Chapter 365 Chinese Expeditionary Force Laos Campaign (4)
Suddenly, the sentry remembered something and became vigilant, "What a nonsense, the commander has an order, patrols and sentries are not allowed to smoke, don't you know?"
The visitor was stunned. He was completely unprepared for this question. Almost instantly, a smile appeared on his face, "Brother, you know, patrolling at night is very hard, and it is easy to get sleepy. Smoking a cigarette secretly does not violate discipline." Bar."
The sentry was about to retort when he suddenly felt a chill in his chest. The person's left hand covered his mouth, but he said loudly: "Oh, if you're not allowed to smoke, I won't smoke. You go ahead." The dagger in his right hand touched his heart. Stir it and pull it out. Immediately afterwards, the cold blade slashed across the sentry's throat again.
The sentry stared, but no sound came out from his throat, and he fell limply into the arms of the visitor.
A Japanese special soldier immediately stood at the sentry post, and the other men dragged the sentry into the grass in the dark and put away the sentry's weapons and ammunition.
Lieutenant Colonel Yoshikawa led the Japanese special forces into the camp, and under the cover of night, searched the camp for the general headquarters. Since this group of Japanese soldiers entered the camp, several secret sentries in the dark noticed it one after another. They could not see clearly in the dark, so they fired warning shots to spread the news.
When Lieutenant Colonel Yoshikawa entered the camp, he quietly separated 27 people into three groups, and he personally led the search for the Chinese Expeditionary Force headquarters. The main force was led by Major Matsuda to attract the attention of Chinese soldiers.
Lieutenant Colonel Yoshikawa led the people forward for about 1,000 meters and touched the small village where the general headquarters was located. The cunning Lieutenant Colonel Yoshikawa led his team to lurk near the entrance of the small village.
Suddenly, a gunshot was heard, and the long gunshots were heard far away in the quiet night. Major Matsuda led nearly 70 special forces members to occupy the terrain and disperse the Chinese soldiers who attacked various tents. Several tents were blown up and dozens of Chinese soldiers were killed. Then the lights around the barracks were brightly lit, and bright searchlights scanned the camp area.
The officer on duty immediately noticed something was wrong when he received the news. There was no company arranged to go out on duty tonight. How could a company return at night? The officer on duty immediately notified the headquarters guard group to protect the headquarters, and also notified a nearby battalion of the Youth Army to prepare for battle.
Guard commander Zhou Weiqiao immediately selected the terrain and prepared to surround the company.
The Japanese soldiers in the camp were immediately exposed to the light. The strong light shone on the faces of the Japanese, making their eyes squint involuntarily. Under the bright light, although the Japanese soldiers were wearing the uniforms of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, the unique curved magazines of the Bai-style submachine guns in their hands gave them away.
The Japanese special forces were well-trained after all. Almost as soon as the bright light shone on their faces, they all jumped towards nearby hiding places. The heavy machine guns set up on the watchtowers around the barracks suddenly opened fire, and the crisp sound of gunfire shattered the tranquility of the night.
The Chinese soldiers in the barracks were slightly confused, but they immediately stabilized their position, occupied the terrain, and started a fierce battle with the Japanese army.
A battalion of Chinese soldiers quickly came for reinforcements. Under the cover of more than a dozen Xiafei light tanks, they compressed from all sides towards the direction of the Japanese. The tank's machine gun was spitting flames, and the Japanese special forces shot out the searchlight while hiding.
Seemingly knowing that the Japanese had this trick, several flares quickly rose over the camp, and the bright light illuminated the camp. The Japs' hiding place was nowhere to be seen, but the Japs' marksmanship was indeed excellent. In one round, three surrounding heavy machine gun fire points were knocked out.
Two tanks of the Chinese ** team were also blown up by Japanese special forces members with cluster grenades, but the Japanese special forces members who attacked the tanks paid the lives of five people.
The battalion commander immediately adjusted his tactics and surrounded the Japanese soldiers with sandbags in a circle, trapping the Japanese soldiers in the sandbag fortifications. The soldiers relied on sandbag fortifications to engage in fierce battles with the Japanese army.
The tanks confidently and boldly fired at the Japanese troops with vehicle-mounted machine guns outside the sandbag circle. The fierce "tap-tap-tap" machine gun fire made the ground around the Japanese army chirp. The Japanese army's small arms were powerless against tanks. They sent soldiers several times to try and blow up the tanks over the sandbags. However, the Chinese soldiers behind the sandbags were very tenacious and their firepower was so fierce that the Japanese blasters could not jump out of the sandbag circle at all.
Yue Hanping was awakened by the fierce gunfire outside, "What's going on? There's such a big movement outside?" The staff officer on duty came in and reported: "Commander, a Japanese army sneaked into our camp and was discovered by a secret whistle. The senior headquarters officer on duty tonight The staff deployed a battalion to destroy this Japanese army."
Yue Hanping nodded and asked casually: "Where is Commander Zhou of the guard regiment?" The staff officer replied: "Sir, Commander Zhou has arranged defense lines and positions near the headquarters in accordance with the order to prevent the Japanese army from taking advantage of the chaos to attack the headquarters."
Yue Hanping patted his head and said, "I'm awake anyway, so I just want to take a look at the excitement." He led a few guards to the yard and lay on the wall of the yard to greet him.Look outside.
I saw flames flying not far away outside, and from time to time there were flashes of explosions from grenades and rifle grenades. Listening to the gunfire, there were only about 70 to 80 Japs. However, their fighting will is quite tenacious, the gunfire is fierce, and the resistance is still orderly.
Suddenly, there was a loud noise outside his headquarters. The sentry tower at the entrance of the village was blown down, and Captain Zhou's angry shouts were heard: "***, the little devil is so smart that he actually penetrated under the sentry tower!"
Not a single sound of Japanese troops was heard, only the firelight flickering at the entrance of the village and the shadows of people shaking. Soldiers from the guard regiment surrounded him from three sides. Lieutenant Colonel Yoshikawa didn't know what went wrong. His team had been very careful and could not be exposed. But why did the Chinese team still notice it?
Lieutenant Commander Yoshikawa didn¡¯t know whether it was his luck or tragedy. When he discovered the headquarters, he was also deeply surrounded. The lieutenant colonel decisively ordered 27 people to gather together and find a weak direction to protrude.
The Chinese ** team occupies a favorable location and is familiar with the terrain. Commander Zhou has deployed a tight defense line here. Lieutenant Colonel Yoshikawa attacked several times but was beaten back. When the bright lights of the Chinese tanks merged into a curtain of light, tightly covering the Japanese soldiers, the tank-mounted machine guns fiercely spit out tongues of flame, suppressing the Japanese soldiers.
Although the Japanese special forces in the two places had outstanding individual combat capabilities, after all, flesh and blood cannot be compared with steel machinery. Under the encirclement of tanks, all the Japanese soldiers in the two places were dragged under the tanks' tracks and crushed into a piece of bloody mud. .
The episode at night did not have much impact on the arrival of the Chinese Expeditionary Force. The Chinese expeditionary force cleared the battlefield and fell asleep peacefully. After breakfast the next day, U.S. bombers visited a circle of Japanese positions as usual and dropped a large number of bombs and incendiary bombs.
The air raid lasted for more than an hour, turning the Japanese second line of defense into a sea of ??flames.
After the US aircraft left, the three artillery groups of the Chinese Expeditionary Force gathered 150 howitzers, 105 howitzers, 75 mountain artillery, and the Japanese 125 cannon, 75 mountain artillery, and 92 infantry artillery captured in Myanmar to blast at the Japanese second line of defense.
In an instant, the sound of artillery was like thunder, and the sound shook the sky. The Japanese army's position trembled, and violent explosions came one after another. The Japanese army's position was filled with smoke and dust. Nearly a thousand cannons opened fire at the same time, and Vientiane City groaned and trembled under the fire of the Chinese Expeditionary Force.
The bunkers, bunkers, and trenches of the Japanese second line of defense continued to collapse and crack under the fierce and intensive artillery fire. The barbed wire in front of the position was twisted into a twist, flying up and down with the air waves of the explosion. Landmines in front of the Japanese positions were constantly detonated, and the exploding mines added to the spectacle of the artillery fire.
For a full 7 hours, the Chinese ** team fired more than 20,000 artillery shells at the Japanese second line of defense, and the Japanese second line of defense was blown to pieces. Many Japanese soldiers were killed by the sound of gunfire in the bombholes, causing blood to ooze from their mouths and noses.
At five o'clock in the afternoon, the sound of artillery stopped, and the Chinese Expeditionary Force launched an attack on the Japanese second line of defense from all sides. At the south gate, the tanks of the Chinese 3rd Armored Division roared towards the south gate of Vientiane.
The Japanese army had been keeping silent artillery fire. Then they suddenly opened fire, and fierce artillery fire continued to fall on the tanks in the center. Listening to the sound of artillery, there were some 125 heavy cannons. The intensive heavy artillery shells destroyed several Sherman tanks, and the Chinese tanks continued to advance forward despite the Japanese artillery fire.
Less than ten minutes after the Japanese heavy artillery opened fire, the Chinese heavy artillery group calculated the Japanese heavy artillery position based on the impact points of the artillery shells. More than 360 heavy artillery pieces of the Chinese Expeditionary Force heavy artillery group opened fire at the same time.
The Japanese heavy artillery was immediately suppressed by Chinese artillery fire, and fierce artillery fire kept falling near the Japanese heavy artillery position. Some of the artillery shells fell directly on the Japanese heavy artillery position, and the shells killed a large area of ??the Japanese artillery. The Japanese artillerymen dragged the cannon desperately, trying to enter the bunker to avoid the Chinese artillery fire. The Japanese artillerymen rescued them tenaciously, but five 125 heavy artillery pieces were still damaged.
The artillery fire of the ** squadron deprived the Japanese artillery of their right to speak, and the infantry attacked the Japanese position under the cover of tanks. On the second line of defense, in the remaining fortifications, the Japanese still fired fiercely and densely with bullets. Some Japanese stubbornly straightened their flat-fire cannons and fired at the tanks in front. The Sanqi artillery firepower mainly equipped by the Japanese was generally insufficient, and it was unable to deal with Sherman tanks with armor thicknesses of more than 100 millimeters.
The shell made a small dent in the armor of the tank and bounced off the armor, but the tank continued to move forward without any damage. The tank gunner loads a shell and fires a shot at the launch point of the flat-fire cannon. The shells dragged white smoke and went straight to the flat-fire cannon in the ruins. With a loud "boom", the flat-fire cannon and the Japanese soldiers were reduced to wreckage.
The tanks of the Chinese Expeditionary Force roared, and their wide tracks rolled ferociously on the Japanese positions. The Japanese soldiers frequently fired bullets into the ruins. Many injured ghostsThe soldiers dragged their gun bags and crawled toward the tank in an attempt to blow up the tank.