Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

The five floating docks on the shore of H-03-5 have been installed successively. Transport ships docked at the docks and unloaded various materials in an orderly manner.

Air Force engineers began building a temporary airfield. The construction of the runway is quite simple. Choose a suitable place and clear out a large enough flat land. After the forklift flattens the ground, a heavy-duty roller will crush it back and forth. Finally, the "Marston Mat" perforated steel plates are laid on the ground. , fixed with U-shaped buckles; a flat and wide runway quickly took shape.

Then they built a tower and installed radar and navigation equipment; in just one day, the engineers built several airstrips. Attack aircraft and fighter groups arriving from the Bahamas landed at these airports one after another.

The next day, the first troops marched toward Charleston.

It's just that Charleston is built on a peninsula surrounded by water on three sides. If they attack Charleston directly, the attacking troops will face the Coper River and Ashley River, which are six to seven hundred meters wide. Therefore, according to the battle plan, they took a detour to attack the town of North Charleston (so named because it is located north of Charleston and was established as a city in 1972). The width of the river there is only about 200 meters, which is suitable for crossing the river.

Before the ground troops arrived at the river, a formation of IL-10 attack aircraft had already flown over the US military position and dropped dense bombs.

Because the Americans put most of their energy into building coastal defense lines, these inland river bank defense lines can only be said to be better than nothing. Although they have stepped up construction in the past few days, in the face of the heavy bombs falling from the sky, these defenses are like Like a pile of sand, it collapses and collapses quickly.

By the time the ground troops arrived at the river bank, the U.S. military position opposite was already riddled with holes.

Upon seeing this, the German division commander immediately issued an order to cross the river and attack.

"Cross the river immediately!"

As the order was issued, countless German soldiers rushed to the river carrying rubber boats and assault boats. The rubber boats and assault boats were thrown into the river, and the soldiers jumped into the boats through the somewhat cold river water. The soldiers on both sides rowed hard, and the fast boats shot toward the other side of the river like sharp arrows.

"Get into position quickly! The Germans are going to cross the river!!"

Although the intensive bombing caused a lot of casualties to the U.S. defense line, many U.S. soldiers hid in bomb-proof holes and escaped. Looking at the densely packed assault boats on the river, although they were frightened, they knew that there was no way out and they could only fight to the death.

"Da da da!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

For a moment, a dense rain of bullets enveloped the crossing troops who rushed to the middle of the river. The bullets set off horrifying ripples on the river, and sawdust flying on the assault boat. The assault boats and rubber boats did not have any bulletproof function. Even if the German soldiers clung to the hull, some unlucky soldiers were still injured by bullets. The remaining German soldiers still rowed hard, ignoring all threats.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The US M1 81mm mortar position hidden behind the position also received an order to fire, and shells fell into the river like raindrops one after another. Although not as powerful as large-caliber cannon shells, it is more than enough to deal with these small boats. But whether you can hit it or not depends entirely on luck.

"boom!"

A shell hit an assault boat. The entire assault boat was torn apart in the explosion. The German soldiers on it suffered heavy losses, and many of them were directly blown into the water.

"Fire and hit me hard. Kill all those Germans!"

Just as the US military officers on the mortar positions roared loudly, the attack aircraft group in the sky swooped down again and headed straight for these exposed mortar positions.

An attack aircraft pilot stared at a mortar position and gently pressed the release button with his finger; but when he dived to a height of 500 meters above the ground to drop bombs, the mortar position on the ground exploded. Come on.

"What's going on?!" The attack aircraft pilot was really confused. He hadn't had time to drop the bomb, so why did the enemy bomb explode on his own? !Could it be that other people were "stealing" with him? But looking around, I didn't see any friendly aircraft nearby.

Could it be that the tank on the other side of the river fired? But no matter how fast their reaction is, they can't be as fast as a plane in the sky, right?

"Is it a stray bullet? These unlucky guys." The pilot muttered, pulled up the plane, and continued to search for the next target.

But what he didn't know was that the mortar position was not hit by stray bullets, but "self-exploded".

Although mortars have the advantages of simple structure, low price, and high power, they also have weaknesses such as low muzzle velocity and short range. The most dangerous shortcoming is the phenomenon of "reloading"; and this is unique to mortars, and similar accidents will never occur with other conventional artillery.

Mortar shells adopt a special charging structure and ignition method, that is, the launching charge of the mortar shell is divided into two parts. One part is called the basic charge, which is placed in a basic charge tube made of paper tube. Inside the tail tube, the base of the basic charge tube houses the primer. The other part is called the auxiliary charge, which is composed of several additional packages. When launched, the mortar shell slides down the bore wall. The primer at the lower end of the basic charge tube hits the fixed firing pin on the mortar and first ignites the basic charge in the tail tube. The high-temperature and high-pressure gunpowder gas passes through the evenly distributed fire on the tail tube. The holes are punched out, and the additional charge is sprayed directly everywhere, igniting the additional charge outside the tail pipe.

When mortars are fired with live ammunition, due to reasons such as primer failure, moisture in the basic barrel and dirty barrel, resulting in insufficient falling speed of projectiles, resulting in barrel jamming, the shells may not be fired normally and remain in the barrel. In this regard, the common practice of the army is for a gunner to hold his hand on the gun frame in a low position and feel the vibration of the gun body after the shell is fired, so as to prompt the loader.

However, in fierce battles, it is often impossible to feel the recoil of the gun, leading to misjudgment, thinking that the shell in the chamber has been fired. In addition, in actual combat, the muzzle flash is dazzling, the artillery shock wave is strong and loud, the soldiers are fatigued and nervous, and the mortar firing speed is high. The loader can easily cause extreme physical and psychological fatigue during continuous loading and shooting. , a significant decline in one's own judgment.

This is like the early hand-cranked "Gatling" machine guns. During wars, soldiers often turned the barrel too fast because of red eyes, resulting in mechanical failure.

When a shell is retained and no warning is received from other gunners, they often mistakenly believe that the front shell has been ejected and immediately load the next shell. There was a legend in later generations that during the night artillery battle between the Rabbit Army and the enemy, there was a joke that the gunner filled the entire Type 67 82mm mortar barrel because he was nervous, and was discovered after it could no longer be loaded.

Repeated reloading is extremely dangerous, and a chamber explosion can occur at any time. The explosion of two mortar shells is enough to directly wipe out an entire artillery squad. Although various countries have developed "reloading safes", these devices are not 100% safe, and it is difficult to guarantee that no mistakes will occur in fierce battles.

As a result, this mortar position was very unfortunate to have a "reloading" accident.

The remaining mortar positions were also completely destroyed.