novelaction Chapter 260: The Battle of Lancang River Begins
Chapter 260: The Battle of Lancang River Begins
As everyone knows, the battle in western Yunnan was actually very simple. All we had to do was fight westward along the Burma Road.
To put it simply, it was a tough fight of firepower. The only thing was that the Japanese controlled the Nujiang River and the Lancang River. Apart from this trouble, Xu's army had a huge advantage over the Japanese in every other aspect.
Starting from July 7, Xu's army entered a busy and intense period.
Everything went much more smoothly than planned. It took only two days for the 60th Army to complete the transformation from an ordinary army to a machine gun army.
It was just because of the previous series of battles that the troops were not enough to support the establishment of two divisions, so all the troops were merged into the 183rd Division.
Strictly speaking, the 60th Machine Gun Army should be called the 182nd Machine Gun Division, but the 184th Division is still there and can be supplemented at any time in the future.
Under Zhu Xiaoping's mobilization, 200 drivers of the Nanqiao Transport Team were willing to temporarily join the 60th Army to undertake the task of transporting ammunition. In addition, thousands of local residents of Yunnan Province volunteered to join the 60th Army to transport ammunition!
Originally, Xu Le had some small ideas and only equipped each gun of the 60th Army with 3 spare barrels. Now that they were half his own people, Xu Le directly took out a bunch of barrels from the system and got 10 spare barrels for each gun, so as to ensure uninterrupted firepower!
Anyway, the spare parts are free, and as long as there are enough manpower, we can have as many as you want!
But the more is not necessarily better. If a machine gun is equipped with 100 barrels, then there is no need to fight the war. A lot of people will be needed to carry the barrels.
However, the final Lancang River combat plan was divided into two parts. The infantry fighting vehicles of the 1st Mechanized Infantry Regiment attacked from Shanyang, where the Japanese troops were relatively small, making it suitable as a breakthrough point.
At the Gongguo Bridge, the main force of the Japanese gathered more, and they probably wanted to attack the center of Yunnan Province through the bridge. So far, the bridge is still intact, and neither side has any plans to blow up the bridge.
Because the bridge has limited load-bearing capacity, the 3rd Mechanized Infantry Division is in charge here. The two mechanized infantry regiments under its jurisdiction are equipped with 10-ton armored personnel carriers, and continuous passage through the bridge will not cause excessive pressure on the bridge.
After the explanation from the local guide from Yunnan Province, the result was just as Fang Yue expected. The shallowest waters near Shanyang are at Gongguo Ferry.
Further north, there are shallower areas where tanks can drive through without any preparation. However, the area is surrounded by mountains and there is only a small path for people to walk to the shore. Not to mention tanks, even horses can easily slip and fall off the cliff.
Therefore, Gongguo Ferry is the main crossing point, and Shanyang is the secondary point.
While Xu's army was making preparations, the Japanese were naturally also making preparations.
The Type 69 tank was very recognizable. The Japanese already knew that they were facing the 88th Army from Shanxi Province, so they set up several lines of defense along the coast. In addition to the 56th Division still in Myanmar, the 55th Division was also on its way.
The Japs even gave up guarding the county town in western Yunnan that they had already occupied, leaving only a hundred people in the city, and all the rest were mobilized to the Baoshan County area.
第18师团、第4师团、第33师团、第112师团，4个师团共10万兵力，以及从缅甸境内调来的上百架战斗机，数百门大炮。
Dozens of rapid-fire cannons were deployed along the coast of Shanyang and Gongguo alone!
The number of these kinds of equipment far exceeded the original organization of the Japanese. It can be seen how much effort the Japanese put in to attack the rear of the Tang Dynasty from western Yunnan.
In the early morning of July 7, the Japanese Air Force and Xu's Army Aviation Brigade simultaneously dispatched fighter jets to take off and started an air battle over the Lancang River.
This was the first air combat of the 88th Army Air Force, but only two squadrons, with a total of 2 J-24s, were dispatched.
The Japanese dispatched a flying squadron with more than 1 fighter planes!
"Brothers, this is our first air battle. If anyone gives up and doesn't fight well, I will skin him alive when I get back!"
Meng Bo, captain of the 1st Flying Squadron, shouted into the radio, then pulled the joystick hard. The J-5 he was flying quickly climbed upward, just avoiding the machine gun shells fired by the opposing Japanese plane.
The Japs didn't expect that the aircraft they were facing had such a high climb rate. It was probably at least 50 meters per second, several times that of their own aircraft.
But there was no time to think, the Japanese immediately pulled up the joystick and operated the plane to climb upwards.
However, due to the difference in performance, his plane had not yet risen much when he saw a plane diving towards it at an extremely fast speed overhead.
"Die to me!"
Following Meng Bo's light shout, the J-5's two 23mm machine guns opened fire immediately.
As expected, when almost facing the Japanese cross-section, the Japanese plane was hit instantly, first emitting black smoke and then catching fire.
A moment later, the Japanese plane crashed into a hill not far away and exploded!
The two planes exchanged fire for less than 30 seconds, and the J-5 won with an overwhelming advantage.
Meng Bo's victory in the first battle greatly encouraged the other pilots. They all followed his example and used their strong climb rate to fly diagonally behind the Japanese plane and fired at the cross-section of the back of the Japanese plane.
The cross-section generally refers to the area directly above the aircraft. This area is the largest and the probability of being hit is very high!
In just a few minutes, nearly half of the Japanese fighter planes were destroyed.
The commander of the 18th Division, Haruyoshi Momotake, who was watching the battle on the ground, couldn't help but wipe the cold sweat from his forehead. This was too damn scary.
It's not that he hadn't heard of the advanced aircraft of the 88th Army that appeared in Shanxi Province, but he had heard very little information. After all, the North China Front Army had only been sporadically bombed by the H-5.
Although he didn't know the performance of the 88th Army's fighter jets, he thought they were definitely better than bombers.
The commander of the flying regiment transferred from Yangon, Myanmar, thought the same, so in order to avoid accidents, he dispatched a reinforced squadron at a time, with a total of 48 fighter planes, which was half of the planes under his command.
Unfortunately, his idea of gaining an advantage by numbers failed, as the J-5's advantages in flight speed and climb rate far exceeded his imagination.
The Type 5 fighter jets equipped by the flying regiment were like chicks facing an eagle in front of the J-, and were at the mercy of the others!
"Order the anti-aircraft forces to open fire and shoot down the enemy planes!" shouted Haruyoshi Momotake, the commander-in-chief on the front line.
The Japs naturally also prepared anti-aircraft weapons to deal with emergencies, but their anti-aircraft firepower was very backward and the number was very small.
The order was passed down, and more than a dozen anti-aircraft machine guns of the Japanese opened fire, but the bullets either could not reach the height of the J-5 or hit far behind the J-5.
The truth is that the training they usually receive has never involved jet aircraft with such strong maneuverability and such high flying speed.
They have no way to aim, and can't even shoot in advance!
So after several rounds of shooting, a lot of bullets were consumed, but not a single J-5 was damaged, and instead one of their own planes was hit.
While the fierce battle was going on in the air, Xu's army's artillery on the ground also opened fire!