The 17th Division was an artillery group, although it was equipped with a Soviet-made battalion of 76-mm cannons. However, because the position of the Japanese artillery position was very tricky, it could not be hit by direct fire. The angle of the mountain artillery is enough, but the range is not enough. With all his might, he was never able to suppress the six twenty-five-pounder guns.

On the first day of fighting, the six 25-pounder field guns used superior range and the Japanese always controlled the commanding heights, and the artillery fire was extremely accurate. Although there were only a few twenty-five-pounder guns, plus the su zhì of the Japanese artillery. Until these pieces of artillery were destroyed, considerable pressure and threat were always put on the attacking infantry on the northern front of the Western Group throughout the battle.

The terrain in this direction is complex, not only in the interlaced area of hills and Hunshandak sand, but also relatively fragmented. Although the hills in the area are not high in height and have a gentle slope, the main commanding heights are in the hands of the Japanese army. Moreover, there are a large number of large and small saline lakes in the area where the offensive can be launched.

The width of the front of the attack is also limited to a certain extent. The terrain of the offensive area will also be divided quite messily. It is difficult to connect the offensive of the Anti-United Nations. The firepower of the Japanese troops deployed at several commanding heights also put a lot of pressure on the attacking troops.

Moreover, although the Japanese forces in this direction were not large, the combination of a large number of equipped two-pounder anti-tank guns and twenty-mm automatic guns posed a serious threat to the T26 tanks equipped with the 1st Panzer Brigade. The Japanese army on this line exceeded the machine gun fire of several times the establishment, and the vertical and horizontal bunkers also posed a considerable threat to the infantry of the Anti-Japanese Union.

When the 1st Panzer Brigade launched the attack, the Japanese did not place too many troops in the first-line defensive positions. Its main forces are placed in the second and third lines of defense, as well as a large number of counter-attack firing points and bunkers. And the number of bunkers of the Japanese army on this line far exceeded the judgment before the launch of the anti-coalition attack. This suppressed the firepower of the attacking troops and did not inflict much damage on the defenders.

After more than half of the first-line fortifications were destroyed by anti-coalition artillery fire, the Japanese troops in front of them simply gave up their first-line defensive positions by taking advantage of the fortifications that were relatively complete in depth. The whole army shrank back to a second-line defensive position. With the support of in-depth artillery fire, it stubbornly withstood the offensive of the 1st Armored Brigade.

As a matter of fact, the defensive tactics adopted by the Japanese army, which mainly focused on the second line of defense and directly put the defenders in the deep zone under pressure, required quite a high level of willpower from the second-line defense troops. Because the front-line positions were broken through, once the enemy broke into depth, it was difficult to ensure that the troops would not be overwhelmed in one go.

Moreover, the defenders on the various flank fire points between the first and second lines of defense are under the multiple firepower and offensive of the attacking side, and it is difficult not to guarantee a collapse with a little less willpower. However, the stubborn willpower of the Japanese army on the battlefield made the Japanese commanders dare to make this bet, placing the main defensive forces in the second line of defense and the various firepower points between the two lines of defense.

The most critical thing is that in the anti-coalition assault cluster on the northern front, there is also a certain deviation in command. In Yang Zhen's words after this battle, this style of play is too regular, too stable. That is, they did not dare to rush the main defensive positions of the Japanese army on the second line with tank troops, nor did they dare to disperse the troops under the condition that the forces were superior, so as to disperse the mess.

The three-three tactics adopted by the Anti-Japanese Federation in the course of the attack are not just squad and platoon tactics. The same applies to battalion and company units. There are a large number of back-hitting firepower points and flank firepower points between the first and second lines of defense of the Japanese army, and it is to make trouble for itself to break through the in-depth forces and adopt a group offensive, whether it is a regiment or a battalion.

However, it is completely possible to concentrate tanks to cut off the enemy's defensive positions, adopt battalions and companies to advance in multiple ways at the same time, and make full use of the advantages of small and medium-caliber direct firepower of the anti-Japanese forces to clear these bunkers and firing points little by little. As long as the fortifications between the first and second lines of the Japanese army are cut into messy, the rest of the things will be easy to do.

The previous stage of the battle was over, and the entire northeast plus Chadong had already entered late autumn, or even early winter. Chadong has always been a bitter cold place outside the Saiwai, although it is not as cold as Beiman. However, the temperature in winter is not comparable to that within the Great Wall. It drips into ice throughout the winter.

In the dripping and icy season, the Japanese army could not use reinforced concrete, and the Japanese army simply could not build too many permanent fortifications. Even though many of the fortifications are made of stone, there are no concrete joints in between. The strength of the fortifications is even inferior to the fortified area of the Tongliao region. In the bitterly cold weather outside the fortress, it is good to be able to build the fortifications like this.

If Liu Changshun adopts a multi-way small-scale assault, he can not only disperse the forces of the Japanese defense, but also look for opportunities to divide the defensive posture of the Japanese army. As long as you have enough reserves in your hands and a large number of recoilless guns and bazookas and other direct-aim firepower, what is there to worry about.

But Liu Changshun did not do this, but adopted the two-way breakthrough tactic of battalion as the formation in a proper manner. Under the suppression of artillery fire, the infantry covered the front-line assault of the tanks. But on the front, which was not too narrow in size for all appearance, there were no more than two companies of tanks at a time, and there was no group offensive at all.

Not only did the overall offensive power not go up, but the attack line looked a little messy. In each offensive, the forces could not gain an advantage. In the battle, he was too calm and steady, and he didn't dare to let go of the offensive of his hands and feet. This also caused Chen Hanzhang to worry about whether he had recommended the wrong candidate.

It is true that the terrain in this area is somewhat complicated, and there are several large and small saline-alkali lakes in the entire Hunshandak sandy land and hills, which makes it difficult for the offensive of the Anti-Union to form a whole line. But the area of these lakes is not large, generally only a few hundred square meters, or even only a few dozen square meters, and the impact is actually not very large.

It is true that an armored brigade is a little crowded, but there is no problem with putting in the strength of one and a half battalions at one time. But Liu Changshun, who was in charge of command, invested in two companies and two companies. Not only has the tactic of adding fuel has been formed in the input of troops, but it is too stable in the choice of attack order, and it is still the old tactic of first gnawing down the periphery and then cutting into the core position.

The attack formation was also too tight, and instead of giving full play to the advantages of the large number of light direct-aiming weapons of the Anti-United Nations, it relied too much on the already insufficient number of tanks. Despite repeated requests from the commander of the 17th Division, the troops should be based on the terrain of the area where the attack was launched, and the tactics of opening the formation and not using battalion and company group charges.

Companies and platoons are used as formations, and each demarcates the target and scope of attack. Adopt the tactics of scattered infiltration, unified and centralized, and launch attacks at the same time in multiple areas. That is, to disperse the threat of Japanese artillery, but also to speed up the progress. In particular, it was necessary to seize several commanding heights in the deep positions of the Japanese army and knock out the eyes of the Japanese artillery observation posts. But these few constructions were all rejected by Liu Changshun. He still stubbornly adopted the old method of using a tank company as the backbone and two infantry battalions advancing at the same time.

Moreover, during the entire offensive, Liu Changshun always maintained a frontal offensive, and never thought of making a detour from the flank. For the large number of back-fire points between the first and second positions of the Japanese army, the 76-millimeter cannon, which had a high firing accuracy and extremely fast rate of fire, was not converted into flat-firing artillery as much as possible.

Despite repeated requests from the Chief of Staff of the 17th Division, the modified artillery was used as a close-range high-powered direct-aim artillery in advance. The division belonged to the mountain artillery group to suppress the Japanese firepower cluster. But the dude, for some unknown reason, always refused to agree. Still stubbornly demanded that the 17th Division belong to the artillery group, and did everything possible to find the Japanese artillery and kill them.

In addition to the width is too large, has not yet been completely cleared of the minefield. After a whole day of attack, the 1st Panzer Brigade and the 15th Division advanced less than 5 kilometers and lost more than 40 tanks. The two Sharp Knife Battalions that launched the attack also suffered heavy casualties in the attack. The offensive launched between the white flag and the right flag of Sunit can be said to be a setback for the whole army.

Faced with the unfavorable situation of the initial battle on the northern front, Chen Hanzhang quickly adjusted his deployment until the early morning of the 21st. A reinforced battalion was drawn from among the forces that expanded the breach, and a reinforced tank company was reinforced to attack from the south to the north to support the breakthrough of the 1st Panzer Brigade from the flanks.

However, Chen Hanzhang reacted quickly, and his opponent, Lieutenant General Otozaburo Yano, commander of the 26th Division of the Japanese Army, was not slow to react. Less than two hours after this reinforced battalion launched an assault to the north, it was temporarily reinforced by three infantry squadrons and two engineer squadrons of the 11th Independent Infantry Wing of the 26th Division, which were transferred by the Japanese army from the reserves of the deep division.

It cannot but be said that the Japanese army is still quite talented in building fortifications. The construction of its fortifications can be called textbook level for the most part. Whether it is the large and small fortress groups that spread all over the Sino-Soviet border in North Manchuria, or the fortified area of Tongliao North that impressed Chen Hanzhang in the previous stage of the battle.

It is still the 26th Division, which is currently holding the fortified area from the white flag to the right banner of Sunit. All of them have been carefully designed and painstakingly built. The configuration of its firepower and the arrangement of the fortification group are quite painstaking. The construction of such a large fortified area within half a year, in such a climate where water drips into ice in winter, shows the great effort of the Japanese army.

Not to mention the solidity of these field fortification groups, the configuration of this firepower point alone can be said to be well thought out and painstaking. The core main positions of each defensive area are all capable of 360-degree ring shots. In all defensive areas, a large number of back-hit firepower points were built, as well as flank cover firepower points.

In the absence of more sturdy reinforced concrete fortifications due to the climate, large quantities of stones and timber were brought in from afar at all costs to make these fortifications as resistant to attacks as possible.

The bunkers around the main position are interlocking, and the shooting circles cross each other, and there are almost no defensive dead ends. Even between the main position and the cover position, a large number of minefields, dominated by anti-infantry mines, were deployed. The anti-tank artillery positions can not only cooperate with the heavy machine gun positions, but also have their own firing ranges in an intersecting and multi-echelon configuration.

Not only were the various fortifications connected by communication trenches, but almost all of them, large and small, were equipped with field telephones. Most of its bunkers are built at extremely tricky angles, and there are strict regulations on the time of firing. Without an order, even if the troops of the Anti-Union were under their noses, they were not allowed to open fire.

These firing points were basically guaranteed, and the anti-United Nations attack force was given the maximum damage with the greatest suddenness of firepower. Moreover, the firing points of its reverse attack are not one or two, but in rows. The number of machine guns and anti-tank guns was also far greater than the regular establishment of the Japanese army.

At intervals in the forward positions, there are backs that cooperate with the frontal fortifications of the second line to form back-firing points for cross-firing. These core fortifications consisting of trenches and semi-permanent fortifications, together with a large number of bunkers, constitute an overall interdependent defensive posture. If you try to attack one of them, you will encounter fire from both the depth and the flanks.