Chapter 1632: Chapter 1549: Those Guys Never Arrive on Time
The Tang Army helicopters swept over the Dwarf marching columns, only returning with reluctance after the machine guns smoked from firing. Each rocket barrage meant a company, or even a battalion of Dwarf Troops had completely lost combat effectiveness.
The panicked Dwarf Troops could only fire illumination shells, but such actions only allowed them to catch a glimpse of what their slaughtering enemies looked like…
Blocked by Tang Army airplanes, the Dwarf Troops only now realized they could not gather an effective offensive force against the Tang Army Paratroopers inside Ben City. Now, they could only ponder how to make it back alive.
At eleven o’clock, the Dwarf Troops, who had been battered by the Tang Nation Air Force for over an hour, discovered they’ve cried too soon. Turkish artillery, having calculated their target locations, began to roar, with whistling shells raining down on the Dwarf Troops’ heads as if they cost nothing.
These shells were incoming from their flanks, signaling that the Tang Army on the flanks had initiated action.
Don’t forget this is an encirclement operation; naturally, the Tang Army wings were to close the pocket in a dumpling wrap. Around eleven o’clock at night, after assessing that almost all of the Dwarf 2nd Corps’ counterattack force was paralyzed within the pocket formation, the Tang Army immediately began their counterattack.
Departing from Position 4, the Tang Army Troops interjected the battlefield, severing the retreat that the already paralyzed Dwarf Troops had.
Carrying ample night vision equipment, the Tang Nation Troops moved through the night like phantoms, completely crushing the Dwarf 2nd Corps’ reserves.
Around midnight the next day, the anticipated attacking Dwarf Troops sent back a message that left General Harev beside himself: they were holding their position to the death, surrounded by Tang Army Troops on all sides…
However, such results did not mean the Tang Army had gained absolute dominance, as around 11 o’clock, the Tang Army’s east-side recouping troops’ reconnaissance squads discovered the Dwarf 1st Armored Division charging fiercely towards them!
Close-range conflict ensued between both sides, resulting in one Tang Army armored reconnaissance vehicle destroyed, and the Dwarves lost seven or eight tanks, with several dozen people dead.
Only when alerted immediately did the Tang Army 1st Armored Division, regiment 1, realize they had made a small mistake with the nearby Paratroopers…
They hadn’t established a reliable communication channel, failing to receive intelligence reports from the landing Troops command: over an hour ago they should have received warnings about Dwarf Troops amassing on the east side.
Hoge, after issuing orders, also didn’t realize that Paratrooper 1st Division hadn’t received the message amid chaos, he assumed the other side was already prepared.
However, this error was merely a minor mishap; the Paratroopers and their assigned Armored Corps had themselves discovered the enemy, just having rested an hour more and lacked an hour’s preparation.
Xiang Ziyu walked out yawning from his bunkered sleeping spot while his Troops were unloading weapons and ammunition from a resupply ammunition truck.
In the distance, illumination shells rose into the sky, evidently fired by the Dwarf Troops. They were fiercely engaging the Tang Army 1st Armored Division 1st Regiment reconnaissance Troops, whose armored reconnaissance vehicle units maneuvered, fighting and retreating, buying more preparation time for the overslept Paratroopers.
“When will air support arrive?” Xiang Ziyu checked the night vision device atop his head, its price rather steep, making it one of the pieces of equipment he was most reluctant to damage.
“It seems unlikely to come…” the battalion deputy shrugged indifferently, responding, “They said they needed time for maintenance, estimated at least an hour and a half before they can arrive.”
“Got used to it, those guys have never been on time.” Xiang Ziyu mocked, as these Paratroopers were always the adopted children, for goodness’ sake the Air Force from the mother base isn’t reliable, abandoning them and fleeing, the Navy support was similar, always causing issues.
While this mishap couldn’t really blame the navy: previously drafted battle plans had the remaining carrier-based aircraft pour out, supporting the encirclement operation on Ben’s west side, their performance commendable.
Yet regrettably, carrier-based planes require time to return, after returning they need to carry out night landing on the carrier’s deck, inherently consuming much time.
Upon completing so many carrier plane landings, the carrier must refuel and arm these planes, inspect aircraft mechanical status, and then launch carrier planes for continued combat— going through so many procedures, an hour or two of time consumption isn’t exaggerated.
Temporarily assembled aircraft isn’t unavailable, however, their quantity was relatively small, and their bombs were already dropped on the Dwarf 1st Corps’ marching path more than an hour ago.
Carrier plane take-offs and landings constitute a meticulous coordination management study, any slight alteration requires extensive calculation, thus the Tang Army can only simply split air strikes into two parts and defer subsequent new support tasks a bit. This might be the most reasonable allocation method, it’s just… the Paratroopers must hold on a bit longer.
Of course, it’s not truly treating Paratroopers as non-entities, whether it is Hoge or Tagg, they also exerted effort to assemble airborne forces, providing as much support as possible to the paratrooper 1st Division eastwards.
“In 40 minutes, our Air Force’s planes taking off from the Northern Island base will arrive. Previously able to provide us support were approximately 20 Black Hawks carrying rockets and machine guns.” the battalion deputy supplemented.
Along the trenches, soldiers carrying ammo boxes and lugging rocket launchers passed in front of Xiang Ziyu in single file, speaking no words, as those few hours of sleep couldn’t make them fully lively.
However, compared to their prior state, they were so much better now, an hour more sleep wasn’t futile, at least they possessed the capital to persist.
Xiang Ziyu nodded, seeing even nearer rising illumination shells ahead, he spoke: “Having something is better than nothing! Haven’t we always said to rely on ourselves, it’s no big deal, after all, we’re Great Tang Paratroopers! Prepare for combat!”
“Prepare for combat!” In the distance, Liu Guozhu ordered his vehicle crew loudly, “Start the tank! Check communication equipment! Check computer and night vision devices!”
The Type 96 main battle tank’s engine roared to life, with another nearby tank almost simultaneously starting its engine. Another illumination shell flew up in the distance, roughly less than 500 meters from this Tang Army defense position.
A Black Hawk helicopter passed rapidly near the illumination shell, streaks of rocket tail flames linked, forming a line falling into the distant darkness, explosion sounds ringing continuously.