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

Chapter 37 Fighting with fate to the end (Battle of Xiangxi) (3)
To occupy Longtan, one must first completely control Yingxing Mountain and Niuxing Mountain.These two highlands are in a state of stalemate between the two armies. Among them, Niuxing Mountain is also known as "Songshan Highland" in the history of warfare because of the towering ancient pines and roaring forest waves. Occupy this high ground.

The next day, with the support of artillery, the 51st Division repelled the Japanese attack, and then launched a counterattack on the Songshan Highland.During the supplementary training phase, the 51st Division added many young soldiers under the age of 20.Due to the short training time, these soldiers still lack combat experience and skills, so the tactics designed around them focus on effective grenade warfare.

This kind of grenade warfare can be skillfully used in positional counterattacks.In Charge, a three-man grenade-throwing squad charged recklessly, throwing grenades from the mountainside to the summit as they charged.

In order to regain their positions, the assault troops often organized and launched two or more wave-shaped counterattacks. Some people set fire on the mountainside and attacked the top of the mountain.

In the process of defense, the fortifications of Niuxingshan were continuously strengthened. The wood, door panels, furniture, cotton wool, and mosquito nets in the nearby villages became the materials for the construction of the fortifications. boulder pile.

The terrain around the boulder pile is open, and the hostile parties on both sides dare not leave the boulder easily or show their heads rashly, lest they accidentally become the target of a gun.So the two armies started a hand-to-hand bloody battle around this natural fortification, first throwing grenades at each other, and then fighting with each other.

Blind man
In the villages at the foot of Niuxing Mountain, except for a few migrant workers, most of the villagers have "run away", that is, they have been evacuated. Only some old and weak or women stayed at home and could help the defenders buy food.

One day, three soldiers of the 51st Division caught some grass carp from the fish pond and asked the villagers to cook fish soup for them. But before the grass carp was put into the pot, the three soldiers received an urgent order to go to the front line to fight .

The folks cooked a big pot of fragrant fish soup, but no one was seen withdrawing from the front line until dark.The next day, a few bloody soldiers finally withdrew from the Niuxing Mountain, but they were not the three who had caught the fish.

Seeing the villagers asking and the soldiers crying loudly, they said that they were the only ones who could walk off the battlefield in good condition...

The 51st Division regained control of the Songshan Highlands. During close combat, the division killed a Japanese squadron and suffered heavy casualties.On the mountain ridge, the gaps between the boulders were filled with the wooden handles of the grenades, and the bloody corpses of the soldiers were intertwined, which was too horrible to look at.

As of April 4, the 25st Division of the No.70 Fourth Army and the 51th Army attacked one after another, encircling the main force of the [-]th Regiment of the Japanese Army in the mountains east of Kyu-dong.

The Japanese army fought without a rear, and the food they brought was very limited.At first, they thought they could win the battle as quickly as before, so they ruined the grain and livestock of the people along the way, or burned them, or poured them into the gully.For the plundered cattle, they only ate the thigh meat, and the slaughtered pigs only took a small amount of lean meat.

At this time, the transportation and supply lines of the [-]th Regiment of the Japanese Army were cut off, and many troops soon fell into a state of starvation.When eating, the soldiers gathered and stood in a row, and the officer took out a small bag of fried rice and distributed a handful to each soldier.The soldiers took the fried rice and swallowed it with mountain spring water.

I brought a lot of ammunition, but it was more expensive, and finally I was forced to implement a quota supply, and the ammunition had to be handed over and sent to a temporary arsenal for reprocessing.

Seeing that the [-]th Regiment was surrounded, Division Commander Hishida ordered them to secure their existing positions and prepare for the offensive, and at the same time decided to transfer an infantry brigade and artillery squadron from the [-]rd Regiment to help.

According to Hishida's vision, after such an adjustment, the siege of the [-]th Regiment of the Japanese Army can be quickly resolved, and the main force of the Chinese army can be contained. More importantly, the division can still attack Zhijiang according to the original plan. Passive is an active strategy that kills multiple birds with one stone.

When the order was received, the Japanese 70st, 57rd Regiment's attack on Shanmen Town had just ended.The mountain gate is located in the south of Guidong. The defender here is only a battalion of the 500th Regiment of the 100th Division of the No. [-] Fourth Army.The two sides fought fiercely for three days and nights, and more than [-] Japanese soldiers were killed and injured. The battalion also suffered heavy casualties. However, until the Japanese army rushed into the town, the remaining more than [-] people still fought with the Japanese army for three days.

After capturing the mountain gate, the [-]st, [-]rd Regiment of the Japanese Army sent a rescue brigade reorganized with infantry to attack Longtan Town according to the order of the division.

In the Battle of Xiangxi, the Japanese army not only lost its air supremacy, but also the army's reconnaissance and communication methods also failed.A very obvious feature is that the Japanese army behaved clumsily during the battle. Compared with the previous nimble and agile skills, it was a completely different army.

In the past, when the Chinese army encountered the Japanese army on the battlefield, they tried their best to conceal their bodies. Even if they watched the Japanese army's movements, they had to be extremely careful. If anyone accidentally exposed the target, they would be attacked by Japanese artillery and aircraft.Now it's the other way around. The Chinese commanders can calmly observe the terrain and the enemy's situation on the front line, but the Japanese still only dare to poke their heads and look around at a distance of 800 meters. The forest hides.

It was precisely because the headquarters of the Fourth Front Army had a clear view of the situation on the front line, while the Japanese army was like a blind man trying to figure out an elephant. His plan was passive at every step: the rescue brigade was blocked by the 57th Division and other troops round after round along the way, and its progress was very slow.

The three magic weapons that the Japanese army relied on on the Chinese battlefield-aircraft, heavy artillery, and tanks (or cavalry) have now lost their effectiveness one by one.That's all. In order to prepare for this mountain battle, the Japanese army brought a lot of pack horses and iron furnaces for horseshoes. These stoves can be used with motors. to replace.

But it was the pack horses that went wrong.They are all improved horse breeds, tall and strong, suitable for fighting on the plains, but they are difficult to move in the mountains, especially after being attacked by a small group of Chinese troops, the horses can't look at each other from head to tail, and there is chaos, blocking the way for the infantry to advance up.

What made the rescue team suffer a lot was the rugged and treacherous terrain of Xuefeng Mountain. Basically, the further they went, the higher the mountain and the deeper the valley.Wherever you want to pass, the roads that can be used by people and horses to march are less than one meter wide, and most of the dangerous places have been destroyed. If you want to continue to pass, you can only saw down trees and rocks to pave the way.

squall
On April 4, the Japanese rescue team entered Laoaitang, about ten kilometers away from Guidong.Discovering that there was an interception before, the brigade decided to carry out a night attack that night. If the night attack was successful, it would be able to reach the vicinity of Longtan Town on the 26th.

The night attack was considered a success, but when they passed by the west side of Laoaitang, they were intercepted by a larger number of Chinese defenders.The rescue brigade tried their best to attack, but there was still no progress until the 30th. What made them even more horrified was that the defenders on the opposite side were still increasing.

During this period, the 51st Division and the [-]th Army continued to attack the [-]th Regiment of the Japanese Army.The Chinese and American air forces also continued to assist in the battle, repeatedly carrying out strafing bombing against the Japanese army.

At the beginning of the battle, due to the complex terrain in the Xuefeng mountain area and the cunning of the Japanese army, they had already taken cover when the Chinese and American fighter planes reached their positions. An infantry company's position was destroyed by its own aircraft.

In order to solve this problem, Wei Demai sent an air signal liaison team to the various military divisions on the front line.The first-line troops made arrow-shaped red and white cloth, spread it on the ground, and then asked the liaison officer to use a wireless telephone to notify the combat command room or pilots at the airport, telling them how many meters in front of the signal arrow was the Japanese position, which greatly improved the situation. Increased the hit rate of aircraft bombing.

If the Japanese army is hiding, the front-line troops must take other more measures, such as sending plainclothes liaison officers to lurk in the forest or on the top of the mountain, and use reflectors to give instructions; another example is to organize reconnaissance squads, deploy them around the Japanese army assembly area, and release wolf smoke .

The liaison team of the 51st Division has one US officer, two non-commissioned officers, and several soldiers. They follow the Chinese commander at all times, and instruct the pilots to shoot and bomb targets according to the needs of the front-line troops.

The napalm bombs dropped by the planes ignited the trees and deer camps on the Japanese defensive positions, and the actions of the Japanese troops during the day were greatly restricted. They cursed the "rampantness of the American planes" and described the air strikes of the Chinese and American air forces as "shocking the mountains. The situation is like a violent storm in the South China Sea."

The situation faced by the [-]th Regiment was already dangerous, but the commander of the division, Hishida, overestimated the seriousness of the situation. He still asked the regiment to break through the joint interception of the [-]st Division and the [-]th Army, and continue to attack Longtan. Prepare.

Even if the other party is standing, you may not have a place to sit, not to mention that they have already removed all the benches.The [-]th Regiment of the Japanese Army could only base itself on defense and concealment against the air during the day, and at dusk, it could carry out small-scale counterattacks with the support of mountain artillery.This kind of counterattack can sometimes be effective, but the loss is great, and it is often impossible to hold it during the day.

Reality is stronger than people, and Colonel Takidera Yasuzaburo changed his strategy on his own, and decided not to fight back, but just to keep the existing front-line positions.

By studying the battle reports of the Gyudong battlefield and the captured Japanese materials, as well as interrogating the prisoners and conducting aerial reconnaissance, Qiu Weida determined that the [-]th Regiment of the Japanese Army had gradually shown a state of exhaustion after continuous fierce fighting.Aerial reconnaissance also showed that about a brigade of Japanese reinforcements had arrived from the direction of the mountain gate, but was stopped by the reinforcements at Laoaitang, and the [-]th Regiment became a lone army.

Not to be missed, Qiu Weida then ordered the encirclement and suppression of the 4th Regiment of the Japanese Army. On the morning of April 30th, all units began a general offensive, of which the No.19 Division of the 51th Army was the main frontal attack, and the rest of the units, including the [-]st Division, attacked from different directions.

Although the [-]rd Battalion of the [-]th Wing of the Japanese Army was a reserve team responsible for guarding the rear of the wing, it had also participated in fierce battles many times and was already short of personnel and ammunition.After being attacked, the troops were terrified. The captain ordered the confidential personnel to prepare to burn the telegram code, and at the same time distributed a rifle to each of the wounded and sick, and asked them to help them to the designated shooting position for defense.

The Japanese army was short of manpower to the point of arresting them whenever they saw them. In critical moments, even the artillery battalion attached to the regiment was used as infantry and entered the front line to participate in the defense.

After a day of fierce attack, the 4th Regiment of the Japanese Army suffered a heavier blow and became a veritable remnant.By the night of April 30, there were only 86 combatable soldiers left in the third brigade.

On the other hand, the Japanese rescue brigade was overwhelmed. There were nearly a thousand people when they set off, and they lost continuously along the way. After fighting the defenders on the west side of Laoaitang that day, only 417 people remained, and they still failed to join the [-]th Regiment .

Ling Tian, ​​head of the [-]th Division, and Sakanishi, the commander of the army, were classmates of the Army Non-commissioned Officer School at the same time.Banxi knew well that the [-]th Division was the main attacking force, and its success or failure had a great bearing on the entire battle, so he made a special trip to see Lingtian off in Shaoyang on the eve of dispatching troops.

Both of them admitted before the war that the combat capability of the Chinese army with American equipment would be completely different from that of the past, but no one expected that it would become so powerful, and the development of the battle situation in Xuefeng Mountain was completely beyond their expectations.

fight according to risk
What relieved Hishita a little was that the situation of the other two alliances was not too bad.

The attack target of the 70th Regiment of the Japanese Army was the entrance of the cave.Dongkou controls the main road leading to Jiangkou and even the Zhijiang military highway. Its strategic importance is self-evident. As early as during the Hunan-Guangxi War, the Chinese army built a deep and three-dimensional fortification here. Currently, No. The 57nd Battalion of the [-]th Regiment of the [-]th Division of the [-]th Fourth Army was in charge of defense.

The mountain at the entrance of the cave is abrupt and steep, and it is closely connected with the surrounding mountains.The main position was built from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain, built up layer by layer like shelves, with gun racks and deer villages in the middle.In front of the main position, there is an open paddy field, covered by a dense firepower net, the Japanese army is often trapped in the middle of the paddy field and cannot stretch.

Relying on the solid main position, the Second Battalion repelled more than a dozen Japanese attacks.The paddy fields in front of the positions were filled with corpses of Japanese soldiers, bloody and bloody, and the fields were completely red.

The [-]th Wing could not attack from the front, so they wanted to make a detour, but the main position at the entrance of the cave was connected from north to south, and there was no favorable detour route at all.

In the end, it was the fog in the mountains at night that helped the Japanese army.Using the fog as a barrier, they organized death squads to climb up the steep rocks and carry out sneak attacks on the defenders' positions, and the key passes at the entrance of the cave were lost.

After crossing the entrance, the main force of the [-]th Division composed of the [-]th Regiment and the [-]rd Regiment of the Japanese army had rushed under the main peak in the middle section of Xuefeng Mountain, posing a threat to Zhijiang. I was relieved.

The main force of the Japanese army in the middle is the 60th Division, and the main force in the south is the Eighth Brigade.The Eighth Brigade is not a new independent mixed brigade. It belongs to the No.[-] Eighth Division and has strong combat effectiveness.

The Eighth Division of the Chinese No.70 Fourth Army is responsible for defending against the enemy on the South Road.According to Qiu Weida's deployment, they can adopt a flexible and maneuverable style of play, prepare a few more positions, and move the camera after each position achieves the intended purpose, instead of blindly fighting for consumption.

Therefore, the Eighth Division organized several defensive positions. Its main task was to search for the enemy's situation, closely monitor the movements of the Japanese army, and use fortifications to conduct appropriate blocking to delay the Japanese army's actions.

When the Eighth Brigade of the Japanese Army attacked Xinning, the two companies defending the city ceased to be stalemate with the enemy until the afternoon, but immediately withdrew to Wugang where the main force of the division was located.

Although the Japanese army's on-the-spot reconnaissance work before the war was very meticulous, what can be corrected on the map is mainly limited to the section between Shaoyang and Xuefeng Mountain.The Xuefeng mountain area is regarded as an important defensive area by the Chinese army, and it is difficult for spies to enter. The Japanese army has not been able to accurately understand the terrain of the Xuefeng mountain area, so that some arrival locations are only about four kilometers apart on the map, but the actual distance is not. There are multiple errors.

After the capture of Xinning, the Eighth Brigade of the Japanese Army stayed there for two days in order to scout the situation in the mountainous area and adjust the deployment accordingly.They plan to continue to occupy Wuyang and Wugang in order to open a detour to the southeast of the Zhijiang River, and at the same time support the [-]th Division on the middle road.

There were more than 3000 Japanese troops surrounding Wuyang, but at that time there was only one company of the 58th Division in the city.Facing an enemy [-] times stronger than itself, the defenders who had no time to evacuate fought according to danger, repelled the enemy's eight attacks, and killed hundreds of Japanese soldiers.After fighting hard for three days and nights, they were all outnumbered and died for their country.

The Eighth Brigade of the Japanese Army immediately pointed the attack at Wugang.Wugang is where the main force of the 58th Division of the Chinese side is located. After the Japanese army launched an offensive, they implemented Qiu Weida's offensive and defensive tactics, leaving only a part of the troops to hold on to the city to contain the enemy.

Since judging that the enemy in front of us had an attempt to commit crimes in the West, the No. 70 Fourth Army Command immediately ordered the 58th Division Staff Office to conduct an investigation of important military geographies at the southern foot of Xuefeng Mountain for reference in preparation for the war. The completeness of the 74th Army's staff command organization is second to none in the domestic army. At that time, other military-level ministries had revoked the title of chief of staff, and only retained the colonel's staff. Only the divisions of the No. 70 Fourth Army still had a chief of staff. , and there are four chiefs of the first, second, third, and fourth staff sections.The staff office of the division itself is also very large. There are more than [-] officers below the colonel and director. In addition to the salary increase of the staff, all these staff members also enjoy the additional treatment of the military chief officer.

Under the leadership of the chief of staff of the division, the staff of the 58th Division assembled the regiments, deputy battalion commanders, and some officers with tactical training, and an infantry platoon as guards, surveyed the southern foot of Xuefeng Mountain for about a week.Through surveys, they revised the one-fifty-thousandth military map, and made detailed records of key passes, passages, commanding heights, and special features.In the meantime, bubble holes have attracted everyone's special attention.

(End of this chapter)