In order to stabilize the morale of the army, the commander of the Northwest Indian War Theater ordered the firing of fourteen front-line commanders who led the troops to escape that morning, and immediately issued an order to defend the position to the death, requiring troops at all levels to fight to the last one and never take a step back.

The question is, can the Chinese army be blocked without retreating?

At about ten o'clock in the morning, the vanguard of the Thirteenth Army had arrived about fifteen kilometers west of Pertinda.

Faced with the Indian army that was already on high alert, the vanguard troops of the 13th Army did not stop, but just changed the lineup into a commando formation.

What the Indian army can do is to defend its position to the death.

The battle was extremely cruel. The Indian soldiers, who had been full of confidence, soon discovered that they could not stop the weird armored vehicles.

Compared with the fourth-generation main battle tank, the biggest feature of the anti-armor combat platform is the use of unmanned turrets.

Although China and the United States considered using unmanned turrets when developing the fourth-generation main battle tank, they both gave up this plan during the development process. The main reason is that the fourth-generation main battle tank still uses traditional artillery, and even the electric-thermal chemical cannons are traditional artillery, so the turret cannot be made very small. If all personnel are prevented in the body of the car, the internal space of the car body will be overcrowded, and the turret space will not be effectively utilized. In addition, the automatic loading system of the electric-thermal chemical cannon is very complex and has not high reliability. Even if the loading hand is not set up, the fault must be eliminated when necessary. In this way, it is very necessary to leave the turret and the cannon leader in the turret, that is, the traditional layout of the third-generation main battle tank is adopted.

After the electromagnetic gun replaced the electrothermal chemical gun, these problems no longer exist.

Because of the electromagnetic gun, the turret of the fifth-generation main battle tank can be made small enough, and the electromagnetic gun does not require the use of launching drugs, and the mass of the projectile is much lighter than that of the large-caliber electrothermal chemical cannon. Therefore, the loading system is more reliable and the applause rate can be controlled within a reasonable range. In this way, there is no need to leave the chariot and the gun captain in the turret, and there is no need to use a human turret.

The biggest feature of an unmanned turret is that it has much smaller appearance size, which means it has much lower shot rate.

According to the statistics of armored war between Arab and Israel during the fifth Middle East War, among the destroyed tanks, the rate of turrets was as high as 48%, and more than half of the completely destroyed tanks were caused by the ammunition reserved in the turret to explode after the turret was shot. On the contrary, when the vehicle body was shot, the probability of ammunition being exploded was much lower, and most of the damage could be repaired.

It can be seen from this that the benefits of using unmanned turrets are very prominent.

Of course, this is not the main reason why the Indian army is timid.

Because there is no air supremacy, the Chinese Air Force's attack is very fierce, so the Indian army buried many main battle tanks on anti-tank positions, exposing only the turrets, and acting as fixed anti-tank fire points. However, the Indian army found that it was meaningless to do so.

According to the combat records of the 13th Army, an anti-armor combat platform used an armor-piercing bomb to penetrate the earth wall of five meters thick in front of the Indian tank at 3,500 meters away, and then penetrated the armor of the m27a1 vehicle body. The armor-piercing bomb penetrated the entire tank, killed the driver, passed through the combat compartment in the center, destroyed the engine and gearbox, and then penetrated the bottom deck of the rear of the tank, and finally penetrated nearly three meters of hard ground before stopping.

The second armor-piercing projectile fired by the anti-armor combat platform directly hit the turret of m27a1. After piercing through the front armor of the turret, the splashed debris killed the turret and the turret captain, and then hit the ammunition compartment at the tail of the turret, detonating the grenade inside, and eventually led to the liquid fired medicine stored in the turret body being exploded. The interval between the two guns was only four seconds, and after the m27a1 was exploded, the turret flew out more than ten meters.

Faced with such sharp artillery fire, any defense method of the Indian army was useless.

Of course, not only the buried tanks were attacked, but also the Indian army's firepower points.

When attacking infantry firepower points, the anti-armor combat platform uses not armor-piercing bombs, but grenades with slightly less armor-piercing power but have blasting effects. Due to the caliber of coil electromagnetic guns, the power of the grenade is not very strong, but it is enough to destroy any infantry firepower points.

Relatively speaking, the most effective weapon against infantry firepower points is not an anti-armor combat platform, but a multi-purpose platform.

To put it simply, it is the infantry fighting chariots mentioned in the past.

At that time, the multi-purpose combat platform was not equipped with electromagnetic guns, and used machine guns with a caliber of 40 mm, and also a four-unit anti-tank missile launcher. In combat use, the main task of the multi-purpose combat platform is to fight against enemy infantry and armored vehicles with anti-armored combat platforms. In terms of performance, the rate of fire of the machine guns is much higher than that of the electromagnetic guns, and its power is also high enough. More importantly, when dealing with some solid fire points, missiles equipped with blasting warheads can be used.

Of course, in anti-armor combat, the performance of the multi-purpose combat platform is not very good.

It is not that the kinetic energy anti-tank missile is not powerful enough, but that in terms of protection performance, the multi-purpose combat platform only reaches the level of infantry fighting vehicles, that is, it can only withstand small-caliber armor-piercing bombs. If it is hit by armor-piercing bombs fired by tank guns, the consequences will definitely be very serious.

On the front, the Indian army's defensive defense soon turned into a meaningless sacrifice.

After the front was broken by the Chinese army, many Indian troops neither continued to resist nor fled, but stayed on the position and waited for the Chinese army to contain it.

To put it bluntly, it is to surrender to the Chinese army.

In this battle, at least seven Indian infantry battalions surrendered in an organized manner, and the battalion-level commanders led the entire battalion to surrender collectively.

I'm afraid even Qi Kaiwei didn't expect this result.

In the evening of that day, the Thirteenth Army invaded Pertinda and occupied the Central Railway Station.

In just sixteen hours, the Chinese Army attacked more than 100 kilometers in India and occupied the most important railway hub center in northwest India.

At that time, not only the Indian commanders could not believe it, but even the US military advisers found it unbelievable.

You should know that the US aid gives India all the main equipment of the US military in active service. The tanks are mainly m27a1 and also provide a large number of anti-armored weapons. Before the war broke out, US military advisers estimated that the Indian army could last at least a week on the border defense line and were very confident in defending Pertinda.

Obviously, this result is completely different from the predictions of US military advisers.

The question before the Indian army is, how to defend New Delhi?

Of course, what the US military advisers saw was another problem, that is, the main combat equipment of the Chinese Army has surpassed the US Army in all respects and has a cross-generational advantage. This is like the Gulf War more than half a century ago. The US military's m1a1 can effortlessly kill Iraq's T-72. The generational difference in equipment performance is difficult to make up for by quantity, and the US Army is simply not as good as the Chinese Army.

Obviously, the US Army must equip new main combat platforms as soon as possible.

Of course, these are all later stories.

By the night of the tenth day, the Indian authorities had to make a decision: to stay in New Delhi or leave before the Chinese army came.

Given the circumstances at that time, no one believed that the Indian army could defend New Delhi.

Some people even believe that as long as the Chinese army continues to advance, it can capture New Delhi within two days, the Indian army will not even have the chance to fight to the death.

However, in the second half of the night, the battle situation took a turn.

It was not that the Indian army turned defeat into victory, but that after capturing Pertinda, the Chinese army did not march towards New Delhi, but began to sweep the surrounding areas.

This is also part of the combat plan.

After occupying the transportation hub center in the northwest region of India, the main task of the 13th Army was to cut off the transportation line from New Delhi to Kashmir and create an opportunity for Pakistan to capture the Indian-controlled Kashmir region. Therefore, the first thing to do is to sweep the surrounding areas of Pertinda.

In view of the outstanding performance of the vanguard in the offensive, the Thirteenth Army dismantled the combat troops into assault clusters.

At that time, each assault cluster was centered on an armored battalion or tank battalion, equipped with thirty to forty anti-armor combat platforms, and then a mechanized infantry battalion was equipped with more than forty multi-purpose combat platforms, and direct fire support was provided by the artillery battalion in the rear.

In other words, the front-line combat force of an assault cluster is less than one thousand.

It seems that the combat force is not large, but the combat power is definitely strong enough. Judging from the ten-day battle, the combat power of an assault cluster exceeds that of an Indian Army armored division. If you fight in an open area, you can even defeat the armored troops of the two Indian Army divisions.

In the early morning of the 11th, the Thirteenth Army dispatched six assault clusters to advance along the railway line.

After dawn, the Thirteenth Army dispatched four assault clusters to advance along the highway route, and organized four assault clusters to serve as reserve teams in the rear.

This situation was immediately discovered by the Indian army.

It seems that the Indian army also saw hope.

At that time, even US military advisers believed that the Chinese army was too voluntary and that when the front line was still unstable, letting the main assault troops scattered in combat was equivalent to actively giving the Indian army the opportunity to defeat each. If we could seize this opportunity and eliminate the assault cluster of the 13th Army, then the Indian army would have the hope of defending New Delhi and even defeating the Chinese army in local defense operations.

If this is true, the Indian army will have hope of severely damaging the Chinese army and changing the situation on the battlefield.

Of course, even if the decisive victory is not achieved, as long as several assault clusters can be eliminated, it can greatly improve the morale of Indian soldiers, break the myth that the Chinese army cannot defeat, and force the commanders of the Chinese army to adopt more conservative tactics, thereby thwarting the spirit of the Chinese army.

To this end, the Indian army began to make active preparations.

Chapter 102 The Future of the Army

On March 12, the ground war ushered in the first regular battle.

Strictly speaking, it can only be regarded as a large-scale field sports war, because in this battle, the Chinese Army only used two assault clusters. Even if the support force was used, the total force invested was only a few thousand, which could not meet the battle standards at all.

At that time, the Indian army's combat intention was to encircle and annihilate the Chinese army that had already captured Bethiara.

On the afternoon of the 11th, the assault cluster of the 13th Army invaded Bethiara and occupied the city about 250 kilometers north of New Delhi that night, cutting off the traffic line from New Delhi to Chandigarh, which was equivalent to besieging more than 100,000 Indian troops in the direction of Chandigarh.

This is obviously not good news for India.

You should know that Chandigarh is the defense command center of northwestern India and is also a major military center facing the Kashmir region and the western border between China and India. If Chandigarh is blocked, then more than 100,000 Indian troops stationed there and hundreds of thousands of Indian troops in the north will be doomed. To put it seriously, the Chinese army does not need to get anything, and just need to maintain a blockade to defeat these Indian troops.

Obviously, opening up the transportation line as soon as possible will become the key to saving these Indian troops and defending the northern border areas.

To this end, the Indian Army not only mobilized three divisions from Chandigarh, with a total of nearly 40,000 troops, but also dispatched an infantry division from Sahalampur and Gerville. The president invested five divisions and nearly 70,000 troops to launch a counterattack against Bertiara, which was occupied by only one assault cluster.

In terms of force, the Indian army is seventy times that of the Chinese army

Of course, this is not the case, because in the early morning of March 12, the 13th Army dispatched an assault cluster to Bethiara and concentrated five artillery battalions in the rear. Because it was expected that the Indian army would counterattack Bethiara, Qi Kaiwei also arranged air support in advance.

As a result, when the Indian army advanced towards Berthiara, it was first hit by a violent air strike.

According to the Indian army's combat record, in the fight against Bethiara, more than half of the losses came from air strikes. Five divisions lost one-third of their main combat equipment during the march, and thousands of casualties were also killed and injured. The worst thing is that the troops in the foresight were unable to assemble at all, and they could not invest enough troops in a battle, so they could only send the counterattack troops to the front line one after another.

This means that the Indian army's counterattack was not fierce.

In a sense, this situation has determined the outcome of the battle.

The battle started at around 8 o'clock in the morning. The Thirteenth Army first dispatched an assault aircraft group to expand its defense circle northward, and took the initiative to fight against the Indian army coming from Chandigarh. About thirty kilometers north of Bertyara, the Indian army's assault troops were defeated on a relatively flat battlefield.

It can be said that in armored warfare, the Indian army has almost no chance of winning.

At that time, the anti-armored combat platform could open fire from 5,000 meters away, and the hit rate would not be less than 80%, and it could destroy the Indian army's main battle tanks as long as they hit. On the contrary, even if the Indian army's main battle tanks shortened the combat distance to within one thousand meters, it would be difficult to ensure that the anti-armored combat platform would be destroyed.

In the open area, the Indian army's armored assault was equivalent to killing death.

To put it in the words of some tank players who participated in this battle, the battle at that time was almost target training and was not challenging at all.

Between three thousand and five thousand meters ahead of the defense line set up by the assault cluster, it is the death zone of the Indian army.

During the first battle, the Indian army lost more than 100 tanks and more than 100 armored combat vehicles in this area, and none of them could cross this death zone.

What the Indian army owns is just a counterattack force that keeps coming.

At that time, probably because of the performance of the anti-armor combat platform, the front-line commander did not even call for air support, but instead asked the air force's fighter jets to bomb the successor troops of the Indian army, weakening the Indian army's assault capabilities. The front-line combat was entirely undertaken by the armored troops.

The battle lasted from morning to afternoon, and more than 40 anti-armored combat platforms in an assault cluster destroyed more than 600 Indian tanks and nearly 1,000 Indian armored combat vehicles.

In the evening, the Indian army's counterattack temporarily stopped.

After suffering such great losses, the Indian army's counterattack ability was significantly weakened.

More importantly, during the battle to the south, the other two Indian infantry divisions had been defeated by the additional assault clusters sent by the Thirteenth Army.

At that time, on the southern battlefield, the Thirteenth Army did not adopt defensive tactics, but made full use of the assault speed of the armored troops. They launched two rapid assaults in the morning and afternoon respectively, defeating the Indian counterattack troops without any suspense, killing and wounding more than 10,000 Indian officers and soldiers. The price paid by the assault cluster was that seven anti-armor combat platforms were damaged, four multi-purpose combat platforms were scrapped, and less than twenty casualties were killed and soldiers.

It can be said that this is a completely unequal battle, just like the cavalry in the age of cold weapons wielding their sabers to charge against the tank cluster in the age of mechanization. Apart from sacrifice, there will be no result, and the party who holds technical advantages will not even suffer major losses.
To be continued...