kvmb Chapter 156: The Marines' First Battle, Siege of Khabarovsk
Chapter 156: The Marines' First Battle, Siege of Khabarovsk
In the early morning, a thin layer of mist covered the surface of the Ussuri River, and a large number of fortifications built on the river bank could be vaguely seen on the opposite bank.
This was also the position built by the 42nd Army of Tsarist Russia along the Ussuri River to defend the city of Khabarovsk.
In order to prevent the Fuxing Army from crossing the river, they also deployed a large number of artillery in the rear, with more than 200 pieces.
All kinds of artillery are available, with calibers ranging from 37mm to 152mm.
Coupled with the fortifications on the river bank, if the Fuxing Army wanted to force a crossing of the Ussuri River, it would inevitably pay a heavy price.
At least that's what General Ivanovich thought.
But he could never have imagined that the Fuxing Army's river crossing method was so powerful that it caught them off guard.
Faced with the Tsarist Russia's Ussuri River defense line, Jiang Tianming, commander of the First Army, directly chose to force a crossing at night, breaking through the river defense with lightning speed, leaving the enemy no time to react.
In order to create an opportunity for a forced crossing at night, it was necessary to use sufficient artillery fire during the day to destroy as many fortifications on the Tsarist Russian positions as possible.
So he concentrated the artillery of two divisions and launched a large-scale artillery bombardment on the Ussuri River defense line.
At the same time, the Air Force also dispatched fighter jets from five aviation brigades.
The roar of artillery fire broke the tranquility of the Ussuri River.
As dense artillery shells fell, violent explosions broke out on the Tsarist Russian positions.
The bombardment also meant that the Fuxing Army had launched an offensive against the Ussuri River defense line.
The artillery on the Russian side quickly responded and launched a counterattack.
However, with the appearance of air force fighters, their counterattack was suppressed and dozens of their artillery pieces were destroyed.
"The Restoration Army Air Force is so arrogantly flying over our heads. Now let our brave pilots also fly their fighter planes to rush up and defend our skies."
General Ivanovich was extremely annoyed that the Renaissance Air Force was so arrogant in attacking their artillery positions.
The order to attack was immediately given to the commander of the 13th Air Force Group.
"Commander, the performance of the Restoration Army's fighter planes far exceeds ours. Our aircraft are far behind. Charging forward would be a death sentence."
After hearing the words of the commander of the 13th Air Force Group, Ivanovich's eyes turned cold. He stared at him like a rampaging beast and said with suppressed anger, "Our soldiers need to see our fighter planes appear, even if they are all shot down by the Restoration Army. Do you understand?"
Of course he knew he couldn't win, but even if he couldn't win, he had to fight at this time.
Sacrifices were necessary to boost the soldiers' low morale.
Let them know that the front headquarters is doing everything possible to support them.
More than an hour later, a group of hundreds of various types of biplane and even triplane fighters appeared over the Ussuri River.
Faced with the sudden appearance of Tsarist Russian fighter planes, the Renaissance Army Air Force was also stunned.
But the pilots reacted quickly.
One after another, P-51 Mustangs and P-47 Lightning fighters roared forward and strangled the Tsarist Russian fighter planes that dared to rush forward.
Their presence did indeed delay the Renaissance Army's Air Force for a while, giving the Tsarist Russian artillery a chance to catch its breath.
However, the price they paid for this was the downing of hundreds of fighter planes.
Just as they themselves said, the performance gap between the two sides' fighter jets is really too big.
They even have trouble locking it down.
Whether it's the Mustang or the Thunder, with just a little acceleration, they can easily shake them off and accumulate enough energy to fight back.
The bombardment lasted all day, and even when the sky began to darken, the artillery did not stop roaring.
On the Songhua River, inland gunboats and inland ships sailed north along the river, transporting artillery shells and various combat supplies to the front-line troops.
It is precisely because of the Songhua River, an important waterway, that the combat of three division-level mechanized troops can be supported.
Otherwise, it would be difficult to keep up with supplies if we rely solely on road transportation.
After all, the road traffic conditions in the northeastern part of Heilongjiang Province are not very good.
At 10 o'clock in the evening.
The sky above Khabarovsk is dotted with stars, and the full moon hanging in the sky casts its light all over the earth.
On the west bank of the Ussuri River, T-40A amphibious tanks and BMP-1A amphibious infantry fighting vehicles quietly entered the water.
It would take the T-40A amphibious tank more than ten minutes to cross a river one kilometer wide at a speed of 5 kilometers per hour.
Soon, this section of the Ussuri River was covered with dense tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.
Under the cover of artillery fire, the Tsarist Russians did not discover the situation until their tanks were almost reaching the shore.
"Tanks, the Restoration Army's tanks are coming from across the river. They are about to land."
The sentry responsible for watching the river to prevent the Fuxing Army from crossing the river at night immediately reported the emergency when he discovered the tanks getting closer and closer on the river.
Several minutes later, the Russian side began to fire artillery into the river.
Intensive artillery bombardment and artillery shells landed on the surface of the river, creating waves of water.
However, facing tanks and infantry fighting vehicles with certain protection capabilities.
Their mortars seemed somewhat powerless.
When the artillery behind them hurriedly fired at the river, the first batch of T-40A tanks responsible for beach landing had already driven onto the river embankment on the east bank.
There used to be a minefield here belonging to Tsarist Russia.
However, they were cleared out by artillery fire during the day.
So there are densely packed craters in this river embankment.
But this still cannot stop the T-40A amphibious tank from moving forward.
"Quick, fire the flares, launch a counterattack, and drive them off!"
It was not until this time that the 42st Guards Infantry Division of the 91nd Army began to organize a counterattack.
Flares were launched into the air, and rifle and machine gun bullets whizzed over, hitting the surface of the armor and jumping with dense sparks.
Although the frontal armor of the T-40A amphibious tank is only 14 mm, it has no problem withstanding bullets from light and heavy machine guns.
Of course, that won't work if you use tungsten armor-piercing bullets.
However, they were not equipped with such expensive bullets.
Besides, the T-40A tank itself has fierce firepower.
"Boom boom boom..."
Faced with the attack from Tsarist Russia, the 18 T-40A amphibious tanks that successfully landed first also launched a counterattack.
The 20mm caliber machine guns roared continuously, firing at the areas where the Tsarist Russian firepower was concentrated.
Several exposed machine guns were immediately shot down.
"boom....."
The BMP-1A amphibious infantry fighting vehicle, which also climbed onto the riverbank, joined in.
The 76mm low-pressure howitzer roared, destroying the exposed firepower points of the Tsarist Russia.
The 10th Mechanized Infantry Division and the 11th Armored Division of the Fuxing Army on the other side of the river were also not idle.
Use 81mm and 120mm mortars for close support.
Under the cover of fierce firepower, more and more tanks and amphibious infantry fighting vehicles successfully landed.
One by one, fully armed Marines jumped out.
When the infantry reinforcements arrived, the T-40A tank troops also began to attack the position.
At this time, the 37mm anti-tank guns deployed on the Tsarist Russian positions also began to counterattack.
The T-40A tanks could not withstand it and many tanks were destroyed.
However, their anti-tank artillery positions were also destroyed because they were exposed.
When the T-40A tanks rushed to the river bank position, the soldiers of the Renaissance Army followed closely and jumped into the position.
They began to fight for this position with the Tsarist Russian soldiers on the position.
In less than ten minutes, the 92nd Infantry Division was completely defeated by the fierce Marines.
The commander of the 92nd Guards Rifle Division gave the order to retreat.
The vanguard of the 1st Marine Division of the Fuxing Army successfully occupied this position.
The bridge-building troops in the rear began to quickly build a pontoon bridge on the river.
At the current speed, the pontoon bridge will definitely be successfully built by daybreak.
Jiang Tianming was somewhat surprised that a position on the Ussuri River defense line was captured so smoothly.
It seems that the troops they encountered were not a tough nut to crack for Tsarist Russia.
Otherwise, it would not be so easy to retreat.
But he didn't think about it. The shelling that started in the daytime lasted for more than ten hours.
The 92nd Guards Infantry Division had already suffered more than one-third casualties in the bombardment, barely maintaining its organization, and its morale was extremely low.
At this time, facing the fierce offensive of the Marine Division's amphibious forces, how could they withstand it?
After all, Tsarist Russia was not a fearless Japanese.
If they were the Fuso, their veterans would be able to fight until the last moment.
In terms of fighting spirit alone, only the Japanese devils with the Bushido spirit are worthy of attention.
A gap was opened in the Ussuri River defense line, which made General Ivanovich extremely angry.
The commander of the 92nd Guards Infantry Division was killed directly.
Then he ordered the 42nd Army to concentrate two divisions of reserves and launch a counterattack.
But how could they take back the breakthrough that the 1st Marine Division had finally opened?
Relying on the powerful armored forces in their hands, they easily withstood the counterattack of two Russian infantry divisions and held on to the sky.
At this time, the air force of the Renaissance Army became active again.
A fierce air strike was launched on the exposed Tsarist Russian troops.
This makes it impossible for them to organize an effective counterattack.
Five floating bridges were successively built on the surface of the Ussuri River.
At 7:18, the first floating bridge was opened to traffic.
A long line of Panzer IV H medium tanks, Willys jeeps, and trucks crossed the Ussuri River.
It was not until 9:27 am that the last heavy floating bridge was successfully erected.
This heavy pontoon bridge can even accommodate Tiger tanks.
The Leopard medium tank weighs more than 50 tons and can still run easily.
However, the number of troops passing through at one time cannot be too large, which also limits the speed of the troops.
But their main task was not to capture Khabarovsk, but to surround Khabarovsk and see if they could lure the troops from Vladislavl over.
"We must not lose Khabarovsk. If we lose Khabarovsk, the entire Far East will be finished, including Vladislavl."
General Ivanovich looked extremely haggard at this moment.
The whole situation made him extremely anxious and he didn't know where to start.
"Issue an order to Vladislavl to mobilize the Second Independent Group to reinforce Khabarovsk."
Now he has insufficient troops, with only three and a half infantry divisions of the 42nd Army with a total of about 3 troops.
It was difficult to defend Khabarovsk with such a small number of people, so they had to draw troops from the nearest Vladislavl to reinforce Khabarovsk.
This also proves that the General Staff's plan was successful.
The most powerful Independent Second Army was successfully transferred from the Vladislavl direction.
The entire war situation has been running according to the plan of the General Staff.