kingnovel Chapter 1257 Standardized Operations
Chapter 1257 Standardized Operations
Heavy Artillery Regiment of the 2nd Division of the 4th Army.
There were no slogans, only the soldiers' standardized operations. The entire heavy artillery regiment, with approximately dozens of heavy guns, was now fully operational. All the soldiers were gritting their teeth and holding on. They should have been resting by now, but the allocated ammunition hadn't been used up yet.
The brothers knew that every additional shell we fired at this moment would reduce the number of casualties among our comrades on the position. One of our shells could leave two or three thousand square meters barren, and the Japanese soldiers naturally couldn't escape it. The larger the area our shells covered, the fewer Japanese soldiers remained on the position.
Meanwhile, another artillery unit was cooperating with them: 120mm infantry mortars assembled from various units. These mortars were all welded onto trucks, and they were the fastest, immediately launching a blanket bombardment of the positions in front of them as soon as they reached a firing location.
Because of the use of these mortars, the heavy artillery regiments had fewer tasks, allowing them to concentrate their forces on bombarding positions at greater distances. We could also deploy our forces in echelons, using mortars for close-range engagements and heavy artillery only for longer distances.
While heavy artillery is undeniably powerful, its rate of fire is far too slow, much slower than that of mortars. If coordinated properly, a mortar can fire over 20 rounds per minute, and four mortars could bombard the position of an entire Japanese battalion in an instant.
When tallying the battle results, although it was our heavy artillery regiment that put immense pressure on the Japanese, the mortars used by the infantry actually killed the most Japanese soldiers. These mortars could drop hundreds of shells every day. Even if the Japanese tried to find cover, our bombardment was covert; as long as they were still on their positions, they couldn't escape our shells.
After all the artillery had fired its rounds, our tanks and armored vehicles went into action. The machine guns on the tanks, combined with the 40mm cannons on the armored vehicles, made them virtually invincible on the front lines. The various defensive fortifications built by the Japanese proved largely useless against our armored forces.
Moreover, the main guns of the tanks were rarely used, mainly because the Japanese fortifications were poorly constructed. Even those makeshift pillboxes could be easily destroyed by a single sweep of the armored vehicle's small cannons.
The Japanese are still thinking we should fight a positional war with them; their minds are stuck in the last World War. The fact that three lines of defense have been breached in succession has finally brought them to their senses. Previously, they gained a significant advantage against the Nationalist army, capturing one or two counties almost every day. But now they are retreating much faster.
Of course, for the brothers of the 2nd Infantry Division, when they passed through some counties along the line and saw the cities that had been destroyed by the Japanese, the brothers felt even more distressed.
Therefore, the 2nd Division headquarters has issued an order to shoot all Japanese soldiers along the way, regardless of rank. We don't have the time to deal with prisoners, so we don't need to take them with us at this time; anyone who surrenders will die.
Of course, there was also a group of Japanese officers in the column who were trying to persuade the Japanese soldiers to surrender. They followed behind the tanks, shouting loudly to get the Japanese soldiers on the front lines to surrender. We kept telling the Japanese soldiers that they would be spared if they laid down their weapons. But when they entered the prisoner-of-war camp, all we could say was sorry.
The dozen or so prisoner-of-war camps were filled with bloodshed. When the Japanese soldiers entered and stood in the surrounding enclosures, the armored vehicles began firing at them. After a large number of Japanese soldiers fell, our soldiers would finish them off one by one.
Don't think you can survive by hiding under other people's corpses. Once everyone is dead, we'll immediately start spraying gasoline and then use flamethrowers to burn you all to ashes. After a while, the wind will blow, and nothing will remain. Aside from a lingering, unpleasant smell in the air, nobody will know these Japanese soldiers were ever imprisoned here.
As required by the Second Division headquarters, although we haven't signed any agreements yet, we should try to keep this mess from being known to outsiders. If we can get it done, we should hurry up and do it.
In this situation, almost all of the more than 6000 captured Japanese soldiers were disposed of. After the war, many people asked the Second Division about these prisoners, but unfortunately, the Second Division personnel all denied it. We were advancing at such a fast pace, covering about 40 to 50 kilometers per day; how could we have had the time to capture so many prisoners?
Moreover, the Second Division not only denied it, but also turned around and accused us. After your people were scattered, they went around harming our civilians and causing great damage to the surrounding areas. Now they are asking us for prisoners. When your advance speed is 40 or 50 kilometers per day, would you still stay behind to capture prisoners?
This is not progress in peacetime, but progress in wartime, where every step comes at a heavy price. Therefore, under these circumstances, let alone capturing prisoners, simply ensuring the supply of our own people is already quite an achievement.
The Japanese troops moved in units of battalion at a time. They threw battalions in like moths to a flame, and couldn't stop the Second Division's advance at all. When the third line of defense was breached by the Second Division's tanks, the Japanese finally admitted their tactical failure, but it was too late.
The vanguard of the 2nd Infantry Division had already joined up with the local Nationalist 37th Division. At this moment, both sides announced to the outside world that the Japanese encirclement and suppression campaign could only be declared a failure.
Although there were still more than ten kilometers of troops advancing rapidly on the subsequent positions, they could not be stopped at all, and the attacks along the way had little effect.
The Japanese originally thought that the vanguard of the 2nd Infantry Division was strong, so we should let them pass first. However, the long, single-file formation that followed had many weaknesses. We could easily find a place to attack and block them in the middle, splitting the force into two parts, and then annihilate them one by one.
The plan was excellent, but after nearly 20 attempts, they still couldn't stop the enemy from getting through. On the contrary, almost all the soldiers who participated in the operation never returned.