1novels #244 - Mechanized Infantry Brigade Concept and New Battle Situation
#244 - Mechanized Infantry Brigade Concept and New Battle Situation
After the successful counter-offensive in Jin Province, the main force regiment model was tested. At this stage, the main force regiment is still a highly combat-effective organization, and this foundation can continue to be used.
However, the process of attacking Taiyuan also exposed the obvious shortcomings of the main force regiment in terms of long-distance mobile attack capabilities and the ability to overcome fortifications, almost delaying matters and missing opportunities.
Therefore, Ren Zhong proposed the establishment of several mechanized units to become strategic strike forces.
This new mechanized infantry brigade's concept is still based on Ren Zhong's experience and lessons from the main world.
According to current conditions, it is basically optimized and improved based on the main world's motorized infantry brigade concept.
In the historical timeline of the main world, a fully equipped motorized infantry brigade has 11 battalions, with 4 motorized infantry battalions as the main force, 1 tank battalion as the armored force, 2 artillery battalions as the firepower, and 1 anti-aircraft artillery battalion for air defense. The remaining 3 battalions are the engineer and chemical battalion, the communications battalion, and the support and repair battalion, respectively. Adding the brigade headquarters' directly subordinate medical team, reconnaissance, guard, and other units, it is equivalent to more than ten battalions with more than 4,000 personnel.
According to the current conditions and combat targets, the three specialized battalions are obviously unnecessary.
Therefore, Ren Zhong's suggestion is to have 6 motorized infantry battalions as the main force, 1 tank battalion as the vanguard, 3 artillery battalions as the firepower output units, and a logistics support battalion and a supply battalion as the rear.
This basic configuration of 12 battalions greatly enhances the attack capability on the basis of a fully staffed Class A regiment.
The tank battalion is divided into 3 tank companies, each tank company has 3 tank platoons, each tank platoon has 5 tanks, plus the company headquarters with the company commander, deputy company commander, and political instructor having 3 tanks, and the battalion headquarters having 6 tanks, the entire tank battalion has 60 tanks. A light and heavy configuration is carried out according to the method of 1 T-34 tank company + 2 M3 tank companies.
Among the 3 artillery battalions, 1 107 rocket artillery battalion has 3 107 rocket artillery companies, each artillery company has 6 jeeps pulling them for marching, and 3 jeeps transporting rockets.
The anti-aircraft artillery battalion uses 2 20mm anti-aircraft gun companies and 1 88mm anti-aircraft gun company that can be used for both high and low-altitude targets. Each 20mm anti-aircraft gun company has 6 jeeps pulling them, and 3 jeeps transporting ammunition. The 88mm anti-aircraft gun company is equipped with 6 G506 trucks, with the guns, personnel, and ammunition all traveling together.
The 3 artillery battalions need a total of 69 jeeps and 12 trucks.
In this way, the motorized infantry brigade's heavy firepower is as high as 54 various types of artillery, which is insane.
The motorized infantry battalion is basically configured according to 3 infantry companies and 1 fire support company. The fire support company is divided into 2 82mm mortar platoons and 1 heavy machine gun platoon. Each mortar platoon has 6 mortars, equipped with 6 jeeps. The heavy machine gun platoon has 6 heavy machine guns, also equipped with 6 jeeps. The fire support company has a total of 18 jeeps.
The infantry company is divided into 3 infantry platoons and 1 fire support platoon. The fire support platoon is equipped with 6 RPG rocket launcher teams and 2 heavy machine gun teams, equipped with 1 truck. The infantry platoon has 3 infantry squads and 1 2-person sniper team. Each infantry squad has 1 machine gun team and 10 infantrymen, strengthening 2 RPG-80 rocket launchers. The infantry platoon is equipped with 1 G506 truck, so an infantry company has 4 trucks.
In this way, an infantry battalion has a total of 12 trucks and 18 jeeps.
The 6 infantry battalions have a total of 72 trucks and 108 jeeps.
The supply battalion is divided into 3 truck companies, each truck company has 12 trucks, and the entire battalion has a total of 36 trucks, responsible for the transportation of food, weapons, ammunition, fuel, and other military supplies.
The support and repair battalion is divided into 3 companies, each company has 10 trucks and 2 jeeps, totaling 30 trucks and 6 jeeps. One transportation company transports various parts, and the other two transport fuel to ensure supply.
Calculated in this way, a motorized infantry brigade of 12 specialized battalions needs a total of 138 trucks, 114 jeeps, and 60 tanks, plus the 10 trucks and 16 jeeps directly under the brigade headquarters, a total of 278 vehicles and a huge convoy of 60 tanks.
According to the current productivity, tanks can be produced in about a month, trucks take more than a month, and jeeps can definitely be produced in a month.
Therefore, equipping a motorized infantry brigade is very difficult now, the production capacity is seriously lagging behind, and the most important thing is that the consumption is also large. The current automobile engines and tank engines consume a lot of fuel, easily more than 20 liters per 100 kilometers, and a 60-liter fuel tank is not enough, requiring refueling after running more than 200 kilometers.
Tanks are even more frightening. The 'Sherman' equipped with a diesel engine requires more than 130 liters per 100 kilometers on the road, and even more than 386 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers off-road. The T-34/76 medium tank has a fuel tank capacity of 480 liters, and consumes 140 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers on the road. Fuel consumption per 100 kilometers will also soar to more than 300 liters in off-road combat.
As for the M3 tank, it is a well-known short-legged one, with a range of only 120 kilometers under its own fuel tank conditions! Two jettisonable auxiliary fuel tanks must be added to barely run about 300 kilometers.
It can be said that tanks are oil tigers. If a long-distance raid of thousands of kilometers is carried out, the guarantee of only 60 tanks will require more than 60 tons of gasoline and diesel!
The original truck with a load capacity of 1.7 tons must now pull 16 200L standard oil drums. In this way, one truck can barely meet the consumption of 3 tanks.
Therefore, long-distance raids look very beautiful, but they are actually not very feasible. For the supply battalion and the support battalion, they are overloaded, and it is difficult to keep up with the rhythm at this stage.
However, there is no such large space for long-distance raids of thousands of kilometers now. As long as a large-scale mobile operation of about 300 kilometers can be completed, it can basically meet the needs.
Therefore, this experimental mobile infantry brigade has only given 3 places so far.
According to Ren Zhong's suggestion, these places should be given to the Independent Regiment, the New First Regiment, and the New Second Regiment that he is familiar with.
Mechanized Infantry Independent Brigade, Mechanized Infantry New First Brigade, and Mechanized Infantry New Second Brigade.
Now, accepting the dual command of the brigade commander and the headquarters, the key is to step up and do big things at critical moments.
In terms of designation, there haven't been too many fancy changes to avoid provoking the GMD, who are thousands of miles away.
Due to Ren Zhong's suggestion, although the two old main regiments, the 771st and 772nd, had a lot of opinions, it was useless.
The right to suggest this matter rests with Ren Zhong, and even the brigade commander's words don't carry as much weight as Ren Zhong's now.
However, with the three new units all under his command, the brigade commander would be crazy to suggest to the headquarters to replace him.
In the past few years, the Independent Regiment has stood out, and the New First and Second Regiments have also been very impressive, especially in the recent Yuanqu Blocking Operation. The New Second Regiment fought valiantly and resolutely, holding onto many positions to the very last man, completing an extremely difficult blocking mission.
By the end, even Kong Jie was operating a machine gun on the front line, fighting desperately. Ever since Kong Er Lengzi was ambushed by Yamamoto, he had been holding a grudge. This time, he finally rose to the occasion in the blocking operation, and everyone knew the tenacious style of the Iron Second Regiment.
Therefore, during the reconstruction process, using the battered New Second Regiment as a new pilot project was something even the superiors couldn't object to.
Creating a sharp knife is essential. Now that the Japanese devils have retreated, most of the Japanese devils in Jin have been wiped out, with only a small area in southern Jin still occupied by a division, adjacent to Pingyang, which was newly occupied by Yan Xishan.
However, there are still more than 200,000 Japanese devils in North China, and more than 400,000 in the Kwantung Army. Desperate fighting at critical moments is still a considerable force.
Moreover, after the headquarters recalled Okamura to teach, the newly appointed commander was not Okabe Naozaburo from the original timeline. This Japanese devil also suffered a defeat on the grasslands and was seriously injured, so he was also sent back to retire. Okamura Sadamu of the East China Front Army was promoted to General out of turn, taking over the mess in North China ahead of schedule.
At the same time, he also took over the Sixth Area Army.
In Okamura Sadamu's three fires of new appointment, he chose to avoid the Eighth Route Army and regain confidence from the GMD. Therefore, from the 11th Army in Hanyang to the North China Front Army, he continued the Henan-Hubei Campaign, pushing the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties of the GMD's First War Zone into a corner.
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It was on the verge of falling.
The GMD could no longer endure it and had to order the Eighth Route Army to launch a rescue.
Chen Brigade was ordered to use the 771st and 772nd Regiments as spearheads, gathering more than 30,000 main force troops, and marched south to capture Shenzhou, Qinyang, and Mengzhou, protecting the flank of the First War Zone. Immediately afterward, they crossed the Yellow River at Mengjin and advanced eastward, attacking the newly occupied Yanshi by the Japanese devils.
The Japanese devils, unable to figure out how many troops the Eighth Route Army had actually deployed, were now like startled birds, packing up and running away overnight, quickly withdrawing the main force to Gong County.
The next day, after realizing that not too many Eighth Route Army troops had crossed the river, the Japanese devils adopted a defensive posture, leaving a brigade to confront them.
Then, the main force launched an attack to the south, successively capturing Weishi, Zheng County, Yuchuan, Changge, Xingyang, Cuimiao and other places. Meanwhile, the main force of the Japanese 11th Army in Xinyang attacked north, also advancing rapidly, regaining confidence from the GMD.
At the same time, because Ren Zhong had anticipated all of this, after the brigade commander sent two main regiments across the river, scaring the Japanese devils away from advancing west and preserving the final face of the Six Dynasties ancient capital and the First War Zone.
After a short rest, the main force directly sent troops to Shanyang and Muye, and after more than ten days of fierce fighting, they captured the area north of the Yellow River, west of Changyuan, and south of Huixian in one fell swoop.
The Pinghan Railway, which the Japanese devils had worked so hard to open, was once again cut off. In this offensive, the tank battalion once again performed outstandingly. The M3 modified tanks, which could fight, withstand attacks, and use tank guns to attack cities, became the strongest attack trump card in the brigade commander's hand.
In addition, the air force's acquisition of air superiority in the war zone and the firepower coverage of the 107 artillery corps also achieved great battlefield advantages.
In this way, the Japanese devils were south of the Yellow River, and the Eighth Route Army was north of the Yellow River, forming a strange war situation where each fought their own battles.
The only one who suffered was the GMD's First War Zone. After repeated battles, hundreds of thousands of troops had been consumed by more than half. Now, only more than 100,000 troops near the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties were barely confronting the Japanese devils.
Because in the Yanshi and Mangling areas, there were already 3 main regiments of the Eighth Route Army stationed, and at the same time, they guarded the Yellow River crossing, forming a unified whole with Mengzhou on the opposite bank, exerting lateral pressure on the Japanese devils, forcing the Japanese devils to form a western defense circle from Gong County, Dengfeng, Baofeng, Xiangcheng, Wugang, Biyang County, Tongbai to Xinyang.
At the same time, a eastern defense circle was formed from Bianliang, Weishi, Yanling County, Shangcai, Runan, Zhengyang, Luoshan to Xinyang, which was the new war result of the Japanese devils' Henan-Hubei Campaign, completely different from the great victory in the original historical timeline.
However, the achievement of annihilating nearly 200,000 troops of the GMD allowed the newly appointed Okamura Sadamu, the old devil, to barely secure his position as the commander of the North China Front Army and the Sixth Area Army, and was promoted to the rank of General.
However, the loss of Shanyang and Muye also put Okamura Sadamu under great pressure from the headquarters. Not to mention the cutting off of the Pinghan Railway, now the various strongholds north of the Yellow River are under tremendous pressure. The increasingly powerful main regiments of the Eighth Route Army may come out in full force at any time.
The attack on Shanyang and Muye showed that the Eighth Route Army already possessed complete siege weapons and tactics. For the siege of small and medium-sized cities in the Hebei-Henan-Shandong-Shanxi Plain, the main force of the Eighth Route Army, with complete artillery support and air support, now has almost no pressure on the damage to the city walls.
The sky over North China has begun to change.
Even Okamura Sadamu now hesitates to organize the main force to recapture Shanyang and Muye, fearing that this is another new trap.
Almost at the same time, after more than a month of production, Li Yunlong's motorized infantry independent brigade took the lead in completing the reorganization in Yangcheng. Li Yunlong finally realized his new dream of commanding tank warfare.
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