dognovel Chapter 161: Anti-aircraft guns are put down, military court!
Chapter 161: Anti-aircraft guns are put down, military court!
Second Army Front Command.
Zhuang Tianyou, former commander of the 3rd Motorized Infantry Division and current chief of staff of the 2nd Army, walked in with a telegram.
When he saw Army Commander Guo Mingxuan studying a map in the headquarters, he immediately said, "Commander, a telegram from the General Staff!"
"General Staff?"
Hearing that it was a telegram from the General Staff, Guo Mingxuan looked up in surprise.
Generally speaking, the General Staff rarely sends telegrams to frontline troops without going through the corps headquarters, which makes this matter seem complicated.
"Let me see!"
Guo Mingxuan took the telegram and started reading it.
When he saw the content above, his brows furrowed.
"What do you think?"
After putting down the telegram, Guo Mingxuan looked at Chief of Staff Zhuang Tianyou.
"The 35th Army's retreat from Chita disrupted our plans.
Although the airborne troops have urgently airdropped troops to stop them, they will also be attacked from both front and back.
So we must also make a breakthrough on the Chaktu front.
We cannot let the 16th and 53rd Group Armies escape."
The content of the General Staff's telegram was very simple, asking them to launch a general offensive at all costs, break through the Kyakhta defense line, and annihilate the two armies.
Guo Mingxuan nodded and said, "Alright then. Since there's only one line of defense left, let's order all the troops to launch a general attack immediately and break through this line in one go!"
Following Guo Mingxuan's order, the 16rd, 53th, nd and rd Mechanized Infantry Divisions concentrated their forces and launched a fierce attack on the positions of the th and rd Group Armies.
Qiaktu is located in the plain where the plateau and the Kent Mountains meet. The railway crosses this gap and extends from north to south to Kulun.
From this it is not difficult to see why it is so difficult to fight in Qiakhtu.
This type of terrain poses great restrictions on mechanized troops, and many terrains are impassable for tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.
If we don't prepare with artillery fire and destroy the surface fortifications on their defensive positions, we will only have to sacrifice the lives of the soldiers.
This is also not allowed by the Renaissance Army unless the situation is urgent.
And now is the time of emergency.
However, the General Staff asked the Second Army to launch a general offensive immediately, and was also worried that their casualties would be too heavy.
Therefore, three aviation brigades of fighter jets were specially mobilized to station at the military airport in Mengyuan Province.
At the same time, an aviation brigade was mobilized to reinforce the Second Army.
These three aviation brigades were also drawn from the Second Air Force.
Together with the two aviation brigades in Mengyuan Province, the number of aviation brigades on the Second Army side has now reached five.
With strong support from the Air Force, the pressure on the Second Army can also be reduced.
Guo Mingxuan's attack on Tsarist Russia basically consists of three strategies.
Planes bombed, artillery shelled, and then ground troops were dispatched to charge.
If you still can't get it, then try another round.
At this moment, they can only fight one hill at a time.
The arrival of the Army Aviation Brigade was of great help to the Second Army.
These helicopters can lift troops, artillery and other weapons to some commanding heights, allowing their firepower advantage to be brought into play.
Faced with the Second Army's general offensive, the 16th and 53rd Army groups felt tremendous pressure.
Telegrams were also sent to the Irkutsk region.
General Ivanovich was completely powerless at the moment and could only order the two armies to withstand the attack of the Restoration Army before the 35th Army broke through the Hamar-Daban Mountains.
In fact, General Ivanovich wanted the two armies to retreat together.
But the Fuxing Army obviously saw through his intentions and launched a fierce attack on the front line to pin down the two armies.
So now he can only choose to save the 35th Army.
At the same time, General Ivanovich also urged the 35th Army to speed up its march.
The three infantry divisions of the 35th Army could only march on foot at night and hide in the jungle to rest during the day.
It took more than three days to walk the distance of more than 100 kilometers.
It was not until after 8:4 p.m. on August 8 that they arrived near the Hamar Daban Mountains, where they encountered the forward position of a paratrooper infantry regiment of the 20th Airborne Division.
Lieutenant General Victor, commander of the 35th Army, also knew the urgency of the situation and did not allow the exhausted troops to rest.
Immediately, the 35th Infantry Division of the 66th Army launched an attack on the positions of the 20th Parachute Regiment of the 60th Airborne Division.
The only artillery unit they had also launched an artillery attack on the small town of Mulino where the 60th Regiment was located.
This artillery unit is the 35th Guards Mortar Brigade of the 67th Army.
There are more than one hundred mortars of various calibers, the largest of which is 120 mm.
Although these mortars have a short range, they are flexible and powerful, and can cause considerable destructive damage to positions.
In response to the bombardment of the 67th Guards Mortar Brigade, the 60th Artillery Regiment of the 20th Airborne Division, behind the 20th Parachute Regiment, also retaliated.
第20炮兵团36门M1A1型75毫米、12门M2A1型105毫米榴弹炮也在侦察直升机的引导下向沙俄炮兵阵地大概的方位发起了反击。
Although the 105mm howitzer weighs more than 2 tons, it is relatively light for this caliber.
Therefore, this 105mm howitzer battalion was also a temporary reinforcement to strengthen the heavy firepower of the airborne division.
Lieutenant General Victor's face changed when he saw the Renaissance Army's sharp artillery counterattack.
"Damn it! Didn't they parachute in? Why are there so many artillery pieces?"
Is it possible to drop artillery by parachuting?
"Maybe it was transported here via a field airfield."
At this time, a staff officer whispered something, which made Lieutenant General Victor understand.
Then his expression became more and more serious.
It seems that it is not so easy to break through this line of defense.
Unless this airport can be destroyed and the Renaissance Army's air logistics channel cut off.
But the air supremacy was firmly in the hands of the Renaissance Army. They didn't even know where the airport was, let alone bomb it.
So now they can only bite the bullet and move forward.
The attack of the Tsarist Russia's 66th Infantry Division was particularly fierce.
Because they knew that as long as they broke through the line of defense in front of them, they would be able to go home.
Therefore, their ruthlessness was also aroused, and the fighting will that burst out was particularly firm.
The MG42 general-purpose machine guns on the battlefield kept roaring, and the tracer bullets formed a green and red tracer chain in the night sky, which looked very dazzling.
In addition to the MG42 general-purpose machine gun, the M2HB general-purpose machine gun and MK303 anti-aircraft gun are also demonstrating their power as heavy weapons.
In particular, the crossfire formed by several MK303 anti-aircraft guns deployed on the position was extremely fierce.
The MK 303 anti-aircraft gun is a 30mm anti-aircraft gun developed by Sandezi during World War II. On average, four shells can shoot down a Flying Fortress bomber, which shows how powerful it is.
These anti-aircraft guns were originally used to strengthen the airborne troops' field air defense capabilities, and the entire division was equipped with 18 guns.
In order to strengthen the firepower on the front line, the commander of the 20th Airborne Division deployed a company of 6 MK 303 anti-aircraft guns and built concrete fortifications for these guns.
At this time, these 30mm anti-aircraft guns played a big role.
A 30mm gun is still a gun, not a bullet.
A 30mm high-explosive bomb can also explode more than ten meters away.
So when these anti-aircraft guns formed crossfire, a death zone was formed on the 66th Division's offensive route.
Flak guns down, court-martial!
These anti-aircraft guns are extremely lethal to infantry, just like a broom, easily harvesting their lives.
"Damn it! Let the artillery blow up all these damn anti-aircraft guns."
Then these anti-aircraft guns are all protected by solid concrete fortifications, and even a 120mm mortar cannot destroy them unless it hits them directly.
Therefore, the Tsarist Russia had no way to deal with these 30mm anti-aircraft guns.
Faced with the fierce firepower of the Fuxing Army, the 66th Division's attack was directly thwarted, and it retreated unwillingly after leaving behind a pile of corpses.
In this attack, more than 66 soldiers of the th Infantry Division were shot, killed or wounded in explosions, which was equivalent to one-sixth of the entire infantry division's strength.
This result made Lieutenant General Victor both angry and helpless.
He knew that it would be difficult to pass this level with only the troops he had.
Unless the 35th High-Power Artillery Brigade of the 224th Army can reach the front line.
This would allow him to destroy these fortifications with his large-caliber 152mm howitzers.
But these guns were too heavy, so in order to speed up the march, they left them all in the Udinsk area.
The 19th and 20th Airborne Divisions firmly held the Hamar Daban Mountains, withstanding attacks from both lines of defense.
The Second Army is also advancing steadily. At the current speed, it will be able to break through the defense lines of the 16th Army and the 53rd Army in two days at most.
This also means that the airborne troops on the Hamardaban Mountains will have to hold out for two more days.
In another direction, the 250th Armored Division and the th Mechanized Infantry Division of the st Army made rapid progress, marching kilometers a day. After two days of marching, they arrived at the front line of Shuangchengzi and successfully joined forces with the st, nd and th Divisions here.
When Major General Boris, the commander of the Vladislav fortress, learned that the Second Independent Army had been completely wiped out, he realized that Shuangchengzi could not be defended.
Therefore, they evacuated the troops in an orderly manner to Vladislavok, preparing to use this important military fortress to resist the offensive of the Restoration Army. This fortress city was also their last retreat.
The Fortress Force, as its name suggests, belongs to the defense force of Vladislavl and is equipped with very sophisticated equipment.
Because they were defending the Far Eastern outpost fortress of Vladislavl, which had a large amount of ammunition reserves.
So their equipment is not bad.
In terms of military strength, this reserve force includes the 3rd Infantry Army, the 5th Infantry Army, two railway artillery brigades, three howitzer regiments, two anti-aircraft artillery regiments, three independent air defense battalions, and one engineering brigade.
In addition, Vladislav has a naval fleet to guard the Vladislav military port.
However, these ships are basically destroyers, gunboats and patrol boats, and there are not many decent warships.
The reason why Vladislavl is called a fortress town.
It mainly comes from the Voroshilov Castle fortress, which was built by General Voroshilov, the commander-in-chief of the Tsarist Russian Army, in the early 20s.
The core of this castle fortress is two triple-mounted 305mm main guns, which were removed from decommissioned battleships.
Moreover, they were so wealthy that they built fortifications on every hill in Vladislavok.
Although it cannot compare with the border defense line of Gaul, its strength is also amazing.
It is not easy to capture this fortress city.