Chapter Forty-Four: Battle Again
On the afternoon of July 15, China's most powerful land artillery, the German-made 150mm howitzer group, let out its first roar in the war of resistance. The 16 heavy guns fired three rounds quickly, and the Tongda Cotton Mill and Shanghai University were filled with smoke. At the same time, a shell fell into the Huangpu River, causing a loud explosion that blew up a small boat docked at the edge of the riverbank. More than 1,000 meters away from the explosion point on the opposite bank of the Huangpu River was the Pudong Yesu Church, where two artillery officers were using wired telephones to correct the parameters for the heavy artillery group: "First shot, 3 o'clock direction, 7 rounds in a row fell straight down, 'boom boom boom'." "Second shot, hit in the middle." As the 24 heavy guns of the artillery battalion continued to fire, the Japanese-controlled area was filled with flying debris and smoke. Due to the long-range firing of the heavy artillery from the southwest, the light artillery of the Japanese army could not be used; the Yoshino was also in a state of being stranded, with only 2-3 140mm guns on one side that could counterattack. The seaplane used for observation and correction had already sunk to the bottom of the Huangpu River, so they could only blindly fire in the general direction. The battle quickly became one-sided, and under the accurate correction of the artillery observers, many visible targets within the Japanese-controlled area were destroyed, and several ships on the Huangpu River were hit and sunk. The Yoshino was repeatedly hit and suffered damage to many secondary parts, including the torpedo launcher and high-angle gun. Fortunately, the torpedoes had been thrown into the Huangpu River earlier, otherwise it would have been a disaster; only the key parts of the cruiser were equipped with armor, and the 150mm howitzer did not have armor-piercing shells, so they narrowly escaped.
At 3 pm, the heavy artillery gradually stopped. In the forward command post, we all looked at Zhang Zhong, who was closing his eyes and resting, waiting for his next order. Finally, it was the air defense command post that called first: "Northeast direction, medium to high altitude, enemy mixed formation, 50-60 small aircraft, speed about 250 kilometers, has flown over Pudong and is heading towards the city."
As the air raid sirens sounded, the phones rang one after another: "My 4th squadron is taking off." "The enemy has split into two formations, with about 40 planes in the northern formation and about 25 planes in the southern formation." "My 3rd squadron is taking off." "Air Force attention, enemy has fighter escort, Air Force attention, enemy has fighter cover." "My 5th squadron is taking off." "My 6th squadron fighters are taking off." "Attention, attention, a third enemy formation is approaching the coastline."
Zhang Zhizhong, who had been silent for a long time, let out a loud roar: "Desperate! I order all units to enter hiding, and the high-altitude artillery troops to prepare for anti-aircraft combat. This is an enemy aircraft carrier launching a wave of planes from hundreds of miles away, and the air raid won't last long; there will only be one air raid today. After the air raid ends, our army will immediately launch a general offensive and annihilate the remaining enemies!"
"Enemy aircraft!" It's finally here! From the large binoculars in the camouflage department, I saw a large formation of enemy planes flying neatly from the east, with more than 10 small planes hovering above the formation. They quickly overtook from behind and swiftly rolled to both sides, which was clearly an escort fighter. How can it be so fast and agile? 96 warship?! "Damn!" I blurted out.
"What's wrong?" Zhang Zhizhong put down the telescope and asked inexplicably: "These are all small carrier-based aircraft that flew in from a distance, there seem to be quite a few of them, but the payload won't be much, and they won't pose a great threat to our army as a whole; Fortunately, the air force did well yesterday and this morning, and the land-based bombers from Taiwan were beaten badly."
"Look at how fast those escorting fighter planes are! This must be the new Japanese Zero, it's even better than our Hawks and Boeings!"
Zhang Zhizhong took another look and said, "Indeed, this is not a Type 3 fighter plane. Quickly inform the Air Force!"
The air force staff officer next to him sighed: "It's already been notified, but it's too late, our fighter jets have all taken off."
The sky is where most of China's air force fighters are!
The first formation of the Japanese army has flown over the Japanese-controlled area, but it's flying very high, far away from our 37 high-explosive cannon group spewing out fire snakes. The 94 warship and 89 attack ship are guided by the Japanese military indicator on the ground, dropping strings of small bombs around blindly. As Zhang Zhong said, most of the bombs don't know where they landed, some even fell into the Japanese-controlled area and exploded, causing a burst of laughter from the surrounding officers and soldiers; but we in the command center are all worried, staring at the eastern sky.
Above Pudong, the 4th squadron arrived first, but only 19 Hawk aircraft were available, with the rest either destroyed or under repair on the ground. Looking at the smoke-filled combat area in Puxi, the 4th squadron circled and climbed according to plan. When the 5th squadron arrived from the northwest, the third formation of enemy aircraft also arrived simultaneously from the east, and the three groups of planes immediately collided. The 4th squadron dived down first, but the escorting enemy 96 fighters had already climbed at a faster speed to intercept them. Fortunately, the 4th squadron occupied the upper position with dive acceleration, while the enemy planes had bombers behind them that needed cover, so they could only engage in a hard-to-hard confrontation. Both sides crossed each other amidst dozens of machine gun fire trails, and several damaged aircraft fell directly down; turning around, the pilots on the Hawk aircraft were shocked to discover that the enemy planes not only had higher speeds but also higher angular velocities than the Hawks, which was bad! Sure enough, by the time the Hawks completed their turn, the 96 fighters had already accelerated and charged over. This time, the Hawks were in trouble, and although the pilots struggled to maneuver and confront the enemy, they couldn't keep up with the speed, and many aircraft were hit repeatedly; fortunately, the enemy planes used only two light machine guns, which did not cause significant damage to the aircraft, allowing most of the Hawks to avoid being directly blown up.
At this time, the 5th squadron had already charged into the enemy's attacking aircraft group, and the outdated 89 fleet was defeated, with one plane after another exploding or crashing. Then, from behind, they directly charged into the front of the enemy bomber formation. Most of the 94 fleet bombers managed to escape by relying on their more agile maneuverability compared to the 89, while a small number were shot down. Seeing that the 4th squadron was in danger, the 5th squadron quickly climbed up to provide support; The 96 fighter squadron also did not dare to attack with inferior numbers and covered the remaining half of the fleet bombers and attackers as they retreated eastward. Seeing the enemy retreat, the heavily damaged 4th squadron also returned south to Hangzhou Bay.
After a brief moment, the first two waves of rì naval aircraft returned, and the Chinese Air Force countered with its strongest lineup consisting of three squadrons from the 2nd, 5th, and 6th Divisions, as well as half a squadron from the 4th Division. Faced with the Chinese Air Force fighters closing in on them from all sides, the rì military abandoned their cumbersome 89-style formation and split into two groups: the 96-ship war squadron provided cover for the left and right flanks while the main force of 94-ship bombers flew in a dense formation towards the northeast. The Chinese Air Force's 5th Division from the east and 3rd Division from the north launched a pincer attack, while the 6th and 4th Divisions' fighters broke into the 89-style formation. Over a hundred aircraft from both sides clashed, with each side's fighters charging into the other's formation. Hundreds of tracers crisscrossed the sky as explosions erupted continuously, and planes fell one after another, spewing smoke. The speed and maneuverability of the 96-ship war squadron became insignificant in this environment, and firepower and defense became the key to victory. The Hawk and Boeing aircraft, flying in groups of two or three, took advantage of their superiority to attack the rì aircraft, which were poorly defended and quickly became battered and bruised, falling or fleeing in disarray. However, under the cover of the 96-ship war squadron, most of the bombers managed to break through the Chinese defenses in a dense formation and flew eastward, leaving behind a whole squadron of 89-ship attackers and various damaged aircraft that were surrounded by Chinese fighters. After ten minutes or so, with the last rì aircraft crashing into the East Sea, the air battle ended in a **bitter victory.
At this time, the ground battle had already begun! The 8th Battalion's heavy artillery, the German-made howitzer, and other mountain guns and heavy mortars all burst forth together, with a large number of shells pouring down on the remaining positions of the Japanese army like raindrops. The 37mm cannons were also pushed to the front line to fire directly at the enemy.
The Japanese army also knew that the final battle had arrived, and they brought out their hidden mountain guns, infantry guns, and mortars to counterattack. The remaining ships of the Third Fleet, led by the "Yoshino", also opened fire with 140mm, 120mm, 102mm, 76mm, and 57mm cannons.
The shells from both sides continued to explode on each other's positions, causing heavy casualties. Soon, the weak ground firepower of the Japanese army was suppressed, and some were even directly destroyed. However, the effect of suppressing the firepower of the Japanese ships was not great due to a lack of armor-piercing shells.
At this time, from more than 1,000 meters away on the Pudong side of the river, various houses suddenly erupted in a roar. The 12 100mm cannons that had been deployed overnight also let out a loud roar. The first salvo of cannonballs accurately concentrated on several merchant ships near the "Yoshino", causing an explosion. One shell even luckily passed through a merchant ship and hit a nearby patrol boat.
The Japanese fleet was caught off guard, and their outer ships were one by one hit and set on fire. However, immediately afterwards, the Japanese warships counterattacked against Pudong, and at such close range, the heavy artillery direct fire caused both sides to be quickly battered, with the Japanese army losing small warships and merchant ships, while the Chinese side lost the 100mm cannons that had made a huge contribution.
At 4:15, as the Japanese artillery fire gradually decreased, even the Yangtze River Fleet also ceased firing due to a lack of ammunition. A batch of mortar shells were fired from the positions at the same time, and as the shells exploded between the two armies' positions, smoke filled the air immediately; the assault teams of 4 divisions jumped out of their fortifications together and charged towards the Japanese army's position. The remaining Japanese firepower points opened fire simultaneously, but the number was limited after all, and since the distance between the two sides was not far, and there was smoke to block the view, a large number of troops still directly charged into the Japanese army's position. Bayonets clashed, mixed with the swinging of engineer shovels and the explosion of Japanese hand grenades; the Wujiang and Sasebo Special Naval Landing Forces continued to fight bravely, entwined with the officers and soldiers of the 88th and 98th Divisions, with both sides suffering continuous casualties. Meanwhile, in the north, the main body of the Shanghai Naval Landing Force facing the 87th Division was composed of sailors and even logistics personnel on shore, who could not withstand the close combat and fled southward in disorder.
At 4:50, the University of Shanghai was taken down smoothly! The remaining Japanese troops also retreated in all directions and withdrew to the Gongda Cotton Mill to prepare for a final showdown.
