Chapter 3035: Crossing the River Construction

There is no preset position on the beach on the other side of the river. The first problem faced by the first wave of beach landing troops after landing is how to build an effective defensive position to meet the arrival of the subsequent Zhouqiao troops. ɱ

It is definitely unrealistic to directly pick up a pickaxe to dig on the spot.

Malashenko, who has not fought this kind of fixed position war for a while, thought of a way - to use artillery to blast.

Anyway, it is a civil engineering work to break ground. Although Lao Ma is not a civil engineering master, he also knows the reason.

I use a pickaxe to dig to break ground, and I use artillery to blast. Moreover, the latter is more efficient and the construction area is large enough, so why not?

It’s nothing more than that the floating soil blasted out by the artillery is not neat and has no shape, but this is not a difficult task. Send people to pick up a pickaxe to do some fine repairs.

In any case, it is better than a bunch of people going up to repair the earth. It is always a way to speed up the construction progress, and it is also a way.

Thus, this area full of craters plowed by heavy artillery and rocket barrages became the construction site for Alsim and his team, who were the first to cross the river, to build positions.

As soon as they rushed into the crater area, they began to plan and layout. Alsim, who had not forgotten how to fight a positional battle, immediately commanded his soldiers to dig and build communication trenches.

The first thing to do was to connect the large craters together and build a systematic defensive position before further refinement.

Alsim, who was not just a supervisor, also worked hard. Seeing that no Japanese had come up, he hurried to seize the time. He threw his gun behind his back and immediately rushed to the construction area waving an engineer shovel, turning into a human bulldozer and starting civil engineering construction on the spot.

Alsim and his team, who were the first to cross the river, worked hard, and the second and third waves of infantry who crossed the river followed and joined in, and began to assist in building defensive positions.

More and more troops successfully crossed the river, from half a company to a company, from a company to a battalion, and quickly reached a scale of nearly a thousand people at a visible speed.

There were enough people, but the problem was that they were all light infantry.

The heaviest firepower on hand was mortars and 100mm super-caliber RPG rocket-propelled grenades.

For the leader army, which was used to winning battles with firepower, this level of firepower was not even a tip of the iceberg. The top priority was to transport the leader army's steel behemoths across the river.

The light infantry crossed the Ussuri River and went to the other side of the river to build a defensive position for only one purpose.

Prevent any possible beachhead counterattack by the Japanese army from destroying the construction work of the pontoon bridge troops, and ensure that the pontoon bridge was safely erected at all costs.

As long as the leader army's heavy equipment, even the BMP43 infantry fighting vehicles and mechanized infantry and medium tank troops successfully crossed the river.

The equipment level of the Kwantung Army was just that of a tiger, so it was a pipe dream to drive the leader army off the beach and destroy the pontoon bridge.

So the key to the problem lies in the light infantry building a defensive position and covering the pontoon bridge troops in the construction of the pontoon bridge for several hours.

After Malashenko and the political commissar, and then the colonel leading the pontoon bridge troops, a pontoon bridge construction plan that can maximize the construction efficiency has been formed.

In order to ensure the construction efficiency of the 80-ton heavy pontoon bridge, the first thing to do is to quickly build two 20-ton light pontoon bridges.

Don't get me wrong, these two pontoon bridges are not for heavy equipment. The 20-ton equipment can't even pass the BMP43 infantry fighting vehicle with its load, let alone the tank.

These two fast and light floating bridges are specially prepared for the construction of the pontoon bridge troops. Once the two pontoon bridges are quickly built, the pontoon bridge troops' trucks carrying the prefabricated structural parts of the heavy pontoon bridge and construction materials can immediately cross the Ussuri River to the other side of the river to start construction.

So the actual construction plan is not one-way construction, but simultaneous construction in both directions on both sides of the Ussuri River.

If everything goes well, then this 80-ton heavy floating bridge will eventually complete the closing construction on the surface of the Ussuri River.

Doing so will not only double the construction efficiency, but considering that two additional light and fast floating bridges have to be built, doubling the efficiency is indeed impossible.

But it is no exaggeration to say that the construction efficiency of the main project of the heavy floating bridge can be increased by more than 70%.

After all, one-way construction and two-way construction are two completely different concepts, and the efficiency is naturally incomparable.

So the current situation on the north bank of the Ussuri River is that three floating bridges, one large and two small, have begun construction at the same time.

The 80-ton heavy floating bridge was constructed as fast as possible, and was first constructed in one direction. At the same time, the two 20-ton light floating bridges were almost moving forward at the same speed, because the construction difficulty was greatly reduced.

Regardless of the risk of Japanese artillery fire that could be launched at any time, they rushed to the riverside at dawn, bathing in the morning light and gazing at the construction site of the floating bridge on the river.

Malashenko, who put down the telescope, was about to say something to his entourage, but suddenly there was a burst of engine roaring in the distant sky behind him.

Turning his head in the direction of the sound, he saw that the brigade's fighters, attack aircraft, and twin-engine tactical bomber formations had appeared in the sky, and were swooping towards the south bank of the river with a momentum that could be described as covering the clouds and the sun.

The shining red stars on the wings were shining brightly in the morning light, dazzling and exciting.

"It all depends on them! We must let those Japanese devils eat their fill of bombs, aircraft fire, machine guns and cannons!"

The habit of "Japanese devils" was first spread by Malashenko.

Since the army commander called them that, the people around him naturally spread it from top to bottom.

So far, everyone from the army commander to the soldiers knows that the nickname of the Japanese army on the opposite side is "Japanese devils".

Even Lavrinenko, who stood beside Malashenko, looked up at the sky, watching the fleet covering the sky and the sun, and called them the Russian version of "Japanese devils".

"The mission of the air force is still very heavy. First, we need to suppress the Japanese garrison areas and troop assembly points to prevent them from assembling troops to counterattack; second, we need to attack the Japanese front-line airports and seize air supremacy on the airport runways; third, we need to bomb the Japanese artillery positions to disintegrate their threats to the Red Army's ground forces' assembly, marching and crossing the river."

"It is true that there are many planes, but the mission is heavy! Let our artillery prepare for anti-artillery artillery battles. If we encounter enemy artillery fire, we must not rely on the air force for the first anti-artillery battle. The reaction speed is not enough."

"It is better to rely on ourselves than on others. Let the Japanese devils' small artillery know what artillery is and give these Japanese bow-legged people a good lesson!"

Hearing the order from the army commander, the combat staff accompanying him immediately took the order and went to convey the order.

Although the possibility is very low, even Malashenko himself does not think so, given the stupid mobility and poor range of the Japanese artillery. They could also withstand the Red Army's artillery and air raids, drag the small artillery to a close enough distance, and fire at their own pontoon bridge construction site.

But whether you think it or not, the probability is low.

As usual, Malashenko would not pin his hopes for victory and the survival of his soldiers on the fact that the Japanese were too weak to launch artillery interference.

Victory can only be grasped in his own hands. Whether it was against the Nazis in the past or against the Japanese today, this was Malashenko's unchanging creed from beginning to end.

Even if the opponent was a group of armed bandits, Malashenko would still make all the necessary preparations and go all out as usual.

Because those who capsize in the gutter will definitely regret why they were not well prepared and underestimated the enemy. The reason is that simple.

Under Malashenko's personal command and supervision, the construction of the two light pontoon bridges extending from the north bank of the river to the south bank progressed rapidly.

With the well-prepared pontoon prefabricated parts and light weight, the two pontoon bridges finally arrived at the other side of the river and were opened to traffic two hours after the artillery preparation began.

At the same time, the construction progress of the 80-ton heavy pontoon bridge has also made visible progress. It is about to reach the middle of the river surface. The overall construction progress has been completed by at least 35%, which is in line with the expected speed.

"Quick! The pontoon bridge troops will immediately take the construction materials across the river and start the construction on the other side of the river. Get the heavy pontoon bridge out as quickly as possible!"

There are no combat troops accompanying the vehicles. All of them are heavy trucks loaded with construction materials and pontoon prefabricated parts. One after another, they drive onto the pontoon bridge and quickly drive to the other side of the river.

"Puff-ha-huh-"

"Take a breath, stop the work at hand! Rest here for ten minutes, drink some water and smoke a cigarette. If we keep doing this, we will be exhausted before the Japanese devils come."

He stuck the engineer shovel in his hand into the soil and called on the soldiers to stop the work and take a breath.

From the moment he led the first wave of the team across the river and came to the bomb crater area until now, he has been digging the soil for two hours without stopping.

Even a Slav superman like Alsim can't stand such consumption and must take a breath.

Fighting is tiring, and forced marching is more tiring, but more tiring than the first two is the earthwork with bare hands, digging trenches and building positions without mechanical assistance.

This is even the most tiring of all the physical work that can be found on the battlefield, without a single exception.

If you don't wield the pickaxe with your own hands, you will never understand how torturous this seemingly mechanical and repetitive work is and how much physical energy it consumes.

Sitting on the pile of earth he dug out with his own hands, with a cigarette in his mouth and a water bottle in his hand, Alsim took off his coat and not only took off his plate armor and bulletproof vest, but now he is shirtless.

Covered with various war scars, his chest with lumps of flesh rises and falls violently, and he looks even more muscular under the sweat and dehydration.

Seeing this scene in front of him, Sulovchenko, who did not take off his shirt and bare his shirt like Alsim, sat on the ground with a cigarette in his mouth and a sapper under his buttocks, puffing out a cloud of smoke and then smiling.

"She's got a nice figure, bro. Have you seen your German sister?"

""

I really didn't expect this guy to make a dirty joke at this time. Alsim glared at Sulovichenko with a sidelong look, but didn't answer. He raised his hand holding the cigarette and pointed to another construction site by the river.

"It's estimated that in less than two hours, they will be done over there, and by then we can almost stop here. As long as the tanks come, there will be no defense. It's time for the Japanese devils to meet their doomsday."

"Yes, that's the truth, but the premise is that there will be peace in these two hours."

Looking at the Red Army fighter planes flying back and forth overhead, returning and going to bomb, Sulovichenko took a puff of cigarette and spoke again.

"I hope the scouts we sent out don't come back at this critical moment. If they come back at this time, it will definitely be bad news. There must be Japanese devils coming to mess with us."

""

He finished his words without waiting for Alsim to reply.

Sulovchenko looked up, puzzled, and found that Alsim was staring into the distance without saying a word.

Following Alsim's line of sight, Sulovchenko, who was quite surprised, immediately saw that the scouts sent out earlier were now riding a two-wheeled motorcycle carried by a rubber boat and rushing back all the way, and Alsim's words that were comparable to cursing his mother sounded almost at the same time.

"I should take off my socks and stuff them in your mouth! You really mean what you say!"