It was almost Zhou Weiguo and Li Wu who had just withdrawn to the place where they met Xu Wen with their attacking troops that suffered heavy losses.

The Japanese army deployed the independent 5th Heavy Artillery Brigade in Suzhou City, and more than 150 150mm heavy howitzers opened fire one after another.

Heavy artillery of this caliber has an effective range of more than ten kilometers, so the entire battlefield north of Suzhou City is covered by them!

When looking at the cannonballs flying through the air like locusts, Xu Wen said with a sad face: "It's over, now my grandma's house will be in trouble!"

Fortunately, the area hit by the first wave of Japanese heavy artillery was not where Xu Wen and Zhou Weiguo were at that time.

It was the air defense regiment position behind them. Perhaps the Japanese army believed that Xu Wen and his group had been covered and bombed by the firepower of their own bomber group, and there was no need to waste the firepower of the heavy artillery brigade here.

Therefore, they targeted the air defense regiment behind Xu Wen and the others. After all, the intensive air defense firepower fired by those air defense troops caused great losses to the Japanese fighter jets.

Of course, this is because the Japanese didn't know Xu Wen's exact location. They had to know that Xu Wen was with the attacking troops at the time, and they would definitely not attack the air defense position.

He must have poured all his firepower towards Xu Wen, blowing him to pieces.

Boom boom boom boom! A dense group of more than 150 high-explosive grenades hit the air defense regiment position behind.

Suddenly there were earth-shaking explosions! The shells fired by this 150mm caliber heavy artillery weighed more than ten kilograms.

Once fired, it can cover an area of ​​hundreds of meters in radius, and it is a devastating blow.

Almost all of the one hundred and fifty rounds fell on the heads of the independent brigade's air defense regiment, and the results can be imagined.

In that violent and devastating explosion, the 88mm anti-aircraft guns of the Independent Brigade, together with the soldiers of the air defense regiment who operated them, and the military trucks not far away used for towing and carrying ammunition were all ruthlessly destroyed.

Destroyed completely.

Under that earth-shaking violent explosion shock wave, not to mention people, even trucks and 88mm anti-aircraft guns weighing several tons will be blown to pieces in an instant and disintegrate on the spot.

At that time, the independent brigade air defense regiment was going all out to deal with the Japanese fighter jets in the air, and was completely unprepared. In other words, it was impossible to be prepared for this kind of artillery attack that was within the opponent's fire range.

Therefore, the air defense regiment was bombed. Just this first round of shelling caused more than 80% losses to the air defense regiment. This kind of loss was devastating, whether it was anti-aircraft artillery or anti-aircraft artillery.

Turn into ashes and disappear into smoke.

Even the armor of the armored regiment and the Humvee military vehicles that were close to the anti-aircraft regiment and assisted them in anti-aircraft fire were also affected by enemy artillery fire.

At least dozens of Humvee military vehicles and armored vehicles were blown up and overturned, and all the armored soldiers on them were killed or injured.

Seeing this horrific scene, Xu Wen, Zhou Weiguo, Li Wu and others were all shocked. Xu Wen was shocked by how damn fierce the Japanese firepower was. My own troops did not have such fierce firepower.

Zhou Weiguo was the first to react. He immediately took the radio and shouted to Xu Wen: "Brother, it's not safe here. Evacuate quickly! This is the end! Evacuate as much as you can! Hurry!"

Only then did Xu Wen come to his senses, and immediately shouted an order at the top of his lungs: "Listen to Deputy Brigadier Zhou, everyone, retreat immediately! Retreat immediately!"

Before he could finish his words, the driver of the Tiger tank quickly maneuvered the tank, quickly bypassed the anti-aircraft regiment covered by Japanese artillery fire, and evacuated at full speed backwards.

Zhou Weiguo, Li Wu, Wu Yongqiang, Sun Fugui and others also ordered their tanks to retreat.

The soldiers of the tank regiment who were not destroyed by the Japanese gas bombs and air force bombing also drove their tanks and fled.

As for the armored infantry on foot, because most of them failed to escape from the poisonous gas in time, they were almost wiped out.

Only less than 200 people managed to escape, hurriedly jumped onto the already chaotic armored regiment tanks, and retreated.

Soon, the Japanese bombers dropped dozens of aerial bombs again, turning the place where Xu Wen and the others had just been into a sea of ​​flames.

Countless thick smoke and flames rose into the sky, and many armored vehicles and Humvee military vehicles of the armored regiment that were about to turn around and evacuate were engulfed by the explosion shock wave and were damaged one after another.

On the air defense regiment's position, a battalion commander with disheveled hair ran up to the regiment commander Fang Shengli and shouted to him with grief: "The regiment commander, brigade commander and deputy brigade commander have already withdrawn, let's withdraw too!"

Fang Shengli raised his head and looked at the Japanese planes still circling in the sky. He gritted his teeth and said, "No, let's stay and break up the rear! Keep shooting in the air! Take down those damn Japanese planes!"

"However, the Japanese artillery fire was too fierce, and the brigade commander has ordered us to retreat on our own!" the battalion commander shouted anxiously.

Fang Shengli looked at the messy battlefield around him, pointing at the anti-aircraft guns and military trucks that were blown up by the Japanese heavy artillery fire, as well as the broken limbs and broken arms everywhere, and said sadly: "So many brothers died here, we

Why do you still have the nerve to go back alive? Keep beating me hard! Kill those Japanese planes! Avenge your dead brothers!"

"Yes!" The battalion commander also looked around and couldn't help but feel sad. He immediately accepted the order and immediately ran to an 88 anti-aircraft gun that had not been destroyed and continued to fire into the air.

Fang Shengli also went into battle personally, commanding and leading the last dozen anti-aircraft guns and continuing to fire.

Boom boom boom! Under their tenacious shooting, four more Japanese fighter jets that were trying to dive were soon hit by anti-aircraft fire, burst into flames and exploded in the air, and crashed one after another.

However, the swan song of the air defense regiment could only end there. Soon the second wave of bombardment from the Japanese 5th Heavy Artillery Brigade arrived as scheduled.

Another hundred and fifty rounds of high-explosive grenades fell from the sky, completely covering the entire air defense regiment position. Countless violent explosion shock waves destroyed everything, swallowing up Fang Shengli and the others.

Xu Wen and Zhou Weiguo finally escaped by relying on the maneuverability of tanks and armored vehicles.

And before the Japanese army launched a comprehensive counterattack, they withdrew to Wuxi.

According to statistics, the independent brigade lost more than 60 tanks, more than 300 Humvees and armored vehicles, as well as all anti-aircraft guns and military trucks of the air defense regiment in this battle.

All officers and soldiers of the air defense regiment, including the regiment leader Fang Shengli, were killed.

The armored regiment also lost more than 1,500 soldiers, with less than 500 remaining.
Chapter completed!