Capítulo 1614: Chapter 1531: Saboteur Bomb
Actually, the Tang Army had already been shocked by its own losses: When Bernard heard that the southern bombardment fleet had lost a battleship, and two cruisers were wounded while two destroyers were severely damaged, his face turned pale.
Since its creation, the Great Tang Empire Navy seemingly had never suffered such enormous losses. Although this time the fleet heavily hit was an old one from Chu Country that had been received, it still carried the name of the Tang Navy.
Over 400 casualties, and a severely listing battleship that could no longer continue combat; due to serious water intake, even towing it back to port for repairs was risky.
The situation of the two cruisers hit by torpedoes was better because these two cruisers were relatively new, custom-built by Chu Country’s request at Tang Country’s shipyard, so the issues were not significant.
Nevertheless, these two cruisers were no longer able to continue fighting: they both needed to either go back for major repairs or be directly dismantled.
The two destroyers suffered severe damage due to their small tonnage. After being hit by a torpedo, their size rendered them practically devoid of combat capability.
The severely damaged bombardment fleet had withdrawn from battle, directly intensifying the operational pressure on the southern line of the Tang Army.
The dwarves sensed this opportunity as well, gathering a large number of troops attempting a counterattack from this direction. If it weren’t for the Tang Navy’s carrier-based aviation focusing attacks on ground targets here, the Tang Army’s losses might have been even higher.
The casualties of the landing troops were also grim. The Tang Army had now lost at least 300 special forces personnel, all of whom were precious elites that hurt the heart with each loss.
At least 4,000 ordinary soldiers who landed had casualties as well, a number far exceeding pre-war expectations; the dwarves’ defense tenacity shocked the commanders of the Great Tang Empire.
To destroy the dwarves’ airport runway, the Tang Army prepared a specialized airport destruction bomb called the Destroyer.
This bomb resembles a giant box with two layers inside, each with completely different descent speeds and effects.
The bottom layer carries a small ground-penetrating bomb that can break the airport’s sturdy runway and explode beneath it, causing greater damage; runways hit by such bombs are littered with deep craters that are extremely difficult to repair.
The top layer holds triggered bombs with sensor installations, equipped with time-delay fuzes of various settings, ensuring enemy engineer corps cannot immediately repair the facilities destroyed by the bombs.
Airports attacked by these bombs cannot undergo repairs for 2 to 3 days; even after two or three days, occasionally delayed fuzes will activate, triggering explosions.
Several important airports behind the Steel Rampart deployed by the dwarves have all been destroyed by these airport-specialized bombs called Destroyers, making it impossible to launch aircraft for a while.
Aircraft deployed at these airports are now unusable, though the dwarves were somewhat prepared for this.
The opposing side deployed old models of aircraft at these airports because Moss initially believed the Tang Army would surely first destroy these airports close to the action and within the Tang Army’s strike radius.
Moreover, due to their location, these airports were tasked with attacking the Tang Army’s naval fleet, rendering the deployment of anti-aircraft fighter jets pointless; bombers and attack aircraft should have been deployed instead.
Therefore, most aircraft parked at these airports were Saab Bombers, along with some MiG-3s and Il-2s. These aircraft were outdated, merely used to make up numbers, executing ground and sea attack missions.
But now, all these planes have been crippled at the airports, some parked in hangars, others destroyed beside runways, still covered with shattered camouflage nets.
The Tang Army wouldn’t use such weapons to bomb airports near the coastline, as they are crucial to capture quickly. So, these weapons target airports far from the coastline, with not too long delay times set on their fuzes.
If needed, just bombing them again with similar weapons after a few days would suffice; the Tang Army wouldn’t cause trouble for itself.
At this moment, at the end of a destroyed airport runway, beside a crater, inside a sandbag-built anti-aircraft gun position, a group of dwarf soldiers were setting up a temporary defensive position.
They set up a Maxim heavy machine gun between the sandbag gaps, with the ammunition handler pressing the ammo belt into the breech, nervously watching the direction the Tang Army might appear.
These dwarf soldiers were temporarily reassigned here, ordered to hold the airport and repel the Tang Army attempting to capture it.
The dwarf shooters were also nervous; they were ordered to establish a temporary position here, hearing that the Tang Army had started operating nearby.
An infantryman beside them opened a box of ammunition, uncovering the paper scraps used as padding, revealing a neat row of hand grenades.
Nearby riflemen quickly grabbed hand grenades from the ammunition box and placed them within easy reach. The commander glanced at the broken Bofors anti-aircraft gun, ignoring the scattered anti-aircraft shell casings at his feet.
“I heard the Tang Army already captured some trenches of the second line of defense, how did they lose it so fast?” a dwarf soldier asked his comrade as his beard gently shook with his voice.
“Who knows?” another soldier grumbled in reply, while loading a new drum magazine into his Boposha submachine gun.
“If the Tang Army soldiers come up from this side, start suppressing fire and push them back!” After analyzing the terrain, the commander instructed the machine gunner, “Force them to leave the trenches and move!”
“When they get close, use hand grenades to eliminate as many enemies as possible! After repelling their attack, we’ll counterattack…” he continued, pointing to the empty space in front of the anti-aircraft gun position.
As he spoke, a towering infantry fighting vehicle charged up the slope, revealing its sharp front. It was an eight-wheel armored vehicle with a machine-gun turret.
Before the dwarves could react, a second armored vehicle followed up the slope, its turret pivoting, spewing fire towards the other side.
Immediately, everyone felt the ground beneath them slightly tremble, and soon enough, the long gun barrel of a Type 96 main battle tank emerged from the horizon, followed closely by its massive and sturdy body.