si-mexico Chapter 1131 Tiger Regiment
Chapter 1131 Tiger Regiment
a certain place in southern Shandong
"Hurry, hurry, those behind, catch up quickly. This time we're really going to fight the Japanese, and we'll be facing three of their divisions at once, and possibly five more. Before, they always complained to me that we never had a chance to fight a big battle with the Japanese. Today, this big battle is right in front of you. If anyone messes up, don't blame me for not recognizing them with this gun."
A regimental commander from the 72nd Army stood on a tank and shouted to his men, "The two official roads ahead are full of trucks and armored vehicles, and large numbers of soldiers are marching south in high spirits."
Just as the regimental commander was giving his speech, a formation of four aircraft appeared in the sky, flying over our marching column at extremely low altitude, which caused our brothers on the ground to shout.
This is also a way for the Air Force comrades to boost morale. When the planes fly at extremely low altitudes, the comrades below are throwing their military caps and waving their shirts with all their might.
This person is Wang Laohu, the commander of the Independent Regiment of the 4th Division of the 4th Army of the 72nd Group Army.
Nobody knows what this guy's original name was, but he liked the name, so everyone started calling him that, and later his regiment became known as the Tiger Regiment.
When Zhang Haiguang led the Fourth Division south, it would face at least three main divisions. Li Shaoyi also felt that this was not a good idea, so on the way, he gave Chief of Staff Cui an order to pack up his Second Guards Regiment and immediately reorganize it into the Fourth Division's Independent Regiment, which would then be transported to the southern Shandong region by the Air Force.
All personnel were assembled within two hours, and without carrying any equipment, they arrived in the Lunan region in half a day. Zhang Haiguang had heard of this army before; although it was established to protect Li Shaoyi, it spent most of its time active on the battlefields against the Xiongnu, inflicting considerable losses on the Russian army.
Sending this unit to the Fourth Division at this moment was a shot in the arm for them. The Fourth Division's combat strength wasn't weak, but compared to the Tiger Regiment, it was still somewhat lacking. Therefore, Zhang Haiguang planned a head-on confrontation with Li Shaoyi. Since Li Shaoyi had sent the Tiger Regiment, he would upgrade it to an independent regiment, equip it with a large amount of heavy weaponry, and send it ahead of the rest of the Fourth Division to be the first to engage the Japanese.
At this moment, Wang Laohu was giving a battle mobilization speech. The reconnaissance plane reported that they were 35 li ahead in the northern Jiangsu region, where a Japanese infantry battalion was already stationed. Since we had just been transferred to the Fourth Division, and Division Commander Zhang had given us a share of the vanguard, we had to let them know our worth.
When will the Air Force attack Dalang Town?
After jumping off the tank, Wang Laohu boarded the heavy armored vehicle next to him. Due to space constraints, it was better to modify a heavy armored vehicle for the command vehicle. This way, it could accommodate one or two more combat staff officers, and orders could be issued more quickly. In addition, with various communication equipment, it was indeed more suitable than a tank.
"Report to the regimental commander: The air force will launch an air raid on Dalang Town in 15 minutes and has requested that we send ground troops within 10 minutes of the air raid being completed."
The operations staff immediately brought over a telegram summary, which contained all their communications with the air force bombing squadron. A total of six Stuka bombers were enough to take down a Japanese battalion. After they finished bombing, our troops wouldn't encounter too much resistance.
"Notify Company Commander Fan of the reconnaissance company to gather all the mortars around here. When the air force bombs, have them drop all the shells within the specified time. There are no civilians left inside anyway. Blow these Japanese devils into mincemeat."
Wang Laohu measured the speed on the map and confirmed that the reconnaissance company's speed was perfectly fine. After they arrived, they couldn't just stand by and watch; they should set up all the mortars so that when the air force bombed, their own artillery could also fire a barrage.
"At the same time, we sent a telegram to the brothers in the Seventh Transport Team, saying that our mortar shells were almost used up and asked them to airdrop them to us immediately, just five basic loads would be fine."
When Wang Laohu needed supplies, he acted completely differently from other officers. The other officers were generally greedy and wanted to take more than their share, hoping to have more supplies in case they ran out when fighting broke out.
But Wang Laohu didn't have that idea. He wanted as much weaponry and equipment as his army could use. In his view, taking more than one's share wasn't necessarily wrong, it depended on the mission. Take our current mission, for example. If too many supplies were airdropped, it wouldn't bring us much benefit, but rather become a burden.
Carrying so many supplies on a forced march wouldn't allow for rapid movement on the battlefield, thus negating any speed advantage. Therefore, in such situations, the best option is to have the air force airdrop only what you need. Unfortunately, some officers lacked foresight and didn't consider this, forcing the military to gradually discover this in actual combat.
He learned this the hard way while fighting the Russians in the north. At the time, he always felt that if his army was deep in the grasslands and didn't have enough supplies, his brothers might not feel at ease. But later he realized that this was unnecessary.
Our air force transport squadrons have already divided the grassland into several small sections, with three or four transport planes responsible for each section. When you arrive at a certain area, some transport planes are already waiting in the sky, ready to drop supplies on you at any time. There's no need to worry about whether you'll have anyone to support you while you're fighting.
At that time, Wang Laohu said, "Whether we are 1000 miles away from headquarters or 2000 miles away, as long as our brothers in the Air Force can guarantee that there are transport planes in the sky, what do we have to be afraid of? Just let them drop whatever we need. Except for tanks and armored vehicles, there is no problem with dropping anything else."
Before heading to northern Jiangsu, he had asked Zhang Haiguang about the availability of 17 transport planes to support their entire independent regiment. Hearing this number put his mind at ease. If 17 transport planes couldn't guarantee their safety, then it would only prove that they were all incompetent.