si-mexico Chapter 293: The Japs Retreat to Xingwei City
Chapter 293: The Japs Retreat to Xingwei City
This time the Xingwei devils changed their tactics. They knew that Xu's army would launch a fierce bombardment as usual, so they not only widened the distance between the several lines of defense, but also concentrated the tanks of each division together and then divided them into two tank detachments.
One detachment was at the front of the line of defense, and the other was in the middle.
Masamitsu Kawabe of Mawlamyine was also severely scolded by Terauchi Hisaichi for the destruction of the 5th Flying Division. At this moment, he had personally arrived in Xingwei to unify the command of the 10 troops in battle.
Following him were tens of thousands of support troops and a tank division, and he was determined to stop Xu's army in Xingwei.
Although the Japanese did not know the specific data of Xu's army's artillery, based on the estimates of the pilots of the 5th Flying Division who escaped, they roughly knew that the range of Xu's army's artillery was more than 20 kilometers.
With such a long range, the Japanese had no artillery of equal strength to fight against. Even the longest-range Meiji 45-type 150mm cannon only had a maximum range of 22 kilometers.
However, its maximum elevation angle is only 30 degrees, and it is not possible to shoot at long distances in the complex terrain around it. Moreover, this gun weighs more than 20 tons. With the existing industrial capacity of the Japanese, it is impossible to build a vehicle that can be towed between mountains, so this gun can only be deployed in plains.
What about the artillery of the Xu family army? The Type 83 152mm self-propelled howitzer has a range of elevation and depression between -5 and 65 degrees. At the maximum range, unless there is a towering mountain in front of it, it is not a problem to fire at a range of 15 kilometers, and 20 kilometers is not difficult either.
However, due to the terrain restrictions near Xingwei, the artillery brigade's Type 66 152mm howitzer could not fire that far because the maximum firing angle was only 45 degrees.
The Japanese knew the advantage of Xu's army's artillery, so they moved two-thirds of the tanks to the front line and chose to strike first.
Just as the two artillery regiments opened fire on Xingwei, 200 Japanese tanks and a mechanized infantry regiment of the 6th Division set out. The so-called mechanized infantry was nothing more than a dozen armored vehicles, and the rest of the Japanese were riding on trucks.
As the 5th Flying Division suffered a devastating blow, Kawabe Masamitsu did not dare to send out the 9th Flying Division at will. He was afraid that this division would also be lost. Therefore, the Japanese had no air superiority in the area east of Mandalay and did not dare to send out bombers.
But Hebian Masamitsu didn't know that Xu's air force was in the process of replacing its fighter jets and could not be deployed. There were only 12 Q-5s that could be used for combat. If he tried harder, he might have a chance to regain air superiority.
[Three more J-3s were added, so I won’t mention them separately, and I won’t go into detail later.]
However, Xu Le was not stupid. He was betting that the Japanese would not dare to send fighters out so quickly after losing 300 fighters, so he chose to change to the J-7 at this critical moment.
However, Xu Le always likes to prepare for the worst. He and Liu Quanhua, Wei Li and others made a simulation on how to break the situation if they were the Japanese.
Finally, several possible attacks, defenses, and retreats by the Japanese were taken into account.
Since the Japanese dared to use their most precious air force to launch a suicide attack, they would certainly dare to launch a suicide attack on the ground as well. So in order to deal with this possibility, Xu Le made preparations for both scenarios.
The two 130mm self-propelled rocket artillery battalions of the artillery brigade and the 107 rocket launchers of each regiment, which had not been deployed, became the main force this time. Don't underestimate the 130mm rocket launcher. Even if it hits a Type 69 tank, it can cause dizziness among the soldiers in the vehicle.
The thickest armor of the Japanese Type 25 medium tank was only 130 mm of homogeneous steel, and a rocket was enough to paralyze it.
Even if a small number of tanks broke through the rocket launcher's fire coverage, there were still three armored regiments of tanks waiting behind them.
At noon on October 10, when the Japanese tank detachment and mechanized infantry regiment arrived at the firing range of the rocket launchers along the Burma Road, a grand fireworks show began.
Hundreds of rocket launchers bombarded the Japanese tank troops. These were not 5mm cannons that could only fire five rounds a minute, but rocket launchers that could fire more than a dozen rockets in 150 seconds. They were a fatal blow to medium-range clustered troops.
In an instant, thousands of rockets exploded in the Japanese army, and the first round of explosions destroyed dozens of tanks and more than 10 trucks.
A suicide attack does not mean simple suicide. Kawabe Masazo knew the limitations of the terrain and that there was only one road to take. In order to avoid being wiped out at once, the detachment was divided into the front team and the rear team.
In case the front team's charge fails, the rear team can retreat!
It was the first time for the colonel who served as the detachment commander to see a rocket launcher. Such intensive firepower also refreshed his three views. However, as a graduate of the Japanese Army Officer Academy and with rich combat experience, he did not panic, but immediately ordered the troops to rotate forward and backward and withdraw from the firing circle.
However, due to road restrictions, several adjacent tanks were paralyzed by the explosion, blocking the road, and the remaining tanks could not be pushed open even if they tried.
As a result, the front team of the tank detachment was blocked on the road, unable to advance or retreat, and could only watch as dense rockets exploded around them.
The secondary reloading time of the rocket launcher takes about 3 to 5 minutes, so after 10 minutes, each rocket launcher has basically only fired two rounds.
But this was enough, all 100 Japanese tanks and more than 20 trucks were destroyed.
In this way, the tank assault detachment carefully organized by Hebian Zhengsan was easily disintegrated. Of the 200 tanks that set out, only half returned an hour later. The most helpless thing was that they did not see any trace of Xu's army.
Xu's army did not go up to pursue the Japanese. Instead, their howitzers continued to fire at Xingwei. Occasionally, helicopters would appear in the sky to help the artillery correct various parameters.
Hebian Masazo had no choice but to change his defense strategy again when the first line of defense on the outermost side was almost completely destroyed. He withdrew all his troops, retreated to Xingwei City, and used the city walls for defense.
The original wall of Xingwei City was very weak, but the Japanese had made preparations in advance and added a layer of concrete outside the original wall, which greatly increased its defensive capabilities!
Faced with the Japanese's move, Liu Quanhua took the lead in leading the 176th Division forward. As for the Japanese tanks blocking the road, they were just a pile of scrap metal in front of the Type 69 tanks, and a light push cleared their way.
At dusk that day, the First Army arrived about 18 kilometers north of Xingwei City, which was the Japanese's original outermost defense position.
The reason why Hingwe City is a medium-sized city is that the terrain within a radius of 20 kilometers is flat, making it suitable as a small transit station in northeastern Myanmar.
The Japanese retreated into the city and could indeed use the city walls for defense, but it also came in handy for the First Army because the artillery could bombard Xingwei City without hindrance.
The ground troops will not attack unless the ground is thoroughly turned over by artillery. This has always been a fine tradition of the Xu family army.
Anyway, there is no shortage of artillery shells, the front-line soldiers are fighting desperately, and the logistics troops are constantly transporting shells to the front line.
However, there is another reason why we are not in a hurry to attack this time, and that is to wait, to wait for the 4th Mechanized Infantry Division and the 101st Motorized Infantry Division in northern Myanmar.