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Volume 3 Far East Story Chapter 770 (2) The Ground-to-Air War breaks out

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    If the 3rd Heavy Bomber Wing is dispatched to join the air attack on Kharkov, the entire city is likely to be blown into rubble. This is something that Utsunomiya Taro's Southwest Front Army and Oba Jiro's Center Army are not willing to see for the time being.  The situation emerged. The strategic location of this city is actually quite important, otherwise the Bolsheviks would not have set up the Ukrainian Soviet regime in Kharkiv.  §êw§ë

    At 9 o'clock in the morning, the allied air force's indiscriminate bombing came to an end. There was smoke everywhere in Kharkiv, and houses that were hit were burning everywhere. The Ukrainian air raid sirens kept ringing shrilly even in the morning.  The bombing was not interrupted even at its most intense.  ",

    Since Kharkiv is the fourth largest city in Ukraine, although 80 coalition fighter planes dropped 320 aerial bombs, after all, because they were not heavy bombs, the damage to the city and the ring defense offensive was not enough to turn the target into ruins.  , of course, casualties are inevitable. Fortunately, this city has been a fortress for more than 200 years. The large number of stone-built houses and basements in the city have more or less helped the Ukrainian volunteer division and artillery units escape some  Intrusion from air raids.

    It must be said that the German Major General von Neuhaus, who was responsible for commanding the defense of the city, was an excellent method to disperse and conceal the artillery in the city to the southern part of the city. The coalition air force's air strikes focused on the circular defense line in the north of the city and the northern part of Kharkov.  In the middle city area, the purpose is to destroy ground fortifications, firepower points and artillery positions. The number of bombs falling in the south city area of ??Kharkov is far less than that in the middle city area, north city area and the ring defense line in the north of the city.  ""look

    However, according to von Neuhaus's order, the Ukrainian Volunteer Division troops in Kharkiv did not use temporary anti-aircraft gun mounts and mg08 heavy machine guns to fight back in the air. In the face of as many as 80 enemy fighter planes, any rough  The air counterattack has no other more positive meaning except exposing the ground firepower points. In fact, the coalition air force did not dispatch the Handley Petty O/400 and 1500 heavy bombers in the first wave of air strikes. Is it not to avoid the ground as much as possible?  Anti-aircraft fire damage

    After nine o'clock in the morning, the SE5 fighter group and the dh4 reconnaissance bomber group of the coalition air force finally dropped the aerial bombs mounted under its wings on the last fighter plane. The raging flames burning on the ground and the intermittent and shrill sound of air raid sirens seemed to make the people in the air  The coalition pilots felt a bit satisfied, and the coalition fighter planes in the sky began to return in droves.

    On the ground, as the coalition air force completed the first wave of bombing missions and began to return, the rearguard troops of Muto Nobuyoshi's 23rd Infantry Brigade had successfully crossed the Kharkov River along the pontoon bridge built by engineers.  Lieutenant General Tomei, the commander of the Japanese 3rd Division, who commanded the entire frontline battlefield, ordered the artillery preparations to begin!

    "Your Excellency, Division Commander, I think it seems that there is no need to prepare for artillery fire. The overwhelming air raid by our air force just now has blown up the enemy's positions, and the city of Kharkov is also filled with thick smoke. It is estimated that  The enemy has suffered heavy losses. Instead of ordering the artillery to fire repeatedly to waste ammunition and precious time, it is better to directly order the infantry to attack!" The person who objected was Colonel Hashimoto Koji, commander of the 3rd Regiment of the Japanese 3rd Division's ** Field Heavy Artillery.

    "Huh? What difficulties does the ** Field Heavy Artillery Regiment have? Now is a good opportunity to strike while the iron is hot. As soon as the planes of our aviation fleet withdraw overhead, the Ukrainians will start coming out of the shelter to repair the fortifications, rescue the wounded and put out the fire. Now,  If your heavy artillery is not powerful, how can you fight when we start to attack?" Jiro Oba turned his head and looked at Koji Hashimoto next to him and scolded him.

    "Your Excellency, Division Commander, I think Captain Hashimoto's suggestion is advisable. The effect of the air force's air strikes is still unknown. If our artillery fires first at the enemy, a blind man riding an elephant can only shoot roughly, because  The enemy's new firepower points and artillery positions have not yet been discovered. Although the coalition airborne early warning aircraft are hovering over the city and the battlefield, under the thick smoke, we can only see fires burning everywhere in the enemy's city. Where is the main artillery position, not the company?  Haven¡¯t the early warning aircraft from the sky noticed it yet? We need to prevent the enemy from taking advantage of our artillery with a late strike"

    On one side, the person who was supporting Koji Hashimoto was the captain of Japan's 3rd Division Field Heavy Artillery Regiment, Tanaka Hatao. This guy's 3rd Field Heavy Artillery Regiment has one 75mm Type IV mountain artillery battalion and three 75mm three-wheeler  Eight-type field artillery brigade, each brigade has three 4-gun artillery squadrons.

    The 3rd Artillery Regiment has a full strength of 2894 personnel, 2269 horses, 48 ??various guns (12 75mm mountain guns, 36 75mm field guns), 541 various guns, each artillery brigade: 634 personnel, 499 horses, 12 field guns  .  Each artillery squadron: 128 men, 184 horses, 4 field guns.

    Although marching along the railway line allowed the 3rd Field Heavy Artillery Regiment and the 3rd Field Artillery Regiment of the Japanese Army to avoid the fatigue of long-distance marches by horse-drawn men, the three divisions of the Japanese 3rd Army were all made of pack horses.  The mechanization level of the division cannot be compared with that of the Chinese participating armies, so the artillery regiment arrived north of Kharkiv.At the railway station, the cannon was unloaded from the flat-plated military column and had to be hitched to horses to drag it to the preset artillery position.

    Although King Tanaka is the captain of the 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, he usually doesn't have much dealing with Koji Hashimoto of the 3rd Field Heavy Artillery Regiment, but the artillery regiment that cannot stand up to this guy is currently deployed in the middle.  On the artillery position 300 meters behind the position of the 13th Federal Infantry Division, that is to say, if the Allied forces that want to attack one side want to open fire, then it will not be from Hashimoto Koji¡¯s ** Field Heavy Artillery Regiment located further behind.  Those 24 Taisho 4 15cm heavy field howitzers fired first, and it must have been the Tanaka Artillery Regiment that was deployed in front to provide fire support

    In view of the fact that the sharp, accurate and domineering artillery fire of the German-Ukrainian forces in Kharkov during the day and night yesterday left a deep impression on the generals of the Japanese 3rd Division on the attacking side, therefore, Tanaka's artillery regiment was  I spent a lot of effort to set up a camouflage net to hide my artillery position, waiting for the opportunity to strike later. If I open fire first for the so-called artillery preparation, the target will be blind and unable to hit the enemy's artillery position.  Secondly, the power of my own 75mm mountain cannon is simply not comparable to the power of the aerial bombs dropped by the coalition air force that just attacked. Apart from exposing the target, what else can I gain from the foreign land?

    ¡á¡á
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