Chapter 1344: Stormy Storm (Third update, please subscribe)
On March 3, the Katanga National Army led by Lieutenant Colonel Kadu appeared on the outskirts of Elizabethville and had a fierce battle with the defenders outside the city. , the Congolese defenders were destroyed by their leading armored forces.
Although it is only the T34 tank that appears on the battlefield, it is already the king on the battlefield in Africa. After all, neither the Congolese army nor the United Nations forces have almost any anti-tank weapons.
On such a battlefield, tanks are almost invincible. Even this old-fashioned tank from World War II can run rampant there without restraint.
Just two days later, the defense system deployed by General Chand outside Elizabethville was smashed to pieces by an armored force composed of more than 20 tanks. Tens of thousands of Congolese troops and The United Nations troops abandoned their outer positions and retreated to the urban area.
In the past half month, people in Elizabethville have been digging trenches, erecting barbed wire, laying mines, and strengthening fortifications every day. According to General Chander's estimation, the enemy will need at least three entire divisions to surround Elizabethville.
However, Chandler apparently miscalculated. It might take three entire divisions to surround and attack Elizabethville, but if it was just a siege, only more than 10,000 people would be enough.
After clearing the outer positions of Elizabethville, Lieutenant Colonel Kadu ordered his troops to stop advancing and all garrisoned on the spot. Then, using the fortifications left by the United Nations troops, siege fortifications were built.
Immediately afterwards, General Ryan Buschman of the Ninth Commando also brought his headquarters to station outside Elizabethville.
Beginning on March 9, the siege of Elizabethville began.
A week has passed in the blink of an eye, and the blockade of Elizabethville is on track. Compared with the chaotic scene when they first arrived, everything is so orderly now. In the past week, the "Butcher Birds" of the Ninth Commando Group carried out multiple bombings in the city, and through dropping leaflets and broadcasting, they asked civilians in the city to evacuate, expressing their intention to carry out all-round bombing of the city.
It was under such warning that the residents of the city fled the city one after another. In the past few days, the United Nations issued warnings to Andre Kadu many times, warning him not to cause problems. At the same time, U.S. military transport aircraft also provided a large amount of supplies to Elizabethville, including anti-tank weapons such as super bazookas and recoilless rifles. To enhance the strength of the defenders.
The President of the Republic of Katanga, Tshombe, who is in Northern Rhodesia, issued a statement asking the United Nations troops to leave Katanga's land and was willing to conduct further negotiations with the United Nations on Katanga's status.
At this point, everyone seems to believe that this crisis will be handled through a political solution.
But they obviously forgot
Liddell Hart said in his "Strategy" a famous saying that military strategists believe in and admire: "Suddenness is the essence of strategy."
Ensuring surprise is the most important link in many military operations. In actual operations, in order to achieve this goal, people always execute the plan carefully.
In the command post, General Ryan Buschman, the general who defeated the main force of the Indian army in the battle to defend Hyderabad, said in a deep voice:
"Okay, now ”
As he finished speaking, his eyes were fixed on the map, and a smile of success appeared on his face. If anyone recognized him, they would definitely say it was "the devil's smile."
General Len Buschmann is just his pseudonym. He also has another name - such as Joachim Pipe. He was a former Waffen-SS standard-bearer, a Waffen-SS officer and a senior armored commander. He once served as Himmler's aide-de-camp. A British man once called him "one of the most outstanding commanders of the German army in World War II. He demonstrated the highest level of military efficiency and heroic style of disregard for his own safety in battle."
In the post-war trial, He was sentenced to death, but after the trial, he escaped from prison and disappeared. A few months later, a German military consultant named Ryan Buschman was added to Nanyang. Later, he joined the Black Knight Company and served in the South Asian subcontinent for many years. .
Now, he has led the Ninth Commando to the Congo, and his opponent... is a multinational coalition of more than 8,000 people. In order to implement the plan formulated by Chang'an, he has been carefully concealing his plan in the past week.
Now, after confirming that Elizabethville has become a ghost town, all that is left is to execute the plan.
"Are there any new commands?"
Bushman turned his attention to his deputy, and Zhao Chengrong shook his head.
“Not yet.”
It’s always “No” the next time.
Faced with this situation, Buschman became a little impatient, and the artillery group below called again and asked:
"Will we fight or not?"
It wasn't until 11:15 a.m. that they received the call:
"Fire on time at 11:30!"
After receiving this order, Buschman also seemed very excited. , said:
“One Let’s check the watch.”
So each artillery group was asked to check the watch. According to the standard procedure, the watch was based on the watch of the supreme commander, so the watch used by Buschman was their standard time. The hands of his watch had been corrected two hours ago.
The 10 minutes before the bombardment seemed very long and very quiet. The only sound that could be heard was the clicking sound of the quartz watch on the table. Looking forward from the position, the weather today is clear, with some clouds floating in the sky, the sun emitting strong light, and the distant city is clearly reflected in people's sight. It can be seen from the telescope that everything is as usual and the city is still silent. Groups of UN troops and Congolese soldiers are still building fortifications on the outskirts of the city.
In the core of some fortifications, there are also several M24 tanks - these are the tanks transported by the US military to the United Nations forces using C130 transport planes. They not only transported tanks, but also 105mm howitzers.
In short, the White House's plan is very simple - to teach Nanyang, no, to teach local armed forces and mercenaries in Katanga a profound lesson.
In fact, if it weren't for the maximum load capacity of the C130 transport plane, Kennedy would have loved to transport M48 tanks here, as long as it could teach Nanyang a profound lesson.
Of course, this is obviously impossible.
In the past week, with the efforts of American transport planes, they not only transported more than 4,500 United Nations troops, but also 32 tanks and armored vehicles and 38 105mm howitzers. At this time, in terms of troop strength, Elizabeth The U.N. troops in Vere have exceeded 12,000 troops, plus 16,000 Congolese troops.
With nearly 30,000 troops, it is definitely the most powerful armed force in Central Africa.
If it weren't for the lack of air power, I'm afraid Chandler would have launched a counterattack in excitement.
At 11:30 noon, it is approaching meal time. This is the time when the defenders are most relaxed and slack.
At 11:27, Buschman gave the order:
"Load each gun!"
Within a few seconds, the 186 artillery guns quickly removed the artillery camouflage net, and while shaking the gun body, the loader pushed the first wave of shells into the gun bore. After closing the breech, the aimer positioned the gun according to the elements obtained in advance.
Of these 186 artillery pieces, 112 are 120mm mortars, which are deployed at the mortar group in the rainforest fortifications. The loaders are carrying shells weighing up to 16 kilograms, waiting for the last moment to arrive. .
At 11:30, the moment the minute hand and second hand overlapped, the conductor issued an order to the microphone. The order is just two words:
“Fire!”
After saying these two words, Buschman felt that everything became easier. This was the artillery battle.
At this time, he seemed to be thinking of the Eastern Front. Perhaps on the Eastern Front, those Russian commanders were like this. After giving the order, it was as if a heavy burden had been lifted, and they no longer needed to think about other things. .
This is what happens in artillery battles. Once an order is given, it is the artillery and the officers and soldiers on the front line who play the leading roles.
So Buschman, Zhao Chengrong and others also took a break from their busy schedule and walked to the command post to enjoy the excitement and scenery outside.
Looking out from the command post, at the command of "open up", like pressing a button, clusters of white smoke and orange explosions flashed in front of each artillery array. of fire.
The sound arrived a little later, a series of airtight loud noises, accompanied by the scream of artillery shells streaking through the sky. In about ten seconds, a bright spot and plume of smoke exploded inside and outside Elizabethville.
Then, the bright spot turned into a sea of fire. The smoke column formed into a sheet of smoke, and after more than ten seconds, the explosion sound came from the distance, a rumbling sound like muffled thunder.
Along with the dense rain of bullets, the artillery shells exploded black smoke columns inside and outside the city. The artillery shells made the red earth seem to boil. Because the wired telephones were cut off, the defenders could only use The wireless call was urgent, and the Ninth Commando team was clearly listening.
The whole of Elizabethville was in chaos. The Indians even shouted directly on the radio, "Their artillery fire is too powerful, all the The positions were all destroyed..."
Looking at the city boiling in smoke, Bushman pursed his lips and said:
"Actually, on the Eastern Front, the Soviets would concentrate thousands of artillery pieces. It was like children playing house, using the cheapest way to launch the cheapest offensive..."
This is not just an artillery battle, but also a political offensive!
Aiming to put pressure on the United Nations, in the subsequent shelling, an average of 80 to 100 rounds were fired per gun, firing rapidly and non-stop. Many barrels were even red, especially those of mortars, and they even had to be cooled down with buckets of water. Only then did they have to stop and take a breath.
And many burly loaders' arms became swollen after firing hundreds of rounds in a row, and they struggled to even carry a job the next day.
The weather was clear on this day, and the visibility was particularly good. You could clearly see the entire Elizabethville. There was a sudden burst of artillery here, and at first you could see the officers and soldiers of the United Nations troops running around over there, but after a while, nothing happened. It was no longer visible. Under the fierce shelling, the entire city turned into a fire and smoke.
The wind blows the gunpowder smoke outside the city into the city, connects it with the gunpowder smoke inside the city, and then the gunpowder smoke connects together, and then forms a thick gray-black huge smoke wall over the city. The scene is extremely spectacular.
(End of this chapter)