Australian Storm 1876 - Chapter 1066

Chapter 1066 Attack Day

December 27

Attack Day

Starts at 6am

The ground-shaking artillery bombardment reached its climax. After two hours of heavy artillery shelling on the German front-line trench positions, the sky was already bright.

A little after 8 o’clock, the fighter jets taking off from the rear flew over the battlefield. Instead of the usual dive bombing and strafing tactics, they circled counterclockwise in the air, as if they were waiting for something?

8:10, with the explosion of the signal bomb that shot into the sky, the group attack of the imperial armored force finally revealed its ferocious fangs.

With the 305th Division (Armored Wolf Cavalry Division) as the main offensive force, three T-5 “Tiger” tank battalions took the lead, showing three geese-shaped attack arrows on the 8-kilometer-wide offensive front, and the engine sound of “Rumble” Resounded through the battlefield, followed by a group of imperial soldiers wearing helmets and fully armed, attacking the German positions.

Behind the 1st wave of armored attack group was the 2nd wave of armored attack group consisting of 6 “T-2” cheetah medium tank battalions. Behind more than 300 tanks, the 4th Kalimantan Infantry Division followed and attacked.

Farther away, the third wave of the attack group is ready to go. This is composed of the 303rd Division (Armored Tiger Cavalry Division) as the main force, and the attack arrows composed of two infantry divisions are extremely powerful.

They will advance along the gap opened by the 305th Division. After the attack potential of the 305th Division has decayed, they will take over the task of continuing to attack and penetrate the German 23-kilometer deep defense line in one fell swoop.

This battle

is the first battle for the Ocean Empire Expeditionary Force to appear in Europe.

Success or failure depends on this hammer deal.

Equipped with heavy armor, the T-5 Tiger tanks lined up in a strict line of geese and slowly approached the German positions at a speed of 3 to 4 kilometers per hour. trembling.

In the back of the tank, there are armored half-tracks that accompany the attack. These open-top armored half-tracks are equipped with mortars and heavy machine guns to carry out follow-up strikes on German firepower points.

And behind the armored vehicle, there were the soldiers who were trailing and attacking, and they slowly advanced with the help of the armored vehicle.

After 17 consecutive days of aerial bombing and 5 days and 5 nights of artillery shelling, the German front-line trenches suffered heavy casualties, but they were replenished from the rear while taking advantage of the night. Coupled with the deep underground infantry anti-artillery holes, they still have a very strong defense. force.

The German commander observed through the periscope that the attacking troops were getting closer and closer, and immediately issued the order of “all-line counterattack”.

The sharp whistle rang through the German trenches, and a large group of German troops immediately poured out of the empty trenches. They adeptly pounced on the heavy machine gun positions and the edge of the trenches, and took out their rifles to prepare for battle.

And this seems to be a signal, the Ocean Empire bombers hovering in the air pounced from the sky with a sharp whistle, and carried out low-altitude precision bombing.

All this changed in two or three minutes. The Germans who were bombarded by artillery fire had not reacted. The bombs fell down the trenches, and then the heavy air machine guns fired, in the wide German trenches. There was a long stream of blood and blood, and there were casualties.

And this is just an appetizer. The bombers diving down from the sky carried out low-altitude bombing without fear of danger.

When the    was at its lowest, the bomber was only a dozen meters away from the German trenches. The heavy machine gun fire hit the German soldiers with blood and blood, which was terrible.

About 700 meters away from the German trenches, the attacking Ocean Empire armored tank troops stopped their progress, and the tank barrels slowly turned to look for any German firepower points that opened fire, and then carry out roll-call clearance.

Under the frenzied blow of the aviation, the German army lay in the trenches with few heavy machine guns and small and medium-caliber artillery, which were quickly sent to the sky by tank shells.

As if there was a tacit understanding in advance, the attacking armored tank units were not in a hurry to advance, but waited for a group of bombers to rage over the German trenches. .

It won’t be long before these bombers return to the battlefield, bringing the fear of death like a rain of steel and iron.

more than ten minutes later

The tank armored group moved forward again. At this time, the heavy firepower that the German front-line positions could counterattack was almost lost. Even if some small and medium-caliber artillery shells hit the tank armor, there was no other than a swipe of sparks and collateral damage to the soldiers behind. results.

And these German artillery fire will be sent to the sky by tank guns, and the counterattack is quite weak.

ten minutes later

The    armored tanks had attacked more than 30 meters in front of the German defense line, and the infantry behind them threw out a round of grenades in unison. Many of them landed in the trenches and exploded.

The soldiers armed with semi-automatic rifles attacked quickly, jumped into the trenches like dumplings to clear the remaining German troops, and quickly occupied the front-line positions.

At this time, more than a dozen weird-looking tank bridge vehicles drove over, and quickly built steel bridges above the German trenches to facilitate the passage of tanks one after another.

Just over an hour

The attacking imperial troops occupied the German front-line positions across the board, and they did not encounter stubborn resistance during the period, and the stumps and broken arms that covered the German trenches fully explained the problem.

At the front of the eight-kilometer-long attack, there were at least 40,000 German troops defending at the beginning of the battle, but under the frantic attack of hundreds of Royal Army Air Force aircraft, more than 15,000 casualties were lost in just ten minutes. Heavy firepower was almost lost.

In the follow-up armored tank attack and grenade fire, thousands of people were lost again, and the rest were almost scared. Except for a few recalcitrant German troops who were killed, the rest were taken prisoners.

After    opened the breach, the three leading battalions of the slightly adjusted T5 tank regiment of the Panzer Wolf Cavalry Division set off again and pressed towards the German second-line positions.

The imperial soldiers who followed behind swarmed into the trenches, and spread out to both sides along the trenches, and fought fiercely with the remaining enemy troops.

These soldiers played very well-organized. They threw grenades before attacking, rushed up to replenish their guns after they were bombed, and continued to throw grenades after clearing the trenches in front.

After throwing the grenade, back down, let the brothers come on, and fight hard all the way.

The sound of gunfire on the battlefield, the British Fifth Army and the French Tenth Army, which were assisting the attack, saw that the main attacking First Army occupied the German front-line positions, and successively launched a large-scale infantry attack.

The fighter jets hovering in the air swooped down from time to time and strafed along the trenches, dealing heavy blows to the resisting German soldiers and fighting with friendly forces.

Looking down from the air

Among the imperial soldiers who were attacking along the trenches, a group of flag soldiers unfurled a long and narrow white flag. The flag was about 3 meters long and 1 meter 2 wide. There was only a thick red arrow sign on it, which just pointed in the direction of the German army, which was very eye-catching. Conspicuous.

This indicated a clear direction and position for the fighters strafing along the trenches. Regardless of the fierce melee between the soldiers on both sides in the trenches, the fighters on the other side could still provide strong support.

After the fighter jets dived down, they turned on the “Flesh Alley Mode” dozens of meters in front of the flag. The three heavy machine guns equipped by the “Lightning” fighter jets were amazingly powerful.

After the fighter in front pulled up, the fighter in the back dived down again, combing the trenches with violent machine gun bullets, opening an attack channel for the attacking soldiers. The combat efficiency was very high and the lethality was amazing.

The imperial soldiers flooded the German positions on both sides to expand the attack gap, and the sound of guns and guns was deafening.

at this time

Teams of bombers flew back from the rear and began to hover over the battlefield, searching for targets independently.

This caused a big problem for the German army, to fight or not to fight?

The second-line German positions are about 4 to 5 kilometers away from the first-line positions. Compared with the first-line positions, which were almost completely destroyed, the positions here are somewhat better preserved, with a few artillery positions and machine gun bunkers remaining, and the trenches are largely intact.

If you don’t fire back, no one will find it.

If you fire back, you will immediately reveal your position, attracting aerial bombardment and tank artillery fire.

After only a brief hesitation

The German commander chose to resist to the end, the second-line trench positions resounded with sharp whistles again, and a large group of German troops poured out of the shelter. …”

The German soldiers lifted the camouflage net covering the heavy machine gun positions, turned their guns to aim at the diving plane and opened fire violently. The hot fire whip threw into the sky and drilled dozens of bullet holes in the silver plane.

The diving plane was blowing thick black smoke, and it burst into flames and exploded on the ground near the trench, raising a mushroom cloud of blood and fire.

The German army in the second line of defense retained a considerable part of heavy weapons, mainly heavy machine guns and small and medium-caliber artillery, and stubbornly resisted in air defense operations, showing the true strength of a world-strong army.

The fighter planes were shot down one after another, forcing the hovering bombers to raise their heights to carry out hollow bombing. The free-falling iron bombs landed on the surface of the positions, blasting into flames, and the smoke and dust shot into the sky.

The visual effect is really good, but the accuracy of the strike is only a few blocks away, and it’s just a loneliness.

The German hidden artillery positions also began to show their power, destroying several T-5 tanks one after another, using 76mm rapid-fire guns, mostly destroying the side armor of the T5 Tiger tanks.

Only from this point of view

The German army is worthy of being a strong army in the world. After finding that the 76mm rapid-fire gun could not destroy the frontal armor of the T-5 tank, it quickly changed its tactics and focused on attacking the side armor of the offensive armored troops, and it succeeded.

The attacking tanks kept firing artillery shells, blasting the enemy one after another into the sky, but the 37mm and 76mm anti-tank guns that kept popping up made the battle into a fierce stalemate.

(end of this chapter)