Tiger Troops: The 74th Army of the Kuomintang Anti-Japanese Ace

Chapter 10 What kind of person is a warrior (Lanfeng battle Wanjialing victory) (5)
On October 10, all the follow-up troops of the 2th Division of the Japanese Army arrived at the Wanjialing line. At the same time, the twelve divisions mobilized by Xue Yue gradually gathered on the battlefield centered on Wanjialing, and surrounded the Japanese army. .

In this encirclement of only a dozen square kilometers, except for a few small villages, it is all low mountains and jungles. The Zhanggu Mountain defended by the 51st Division is located near Wanjialing. It is a small hill only 30 meters high, but the difficulty of defense is inversely proportional to its height: the terrain here is complex and overgrown with bushes, which is not conducive to observation and shooting.Wang Yaowu decided to divide the army into two divisions, with the 58st Brigade occupying the commanding heights and the intersection leading to Nanchang, and the [-]rd Brigade supporting the troops on the east side, connecting with the [-]th Division by the way.

Neither the 51st Division in Zhanggushan nor the 58th Division in Wanjialing was attacked by the Japanese army that day. Although the vanguard of the 51st Division had fought in Zhanggushan, it was only a small-scale and small-scale engagement.

The calm on the surface is often a harbinger of an approaching storm.The 30th Division of the Japanese Army only brought six days of rations, and at the same time, ammunition was seriously insufficient. Assuming that each rifle was equipped with [-] rounds of ammunition, even if the six days later was not considered, it could only consume more than [-] rounds per day at most.

On the one hand, their own weak inner capsule was gradually exposed, and on the other hand, seeing that they had fallen into the enemy's encirclement, the 11th Division was a little anxious. They hurriedly reported to the No.[-] Army by telegram.

No.11 Army Headquarters was shocked when they heard the news.In fact, at the same time that the 27th Division invaded Wanjialing, the 27th Division of the Japanese Army on the Ruichang Line had been ordered to assist the East to meet the 27th Division.It's just that Xue Yue had already expected this move, and sent troops ahead of time to set up defenses and intercept the Qilin Peak, which the [-]th Division must pass through. The [-]th Division repeatedly attacked Qilin Peak to no avail, so they had to retreat disgruntled.

There was no other way but to rely on the 10th Division to break through. On October 3, the 51th Division launched an attack on the [-]st Division with the main lineup, focusing on the front of the [-]st Brigade.

From dawn to dusk, the 51st Brigade was attacked more than ten times, and every hill beside the road was fought to the death. The equipment of the [-]st Division was not good at that time. Except for a few official rifles held by the officers and soldiers, most of the troops were made in Hanyang, and it was the oldest one in Hanyang, which is commonly known as the "old sleeve". Double-layered, it feels heavy and clumsy in the hand.In addition, there are very few light and heavy machine guns, only two or three heavy machine guns per regiment.

With grenades and a few light and heavy machine guns, such a low firepower configuration is of course difficult to completely withstand the large-scale and swift charge of the Japanese army. Once the Japanese army floods into the position, hand-to-hand combat will be inevitable.The [-]st Brigade fought the enemy hand-to-hand several times. Where the blades met, the sound of shouts and the clanging of bayonets rang together.

The [-]st Brigade had seen the world, but the intensity of this battle was something they had never experienced before.The brigade commander Zhou Zhidao personally rushed to the front line of the mountain to take command. In the afternoon, due to the heavy casualties, even the orderlies around Zhou Zhidao joined the battle.

In the 74th Army, once the battle was at a critical moment, even the officers above the platoon leader had to shoot machine guns and participate in bombing, so the casualties of the officers were particularly high.During the fierce battle, Chang Xiaode, the commander of the [-]st Regiment, was seriously injured, Hu Xiong, the battalion commander, and even more wounded were the company platoon leaders. Even this is the case.

Hu Runsheng's three platoon leaders were all wounded, leaving only three squad leaders and more than 40 soldiers, and his left hand was also injured.Even so, seeing the Japanese troops rushing from the front, Hu Runsheng still showed resoluteness and composure. While commanding, he personally shot at the enemy with a machine gun, and the company's position never fell into the enemy's hands.

After the last attack of the Japanese army was thwarted, corpses were strewn all over the mountain and down the mountain, and the blood of the soldiers stained the surrounding rocks and land.

The 58th Division that arrived at Wanjialing that day began to compress the encirclement. At 12 o'clock in the evening, the [-]th Regiment broke into the Japanese position in Wanjialing by means of a surprise attack.A fierce hand-to-hand combat ensued.As a result, the relics on Wanjialing, in addition to the inexhaustible bullet casings, have countless bayonet sheaths.After three hours of hand-to-hand fighting with bayonets red, more than [-] Japanese soldiers fell on the mountain with bloody holes, and the [-]th Regiment successfully occupied the highland west of Jianlusu.

The new highland did not have an advantage in defense. It was shot down by the Japanese army from the commanding heights of Wanjialing and the highlands on the west side. However, the [-]th regiment had no intention of retreating after they came up. The Japanese counterattacked seven or eight times, each time. Can only return without success.

From October 10rd, the logistical supplies of the 3th Division of the Japanese Army showed a serious shortage. Although the No. 11 Army of the Japanese Army adopted the method of airdropping food and ammunition by plane, it was only a drop in the bucket to solve the predicament.Zhang Gushan's failure to break through and the loss of some highlands in Wanjialing were like adding insult to injury, making the division panic all day long.

choking smoke
Seeing that it was about to sink to the bottom of the water, the [-]th Division of the Japanese Army was very eager to reach out for a life-saving straw.

Or Zhang Gushan.The [-]th Division decided to bypass the front and outflank the Chinese [-]st Brigade from the side, but they did not expect to run into the defensive position of the [-]rd Brigade.

Since there are also Chinese troops stationed here, we can only rely on force. At dawn on October 10, the Japanese army dispatched about a regiment of troops to launch a fierce attack on the 4th Regiment of the [-]rd Brigade.

The fighting became more and more intense. By noon, two battalion commanders of the [-]th Regiment had been injured, three company commanders had been killed, and more than half of the remaining officers and soldiers had been killed or injured.The regiment's combat effectiveness was also greatly damaged by this, and the only one that could continue to fight was the incomplete third battalion.

Zhang Gushan's terrain was complex and the battle line was wide. There was no area that did not need to be defended. The third battalion blocked here but could not block there.When Wang Yaowu heard the news, he hurriedly asked the division to prepare to retreat, lest the Japanese army succeed in a detour and copy the command core of the 51st Division.

At this time, Li Tianxia had been dismissed from the position of brigade commander of the 51rd Brigade, and was appointed as the deputy division commander of the [-]st Division, and the post of brigade commander was promoted by Zhang Lingfu.Seeing that the situation was urgent, Zhang Lingfu personally rushed to the front to supervise the battle, and found that there were not enough combat soldiers, so he gathered the remnants and miscellaneous soldiers from each battalion, led by a battalion attached, and handed them over to the third battalion for use.With this extra manpower, the third battalion was able to block the enemy's attack, and the battle situation was stabilized again.

The 51th Division of the Japanese army continued to attack the Zhanggushan position where the 58st Division was located. Not only did they fail to catch any good fruit, they also suffered heavy casualties. Ridge defense area to break through.

On October 10, the 5th Division of the Japanese Army launched an attack on the 58th Division's position under the cover of aircraft.From this day on, under the dispatch of the No. 11 Army Headquarters of the Japanese Army, Japanese planes would come to Wanjialing to bomb and shoot every day to cheer for the [-]th Division.

The Chinese front-line troops did not have air defense facilities, so the Japanese planes dared to fly low. The planes often flew over the treetops, and the pilots were so crazy that they flew sideways while sticking their heads out of the cockpit to observe ground targets.At that time, the only way to defend the air was to set up air defense surveillance posts. When the surveillance posts saw the aircraft or heard the roar of the aircraft, they would immediately blow the whistle to call the police, but this method of relying solely on the naked eye and ears to observe was not very effective.The most common situation is that the Japanese plane has just flown overhead before the whistle has sounded and the person has not yet reached the hiding place.

The Chinese combat command post was frequently attacked by Japanese planes.Some staff members had no time to escape from the command post, so they had to hide under the bed boards temporarily. As a result, Japanese planes strafed the small thatched hut used as the command post as a colander, and the room was filled with the choking smell of gunpowder smoke.

The command post is still like this, let alone the forward positions. Only when the two armies are close to each other, the Japanese planes dare not drop bombs and strafing casually. The 58nd Brigade of the [-]th Division made full use of this gap and withstood the Japanese onslaughts with extremely tenacious defenses, ensuring that the position was firmly in their own hands.

Although the [-]th Division of the Japanese Army still failed to break out from Wanjialing, they still got a little inspiration from the battle that day.

Since the battle of Xuzhou, the Japanese army has used a large number of poison gas warfare to break through the defense line of the defenders.In order to deceive people, they call it "special warfare" internally. Gas bombs are not called gas bombs, but "special smoke".

The [-]th Division of the Japanese Army did not forget to carry poison gas equipment when they set off. Gas cylinders and gas masks can be found everywhere on the Japanese army positions after the war.However, there are many restrictions on adopting this kind of ruthless tactics. One of the most critical ones is that the user needs to know the local weather and geographical conditions. If the wind direction or terrain is wrong, it is likely to be self-defeating, causing their own troops to suffer first.

The [-]th Division obviously lacked this condition in Wanjialing, so the gas bombs were not used much. At this time, they had to rely more on planes to help.

On October 10, the Japanese aircraft participated in the battle more actively, and focused their air strikes on Zhanggushan to cooperate with the attack launched by more than 6 Japanese infantry.The surface of Zhang Gushan has almost been planed by bombs and artillery shells. It is not easy to find a tree that can be used for concealment. In addition to the lack of preparations for air strikes, many officers and soldiers who resisted desperately were killed on the spot. This fell.

The capture of Zhang Gushan gave the 58th Division of the Japanese Army a new glimmer of hope in the face of hardship.If they can take down the Wanjialing defense area of ​​the [-]th Division again, the battle situation will undoubtedly take a major turning point, and maybe they can turn it around.

Charcoal in the snow
Turn over, turn over, turn over.On the same day, the 58th Division of the Japanese Army launched a "conical assault" on the position of the [-]th Division by means of a combination of infantry, air and artillery.

The role of Japanese aircraft in Zhanggushan has not been replicated in Wanjialing. The 58th Division was already prepared for air strikes. As soon as the Japanese planes appeared, the officers and soldiers took cover in trees and trenches. When the Japanese infantry approached and the Japanese planes were unable to drop bombs, they entered the position to fight back.

During the interview, Ateli found that the pace of the escorting Chinese soldiers was very fast.After climbing many mountains with them, Ateli had to admit: "Chinese soldiers are better at walking than soldiers from any country in the world." To some extent, this is also forced out, because if they are not fast, they will It is impossible to adapt to this kind of mountain warfare without air defense protection.

The real problem faced by the 58th division is that it is running out of people!

Since the entire division entered the Wanjialing battle, the 58th Division has killed and injured more than 500 Japanese soldiers, but the entire division has also lost all casualties. The company and platoon leaders of many companies have all been killed, and there are only 500 combat-capable soldiers left.

The 58th Division sent cooks, grooms and other miscellaneous personnel to the front line, but it was still not enough.Seeing that the Japanese army was about to break through their own positions, the division commander Feng Shengfa had no choice but to ask the army commander Yu Jishi for help as a last resort, but Yu Jishi also ran out of reserves in his hand, and the only thing he could use was the army guard battalion.

At that time, in order to facilitate the observation of battlefield changes and adjust deployment, the command post of the military division was very close to the front line, which virtually increased the risk of the command organ being attacked or even swallowed.At the beginning of the Battle of Wanjialing, the guerrilla unit sent by the [-]th Division of the Japanese Army infiltrated near the corps headquarters of the Cantonese Army and launched an attack from hundreds of meters away, "stray bullets scattered all around."

Yu Jishi knew that once the guard battalion left, the military headquarters might face unpredictable dangers, but he still gritted his teeth and allocated two companies of the guard battalion to Feng Shengfa, leaving only one squad to guard the military headquarters.

The two guard companies have 58 active soldiers, which is like sending charcoal in a timely manner to the front line.After a fierce battle, the [-]th Division finally held its position.

So far, the [-]th Division of the Japanese Army has also suffered more than half of its casualties, and is unable to continue to expand the breakthrough range, so it has to turn to defense on the spot and stand by for help.

The 11th Division wanted reinforcements, but the No. 27 Army of the Japanese Army could not provide reinforcements.In addition to the 11th Division being intercepted on Ruiwu Road, the [-]st Division of the Western Aid was also blocked on the Dexing Line, and no one could get through.Miyazaki, the combat section chief of the Japanese No. [-] Army who was in charge of planning the operation, was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot on Monday, but apart from complaining that the [-]th Division's attack was weak, he couldn't think of a better rescue for a while. Method.

Miyazaki later admitted that he was responsible for the improper use of the [-]th Division in the Battle of Wanjialing, and should not have sent this second-rate division in the Japanese army to take responsibility for the surprise attack.The implication is that if given another chance, he would never dare to sell the leftovers from the previous night.

In fact, Miyazaki also overlooked another aspect, that is, the greater the benefits of a surprise attack, the greater the risk.When the [-]th Division alone penetrated deep into Ruichang and Nanxun, it had already embarked on a dangerous journey-the Chinese troops on the two lines of Ruichang and Nanxun could surround the raiders as long as they turned around, in other words In other words, even if Miyazaki sent a first-class division at that time, the probability of the final attack being successful was at most only [-]-[-].

This is not an era in which you can easily pick up cheap and lucky things by going around casually.At this time, it had been more than ten days since the [-]th Division of the Japanese Army set off from Mahuiling. They did not carry much food and ammunition.

During the Battle of Lanfeng, the No.14 Division of the Japanese Army, which was surrounded by the Eastern Yu Corps, also relied on the sky to survive the crisis with food and ammunition dropped by planes.However, Wanjialing is different from the Central Plains. The terrain conditions here are more complicated. There is an error of ten miles between the position estimated by the Japanese plane and the actual location of the [-]th Division. Therefore, the airdrops often fail to reach the people in need.

After the Chinese army observed this situation, whenever the Japanese planes dropped by air, they would paste the center of the red cloth in the middle of the white cloth, and use this fake "plaster flag" to lure the Japanese planes to drop the supplies on their own positions.As a result, the life of the [-]th Division of the Japanese Army became even more miserable. Even its command center was facing a crisis of food shortage, and the division headquarters had not had enough food for nearly three days.Ordinary soldiers are all skinny, as the saying goes, "Looks like a pencil from the front, and looks like a calendar from the side."

In terms of offensive and defensive posture, although the [-]th Division of the Japanese Army captured Zhang Gushan, it was limited to the inner circle. On the outer circle, the overlapping Chinese troops have formed a four-layer encirclement.A tired turtle in a urn can aptly describe the current situation of the [-]th Division.

Seeing that the time was basically ripe, on October 10, Xue Yue ordered to narrow the encirclement from all sides and launch a general attack on the 7th Division of the Japanese Army.Among them, the 74th Army is mainly responsible for the attack in the south, and the task is to recover Zhanggushan and the nearby Changling.

Yu Jishi handed over the task of the general offensive to the 51st Division.Wang Yaowu held a meeting before the war to study the attack plan.At the meeting, you said something to each other, and listened to each other. The words of Zhang Lingfu, the commander of the [-]rd Brigade, moved Wang Yaowu.

Zhang Lingfu believed that if he only attacked from the front, it would be more difficult and cause heavy casualties. It is better to follow the example of Deng Ai in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and use the cliffs behind the mountains to organize a surprise attack on the enemy's back.

Wang Yaowu adopted Zhang Lingfu's strategy.Zhang Lingfu selected [-] elite soldiers from the [-]th Regiment as the commando to carry out the surprise attack.In order to increase his chances of winning, Wang Yaowu also assigned the [-]nd Regiment to the [-]rd Brigade. Zhang Lingfu commanded the three regiments to carry out the main attack, and the [-]st Brigade, which was short of a regiment, was changed to a reserve team.

Zhang Fei

At [-] o'clock in the evening, the commando marched lightly, through the uninhabited and rugged canyons, and carried out a surprise attack on the northern highlands of Changling.There were five squadrons of Japanese troops stationed in the north of Changling, but at night they couldn't see how many people there were on the other side. They only knew that many Chinese soldiers suddenly rushed up from behind, causing chaos.

The frontal main attacking force took advantage of the situation and launched a fierce attack. Through two flanking attacks, more than 600 Japanese troops on the high ground were quickly wiped out.

(End of this chapter)