Chapter 278: 277 Caceres Tank Battle, German Italian Soviet Three Kingdoms Tanks Converge, Mechanized Air-ground Coordination
Shrike Hao’s 20mm autocannon fired, with only the autocannon shells from burst firing completing the strafe as the aircraft fuselage rotated.
Although these 20mm autocannon shells were not armor-piercing, they still caused devastating damage to the enemy.
A series of autocannon shells bombarded those crude bulletproof small cars, the steel plates unable to withstand the shock from the explosions, getting blown away, and the soldiers behind the small cars immediately suffered.
Some Falange Party soldiers were hit directly by autocannon shells, their shattered remains scattering in the sky and splattering onto their comrades.
The scene was too horrific, causing the soldiers to collapse.
Some soldiers even dropped their weapons and knelt on the ground, sobbing as they prayed, as if that could save them from disaster.
Fang Wen’s heart stirred, and he deliberately spared these praying soldiers, firing in other directions.
After this attack, aside from corpses and remains, as well as soldiers kneeling and sobbing in prayer, the other attackers all withdrew from the square, vanishing into the darkness.
In the night, only those mournful prayers remained, plunging the city into a strange mood.
At this time, Fang Wen jumped down from the airplane and found George Baker.
“Can we undermine their morale from the angle of faith?”
“How?” George Baker asked puzzled.
Fang Wen explained his idea: “I deliberately spared those soldiers kneeling in prayer. Can we make something of their cowardice combined with their faith?”
George Baker’s eyes lit up; Falange Party people were basically all believers, so it might really be worth a try.
He shouted loudly: “The divine will not save your souls; it was we who spared you. In this holy place, you provoked the conflict and received due punishment. Now the killing has stained the square with blood, defiling what was once holy—is this what you wanted?”
George Baker’s words were not just for the Falange Party people but also for the people in Caceres City.
The action team, originally only a dozen people, naturally stood on the side of the weak, yet now faced ten times the enemy and inflicted heavy losses on them.
This battle inside the city not only built momentum but also brought bloody slaughter to this ancient city.
It also made the city people feel disgusted.
Immediately, from houses outside the city square, someone shouted loudly: “Stop the fighting; this place doesn’t need bloodshed—your faith has been defiled.”
One voice led to more, with continuous angry rebukes coming.
The attacking Falange Party soldiers became the target of their denunciations.
Perhaps they felt there was some truth to it, or maybe their faith was devout, or more likely, after repeated setbacks and heavy losses, they were afraid.
After a while, a Falange Party officer responded from the darkness.
“This is war; we have no choice, but tonight it ends here—give this holy city some peace. I propose a ceasefire tonight; our troops will temporarily withdraw to north of the city.”
Fang Wen and the others of course welcomed this suggestion; after tonight, reinforcements would arrive.
George Baker responded loudly in Spanish: “We agree, in the name of God, ceasefire tonight.”
“In the name of the Lord, ceasefire tonight.”
Both sides reached a verbal agreement, and afterward, the Falange Party soldiers really began to withdraw.
The enemy withdrew, but vigilance could not be relaxed; that night, none of the action team members rested, all on guard against the enemy reneging and launching a sneak attack.
But in the second half of the night, there really was no movement; under the name of faith, the enemy truly quieted down.
By the next morning, dense gunfire came from north of the city; after a while, reinforcements entered Caceres in force.
These were the agricultural workers’ militia self-defense team that George Baker mentioned, wearing various clothes and carrying an assortment of weapons.
But their morale was high; they had just repelled Falange Party soldiers in the battle north of the city.
Then Fang Wen and George Baker stepped forward to meet with the reinforcements’ commander.
The other side knew more about the battle situation and spread out a battle map to explain in detail.
“From the intelligence we have, the rebels’ armored troops entered from Portugal, and there are also armies and mercenaries sent by Franco from the Morocco colony. They will pass through here at the earliest in two days.”
George Baker asked urgently: “Who will intercept them?”
“The Republican Army is in Valencia; Madrid is pinned down from the north and can’t send reinforcements for now. But I heard Soviet-supported tank troops might come; their target is to block the Vulture Corps’ Imker tank troops.”
Fang Wen listened to the militia commander’s words; he originally thought Caceres wouldn’t send troops to hold, but unexpectedly, the Soviet-supported tank troops actually planned to fight a blocking battle here.
Moreover, the opponents were the Germans’ tank troops.
And precisely because of this, Caceres City was temporarily out of danger.
Five hours later.
The Soviet-supported tank troops arrived at Caceres City.
These tanks were all T-26 light tanks.
This light tank had high mobility and smoothly drove along the high slopes into Caceres City.
The arrival of the tanks subtly changed the atmosphere in Caceres City.
Faced with more than twenty tanks, Caceres city’s mayor softened his originally tough attitude.
He agreed to hand over the pilots and airplanes but still claimed he would not participate in this war.
Then, led by municipal personnel, Fang Wen met that Vulture officer pilot.
The iron gate of the detention center opened; the moment Fang Wen walked in, the Vulture Legion pilot understood his situation.
He calmly said: “I surrender; please give me proper prisoner of war treatment.”
Fang Wen nodded: “State your identity.”
“Vulture Legion Air Force Captain, Cooper Felix.” The officer replied.
The surname Felix means good luck in Latin; in a sense, his luck was indeed good, being hit in air combat and then captured alive.
Fang Wen noted the name of this defeated subordinate and said: “You and the airplane will be transferred; if you’re lucky, you can rest until the war ends without fighting.”
Afterward, militia team soldiers escorted him out of the detention center.
Just before leaving, he turned to Fang Wen: “Was it you piloting that airplane that fought us?”
“Yes.” Fang Wen replied.
“You’re strong, but the Vulture Corps has even better pilots; you’ll learn how formidable they are.” The officer said loudly, then was clubbed quiet with a gun stock by the militia and forcibly dragged away.
Watching the Vulture Legion pilot’s back, Fang Wen muttered to himself.
This war was not his war; in a short time, he would be going back.
After all, he came here to hone actual combat experience, not to fight German pilots to the death.
The Vulture Legion pilot prisoner was taken away, along with the BF.109 fighter whose wing and belly were damaged.
They would be sent to Albacete Base; this route was in Popular Front controlled area, so there wouldn’t be much danger.
Fang Wen and his Asian Aviation team were however required by the International Brigades Command Headquarters to assist the Soviet tank troops’ operations.
In the temporary command headquarters in Caceres City, the Soviet tank troops commander talked with Fang Wen.
He also brought out a battle map and explained his ideas.
“We plan to fight an ambush battle on the high ground outside Caceres City; the tanks will hide in multiple spots on the sloped high ground, forming a pincer firepower net.”
Hearing the tank troops commander say this, Fang Wen pondered.
This was a very good tactical arrangement: attacking from high to low; tanks of this era had no angle of elevation, so they should have no countermeasures against such an ambush.
He asked: “In that case, you have a big advantage; what does the Asian Aviation team need to do?”
The tank troops commander pointed to another spot on the map.
“We have few troops, only assisted by the militia team; after the ambush starts, we’ll have the advantage for sure, but the enemy will immediately retreat, and pursuing them would be very dangerous. My idea is air-ground coordinated attack: after we launch the ambush, your aviation team launches a second wave attack during the enemy’s withdrawal, so when we pursue, the enemy will be restrained by the air raid, for better effect.”
Fang Wen nodded; this was a tank commander with rich war experience, planning potential events very thoroughly.
This was also Fang Wen’s first time coordinating an attack with mechanized troops; he too hoped to gain some mechanized coordinated combat experience from this battle.
Then, he and the tank troops commander discussed in depth, learning about the enemy situation.
For better cooperation, the tank troops commander detailed the enemy tank troops’ situation.
The enemy’s tank troops were mixed, composed of different models of tanks, in large numbers.
Among them was the Vulture Corps’ Imker tank troops, formed from the German army’s 3rd Armored Division’s 6th Tank Regiment’s 1st and 2nd Battalions, who came to Spain as volunteers and were reorganized into “Vulture” Legion’s 88th Tank Battalion, divided into two companies, each tank company actually composed of the original German army tank battalions.
Currently near Caceres City was the “Vulture” Legion’s 88th Tank Battalion’s 2nd Company.
They used German Panzer I tanks.
This tank’s main weapon was a machine gun, essentially a kind of armored car.
It was the first combat tank produced in the early Nazi era; its weapon power couldn’t compare to the T-26 at all—after all, the T-26 was a real tank with a gun, its 37mm caliber main gun able to easily destroy armor.
It was only a threat to infantry.
Besides the Imker tank troops, there were Italian-supported CV33 light tanks.
This thing was one of the most miniaturized in tank history.
How small? In the Soviet tank commander’s words, a toy tank.
But mechanized troops weren’t just tanks; there were also large numbers of Franco’s rebels coordinating in combat, and these rebels had infantry guns that posed a fatal threat to the T-26.
Therefore, Fang Wen and their air assistance was very important; after the Soviet tank troops attacked, the Asian Aviation team had to harass and bomb the rear infantry troops in the depth area, preventing them from damaging the forward tank troops.
After discussions with the Soviet tank troops commander, Fang Wen immediately led his team to pilot the airplanes back to Albacete Base.
Back at Albacete Base, the action team disbanded on the spot, while Fang Wen held a pre-battle meeting with the Asian Aviation team pilots to discuss the upcoming tank-airplane coordinated combat.
The pilots found this kind of battle very novel and felt the appeal of mechanized coordinated combat from Fang Wen’s description.
After the meeting, everyone began pre-battle maintenance.
Fang Wen also conducted a full inspection of Shrike Hao.
In the battle at Caceres City square, Shrike Hao was actually injured.
Unexpectedly, Shrike Hao, which had not been damaged in multiple sky battles, was riddled with holes by Falange Party rifles.
But fortunately, the bullets did not damage the internal structure; Fang Wen just disassembled the skin, removed the bullets, patched it up, and it was fine.
After repairing the airplane, because they had to be ready at any time for the coordinated combat request from Caceres City, the entire Asian Aviation team was on standby, with the telegraph machine tuned to the specific frequency waiting.
During this waiting period, Fang Wen reflected on his observations from this Spanish Civil War.
This war was not just a dispute between the Spanish Revolution and its opponents but also represented European countries’ attitudes toward war.
Britain and France feared trouble, so they took an avoidance attitude toward the Spanish Civil War.
Germany and Italy, in the fascist tide, gradually went mad, actively sending troops and equipment to participate in the Spanish Civil War.
The Soviet Union, to preserve Europe’s revolutionary spark, was also providing full support.
Through this military equipment aid, it also revealed each country’s military equipment shortcomings.
German and Italian tanks currently looked like a joke; probably precisely through the test of the Spanish Civil War that Germany vigorously developed tank research.
Soviet tanks, however, were always a strength; even in this era, there was the highly mobile, high-firepower T-26 light tank.
In contrast, on the airplane side, the Soviet I-16 was far inferior to the German BF.109 fighter.
So both sides had strengths and weaknesses, constantly learning from war baptism, constantly updating equipment.
Thinking of this, Fang Wen couldn’t help but think of the gunship he designed, that special warfare airplane tailored to domestic war—how much role would it play in the future domestic War of Resistance?
And after future war baptism, could the gunship be improved further?
Thinking of this, Fang Wen somewhat wanted to return home.
After all, it was almost the end of the year; next year the Japanese would launch full-scale war, and he needed to use the last time to prepare well.
As he was thinking, pilot Deng Zhongyu, in charge of the telegraph, ran over to report.
“General Manager, telegram from Caceres: they request coordinated combat tomorrow. Request sufficient bombing ammunition.”
Fang Wen nodded and stood up: “The camp’s airdrop bombs are only enough for one bombing load; tomorrow’s coordinated combat intensity will be high, I estimate. I’ll go to the command headquarters to apply for bombs.”
With that, Fang Wen got up and headed to the command headquarters.
The International Brigades Command Headquarters officer managing military supplies readily approved Fang Wen’s military supplies request.
After all, it was coordinated combat with Soviet big brother; originally just adding one load of bomb reserves, the other side generously gave all the inventory from the warehouse to Fang Wen, enough for three full bombings.
With so many bombs, Fang Wen felt this battle should be steady.
But in combat, it wasn’t just one formation flying over to bomb then returning to base to reload and bomb again.
A better way was to maintain continuous bombing effects across the entire battlefield, plus combat harassment, to suppress the ground troops.
For this, Fang Wen designed staggered, multi-wave cyclic bombing: each time two to three fighters bombing and harassing, the entire aviation team in three batches, continuously maintaining air deterrence over the battlefield.
This bombing harassment intensity demanded a lot from pilots and put great pressure on ground crew.
For this, he also discussed and drilled with Howard and those mechanics, as well as the International Brigades-assigned ground staff, to ensure smooth maintenance and reloading during the cyclic bombing.
