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

Chapter 19 Only the Strongest Have a Chance to Survive (Shanggao Battle) (2)
Because Luo Zhuoying did not fully carry out the blockade in the front-line area, and sometimes even pretended to be defeated, the Japanese army in northern Jiangxi has advanced at an average speed of 3 kilometers per day since it dispatched troops. It is said to be a battle, but it is actually more like a march. On March 17, the No.30 Fourth Division of the Central Road broke through the Xiangfuguan defense line stationed by the Chinese front-line corps, and continued westward after capturing Gao'an.The next day, the soldiers arrived at the periphery of Shanggao, and a brigade of more than 58 people attacked the security position held by the [-]nd Regiment of the [-]th Division of the Chinese side.

The surrounding area of ​​Shanggao is full of hills, with continuous mountains and small ridges.The security position is located on the hill, but only two companies are set up on the position, and the main tasks are to implement mobile defense and alarm.In order to remove this hard nail, at the beginning of the attack, the Japanese army dispatched nine planes to bombard the defending positions on the hilltop in turn. This is called "tiger washing face"; The wave-like continuous charge of several infantry columns.The security position was filled with gunpowder smoke, flames soared into the sky, gunshots roared, and wounded officers and soldiers were carried away continuously.

Due to the small size of the position, under the concentrated bombardment of Japanese planes and artillery, two company commanders were killed and one injured, totaling more than [-] people were killed or injured. The terrain and the established solid position repelled the fierce charges of the Japanese army again and again.In the evening, the remaining troops of the two companies withdrew to the main position to join the main force.

At this time, Liao Lingqi, the commander of the 58th Division, was attending an officer training class in Yuelu Mountain, Hunan, and Zhang Lingfu, the deputy commander of the division, was acting as the commander.According to the feedback of the enemy situation, he quickly adjusted the defensive deployment and adjusted the heavy troops to the main attack direction of the Japanese army.

The Japanese army seldom changed the attacking procedures, and followed the provisions of its military textbooks, and followed the steps of reconnaissance, advance, and deployment in sequence.After the attack on the 58th Division's security position, the No.30 Fourth Division of the Japanese Army determined that it had detected the configuration of the defense line, so it was convenient to mobilize the main force to launch an offensive against the 3th Division's main position on March 19.

The 74th Army has considerable experience and level in field position construction.The positions built on the outer periphery of Shanggao are stronghold-style semi-permanent field fortifications. They are connected by points into lines, and then connected by lines into areas. Tight weave.

Such a deployment is only to resist the infantry charge, and it is not enough to repel the entire Japanese attack.The experience and lessons since the Anti-Japanese War tell people that the Japanese offensive has an old trilogy, namely bombing, shelling, and charging.Before attacking the fortifications, it will definitely rely on its strong firepower advantage to bombard the defenders in turn with aircraft and artillery, thus causing heavy casualties to the defenders.When the Japanese infantry began to charge, there were often no soldiers on the ground.

In view of this understanding, the Chinese army has long implemented the principle of "mobile warfare in positional warfare" in mountain defense warfare, that is, digging hidden positions more than [-] meters behind the mountain ridge.When the Japanese army bombed, all the main forces withdrew to the hidden positions, leaving only the observers and signal soldiers in the front positions, and reported the Japanese army's movements at any time.

The main position system of the 58th Division has such a structure.When the Japanese army used the first two axes, the mountain was blown up with smoke and dust, and gravel flew randomly. When the Japanese army thought that the defenders were dead and wounded under their fierce bombardment, so they launched a pounce with infantry, the main force of the defenders would suddenly come to their senses. The ridge line turned up behind, and quickly formed a crossfire net, which caught the Japanese army by surprise.

Fighting fiercely, the main position of the 58th Division remained unmoved.At the same time, the 57th Division on the other side also showed its glory.Shi Zhongcheng, the former commander of the division, has been promoted to deputy commander, and the current division commander Yu Chengwan led his troops to attack the Japanese army from the side.

very risky

The positions guarded by the 57th Division are on the Guanqiao and Sixi lines.There is a stream named Sishui in Sixi, and there is a five-hole stone bridge of 80 meters across it. If it is not in the rainy season, pedestrians can wade under the bridge. What the 57th Division attacked was the Japanese army that was carrying out forced crossing.

The Japanese army raised troops to fight in the three routes, and the Chinese side more or less arranged military-level troops to fight with them in the north and south routes. Only in the middle route, you can basically come as you want, and no one stands up to it.This invisibly fueled the arrogance of the No.30 Fourth Division of the Japanese Army. All the officers and soldiers were so arrogant that they all wanted to step into Shanggao City in one step.

Excessive underestimation and paralysis must pay a price.The No. 30 Fourth Division of the Japanese Army only cared about speeding up its march, but did not know how to be on guard, which allowed the 57th Division to find an opportunity to take advantage of.As far as the types of attacks were concerned, getting hit halfway was usually the worst.The Second Battalion of the [-]th Regiment of the Japanese Army was defeated, and the captain of the brigade, Major Shigeshiro Kinoshita, was the first to be killed. The commanding force of the brigade declined accordingly, and almost all the remaining officers and soldiers died in battle.

The Japanese artillery unit next to the crossing point was also defenseless.A part of the artillery was destroyed immediately, and the remaining Japanese artillery had no time to set up the scales, so they were forced to shoot at close range by direct aiming, which barely stabilized their position.

After receiving the front battle report, the No.19 Army headquarters immediately released the news on the "Huaguang Daily" hosted by it.In the past, many so-called good news were mixed with water to varying degrees, but this time even the editor of the newspaper said confidently: "(We) won the battle and will not be wrong. The enemy was still arrogant on the broadcast last night, but Tonight's broadcast didn't mention anything about the situation in Shanggao."

At this time, the Japanese lineup has undergone new changes.On the North Road, on the one hand, the No.30 Third Division was besieged by the Chinese flanking forces in the narrow mountain pass; Waiting for the reason, hastily began to return.Originally, a forward brigade of the division had inserted into the defense line of the 58th Division of the Chinese side and exchanged fire. Now that the large troops retreated, the brigade also left.

The No.30 Third Division disregarded the safety of the other two friendly troops and left the battlefield ahead of time, which solved the threat of one wing for the Chinese No.19 Army, and at the same time exposed the Japanese army's own right back.The No.20 brigade on the South Road made another mistake. They were reluctant to concentrate their forces to fight recklessly, and a brigade had to be divided into several columns to use one after another, resulting in the fragmentation of the whole brigade and very slow progress.

One is missing and the other is not strong, which means that only the No.30 Fourth Division in the middle is going deep alone.Adventure?very risky.But Kamo, head of No.30 Fourth Division, didn't want to stop there.Knowing that he has encountered a strong enemy, it only strengthened his interest in continuing to rush forward.

In offensive warfare, if the old trilogy fails, the Japanese army usually has the most damaging method, which is to release poison gas.

At dawn on March 3, the No.20 Fourth Division of the Japanese Army fired a large number of poison gas bombs at the main position of the 30th Division.Although due to the concentration, not many people died of suffocation on the spot, but they have been greatly affected emotionally.

In addition to carrying out poison gas warfare, the Japanese army also broke the habit of not fighting at night in the past, and launched a large-scale attack before the night had dissipated.Since the No. 30 Army Headquarters had already assigned the No. 11 Brigade to the No. 20 Fourth Division when the No. 30 Third Division returned, a part of the No. 20 Brigade also came from the south to rendezvous. The troops that can be put into attack in the middle road are more abundant. The intelligence personnel of the 74th Army observed at a certain narrow intersection and found that the Japanese troops marching in columns were endless, and they walked for seven hours without seeing their tails.

After dawn, the junction of the 57th Division and the 58th Division was finally broken into by the enemy, and the situation on the battlefield was instantly reversed.Zhang Lingfu realized that the situation was not good, so he hurriedly put the field mending regiment as a reserve team on the front line, and counterattacked the Japanese army swarming up from the gap, which barely blocked the Japanese army's follow-up charge wave.

Even so, the 57th and 58th divisions have gradually struggled in battle because of the wide front and weak forces.In response to the changes in the Japanese army's lineup, especially the No.20 Brigade's shift from offense to defense and reinforcements in the middle, the Chinese No.19 Army Group made new changes to its deployment.

To the south of Shanggao City is the Jinjiang River, and there is a military bridge connecting the north and the south. On March 3, Xue Yue and Luo Zhuoying jointly issued a telegram to the 21th Army: the north bank of the Jinjiang River (that is, the middle road) should take a defensive position to ensure the main high altitude; The retreat of the division.

Wang Yaowu then ordered the 58th Division to take the initiative to retreat and retreat to the northwest line of Shanggao, while the 51st Division, which was originally on standby on the south bank of the Jinjiang River, marched towards Gao'an.

Unexpectedly, the battle situation suddenly deteriorated the next day.The No.30 Fourth Division of the Japanese Army launched continuous fierce attacks on Guanqiao and Sixi, and Sishui Bridge became the key target of the attack.The infantry platoon guarding the bridge suffered heavy casualties. The platoon leader Zhao Xiangqing had three left fingers blown off, and had to be replaced by someone else, but the successor was also killed soon.In the evening of the same day, the Japanese army captured Guanqiao and Sixi.

On the south bank of the Jinjiang River, the No.20 Brigade of the Japanese Army also launched an offensive, and repelled the main force of the 51st Division by copying the tactics of the side.

At this time, the main force of the 51st Division was out of reach, and the 58th Division was assembled in the northwest of Shanggao. If Huayang was defeated, the 57th Division would surely fall into the encirclement of the Japanese army.The situation has become extremely severe. Both Luo Zhuoying's "decisive retreat" and the combat capabilities of the 74th Army are facing serious challenges.

Birds can't fly
The command post of the 74th Army is on the south bank of the Jinjiang River.Chen Yu, chief of staff of the army, had not passed through many battles. Seeing this situation, he urged Wang Yaowu to withdraw from Shanggao, and at the same time called the No.19 Army Headquarters, demanding that he abandon the implementation of the Shanggao defense battle.

Chen Yu had a stubborn personality, and the staff officers of the group army could not persuade him, so they had to report to Luo Zhuoying.Luo Zhuoying ran over to answer the phone after hearing this, and scolded Chen Yu sharply.Afterwards, he was still afraid that Wang Yaowu would waver in his determination, so he sent Lieutenant General Zhang Xiang to the 74th Army, in the name of consolation, but in fact as supervision.

Wang Yaowu knew what Luo Zhuoying was thinking, so he quickly called Luo Zhuoying: "Please trust me, Commander-in-Chief, I can carry out your orders!"

Luo Zhuoying seemed to have taken a reassurance after hearing this.He encouraged Wang Yaowu: "A soldier's career is on the battlefield, and his merits and demerits are also on the battlefield." He also said: "War is the bounden duty of a soldier, and it is especially necessary to win a war."

Knowing that the vast area south of the Jinjiang River was empty, without a single soldier guarding it, Luo Zhuoying temporarily assigned four Jiangxi security regiments to Wang Yaowu for defense.

Although the Jiangxi security regiment has the advantage of being familiar with the local terrain, it has always been stationed in the rear and rarely participates in actual combat on the front line. Moreover, it will take some time for them to reach the front line, so there is no delay.The one sent by Wang Yaowu to urgently assist Huayang was the 51st Division Field Regiment deployed near the military headquarters.

The Yebu regiment ran forward at a speed of fifteen miles per hour, took a shortcut to Huayang within the time limit set by Wang Yaowu and built simple fortifications.The Japanese army also tried to seize Huayang by marching in a hurry to gain the initiative in the battle, but it was four or ten minutes late, so they had to follow behind and miss it.

The No.20 Brigade of the Japanese Army is a mixed infantry and cavalry unit. Under the cover of six bombers, the incoming Japanese army led by five cavalry squadrons, followed by infantry. Yangzhen launched a fierce attack on the forward position.

The south bank of the Jinjiang River is mainly a flat plain with a width of three to four kilometers and a long and narrow field. On both sides are rolling mountains and hills. The situation is dangerous and difficult to attack.The field repair regiment had done terrain reconnaissance in advance, and had already set up a machine gun position at Huayang Peak, which the Japanese army must pass through. The Type [-] heavy machine guns had long been ready for battle.

The Type 74 heavy machine gun used by the Chinese army is imitated from the Maxim machine gun. It has inherited the features of Maxim's stable performance and powerful power, and can continuously fire about [-] rounds of ammunition.Although the Japanese infantry and cavalry came up with thunderous momentum, they failed to seize the commanding heights, resulting in the movement forward being completely exposed to the effective shooting range of the heavy firepower of the [-]th Army, and they could not rush into Huayang Town at all.

In terms of actual combat performance, the [-]-type heavy machine gun surpasses the Japanese [-]-type heavy machine gun in all aspects, but because it is a water-cooled machine gun, it will generate water vapor when shooting, which is easy to expose the target. , infantry artillery can quickly carry out precise strikes on it.Under the wild bombardment of Japanese planes and the fierce bombardment of artillery, dust was flying on Huayang Peak, and the sound of explosions was deafening one after another.

Machine gun platoon leader Zhou Yang was injured in many places, and he still refused to withdraw from the line of fire until he died in battle.When his body was carried down, the military uniform all over his body was stained red with blood.Encouraged by Zhou Yang, none of the machine gun platoons he belonged to wavered or retreated, and most of them died heroically in the end.After the war, the Military Commission specially named the highland where Zhou Yang died in battle as "Zhouyang Mountain".

Persisting until noon, the Japanese army finally couldn't bear it anymore.Due to the exhaustion of fuel and ammunition, the plane disappeared in the sky first, and the infantry and cavalry also froze fiercely, their momentum exhausted, and they all lay dormant on the ground.Upon seeing this, the wild patch group immediately turned from defense to offense and launched a counterattack across the board.The Japanese army was forced to flee to the north, and the Yebu Regiment captured six Japanese soldiers alive in addition to capturing a lot of supplies.

The perseverance of the field repair group bought precious time for the main force of the 51st Division to regain the initiative.In order to be able to conduct effective command, all the commanders of the 51st Division have packed their luggage and put on a shoulder pole. Once needed, they can pick it up and leave at any time.When the battle was at its most intense, the phone at the frontline command post kept ringing. Li Tianxia held the phone in her left hand and pressed the military map on the square table with her right hand, giving orders to the frontline.When he saw local laborers walking into the command post, he didn't put down the phone, but stood up and gave a simple welcome.

The 51st Division desperately resisted the enemy. Although blood and flesh were flying everywhere and suffered heavy casualties, they still did not retreat an inch.Fierce battles destroyed almost all buildings on this battlefield.Liu Duoquan, commander of the Northeast Army who cooperated with the 51st Division to stop the enemy, tried to find a house as a command post but couldn't find it. In the end, the local Jiangxi Defense Regiment gave up a small and dilapidated old house.At the end of the battle, some people walked through the battlefield that had been cleaned. They could not see a living person or a house along the way. All they could see was the corpse of a civilian husband who had been shot dead by the Japanese army and had not yet been buried.That is really the scene described in the Tang Dynasty's "Diao Gu Zhan Wen Wen": "The birds can't fly down, and the beasts perish."

As a result of blood and blood fighting, the 51st Division turned defeat into victory.The plan of the No.20 Brigade of the Japanese Army to encircle Shanggao from the south bank was shattered, and the entire battle situation turned from imbalance to temporary stability again.

In terms of scale, the defense of Huayang and even the battle for the south bank of the Jinjiang River are at best an appetizer, and the defense of Shanggao is the real meal.

Luo Zhuoying made the 74th Army stick to Shanggao, originally to achieve the effect of "magnet warfare", that is, the closer they are drawn, the closer they are, and the closer they are, the tighter they are.This effect was basically achieved. The No.30 30th Division of the Japanese Army only entered Shanggao, but forgot its right back. Due to the premature withdrawal of the No.[-] [-]rd Division, the situation was becoming very dangerous.

Luo Zhuoying observed the entire battlefield situation and believed that the time for encirclement and annihilation in the "decisive retreat" had come, so he ordered the No. 70 Army's Pre-Ninth Division and No. 19 Division, which were tasked with flanking the North Road, to quickly go south.

The Japanese reconnaissance plane could see clearly in the sky, and the third flying regiment under the direct command of its No.11 army headquarters hurriedly reported to the No.30 fourth division.Major General Endo Saburo, the head of the flight regiment, threw the requirements to Dahe from the plane, telling Dahe that he must occupy Shanggao as soon as possible, and that he must return immediately after the occupation, because if there is any further delay, "the enemy army (the Chinese flanking attack under the guideline) troops) would threaten the security of the rear".

In fact, Dahe has already felt this threat. The division command post, field hospital and supply troops of the No.30 Fourth Division were all attacked from the side by the [-]th Army as they moved to the front line.

(End of this chapter)