Cross the Songhu battlefield and rise to become the most powerful warlord

Chapter 837: Encirclement and Annihilation of the Japanese 8th Division

837 encircled and annihilated the Japanese th Division

In May, after Lu Dahai's new 1st Division successfully joined forces with the main force of the British army, Lu Dahai led his men to meet with the British commander Roberts.

"Commander Lu, you are finally here.

Now that you are here, we can begin our attack on the Japanese army."

Roberts, along with a group of British generals, gave Lu Dahai the highest courtesy.

"The British guy has no good intentions."

Listening to the translator next to him translating Roberts' words to him, Lu Dahai saluted with a smile on his face.

But he muttered this.

"Tell these foreign devils that in this battle, the British army is the main force attacking the Japanese army.

Our division is only here to assist them.

They now have 100,000 men at their disposal. If they don't launch a major offensive, do they still expect one of our divisions to do the same? "

Although Lu Dahai has a simple and honest character, he is not stupid.

Before coming, Ye Qingshan sent a telegram to Lu Dahai, telling him not to be used as a gun by the British.

In this battle, the British army was the main force.

In Stilwell's plan, the British army was supposed to hold the main force on the southern battlefield.

The mission of Ye Qingshan's expeditionary force was to attack the Japanese from behind after the British army won the battle on the southern front.

Responsible for annihilating the two most elite main divisions of the Japanese 25th Army in the western mountainous area of ​​Siam.

In fact, compared with Ye Qingshan’s expeditionary force, it is difficult to annihilate the two most elite divisions of the Japanese devils.

The British army's mission to move south to the Malay Peninsula was ultimately relatively easy.

If this is the case, they still hope to attack the Japanese 18th Division in Long City, and let Lu Dahai's New 1st Division take on a heavy offensive task.

Ye Qingshan definitely couldn't agree to that.

Soon, the English translator next to Lu Dahai translated Lu Dahai's words to Roberts.

After hearing this, Roberts' face looked a little gloomy, but he didn't want to get angry.

Knowing that Lu Dahai would not be fooled, Roberts had no choice but to give up.

Afterwards, the two sides held a meeting to discuss the offensive mission against the Japanese 18th Division.

After Lu Dahai listened to the report from the British generals at the meeting about the defensive positions deployed by the Japanese 18th Division around Long City during this period.

Lu Dahai also took a breath of cold air.

"Damn it, the Japs are digging holes here again."

The several defense lines of the Japanese 18th Division were basically deployed based on the surrounding mountains and jungle terrain.

The old Japanese soldier Mutaguchi Ren'ya was also very clear that they had now lost air superiority.

They could only resist the bombing of Allied aircraft by digging holes.

A day later, Lu Dahai led his men back to his division headquarters.

At the meeting, he and British commander Roberts agreed on their respective combat directions.

Two days later, five British divisions will launch a fierce attack on the Japanese 18th Division from three directions.

Lu Dahai's New 1st Division was responsible for infiltrating a small town called Mingze, cutting off the Japanese's first line of defense in the east and the supply route to the rear.

This time, the British staff under Roberts collected intelligence on the Japanese defense line.

We also did sufficient homework and made careful responses to the Japanese defense.

I vowed to smash this tortoise shell built by the Japanese 18th Division.

After research, the British military staff found that the defense system built by the Japanese 18th Division in Long City was also very difficult to deal with.

But it is not without weaknesses.

The weakness is that the Japanese defense lines are separated by dozens of miles.

These dozens of miles of land would have been nothing if they were in the hands of the Japanese who previously held air superiority.

But now, offense and defense have changed.

It was the Allies who had control of the air.

After losing air superiority, the Japanese defenders on the outer defense line wanted to obtain a steady supply of ammunition.

It needs the Japanese in the rear to provide it.

Therefore, there were only a few supply channels between the Japanese front and rear defense lines.

It also became the biggest weakness of the Japanese defense line.

The British also understand the principle of hitting the snake at its most vulnerable part.

Therefore, in the British army's combat plan, their main force had to make a gesture of attacking the Japanese front line of defense.

But in fact, it was still just a feint.

The British Army will send several other regiments, as well as Lu Dahai's New 1st Division, to undertake the task of cutting off the Japanese supply routes.

Lu Dahai also admired the British army's detailed and meticulous combat plan.

"There are also capable people in the British army."

Two days passed quickly, and on May 6, the main force of the British army began to attack the outer defense line of the Japanese 18th Division.

Lu Dahai's New 1st Division also began to move.

Boom boom boom!

Before the battle, the British artillery launched a fierce attack on the Japanese positions.

After a week, after obtaining ammunition supplies from the sea, the only artillery division in the British army finally recovered.

Previously, they lost a large number of artillery shells during the retreat.

Fortunately, sea transportation was not interrupted. If it were not for the cannons in the hands of the British artillery, they would have become useless lumps of iron.

However, in Roberts' opinion, the artillery bombardment of a mere artillery division was still too weak.

Roberts is now very rare and has received ten times the artillery support.

But unfortunately, this was just wishful thinking on his part.

The British troops that landed could not bring too many artillery pieces.

Their previous hasty retreat also caused them a lot of losses.

But the artillery of a division was indeed not enough to support the attack of the main force of 60,000 to 70,000 British troops.

Fortunately, they still had fire support from bombers in the sky.

Buzz!

At 8:30 in the morning, before the main force of the British army launched the general attack, a group of black spots appeared in the western sky and the humming sound of engines was heard.

More than 20 carrier-based aircraft, carrying bombs, flew here.

Fly over the Japanese position and drop the bombs you carry accurately.

"Haha, fried well.

Ye Qingshan finally kept his promise by having their carrier-based aircraft provide us with air support this time."

In the semi-underground bunker command center, Roberts used a telescope to look at the group of carrier-based aircraft flying towards him in the western sky.

When the channel he dropped turned the Japanese position in front into a sea of ​​fire, he finally said something good about Ye Qingshan.