Songhu: Never Give Up

Chapter 6: Bloody Battle at Damai's House (2)

"boom!"

A light machine gun was blown away by a shell, and the gunner and deputy gunner fell in a pool of blood. The Japanese infantry guns fired fiercely and accurately, and the firepower on the position was weakened in an instant;

When the Japanese infantry saw this, they screamed with excitement. Their morale was instantly boosted and they all got up from the ground and charged forward.

When they attack, they jump up and down, rarely moving at a constant speed, which makes it more difficult for the defenders to hit them;

Hitting moving targets is a great test of the defenders' marksmanship. If they want to stop their attack, they can only rely on machine guns and grenades.

As the pressure on defense increased, the machine gunners began to take risks. Many of them would only change firing positions after they had used up a magazine, which greatly increased the chances of being locked on by the Japanese infantry artillery.

Squad leader Luo Wen took a few quick steps and rushed to the machine gun that had been blown away. He picked it up and saw that it was still usable. He excitedly set up the machine gun and fired a short burst, hitting a Japanese soldier.
As a veteran who graduated from the NCO Academy, he is proficient in using various weapons. When shooting at moving targets, he also estimates the lead time, which is very effective.

Then he fired a long burst of shots at the group of Japanese soldiers. This time he was lucky enough to knock down two of them, and the magazine was emptied.
He quickly shrank into the trench, then rushed to the body of the assistant gunner, searched two 20-round magazines from him, loaded them, and then fired at the Japanese.

He would only fire two or three bursts of fire and half a magazine at a shooting position, and then quickly change shooting positions, making it impossible for the enemy's infantry guns and grenade launchers to lock onto his position;

The veteran's role was demonstrated at the critical moment. His light machine gun basically suppressed the attacks of the two squads, and he killed six or seven Japanese devils in just a few minutes.

Corporal Pan Xizhou also took the initiative to serve as his ammunition handler, hiding in the trench and concentrating on loading bullets for him.

The Japs' infantry artillery was still wreaking havoc without restraint, sometimes not even sparing a single rifleman, taking advantage of the fact that the defenders' weapons could not reach them.

This infantry gun soon attracted the attention of Yue Qianli who was in the second trench. They were exactly 60 meters away from the first trench, which was a very important distance.

When the first trench is lost, the defenders of the second trench can throw long-handled grenades in from a high position, while the other side cannot throw them up. At the same time, machine guns can also support the operations in the first trench.

Yue Qianli asked the communications soldier to immediately notify the mortar team and asked them to find a way to destroy the Japanese infantry artillery. This made the main gunner Chen Anbang very excited. He had long been unable to restrain his desire to kill the Japanese!
Chen Anbang also graduated from the Huangpu Non-commissioned Officer Class. He failed the examination for the Seventh Officer Class and was unwilling to go home to inherit his family business, so he joined the Non-commissioned Officer Class.
Since he had attended junior high school in a new-style school and was considered a cultural soldier, he studied artillery in the non-commissioned officer school.

He had long been dissatisfied with the Japanese infantry gun, and had been constantly calculating the firing parameters of the infantry gun before receiving the order. He was confident that he would hit the target with the first shot.

The Type 20 mortar they used was copied from the French Brande 81mm mortar by the Jinling Factory a year ago.

Currently, there are only three German-equipped adjustment divisions, and other troops are still using old 3 and 82 mm mortars from the Shanghai and Hanyang Arsenals.

The gun weighs 69 kilograms and has an effective range of 2850 meters, which is 1 kilometer longer than the old Hanyang-made gun. Its shooting accuracy and power have been greatly improved. Each battalion is equipped with two guns, and it is responsible for the heavy firepower of the troops below the Kuomintang army camp.

The reason why the caliber was changed from the French 81mm to 82mm is because the machining accuracy of our country's machines is insufficient, so an extra 1mm tolerance was left so that the original 81mm steel shell bullet can be used.

The German-equipped divisions' mortar shells were all imported from France, and domestic factories were not able to keep up with the production capacity and were unable to produce steel shell shells.
The 20mm mortar was put into mass production just as it caught up with the actual combat. The principal waved his hand and equipped all the Fifth Army with it. This is the treatment of the direct troops. Interestingly, the Japanese army did not equip mortars, because they had Type 75 infantry guns at the battalion level, and grenade launchers similar to light mortars at the squadron level. The regiment level was equipped with mm mountain and field guns, and the Japanese did not look down on mortars;

It was after the Battle of Shanghai that the Japanese army suffered enough from the Type 20 mortar and subsequently developed and produced the Type 94 90mm mortar, which was later replaced by the Type 97 81mm mortar.

The Type 20 mortar is equipped with an optical sight, which greatly improves its shooting accuracy. It uses 3.8 kg grenades (made of cast iron and steel, the range of cast iron shells is only 2 kilometers) and 4.05 kg yellow phosphorus shells.

After Chen Anbang adjusted the shooting angle, the assistant shooter handed him a 3.8 kg steel grenade, and after confirming it was correct, he stuffed the shell into the barrel;

The shell slid down the barrel to the bottom, the primer collided with the firing pin, and the bullet was fired out. It flew out of the barrel at an initial velocity of 196 meters per second, drew a beautiful parabola in the air, and accurately hit the infantry artillery position more than 800 meters away.

With a violent explosion, the Japanese infantry gun was blown into pieces, and more than a dozen artillerymen were either killed or injured. Yue Qianli praised loudly:
“Nice job!
Tell Chen Anbang to knock down the Japanese heavy machine guns as well!

Change positions immediately after the battle. This is a precious treasure. If we lose the battalion commander, we will be cursed."

Yue Qianli had finally gotten the right to command the artillery, so naturally he would treat them like an ox or a horse. Anyway, he didn't have to worry about the imported shells which were one less each time they were fired.

After receiving the order, Chen Anbang did not care about the shells, but just had fun. With only three shots, he destroyed two heavy machine gun positions, causing Captain Inoue to scream in pain:
"Bagayalo, the Nationalist Army has artillery!"

Then he hid in the nearest bomb crater like a monkey, but he thought too much. In Yue Qianli's eyes, he was not worth even a single shell.

After destroying the Japanese infantry guns and heavy machine guns, the pressure on the defense was reduced sharply, the morale of the defenders was greatly boosted, and the three machine guns (one of which was later destroyed by the infantry gun) opened fire at full power, quickly curbing the Japanese attack;
Although the Japanese had several times more troops than the defenders, they were unable to form a force advantage in a group charge in the face of dense machine gun bullets. Instead, they were pinned to the ground by the defenders who had the advantage of terrain, and their casualties rose sharply.

Captain Inoue was so angry that his nose was smoking. He kept urging the light machine gun and grenade launcher team in the second wave to support the infantry operations, and poured dense rain of bullets into the defenders' positions, causing many casualties to the defenders.

In order to disperse the enemy's firepower, Yue Qianli ordered three light machine guns in the second trench to support the second platoon.

The machine gun firepower is more for suppressing the enemy's attack, and many of the enemy's annihilation depends on luck. Only the German-equipped adjustment division can afford such a rich battle.

If there is a shortage of manpower, then use firepower. Yue Qianli, who has been used to an affluent life in the later generations, has no regrets about ammunition. His main goal is to use bullets to kill the Japanese. He is willing to exchange one hundred bullets for one.

Under the suppression of the crossfire of the defenders' six machine guns, Inoue's squadron had to pay a heavy price for every step forward;

The corpses of Japanese soldiers and the wounded struggling in pain could be seen everywhere in front of the position. Yue Qianli was so excited that he rubbed his hands and wished he could go on the battlefield himself.

Fighting the devils is really exciting, and the adrenaline is soaring...

(End of this chapter)