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Volume 3 Far East Story Chapter 779 (4) Attack without hesitation

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    The first wave of attacks launched by Nobuyoshi Muto, the main force of the 23rd Infantry Brigade, was just a probing attack. The purpose was to attract the Ukrainian artillery to fire back and expose the position. To this end, he did not hesitate to use three infantry brigades to attack in an area almost ten kilometers wide.  An attack was launched on the front, and at the same time, 16 75mm Type 38 field guns from two artillery brigades withdrawn from the west provided fire support for the attacking troops.

    Of course, the first enemy fire of the two artillery brigades was not only to attack the Ukrainian ground forces on the defensive side, but also to be the bait released by Nobuyoshi Muto. His trump card was the 12 75mm field guns and 12 105mm light howitzers of the Chinese Duli Artillery Battalion.  However, the arrogant Muto Nobuyoshi did not intend to pin his hopes of victory entirely on the air support of the Allied Air Force. Although the thickness and width of the enemy's position had not yet been fully ascertained, he still launched the attack without hesitation.  

    Once the Ukrainian artillery fires, the two artillery brigades belonging to the 7th and 19th infantry regiments of Muto Xinyi Brigade will continue to bombard the Ukrainian ground troops' defense lines unmoved, and the task of cleaning up the opponent's artillery will be left to them.  Duli artillery battalion of Chinese Major Wu Keren. Of course, if the Okamoto brigade with the radio station on the right can detour in time to intersperse the lost artillery position, then the victory of this battle can be truly expected!

    On the left side of the Muto brigade's offensive direction is the 20th Infantry Battalion of the 7th Infantry Regiment of Mizuno Taisuke. The 20th Infantry Battalion is commanded by Major Kashii Kohei, who also graduated from the 21st batch of RKU. Kashii Kohei (January 1881  25th - December 3rd, 1954) was a Japanese Army soldier from the Taisho to Showa periods.  The final rank was Army Lieutenant General.  The younger brother of Army Lieutenant General Kashii Shuichi, this guy belongs to the Imperial Sect.  

    Kohei Kashii graduated from the 12th class of the Japanese Army Sergeant School. In November 1900 (Meiji 33), he graduated from the Japanese Army Sergeant School (12th class) with excellent results and was awarded the title of Army Second Lieutenant. Two years later, he was promoted to Army Lieutenant and served in the 13th Infantry Company.  He was injured while participating in the Russo-Japanese War. After returning home, he was promoted to Army Captain. He graduated from the Army University in 1909 (Meiji 42) and served as the adjutant of the military attache stationed in Germany and a member of the General Staff Headquarters. In 1913 (Taisho 2), he was promoted to Army Major. In 1918  At the beginning of the year (Taisho 7), Kashii Kohei was promoted to Army Lieutenant Colonel and served as the captain of the 20th Battalion of the 7th Infantry Regiment.

    It should be said that the 37-year-old Kashii Kohei is also a talent that Utsunomiya Taro is optimistic about. However, when he was in mainland China, he was steadily suppressed by Furusou Mikiro, Okamoto Renichiro and Takekawa Miji. He didn't even make it to the saber team.  He graduated with a miserable seventh place. Fortunately, this fellow was one period earlier than the others, and he also had a tendency to catch up from behind. He was promoted to Major at the age of 32 and to Lieutenant Colonel at the age of 37. He was considered the best among the graduates of mainland universities in the same period.

    Kohei Kashii commanded the 20th Infantry Battalion to launch an attack on the position of the 3rd Ukrainian Infantry Division to the north. The focus of his attack was to advance along the left side of the road at a distance of less than 1,000 meters. The 77th Infantry Squadron and the 78th Infantry Squadron  Each squadron of the 79th Squadron is only responsible for an offensive width of 400 meters, and the 80th Infantry Squadron serves as the reserve of the group.

    Since the Chinese armored forces are advancing along the main road in the middle, it is easy to obtain fire support from friendly forces. Therefore, Kashii Kohei assigned the 174-man machine gun squadron of his brigade (14-man squadron headquarters, 3 machine gun squads, and 1 ammunition squad) to each  Platoon of 4 Browning 7.62 air-cooled heavy machine guns, 12 in total; and a 55-man artillery squad (a 10-man squad, a 15-man ammunition squad, and two 15-man gun squads each equipped with 4  The Chinese-made 81mm battalion-affiliated mortars) were deployed behind the 77th and 78th Infantry Squadrons to provide fire support as they advanced.

    It is not the first time for the Japanese Third Division to fight in the Kharkov Forest. Of course, the terrain here is more complex than that of ordinary forests. There are many blisters and swamps, and the trees are tall and dense.  The advantage is that there is no shortage of water, but the disadvantage is that mosquito bites are severe. The temperature at noon in northern Ukraine at the end of July is almost close to the hottest time of the day, 25 or 6 degrees. For both offense and defense, the advantage of the offensive side is the troops.  They are all veterans with high military literacy, strong individual combat skills, and accurate marksmanship. The disadvantage is that they are not familiar with the terrain and environment, and most of their energy is used to deal with the wetlands and swamps under their feet.

    Moreover, the firepower intensity of the defending side exceeded the expectations of the commanders of the attacking brigade, the 23rd Infantry Brigade. Since it was a forest area, the boundary and line of sight were layered by towering trees, and the machine guns of both sides  The power of the mortars and the mortars was compromised, and it almost became a hand-to-hand battle within 300 meters.

    The Japanese Type 38 rifle in the hands of Kohei Kashii is not as powerful as the Mauser 98 rifle in the hands of the Ukrainian National Army, and it is not easy to move in the forest. The 38 rifle is too long and is not as convenient to use as the opponent's Mauser 98. Good  The Ukrainian guerrillas have not been using the Mauser 98 for a long time, and their marksmanship is not comparable to that of Japanese veterans.

    Especially at the beginning, the artillery fire from the Japanese artillery battalion in the rear opened a path for the attacking 20th Infantry Battalion commanded by Kashii Kohei, and on his offensive route, there was no such thing as the roundabout Okamoto Battalion on the right.  A 2-kilometer-long stretch of connected swamp,Therefore, after the fight began, the fastest advance was still the 20th Infantry Brigade of the 7th Infantry Regiment under the command of Kashii Kohei on the left wing.

    In just 20 minutes, although the Ukrainian machine gun fire and mortars were not inferior at all during the fierce battle, the help of 16 75mm Type 38 field guns from the two artillery brigades of the Japanese Army made the 7th Regiment on the left wing of the 3rd Ukrainian Infantry Division  The positions were continuously broken through, and the Japanese troops' infantry and artillery coordination made great progress. The communications soldiers directly followed the artillery observation posts with wired telephones and rushed to the front line of the attack. Once they encountered the Ukrainian heavy machine guns and mortar firepower, they  Calling for rear artillery support

    Kohei Kashii directly commanded the 55ri artillery team to provide fire support for the three infantry squadrons on the front line. The opponent of the 8 Chinese-made M81 battalion mortars was the 12 7.6cm German mortars on the 7th Regiment position of the 3rd Ukrainian Infantry Division.  The disadvantage of this German light infantry mortar is that it weighs 101 kilograms and its range is too short, with a maximum range of only 1,000 meters. Its advantage is that it is more powerful than the Chinese-made M60 platoon mortar.
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