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Volume 1 On the Songhua River Chapter 2796 The Japanese Army's Intensified Artillery Attack

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    Lieutenant General Barry Hersman and his party walked on the rugged mountain road for nearly ten hours. When it was already dark, they arrived at the nearest Allied division headquarters, which was the first British-Australian army.  Position defended by the Legion's 3rd Division.

    The British Brigadier General Chattons, the commander of the 3rd Division, was very unfamiliar with the new Supreme Commander of the Australian Allied Forces. He only received an order from the Allied Forces Command in a telegram, saying that he was the Supreme Commander.  The person has been replaced, and it has been replaced by an American. It is the American lieutenant general in front of me who is stained with mud and water on his military boots. From the bottom of his heart, the senior British officer serving in the Australian Allied Forces has no idea about this personnel change.  , most of them hold a conflicting mood.

    Therefore, regarding the arrival of the new commander, Brigadier General Chattons remained quite indifferent in his lukewarm attitude. Reporting on the frontline battle situation was purely a formulaic procedure. Lieutenant General Barry Hersman, from this  The subordinates couldn't help but feel very disappointed as they didn't get anything valuable from their mouths.

    After a simple dinner, Lieutenant General Barry Hersman, regardless of fatigue, inspected the Allied positions nearby. What he saw was generally satisfactory to him. In terms of the defense system of his predecessor,  A lot of effort was spent to build a fairly complete fortification belt, deep trenches, and communication trenches extending in all directions along all the commanding heights on the south side of the Flinders Mountains.

    The arrangement of various bunkers and bunkers, as well as light and dark firepower points, is very clever. There is an open area in front of the position, blocked by several barbed wire fences. Even if it is not an open area, it has been manually leveled.  Seeing everything in front of him, Lieutenant General Barry Hersman felt very familiar, yes.  Typical tactics of World War I, trench confrontation. Although he was not interested in MacArthur, he had to admit that this annoying guy was right. "The British tactical thinking is still at the level of World War I!"

    Such a defense system.  Under the Japanese offensive with superior force, Lieutenant General Ballyhersman was able to sustain his predecessor.  He also admired him very much, but he felt that the defense system still lacked something very important, and that was the air raid shelter.

    ?Learned lessons from being attacked by Japanese fighter jets during the day.  He felt it more and more.  In the first- and second-line positions, the importance of digging air-raid shelters and the fact that there is no air supremacy cannot be changed in a short time, so we should adopt the most effective method at the moment.

    Thinking of this, Lieutenant General Barry Hersman said to Brigadier General Chattons, the division commander who accompanied him to inspect the position: "Commander Chattons, I think that in your division's defensive position, a large number of air raid shelters should be dug for use.  It¡¯s best to neutralize the Japanese¡¯s air superiority and order the soldiers to take action immediately!¡±

    His words were tactful enough, and he did not give an order directly, but in a tone of discussion. However, the British, who had a grudge, did not buy it and said directly: "Your Excellency, Commander, your suggestion is very reasonable, but  , my troops will be withdrawing to the second line of defense soon, and I am ready to hand over the defense. I am afraid that your order cannot be carried out!"

    Lieutenant General Barry Hersman was speechless for a while and couldn't help but feel a little annoyed. However, he was immediately relieved. The fifth division of the American and Canadian Army he brought from the United States would soon take over the defense here.  The first thing is to dig a sufficient number of air raid shelters.

    Lieutenant General Wagnerzer, the accompanying Chief of Staff of the Australian Allied Forces Command, was very disrespectful when he saw Brigadier General Chattons' tone. Taking advantage of the commander's turn, he glared at his compatriots with full eyes.  It was a warning, but Brigadier General Chattons obviously didn't take it to heart. He shook his head and shrugged with disdain on his face!

    Lieutenant General Barry Hersman did not see the small movements of the two subordinates. He climbed to the commanding heights of the position and looked north from here. The view was quite wide. Under the dim sky, the Japanese position in the distance was exceptionally quiet.  There was almost no fire, let alone Japanese soldiers, but with his soldier's intuition, he felt that there seemed to be some huge conspiracy hidden under this calmness?

    According to the division commander Brigadier General Chattons, the Japanese army would launch small-scale attacks day and night, and the sound of guns and artillery on the front line never stopped. However, just two days ago, the Japanese army suddenly became calmer.  , no longer carrying out constant harassment, the Allied soldiers on the front line also had a rare opportunity to breathe!

    Abnormality can only be explained by abnormality. Thinking about it, hundreds of thousands of Japanese reinforcements have arrived on the Australian battlefield. The Japanese army's strength has almost reached about one million. After not increasing their strength, the Japanese became quiet.  The truth is, is Ito Yanzaburo preparing for a large-scale attack?

    As the sea breeze from the Pacific blew over, Lieutenant General Barry Hersman couldn't help but shudder, wrapped his military uniform tightly, turned around and descended from the commanding heights. After returning to the tent, he said to Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Wagner: "  The chief of staff immediately issued orders to the second-line troops in the name of the headquarters.??, given that our army does not have air superiority, in order to avoid huge casualties to soldiers, the headquarters ordered all units located on the second line of defense to immediately dig air-raid shelters and anti-gun holes!  "

    "In order to fulfill this order, the headquarters will send inspection teams to various ministries to inspect and supervise the excavation work of air raid shelters and bomb shelters. All second-line troops must excavate two-thirds of the headquarters to accommodate two-thirds of the headquarters within three days.  Air defense and artillery holes for the above soldiers!¡±

    Perhaps this was just Lieutenant General Barry Hersman's idea or an idea for safety's sake, but he would never have expected that it was this group of officers and soldiers of the second-line troops, who were mainly British and Australian soldiers, who were widely known.  The criticized order later became a life-saving order to save the last line of defense of the Australian Allied Forces from being broken through by the Japanese army. The criticized order at that time became a life-saving straw for the Australian Allied Forces.

    As a result, Ito Genzaburo's idea of ??taking down the Allied defense lines of the Flinders Mountains and the Barrier Mountains in one fell swoop and conquering southeastern Australia came to nothing, turning a breakthrough battle into a brutal offensive and defensive battle.  .

    After the command was issued, the second line of hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers cursed their new commander and, under the supervision of their officers, reluctantly dug air-raid shelters and artillery-proof caves in the rocky mountainous area.  , the soldiers mocked themselves as groundhogs.

    After three days of preparation, more than 900,000 Japanese soldiers have made all preparations before the attack. Various attack groups have entered attack positions. The United Air Force of the Southwest Pacific Expeditionary Force, in order to support the offensive operations at the nearest location, even captured  A large number of Australian workers built field airports in frontline areas.

    At nine o'clock in the evening on January 14th, General Ito Genzaburo issued a combat order to all participating troops. In the dark night, groups of Japanese soldiers quietly entered the attack starting point. Within a few hours,  After that, everything became quiet. The more than 900,000 Japanese soldiers, like ferocious beasts lurking in the darkness, stared fiercely ahead with bloody eyes, ready to pounce out at any time. The Allied forces on the opposite side of Surabaya  Soldier's body!

    In a tent, there was still a dim light from a candle. Under the candlelight, Lieutenant General Barry Hersman was looking attentively at the various telegrams and battle reports. For some reason, he always felt uneasy in his heart.  I feel that the defense change of the frontline troops is in progress. It will take two days at the earliest before the seven divisions I brought can completely take over the defense of key areas.

    "Don't let anything unexpected happen!" Lieutenant General Barry Hersman said to himself, and then he called in the Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Wagnerzer, and ordered: "Chief of Staff, convey my order immediately,  The ongoing troop handover and defense operations will be stopped immediately, and all units will enter a war-ready state!"

    "Commander, are you worried that the Japanese will launch an attack tonight?" Chief of Staff Wagner asked in surprise.

    Lieutenant General Barry Hersman took a deep breath, shook his head, and said uncertainly: "I can't tell for sure, but the uneasiness in my heart tells me that some precautions are still necessary!"

    At 2:45 in the morning on January 15th, General Ito Genzaburo and all senior officers from the dispatched army headquarters gathered in the war room with serious faces. Everyone looked at their watches without listening.  General Ito was sitting on the chair, his eyes slightly closed, holding the command knife in both hands, with a calm expression. Outside, the unheard "ticking!" sound of the transmitter seemed particularly harsh at this moment.

    When the time came, Chief of Staff Major General Yamaguchi walked quickly to General Ito and whispered: "Your Excellency, Commander, it's time to launch the attack!"

    "Let's begin!" General Ito opened his eyes suddenly, a fierce light flashed through, and three words stood out dryly.

    "Boom! Boom! - Boom!" In the quiet night sky, earth-shattering artillery sounds suddenly rang out. The Japanese artillery, led by eight large-caliber howitzer brigades, took out all their artillery and fired in every assault direction.  , began to rain down artillery shells on the Allied positions, especially in the three important breakthrough directions. The density of Japanese artillery reached the highest density since the start of the Australian battlefield.

    The artillery shells trailing long tail flames flew across the night sky and hit the Allied positions hard. The flashes of fire illuminated the dark night sky. The smoke filled the air, shrapnel flew across the sky, and the bodies of the Allied soldiers exploded.  , flew into the air. Although they were prepared, under the unprecedented intensive artillery fire attack from the Japanese army, the Allied soldiers on the defense lines of the Flinders Mountains and the Baril Mountains suffered a big loss from the beginning!

    Barbed wire fences, bunkers and bunkers were mixed with the bodies of Allied soldiers under the explosion points one after another. They flew up in the air and turned into broken bricks and tiles. Each hilltop was shrouded in the flickering light of the fire.  In the smoke of the night sky.

    The sound of artillery suddenly exploded, and Lieutenant General Barry Hersman, who had just passed out, suddenly woke up and rushed out of the tent before he could put on his military uniform.?I was horrified to see that my eyes were filled with burning flames reaching into the sky, and what I heard was the violent explosion that filled my eardrums.

    (To be continued) (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, the novel will be better and updated faster!
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