Chapter 1002 Confrontation (1)

The five floating docks on the shore of H-03-5 were installed one after another. Transport ships docked at the docks and unloaded various materials in an orderly manner.

The Air Force engineers began to build a temporary airport. The construction of the runway was quite simple. They chose a suitable place and cleared a large enough flat land. After the bulldozer leveled the ground, the heavy roller rolled back and forth. Finally, the perforated steel plates of "Marston pads" were laid on the ground and fixed with U-shaped buckles; the flat and wide runway was quickly formed.

Then the tower was built, and radar and navigation equipment were installed; in just one day, the engineers built several simple airports. Attack aircraft and fighter groups transferred from the Bahamas landed at these airports one after another.

The next day, the first batch of troops headed for Charleston.

However, Charleston was built on a peninsula surrounded by water on three sides. If Charleston was attacked directly, the attacking troops would face the Coper River and Ashley River, which were six or seven hundred meters wide. Therefore, according to the combat plan, they took a detour to attack the town of North Charleston (named because it is located north of Charleston and was established as a city in 1972). The width of the river there is only about 200 meters, which is suitable for crossing the river.

Before the ground troops arrived at the river, the Il-10 attack aircraft formation had already flown over the US military positions and dropped dense bombs.

Because the Americans put most of their energy on the construction of the coastal defense line, these inland river bank defense lines can only be said to be better than nothing. Although they have also stepped up construction in the past few days, in the face of heavy bombs falling from the sky, these fortifications are like sand piles, quickly collapsing and collapsing.

When the ground troops arrived at the river bank, the US military positions on the opposite side were already riddled with holes.

Seeing this, the German division commander immediately issued an order to cross the river to attack.

"Cross the river immediately!"

As the order was issued, countless German soldiers rushed to the river carrying rubber boats and assault boats. Throwing the rubber boats and assault boats into the river, the soldiers jumped into the boats in the somewhat cold water. Soldiers on both sides paddled hard, and the speedboats shot towards the other side of the river like sharp arrows.

"Get into position! The Germans are crossing the river!!"

Although the intensive bombing caused considerable casualties to the US defense line, many US soldiers hid in the anti-artillery holes and escaped. Looking at the dense assault boats on the river, although they were terrified, they knew that there was no way out and they could only fight to the death.

"Da Da Da!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

For a while, dense rain of bullets enveloped the crossing troops that rushed to the center of the river. Bullets raised terrifying ripples on the river surface, and sawdust flew on the assault boats. Assault boats and rubber boats have no bulletproof function. Even if the German soldiers were close to the hull, there were still some unlucky soldiers who were shot and injured. The rest of the German soldiers were still paddling hard, ignoring all the threats.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The US M1 81mm mortar position hidden behind the position also received the order to open fire, and shells fell into the river like raindrops. Although not as powerful as large-caliber artillery shells, it was more than enough to deal with these small boats. But whether it can hit or not depends on luck.

"Boom!"

A shell hit a speedboat. The entire speedboat was torn apart in the explosion, and the German soldiers on it suffered heavy losses, and many of them were directly blown into the water.

"Open fire, hit hard. Blow up all those Germans!"

Just as the US military officers on the mortar position shouted loudly, the attack aircraft in the sky dived down again and headed straight for these exposed mortar positions.

An attack aircraft pilot targeted a mortar position and gently pressed the button to drop bombs; but when he dived to an altitude of 500 meters above the ground to prepare to drop bombs, the mortar position on the ground exploded.

"What's going on?!" The attack aircraft pilot was really confused. He hadn't had time to drop bombs yet, so how could the other party explode by itself? ! Could it be that someone else was "snatching food" from him? But looking around, he didn't see any friendly aircraft nearby.

Could it be that the tanks on the other side of the river fired? But no matter how fast they react, they can't be faster than the planes in the sky, right?

"Is it a stray bullet? These unlucky guys." The pilot muttered, pulled up the plane, and continued to search for the next target.

But what he didn't know was that this mortar position was not hit by a stray bullet, but "exploded by itself".

Although mortars have advantages such as simple structure, low price, and great power, they also have weaknesses such as low initial velocity and short range. The most dangerous disadvantage is the "re-loading" phenomenon; and this is unique to mortars, and other conventional artillery will never have similar accidents.

Mortar shells use a special charge structure and ignition method, that is, the mortar shell's propelling charge is divided into two parts, one part is called the basic charge, which is placed in the basic powder tube made of paper tubes, and the basic powder tube is placed in the tail tube, and the bottom of the basic powder tube is equipped with a primer. The other part is called the auxiliary charge, which is composed of several additional powder bags. When firing, the mortar shell slides down the wall of the chamber, and the primer at the lower end of the basic powder tube hits the fixed firing pin on the mortar and first ignites the basic charge in the tail tube. The high-temperature and high-pressure gunpowder gas rushes out through the evenly distributed fire transfer holes on the tail tube, and is directly sprayed on various parts of the additional charge, igniting the additional powder bag outside the tail tube.

During live-fire shooting of mortars, the shells cannot be fired normally and remain in the barrel due to reasons such as failure of the primer, dampness of the basic powder tube and dirtiness of the barrel, resulting in insufficient falling speed of the projectile and causing the barrel to jam. In this regard, the conventional practice of the troops is for a gunner to hold his hand on the gun carriage in a low posture to feel the vibration of the gun body after the shell is fired, so as to prompt the loader.

However, in fierce battles, the recoil of the gun is often not felt, leading to misjudgment, thinking that the shell in the barrel has been fired. In addition, in actual combat, the muzzle flash is dazzling, the shock wave of the artillery is strong, and the sound is huge. The soldiers are tired and nervous, and the mortar has a high firing speed. The loader is prone to extreme physical and psychological fatigue during continuous loading and shooting, and his own judgment is significantly reduced.

This is like the early hand-cranked "Gatling" machine gun. In wars, soldiers often turn the barrel too fast because of killing. Mechanical failures.

When a shell is stuck and no warning is received from other gunners, they often mistakenly believe that the previous shell has been fired and immediately load the next shell. There was a legend in later generations that during the night artillery battle between the Rabbit Army and the enemy, there was a joke that the gunner was too nervous to load the entire barrel of the Type 67 82mm mortar, and finally found out that it could not be loaded.

Repeated loading is extremely dangerous, and the barrel may explode at any time. The detonation of two mortar shells is enough to directly destroy the entire artillery squad. Although all countries have developed "re-loading safety devices", this thing is not 100% safe, and it is difficult to guarantee that there will be no mistakes in fierce battles.

As a result, this mortar position was very unlucky to have a "re-loading" accident.

And the rest of the mortar positions were also destroyed.