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

Chapter 29 Man Lives on Hope (Battle of Changde) (3)
Despite this, the Japanese Third Division still managed to form a commando with motorboats and wooden boats, planning to forcefully cross the Yuanjiang River.After arranging crossing points and ferry boats one by one, the captain of the sixth regiment, Mamoru Nakahata, rushed to the riverside to conduct reconnaissance on the river defense facilities of the 57th Division.Looking across the river, the deer village and barbed wire fence on the north bank are vividly visible.A gray city wall made of bricks and stones, seven to ten meters high, stood majestically. A series of positions were built on the city wall, all of which were equipped with machine guns.Near the south gate and watchtower, there is also a mountain cannon, which is obviously a very strong defense system.

Nakahata and the others were lamenting how difficult it would be to cross over by force, but the other side had seen their whereabouts in full view.

The 57th Division started shooting immediately, and Captain Yoba Ichirozaemon, the third captain who accompanied Nakahata's reconnaissance, was the first to be unlucky, and his wrist was hit by a bullet.

Seeing that the situation is not good, Nakahata hurriedly let go of his feet and led everyone to escape to the headquarters of the alliance.At this time, the 57th Division had notified the Sino-US joint air force of the situation by wireless phone.The group of fighter jets circling in the sky tracked and pursued them, and two of the P-40 Tomahawk fighter jets fired violently at Nakahata, who was an obvious target, and included the commander in the death list.

Nakahata's command style is known for being decisive and sharp. He also participated in the invasion of Southeast Asia and enjoyed a certain reputation and prestige among the troops.After he was shot dead, in order not to shake the morale of the army, the relevant information did not dare to be released immediately.

In just two days, two regiment captains were killed one after another, which was extremely rare in the Japanese invasion of China.As a measure of retaliation and fire reconnaissance, at noon, the Japanese army bombarded Changde's outlying strongholds and even the positions in the city with powerful artillery fire. Many positions were destroyed as a result.

At midnight on November 11, the Japanese army began its general offensive.The 25rd Division first let the empty boat drift down the Yuan River. There were straw figures on the side of the boat, and there were faint lights in the cabin, in order to lure the defenders to shoot and see the reality of the defensive position.

Through this "straw boat borrowing arrows" gimmick, the Japanese army was able to further grasp the basic firepower configuration inside the South Gate, and then covered the exposed firepower points with wild artillery.Under the cover of artillery fire, the soldiers of the Sixth Wing of the Japanese Army boarded the self-made bamboo rafts and the stolen civilian boats, and quickly rowed to the opposite bank.

The field artillery support lasted for 1 minute, and the defenders seemed to be completely suppressed by the Japanese artillery fire. At first, no bullets were fired.Just when the Japanese ships reached the middle of the Yuanjiang River, the mortar battalion located in the reconnaissance position in the city suddenly opened fire, and the mortar shells exploded one by one in the Japanese fleet.The Japanese army was blown upside down, and the corpses, military flags, and personal equipment of the soldiers floated up and down on the Yuanjiang River, drifting with the waves, and the ships returning to the south bank also brought back many dead and injured.

Half an hour later, the vanguard of the Japanese army just landed and fired blue signal flares into the sky.It should be said that for this forced crossing operation, the Sixth Wing has worked hard from top to bottom. The troops are all lightly dressed, and all officers from non-commissioned officers to officers wear rubber shoes. The squad leader hangs a white cloth belt obliquely, and the squadron leader hangs two white cloth belts diagonally.

But expectations and reality are often not the same thing.When reconnaissance across the shore during the day, it seems that everything can be seen clearly, but at night, it is difficult to even distinguish the direction of action, let alone assemble an attack.After one night, the Japanese attack on the south gate not only made no progress, but also suffered a lot of casualties. A group of officers and soldiers, including Masahiro Muto, the squadron leader of the Tenth Squadron, were killed under the city.

"Unfortunate" battle
There was a momentary silence on the battlefield again.At dawn, Tian Shaoyou, the artillery platoon leader, walked out of the shelter and went to the observation post on the city wall to observe the enemy's situation.As soon as he adjusted the focal length of the cannon to the mirror, he began to turn the lens to observe. The Japanese sniper aimed at him. With a "snap", a bullet went straight through Tian Shaoyou's head.

Tian Shaoyou was shot and died, which was the prelude to another Japanese attack.Following the South Gate, the three suburban strongholds in the east, west, and north have also withstood tests to varying degrees.The two sides fought fiercely all day long, and both suffered heavy casualties.After the death of the commander of the cloth army, the third captain, Shimamura Changping, was killed. At the same time, the battalion commander Guo Jiazhang of the [-]th Regiment and Deng Hongjun, the battalion commander of the [-]th Regiment of the Chinese side, died in the battle.

What Yu Chengwan adopted in Changde was a tactic similar to that of the Stalingrad Defense War, that is, to resist layer by layer in the ruins and fortify step by step.Seeing that the strongholds in the suburbs were difficult to defend, the main force of the 57th Division retreated actively, and burned down some houses in the suburbs before retreating, using fireworks to prevent the enemy from pursuing.

As night fell, the 57th Division had retreated to the core position of the city wall. The Japanese Third Division, No.40 Division, No.60 Eighth Division, and the [-]th Division also followed closely to the vicinity of the city gate, Actively look for opportunities to enter the city.

During the gradual fall of the outer positions, Yue Qilin and other county government staff and some people who could not escape were captured or killed one after another.Seeing these situations, Yu Chengwan repeatedly persuaded Dai Jiufeng, the magistrate of Changde County: "Your broken guns and the police are of no use in defending the city. Why bother to stay in the city and make unnecessary sacrifices? It is better to cross the Yuanjiang River in the middle of the night to break through the encirclement." go out."

Under Yu Chengwan's persuasion, Dai Jiufeng led the police across the Yuan River and retreated.Unexpectedly, they encountered the Japanese army on the way. Dozens of policemen fought hard and died. Dai Jiufeng only escaped with his body. Afterwards, he was highly praised by Wang Yaowu and was transferred to the 74th Army.

The soldiers who remained in the city continued to fight.Their hearts are still full of hope, because everyone knows that the 74th Army brothers and divisions on the south bank are desperately attacking north to cope with the city defense battle, and the troops from the Sixth and Ninth War Zones on the West Road, North Road, and South Road are also moving closer to Changde.In addition, the planes of the Sino-US joint air force began to drop ammunition, food, medicine and other materials into the city. Although the materials dropped were limited, many of them were thrown into the river by mistake, but some urgent needs of the defenders were relieved to some extent.

The 57th Division is about to engage in a battle that the Japanese call "a miserable battle."Since a considerable part of the force had to be spared to block the Chinese reinforcements around Changde, except for the [-]th Division of the Japanese Army, which could go all out, the rest of the Japanese divisions could only participate in the siege in the form of a brigade. Therefore, after entering the siege stage, Hengshan Yong still appointed Yan Yongwang, head of the [-]th Division, as the siege commander to conduct unified command and dispatch of the siege operations.

The three main regiments of the 11th Division of the Japanese Army were named after the former captain, namely the Fushang Troop (26th Troop), the Heer Troop (60th Troop) and the Kurose Troop ([-]st [-]rd Regiment). On November [-], Iwanaga Wang transferred the main force of the cloth army attacking the North Gate to the East Gate, and cooperated with an infantry brigade of the No.[-] Eighth Division to attack the East Gate.

The defenders planted many landmines on the road leading to the east gate, and at the same time relied on civilian houses to fight tenaciously.The closer the Japanese army got to the city wall, the more intense the defenders' resistance was. As a result, they didn't dare to walk at all, and could only advance house by house by destroying houses.In this way, when the clothed troops reached a place about 100 meters away from the east gate wall, they could no longer move.

On that day, Iwanaga Wang sent Heer's troops to the west gate and Kurose's troops to the north gate to attack the city respectively.The north gate was originally within the attack range of the cloth troops. After the main force was transferred to the east gate, there was still a brigade left to attack on the spot. From time to time, mortars were used to bombard houses outside the city."

Three begs are worse than one steal, so the captain of the [-]st, [-]rd and [-]rd Regiment Heisei Isao decided to use the regiment's artillery as a cover to launch a night attack on the north gate.At that time, it was rumored that Heer's troops had broken into the west gate. Kurose estimated that the resistance of the defenders at the north gate would also be weakened, and there was no reason why the night attack would not be successful.

At [-] o'clock in the evening, the Kurose troops entered the assault preparation position, and the regiment artillery, which had been pushed close to the outer trench, shelled the defenders' positions in the outer trench in advance through the houses.To Kurose's surprise, the defenders were still strong in defense, and the firepower of the mortars was not even much worse than that of his regiment artillery. The Japanese soldiers who tried to rush to the bridge of the city gate suffered heavy casualties, and the night attack ended in failure. .

The tenacity of the north gate defenders showed that they were not restrained or influenced by the Japanese troops from other directions.Kurose had to doubt the authenticity of Heer's troops breaking into the west gate. He wanted to surprise Iwanaga Wang, but at this time he couldn't care less.

I made a call to the command post of the division and regiment, and the answer there was very straightforward: the so-called occupation of Ximen is purely a false report!

Achilles' heel
On November 11th, at 27:57 pm, Company Commander Wang Jianqiang of the [-]st Regiment of the [-]th Division inspected the South Gate position.At the end of the inspection, when he returned to the command post, he suddenly felt a strong vibration, and then heard the sound of dense guns.It turned out that the Japanese army was using the Type [-] infantry artillery to shoot destructively at the light machine gun bunkers on the defensive position.

The Type [-] infantry artillery was called the "Big Group Artillery" by the Japanese army.It is small in size, flexible and convenient to move, and can be directly used to destroy bunkers and firepower points that hinder the advancement of infantry.At the same time, there was the whistle of light and heavy machine gun bullets, which were mixed with a large number of red, green and blue tracer bullets.In the dark, tracer bullets flicker and flicker, and after being stimulated, people's eyes can't see anything clearly, and it is difficult to find the enemy.For insufficiently trained supplementary recruits, it can pose no small psychological threat.

Wang Jianqiang realized that the enemy was "building the plank road openly and keeping the warehouse in the dark", the fire attack was fake, and the sneak attack on the south gate was real.Sure enough, someone came to report that Japanese soldiers were climbing the city wall with long ladders.

Wang Jianqiang immediately led four veterans to the top of the city.At this time, the Japanese army also just infiltrated, and the two Japanese soldiers who climbed up met Wang Jianqiang on a narrow road, and both sides fired at the same time.Although Wang Jianqiang knocked the opponent down with a pistol first, he was also shot in his left leg and fell to the ground immediately.

Immediately afterwards, another four or five Japanese soldiers rushed towards him.The pistol was empty, and it was too late to change the bullets. In desperation, Wang Jianqiang rolled down from the top of the city recklessly.

This is a last resort choice, but fortunately there is no fall.The shot leg was still bleeding, but at the time it was impossible to bandage it, so Wang Jianqiang took off the leggings himself, tied the thigh tightly to stop the bleeding, and then directed the whole company to continue blocking the attack.

Du Ding, head of the 80.00st Regiment, arrived after hearing the news. Together with the company commanders, he organized troops to surround the enemy from three sides of the city, and finally wiped out all the Japanese troops who had sneaked into the city.In this battle, the [-]st regiment suffered a lot of losses, and the casualty rate of Wang Jianqiang's company alone was as high as [-]%.

That night, Heer's troops also carried out a sneak attack at the west gate, but it was a pity that they lost troops and lost generals. Except for the death of Captain Ge Yekuang of the third brigade, all the officers of the squadron belonging to the brigade were either killed or injured.

When the Japanese army's siege of Changde City was almost at a stalemate, Kurose finally discovered the biggest weak link in the city defense after many investigations.

Before the war, in order to clear the shooting area, the 57th Division demolished tens of thousands of private houses outside the city. However, because they had to rely on private houses for layer-by-layer defense, the private houses were not completely demolished.When the strongholds on the outskirts of the city were abandoned, these houses were about to be burned down, but the walls in the northwest of the city, especially some houses, were not completely destroyed, which allowed the Japanese army to use the walls as a cover to approach the outer trench relatively easily.

On the other hand, due to over-reliance and belief in the hindering effect of the outer trenches, the troops defending the northwest of the city focused on the defense near the city gate, while ignoring the defense of the outer trenches farther from the city gate.

There is no doubt that this is the "Achilles heel" of Changde City Defense.As if he had found a treasure, Kurose hurriedly reported to the head of the division, Yan Yongwang, and at the same time suggested that the attack of the [-]th Division should be focused on the northwest corner of Changde City.Iyanaga Wang adopted his suggestion, and then assigned the regiment artillery (that is, the mountain artillery) and the rapid-fire artillery (that is, the infantry artillery) to the Kurose troops.

Kurose's troops suddenly gathered in the northwest of the city, and did not say hello to the aviation soldiers. As a result, the Japanese plane mistook them for the Chinese army and threw a bunch of bombs down.Before Kurose's troops attacked, there were a large number of casualties. They were in chaos for a while, and finally calmed down.

Bad luck is bad luck, but the attack point that Kurose found is obviously appropriate. At dawn on November 11, the regiment artillery and rapid-fire artillery fired at the firepower points of the defenders at the shortest distance, destroying the bunkers one by one, and most of the soldiers in the bunkers were buried.

According to the guidance of the signal flare, the destructive shooting of the artillery fire was immediately converted into supporting shooting, and the Japanese army began to forcibly cross the outer trench, which is the moat.

The moat is 15 to 20 meters wide and cannot be waded in vain.The Kurose troops first used rubber boats and civilian boats looted nearby to carry out a forced crossing. After crossing the outer trench, they immediately attacked the defenders' positions in a dense formation.

At this time the defenders had suffered heavy casualties.In the squad of the [-]st Regiment Li Chao belonged to, seven people including the squad leader were killed in battle, and the fortifications were also greatly damaged.Li Chao was appointed as the acting squad leader. His left eye was wounded by a bullet casing and blood flowed out, but he still fought bloody battles with other brothers and repelled the enemy's charge again and again.

The deputy of the [-]st regiment came to the front to supervise the battle. Seeing that the Japanese offensive was getting more and more fierce, and most of the defensive positions on the city wall were destroyed, it was difficult to hold on, so he ordered the troops to withdraw into the city and prepare for street fighting.

At eleven o'clock in the morning on November 11, the Kurose troops finally broke into the city from the north gate after paying a heavy price of casualties.The Kurose Troop was commended for this and was awarded a certificate of merit by the No.28 Army Headquarters of the Japanese Army.

Abandoned Fish and Shrimp
In most siege battles, the defenders will try their best to defend in the early stage. Once the city is broken, their defensive will will collapse immediately.However, the 57th Division did not suffer a fundamental impact from the breakthrough of the city defense in the northwest corner. The defenders at the north gate seemed to have just changed their combat positions and retreated to the city to defend.

On the road leading to the city, there are defensive bunkers everywhere. The 57th Division resisted tenaciously with the help of the bunkers. At the same time, the Chinese and American United Air Forces also fired from the air. It was difficult for the Kurose troops to make progress once they entered, so they had to avoid the road as much as possible. Advance through the houses.

Of course, the private houses in Changde City were not used to make bulletproof vests for the Japanese army.The tenth army's effective fortification construction method in the third battle of Changsha was successfully used again in Changde. Kurose's troops suffered heavy casualties in succession, and the progress was extremely difficult.

At the east and west gates, the defenders still did not retreat a single step.As Yu Chengwan said in the circular, "No matter how much pressure the enemy puts on us, our answer is blood, death, and glory."The battalion of the [-]th Regiment in charge of guarding the east gate had less than one squad left, and the company and platoon leaders at the west gate were all dead, so all the troops filled up all the personnel that could be filled. The adjutants, quartermasters, military doctors, clerks and miscellaneous soldiers all went into battle with guns.

As early as the 27th, the 57th Division had consumed 80.00% of the five ammunition.When the supply line was cut off and the bullets were insufficient, the officers and soldiers used grenades, bayonets, butts, and even stones and city bricks as weapons to knock down the Japanese troops on the long ladder from the top of the city.Mortar artillerymen were ordered to block the breach with artillery fire and at the same time cut off the influx of Japanese follow-up troops.

Under the bombardment of the Japanese infantry artillery, there was a gap in the east gate city wall, and the Japanese army rushed into the gap.At the critical moment, the mortar soldiers didn't even have time to build a base plate position, so they opened fire at the enemy by direct aiming.

With choking smoke, the shells flew towards the gap in the city wall, one after another, the speed and density continued to increase, making it impossible for the Japanese army to enter.

The only place where a fierce battle did not break out was Nanmen, because Yokoyama made a new decision.

When the Japanese military history described the situation of the various ministries attacking Changde, they repeatedly lamented that they encountered "unexpected and tenacious resistance" and "the enemy's resistance in street fighting in the city was extremely tenacious".The No. 11 Army Command of the Japanese Army at that time was also very surprised by this. Isamu Yokoyama judged that the 57th Division was so tenacious, probably because it was forced too hastily.Think about it, the surroundings of the house are completely surrounded by you, and there is no way out, so why don't you play with your life?
(End of this chapter)