"The opponent's firepower is fierce, but the damage inflicted on us is limited!" The Austrian commented. ALTHOUGH IT WAS CAUGHT OFF GUARD BY THE OTHER SIDE, BUT SOON, THE ELITE TROOPS IN THE AUTRO-HUNGARIAN EMPIRE BEGAN TO COUNTERATTACK IN A TIMELY MANNER, THE BARRAGE OF 160MM HEAVY MORTARS AND HOWITZERS QUICKLY COVERED THE DEFENDERS' FIRE POINTS, AND THE CONCRETE ARMOR-PIERCING SHELLS FIRED BY LONG-RANGE ARTILLERY UNDOUBTEDLY POSED A GREAT THREAT TO THE BUNKER, EVEN IF INDIVIDUAL REINFORCED BUNKERS COULD BLOCK ONE OR TWO CANNONS, BUT THEY STILL COULD NOT ESCAPE UNDER THE CONTINUOUS ATTACK.

Unlike the Germans, Austria-Hungary did not have much long-range artillery, but it did have a large number of mortars and shorter-range howitzers, and preferred to use them intensively, which is somewhat similar to the historical Soviet army. If the Iranian forces expose their firepower prematurely, they will inevitably pay the price. The ferocious and precise firepower made a lot of firepower dumb fire. With the support of supporting fire, the armored forces continued to advance, and then ran into the group of Iranian tanks that were slaughtered from both wings!

The Austrians did not expect to run into each other's tank group so early, unlike the Germans, the Austrians put the precious No. 4 tank in the back as support fire, and the cheap No. 3 tank pushed to the front as a decoy, after all, under the Chinese tank artillery, the No. 3 tank and the No. 4 tank are not much different in defense, and they are all shot through the effective range! So, the Germans' No. 3 tank collided with the Iranian armored forces. In a head-to-head battle, the Type 29's formidable performance advantage was definitely not comparable to that of the No. 3 tank. The battlefield immediately presented a one-sided situation. Tank No. 3 was beaten to the ground.

However, this situation did not last long, and the subsequent arrival of self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and Vespa tank destroyers completely contained the counteroffensive of the Iranian armored forces, and in the ensuing head-to-head battle, in the face of the dominant Austro-Hungarian regiments, the Iranians could not be said to be tenacious, but finally failed under the intensive anti-armor fire and air force strikes. A large number of vehicle wreckage was left on the battlefield, telling the story of the tragedy of the battle.

In this encounter, the Iranians lost not only their armored units, but also their supporting artillery in the confrontation with the opposing long-range artillery. IN THE FACE OF THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN CORPS WITH AIR SUPREMACY AND 150MM CANNONS OF SKODA PRODUCTION. The support firepower of the Iranians was still insufficient, but even so, the rocket artillery equipped with Iranian equipment still caused great damage to the Austro-Hungarian regiment. And with high mobility and powerful instantaneous firepower, several howitzer batteries were destroyed. It hurts the hearts of the Austrians.

But that's all the Iranians can do. In the face of superior opponents, the result of hard fighting in the preface can only be self-defeating. It did not take long for the Austrians to crush the enemy in front of them. At this time, Schrager was only separated from the base in the rear of China by General Gallen's Russian ** regiment!

"The Iranians did not resist, and I don't know if the Russians, who have been deprived of their martial arts, will be able to beat the Austrians as violently as their predecessors." Looking at the thin line of defense between the two sides, Peng Yi also beat a drum in his heart, Huaxia's intelligence on Germany is still relatively accurate. However, from the current point of view, there are some problems with Austria's intelligence, how did the intelligence department do it at the beginning, and if you get a German cipher machine, you don't know how to get another Austrian cipher machine? However, even if the situation was critical, Peng Yi did not immediately play the last card of Tian Yong, if this force was all sent. Then the Huaxia Legion will have no backhand at all! And at this moment, Guderian finally acted!

Just after Schrager's Austro-Hungarian corps tore through the Iranian army's defenses, Guderian's flank group also attacked. With the cooperation of the air force, he tore apart the joint between Iran and China, Guderian began to attack the China transportation line. At this time, there was only one battalion-sized armored unit in front of them, which was subordinate to Tian Yong and consisted of a small number of tanks, tank destroyers, and some self-propelled anti-tank guns mounted on half-tracks. According to the previous plan, they had at least a few hours to build a defensive line after they were in place, and after holding off their opponents, they could gather reinforcements behind to contain the opponent's attack, but this time the Germans marched faster than Huaxia had estimated. "They don't seem to have to wait for logistics and infantry. There is no pause at all! Peng Yi later commented on his opponent.

It was impossible to leave it alone, although Guderian's troops increased the number of accompanying trucks to reduce their reliance on logistics, relying on the supplies carried by the troops themselves to maintain their combat effectiveness. This is very different from the way the German troops were supplied in the past. Although the speed of the march increased, it was impossible for a large force to bypass the armored battalion in front of them, and Guderian also wanted to set a record - the first time in the history of the German Army that an armored battalion in China was completely eaten. So Guderian, who had 4 full armored battalions in his hands, decided to pull out the nail! In this war in China, a battle with the highest battle loss rate among battalion-level units has officially broken out!

"Because of the terrain, the two sides met in a hurry, the Germans were marching, and we had just arrived at the designated position, and the smoke and dust in the sky surprised us, and the opponent's assault was too fast. Our intelligence is a bit lagging behind, we don't have time to prepare and we have to go into battle, and it is not enough to simply hold on, and the enemy's long-range artillery and air force on open ground will deal a fatal blow to us. So we can only attack actively. At that time, the situation was very critical, there was no way out of holding on, and the attack would eventually fail. It's a blessing to have survived. Ye Mingyuan, who commanded this unit at that time, recalled the scene after the war.

The Germans had a great superiority in strength, and two armored battalions were deployed on the left and on the right. It was clamped like a giant pair of pliers. Although Ye Mingyuan has a lot of armored units, but the number of tanks is very small, in the case of a huge gap in strength, tank destroyers without sufficient protection on the flanks are not suitable for attacking, for this reason, Ye Mingyuan decided to use tank destroyers and a small number of anti-tank guns to hold his flanks and back, block the attack of one of the German troops, and concentrate almost all tanks and infantry fighting vehicles to launch a surprise attack on the other German army!

"Even in the case of absolute disadvantage, the fighting will and combat effectiveness of the Huaxia elite armored forces are extremely strong, and they did not flinch in the face of our tidal offensive, but met them, even if they were swallowed up in the end!" Guderian once said this about his opponent.

From the air, the force was split into two parts, with all the lightly armoured vehicles and tank destroyers holding the tank's flank, while the tanks and infantry fighting vehicles rushed to the German panted battalion on the right flank. The two sides soon got mixed up, and the German artillery, which had just finished deploying, was simply unable to provide support. Armored vehicles weighing dozens of tons fired at each other at a distance of several hundred meters, and the scene was very chaotic. The roar of artillery and the whirring of armor-piercing shells were incessant, and each violent explosion meant the demise of a behemoth.

"The Chinese armored forces tightened their fronts as much as possible. They are usually close to each other and cover each other. Even in the chaos they were still fighting in platoons, and although we had a huge numerical advantage, it was difficult for us to take the top spot in the initial engagement. Here it is necessary to mention the infantry fighting vehicles of the Chinese. These flimsy and thin vehicles played a huge role in this engagement, moving in a backward direction on either side of the Huaxia armored forces, and whenever we tried to flank our opponents, they would quickly approach and threaten our flanks with 57mm guns. These guns could penetrate our side armor from a distance of 800 meters, so our numerical superiority was never fully utilized. "After the battle. Guderian also had to admit the tactical level of the opponent.

BUT THE BALANCE OF POWER WAS ONLY SHORT-LIVED, AND WITH THE HALF-TRACK VEHICLE LOADED WITH 88MM ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS IN PLACE, THE POWERFUL ARMOR-PIERCING SHELLS COULD KNOCK THROUGH THE FRONTAL ARMOR OF THE TYPE 29 TANK AT A LONG DISTANCE. Guderian threw 8 tanks at once, and under the surprise of the Chinese armored forces, the high rate of fire of 8 anti-aircraft guns destroyed 4 Type 29 tanks in a very short time, directly tearing a gap in the front! The total number of tanks in China is only 24. Coupled with the previous battle damage, the entire defense line was immediately on the verge of collapse. AFTER THE GERMAN INFANTRY FIGHTING VEHICLES WERE IN PLACE, THE FEROCIOUS FIREPOWER OF A LARGE NUMBER OF WEASELS AND WEASELS EQUIPPED WITH 30MM MACHINE GUNS QUICKLY SUPPRESSED THE NUMERICALLY INFERIOR CHINESE INFANTRY FIGHTING VEHICLES. In the end, Ye Mingyuan's attack was crushed, and the few remaining tanks and combat vehicles began to move closer to the defensive forces on the other side.

But even then, in the end, it was crushed in front of the German armored forces, which had a numerical advantage. In the end, although it was later covered by the Air Force, the troops who escaped from Ascension did not have 3 percent! Guderian finally crushed his opponent's first interception, but the huge loss still hurt him. The battle loss ratio of the twin-engine combat vehicle is 1.3 to 1. Even if the German armored forces had a numerical advantage, the battle loss ratio was still not optimistic! Such heavy losses not only greatly weakened Guderian's strength, but also shook his resolve and the ideas he had always adhered to.

"Even if we have the upper hand, our losses are still greater than those of the other side, and the Chinese Army is very strong-willed to fight, even in a desperate situation, it will still fight bravely, according to European standards. The troops with 4 percent of the battle losses can already be regarded as incapacitated, and the huge casualties will make this army eventually collapse, but today, the opponent's losses are estimated to be about 8 percent. But they still did not surrender and were still able to put up organized resistance. In the face of the Chinese troops, even if we can complete the division and encirclement, we must be prepared for a bloody battle with the trapped opponent. We need a more elite armored force to crush these hard bones. At this point, Guderian also had to abandon the pursuit of mobility of armored forces in favor of strengthening firepower and defense.

Although only a very small number of troops could fight so tenaciously, Guderian also recognized that it was important for the Chinese army. Being able to tear through the defense line is only the first step towards victory, and the opponent's strong armored reserves can still plug the gap, and hitting it does not necessarily mean that the opponent can be divided, let alone encircled and annihilated. The assault group must have the ability to crush the enemy in front of them, otherwise all breakthroughs will be meaningless.

At the same time as Guderian and Zhang Mingyuan's troops fought, the German army in front also launched a diversionary attack, but the result was very tragic. The attacking Germans were quickly routed under the Type 29 series of tanks and air strikes. The three German Panzer Divisions, which had already lost too many large-caliber anti-aircraft guns, long-range artillery, and armored forces, failed to advance in two consecutive attacks.

"Although Guderian has been inserted behind enemy lines, the enemy in front of him is not short of supplies in a short period of time, and with the retirement of time, if Schrager cannot draw out the opponent's reserves and create conditions for Guderian to attack the enemy's rear base and supply center, then our situation is still very dangerous." It didn't take long for the German counteroffensive to take place, and the Germans found out that the situation was not as good as they thought. According to today's battle situation, the German army can feel that the material reserves of the opposing front-line troops are very sufficient. Even more than the reserves of the German army now! There won't be any problems in the short term.

As the battle continued, the loss rate of German logistics vehicles continued to rise, which was not only the result of the attack of the Huaxia Air Force, but also the increase in the scrap rate of vehicles brought about by the high load use. If it continues to be consumed like this, even if Huaxia does not take action against the German logistics units, the Germans themselves will not be able to hold on, and can only retreat and shorten the supply line. In the eyes of the Germans, the only chance to break the situation was for Guderian to completely smash the logistics system of the Chinese army, rather than just cutting off the other side's supply lines. In order to destroy the supply depots and logistics bases located in the rear, it is necessary to be able to defeat the garrison, but judging by the situation of Guderian's battle with the Chinese armored forces today, this goal seems difficult to achieve. 4 armored battalions went to nearly thirty percent in the first battle! If the other side had one more armored battalion, then Guderian would really have nothing left if he fought again. If you count the air raids of the Chinese Air Force, then Guderian's situation will be even more tragic.

After this battle, even Guderian was a little less confident in the next operation, and the loss of troops, the non-stop tracking and raiding of the Huaxia Air Force, and the mysterious variety of light armored vehicles made the movement of Guderian's army very limited. In order to avoid possible bombing, they had to find sheltered places during the day. And at night, the Germans, who lacked night vision equipment, naturally found it difficult to find their way in an unfamiliar place.

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976, tianxiayouyi for the reward ~~~, and the book friend knightfull for the monthly pass support ~~~~~. (To be continued.) )