mesbooks Chapter 626: 356mm Naval Gun Demonstrates Power
Chapter 626: 356mm Naval Gun Demonstrates Power
The signalman carrying the walkie-talkie had just finished calling for the artillery fire when the company commander, with a fresh bloodstain on his face, suddenly yelled in a hoarse voice:
"Bombardment, bombardment is coming. Everyone, take cover, cover your head, open your mouth, and protect yourself—!"
The sound exploded across the hillside.
The soldiers who had been a little lax just now were suddenly shocked. They shrank deep into the trenches as if by reflex, or threw themselves into the bomb craters, or hid behind the rocks, covering their ears with their hands and opening their mouths wide.
The entire position instantly fell into a dead silence of waiting, with only a few sporadic gunshots and the groans of the wounded in the distance.
The company commander himself was huddled in a half-collapsed machine gun emplacement, his heart pounding, his ears perked up, catching any unusual sounds that might come from the sky.
He had experienced too many artillery bombardments, both by the Japanese and by his own people.
But every time before it comes, this kind of waiting makes my scalp tingle.
A few seconds, or maybe a dozen seconds? Time seemed to freeze.
Then--
First there was an extremely dull roar, as if coming from the deep sea. Even from a long distance away, it made people feel suffocated.
Immediately afterwards, an extremely sharp, heart-wrenching whistle came from far away, tearing through the air at an almost destructive speed, drowning out all other sounds on the battlefield.
“Woo-whoosh!!!”
The sound was not like that of an ordinary artillery shell, but more like the death scream of some prehistoric giant beast, swooping down from the horizon with a suffocating sense of oppression.
Even though the company commander covered his ears and opened his mouth wide, he still felt the sound drilling into his brain like a drill, and his chest was numb from the vibration.
He subconsciously leaned forward slightly and looked in the direction where the shells came from - the blue sea.
On the distant sea level, the muzzles of several low and solid warships were flashing with huge orange-red flames, and each flash was accompanied by a terrifying thunder-like sound.
It was the Navy’s Sentinel-class submarine heavy gunboat (pictured), and the monsters’ firepower support had arrived.
As soon as this thought flashed through his mind, he saw a few black dots out of the corner of his eye. At a speed beyond imagination, they were dragging a faintly visible air trail and whistling from the sea to the opposite hill that had caused their company so much trouble and was suspected to be hiding the Japanese 150mm heavy artillery position.
The next moment——
"boom!!!!!!!!!"
It seemed as if this was the only sound left in the world.
A huge fireball suddenly rose from the opposite hill, followed by a series of even more violent explosions.
The whole earth began to tremble violently, and the company commander even felt the soil under his buttocks was jumping.
Even though he was thousands of meters away, the strong shock wave still carried mud, sand and debris towards him, making it almost impossible for him to open his eyes.
He leaned his head out slightly and stared at the opposite side.
Each shell from the 356mm cannon is enough to flatten an area the size of a basketball court.
At this moment, the dense impact points almost covered the entire hilltop and the dense forest on the hillside.
The towering trees were easily torn apart and thrown into the air like matchsticks, and then engulfed by even greater explosions and flames.
Huge gaps were blown out in the solid rock mountain, and soil and rubble poured down like waterfalls.
There seemed to be one or two faint sounds of Japanese artillery shells exploding, but they were instantly drowned out by the even more violent roar of cannons.
In just a minute or two, the Japanese position that had been continuously spitting out deadly shells and posing a huge threat, along with the dense vegetation and the outline of the mountain, was almost wiped off the map!
All that was left was billowing smoke, flames shooting into the sky, and a mess of scorched earth.
The shelling gradually subsided.
There was deathly silence on the battlefield.
After several seconds, the soldiers slowly stuck their heads out with lingering fear, looking at the hell on earth opposite them that looked like it had been hit by a meteorite rain. They opened their mouths wide and couldn't close them for a long time.
The company commander slowly stood up, spat out the sand in his mouth, looked at the still burning ruins, grinned with his cracked lips, and cursed:
"Fuck... that's fucking exciting."
He turned around and shouted to the still dazed soldiers:
"Stop standing there, everyone! Check your equipment and get ready to move on. The navy guys have cleared the way for us, now it's time for us to go up and clean up the mess."
The soldiers responded loudly and their morale instantly soared.
With such devastating firepower support, this battle was a great success.
-----
At the end of April 1946, along the coast of the main island of Ryukyu.
The transport ship slowly approached the shore. Sun Fumin held onto the side of the ship, his face pale.
The sea was rough and he felt a little seasick, his stomach churning.
But the moment I stepped onto the dock, a strong smell of war hit me in the face, instantly dispelling some of the discomfort.
The dock was extremely busy, with cranes roaring and constantly unloading supplies and ammunition, and teams of soldiers and vehicles coming and going.
What attracted him most were the wreckage of several Japanese tanks randomly placed on the open space outside the dock.
Sun Fumin glanced over and immediately recognized several familiar models: the Type 94 super light tank with a thin skin and a large filling, the Type 95 light tank, and the Type 97 medium tank, the backbone of the Japanese army.
Most of these tanks were ripped open, their turrets were tilted, and their armor was covered with holes and burn marks.
But the wreckage of one of the tanks caught his attention.
The tank is a size larger than the Type 97, and the turret design is even more massive. The most important thing is the main gun, which is thick and long, exuding a fierce aura.
"What kind of tank is this? I've never seen it before." Sun Fumin pointed at the wreckage and asked a lieutenant colonel staff officer from the 6th Division of the Nanyang Army who was accompanying him, as well as several White Eagle representatives who came on the same ship.
They were followed by several reporters with cameras, looking around curiously.
The Nanyang staff officer looked in the direction indicated and replied calmly, "General Sun, this is the Japanese's new Type 3 medium tank. Its main gun has a 75mm caliber and good armor-piercing capability. It poses a certain threat to our Shermans."
It turned out that due to the influence of the time traveler Zhang Chi, the Japanese accelerated their research and development of tanks and put the Type 3 medium tank into actual combat ahead of schedule.
The staff officer paused and added, with a barely perceptible sense of relief in his tone:
"However, the Japanese tank crews were poorly trained, and most of them were novices. This one wasn't destroyed by a tank, but by an 88mm recoilless rifle equipped by our infantry squad. A single armor-piercing round directly penetrated the side armor.
Now, these are considered the spoils of our army."
A White Eagle Lieutenant Colonel representative nearby heard this and interrupted with a smile, his tone full of compliments:
"General Sun, the young men of the Nanyang Army are truly formidable. Their individual combat skills and squad and platoon tactics are exceptional, and they are also proficient in the use of their equipment. Their infantry anti-tank capabilities, in particular, are, in our opinion, world-class."
Sun Fumin listened silently, said nothing, and just nodded.