The expeditionary force began to dominate Southeast Asia by recruiting defeated soldiers

Chapter 572: The Japanese Counterattack

"Target, beach obstacle area, prepare all-ship salvo."

Following the captain's order.

Chichichichichi——!!!

As if the gates of hell had opened, countless dazzling tongues of fire gushed out from those honeycomb-shaped launch tubes. They were the 132mm "Thunder" solid-fuel rockets.

A total of 2400 rockets, in just over ten seconds, like a violent steel storm, with terrifying screams that tore through the air and dragged long, dense white smoke trails, covering the entire designated landing beach.

Boom boom boom boom——!!!

The terrifying explosion waves that cannot be described in words swept across the coast, and the entire beachhead was instantly engulfed by the endless flames of explosions and the smoke and dust rising into the sky.

Barricades, barbed wire, anti-tank cones, minefields... all the carefully arranged obstacles were torn into pieces, blown away, and melted like pieces of paper under the devastating saturation rocket coverage.

Qi Quan, the commander-in-chief sitting on the fleet's flagship, looked through a telescope and even felt that the beach had been flattened.

He subconsciously sighed in his heart, wondering if the sand would be burned into glass-like crystals by the high temperature?

Thick smoke billowed, blocking out the sky and the sun.

The shock wave from the explosion even pushed back the waves on the sea surface.

When the last rocket exploded and the smoke and dust dissipated slightly, the landing beach, which was originally full of death traps, had turned into a scorched earth with huge craters and curling blue smoke, like the surface of the moon. Almost all obstacles had disappeared.

"Okay, let the first wave of landing troops attack!"

Qi Quan's order was transmitted to the fleet via radio.

On the sea, thousands of ships set sail at the same time.

Countless LCM personnel landing craft, LCT tank landing craft, and LVTA-1 amphibious tanks, with their engines roaring, cut through the white waves and, like arrows shot from a bow, launched a full-speed charge towards the coastline that had just been baptized by steel and flames.

The bow of the boat split the waves. The officers and soldiers of the Nanyang National Defense Army squatted in the bumpy cabin, holding their weapons tightly, with solemn expressions.

The gun barrel of the Sherman tank was raised on the landing craft, pointing towards the unknown shore.

The LVTA-1 amphibious tank floats directly on the water, relying on its tracks to paddle and rush ahead.

This scene is magnificent, tragic, and filled with an indomitable and desperate momentum.

And at this moment, in the inland of Palembang City.

According to Tanabe Moritake's deployment before his death, the Japanese 73rd Independent Brigade (about 5000 people) should have been hidden in a preset position far away from the coastline, waiting for the Nanyang landing troops to go deep inland and out of the range of naval artillery support, and then relying on the terrain to put up a tenacious resistance, replicating the model of Luzon Island, using space to exchange for time, and consuming the enemy with blood.

However, the sudden death of Moritake Tanabe, the instant evaporation of the supreme command, and the devastating air raid in the early morning had already paralyzed and panicked the entire 25th Army.

The radio was jammed and the phone was filled with confusing information that was difficult to distinguish between true and false.

When the Nanyang Navy's heavy artillery began to bombard the coast, especially when the devastating salvo of rockets covered the beach, the huge explosions and the flames rising into the sky could be clearly felt even by the 73rd Brigade far inland.

Brigade Commander Major General Sato was completely panicked.

He had lost contact with the military headquarters and did not know what the next plan was, the movements of friendly forces, and even less the true intentions and main attack direction of Nanyang.

All he heard was the apocalyptic roar of cannons from the coast and saw the columns of smoke that blocked out the sky.

"Damn it, the Nanyang people have landed, they want to seize the ports and oil fields." Major General Sato paced anxiously in the command center and made a fatal misjudgment.

"We can't let their vanguard gain a foothold. We must drive them into the sea immediately. Order the troops, all-out attack! Target—the port area and the coastline. Immediately, charge immediately, drive out their vanguard, and recapture the beachhead!"

Tanabe Moritake's tactic of "avoiding the enemy's attack and consuming the enemy in depth" was completely abandoned.

Major General Sato, who was eager to show his ability and try to save the situation, chose the most stupid tactic in panic and chaos - launching a frontal counterattack on the beachhead in the face of the enemy's most intense firepower.

Driven by their officers, thousands of Japanese soldiers of the 73rd Independent Brigade rushed out of their hidden positions in a chaotic manner, shouting "Load on board" like a flood that had broken through a dam. They carried rifles, sabers, machine guns, grenade launchers, and even pushed a few pitiful Type 92 infantry guns, and launched a suicidal charge along the roads and fields leading to the port area.

Further ahead of them were the expatriates and native puppet troops who were forced to flee. Their weapons were even worse, with only a few pistols and Mauser 1924 rifles left by the Dutch. Most of them were holding sharpened bamboo spears.

"Yo, bayonet against bayonet, very spirited!" Major General Sato, leaning on a saber, looked at his subordinates with satisfaction as they launched a counterattack.

With such a resolute momentum, his troops will surely be able to drive the vanguard of the South Seas into the sea relying on Bushido, hahahaha!

Major General Sato, his head full of old ideas and old tactics, watched his troops crash headfirst into the sharpest and deadliest spearhead of the Nanyang landing force.

After all, Japanese generals who have brains, ideas and know how to fight, such as Jia Lin Zhongdao and Yamashita Fengwen, would not set up their headquarters in a place like Sumatra.

At this moment, the bows of the first batch of landing craft had already hit the beach, which had been plowed by rockets, and the bow doors fell down with a bang.

"For Nanyang, charge!" The officers were the first to leap out.

"Kill!" The soldiers roared, their bayonets fixed on their Garand rifles and Thompson submachine guns, and, stepping over the scorching sand and burning wreckage, rushed onto the beach like tigers descending from the mountains.

Immediately after, the bow doors of the LCT landing craft slammed into the shallows, and Sherman tanks roared down the ramp, their heavy tracks rolling over the soft sand. Their turrets rotated, their black muzzles and coaxial machine guns pointed inland.

Further away, the LVTA-1 amphibious tank also climbed onto the coast and joined the assault.

The Nanyang Marines, having just landed on the beach and before they had time to establish a secure position, were shocked to find that, across the fields and roads at the end of their sight, a dense mass of Japanese soldiers, like a yellow tide, were surging towards the beach, rifles raised high and howling frantically, recklessly charging towards it.

"The devils, the devils are coming."

"Ready to fight."

"Where are the tanks? Let the tanks go first. Machine guns, fire!"

Instantly, more intense gunfire erupted on the beachhead, including the sound of automatic weapons firing, the precise bursts of rifle fire, the roar of tank main guns, the explosions of grenades... all intertwined into one.

A bloody massacre suddenly broke out on the coastline outside Palembang!