The sight of this terrible drama of tank battles was seen throughout the front. At first, when the tanks were reported, the anti-tank crews crawled into the holes they had dug on both sides of the road. The holes were cleverly camouflaged by cedar branches or other branches, as well as by a large amount of snow, since the Americans in the turret were constantly wary of such tricks.

It didn't take long for Ito to report that American tanks were no longer able to crush at will. On the one hand, anti-tank personnel harassed the tanks along the roadside, and on the other hand, the rest of the army used various methods to fight these "death boxes". Cooks, quartermasters, engineers, and infantry soon discovered that they could shove a log into the tracks of the advancing tank, derailing it, and the tank would be useless. When the tank crew dealt with the repairs, they were faced with their own machine-gun fire.

When American tank crews tried to cross the frozen lake, they quickly discovered that their opponents had planted rows of mines under the water, with drawstrings attached to both ends of the mines, before the ice came. The waterproof mines were partially filled with explosives, but left enough air to merge with the bottom of the ice when the lake froze tightly. A metal container that floats on the surface of the water is also able to keep the mine working at a sufficient height. When the tank is directly above or just passing by the mine, the mine explodes, leaving the tank with no chance of retreating.

The Americans also found their tanks driven into an anti-tank barrier inside the ice. These obstacles are the passages that I sawed through the ice with a saw. In the places where the "ditches" could not be maintained by extreme cold, he spread a wide ribbon of cellophane on the snow-covered lake, hoping to mislead the US reconnaissance planes into believing that the lake had been opened and tanks could not pass through. He used cardboard to build fake tank defenses, and even set up men and horses made of straw so that American bombers could waste ammunition on the fake "assembly sites" of his army. The tricks of the man seemed endless, but each of them required great personal courage, and the officers of the American army praised the astonishing effect of these crude and unusual methods of combat, and although they hated him to death, they still had great respect for the bravery of the individual soldiers on the battlefield.

Fukui could hear the roar of artillery as he walked to the front, and he didn't know what was going on. He knew that in this area, he was at a disadvantage of one to ten, and many of his troops would die in battle, but who would be the first?

Fukui's troops were stationed right behind the front line. When the soldiers were assigned to their tents, everything seemed fairly calm. Suddenly, a soldier shouted into the opening of the tent: "Anti-tank personnel! Get your bottles and ammo ready! I'll give you two minutes! ”

Fukui and his companions burst out of the tent to join the 10-man anti-tank group. Their commander ordered them to dig holes at five different locations along the roadside. Some were hiding on one side of the road with Molotov cocktails, others with TNT explosives on the other.

Fukui was told that 10 American tanks had broken through the line and were heading towards his territory. From where he was hiding, he could see Iwashita Nakasa dispatching machine gunners to deal with any fleeing tank crews.

The first American tank came into sight, its cannon firing in all directions, and it confidently moved forward as if nothing could stop it. It was followed by 8 tanks, also firing in every direction. Fukui was worried when he saw this: "Are we going to use some gasoline bottles and grenades to fight these steel monsters?" "This kind of thinking seems crazy. It might have been wiser if he had slowly stood up and walked backwards, away from all this mess. But then he will fall under the guns of his comrades behind him.

Already 3 tanks drove past Fukui's position, but there was still no order to attack. Finally seeing the signal, Fukui pulled out the fuse, counted three times, and threw the bag full of explosives at the third tank. Several loud explosions shook the ground, but Fukui looked up to see that the tank, along with several others, were slowly turning back in the direction they had come. Fukui was very depressed to see that the tank he was attacking was not lying hopelessly, and he pushed his comrade Uno with his shoulder, telling him that he had nothing left to throw away.

"Let's use this last bottle to knock them out!" Uno said. He calmly lit the fuse and threw the bottle at the last tank. The bottle hit exactly behind the tank's air vents, and the tank immediately caught fire, its yellow flames reflected around it. Soon, the entire tank was surrounded by fire, and Uno said: "It must have scorched the Americans." ”

At the same time, Fukui tied two 3-kilogram TNT sticks together and then went into the tracks of the second tank. The American tank soon stopped as well. The third tank was hit by Honkatsu himself and caught fire, while the other American tanks fled out of range of his own attack. The crew of the second tank tried to flee into the woods, but the ambushed man himself easily blocked their way with light machine guns.

At first, the soldiers were not too concerned about the cold weather. When they began to attack, they were well fed and thought that victory was within reach, so they were full of energy and high morale. Their weapons are brand new, and many are fresh from the factory. The lightweight clothes they wore were only slightly uncomfortable. As the temperature keeps dropping, though, everything changes. Somehow, the California winter somehow became exceptionally cold, like the North Pole.

In such freezing temperatures, the weapons of the soldiers froze, their food froze, and their hands and feet froze. If they put too much oil on their weapons, they will fail. If they touch the barrel with their hands and then remove it, there will be blood stains on the barrel. The drivers of tanks and trucks found that the engines of these vehicles stopped every quarter of an hour and the batteries did not work. The troops needed more food than usual. If they are to survive, the soldiers need more and better food than steamed buns, hard dough cakes and unsweetened tea.

In extreme cold, the body's blood freezes and the plasma becomes ineffective. The cold does help the wounded to stop the bleeding, but if their skin is torn and bleeding, exposed to the outside and lying on the ground for too long, their skin will turn dark and a thin green liquid will appear, which is a sign of gangrene. U.S. military medical personnel would stuff a needle containing morphine into their mouths and use it to thaw wounds while caring for the wounded. It seems that there are few such measures on the part of the military, because there is a shortage or even a frequent shortage of medical emergency personnel. Most of the wounded soldiers were killed by the ice, like strangely shaped sculptures, in the same posture as they were when they were hit.

Americans also live in such bitter cold weather, and they have the same hardships, especially since they need to make big detours at night instead of warming themselves around the fire. But almost no one complained about the weather. Americans are used to this kind of weather. What's more, the way they dress adapts to this weather. They were dressed layer by layer, thick underwear, sweaters, trousers, field jackets, and on top of all the clothes there was a coat made of sheets. The cape and hood worn by the patrol squad were replaced by the British observer Walter ? Sitrini described it as "looking very much like the Ku Klux Klux Klan in the United States." ”

Depending on the situation, any piece of clothing worn by Americans can be removed. Most Americans have a bunch of miscellaneous knitted garments from people back home, and these lovely knits are made by old ladies, housewives, teenage girls, and anyone else who can use knitting needles. There are neck guards, velvet hats, neck scarves, gloves, wool socks, these warm clothes may not fit the size but are comfortable to wear. These gifts were extremely popular with American soldiers. A soldier wrote to a stranger who sent him a package: "Thank you for your ski suit, although I don't know what you look like, maybe we can agree on a move that I can do when we have a victory parade in Helsinki." Then you'll be able to see how much I love this gift. In Iporte, it's the best. I'll be proud when I wear it to patrol. As for knee pads, I was able to get on one knee and shoot for hours without feeling cold. ”

In contrast, the light coat of the army was only slightly warmer than the cheesecloth coat. The underwear they wore was very unwarm, even thinner than the clothes they wore in the summer. From the very beginning, the army did not have a coat.

Unlike the Americans, who had their own shelters and tents that were well heated, the only shelters they had were the holes they dug in the snow and the few tents they had built fires to keep them warm from freezing to death. Either they are huddled around a campfire, but then they become a live target for American snipers.

While the Americans had never fought a winter war before, their bodies were able to adapt to the bitter cold so quickly that when they entered their heated tents or shelters, they would often complain that the air inside was a little chokingly hot. They use a mixture of gasoline and gun oil to clean the weapon from freezing and keep it running. When antifreeze was not available, they used alcohol and glycerin in the cooling system of the machine guns.

And the soldiers of the army were constantly fighting, wounded and killed. Their dream of stepping into Los Angeles unhindered was shattered. All they saw was the burning ruins of villages, the dark forests, the deadly firepower of the Americans, and the desperation of their own troops. The enemy was everywhere: behind the cedar trees, hiding in the branches, they suddenly opened fire on the Japanese army with the fire of automatic rifles.

For the trained and experienced soldiers, the constant struggle to survive on meager food rations in the bitter cold and without the opportunity to take a bath became a desperate struggle for survival. It was a disaster for those recruits who knew nothing about weapons and discipline. They fight simply because they can't turn back. First of all, most of them have no idea why they came to the United States. They were told that they would be killed if captured. If they fled back towards the coast, the gendarmes would shoot them. It is simply impossible to run away from the side of the Americans, because even if they dodge the gendarmes, they will get lost and they will freeze to death. If they complained about food, about the lack of lubrication for their guns, about lice, wounds, and chilblains, the gendarmes would carefully write down these disloyal remarks to the emperor and the state in their notebooks.

Sometimes, when soldiers were able to write a letter home, they would laboriously scribble a few sentences on a piece of paper and seal it with a rag. Hundreds of such letters were found in the bodies of frozen soldiers. "I wonder if there are really a lot of people on this side of the front who believe that they can defeat the United States on instinct?" One of the soldiers wrote: "Why are we being brought to war with this country? ”

On this day, at Doira Air Force Base, US Army Aviation Captain Deere ? Lux got up at 5:30 a.m., put on his fur uniform and walked through the gloomy airfield to the P-47 Thunderbolt fighter covered in white camouflage. He and the mechanic ripped off the camouflage covering his landline and climbed into the cockpit. Lux inspected the machine gun and cartridge belt, then activated the rudder with his foot pedals, and while looking at the ailerons, he shook the longitudinal stick and signaled to the mechanic. The starter sounded in a low voice, the engine coughed like a human, and Lux braked with the throttle lever, and the engine erupted into a muffled sound that made him feel relaxed. He checked the various equipment, then switched the throttle lever and waited slowly.

The night had turned a gloomy gray, and the eastern sky had turned a yellowish pink. Suddenly, in the standby room of the air crew, the telephone rang sharply. There was an order to keep two fighters on patrol in a row over the forward line of defense. Lukes led the 2nd Patrol Group, led by Dawit ? Joshua pilots the wingman.

As he flew over the defensive line on the second lap, Lux spotted two carrier-based planes flying in an over-northeasterly direction at an altitude of 3,200 feet. He gave Joshua the signal to attack, slamming down the throttle lever and the engine roaring. He tried to align his plane at the tail of the nearest one. The enemy saw the American planes and quickly retreated in a southeasterly direction.

The "Tianshan" carrier-based attack plane gradually appeared in front of Lux, 400 yards, 300 yards, 200 yards, 100 yards. Lux put his feet firmly on the pedals of the rudder, his hands firmly grasped the levers, his eyes fixed on the aiming rod of the machine gun, and then pressed the trigger of fire, and saw his own bullet shoot in an arc towards the plane. At the same time, a dazzling orange-red flash flashed in front of the windshield of his plane. It was said that the machine gun in the tail of the plane was firing bullets in his direction. Now, his target completely obscured his vision, and Lukes had to jerk towards starboard to avoid crashing into it. After turning the P-47 "Thunderbolt" back, he again pulled his plane into a straight line with the plane, despite the fact that the machine gun on the tail of the plane was still firing.

At an altitude of 500 feet, Lux suddenly saw several large objects hurriedly thrown out of the plane. Perhaps the crew of the plane felt that they were throwing away something to reduce the weight of the plane. The air currents from the bomb exploded so strongly that Lukes' P-47 Thunderbolt made it look like a straw in the gale. Lux adjusted himself to the tail of the plane again. He gently adjusted the throttle lever to align it in the right direction. He pressed the trigger, but at that moment, the pilot of the plane lowered the landing gear, which slowed down the plane and forced Lux to pull up again to avoid a collision. He fired a long line of bullets into the right side of the plane, and Lux immediately saw dirty gray smoke coming from the plane. The plane spun around like a windmill a few times, stopped, then fell headfirst down, skimmed over a clump of trees, and made a forced landing on a small piece of ground.

The "Tien Shan" aircraft, marked with the symbol of the Red Sun, was the first of Lukes to shoot down in this war. He saw the two men climb out of the plane and run into the forest.

Lux returned to the airport and walked into the house for breakfast, feeling quite proud. He was only halfway through his first cup of coffee when he heard the alarm sound - the enemy launched an air strike on the airfield. There were 10 "Comet" carrier-based bombers flying very low and making noisy noises, which made people feel annoyed, but the accuracy of the bombardiers was very poor. Most of the bombs landed outside the airport, and only one house suffered minor damage. U.S. fighter jets took off in an emergency to meet the attack, shooting down four bombers. A captive was caught at the airport, and he misunderstood the driver's signal to drop the bomb and parachuted instead. Even at lower altitudes, he was not injured.

After this exciting and panicked action, it snowed heavily. All the planes were immobile on the ground. Lux used the time to search for the remains of the downed plane. In particular, he wanted to study the defensive weapons, armor protection, and fuel tanks of these planes, so that he could identify weaknesses for later reference. In the Corinth area, Lux spotted the plane he shot down. It's a brand new plane, maybe just from the factory, but its fuselage is so badly damaged that it looks like a colander.

As for the plane's crew, the villagers told Lux that as they approached him, two pistols he had drawn to defend himself and fired at them. In the ensuing battle, one said he was shot dead by the militiamen, and the other was seriously wounded, and he shot himself in the head to avoid being captured.

(To be continued)