Republic of Korea in Yeokcheon - Chapter 338



Only Krnovel

#338. Want me to give you a sleepless night?

21:00, June 25, 1966.

Command and Control Center of the Ministry of National Defense in Yongsan, Seoul.

“Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have you confirmed the Northern Army’s record?”

“We don’t have the exact details yet, but a rough report has just come in.”

“Should I at least report that?”

“Yes, we destroyed or captured over 2,000 tanks. More than half of them were T-34-85 tanks, and the rest were T-54 or T-55 tanks. These were produced under license in Northern China, so they were evaluated as inferior to the originals in many ways.”

“Did you get rid of about 20%?”

“It is estimated that Lin Biao’s Northeast Army had about 10,000 tanks in total, so I think that’s safe to assume. And about 3,000 armored vehicles were also destroyed or captured.”

“What do these guys use for armored vehicles?”

“Most of them are BRDM-1 wheeled armored vehicles or BTR-50 tracked armored vehicles produced under license by the Soviet Union.”

“Aren’t they all without large-caliber weapons and poor defense?”

“Both are armed with machine guns and the BTR-50 has slightly better defense, but it is still penetrable by 12.7mm bullets. However, it is easy to manufacture and operate, so the People’s Republic of China mass-produced and deployed it.”

“Well, it’s a quantity-based army to begin with.”

“Haha! That’s right.”

Although Lee Kang-chul and Jeong Seon-ho, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speak so casually, the armored equipment operated by the People’s Liberation Army of the People’s Republic of China is by no means outdated.

In the case of tanks, the T-34-85 tank was certainly outdated, but the power of its 85mm main gun was not something to be underestimated.

In the case of the T-54 and T-55 tanks, they were still capable of taking the position of main battle tanks no matter where they went in this era.

The same goes for armored vehicles.

At the time, the BMP-1, which had opened the history of infantry fighting vehicles (IFV), was still under development, so all armored vehicles in the world except for those in South Korea were literally armored personnel carriers (APCs), so the BRDM-1 and BTR-50 could not be considered outdated.

It’s just that they met the wrong tank or armored vehicle.

Even modern tanks would not be able to withstand the 155mm and 105mm artillery fire of nearly 35,000 rounds.

In addition, after the shelling stopped, K100 tanks, which had performance almost on par with the early K1 tanks, and K31 fighting vehicles equipped with 40mm machine guns rushed in, so it was natural that they would suffer that level of damage.

“What about the troops?”

“The number of troops is really an estimate. There are so many that it is impossible to count them all.”

“So tell me, at least roughly.”

“We estimate that approximately 300,000 troops were killed or wounded.”

“Even so, is that only one-twentieth of the Northeast Army?”

“… … .”

Even though 300,000 people were killed or wounded, only one-twentieth of the entire Northeastern Army was destroyed.

Lee Kang-cheol was somewhat taken aback even after saying it himself.

“The battle started later than expected, so the time until sunset was short. And there were so many corpses and destroyed and abandoned enemy equipment that it was difficult to advance quickly. Another artillery attack and an air raid are scheduled for later that night, so please wait a little longer.”

“Huh? This guy misunderstood.”

“yes?”

“Chairman Jeong, I didn’t rush you at all, so don’t misunderstand. Isn’t 300,000 people in half a day a huge achievement? I’m just saying this because the size of their forces is so absurd.”

“Ah! I see.”

“Yes, so don’t misunderstand. Take your time, take your time. Don’t rush and kill our children. Remember that most of the casualties on our side in a one-sided war are due to impatience.”

“Hahaha! Okay, I understand.”

As Lee Kang-cheol said, even in a one-sided war, there are casualties on our side, but most of the casualties are due to friendly fire or accidents.

That’s why Lee Kang-cheol told me to take it easy.

“What about the southern front?”

“As you can see, in the southeastern front, the Republic of China guys haven’t touched Hong Kong yet.”

“Well, that was expected. They probably don’t want to mess with England yet.”

“Yes, that’s right. So the real battle took place on the Guangzhou front, north of Hong Kong. The allied forces of the White Moon and Vietnam fought well against the ROC army. Of course, it wasn’t as one-sided as ours, so they suffered a fair amount of damage, but I still think they won a decisive victory.”

“We provided a lot of artillery support, didn’t we? Still?”

“Yes, the Vietnamese army certainly fought well, but the problem is the Baekwol army. I think there was some confusion due to the Chinese soldiers and officers.”

“Tsk tsk! The Vietnamese commander must be really angry.”

“Yes, I heard that the Commander-in-Chief of the Vietnamese Army, Vo Nguyen Giap, or General Vo Nguyen Giap, was furious. Fortunately, the White Moon Army also fought quite well after the middle of the battle, so I think things will be resolved with time.”

“That’s fortunate, but we must be careful not to let our troops get swept away.”

“I heard that Commander Choi Chung-heon insisted that our military only conduct joint operations with the Vietnamese military, unless it is an independent operation. Of course, as the EATO commander, he is coordinating the allied forces.”

We have been working closely with the Vietnamese military for a long time and have frequently conducted joint training, so there was no problem in carrying out joint operations.

However, Baekwol’s army had a considerable number of Chinese people, so they did not cooperate in depth.

“Okay. What about the Southwestern Front?”

“The Burmese and proxy armies fought better than expected. If they continue on their current course, I expect they will gradually advance across the border.”

“Oh? You’re doing well. Then what about Tibet and East Turkestan?”

“Those two places are just in a standoff. The People’s Liberation Army’s main force there is second-line troops.”

“Yes, if you do just that much, you’ll be doing your part. You shouldn’t be greedy.”

“Hahaha! I know.”

The most peaceful(?) fronts in this war are the Tibet and East Turkistan fronts.

This neighborhood is a place with a very sparse population density to begin with.

The landmass is huge, but there aren’t many people.

There’s no particular city that’s a strategic target.

As a result, the front lines here are in a standoff, keeping an eye on each other, but even with this alone, even though it is only a second-line unit, it is having the effect of capturing 1 million People’s Liberation Army troops.

Tibet and East Turkestan have done their share to this extent, and the South Korean government did not expect anything more.

In conclusion, this war would be decided on the northern front, and both the Joint Forces and the Republic of Korea knew this very well.

So, when the Chinese Communist Party was politically trying to oust Mao Zedong from power, it appointed Lin Biao, whose political position was precarious due to his ambiguous attitude, as the commander of the Northeast Army.

Because Lin Biao’s military prowess was real.

There were 6 million elite troops, so 2 million could be deployed in front of Beijing at any time.

“Is Kim Jong-woo in Jinhae now?”

“Yes, that’s right. They say they’re really busy right now because the fleet is leaving tomorrow.”

“Yeah, he’ll figure it out.”

“Haha! Yes.”

* * *

22:00, June 25, 1966.

Northern Front.

The Northern Army advanced westward the distance it had advanced by 10 p.m., cleared the battlefield to some extent, and then took up its position again.

The enemies have retreated about 30 km and are now almost pushed back to the border.

And the divisional artillery and regimental artillery had advanced westward as far as the front line had been pushed back and were in formation.

This was the power of self-propelled guns.

Because it was possible to move around with great mobility.

“It’s time. Well then, shall I make it a sleepless night?”

“Go ahead. I’m ready.”

“Okay! Let’s make some noise until the Air Force guys get here. Then, fire!”

“firing!”

Boom! Boom! Boom! Kwak bang!

First, the 155mm K7 self-propelled howitzers of the division artillery and independent artillery brigade began to fire, followed by the regimental artillery, which was not to be outdone, firing 105mm shells with its K5 self-propelled howitzers.

However, this time only a quarter of the total artillery force participated in the bombardment, and the reason was that the bombardment was to be carried out in turns throughout the night.

That is, the artillery force is divided into four groups, with three resting and only one firing.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

That quarter of the artillery force alone was enough to turn the front into a sea of ​​fire.

Moreover, the Northeastern Army had not even dug trenches properly after retreating, so they had to take the full brunt of the fire.

“Eww! It’s shelling!”

“These kids don’t even sleep! Kyaak!”

The Northeast Army, unable to endure the artillery fire, moved forward its batteries and responded with artillery fire, but the ROK Northern Army fired only from outside the range of the Northeast Army’s 152mm howitzers, so their artillery fire was useless.

Boom! Boom! Kwak bang!

“Kwaaaaak!”

“Hey, this is hell!”

“Hey, save me!”

The northern army’s artillery bombardment continued for two hours.

“Cease fire!”

“Cease fire!”

“Let’s rest for the next two hours. And feed the kids some snacks.”

“All right.”

Just because the Northern Army was resting, it didn’t mean that the Northeastern Army of the Joint Forces could rest either.

No, this time it was going to be hell for the troops waiting safely in the rear.

Swish!

“Here he comes now.”

“The Air Force said they’re going to launch an air strike for two hours, so Commander, why don’t you get some rest?”

“Yeah, do you have cup ramen?”

“Yes, would you like some?”

“Excuse me, but can you bring it over here? We can eat it while looking at the monitor.”

“Hahaha! Okay, I understand.”

200 South Korean Air Force fighter-bombers began approaching the northern front.

These formations were now combined formations of low-level F-1 fighter-bombers and high-level F-3 fighter-bombers.

While the first developed F-1 fighter-bomber was roughly modeled after the F-20 Tigershark fighter and had a bomb payload of 5 tons, the F-3 fighter was a monster modeled after the F-15 Eagle fighter-bomber and had a bomb payload of a whopping 10 tons.

At this time, jet fighters completely dominated the skies, to the point that the United States had already deployed F-4 Phantom fighters since 1960, just as in its original history.

That is why, in order to dominate the skies for a long time, it had to show performance at least similar to that of the F-3 fighter jet that followed the F-15.

In particular, this F-3 bomber was equipped with a high-performance radar that could detect objects the size of fighter jets nearly 200 km ahead, and could even project high-performance radar onto the ground and synthesize radar images, boasting excellent performance in ground bombing.

The fighter jets used against them by North China are the MiG-17 and MiG-19 fighter jets.

The MiG-19 fighter jet had considerable dogfighting capabilities, but so what?

All it would take is for South Korean fighter jets to fire air-to-air missiles from afar.

It’s not like South Korean fighter jets lack dogfighting capabilities.

These are pilots that modern pilots have put their heart and soul into training.

Their abilities could not possibly decline.

Moreover, the performance of the fighter itself was outstanding.

Both North and South China knew very well that air power was no match for South Korea.

So, they didn’t even think about sending fighter planes towards the northern front.

A large formation of South Korean fighter-bombers gradually crossed the front lines to deliver a thunderbolt.