frightfiction Chapter 254: The Final Battle of Mandalay (9) The 1st Pegu Can Opening Competition
Chapter 254: The Final Battle of Mandalay (9) The 1st Pegu Can Opening Competition
The fighter unit's 'can-opening competition' is over.
On the battlefield, the armored battle group led by Lieutenant Colonel Li Mingcheng was in high spirits, like a tiger entering a flock of sheep, and slaughtered Ishizu Takuma's old-fashioned Japanese tanks.
Ishizu Takuma is indeed a 'Mecha Warfare Expert' who has experience in exchanging experiences with the armored forces of the Hans Wehrmacht.
Even though the situation was so unfavorable, he still reluctantly divided his troops into several tank teams, trying to use roundabout flank attack tactics with the help of the terrain, using 37mm and 47mm small water pipes to attack the side armor of the Sherman tanks.
However, the number of Japanese tanks was not an advantage, which meant that the front width of the Japanese troops was smaller. The Japanese tanks that were making a flanking move instead ran into the Anmin Army light tanks and Lynx vehicles that were also making a flanking move.
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"Spotted a Japanese light tank! At 3 o'clock, at the edge of the tree line, brake quickly!"
In the light Bobcat vehicle, the leading sergeant held the radio receiver in one hand and tightly grasped the frame steel pipe with the other.
His voice echoed in the radio, as rapid as exploding firecrackers.
The driver slammed the brake pedal to the bottom, and the two Bobcats braked almost simultaneously, with the tires rubbing against the ground, raising a cloud of dust.
Ahead, the setting sun's rays filtered through the dark forest line, and the turret of a Type 95 light tank emerged from the shadows of the trees first, followed by two Type 95 light tanks and a Type 97 modified medium tank emerging from the rainforest.
There were still some broken branches and leaves hanging on the body of the Japanese vehicle painted in jungle camouflage, and mud and water had left brown marks on the armor.
"Enemy vehicle, 200 meters away, exposed on the side!" The gunner's voice was filled with suppressed excitement.
The Japanese tank commander leaned half of his body out of the turret, and the enemy obviously also discovered the two Lynx vehicles at the same time.
The Japanese tank commander suddenly yelled something, as if ordering to stop advancing. At the same time, the turrets of several Japanese tanks began to turn slowly.
However, the gunner on the Lynx could adjust the muzzle of the recoilless rifle much faster than the Japanese's turret steering mechanism which relied entirely on hand cranking.
"Fire!" The sergeant on the Bobcat banged the gunner's helmet with his fist.
"Bang-bang-" After two muffled sounds, accompanied by a large amount of smoke, two 105mm caliber tail-stabilized armor-piercing grenades flew towards the Japanese tanks.
"Boom-boom--" As the shells accurately hit the turrets and hulls of the two tanks in turn, two huge explosions occurred immediately.
Under the impact of the explosion, the copper charge immediately turned into a hot metal jet according to the Monroe effect, easily penetrating the armor of the Japanese tank and burning holes in the Japanese crew inside.
The Japanese tank crew was obviously not superhuman. They were mortal bodies and were hit by liquid metal at nearly a thousand degrees at high speed. They immediately lost their combat effectiveness. A strange aroma of Maillard reaction filled the narrow body of the Japanese tank.
"Move, quick, quick!"
After firing, the Lynx vehicle would not stay there stupidly to reload. The driver stepped on the accelerator and the lightweight four-wheeled off-road assault vehicle immediately drove away, avoiding the shooting range of the remaining enemy tanks.
The remaining two Japanese tanks lost sight again before they could open fire.
The commanders of the two remaining Japanese tanks were startled.
"When did wheeled vehicles have such firepower?" a Japanese tank commander muttered, his eyes fixed on the smoking remains of his comrades beside him, his eyes full of disbelief.
In fact, after several rounds of iterations, the static armor penetration depth of the tail-stabilized armor-piercing grenade used by the current 105mm vehicle-mounted recoilless gun of the People's Liberation Army has reached 200mm.
This means that even if the upper glacis of the King Tiger tank is hit by an armor-piercing shell, it will be penetrated.
Of course, since the Tiger King tank weighs nearly 70 tons and has an unusually wide body, a single beam of metal jet penetrating the armor may not be enough to cause damage to personnel and equipment inside the vehicle.
If the killing effect is insufficient, then make up for it with quantity.
According to Zhang Chi's instructions, six-wheeled and even eight-wheeled Bobcat vehicles equipped with high-horsepower engines are also under development.
到时候安装上2联装甚至4联装的105mm无后坐力炮，别说IS-3、超级潘兴、黑亲王这些末代重坦铁王八，就是T-54、M48这些初代主战坦克来了也得被破甲弹糊一脸。
Of course, the confrontation between armor and ammunition has always been a cyclical development, and at the moment, the huge number of Lynx vehicles in Li Mingcheng's battle group have completely overshadowed light tanks such as the M5A1 Stuart and M24 Chaffee.
Although they did not have reliable armor as they ran around on the battlefield, they still defeated the flanks of the Japanese line with their more sensitive reaction and unparalleled firepower.
Not long after, it was completely dark. Li Mingcheng ordered his various vehicles to turn on the searchlights, and the trees on both sides of the road were illuminated as brightly as day.
At 7:39 that night, the Japanese line had already collapsed, and the scattered soldiers fled in the dense forest like headless flies.
The searchlight swept across, revealing a devastated battlefield - overturned tanks, burning wreckage, blasted craters, and ammunition boxes and torn flags scattered all over the ground.
The battle officially entered the 'pig catching phase'.
"If we can capture them alive, we'll capture them alive. If not, we'll kill them on the spot. I'll write the report."
Under Li Mingcheng's loud command, his subordinates immediately transformed into "wilderness hunters" and captured the fleeing devils everywhere.
The hunting operation lasted until sunrise the next day. Because the railway bridge was blown up, the fleeing Japanese had no way to retreat, and the Ishizu Takuma Detachment was eventually wiped out.
Colonel Takuma Ishizu and his vehicle were destroyed by a 75mm M4 Sherman on the banks of the Madaya River.
It was not until dawn that the Anmin Army, which was cleaning up the battlefield, discovered the colonel, half of his body hanging from the wreckage of a Type 1 medium tank, and the other half of his body had been burned to charcoal.
Finally, his identity was confirmed through the remains of the saber and the family crest on his body.
Afterwards, the logistics troops who were cleaning up the battlefield and collecting the wreckage of the Japanese tanks discovered that the Japanese were equipped with a new Type 1 medium tank that was somewhat different from the Type 97 modified.
And those "powerful" Type 1 artillery tanks were hit in large numbers by the Air Force's HVAR rockets during the air raid phase, and the remaining wreckage was only worth recycling for steelmaking.
In this way, the two so-called "new tanks" deployed by the Japanese were completely destroyed without even making a ripple.
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On April 24, after resting, Li Mingcheng's armored battle group rebuilt a pontoon bridge on the Madeya River, quickly crossed the river and rushed towards the main force of the Japanese troops heading north.
The Japanese troops heading north, mainly the 2nd Division, learned that their vanguard Ishizu Takuma's detachment had been completely wiped out and immediately tried to retreat. However, the troops that had set out from the Yenangyaung and Taunggyi areas a few days ago to encircle them had already arrived.
On one side were the heavy Japanese troops who wanted to escape back to Yangon as quickly as possible, and on the other side were the lightly armed troops who came to block the way. A fierce battle broke out between the two sides north of Yangmydin.