lovenovelstory Chapter 55: Shooting Down a Japanese Reconnaissance Balloon Leaves Suematsu Shigeharu Stunned
Chapter 55: Shooting Down a Japanese Reconnaissance Balloon Leaves Suematsu Shigeharu Stunned
"It seems that Tani Hisao's failure that night was not without reason."
The enemy has a large number of automatic weapons, including many we've never seen before; they're truly formidable.
Suematsu Shigeharu did not hesitate to praise Li Jianghe's strength, because this would give him a better excuse for his failed attack.
"Launch high-altitude balloons to mark all enemy firing positions, and then use heavy artillery to destroy them."
Suematsu Shigeharu ordered.
In this era, there were no drones, and aerial reconnaissance aircraft could not accurately mark the firing points on the ground, so reconnaissance balloons were a better choice.
This was mainly because the opposing Nationalist army lacked anti-aircraft firepower and was unable to kill aerial targets.
On the Yuhuatai battlefield, in this battle, they killed or wounded more than 300 Japanese soldiers, rendering an entire Japanese battalion almost incapable of fighting, a remarkable achievement.
Xu Dingguo couldn't help but say to Li Jianghe:
"Jiang He, your tactics are really brilliant! You've trapped the Japanese in the middle and are slaughtering them like pigs."
Lieutenant Liu also said:
"You said that when we were fighting the Japanese in Shanghai, it felt like it was so difficult. But now that we're fighting in Jianghe, it feels like fighting the Japanese has become much easier."
Li Jianghe smiled calmly and said:
"The Japanese on the other side underestimated us and were careless. They didn't even have basic fire reconnaissance before sending a large force to attack."
The next wave of attack won't be so simple; the Japanese will definitely mark our firing positions and focus their attacks on them.
As he was speaking, footsteps sounded outside, and Long Wenzhang ran over and said:
"Commander, the Japanese have released something strange; it's flying in the sky."
Upon hearing this, Li Jianghe rushed out, picked up his binoculars, and saw the Japanese reconnaissance balloons floating over Yuhuatai.
Below the balloon, there was a basket in which several Japanese soldiers were observing the Yuhuatai position with binoculars, marking all possible firing points in detail.
"Damn it, aren't we going to have all our defensive positions exposed to the Japanese?"
Yang Ruifu adjusted his black-rimmed glasses and began to curse.
Lieutenant Liu said:
"Too far, out of reach of machine guns, are we just going to let the Japanese see it like this?"
Li Jianghe flipped through the weapon card and found that there were indeed no anti-aircraft guns to replenish.
At this moment, Wang Chengzhu said:
"How about... we try using anti-tank guns?"
"Infantry guns? Would that even work?"
Li Jianghe was somewhat impressed by Wang Chengzhu's ingenious ideas.
The anti-tank guns they are currently equipped with are mainly Soviet-made 45mm anti-tank guns, with an effective range of about 4,000 meters. However, due to the limited elevation angle, if they want to fire at air targets, they need to consider the digging and arrangement of gun positions, as well as the potential damage to the anti-tank guns.
There was also some equipment, such as the Liaoning Type 14 37mm anti-tank gun, which had a range that could also hit Japanese reconnaissance balloons.
Suematsu Shigeharu was quite satisfied with the current situation. As long as the soldiers on the reconnaissance balloons could draw a complete map of the defenses of Yuhuatai, their artillery would have a key area to cover during the next attack.
Faced with overwhelming firepower, Shigeharu Suematsu believed that humanity's will to resist would be utterly insignificant.
At the top of Yuhuatai, a brand-new blasting position was quickly excavated.
This gun position increases the gun's elevation angle, putting the gun in an almost completely upward tilt.
Meanwhile, there are special slots on both sides to secure the cannon and help stabilize the cannon.
The bottom of the gun emplacement uses car tires as a buffer to prevent the gun from falling to the bottom after firing and damaging the gun body.
Even in Li Jianghe's view, it didn't matter if it was damaged; he could just replace it with another anti-tank gun, since weapon cards weren't that expensive anyway.
However, if we can destroy the Japanese reconnaissance balloons, the Japanese army will not be able to see the entire defensive deployment of Yuhuatai, and many firing positions will be able to avoid Japanese artillery bombardment.
To ensure the bombardment achieved its intended effect, Li Jianghe decisively ordered the deployment of 10 anti-tank guns, including 5 un-upgraded Liaoning Type 14 37mm anti-tank guns and 5 Soviet-made 45mm anti-tank guns.
Everyone was quite nervous, staring at the 10 anti-tank guns that were deployed and angled upwards.
"Pillar, if you really manage to shoot that balloon down, I'll get you a bottle of good wine."
"Good wine? What kind of wine?"
Wang Chengzhu's chubby face had his eyes darting around, gleaming with a sharp light.
"Daughter's Red Wine".
Lijiang River Channel.
"Okay, Commander, I promise to shoot down that balloon for the Japanese."
After Wang Chengzhu finished speaking with great enthusiasm, he began to adjust the firing angle, while using the command scope to continuously determine the distance and coordinates.
After a flurry of activity, he took a deep breath to calm his nerves and then ordered the soldiers to load the shells.
Because the gun barrel is tilted upwards, loading shells is quite troublesome and the speed is much slower.
On the basket beneath the reconnaissance balloon, three Japanese scouts, led by a staff officer, were marking maps.
By this time, they had completed most of their reconnaissance mission. Their superior field of vision allowed them to easily mark 80% of the firing positions on Yuhuatai.
Even if some hidden firing positions remain, they can be eliminated one by one in subsequent attacks.
Suddenly, a soldier pointed to a path through bushes on the mountaintop:
"Sir, there seems to be a problem over there. Is it an enemy artillery position?"
The artillery positions that Wang Chengzhu and his men had just deployed were all done in the bushes, which the Japanese soldiers hadn't noticed.
"It should be an anti-tank gun; we haven't received any intelligence that the enemy possesses anti-aircraft guns."
The staff officer standing nearby said, picking up the command scope.
Suddenly, he realized that the cannons were all aimed at them.
"this,,,,,"
The Japanese staff officer thought he was seeing things. What were these enemy troops doing? Were they using anti-tank guns to fire at high-altitude targets?
They're brain-dead...
Just as the Japanese staff officer was still questioning and mocking, the 10 cannons suddenly opened fire.
"boom!!!!"
The moment the anti-tank gun fired, the recoil caused it to smash open a groove on the sloping surface, and the bottom of it struck the car tire below with a dull thud.
At the same time, 10 anti-tank gun shells arced through the air and flew toward the high-altitude balloon a kilometer away, bombarding the target, which was the basket below.
"boom!!!"
A loud bang was heard. Of the 10 anti-tank gun shells, only two actually hit the target, but even so, it was enough.
The small basket was destroyed the instant the anti-tank gun shell exploded.
The three people in the basket were instantly blown to pieces by the high-explosive warhead, leaving no trace of their bodies.
Another shell hit the balloon, tearing a large hole in the fabric on its surface upon explosion.
When Suematsu Shigeharu heard an explosion overhead, he picked up his binoculars and saw that the reconnaissance balloon in the sky had exploded and was falling.
"What?!"