Chapter 303 The Final Battle (3)
Chapter 303
After five hours of artillery preparations, the German artillery fire began to spread. Only the Seventh Expeditionary Force, which was directly under the heavy artillery brigade, did not conduct artillery counter-suppression. The German firepower was too fierce. There were at least three heavy artillery brigades firing.
There are also many artillery pieces with a caliber of over 200.
Before the thick gun smoke dissipated, the faint sound of the tank engine could already be heard.
Li Pinxian, a first-year student in Baoding, emerged from the shell-proof hole, spit out the gravel in his mouth, and shouted loudly: "The Germans are coming, prepare to fight." Baoding Military Academy in this time and space is somewhat tragic. Especially the first-year students, it is even more tragic.
Tragedy. They were both from the Army University, but they couldn't compare to the group of Emperor's disciples who graduated from Wuhu Continental University. After Yuan Shikai's fall, many Baoding first-year students quit the army or went to the reserve security corps. Li Pinxian persisted, even if he was just a company commander.
Two French-made infantry guns were dug out of the bunker. This infantry gun was improved by the French, reduced in caliber to 57MM, lengthened the barrel, and became a professional anti-tank gun. In order to deal with German tanks,
The expeditionary force was equipped with a large number of such guns, reaching the level of two in each company.
Five hundred meters away, eight tanks were spotted on the front of the Eighth Company position, followed by no less than one battalion of German infantry. The barrage advanced and the tanks coordinated with the infantry advance. This was a tactic used by the Germans to deal with the Chinese Expeditionary Force.
Of course, this was a tentative attack. Even though it was tentative, the German army invested a brigade of troops at once.
"Master, this is a probing attack by the German army. The artillery regiment should not expose its position." Chief of Staff Gao Shuai was a little nervous and went to Wu Peifu to report. Wu Peifu didn't really like this member of the first-term crash course of the teaching team. He felt that he
His character is a bit boring. In fact, the officers in the Beiyang system don't like officers who came from the teaching team because they feel that they are promoted too quickly.
"Well, let's see and then talk." Wu Peifu replied expressionlessly. This order was somewhat cold. Without the support of artillery, the pressure on the infantry on the front line suddenly increased.
Boom! Boom! Two artillery shells fell in the German army. They did not hit the German tank, but only knocked over a few people. The tank found an infantry gun and immediately stopped and fired in retaliation. Boom! Boom! The infantry gun fired in the second round and hit one.
tank.
The German tanks fired back one after another, and the soldiers of the two infantry guns fired methodically against the gunfire of the German tanks. When he saw this scene, Li Pinxian felt a deep respect for the artillery platoon leader Huang Cheng and his men, who were also thin and small.
These first-term students of the Nanjing Artillery School can also be regarded as half of the emperor's disciples. In the National Defense Force, a team with a low cultural level, they are people with "identity". This identity makes it difficult for them to have a clear relationship with ordinary soldiers.
They were harmonious. Especially since they had been officers for a long time, many veterans were shocked and even thought privately that they must have had diarrhea during the war.
Li Pinxian was humble and worried about the fighting will of these artillerymen. Only when they started fighting did he realize that these young men were not simple.
Boom boom boom, an infantry gun was directly hit by the tank's counterattack fire, and all four gunners fell. Li Pinxian felt pain in his heart, and when he waved his hand to ask people to come up to rescue, a shell also fell next to the other gun.
Although nothing happened, all four gunners fell down. "Throw away his mother!" Seeing Huang Cheng fall, Li Pinxian jumped out of the trench, and the correspondent around him quickly followed. He trotted to the gun emplacement, his head covered with blood.
Huang Cheng had already gotten up. He looked around and saw that there was no companion. He calibrated the gun position alone, took aim and pulled the gun rope. With a bang, a German tank was hit by a bullet and burst into flames.
"Shells!" Huang Sheng screamed, forgetting that all his comrades had fallen. When a cannonball was pushed into the barrel, he noticed that it was Li Pinxian. Huang Cheng smiled hard and said: "Go back to your command position.
Go, you are the company commander."
As he spoke, he continued to aim and shoot, but missed a shot. He bared his teeth and cursed, completely ignoring the blood that was flowing down. The medical soldiers came up to bandage him, and Huang Cheng said, "We'll talk later. Someone will bring the shells."
Li Pinxian sent two soldiers to Huang Cheng. When he slipped back to the position, a shell hit Huang Cheng's infantry cannon. Seeing Huang Cheng fall in a pool of blood, Li Pinxian punched the soil hard.
The German army continued to approach, and the remaining three tanks had already approached the anti-tank trench. Whether this thing can be used in actual combat is still a question mark. Three hundred meters away, a German tank suddenly jumped forward, revealing the tank behind it.
infantry.
"Fire! Hit the infantry!" Li Pinxian gave the order, and two 60mm mortars were the first to speak. The two rounds popped out of the chamber, blowing up a group of German troops. At the same time, the Maxim machine gun fired.
The German army retreated like a tide. In the high-power gun scope, the Chinese mortars were still chasing and killing. Gradually, the battlefield ushered in a brief silence. Bob, the new German general, pursed his lips tightly and always stared at the opposite side.
battlefield.
Whoosh, whoosh, the German artillery fired again. When Bob did not notice the counterattack of the Chinese heavy artillery, he looked back somewhat disappointedly and stood up. A German lieutenant colonel next to him stepped forward and said: "General, please allow me to bring the tank."
Commandos attack."
Bob took a stern look at his most capable assistant, Guderian. This guy was a talent he discovered while fighting the Russian army in the east. He had an extremely keen understanding of how to use tanks to launch attacks. "You didn't see it?
Did the Chinese dig anti-tank trenches? Didn't you find that the Chinese heavy artillery never fired? Tell me, now that tanks are attacking, how do you solve these two problems?"
Bob asked in his eyes, Guderian stood at attention and lowered his head speechlessly. After a pause, he said: "It would be great if our planes could find the Chinese artillery and carry out bombing."
This sentence made Bob's heart move, and then he shook his head and said: "Don't count on the planes for the time being, they are all dealing with the American heavy artillery." After saying that, Bob continued to observe through the gun scope, and the position of the Chinese ** team was moving.
Shrouded in a sea of fire, the heavy artillery unit that arrived in the early morning played an important role at the critical moment. Bob knew very well the tenacity of the Chinese and their military system. Under this situation, any officers and soldiers who dared to escape would be killed.
Will be severely punished by battlefield discipline.
In the afternoon, in the general headquarters of the Troyes Expeditionary Force, Cai E kept circling in the war room, waiting for the latest news. When Feng Guozhang strode in, Cai E immediately asked: "Where are the French? Do the Americans have the latest news?"
News? How is Lan Jihao's situation?" Feng Guozhang silently handed over a telegram. Cai E took it and looked at it, then angrily threw it on the table.
The French army changed its mind and replaced the Ninth Group Army with reinforcements. The commander of the group army was Fuxi. This army has been resting and reorganizing. In the previous battles, the Ninth Group Army performed well, but the losses were not small. After the temporary reinforcement, there are currently 12
An infantry division with more than 300 large-caliber artillery pieces. In the telegram, Pétain explained that this change was to take into account the proactive offensive in the western battlefield, which would be more effective. Pétain asked the Chinese Expeditionary Force to cooperate closely with the US military to stick to the defense line.
In other words, the French reinforcements were an incomplete group army, and even the original plan for the Chinese Expeditionary Force's counterattack had been changed. This made Cai E very annoyed and said angrily: "The order changes in the morning and evening, go and ask via telegram
, what on earth do the French want to do?”
At this time, Zhang Xiaohuai strode in and said: "No need to ask, it is obvious that the French army is more interested in recapturing Paris. I estimate that the British and French army's plan is to let the Chinese and American armies hold back the main force of the German army while they recapture Paris and
Take back Lance."
"Then what should we do? Should we fight back or fight?" Feng Guozhang had no other solution. Without a decent group army reinforcement from the French army, it would be difficult for the expeditionary force to reverse the situation of being passively beaten.
"What a waste of counterattack. I don't know how many more days the US military can hold on." Cai E cursed and walked to the map to worry.
"Let the French army go directly to Saint-Dizier and cooperate with the US military to hold on. Draw the Third Army from the reserve to reinforce the Seventh Army. Other troops should abandon the first line of defense after nightfall and withdraw to the second line of defense. There is no other way.
That’s it, the French guys are such bastards.” Cai E looked at the map for a while and made adjustments.
Zhang Xiaohuai said: "If necessary, retreat across the Aube River." Cai E shook his head and said: "No, if we withdraw, the US military will be in misery. Unless French reinforcements arrive and a new line of defense is established behind the US military
, otherwise if you fail to hold on for a breath, it will be the result of a complete defeat."
"Britain and France have assembled a hundred infantry divisions on the western battlefield, preparing for a large-scale attack. The wounds of the Battle of Nivelles are still bleeding, and the French have forgotten the pain." Feng Guozhang sarcastically said, and soon turned grimacing. He was really happy.
Can't get up.
"Hurry up and contact the French Ninth Army and ask them where they are? Damn foreign devils."
The sun set again, and the last trace of blood on the horizon was holding on. Li Pinxian on the position was temporarily relieved. Throughout the day, the German army launched fierce attacks again and again as many as fifteen times. Only thirty people remained in the entire Eighth Company position.
Several people, this was the result of three reinforcements. Li Pinxian miraculously survived, except that a piece of flesh was cut off from his arm by mortar shrapnel. In fact, Li Pinxian was able to withdraw in the morning, but it was a pity that he did not have time.
After withdrawing, the German attack began, and they had no choice but to stay and continue fighting. At that time, the Eighth Company still had about fifteen people. After a battle, the reinforcements of the Ninth Company Commander and Deputy Company Commander were killed, and Li Pinxian had to stay and continue to command the battle.
"Notify the battalion headquarters that we need reinforcements, otherwise this position with a frontage of 500 meters will not be able to withstand five minutes." Li Pinxian casually called a soldier to report the news. His correspondent Xiao Geng had been killed in battle.
After repelling the German army again, Wu Peifu also breathed a sigh of relief. The German army's attack was so crazy that all the reserves in his hand were smashed out for a whole day. Although the number of casualties was not calculated, Wu Peifu knew very well that the first
The 44th Division had at most seven to eight thousand men left. Even so, the division's artillery regiment never opened fire, and Wu Peifu had to stay until the most critical moment. (To be continued. Please search Piao Tian Literature, the novel is better and updated faster
Chapter completed!