novelden Chapter 204: Dividing the battlefield, the invincible steel torrent
Chapter 204: Dividing the battlefield, the invincible steel torrent
"Report to the commander! News has come from the front that the SKELETON DIVISION has poured a large amount of concrete in the outskirts of Songjiang District and Minxing District to build a solid defense line that spans most of the city. Commander Yu believes that if we force an attack, we may face huge losses."
Bai Qigang raised his head and said seriously, "Tell Yu Changle to do it at all costs! Take down the second line of defense of the Skeleton Division. They gave up the outermost first defense position, which can only mean one thing. In the high-intensity war that lasted for nearly a month, the Skeleton Division can no longer hold on! The Skeleton Division is an isolated army, defending Shanghai without any support. As long as the second line of defense is taken down, our army can march straight in and take down Shanghai!"
"Yes, Commander!"
Two hours later, the fierce offensive and defensive battle broke out again. This war was extremely fierce. The SKULL Division showed a tenacious fighting spirit of defending to the death. Four regimental combat units were divided into two defensive positions. The sound of MG42's gunfire once again resounded throughout the SKULL Division's defense zone.
Faced with such an elite and tenacious force, the two division-level troops serving as the vanguard of the Ninth Army were completely defeated in less than half a day. The entire battlefield was filled with the sounds of gunfire, artillery fire, and deafening shouts of killing, mixed with the screams and wails of wounded soldiers.
Blood flowed like a river and corpses were scattered all over the ground.
On the other hand, the Skeleton Division, with its full defense and occupation of advantageous terrain, suffered no more than 300 casualties, but annihilated an enemy force that was dozens of times more than its number.
The Ninth Army once again felt the pain of breaking through the outer trench positions. The defensive positions of the SS Division were right before their eyes, only a few hundred meters away, but these few hundred meters were an insurmountable chasm.
The Ninth Army gathered a large number of portable mortars and launched continuous and comprehensive bombardment on the positions of the SS Division. However, the damage caused to the SS Division soldiers hiding behind concrete walls and in war fortresses was negligible.
At five o'clock in the afternoon, the SS Division sounded the clarion call for a counterattack. The armored communications used signal jammers to cut off the connection between the temporary command posts of the Ninth Army's combat units and the general headquarters. The First Armored Regiment, with a total of 7 soldiers, drove a large number of armored units, bypassed the northern part of Jiading District, and launched a full-scale attack on the Ninth Army's th Army that had occupied Qingpu District.
In the plain area outside Shanghai, more than one hundred armored vehicles and tanks formed a steel torrent, constantly tearing down the defense line in the garrison area of the 7th Army. Faced with the armored units of the armored regiment that were like steel beasts, the 7th Army had no way to deal with it. The armor of the heavy armored vehicles, ordinary rifles, and even heavy firepower could not cause any damage to them.
The Czech light machine guns and Maxim heavy machine guns that were equipped in large quantities by the Seventh Army were simply unable to penetrate the armor of the armored units of the armored regiment head-on without special armor-piercing shells.
In fact, knowing that the Skeleton Division had a large number of armored units, the Southern Government imported a batch of M2 heavy machine guns from the United States before the war. The 12.7MM caliber M2 heavy machine gun armor-piercing bullets could still cause relatively serious damage to the armored units. The most crucial thing was that Bai Qigang never thought that the Skeleton Division would dare to attack when it was at a disadvantage in terms of manpower. Most of the M2 heavy machine guns were transferred to the front line, where the Skeleton Division's second line of defense was located.
As a result, the 7th Army was unable to launch an effective counterattack when facing the enemy's steel torrent. In less than half an hour, the defense zones of the 57,59th and 50th Divisions of the 20th Army were completely penetrated. On the other hand, the 75st Armored Regiment of the Skull Division, with its MM machine guns on the Jaguar heavy armored vehicles and MM machine guns on other armored vehicles, plus the mm guns on the Tiger and Panther tanks, could easily deal a devastating blow to any defensive position of the th Army with its high mobility.
For the first time, the Ninth Army understood the fear brought by the steel torrent. Nearly two hundred armored vehicles of various types and nearly a hundred tanks rampaged on the battlefield, shattering the entire Seventh Army's defensive positions and causing the army to be routed.
"Send a message to the headquarters immediately! Request support! At the same time, have the commander-in-chief mobilize a large number of artillery and M2 heavy machine guns to stop the enemy's armored units from wreaking havoc!"
"Report to the commander! Our telegraph signal has been severely interfered with and we have lost contact with the headquarters!"
"Oh shit!"
The commander of the Seventh Army, Wang Anhuai, angrily took off his military cap and slammed it on the table.
"How the hell can we continue this battle! In less than half an hour, two division-level units were crippled by the enemy. If this continues, our Seventh Army will be completely wiped out."
The Seventh Army Chief of Staff Guo Wenxiang said calmly: "Commander, the area we are stationed in is a plain terrain. In this area, the enemy's armored units can maintain extremely flexible mobility and maximize their advantages. I think this is a premeditated raid! We should immediately abandon the defense zone and evacuate to the inner city of Shanghai. At the same time, we should blow up all the main roads leading to the city to hinder the advancement of the enemy's armored units."
"Under the current circumstances, the war situation will only get worse!"
After thinking for a moment, Wang Anhuai made a prompt decision: "Let's do as you say. Let the 59th Division and the remnants of the 57th Division cover the rear, and the 58th Division and the military's direct guard brigade evacuate to the southeast of Qingpu City. We must find a way to contact the general headquarters and tell them the situation here."
In fact, the Ninth Army had never thought that the SS Division would go out from the north of Jiading District and bypass Qingpu to launch a surprise attack on them. After all, there was a secret intelligence department of the Military Intelligence Bureau in Jiading District. If there was any movement, they should have been notified in advance.
What they didn't know was that the director of the Secret Intelligence Department had been arrested nearly a month earlier. Under torture by the Northwest Intelligence Bureau, Xiong Sihai was eventually forced to betray the Southern Government and had been passing half-true and half-false news to the Northern Expedition Army.
In other words, the initial conception of this layout had already been formed in Ike's mind a month ago.
After the Seventh Army began to evacuate the urban area, the armored regiment did not launch a pursuit, but went directly south and continued to launch a surprise attack on another garrison force of the Ninth Army in the southern part of Qingpu District, the former 14th Army of the Central Army.
At this time, the Seventh Army, which was retreating to Qingpu city, also encountered huge troubles.
The elite reconnaissance battalion of the SKULL Division, which had 500 combat personnel, abandoned its armored units at this time and broke up into small combat groups of 50 people in the city. They quickly bypassed the battlefield and rushed towards Qingpu District.
On the way, the communications platoon of the reconnaissance battalion constantly tried to intercept the enemy's telegraph waves to determine the location of the local command.
"Battalion Commander! We have intercepted a telegram sent to the headquarters of the Ninth Army Group. According to analysis, the sender of the telegram should be a regimental combat unit headquarters under the enemy's Seventh Army. The enemy's headquarters is still on the move and should have just retreated from the garrison area outside the city to the urban area."