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

Chapter 30 Man Lives on Hope (Battle of Changde) (4)
As the commander of the army, Heng Shanyong can't just look at the battle of Changde from a tactical perspective. He must also jump out of Changde and see beyond Changde—whether the Wang Yaowu Corps to the west of Changde or the Tenth Army sent by the Ninth War Zone to the south of Changde The army is pushing hard to the central area of ​​Changde.

From a strategic point of view, reinforcing Changde is not the only purpose of the Chinese High Command. It is more likely to achieve the effect of killing two birds with one stone, that is, use the 57th Division to contain and consume the siege troops, and at the same time mobilize the main forces in the west and south of the city. Come to encircle and consume the Japanese army that detoured Changde.

After researching with his staff, Yokoyama decided that in order to eliminate the 57th Division, which has a strong national concept and is well-known in China, it will not only pay several times the price of casualties, but also prolong the combat time and affect the overall strategy. , is a very bad deal.

To put it simply, fish is delicious, but you can't let your throat get stuck because you want to eat fish.Heng Shanyong decided to abandon fish and fish for shrimps, that is, he no longer aimed at completely annihilating the 57th Division, and as long as he occupied Changde City, he would withdraw his troops quickly.

On the same day, Yokoyama issued an order to Yan Yongwang, who was in charge of the siege, to open one side of Changde City so that the Seventh Division could withdraw.According to the order, Yan Yongwang withdrew the Sixth Regiment of the Japanese Third Division, which was attacking the South Gate, to the East Gate, giving up the area around the South Gate.

In the battle on the 28th, in order to cope with the dangerous situation, the 57th Division used up all the shells it had, whether it was artillery or mortars, all shells were used up.A cannon without shells is a pile of scrap iron and is useless. The artillerymen can only remove the breech block, remove the scope, and then disassemble the barrel and mount, and bury them all in the ground.

Yu Chengwan ordered all the artillery, engineering and division personnel in the city to be formed, led by the [-]st Regiment, and replaced with infantry equipment to participate in street fighting.

Without artillery, Yu Chengwan knew how long the street fighting would last. On November 11, he sent the last telegram to the Sixth War Zone: "The ammunition is exhausted, the aid is exhausted, and the city is broken. The deputy commander, commander, division attache, director of the political department, director of the staff department, etc., stick to the central The bank, each group leader divides the area, guards a room, makes the last resistance, swears to the death, and wishes victory. No.29 Long live the Fourth Army, long live the Generalissimo Jiang, long live the Republic of China.”

every day is hard

After the telegram was sent, Yu Chengwan and the former chief of staff Chen Huoyun, who served as acting deputy division commander, and others inspected several street fighting strongholds, and gave lectures to more than 100 officers and soldiers who were rushing to repair fortifications nearby.Yu Chengwan hadn't slept well for several days and nights, his eyes were red, and his whole body was covered with plaster, but the teacher wearing white gloves still looked energetic.He impassionedly said to the officers and soldiers: "Although we have suffered heavy casualties now, the casualties of the Japanese devils are even greater. I hope that all officers and soldiers will continue to fight and fight to the end to defend Changde with the Japanese devils. If you fail, you will be benevolent. You should not be subjugated slaves!"

The short speech inspired everyone's fighting spirit.Yu Chengwan ordered to set up a bunker at the entrance of each street, and at the same time open up the houses in the urban area.

In an emergency, all kinds of bags from nearby stores were taken out, filled with soil and piled up as bunkers. Even a large chopping board from a nearby pastry factory was carried over to build a machine gun bunker.

During the whole morning, the officers and soldiers opened up houses in various streets, including the division command post of the 57th Division in the Central Bank of Xingjiekou. The windows and doors were all covered with sandbags, and the things in the houses, even the corpses of Japanese soldiers, were used as street fighting bunkers.

The Kurose troops received an order: "burn down the streets of Changde, and quickly achieve results." The Japanese army began to set fire to the houses, but almost all the houses in the city were built with solid brick walls or earthen walls. The fire could not spread, and the two sides could only go house by house. scramble.

The 57th Division shouted the slogan of "one wall guards one wall, one trench guards another trench, and one pit guards one pit", turning every house, every street, and every pile of ruins into a battlefield for killing the enemy. .Every step forward, the Japanese army has to pay the price of blood.

On the afternoon of the 29th, Kurose troops entered Baijiekou.Li Chaoban of the [-]st Regiment fought hand-to-hand with five or six enemies. They first stabbed each other in the street, and then they fought all the way to the nearby dyeing and weaving factory.The white-blade stabbing requires high body, eye and footwork. Li Chao's left eye was injured and it was inconvenient to observe. As a result, he was stabbed in the thigh by a devil rushing from the left.Fortunately, his comrade-in-arms had sharp eyesight and quick hands, and quickly shot and killed the devil.

Li Chaoban completely wiped out the enemy.At this time, the messenger sent Yu Chengwan's order: "The commander ordered all officers and soldiers not to run away in battle, and vowed to die not to be a subjugated slave. If you fail, you will be benevolent."

Because Li Chao was bleeding profusely from his legs, he was taken to a private house in Baijiekou to be bandaged.After dark, together with more than 30 other wounded, they were transferred by stretchers to a safe place outside the city.This shows that the 57th Division can retreat under the situation of Yong Shanyong's "surrounding three queues and one", so Yu Chengwan specially issued another order "no escape".

During the day, the cloth troops broke into the city along the gap in the city wall that was blasted at the east gate, and advanced in a dense fan formation.After the Japanese army entered the effective range of the machine gun, the defenders fired a gust of wind and rain, knocking down a large area of ​​the enemy rushing in front, and the rest of the enemy quickly lay down and scattered.

The most effective method used by the Japanese army to deal with machine gun bunkers is undoubtedly the infantry flat-firing gun.Under the fierce bombardment of flat-fired artillery, the defenders' machine gun bunkers were severely damaged, and the firepower of the machine guns was also suppressed.The Japanese soldiers who had been scattered and lying down took advantage of the situation and jumped up, rushing towards the defenders.

In addition to carrying out a frontal attack on the main position of the defenders, the enemy also sent out some troops to detour from the flanks. As the distance between the two sides continued to narrow, bullets fell like raindrops into the communication trenches and foxholes.

In close combat, what the Chinese army really relies on to destroy the enemy are mortar shells and grenades. Especially in street fighting, if you can grasp the timing of throwing grenades, you can maximize their power.Seeing that the Japanese army was getting closer and closer, the commander gave an order to "drop bombs", and the grenades were thrown at the enemy group one by one, blowing up the enemy's flesh and blood.

Taking advantage of the smoke and dust from the explosion of the grenade and the instant panic of the enemy, the soldiers quickly jumped out of the fortifications and transferred to the second-line reserve position.The second-line position is a few two-story houses not far from the main position that have not been completely destroyed. After the defenders occupied the second floor, they shot down at the enemy from a high position, blocking the traffic arteries leading to the city center.

In addition to the east gate being invaded by the Japanese army, Heer troops also broke into Xiaoximen at night (the defensive position of the west gate is divided into Xiaoximen and Daximen), but the 57th Division still defended calmly, causing heavy casualties to the Japanese army.

On the outskirts of Changde, the 51st and 58th Divisions launched a fierce attack on the enemy, and fought fiercely until dawn on the 30th, completely occupying the two key points of Huangshi City and Qijiahe.On the same day, the Third Division of the Tenth Army attacked the headquarters of the No. 60 Eighth Division of the Japanese Army and its rear hospital, and captured Tokuyama in the evening.

Deshan and Changde City are separated by a river, only a few miles away, and the 57th Division in the city refuses to abandon Changde to break through, which makes the Japanese No. 11 Army Headquarters very disturbed.On the one hand, Heng Shanyong strictly ordered the No. 13 Division, the Third Division, and the No. 60 Eighth Division to stick to the key areas to prevent the surrounding reinforcements from forming a siege or direct reinforcements. On the other hand, he urged the [-]th Division to step up the siege and occupy Changde as soon as possible. .

On the evening of November 11th, Yan Yongwang, head of the 30th Division of the Japanese Army, moved the combat command office to Changde City. Give me more strength and push forward, maybe the defenders will withdraw.

Due to fewer and fewer combat-ready soldiers, the 57th Division also began to tighten its positions to save troops.The officers and soldiers took advantage of the complex terrain composed of ruined walls and piles of rubble, shot here and there, and threw a grenade from time to time, using this way of hitting east and west to make the enemy dizzy.

For all those who choose to persevere, every day spent in the city is difficult, but at the same time, it also breeds the hope of breaking out and being rescued.They ate fried rice when they were hungry, and drank cold water when they were thirsty. Occasionally, someone found a pack of pastries from the pastry shop, which would make each other laugh with joy.

last effort

On December 12, the street fighting entered the decisive stage.The enemy and us are bounded by East-West Zhijie Street, the 1th Division occupies the southern half of the city, and the 57th Division occupies the northern half of the city.

When the distance was quite close, the Japanese army fired incendiary bombs into the civilian houses guarded by the defenders with flat-fire guns.Due to the long drought, the wood inside the house was very dry, and it was instantly ignited by the incendiary bombs, and the flames blazed instantly, and some officers and soldiers who had no time to move from the house were buried in the flames.

Flames fluttered with the wind, and other houses more than ten meters apart did not ignite spontaneously. Soon, nine out of ten houses in the city were in ruins, and the defenders lost their barriers and support.The smog that permeated everywhere and the extremely low visibility also provided cover for the actions of the Japanese army. They formed groups of three and four and began to search and capture the officers and soldiers of the 57th Division from house to house.

The defensive area of ​​the defenders shrank sharply, and the remaining troops could only rely on a few dilapidated bunkers to support them.What's more serious is that the continuous bombardment and poison gas by the Japanese army destroyed the water source in the city. Gradually, everyone couldn't even drink cold water.

The soldiers dug the ground, trying to find a new water source, but there was no drop of water three feet deep.A person can survive without food for a while, but not without water.Especially in fierce battles, people forget about hunger and sleep, don't want to eat, just want to drink water.

The fear of water cutoff was just an imagination in the past, but now it has become a reality test.First, the mouth was dry, the lip skin was cracked, and then the eyes were dizzy, the chest was stuffy, and the whole body was weak, as if he had a serious illness and was on the verge of death.On the defensive position, there were constant groans for a while, and some people could only drink their own urine to quench their thirst as a last resort.

Although the Tianwang Yaowu Corps moved forward against all odds, its back was restrained by the No.13 Division of the Japanese Army and had to retreat.The situation of the Third Division of the Tenth Army was even more embarrassing. His Seventh Regiment had already rushed to the South Bus Station in Changde at night. , No one came down.

Some people think that the reinforcements are unwilling to cross the river to the city to take risks, so they pretend to only send out signals to indicate that the reinforcements have arrived.In fact it was wrong to blame the reinforcements.The Seventh Regiment could see a sea of ​​flames in the city and heard the rumble of guns, but because they had no boats, they could not cross the Yuan River to join the defenders.

While the Seventh Regiment was trying to find a ship, the No. 60 Eighth Division of the Japanese Army surrounded them from all sides.The Seventh Regiment failed to provide reinforcements, but fell into a siege. After a heroic resistance, only a few people broke through and retreated back to Tokuyama.

The Ninth Regiment who stayed behind at Tokuyama was soon besieged by the Japanese army.The Tenth Army also had two other divisions, but these two divisions were blocked and blocked by the Japanese army during the process of pushing forward side by side, so they were too busy to take care of themselves and could not reinforce Tokuyama.Among them, the Preparatory Tenth Division suffered heavy casualties. The division was ambushed by the Japanese Third Division. The division commander, General Sun Mingjin, was killed in battle, and the entire division command was almost wiped out.

On December 12, the defenders in the city were divided and surrounded. The troops could no longer maintain their organizational system and could only fight on their own.The two sides fought hand in hand, so that when the Chinese bomber fleet flew over Changde City, they were unable to drop bombs because the distance between the enemy and us was too close and difficult to distinguish.

In the afternoon, the Japanese army broke through the Daximen defense line.So far, the 57th Division only has a small position from the Central Bank of Xingjiekou to Bijia City.The Japanese army also suffered heavy casualties. Major Kaneo Suzuki, the acting regiment commander of the cloth army, was shot through the lower right abdomen by a bullet and was sent off the line of fire due to serious injuries.

Counting from the Japanese bombing of Germany on November 11, this historic city, known as the "Important Town in Western Hunan", has experienced 20 days and nights of devastation, and has long been in ruins.Among the ruins, the corpses of the officers and soldiers of the 12th Division wearing the "Tiger Ben" armband were mixed with the corpses of the Japanese soldiers, and they fell to the ground in disorder, creating a tragic scene of blood flowing into rivers and piles of corpses like mountains.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, there was a dull and intensive artillery sound from far and near in the direction of Deshan. Some people said that reinforcements from the friendly army were approaching Changde City.Everyone was refreshed and prepared to cooperate with the reinforcements to attack, but when it was almost dusk, the sound of the artillery gradually faded away.

The sound of artillery was the last effort made by the Ninth Regiment of the Third Division.The next day, under the onslaught of the No. 60 Eighth Division of the Japanese Army, most of the regiment was killed from the commander down, and the hope of the 57th Division to receive reinforcements from the south ended.

Instead, the Gap Detachment composed of the 51st Division in the west sent people into Changde City and got in touch with the 57th Division-unfortunately, there were only dozens of plainclothes death squads, which could not alleviate the situation at all.

On December 12, at two o'clock in the morning, Jin Dingzhou, the artillery regiment commander, suddenly received a call from the division command post, saying that Yu Chengwan was holding an emergency meeting in a private house in Bijia Mountain and asked him to attend it as soon as possible.

It was dark and drizzling, and it was impossible to see anything around.Jin Dingzhou took his adjutant with him and quietly went to the meeting place along the path of Bijia Mountain.On the way, we had to pass through the Temple of Confucius, where the rest of the [-]th regiment was still fighting fiercely with the enemy.

Several regiment leaders of the 57th Division were summoned.When Jin Dingzhou entered the back room for a meeting, the adjutant waited in the main room with several guards.

After waiting anxiously for more than half an hour, a burst of violent gunfire was heard outside, and the sentry told everyone that the Temple of Confucius had fallen.At this time, the meeting was also over. Yu Chengwan walked out from the back room first, followed by the team leaders.

The result of the meeting: breakout!
(End of this chapter)