January 7, 1939!
The Japanese 9th Route Army officially launched a fierce attack on the 4th Army Defense Area!
Especially in the Zhangjiashan area where the 55th Division was stationed, the Japanese army actually assembled 24 mountain guns, a dozen infantry guns and even more than ten mortars to bombard the positions of the 55th Division!
The 55th Division only had 6 mountain guns and 24 82nd mortars. Its heavy firepower was completely overwhelmed by the Japanese army. If it hadn't been for the geographical advantage of the highlands, it might have been completely overwhelmed by the Japanese army's official attack on the first day.
collapse.
Because an infantry battalion commander suffered too much damage in the crazy Japanese shelling, he ordered his troops to withdraw from the front-line trenches and hide on the back of the mountain without receiving orders from the regiment and brigade headquarters.
As a result, when the Japanese army made a tentative attack during the interval between shelling, the observation post was killed and failed to send a signal in time, resulting in the temporary loss of the battalion's position.
Although the infantry battalion commander immediately led his troops to counterattack and drove out an infantry squadron that occupied the position at the cost of nearly 300 casualties, the danger was so thrilling that the white-haired general sitting in Munan Town broke into a cold sweat.
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Because the middle section of Zhongtiao Mountain is only 20 miles in strategic depth, the 4th Army had to adopt a chain defense. The entire Army's 4 infantry divisions with more than 30,000 people were almost all distributed on the highlands of large and small hills at the frontier of the mountainous battle against Japan.
A chain with a width of 25 miles was formed, firmly locking all the routes followed by the Japanese army in a semi-arc siege.
There are not many advantages, but there are many disadvantages. If any important high ground in this chain is broken, the Japanese army's ability to penetrate enemy lines is obvious to all. A gap may cause the entire line to become passive.
After General Yang had to temporarily escape overseas due to the Chang'an Incident, the commander of the 4th Army, surnamed Sun, can be said to be the banner figure in the Northwest Army today. Based on his experience, how could he not know that this kind of width is sufficient but not deep enough for a thin defense line?
There are shortcomings, but they are forced to do so.
The Japanese army was advancing in multiple directions, and its strength was almost the same as that of the 4th Army. The only thing facing the 4th Army was to deploy defenses at multiple points and defend at multiple locations.
To put it bluntly, the only way is to get ready and fight to the death with everyone involved.
This was only the first day, and the Japanese army almost allowed the Japanese army to break through one of the important highlands. How could they fight further?
Strict military orders represent ruthlessness. The infantry battalion commander of the major, who was leading the troops with several wounds, was killed on the spot with a gun by his regimental commander in tears to prove military law. However, what was recorded in the battle report of the division was that the army major fought hard on the battlefield and died.
To sacrifice for the country.
Although his subordinates were dissatisfied with the unfair treatment they had suffered, after receiving the news, no one in the other departments dared to disobey the military order. Even if the Japanese artillery fire was overwhelming, they still stayed in the trenches.
Whenever the Japanese infantry advanced within a 200-meter range, the soldiers fought back bravely!
According to internal battle reports of the Japanese army, on January 7 alone, the artillery of the Nakamura detachment under the jurisdiction of Masao Nakamura fired approximately 1,500 artillery shells of various types, and the infantry regiment invested more than 3,000 infantrymen in 4 attacks.
Such a ferocious offensive was repulsed by all units of the Chinese army on the opposite side.
The Chinese battle report shows that the 55th Division's three infantry regiments on the front line of more than 6,000 people had already lost more than 1,500 people before 4 p.m., with a battle loss rate of 25%!
The 102nd Regiment of the 17th Division, which was originally used as a reserve force, had to rush to the Zhangjiashan battlefield under orders from the military headquarters in the evening of that day.
On the first day of the official war, the 38th Army mobilized one of its most important reserves.
The white-haired general's face was as frosty as last year's Battle of Niangziguan. The fierce fighting was only one aspect, and what pained the veteran the most was that the Japanese army had not really shown its full strength. For example, the Japanese fighter fleet had not yet fully deployed.
appeared, the infantry only used an infantry regiment, but the 38th Army was forced to show its trump card early.
How to fight the next battle?
The name of the Fifth Division’s ‘Steel Army’ is indeed well-deserved!
However, today’s battlefield is not all bad news!
For example, the 4,000 Sichuan Army recruits led by Tang Dao, who had always worried him, plus his 1,200 heavy troops, totaled more than 5,000 troops deployed in Sizhou Mountain, but what they faced was a veteran Japanese Army's Class A division consisting of more than 10,000 troops.
The detachment, whether it is combat experience or military strength, Tang Dao belongs to is at an absolute disadvantage.
No matter how much he trusts Tang Dao, he can't help but be careless at this moment. The 17th Division's Independent 46th Brigade is considered the last trump card in the hands of General Baifa, and its station is only 2,500 meters away from Sizhou Mountain, and reinforcements can be sent within 30 minutes.
arrival.
But the miracle is that the nearly ten thousand troops of the 55th Division fought extremely hard, but the Sizhoushan position was as stable as Mount Tai. He could hear the roar of guns and artillery, but Tang Dao's reply to his message was always, "The position is okay."
!' four words.
The white-haired general was really not at ease. He also ordered the 46th Independent Brigade, which was closest to him, to send a regiment commander to the defense line to take a look in person. As a result, the message he received back was roughly the same as what Tang Dao said, but with the addition
One sentence: "Although the Japanese invaders' artillery fire was sharp, the Sichuan army's return artillery fire was not weak!"
Yes, on January 7th, the 4th Division's West Turbulence Detachment did not lose its chain as rumored. The fierceness of their artillery fire and the high combat literacy displayed by the artillery made Tang Dao look up to him with admiration.
First, the 4th Division used 16 75mm mountain guns and 4 105mm howitzers to launch artillery bombardments on the six hilltops and ridges about 3,000 meters that blocked their advance. The artillery bombardment lasted from early morning to dusk.
This is very different from the usual pattern of the Japanese army encountered by the Si Xing Regiment: "After the artillery fire, the soldiers rush forward, but they can't rush in until the artillery fire!" For a whole day, the Japanese, who had always "kicked their eyes hard, had to add their fingers" unexpectedly
He suddenly turned into a super prodigal and fired at least 2,000 rounds of artillery shells into the position.
This does not include the output of small-caliber artillery such as infantry artillery and Type 90 mortars.
Not to mention that this statistic was beyond Tang Dao's expectations, even Nakamura Masao's pupils shrank when he heard it.
This time, Itagaki Shiro gave him enough support. He not only gave him two artillery brigades, but even used most of the baggage regiment to help him transport all kinds of military supplies. All kinds of artillery shells were transported by trains and cars.
6000 pieces!
The amount of artillery shells stored in it was almost three times that of the detachment that launched the Battle of Xuzhou in May last year, which shows how much Itagaki Shiro attaches importance to this battle.
Of course, Masao Nakamura didn't know that Shiro Itagaki paid more attention to the Kunisaki detachment, which was ordered to deal with the main force of the Four Lines Regiment. It carried not only 75 mountain guns, but also two artillery squadrons with 8 105 howitzers 6 kilometers outside Shunwangping.
on standby in a small town.
For this battle, Itagaki Shiro almost emptied the wealth of the westward marching legion and invested 10,000 artillery shells in storage. In addition, he expedited the transportation of 5,000 various artillery shells from Pingbei City. A total of 50,000 artillery shells was only for the westward march.
Used by various units of the corps, the heavy firepower is no weaker than that of the Xinkou Battle in the past.
But compared to the wealthy 4th Division, it's really nothing.
In just one day, the 4th Division, a detachment of more than 10,000 people, fired nearly 3,000 rounds of various artillery shells. According to this consumption rate, the 4th Division's various artillery can be declared withdrawn from the battlefield in five days.
Regardless of durability, just in terms of the intensity of the fierce collision, the 5th Division is weak compared to the 4th Division!
Secondly, the 4th Division even pushed its infantry artillery to 1,200 meters away from the front edge of Tang Dao's position. Without conducting any fire tests, they came close to shell all suspicious targets!
After arriving at the position, more than a dozen heavy firepower points built under the command of Tang Dao were destroyed in this way. Fortunately, both the heavy troops and the Sichuan army had fought with Tang Dao and were familiar with Tang Dao's style. When the Japanese artillery fire came, except for
Some observation posts were left hiding in the trenches, while most of the officers and soldiers hid behind the mountains or in caves on Zhongtiao Mountain itself.
Here I have to mention the landform characteristics of Zhongtiao Mountain. Zhongtiao Mountain is located between the Huashan Mountains and the Taihang Mountains. The mountain runs northeast with an altitude of 1,200 meters to 2,300 meters. It has a steep north slope and a gentle slope to the south.
The terrain was undoubtedly more favorable to the defenders;
The mountain outcrop rock layers include gneiss, quartzite, dolomite and volcanic rock series, which are very different from the hard Zhangshi rock and iron-containing siliceous rock in the Taihang Mountains. Coupled with the large amount of loess layer coverage, the Zhongtiao Mountains have the characteristics of Jin Province.
It is covered with the most luxuriant vegetation in the area, and even after the large-scale steel smelting in the future, there will still be a huge area of virgin forest.
This kind of geological structure resulted in many natural caves in Zhongtiao Mountain, which saved the defenders a lot of effort, at least reducing the need for extensive excavation of anti-gun caves.
Of course, there are pros and cons. The thick loess layer allows the trenches to be deeper and longer, but the fragile rock formations cannot withstand the intense artillery fire and are far more likely to collapse than the trenches built in the Taihang Mountains.
But in any case, with regard to this topography and geology, Zhongtiao Mountain is actually more suitable for defensive operations than Taihang Mountain, but that is only from a tactical perspective. From a strategic perspective, the mountain range is not wide enough and lacks enough depth. Once somewhere,
After the key defensive positions are destroyed and the space for maneuvering operations is gradually lost, it is over.
However, for now, no matter how fierce the artillery fire of the 4th Division is, there is no way to blast open the cave and kill the Chinese officers and soldiers hiding inside.
Whenever the 4th Division uses infantry to attack, the more than 80 heavy machine guns deployed by Tang Dao along the entire defense line will definitely let these vendors know why the flowers are so red - it is all dyed red by blood.
But Tang Dao waited for most of the day, and the 4th Division had no intention of dispatching infantry. It just spent money.
This made Tang Dao lose his patience, so he simply didn’t hide it and pushed the infantry artillery to the front in an awesome manner, right? Let me show you how powerful our mortar is.
Have you ever seen the grand scene of more than 30 mortars setting fire? In the ordinary Chinese army, that is a heavy firepower that only five infantry regiments can possess, but in the new Sichuan Army regiment, that is only more than half of it.
The army colonel who rushed to the Sizhou Mountain position to take a look at the white-haired general happened to witness this grand event, and finally understood why Tang Dao was so confident and dared to use 5000VS10000.
However, at the beginning of the Sichuan Army's new soldiers' counterattack, he didn't think so.
As for the group of raw melon egg mortar crews, they didn’t know where they were flying after several rounds of shelling. Even he could judge the approximate location of the Japanese infantry artillery positions through the thick smoke rising above the woods, but those groups had no military ranks.
The new gunners just couldn't shoot accurately.
But firing more than a hundred artillery shells in succession was enough to scare people. Half of the Japanese infantry guns misfired, and they were obviously frightened and quickly moved their positions.
The poor performance of the new recruits did not discourage them. Since the commander said that a base number should be fired, this base number must be shot, which is 25 rounds for each gun.
Let’s play with this thing! In fact, it’s the same as playing mahjong, it requires both skill and luck!
No, as several consecutive rounds of artillery fire failed to hit the target, the luck of the Sangguadanzi, who had shot a lot of artillery shells, came.
A roaring explosion in the dense forest thousands of meters away resounded across the sky, and the fireworks were more than thirty meters high. The bright fire stung the eyes of the army colonel who was holding a telescope in the observation post a thousand meters away.
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Obviously, this was a hit, and it was most likely a Japanese artillery storage point. Once it exploded, there would be no one alive within hundreds of meters.
"Hit! Hit!"
The red flag waved by Xia Dayu, who turned into an artillery observer, on the top of the mountain was simply the best stimulant for the new artillerymen.
Even luck can't stop it, or it may be that the fighting becomes smoother and smoother. More than 700 artillery shells were fired, blowing up the dense forest a thousand meters away into a sea of flames. Some were caused by mortar shells, and some were killed by the Japanese army's own shells.
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"Baga! Check the Chinese 4th Group Army unit opposite. Why do they have so many mortars? Stupid intelligence department, they can't even handle this little thing?" Da Xiong Yunosuke said in front of his own location
Friendly troops were angrily sprayed at a field command post 4,000 meters away from the front line.
Can you not be angry? In order to show the bravery of the 4th Division, Major General Okuma Konosuke spared no expense and emptied one-third of the ammunition carried by the detachment in one day. Many of them were secretly saved by the 4th Division over the years by falsely reporting consumption.
of inventory.
It was just a small amount of money. It was originally used to find a suitable buyer, but it was enough for the generals of the division to build a small villa for everyone, but now it has turned into a splendid fireworks in the Chinese mountains and forests.
This has already made Major General Okuma Konosuke's body hurt to the point of excruciating pain.
But for the sake of the glory of the 'Innocuous Imperial Army', Daxiong Yuxinosuke had no choice but to give up Xiao Bao Da!
What's more, if this were not the case, he would have to order an infantry assault. If there were a large number of casualties, it would be difficult for him, a major general of the Imperial Army, to face the folks in Osaka.
Osaka people have always valued fellow villagers. From the privates down to him, the major general brigade commander, all of them live in the same city, even if it is a little far away, just a few dozen miles away from Osaka.
The ground!
The result was good. After he had made such a big 'sacrifice', the Chinese actually gave him a trick of 'fighting violence with violence'.
He didn't even know the effect of his bombardment, but the losses caused by the Chinese were clearly reported to him first.
Two artillery storage points exploded, four infantry guns were blown up, more than 80 imperial soldiers died in the line of duty, and more than 40 people were injured. The result was embarrassing and financially ruined, which can be called the biggest loss of the 4th Division in the past two years since it entered China.
one!
All of this was the fault of the Front Army Intelligence Section. The Japanese Army Major General identified the target of blame almost as soon as he saw the battle damage list.
Moreover, Okuma Konosuke didn't just talk, he did it as soon as he thought of it. He directly sent a message to the division headquarters still far away in Pingbeicheng, and his words of denouncement for the inaction of the Army Intelligence Section were so fierce, just like the colonel-level intelligence section.
The commander slept with his wife while he was away fighting.
Even the lieutenant general commander of the 4th Division had to patiently appease his good brother and stated clearly that this had nothing to do with Mr. Big Bear’s tactical arrangement. The fault was that the Front Army Intelligence Section had not yet provided a complete Chinese
The order of the army made it impossible for the imperial warriors to know themselves and their enemies, which is why they suffered this unexpected loss.
Nakamura Masao: Are you serious? Less than a hundred people died, just like an aggrieved child, looking for adults to complain and support. So who should I go to when the Fifth Division of Baga lost more than 300 people on the first day?
Okuma Konosuke: I look for whoever I want, I love my soldiers as much as my sons! This is the most important potential to become a famous general!
There may not be a record of this conversation, but the two people sprayed each other in the air on the cold night of January 7th.
Of course, this army lieutenant general is not as 'brainless' as his good brother. He defeated the battle and passed all the responsibilities to the front army headquarters. He also hoped to rely on the thick legs of Commander Gen. Shanshan Yuan.
The 4th Division has been transformed into a security force stationed in various occupied areas!
The unity of the 4th Division is never an empty promise.
However, the Japanese Army Lieutenant General finally called Gen. Gen Sugami personally and asked him to help find out the general situation of the enemy the 4th Division was facing.
No one knows the inner activities of Gen Sugugami at that time, but according to insiders at the Japanese North China Front Army Headquarters, Commander Sugugami Gen, Commander-in-Chief Gen. Sugugami, cold-faced General Fujiwara, who was then the deputy chief of the Intelligence Section and the captain of the front's special attack team.
Lieutenant Commander Xiong reprimanded him.
Poor Lieutenant Colonel Fujiwara Sentō was still lame in one leg at that time and was still recovering from his injuries most of the time. He only reluctantly took over the work of the Intelligence Section after the Chief of the Intelligence Section went out to work.
During the war, the noble status is not so easy to use now. This may be the conclusion drawn by the insiders of the North China Front Army from this incident.
In fact, they didn't know that this was Gen Sugami's statement after he took the opportunity to express his disapproval of the Fujiwara family for not fully siding with him on the establishment of the Westward Expansion Corps.
In politics, there are compromises and disputes!
Fujiwara Senzuo, who looked decadent and confused, could only endure Sugamimoto's saliva and rushed back to the office to work overtime until late at night.
However, after being busy for most of the night, I still couldn't figure out which unit belonged to the Chinese 4th Group Army.
Lieutenant Commander Fujiwara Sentō is busy in vain.
And Okuma Konosuke was very simple and ordered the next day: "The enemy's situation is unknown. Order the forward infantry to launch an attack 800 meters away. No military orders are issued and no crossing is allowed!"
Is it possible that all the soldiers in the 4th Division are heavy machine gun shooters?
Tang Tuanzuo on the mountain was also shocked by the cute tricks of the little cuties, but this did not prevent Tang Tuanzuo from waving his hand: "Eat, drink water, stay energetic, and watch the Japanese show!" ()
This chapter has been completed!