Chapter 95 one after another

At dawn, the 173rd Regiment began to attack, charging towards the main position of the Japanese army.The first-line troops all carried anti-air panels with them, and laid them along the route according to the progress of the attack. At the same time, they also notified the U.S. air liaison officer in the command post by phone to indicate the air force's strike target. When the infantry charged, the Chinese and American air forces not only bombed the main positions of the Japanese army, but also used 20mm heavy machine guns to fire in turn. According to the original plan, the troops should complete the task of annihilating the enemy before noon, but things went against their wishes. Until noon, the 173rd Regiment failed to break through the Japanese positions or force them to retreat.

The Japanese army's defense was so tenacious, so naturally they had other plans. From the analysis of their intentions, they wanted to stand by and wait for reinforcements, hoping to make a breakthrough at Chashanao after joining the reinforcements. The 58th Division blocked the rear of the Japanese army with a large force to prevent its follow-up troops from reinforcing.At the same time, the 173rd Regiment also adjusted its deployment according to the order, and selected death-defying members to form several assault teams to charge the main Japanese positions.This is a typical offensive tactic of the Seventy-fourth Army after the change of equipment, that is, to shoot mortars for an hour to suppress and destroy the Japanese positions, and then fire black signal flares to organize stormtroopers under the cover of mortars Charge in a wave formation.

One of its outstanding features is that the death squads do not charge when the mortars stop firing or extend the firing, but charge while the mortars are firing intensively, so soldiers are often hit by mortar shells fired by their own side. However, this offensive method can indeed produce a breathtaking momentum, and it also has a certain effect in actual combat. Based on the high mountain, the Japanese army had a very clear view of the surrounding situation. After finding that the retreat route was cut off, the trapped beasts would fight on, and they became even more frantic when resisting.Whenever the stormtroopers rushed to tens of meters or even more than ten meters from the top of the mountain, they began to shoot, and they shot very accurately, so the death squad suffered a lot of casualties.In this case, the stormtroopers continued to attack with their lives.

The 173rd Regiment had a company commander named Liang Yuebo, who was an overseas Chinese from Indonesia. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he returned to China to participate in the Anti-Japanese War.He was admitted to the Whampoa Military Academy. After graduation, he was assigned to the 58th Division as a trainee, and then transferred to the captain's staff.Liang Yuebo's English is very good, and the conversation with the US military liaison officer is even smoother than those translators who joined the army from university.Logically, he didn't need to go to the front line to fight, but he repeatedly asked for the company, and finally served as the company commander.

This time Liang Yuebo took the initiative to invite Ying to join the stormtroopers.Holding the national flag, he took the lead in charging seven or eight times.The pilot of the U.S. fighter jet could see clearly in the sky above and was very moved, so he reported to the headquarters of the Fourth Front Army and praised the Chinese soldier for being particularly brave in battle.The Fourth Front Army Command called to inquire, and the division staff reported the facts. After the battle, Liang Yuebo received a medal in the name of US President Roosevelt. In order to quickly end the battle, while the stormtroopers charged repeatedly, the air force dropped napalm bombs on the main position of the Japanese army.After fierce fighting until 5:30 in the afternoon, the 173rd Regiment completely occupied the Japanese positions in Chashanao.In this battle, one wounded second lieutenant officer of the Japanese army was captured on the spot, more than 30 Japanese soldiers, and about 400 soldiers below the battalion commander died on the mountain. All limbs are bowed up.

Most of the U.S. liaison team stationed in the 58th Division got along well with the Chinese officers and soldiers, with the exception of the team leader, Lieutenant Colonel Brownson.Brownson graduated from West Point Military Academy, and one of his sons was killed in the Pacific War.After arriving in China, the old man was determined to avenge his son. However, China's backward military equipment and uneven quality of officers and soldiers formed a sharp contrast with his eagerness for revenge.For this reason, Branson was very disdainful of the Chinese people's level of combat, and often exceeded the actual capabilities of the troops, causing problems for their Chinese counterparts.Before the Chashanao annihilation battle started, he even chattered with the division staff on issues such as the enemy's situation, the location of the troops, and ammunition supplies, which made everyone very confused.

After the war of annihilation, Branson's attitude underwent a 180-degree change.When the front-line troops escorted the prisoners and trophies to pass by, he actually stood by the side of the road, raised his hand and saluted the soldiers riding Japanese giant horses, and raised his thumbs up and shouted repeatedly: "Very good, very good!" The 58th Division seized a large amount of spoils, including more than 300 38 rifles, more than 70 light and heavy machine guns, grenade grenades, sabers, epaulets, binoculars and other miscellaneous items on the hill alone. Except that weapons must be sent to the Ordnance Department, and documents and diaries must be studied by the Staff Department, the rest of the spoils of war can be disposed of cheaply.So several U.S. officers and soldiers from the liaison team came to the staff office to ask for loot as a souvenir. One of the lieutenant officers got a command flag of the Japanese squad leader, with several bullet holes and blood spots on the flag.

Americans know the commemorative value of the flag. After seeing it, many people came, but it is no longer there.There should have been many such flags, but grassroots officers and soldiers did not pay attention to them and did not pay attention to collecting them, so there was only one flag. Everyone was very frustrated and had to envy the good luck of the first-come, first-served lieutenant.