Chapter 580 Steel, Storm! 6

"Tank!"

In the headquarters of the Northwest Theater Command of Minusinsk, Sun Jiugong, who was lying on the map, suddenly froze. He looked up at the staff and confirmed, "Are you sure it's a tank?"

"It has been confirmed that it is a super-large tank. According to the preliminary visual inspection of the reconnaissance battalion of the 4th infantry at the scene, the front armor is estimated to be about 150 mm, and the side is also 100 mm. The weakest is the top, and there is almost no armor. It is driven by a boiler and steam engine, and the power module is separated from the front combat module by a steel plate. In addition, its mobility is very poor, and it cannot move at all when firing.

The captured Russian soldiers said that they called this tank Mendeleev, mainly equipped with a 120mm rifled gun and four machine guns. In addition, due to its large size and weight, it had to be transported by a special train. They also departed from St. Petersburg and it took two months to arrive here.

There are a total of 20 tanks, but only 15 have been found so far, and the rest have not been reported.

When the staff officer said all the information he had just received, Sun Jiugong immediately outlined the shadow of a mobile fort in his mind. Although this kind of thing moved slowly, if such thick armor had not happened to be supporting the third wave of attack aircraft, perhaps the fourth stepper would suffer a big loss.

The problem now is that the remaining five are there. If they are in the fortress of Tomsk, their 120mm heavy guns will pose a serious threat to the fourth infantry division, so the second wave of bombing must be accelerated.

"Is the bomber back?"

"Not yet, but the second wave of 23 storms came back first."

"23?"

"Yes, one of them was hit and crashed by an anti-aircraft gun. The pilot has been rescued and is under the protection of the fourth pilot."

Long-distance long-range bombing and anti-aircraft artillery in the local area. It is impossible not to lose, so Sun Jiugong did not ask much and urged, "I urge the division commander to take off again within 20 minutes. After the bomber comes back, I must also leave within half an hour. Tomsk needs heavy fire support."

"Yes."

Before the staff could leave, Shoushan also came in with a telegram: "The 5,000 infantry of the third regiment of the Fourth Infantry has arrived in Tomsk."

Sun Jiugong grabbed the telegram. The telegram was sent by Yongshan. The third regiment of the fourth infantry division, which followed the first cavalry division, has also arrived. Taking out half of the cavalry to temporarily act as infantry, 15,000 infantry, has already entered the fortress, but this did not make him happy. According to the previous According to the telegram, 100,000 people of the Caucasian 61 Army stationed near Tomsk have gathered close to the fortress, and they have also received the news that a large number of troops from the outside are returning, and they will definitely defend it to the end.

With the weapons of the 4th infantry division, it is significantly higher than that of the enemy, but the problem is that in order to be in a hurry, all the heavy guns were thrown in Krasnoyarsk. After a cavalry division of the Russian Ural Kosak army was dispersed, there was a disconnect between it and the arrows of the main force for nearly three hours.

Without heavy artillery, relying only on the 60mm mortars and 80mm recoilless guns in the hands of the infantry, it is very difficult to completely suppress the stubbornly guarded Russian [[***] team behind the streets and houses, and even the casualties will be great.

Now I only hope that the air force can leave early and use air bombs to help Yongshan open the way. As for the return aid of several Russian Caucasian troops, two armored regiments and one cavalry regiment, it is enough to drag on for three or four hours.

However, although it is simple, the situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly. Especially if there is a mobile fort in the fortress, I'm afraid that the casualties of the troops will be very large, which is extremely unfavorable to the later stage.

Sun Jiugong took a deep breath, temporarily put down his worries, pointed to the front 150 kilometers west of the Yenisei River, and left his pen fiercely: "Order the troops participating in the attack to be ready, set off in 30 minutes, and the Falcon Brigade will provide air support!"

"Whether Tomsk can take it or not, we have to do it hard!" -

"Ban."

A Russian soldier behind the porch in the distance was shot in the head by a sniper in the company. Before Ruan Sheng could catch his breath, a series of bullets pressed him behind the rubble.

"The thrower!"

As soon as Ruan Sheng squatted down with his helmet in his arms, machine gun bullets splashed on the slate in front of him, and a few pieces of splashed fine rubble penetrated into his collar along his neck, which was hot.

The thrower crawled beside him with a rocket launcher. After waving to the machine gun squad at the height in the distance, the light machine gun immediately opened fire to suppress the Russian machine gun on the opposite side. Taking this moment, the thrower immediately poked out his head and aimed the rocket launcher at the machine gun bunker made of sand bunkers more than 30 meters away.

The rocket suddenly rushed out of the launcher and rushed to the Russian machine gun bunker with a long tail flame. During the breath, the bunker turned into a fireball and exploded.

But before the thrower could squat down again, a bullet from nowhere drilled through his arm, and immediately rolled down the slope with the launcher.

"Medical soldiers!"

After seeing the exploded machine gun bunker through the cracks, Ruan Sheng pointed to the rolling down comrades-in-arms to the medical soldiers, and then suddenly shouted, raised the submachine gun and jumped out of the bunker. The sudden bullet instantly knocked down several Russian soldiers who tried to rush to the ground.

These cat submachine guns were borrowed from the tank soldiers. Because the firepower was not dense enough, it was not ideal for the rifle to deal with this kind of street battle at first. Therefore, the division staff remembered the submachine guns assigned to the tank soldiers for self-defense, and immediately transferred them to more than 30 commandos.

Ruan Sheng led the third commando team, who was responsible for the sweep of the East Avenue in the central district of the fortress. What he didn't expect was that these Caucasian soldiers and the Russian soldiers he had seen before were completely different. Almost all of them were fearless. From the beginning of entering Tomsk, almost every street and every bunker had to be contested repeatedly to get it.

When he rushed into the small building with more than 20 soldiers left in the third commando, the screams of Ula and Ula sounded outside again. Hearing this sound, Ruan Sheng scolded her fiercely. This was the fourth group charge. These barbarians from the Russian Caucasus were sure that they lacked heavy weapons on their side. The number is not enough, so I launched a short-range charge desperately.

Ruan Sheng leaned his back against the wall and opened the window slightly. In the fanatical shouting, countless Russian soldiers rushed out of every corner with guns and began to press east along the streets and alleys. The number of black people could not even be counted.

"dry." Ruan Sheng stamped his feet and pointed to several windows and shouted, "If you sweep hard from the window, you won't believe this evil!"

When the dense Russian soldiers rushed downstairs along the street, the window along the street suddenly opened. While dozens of grenades exploded in the crowd, more than 20 submachine guns poked out of the window at the same time and fired violently at the street.

Russian soldiers were also stunned by such fierce fire, but the front rushed up again before they died, as if they wanted to exhaust Ruan Sheng's bullets in this way.

"Boom."

A regiment exploded from the middle of the street, and the shrapnel swept through the Russian soldiers. In an instant, his body was beaten with holes. Ruan Sheng even saw an unlucky man whose body was torn in two and his intestines were exposed.

Turning around, I only saw that on the roof of a house in the distance, several 80mm rearless cannons and 60mm mortars had been set up, and they were constantly pouring shells this way.

These small-caliber artillery guns have become a life-saving straw for the infantry. In the face of fierce artillery fire and bullets, Caucasian soldiers can only choose to retreat no matter how powerful they are. When there are only dead bodies and broken meat left on the street, Ruan Sheng changed a magazine and waved with the commandos to continue to push deep.

This is just a scene of fighting in the fortress of Tomsk. In this 40-square-square-meter fortress expanded by a large market town itself, this kind of picture is everywhere. The cruel battle for the city has made both sides a little exhausted.

"The third company was ambushed by thousands of Russian soldiers on East Street."

"Riding the second battalion to call for support!"

"There are too many enemies, and the battalion is almost unable to withstand it!"

Several shells landed near the temporary headquarters, and the ceiling debris of the explosion flew across. However, compared with these, the news brought by the messengers made everyone worried. In the face of the chaotic road battle, the disadvantage of lack of heavy firepower was suddenly magnified several times.

"The first regiment and the second regiment of the cavalry division have been stuck here, and a battalion of the fifth reading armored regiment has circled to the left." The baked bran that arrived with the Third Infantry Regiment immediately entered the role of staff, pointing to the east of the map Tomsk and said, "They have exchanged fire with the Russian vanguard. At present, the Russian army lacks artillery and heavy firepower. It is unlikely to tear their defense line, so it is no problem to hold on for another two hours."

Yongshan and Shen Hao stood on the side. They were not worried about the Russian infantry returning. In a hurry, it was impossible for the Russian army to carry a large amount of heavy equipment. They could not compete with steel by flesh and blood. They could even crush them without bullet armor regiments, so the two were more concerned about the clean-up battle in the fortress.

"How many areas have been controlled so far?"

"About one-third." When the baked bran answered, he also shook his head. The Russian army in the fortress obviously had a command. He knew that the troops on his side lacked heavy fire support, so he took out all the army guns and machine guns hoarded in the fortress. Relying on solid houses and strongholds, they were blocked layer by layer, plus the third regiments that were put into battle as soon as they arrived. The team's casualty data has exceeded nearly 3,000.

"If we continue to fight like this, I'm afraid we can't keep it. Otherwise, we will take back all the troops first and hold the current area to wait for support." Shen Hao smiled bitterly and suggested that because the fortress attack is different from the field battle, the complex environment makes the soldiers have to defend in all directions every time they attack. The mental and physical consumption is very huge. If they continue to fight such a bad battle, it is really a little dangerous.

"How long will it take to clear the gap and let the tank in?" Yongshan raised his telescope and twisted to the engineering camp where the gap was moving stones and cleaning up the road.

"Thirty minutes."

Yongshan looked at Shen Hao and knew that he was the only way at present, so he was about to let the troops slow down and wait for the air force and the artillery behind to arrive before fighting. Suddenly, the hissing of the engine came from the sky, and a storm attack aircraft suddenly appeared over the fortress.

"Air Force, the Air Force is coming!"

In the communication officer's excited shouting, 20 storm attack aircraft and 24 Mustangs with 125kg bombs appeared overhead.

It should be said that these planes did save the life of the fourth pilot, but this is also thanks to the designers of the Aeronautical Research Institute such as Adel, who designed the Mustang. When designing the fighter, they considered being able to carry small bombs as temporary workers in an emergency.

Of course, temporary workers are not comparable to professional attack aircraft, but 24 125 kg bombs still caused great damage to tens of thousands of Russian troops who were compressed north of the fortress and were charging in the group.

The three-hour cruel street battle has made all eyes red. Almost as soon as the aircraft arrived, the open space communication was completed. The violent explosion that disappeared for three and a half hours began to ring again in the Russian military control area.

After the first wave of bombing, the second batch of 16 bombers also arrived at the fortress after a 20-minute delay. A series of bombs dropped from the cabin completely washed the Russian-controlled area. Rows of houses in the eyes of the infantry were shattered like egg shells under the air bomb. It was fierce just now. The fierce Russian Caucasian soldier suddenly ran away and was swallowed up by the explosive fireball.

At 1:30 p.m., after nearly five hours of waiting, the 4th Infantry Regiment and the 6th Reading Armored Regiment, as well as the day after the departure of the 4th Infantry Division, the 23rd Infantry Division finally arrived with more than 500 trucks and all the brimmage. Under the fortress city.

If a full 10,000-strong force has not completely recovered its military disadvantage, then the 48 105mm howitzers that arrived at the same time finally relieved Yongshan and Shen Hao, which means that in the gap between the bombers, there will no longer be the trouble of lack of artillery support.

A series of bombs and shells made Chekov, who had just been promoted to general, despair, especially the later shells, which showed that the enemy's main force had arrived, and the reinforcements had not arrived for a long time, so at 2:00 p.m. that day, he finally walked out of the basement and led the remaining 42,000 Russian and Caucasian soldiers. He laid down his arms and surrendered with more than 6,000 conscripted civilians.

At 2:30, after paying the price of 4,100 casualties, 6 tanks, 17 trucks and armored vehicles, and two fighters (one Kunpeng failed to crash when Kunpeng returned), the Army's double-headed eagle battle flag was finally inserted on the top of the highest observation tower in Tomsk Fortress, flying high. The battle flag heralds the change of hands, the most important strategic fortress in Russia's western Siberia.

Excessive casualties and consumption still did not reassure the Tomsk Front, composed of the 4th Troop Division and the 1st Cavalry Division, because they may face a crazy breakout of more than a million troops in the next few days.

Fortunately, Chekov's surrender not only brought nearly 8,000 tons of weapons and ammunition hoarded in the underground warehouse of the fortress, but also more than 30,000 tons of all kinds of materials originally intended to be sent to the front line. What makes everyone happier is that there are nearly 50,000 free labor, so in order to recover as soon as possible After recovering the defense of the fortress, Yongshan immediately ordered all prisoners of war to be involved in the work of cleaning and repairing the fortress.

At the same time, the engineers and engineers and engineers showed their expertise. They found six 120mm reinterns that could be used from the 20 Mendeleevs that were broken, and miraculously repaired three 203mm fortress guns, and installed all nine heavy guns to the only two left. The damage was not very serious. On the battery.

Coupled with the 48 105mm howitzers he carried and more than 100 other small-caliber guns he seized, the defense of the fortress began to slowly recover.

But another problem made everyone start to have a headache, that is, the fuel began to be seriously insufficient. The gasoline reserves in the fortress of Tomsk were only three tons, and even the generators were used to burn coal, so they could only maintain two armored regiments for one day in the evening. This news immediately made the Northwest Theater Command nervous. .

At this time, a second aircrew lieutenant of the Air Second Division put forward a bold idea to transport fuel with Kunpeng bombers.

He first woven a net pocket with hemp rope, across the bomber's ammunition compartment, and finally stuffed five 100 kilograms of oil barrels into the net pocket for demonstration. After getting the news that it could be transported, Sun Jiugong immediately ordered to make the net pocket overnight, and then sent a telegram to Yongshan to clean up 2,000 meters enough for the bomber. Field track.

More than 40 tractors and 20,000 prisoners of war that arrived with them took 20 hours to finally clear the runway enough for bombers in the center of the fortress. When the first three Kunpeng landed at the field airport with a ton and a half of gasoline, all the Xinhua soldiers jumped up happily.

To be honest, it is an extremely uneconomical way to let the bomber fly over 500 kilometers and carry only 500 kilograms of fuel. It consumes several times the amount of supply, but this is also the only fast way at present. It was not until ten days later that it was just produced, and even the 12 aircraft that had been tested for three days were improved by Kunpeng. After the arrival of the albatross transport plane that transports 1,200 kilograms of materials at a time, this means of supply is gradually reduced.

There was also an anecdote that the Ural Mountains did not notify the trains along the way in time. Finally, a full 62 trains loaded with ammunition, food and wintering materials arrived in Tomsque and were easily captured, bringing a large number of American cans that were said to taste good to the tired soldiers.

Later war history scholars said that the first Battle of Western Siberia, which took place from September to early October 1915, not only made armored soldiers and tanks the king of the land, but also put the air force, especially the air mass bombing and transport forces, on the stage.

According to later statistics, in the past month, the air force moved through the ants of the Kunpeng bomber, and together with the later albatross transport aircraft, transported a total of 1,000 tons of fuel to the Tomsk fortress. In addition, the truck convoy from Balkhash later sent a total of 4 tons there in 20 days. 500 tons of various materials, more than half of which are fuel.

While completing the transportation task, the first regiment of the Second Air Division dispatched a total of 3,600 sorties in 20 days of battle, carrying out various bombing missions, with a total of more than 1,000 tons of bombs.

When these data were sent back to Yanjing, while accelerating the order of bombers and transport aircraft, the general staff put forward a development and procurement plan for a variety of aircraft. The air force with a total of 6 divisions, 48 flight regiments and 12 bomber regiments finally began to take off.

With the emergency support of the 23rd and 24th early morning of the 16th, and the nearly 60,000th of the 56th ofth of the 56th ofth ofst, who had just been transferred from the reserve, after arriving at the fortress with the help of two armored regiments of the Tomusk Front Army and more than 400 trucks and horses, it was officially announced that it would be from the west of the Yenisei River to the middle of the Tomusk fortress. It spans nearly 500 kilometers from east to west and has 3 million troops stationed on the Russian Eastern Front.

The throat was sealed with a sword!

In the end, only 70,000 people from the remaining two divisions of the Ural Cossack army used war horses to bypass Tomsk and fled back, and the rest were all left here. There were only two ways to wait for them. Either use their feet to cross the 1,500-kilometer wilderness to go to the Ural Mountains, or stay here to watch the winter and wait for the branch. Help.

In the season when the temperature at night has dropped to more than ten degrees below zero, the former is bound to die, and the latter may still have a glimmer of hope.

After getting enough infantry defense fortress, and after two days of high-intensity emergency fuel replenishment, on the morning of the 17th, the first Western Siberian battle starting from the east and west ends entered the most **.

A total of 7 armored regiments, nearly 1,000 tanks and armored vehicles, with the support of 480 fighters and 28 bombers of the first regiment of the Second Air Division, forced the Russian Eastern Front Army, which had lost its unified command, to fall into a predicament.

In the 20-day battle, the Xinhua Army lost a total of 14,000 people, but killed and injured more than 200,000 Russian troops, and more than 350,000 prisoners. The air force concentrated on bombing the logistics and supply warehouses of the Russian army, forcing the remaining Russian troops to break through Tomsk.

However, a large number of prisoners made Yongshan difficult. In the end, he had to tie up the senior officers and send them back to the headquarters with a transport plane. Then after the remaining prisoners took 20 days to basically repair the fortress, he gave an order.

"Go east!"

110,000 captured Caucasians, who were beaten out of their wits, were threatened by the muzzle behind them, had to go all the way north along the torn railway line after only two days of rations. Surprisingly, 20,000 of them arrived at Minusinx in the wind and snow and headed there. The Chinese army surrendered again.

The first Battle of Western Siberia was a stage of steel and aircraft. Tomusk and nearly 3 million troops were surrounded by the eastern front, which meant that except for only 20,000 defenders, Omsk, which was located 500 kilometers west of Tomsk, the Russian defense line suddenly retreated to the strategic town of Ufa, east of the Ural Mountains.

All the strategic initiatives of Russia and Asia have changed hands!

On September 19, after receiving the news that the fortress of Tomsk was basically stable, the 50,000 Russian revolutionary army trained by prisoners of war for Lenin quietly arrived in Balkhash, and after taking a detour from there to Tomsk, they used the captured train to keep driving west.

(to be continued)