Xu Dalong asked the Mi Army observation team to contact the Air Force and send reconnaissance planes to the Japanese positions to the Panlong River line for reconnaissance. At the same time, he asked Wei Monk to send special forces members to penetrate from the ground to the rear of the Japanese army for reconnaissance.
He asked all coalition forces to prepare for counterattack. Long Guoyu led the Second Division of the Yunnan Army to immediately set off from Kunming and rushed to Laojie.
Soon after, the intelligence officers of the special operations team and the pilots of the reconnaissance planes received intelligence respectively. As expected, the Japanese army had begun to retreat.
The generals of the coalition forces, the British Army Observation Group, the American Army Observation Group, and the Guofu liaison group were all very excited, and they all requested a counterattack against the Japanese army.
Xu Dalong was not in a hurry. He ordered the reconnaissance team to pay close attention to the movements of the Japanese army and report to him at any time.
These days, the Japanese army still organized a part of its troops to continue attacking the defensive positions of the coalition forces, but it was obvious that the intensity of the attack was very small and was in the nature of a sheep attack.
They did this in the hope that the coalition forces would focus on defending against the Japanese attack and cover the main force of the Japanese army to retreat calmly.
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The intelligence team continued to pass on information, and Japanese troops continued to cross the Panlong River, but Xu Dalong still made no move.
That afternoon, Xu Dalong called Wei Monk and Wang Guoxiong and asked them to lead the special operations team and a reinforced company of the 338th Division Guard Battalion to cross the Panlong River from the secret ferry. Their mission was to
To seize and blow up the Panlong River Bridge and cut off the retreat route of the Japanese troops north of the Yangtze River.
That morning, news came from Monk Wei that they had arrived at the designated location and could launch an attack on the Panlong River Bridge at any time.
According to their observations, the three main divisions of the Japanese army have crossed the Panlong River and are retreating towards Yangon City. Now only the fifth Japanese division remains in the area north of the Panlong River.
Xu Dalong was very happy. The Fifth Division was an old rival of the Mawushan Guerrillas. Xu Dalong had fought against them twice. The first time he defeated the Japanese 21st Brigade, and the second time was in the Hancheng area, defeating them.
The main force of the Fifth Division.
Later, they were transferred to Southeast Asia and joined the 18th Army commanded by Yamashita Fengfumi. Today is the time to completely deal with them.
Xu Dalong convened a military meeting of the coalition forces, and he said: "Generals, the main force of the Japanese army has crossed the Panlong River, and now only the fifth division of the Japanese army remains in the north of the river.
I have sent a special force to ambush near the Panlong River Bridge. We will launch an attack on the Panlong River Bridge tonight, seize the bridge, and blow up the bridge. The Japanese Fifth Division will be blocked north of the Panlong River.
The only place they could cross the Panlong River was the ferry downstream of the Panlong River Bridge. There were limited ferries there, and it was difficult to cross the river with so many Japanese troops. As long as they sent bombers to bomb the ferry and blow up those ferries, the Japanese army
The Fifth Division will have no retreat, and we can concentrate the main force of the coalition forces to encircle and destroy the Japanese Fifth Division."
After hearing this, the generals of the coalition forces were very excited. Since they started to retreat to northern Myanmar, they have been chased and beaten by the Japanese army. After crossing the Panlong River, they were also attacked by the Japanese army every day. Today they finally have
Opportunity to counterattack. If we can seize the Japanese Fifth Division stranded in the north of Panlong River and encircle it, it will be an unprecedented victory in Southeast Asia.
The generals of the coalition forces, the British Army Liaison Group, the American Army Observation Group and the Fruit Army Liaison Group were all very excited. According to Xu Dalong, they also had great confidence in this battle.
Guo Daming, commander of the 338th Division of the Yuanzheng Army, suddenly realized. He said: "Sir Xu, when our army retreated across the Panlong River, I once suggested blowing up the Panlong River Bridge. You didn't agree at that time. I thought it was you.
There are problems with command.
Now I understand that you deliberately left the Panlong River Bridge to relax the vigilance of the Japanese army, blow up the Panlong River Bridge at the critical moment, and intercept the Japanese Fifth Division and their main force on both sides of the Panlong River, leaving
The main force of the Japanese army was unable to rescue the Fifth Division, thus creating a good opportunity to encircle and destroy the Japanese Fifth Division.
Mr. Xu is very far-sighted, and Guo really admires him."
The generals who attended the meeting saw that Xu Dalong's every step was accurately judged. They were all convinced of his deployment and were full of confidence in achieving the great victory of Panlongjiang.
Xu Dalong issued combat orders to various ministries, requiring the 330th Division of the Yuanzheng Army, the 139th Regiment, and the 140th Regiment of the British Army to be the left; the 141st Regiment of the British Army, the Second Division, and the Sixth Division of the Yunnan Army to be the middle;
The 338th Division of the Army and a division of the Burmese Servant Army served as the right wing. After Wei Monk blew up the Panlong River Bridge, the entire army immediately launched an attack on the Japanese army.
After the meeting, Xu Dalong specially left a US military observation team and asked them to communicate with the Air Force to try to mobilize a large number of bombers for bombing.
The US military observation team all knew that Xu Dalong had rescued Smith and others who were sent to the fifth theater, and they all had a good impression of him. After this period of contact, they also admired Xu Dalong very much.
They said they would do their best to obtain support from the Air Force.
That night, Monk Wei and others who were ambushing in the mountains near the Panlong River disguised themselves as Japanese troops and marched along the Burma Highway in the direction of the Panlong River.
In the past few days, large groups of Japanese troops have been crossing the Panlong River. The troops crossing the Panlong River belonged to four divisions and an independent mixed brigade. Therefore, the Japanese troops crossing the river did not cause the Japanese defenders to cross the river.
Bridge Troops Attention.
In particular, Monk Wei and others were marching from the south of the Yangtze River to the north of the Yangtze River. The Japanese army believed that there were no coalition troops in the north of the Yangtze River, so they did not pay too much attention.
Monk Wei and others arrived at the bridge in a big way. Only then did the Japanese sentries come up to check their documents. The Japanese troops at the bridge did not put too much vigilance.
Monk Wei pretended to show his ID, and the special forces members and officers and soldiers of the guard camp were secretly preparing for battle.
Monk Wei was pretending to reach for his ID, but suddenly he quickly pulled out the tortoise box and fired at the Japanese sentry. The members of the commando team had already spotted the target, opened fire fiercely, and quickly launched a charge.
.
The Japanese army was caught off guard. Soon Wei Monk and his friends occupied the bridgehead on the south side of the bridge, and immediately used sandbags to build a machine gun position on the bridge deck to block the Japanese army coming from the north of the Yangtze River.
Regarding blowing up the Panlong River Bridge, when the coalition forces withdrew across the Panlong River Bridge, Monk Wei had already conducted a drill with the special forces team members.
While they used firepower to block the Japanese troops in Jiangbei, several special operations team members climbed down from the south end of the bridge using ropes.
The Panlongjiang Bridge is only 80 meters long and has only three piers. At night, the Japanese army could not clearly see the situation at the southern end of the bridge. The special operations team successfully climbed to the southern pier. They used a large number of explosive bags from the bridge head.
The rope was handed over. Soon after, the special operations team placed explosives on the bridge piers.
After installing the explosives, the commandos at the bridge quickly evacuated and detonated the explosives.
Following the violent explosion, the bridge was blown open with a gap more than ten meters wide, and the Japanese Fifth Division was completely cut off in Jiangbei.
After Monk Wei and others completed their mission, they did not follow Xu Dalong's request to return to the north of the Yangtze River from the hidden ferry where they crossed the river. Instead, they came to the ferry near the lower reaches of the Panlong River Bridge and hid themselves, ready to attack from here at any time.
Japanese troops crossing the river.
After receiving the telegram from Monk Wei, Xu Dalong immediately ordered the reinforcements to launch a fierce attack on the Japanese army.
The commander of the Japanese Fifth Division learned that the Panlong River Bridge had been cut off and saw the coalition troops attacking them. He immediately realized the danger and immediately sent a telegram to Yamashita Fengfumi.
At the foot of Yangon City, Fengwen received a telegram from the commander of the Fifth Division. He immediately judged Xu Dalong's intentions and knew that they wanted to encircle and annihilate the Fifth Division in the north of the Yangtze River. He immediately ordered the independent soldiers who had just crossed the river to
They formed the 20th Brigade and turned around to go to the Panlong River, asking them to try to repair the Panlong River Bridge and control the ferry downstream of the Panlong River Bridge to assist the Fifth Division in crossing the river.
The three-pronged army of the Allied Forces launched a fierce attack on the Japanese Fifth Division. After nearly two months of hard fighting, the troops of the Fifth Division suffered heavy casualties and have not been replenished. Their combat effectiveness has been greatly weakened.
, and the troops were very tired.
In order to confuse the coalition forces, they attacked the coalition positions separately, so their forces were very dispersed.
Under such circumstances, it was impossible to stop the fierce attack of the coalition forces. The coalition forces quickly broke through their defensive positions and continued to advance in depth.
The Japanese Fifth Division was divided into three parts by the coalition forces. They had to fight independently and retreat towards the Panlong River while fighting.
At 10 o'clock in the morning the next day, the troops of the independent 20th Brigade arrived at the Panlong River. They divided into two groups and went all the way to the Panlong River to control the downstream ferry; some of them arrived at the Panlong River Bridge.
The Japanese officers and soldiers dispatched engineering troops to rush to repair the Panlong River Bridge. However, they worked hard on the expedition and did not have that much equipment. Facing the 178-meter-long broken bridge, they were helpless.
The Japanese army knew that it would be impossible to repair the Panlong River Bridge in the short term, so they concentrated their forces to the ferry downstream of the Panlong River Bridge. They took control of the ferry and prepared to assist the Fifth Division in crossing the river.
Monk Wei and others, who had already been ambushing near the ferry, immediately reported the situation to Xu Dalong.
Xu Dalong asked the US military observation team to request air force support.
Soon after, 12 US bombers flew over the ferry downstream of the Panlong River and carried out indiscriminate bombing.
At the ferry, the Japanese army prepared a total of 16 ferries. They lacked anti-aircraft firepower and could only watch the American bombers showing off their power.
The pilots of the American army bullied the Japanese army and had nothing to do with them. So they used ultra-low-altitude flights, flew over the ferry, and dropped bombs to destroy the ferries on the ferry.
Soon the ferry was sunk by all the American bombers. After the American pilots dropped the bombs, they still felt that it was not enough, so they used their onboard machine guns to fire at the Japanese infantry, and only after all the machine gun bullets were fired did they show off.
And go.
The commander of the Japanese Fifth Division is currently fighting hard against the Allied Forces. They are retreating steadily, hoping that the Japanese Army can cross the Panlong River through the ferry.
When he heard that all the ferries had been blown up by US bombers, his heart felt so cold that he could only ask Yamashita Fengfumi to find a way to help them cross the river.
The fighting spirit of the Japanese army was still very tenacious. The Japanese soldiers who independently formed the 20th Brigade did not wait for instructions from their superiors. They began to cut moso bamboo and build bamboo rafts near the ferry to support the troops of the Fifth Division in crossing the river.
Monk Wei and others had already been lying in ambush on the mountain. When they saw the Japanese officers and soldiers using machetes to chop moso bamboo, it was like they had launched an attack, and dozens of Japanese officers and soldiers were killed on the spot.
By the time the Japanese army mobilized troops to attack, Monk Wei and others had already led the troops to evacuate quickly according to the pre-planned retreat route.
They arrived at another mountaintop near the ferry, from where they could still observe the situation above the ferry with telescopes. They reported the situation here to Xu Dalong at any time.
When Xu Dalong heard that the Japanese troops were setting up bamboo rafts on the riverside, he informed the American military liaison group.
The American army once again sent bombers to bomb the ferry.
Both the British and American troops attached great importance to this battle. They hoped to fight a good battle in northern Myanmar, so they were willing to invest.
After two bombings, the American pilots also accumulated a certain amount of experience. They set the time interval between bombings to two to three hours. The Japanese army had no way of cooperating with the troops of the Fifth Division to cross the river.
Seeing that the Japanese Fifth Division had become a turtle in the urn, the morale of the officers and soldiers of the coalition forces was high. They continued to launch fierce attacks on the Japanese army. The situation of the Japanese Fifth Division became increasingly difficult.
The Yunnan Yunnan Army also had strong combat effectiveness. Long Guoyu commanded the Sixth Division and the Second Division, and defeated two Japanese infantry regiments in the middle, and surrounded a Japanese infantry brigade during the pursuit.
, after a fierce attack, the Japanese infantry brigade was completely annihilated.
After achieving such a major victory, the morale of the Yunnan Army was even higher. They launched a frantic attack on the Japanese army, quickly defeated the 9th Japanese Infantry Brigade, and actually surrounded the division headquarters of the Japanese 5th Division.
up a hill.
After Xu Dalong heard the good news, he decided to capture the thief first and capture the king first, and first captured the division headquarters of the Japanese Fifth Division.
He immediately contacted the American army team and asked them to send bombers to bomb the Japanese division headquarters.
The last time Wei Monk and others destroyed the Japanese Yangon Airport, the damage was so serious that the Japanese have not been able to repair it until now, so the US aircraft will not be intercepted by Japanese fighter jets.
The pilots of the American army felt very at ease. They flew very arrogantly at ultra-low altitudes and accurately dropped bombs on the Japanese positions.
The headquarters of the Japanese Fifth Division and its directly affiliated troops were surrounded on a hill. The terrain was very unfavorable and they had nowhere to hide. They suffered heavy casualties from the aerial bomb attack.