The expeditionary force began to dominate Southeast Asia by recruiting defeated soldiers

"Little devil, I'm better than your grandma."

At the critical moment, a strong man with a bandage on his head suddenly jumped out of the trench, and his roar resounded throughout the battlefield.

The former Hans 37mm anti-aircraft gunner who participated in the Battle of Shanghai had bloodshot eyes and anger burning in every nerve. He rushed to the 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun in three or two steps.

With one leap, he climbed up to the gunner's seat nimbly. His hands turned the steering wheel and elevation handwheels like the wind, and his eyes stared at the diving Type 97 light bomber through the sight.

"Bang, bang, bang"

He stepped on the pedal hard, and the 40mm Bofors gun let out a deafening roar. The three remaining 40MM high-explosive shells in the barrel tore through the air like lightning and flew towards the diving enemy plane.

One of the rounds struck the center of the bomber's fuselage with pinpoint accuracy. The instant the fuselage detonated, countless metal fragments sliced ​​through the air like sharp blades, piercing the fragile wings on either side of the aircraft. The impact severed both wings at their bases, and the entire Type 97 bomber instantly became a stick, losing all lift and plummeting from the sky like a steel rod.

The broken-wing plane, carrying the squad leader pilot and the rear-seat machine gunner, crashed heavily to the ground less than fifteen meters away from the Sherman tank.

Immediately afterwards, after a loud explosion that resounded through the sky, the entire battlefield seemed to stand still for a moment.

The bomb bay on the belly of the plane exploded - four 50-kilogram bombs detonated under the violent impact, and flames, mud, gravel and aircraft wreckage rolled around like a whirlpool. The Sherman tank next to it was instantly submerged in the mud and debris raised by the explosion, as if it had experienced a mudslide.

Zhang Chi sat in the tank, feeling the massive shockwave jolt the 30-ton steel behemoth from side to side, shaking it as if it were about to fall apart. His hands unconsciously clenched the seat. Through the commander's periscope, he saw a two-meter-deep crater had been blasted into the ground next to the tank, with steam and dust still rising from the edge. (In War Thunder, the bomb's power has been reduced. A 155mm high-explosive round contains 7kg of TNT, while a 200kg bomb packs almost 100kg of TNT. This is equivalent to 15 155mm shells exploding simultaneously at close range. Even at 15 meters, the Sherman was a bit dangerous.)

He swallowed his saliva, his heart trembling, and muttered to himself: "It was almost like the whole car would have gone up into the sky..."

"Reload, load your ***!" the man shouted in Chinese to the terrified soldier John standing beside him.

The remaining few John soldiers in the artillery crew finally reacted. Although they did not understand Chinese, they knew what they should do when they saw the man's anxious expression.

Several people rushed to the ammunition point near the gun group, picked up the clips of four 40mm rounds, and then ran back to load the clips continuously from above the gun barrel. (The shells were kept away from the running position to prevent the explosion from affecting the gun.)

"Bang, bang, bang, bang!" The Bofors anti-aircraft guns finally resumed their fire, forcing the Sakaki and Ono planes, which were taking turns diving towards the LVTA-1 amphibious tank, to regain altitude to evade the attack. (Circling aircraft are harder to hit with small-caliber anti-aircraft guns, while those flying straight and diving are easier to hit.)

"The eastern position is calling the nest. There are too many Japs pouring out of the jungle in the east. They have tanks leading the way. Requesting support." Hao Yi's voice was heard from the radio in the tank. His company was currently deployed at the position east of the airport.

On the chaotic battlefield, Zhang Chi didn't care about anything else at the moment and quickly ordered the pilot to move towards the east side of the airport.

-------

Three Japanese Type 95 light tanks were lined up in a row, taking turns firing at the company's position with the small Type 94 37mm tank gun in the turret.

High-explosive bombs continued to explode around the trenches, and many soldiers who tried to suppress the Japanese soldiers' charge with guns were hit by flying shrapnel. The continuous casualties forced the soldiers of the first company to hide in the trenches, and the Japanese infantry's charge became more unscrupulous.

A machine gun placed on the flank of the eastern position suddenly launched an attack while the Japanese soldiers stood up and charged.

The continuous bullets penetrated from the side into the Japanese troops charging in an inverted triangle formation. In an instant, seven or eight Japanese soldiers were mowed down like cutting wheat. Seeing this, the remaining Japanese soldiers immediately stopped charging and lay down.

The machine gun's side fire attack was effective, but the position of the machine gun was also exposed.

Two 37mm high-explosive bombs arrived one after another. The explosions were earth-shaking. The shock wave was like a ferocious beast, overturning the shooting position built with sandbags, and the flying fragments fell like raindrops.

Fortunately, the main shooter of this light machine gun team was a veteran who had participated in many battles since 38. After firing a volley of bullets, he was experienced and moved his team away early, leaving only an empty position for the Japanese tanks to destroy.

This little episode only delayed the Japanese charge for a few seconds. After realizing that the machine gun fire points on the flank had disappeared, the Japanese infantrymen lying on the ground stood up and continued their mad charge.

"Boom!" A 75MM high-explosive bomb exploded in the Japanese charging column. An unlucky Japanese soldier had half of his head cut off by the shrapnel. He was originally charging, but immediately he began to stagger and cat-walk on the battlefield like a drunk.

The coaxial machine guns and the hull machine guns opened fire together. The powerful continuous firepower of the two M1919a4 heavy machine guns was like two sickles for cutting wheat, cutting the charging Japanese into pieces and restraining the momentum of the Japanese charge.

Faced with the Sherman tanks that appeared late from the dust and smoke raised by their tracks, the Japanese infantry had to lie down again.

The three Type 95 light tanks, looking at the steel monster standing out from the crowd behind the opposing position, loaded their armor-piercing rounds, ready to destroy this unprecedented steel beast. (John had deployed a large number of M3 light tanks in the Southeast Asian colonies, and the Japanese Southeast Asian tank forces had not yet encountered the M4 Sherman.)

One after another, 37mm armor-piercing shells traveled nearly 800 meters and hit the Sherman's front armor, but these tiny shells could not penetrate the thick steel plate at all.

The Sherman tank's welded hull had frontal armor that was 50mm thick and sloped at an angle of nearly 56 degrees. This greatly increased the effective penetration range of the projectile against the armor plating, resulting in an M4 tank with an effective frontal armor thickness of nearly 80mm. (When using uncapped armor-piercing rounds, the sloped armor would cause the projectile to turn outward, bringing the actual effective thickness closer to 100mm.)