Chapter 595 Tiger of South Asia (14)

The organization of the Japanese tank division is very deformed if it is examined from a German perspective. Usually, a tank division has two tank brigades, each brigade has two tank regiments, and the entire division has a total of 4 tank regiments, which together with a mobile infantry regiment and a mobile artillery regiment form a tank division.

The most obvious problem is that there are too few infantry. The reason for this problem is not that RB overemphasizes tank centralization. On the contrary, the Japanese army has always adhered to the armored idea of ​​dispersing tanks and supporting ordinary infantry divisions to carry out operations rather than independently building and operating.

When engaged in combat, the entire tank division is not deployed as a whole, but each tank regiment is assigned to the front-line troops. Under this guiding ideology, the tank division does not need to be equipped with a large number of infantry. Anyway, the infantry division has infantry, and the tank regiment is the battle coordination force.

Under normal organization, a tank regiment generally has 60-70 armored vehicles, including 3 medium tank squadrons, 1 light tank squadron, 1 artillery tank squadron, and 1 maintenance squadron. The medium tank squadron has 3 squads (3 medium tanks per squad), and the squadron has 2 medium tanks and 3 light tanks (reconnaissance). In reality, the tank regiment is only equivalent to the German armored battalion - and it is the organization of the armored battalion before the 1943 model or the 3-company armored battalion of the Marine Brigade.

After arriving in Ceylon and seeing so many tanks and armored vehicles, and referring to the German army organization, Yamashita Tomoyuki began to think about adjustments. After obtaining the consent of the Tokyo headquarters, he pulled out the independent tank unit in the infantry unit to enrich the tank regiment, and at the same time, he separately transferred an infantry regiment to ride on armored vehicles to become a mobile infantry regiment, and then let part of the artillery become a mobile artillery regiment.

After this transformation, the power of the 4th Tank Division expanded. Each brigade can get the power of 2 tank regiments, 1 infantry regiment and 1 artillery regiment. The original brigade now looks more like a light division, and the original division commander looks more like the commander of the mecha army, which means that everyone has been promoted by one level. Yamashita Tomoyuki used the reason of organizational expansion to change the two brigades into independent tank brigades, but the numbers are still under the 4th Tank Division.

Everyone is smart. The commander's split method will soon form a de facto fixed organization, and even if it works well, it can be upgraded again to become a new tank division. This kind of thing that benefits everyone is naturally supported by everyone.

A tank battalion was formed under the tank regiment. The new organizational structure became 1 tank regiment with 3 tank battalions (2 medium and 1 light) + regiment headquarters. Each tank battalion had 4 tank squadrons. The squadron no longer had a squadron but directly had 6 tanks. The regiment headquarters had 4 squadrons, including a tank squadron, a maintenance squadron (maintenance), an artillery tank squadron (tank destroyer) and a reconnaissance squadron.

After Yamashita Tomoyuki's magic trick, the number of tanks (tank destroyers) in each tank regiment reached 96, which not only far exceeded the original tank regiment in quantity, but also surpassed the quality. Even the most picky people admit that the transformed independent tank brigade is closer to the requirements of mecha warfare and more flexible. It is less powerful than the German Army's reorganized armored division, but larger than the German Marine Brigade.

During the landing, Takeda Ko's troops had only one tank battalion (26 tanks) and one tank squadron (6 tanks). With these 32 tanks, he could not defeat the 6th Tank Brigade of the British Indian Army, but the other two battalions of the regiment were distributed nearby. So he commanded the troops and retreated while calling other battalions for reinforcements by radio.

Menzies did not know that the Japanese army's retreat was digging a hole for him. In the excitement of the fight, he forgot the idea of ​​"repelling the Japanese armored forces in front of him, providing cover for the infantry retreat and buying time", but rushed to pursue the enemy, as if to eat up the enemy in one bite.

As the distance went on, the slow Valentine tanks could not keep up with the rhythm of Sherman, and the battle line of the 6th Tank Brigade was stretched. Menzies believed that Sherman alone was enough to educate these Japanese tanks, so he ordered Valentines to stand by in the rear, and he led Sherman to continue the pursuit without caring.

As Obata Toshishiro's favorite student and one of the few Japanese who had some understanding of the Soviet Union's deep tactics and armored warfare, Takeda Gong did not rush to ask the reinforcements to help him block the Shermans that were chasing him, but asked them to concentrate their forces to eat up the slow Valentines behind.

The two reinforcement tank battalions, one equipped with T-34 and the other with T-60, immediately rushed towards the British rear guard like a tiger descending from the mountain, and stunned the enemy with their skilled circling techniques. One Valentine after another was set on fire by the Japanese tanks that circled behind and on the flanks.

Hearing the hastily sent telegram for help from behind, Menzies came to his senses, gave up Takeda Gong's headquarters, and turned back to rescue the rear guard. He never expected that the rescue operation would fall into the second trap dug for him by Takeda Gong: 6 Su-76s were ambushed on the road that the Shermans had to take to retreat, and they would suddenly attack after half of the British tank column had passed.

In a one-on-one fight, the Su-76 is certainly no match for the Sherman, but this tactic of ambushing and sapling made the British tank crews worry to death: the sky was getting darker, and they couldn't find the low-level soldiers in the bushes. The short Su-76s often find out that there are tank destroyers hidden there only when enemy shells hit them, but there is no time. However, the Su-76's armor-piercing ability at close range is also very good. Sherman works great.

In less than 15 minutes, 6 Su-76s killed 14 Shermans in one go. Coupled with the losses in the initial battle with the Takeda Attack, cold sweat broke out on Menzies' back - he had lost More than half of the Shermans, not to mention Valentine and Shermans, are still separated on different battlefields.

He gritted his teeth and issued the order: "Everyone breaks out and retreats!"

"Sir, the enemy seems to be fleeing."

Takeda Gong smiled and said: "You are thinking of escaping now, don't you think it is too late? Tell the troops in front to relax and drive them towards the 18th Regiment..."

"Why, are we sure of annihilating them all?" His subordinates asked in confusion.

"Leave some credit to others. We won the first place in the military training in the landing battle, which is enough to show off." Takeda laughed, "You still need helpers in the war. If you offend everyone, you will be in trouble on the battlefield in the future. Who can you expect to save you? Besides, the trapped beasts are still fighting. If we wipe them out, our own losses will not be small. "

"Been taught a lesson!"

With Japanese tanks ambushing in several other directions, Menzies rushed to the direction of the 18th Tank Regiment with the remaining 30 or so Shermans and Valentines. The other side was already waiting for him. .

"Sir, we are surrounded, and there are tanks ahead!"

Hearing the voice coming from the earphones, Menzies gritted his teeth and said, "Sherman, take the lead and charge forward. Don't be afraid of sacrifice."

"Cang Dang" and "Cang Dang" the two sides exchanged fire, but then everyone on the radio station shouted in surprise: "What the hell, what kind of tank is this? So hard? Can't hit it after 400 yards? This is not Matil." Da..."

"Ah, I was hit..."

"Go around, go around..."

"No, there are enemies on the side too... Phew, it's actually the French B2."

"How many heavy tanks does the Japanese army have? This guy is definitely a heavy tank!"

"Is it Tiger style?"

"No! The Germans all have staggered and overlapping road wheels..." Before he could finish his words, there was a "boom", and then a voice like a butchering pig shouted, "I was hit."

"Sir, we can't beat them, we can't beat them..."

"No, the Japanese tanks are coming again, and we are surrounded!"

At 20:10 that day, as night fell slowly, the remnants of the 6th Tank Brigade, which was intercepted in front, pursued by troops behind, and then lost its supply truck, could no longer hold on. At this point, even if Menzies continued to There was nothing we could do to persist, so we had no choice but to surrender with our troops.

"What kind of tank is this?" He was extremely annoyed by today's encounter. After being captured, he made a request, "I want to see them up close."

"Absolutely." The Japanese army readily agreed to this request and led them to the group of heavy tanks just now.

The officers came up to take a closer look. They could not recognize the model, but everyone was sure of one thing: in terms of design style, it was not German, Soviet, or French, but rather similar to the British infantry tank style. ——A huge vehicle body, heavy armor, and a thin toothpick cannon.

"This is..." Menzies suddenly changed his face and muttered, "Damn Churchill, he actually lost Churchill to the Germans!"

These words were confusing, and everyone was confused at first, but they soon understood that this heavy tank should be the Churchill infantry tank that has not been in domestic mass production for a long time and has not yet been deployed in the Far East. As an upgraded version of Matilda, he The armor defense is thicker, the firepower is stronger, and the overall power is more powerful, but the speed is as slow as ever.

"How many such tanks do you have?"

"There are many, and many of the chassis have serial numbers. You lost a lot in Africa..." Then came the unscrupulous laughter of the Japanese troops on the opposite side.

On the first day of the landing battle, the Japanese and German forces occupied Madras. The Germans cleared the northern flank and the Japanese captured the southern flank. The most noteworthy thing of the day was that the Takeda attack used a tank regiment to surround the British 6th Tank Brigade with the cooperation of other units, and destroyed this unit with more than 80 Sherman and Valentine tanks, with less than 100% of its own losses. 30 tanks, and more importantly, forced the opponent to surrender. Not only were more than 20 tanks completely captured, but after controlling the battlefield, the tanks that were damaged in the front could also be brought back for repair and restoration.

Hearing that there were more than 70 more tanks after a great victory, Yamashita Fengfumi was also very moved. He nodded and praised: "After all, he is Obata Toshi-kun's disciple, and his level is evident..."