sjar Chapter 553: Fight back?
Chapter 553: Fight back?
The ground was as hard as iron, the shells were too powerful, and their caliber was large to begin with. The combination of the two resulted in heavy casualties for the Japanese army.
After ten minutes of shelling, the Japs began to flee for their lives. It took them more than twenty minutes to escape the shelling range.
The three special operations battalions had been feeling frustrated for a long time. The Japanese had shrunk like hedgehogs and they had no idea where to bite them. They had been busy jumping around all night but had gained nothing. Now the hedgehogs began to move, revealing their white bellies, with their defensive spikes gone. If they couldn't seize the opportunity, they would not be able to call themselves the descendants of the cold gun.
The large-caliber mortars were put into action, giving no chance to the moving Japanese to counterattack, and they fired at the maximum range of 2,800 meters. It was unknown how many of the 50,000 Japanese were killed by the naval guns, but the retreating Japanese were still densely packed.
Ten rounds of rapid fire were fired at those who were close, twenty rounds of rapid fire were fired at those who were far away, and the most severe one was thirty rounds of rapid fire. Haruki Isayama reacted and ordered the team to continue to attack and patrol, and at the same time organize a mortar counterattack. However, the counterattack had not yet begun, and the artillery shells here had been used up. There were still a few hours before dawn, so they could sleep peacefully.
The Japanese army retreated ten kilometers and was severely hit by artillery several times during the retreat. This time the losses were a bit heavy, and the casualties were estimated to be no less than five or six thousand. Several mountain artillery, field artillery and mortars were lost. Although they were mentally prepared, Isayama Haruki and Ueno Naoomi were still heartbroken.
At 2:40 in the morning, the Japanese troops here were still licking their wounds. The artillery reinforcements from Mengshan arrived to the east of Lincheng. The artillery positions had been built. The general layout of the Japanese troops in Lincheng was exposed by the special forces' disguised reconnaissance, and they unloaded the guns and aimed them in one go.
Two 150mm heavy howitzers, eighteen 75mm field guns, and twenty-four 75mm mountain guns. These are the last large-caliber artillery pieces on Mount Meng except for infantry guns and mortars.
At 3:20 the artillery opened fire.
boom! Boom boom boom!
More than forty guns fired at the same time. The deafening roar woke up the Japanese who were sleeping due to exhaustion. The shells had already fallen while they were still confused.
boom! Boom boom boom!
Shells fell on military camps, armories, and supply warehouses, and explosions and flames shot into the sky.
Fujita Susumu and Nakayama Sadauchi had just rested when several small-caliber shells exploded outside the building, waking them up from their sleep. Fujita Susumu shouted to notify the bunker to counterattack, and Fujita Susumu woke up half-awake and thought it was a heavy mortar attack.
Chief of Staff Sadayoshi Nakayama ran in with his trousers held up.
"Fujita-kun, heavy artillery, the guard regiment opposite has heavy artillery."
"Nani"?
Fujita Susumuya felt that the sound just now was not right. His brain was working rapidly, but before he could figure out what was going on, another round of artillery fire came.
call out! Phew!
boom! Boom boom boom!
This time Fujita Susumu understood that the explosions were definitely not the sound of mortars, and the intervals were also wrong.
"Guards! Notify the artillery to counterattack, quickly!"
In order to facilitate the attack, the Japanese army hung the mountain artillery and field artillery on trucks, densely packed together. The storage location was beyond the attack range of the mortars. With more than 2,000 troops guarding it, they never thought they would be attacked.
Several small-caliber artillery shells and a grenade hit the artillery camp. After the violent explosion, the artillery was in a mess. Fortunately, for safety reasons, the shells and artillery were stored separately, otherwise one round of explosion would have been all over. The howitzer fired incendiary bombs, which were bought from the Germans. After the explosion, several trucks caught fire, and groups of Japanese soldiers risked their lives to put out the fire.
boom!
A truck exploded with its fuel tank full of gas. The fire after the explosion ignited several more trucks. A group of Japanese soldiers were trying to put out the fire. Although not many were killed in the explosion, many of them were engulfed in flames. The burning gasoline adhered to their bodies, causing the burned Japanese soldiers to howl in pain.
In the chaos, each reconnaissance team withdrew from the danger zone, climbed to the heights of houses and small buildings, and called the radio to directly send coordinates and reference points of the explosion fire.
There were explosions everywhere. More than a dozen streets controlled by the Japanese were burning. Most of the Japanese soldiers lived in tents. If a shell fell, it could blow several tents into powder if you were lucky.
The luxurious bunkers on the Jinpu Line fought back, firing dozens of shells in the direction of the flashes of fire, but the shells fell and exploded halfway through their flight; the range was totally insufficient.
Fujita Susumu didn't dare to delay any longer. He didn't know how long the enemy's shelling would last. If it lasted until dawn, the losses would be unimaginable.
"Order all sequences to retreat west, south and north, quickly, out of range."
"etc"!
Chief of Staff Naoomi Ueno stopped the signalman.
"Sir, fight back."
"Nani"?
Fujita Susumu was confused. If they attacked at this time, not to mention the soldiers' combat effectiveness, what if there was an ambush?
"No, absolutely not. I know about cold guns. His killing moves are all serial. There must be an ambush on the east side of the Jinpu Line."
"Hurry, give the order, all sequences must be out of range, and everyone who can be rescued must be rescued."
Ueno Naoomi did not dare to persuade him anymore. If he really encountered a machine gun position and had no artillery support, he could not afford the losses.
At the front line of the artillery position, a row of reconnaissance posts were holding binoculars to observe the situation on the Jinpu Line. Once the Japanese army rushed out, there would be no choice but to blow up the artillery and the mining area and then evacuate.
The shelling lasted for an hour and a half until the special forces sent a message saying that the Japanese were out of range and all targets were ignited, so they stopped shooting.
The truck had already been positioned, hooked up to the tractor, loaded the remaining shells into the car and drove away. It was already past five o'clock, and the sky would be slightly bright before six o'clock. Japanese planes would take off from the airport along the Huai River and would reach Lincheng before seven o'clock at the latest. The artillery had to be hidden in the mountains before the Japanese planes arrived.
The convoy towed the artillery away, and Lin Chuan and several battalion commanders also evacuated on horseback. Only observation posts and blasting teams were left to the east of Lincheng.
Fujita Susumu and Ueno Naoomi were very lucky. After an hour and a half of indiscriminate bombardment, they were both unharmed. However, they were in a very bad mood. Fires on more than ten streets were still burning, and explosions were heard from time to time. Those were shells or ammunition that had not been pulled out in time.
The soldiers' wails spread throughout the entire west of the city. They were promised to withdraw from the firing range, and many sequences ran to the edge of Weishan Lake.
The two could only issue orders in the temporary command post, count the troop strength, count the battle losses, and count the rescued supplies and ammunition.
It was earlier than Lin Chuan had guessed. At 5:40 a.m., the planes at Bengbu Airport took off forcibly under the guidance of torches. Sixty fighters and bombers flew in the direction of Lincheng without formation.
At 6:20, just as the sky was getting light, the plane began a low-altitude search.