noffsinger Chapter 350 Attacking Niutuo Village
Chapter 350 Attacking Niutuo Village
Shen Quan tried his best to dissuade Li Yunlong from returning to Niangzi Pass. He said he would lead the armored infantry division to launch an ambush here and then evacuate quickly, but this did not persuade Li Yunlong.
"Shen Quan, have you grown too powerful? When have I ever changed my mind? Get ready!"
Shen Quan had no choice but to report the situation to Wang Meng and Zhao Gang, and then prepared to transfer the tank regiment at Niangzi Pass to provide support.
"Commander, then shall we fight for a while and then retreat?"
"Of course. Do you think I'm stupid? Our armored division's greatest advantage is mobility. Only a fool would fight a positional war with them!"
At this time, Lieutenant General Yasutada Hosokawa, the commander of the 59th Division in charge of the westward advance, had discovered that there was at least one regiment of troops in Langwo Mountain, in the direction of the Japanese troops' advance!
"Yoshi, execute the circuit breaker plan!"
Yasutada Hosokawa sent a team of elite Japanese soldiers, carrying a large amount of explosives, and marched quickly towards Langwo Mountain.
In less than an hour, huge explosions were heard one after another near Langwo Mountain.
"Where to fire, where to fire?"
Li Yunlong and Shen Quan picked up the telescope and looked at the explosion points around them where black smoke was coming out, then quickly took out the map to mark them.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t watch it, but once you do, you’ll feel disappointed.
"The damn Japs have blown up all the bridges and roads near us! It seems that the Japs are very familiar with our fighting style. We have lost our mobility and are almost like the infantry he talked about!"
As for why the Japanese understood it so quickly, it all started with the report from German Lieutenant Colonel Hans.
As the founder of blitzkrieg, Germany naturally knew the biggest secret and advantage of blitzkrieg and armored forces, which can be summed up in one word: "fast"!
As long as the bridges, tunnels and roads are blown up, the mobility of the armored division will be greatly restricted. Moreover, once the transportation lines are destroyed, fuel and ammunition cannot be replenished, and tanks and armored vehicles will have to be grounded.
This report was sent to the Japanese Army General Staff Headquarters, and naturally also to the North China Command, as top secret for reference by Japanese generals above the rank of general.
"The Japs are not as stupid as we thought! Get ready for a tough fight!"
Fortunately, the armored infantry regiment was fully equipped, and for safety reasons, the artillery battalion was also brought along.
Nine 150mm infantry guns, fifteen 75mm infantry guns, fifteen 37mm anti-aircraft guns, and fifteen 37mm anti-tank guns.
These artillery units have no problem fighting the Japanese brigade-level artillery units.
"Order the artillery to level the anti-aircraft guns and beat the hell out of them!"
"Commander, no more air defense?"
"The aviation division's planes will be in the sky soon. With them here, the Japanese planes won't dare to come! We just need to attack their infantry!"
After Li Yunlong and Shen Quan made all the arrangements, they began to build fortifications.
Wang Meng was also extremely anxious when he received the news. Although Li Yunlong asked him to relax, he still decided to speed up the attack on Niutuo Village.
At one o'clock in the afternoon, Wang Meng ordered the 4th Armored Division to attack Niutuzhai.
Just like the attack on Xiaoyaotou, the tank regiment acted as a meat shield, and armored infantry vehicles and trucks quickly transported the infantry to the foot of the mountain.
Then the artillery regiment suppressed the Japanese bunker and the infantry charged.
This time, the Japanese's ten main bunkers and seventy or eighty secret bunkers were all built independently and were not connected by tunnels. It was impossible to take them down by attacking one of them and breaking through from the inside.
Therefore, the only way to advance was to rely on infantry using rocket launchers and flamethrowers.
The Japanese had ten main bunkers and seventy or eighty hidden bunkers guarding them around them, forming a triangle and providing mutual fire support.
It is not feasible to suppress a single bunker with firepower and then attack it with rockets or flamethrowers.
Because, before you can aim at the enemy target, the bunker on the side will fire a cannon shell or a volley of bullets at you.
"We can't go on like this, we must act collectively!"
Taking a risky move, Ding Wei contacted the company commander via walkie-talkie.
"All companies follow the requirements of the combat meeting and listen to my orders. After the artillery suppresses the enemy, use rockets to attack the enemy bunkers! Make sure each bunker gets at least three rockets!"
At Ding Wei's command, the infantry artillery first fired dozens of smoke bombs in the direction of the ten main forts, preventing the main forts from providing fire support to the hidden bunkers below.
Then they began to suppress the bunkers with precise firepower, and the enemy's bunker group was temporarily silenced.
"Rockets from all companies, fire!"
The Japanese did not expect that their bunkers were attacked at the same time, and each bunker's firing hole was hit by at least three rockets.
Those large shooting holes were directly hit by rockets and destroyed.
A lot of shrapnel also splashed into the bunkers with smaller firing holes.
This attack destroyed more than a dozen bunkers, the effect was very good!
"Very good, let's do it like this!"
Ding Wei and the soldiers of the 4th Armored Division fought with confidence and launched more than ten such collective attacks in a row.
By four o'clock in the afternoon, all the bunkers had been removed, leaving only ten main bunkers on the top of the mountain.
These ten main forts are the last line of defense blocking the 4th Armored Division.
They were like steel nails embedded in the rocks of Niutuo Village, unmoving, and constantly spitting out flames at the 4th Armored Division that was trying to attack.
The soldiers on the front line became anxious and aimed their rocket launchers at the main fort, firing rockets.
However, because it was an upward attack and the ten main forts were all located at a high position, the rockets could only hit the bunkers of the main forts but could not penetrate the firing holes, thus posing no threat to the main forts.
The flamethrowers were also ineffective, and several flamethrowers were engulfed in flames.
After losing dozens of soldiers, this ineffective attack was called off.
"Damn it! Pause the attack!"
Wang Meng gritted his teeth. A frontal attack would definitely not work now. He could only take other approaches to capture the main forts of hundreds of square meters.
"Contact the 201st Unit! Order them to set off immediately and capture these main forts for me!"
Wang Meng and Wei Heshang, who were waiting at Pingshun Airport, were ready to go.
"Brothers, this is the first operation of our 201st Unit. The specific combat requirements will be announced to you by the platoon leaders on the plane. Although it is difficult, we must complete the most difficult mission! Only success is allowed, failure is not allowed!"
"Yes!"
This elite force, which had been training in Qingyang for several months, boarded six transport planes in platoons.
Under the escort of twelve fighter jets, the planes quickly arrived over Niutuo Village.
Half an hour later, Wang Meng heard the roar of an airplane. He looked up and saw that the 201st Unit he had been thinking about had arrived over Niutuzhai.
"Whether we can capture Niutuo Village depends on them!"