxin, Jiuling, you two come here." Xu Rui waved to Huang Shouxin and Mei Jiuling to come forward.
Huang Shouxin and Mei Jiuling rushed over and stood next to the tank to listen to Xu Rui's teachings.
Xu Rui really wanted to give these two proud students live lessons, mainly on the collaboration between Bu and Tan.
In terms of combat effectiveness, for now, the combat effectiveness of the 2nd Battalion is much stronger, but the officers and soldiers of the 2nd Battalion are veterans who have been recruited from the temporary 79th Army, the Northeastern Army, and the Northwest Army. These veterans have both tactical concepts and Their tactical habits have been basically finalized and they are not very malleable. It will definitely be difficult to teach them how to synergize between infantry and tank.
On the contrary, most of the officers and soldiers of the 3rd Battalion are new recruits. Their combat concepts and tactical habits have not yet been finalized, so they are more malleable. It will be relatively easier to accept the concept of infantry-tank coordination.
To give a bloody example, when armored troops and infantry break through together and are attacked by enemy fire, those veterans who are accustomed to fighting without the protection of armored troops will evacuate immediately and find cover. , the armored soldiers were directly exposed to the enemy's blasters.
In the second stage of the Battle of Songhu, the 9th Army deployed China's only tank regiment at the time and launched a strong attack along the Jisi Feier Road towards the Japanese-controlled Huishan Pier. With the powerful firepower of the tanks, the attacking troops quickly broke into Huishan. At the dock, the Japanese troops were driven into several concrete buildings and fought stubbornly.
But at this moment, the tank cluster was bombarded by Japanese naval guns on the river. After being bombarded, the accompanying infantrymen immediately evacuated themselves. The originally suppressed Japanese army immediately sent engineers to carry explosives for blasting, and finally broke into Huishan Pier. Dozens of tanks were destroyed and the attack ended in failure.
At that time, the main regiment of the 36th Division was responsible for coordinating infantry and tank operations with the tank regiment. The 36th Division was one of the ten elite divisions approved to receive German weapons. Together with the 87th Division and the 88th Division, it was known as the three major forest divisions. At that time, the top ace division in the **** battle sequence was not bad in terms of training and equipment.
But even such an elite unit cannot simply cooperate with infantry and tanks.
At the end of the battle, the officers and soldiers of the 36th Division who luckily escaped said this, you tank soldiers are hiding in tanks with such thick armor, and you actually need our infantry to protect you? Bullshit!
Therefore, Xu Rui would never dare to let the veterans of the 2nd Battalion cooperate with his infantry tanks, because the tactical concepts and combat habits of these veterans are the same as those of the officers and soldiers of the 36th Division. They have been integrated into the bone marrow and it is difficult for you to use them. One or two sentences made them change their tactical concepts and fighting habits.
Therefore, Xu Rui chose the 3rd Battalion to engage in infantry-tank coordination.
"Captain!" Huang Shouxin and Mei Jiuling came to stand in front of the tank and saluted.
Xu Rui returned the military salute and then said: "Do you still remember the infantry-tank coordination I told you in tactics class?"
"Remember." Mei Jiuling immediately replied, "Infantry and tanks cooperate to break through. There are three taboos for infantry. The first taboo is to rush in front of the tank. Not only will this expose you to the enemy's gunfire, but you will also be easily hit by the tank when it fires. The shock wave generated will cause shock damage; secondly, avoid following the tank directly behind, which will easily cause a crushing accident when the tank reverses; thirdly, avoid being too far away from the tank, which will easily give enemy anti-tank troops an opportunity to destroy our tank."
"Very well, it's you. You lead the 9th Company to follow the tank and be responsible for blocking the blasters who destroy the Japs." After Xu Rui finished speaking, he retracted into the tank. After a while, the Type 95 light parked in place The tank roared again, and then rumbled towards the gate of the Japanese headquarters eight hundred meters away.
When they were still five hundred meters away from the headquarters gate, the two Type 92 heavy machine guns mounted on the circular barricades on the left and right sides of the gate opened fire first. In an instant, dense bullets hit the front armored vehicle of the tank like raindrops. There was a clanking sound, but the front armor of the Type 95 light tank was 12mm thick, so it was not afraid of the 7.7mm caliber heavy machine gun fire.
But he was still unhappy after being shot at indiscriminately by Japanese heavy machine guns, so Xu Rui fired decisively.
The result made Xu Rui blush. This shot actually hit the watchtower on the right side of the headquarters gate. Although the watchtower was knocked down with one shot, it was still a dozen meters away from Xu Rui's target. But this cannot be blamed on Xu Rui, because at the moment Xu Rui fired, the Type 95 tank happened to climb up the first step. Not only did the muzzle rise upward, but the direction of the body was also moved by the tracks. The result was Missed.
Speaking of which, tanks of this era are still a bit primitive, and the guns are not equipped with two-way stabilizers.
To switch to the Jiujiu Kai that Xu Rui often drove before crossing, as long as the aim is locked, no matter how bumpy the tank is driving on, or whether the tank suddenly climbs or goes downhill, the muzzle of the main gun will always point at the target. Like now, one small step caused the cannonball to deflect more than ten meters away.
So Xu Rui asked Mo Zichen to stop the tank.
When I couldn't hit accurately while traveling, I stopped and took aim.
This trick worked as expected. After the tank stopped, Xu Rui fired only two shots, using only two 37mm caliber high-explosive shells, and blasted the two heavy machine guns on the left and right sides of the gate of the Japanese headquarters to smithereens. Damn, I have to say that the tank's direct-firing cannon is much more enjoyable than those field guns and mountain cannons that fire in a straight direction.
When the little devil saw that something was wrong, he immediately sent out engineers with explosive bags to blow up.
If you think that sending engineers to hold explosives to blow up tanks is a patent of the National Army or the Eighth Route Army, you are wrong. In the Battle of Songhu, the Japs used this trick to blow up dozens of National Army tanks. It's a pity that the Dameishan Independent Regiment was not the National Army in the Songhu Battle.
Mei Jiuling roared, and the officers and soldiers of the 9th Company following the tank on the left and right sides opened fire one after another.
Under the dense firepower of the 9th company's officers and soldiers, the Japanese engineers were quickly knocked to the ground. The Japanese commander on the opposite side sent another Japanese engineer, but the 9th company was still knocked down. The Japanese commander saw When this didn't work, they quickly ordered the machine gunners to enter the ring barricades on both sides of the gate, trying to first use machine gun fire to eliminate the following infantry. After the tanks lost protection, they sent out engineers to blast.
But how could Xu Rui let the Japanese get their wish
Another two rounds of bombardment, and the Japanese's two light machine guns were once again blown to pieces.
After confirming that the Japanese did not dare to send out machine guns to seek death, Xu Rui turned his attention to the vehicle-mounted front machine gun and used the 7.7mm caliber vehicle-mounted heavy machine gun to suppress the Japanese infantry on both sides of the headquarters gate. While suppressing the fire, Xu Rui At the same time, he ordered Mo Zichen to start the tank again and drive forward slowly.
With the strong protection of tanks, Mei Jiuling's 9th Company quickly broke into the gate.
Once the headquarters gate was breached, the entire Japanese defense system was immediately shattered.
The 7th and 8th companies of the 3rd Battalion also followed the 9th Company, broke into the headquarters through the gap, and then quickly tore the little Japanese's defense line toward the two wings. Immediately afterwards, the 1st and 2nd Battalions tore apart the defense lines from the 7th and 8th Companies. Breaking in, when the Japanese headquarters' outer defense line was completely broken, the cavalry battalion also rushed in, brandishing their sharp sabers.
At this point, the battlefield to regain Meizhen has basically ended. Although many Japanese are still resisting, the outcome of destruction cannot be changed.
Listening to the gunfire getting closer and closer outside the tent, Major Yamaguchi of the Communications Department directly under the Kawaguchi Detachment Headquarters sat in front of the radio, sent his last farewell telegram to the Nanjing Headquarters, then blew up the radio station with a grenade, and then killed him with a pistol. He attracted six or seven female signal soldiers in the Communications Department, and finally pointed the pistol at his temple and pulled the trigger. (To be continued.)