There is no doubt that the Eighth Route Army soldiers are fighting against the Japanese.
But war itself is about fighting the enemy desperately, and there is basically no difference between this kind of desperate fight now.
If there is any difference, it is that the moment the soldiers rushed into the poisonous gas zone, they knew that their lives would be frozen here... No matter whether they won or lost this battle, it was basically impossible for them to come back alive.
It has even entered a countdown-second state: the situation is slightly different depending on the concentration of the poison gas. With higher concentrations, half of them will be killed within 10 minutes, while with lower concentrations, they can survive longer or even just be injured.
However, it is precisely in this way that the warriors fight more and more fiercely.
Because they knew that they were either dead or injured, they were eager to grab a few Japanese soldiers to support them, so they went on a rampage. Some soldiers felt that the wet hair covering their mouths and noses was in the way, so they simply tore them off and chased the Japanese soldiers at full speed.
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This cannot be said to be a chase. Many soldiers inhaled poison gas and began to suffer from poisonous effects. Wanting to end the pain, they rushed into the crowd of Japanese soldiers with explosive packs and cluster grenades.
On the other hand, for the Japs, it was not a good experience to fight wearing a gas mask in the dark. Although there were firelights from burning houses, the firelight illuminated the Japs more than the Eighth Route Army soldiers.
This makes the Japs very inferior in both long-range shooting and close-range melee combat.
As a result, the Eighth Route Army only used one company of troops to overwhelm two squadrons of nearly 400 Japanese. More than 200 of them were killed on the spot and remained in the city. The remaining more than 100 Japanese fled in a hurry, some of whom
The reason for escaping turned out to be that the gas mask was ripped off by an injured Eighth Route Army soldier!
The Eighth Route Army soldiers did not retreat after repelling the Japanese because their task was not only to repel the Japanese but also to put out the fire.
Putting out fires is actually not that difficult.
What the soldiers have to do is to evacuate the people in the house in time, and then use explosives to blow the house down to prevent the fire from spreading to other places in time.
This is the best way to put out a fire under poisonous gas. It is almost impossible to successfully put out the fire with water, which will only cause more casualties.
In the end, Umezu Yoshijiro's seemingly perfect combat plan was cracked by the Eighth Route Army.
Originally, the Eighth Route Army was supposed to be in a dilemma. They couldn't put out the fire or they couldn't put out the fire.
Now it is Umezu Yoshijiro who is in a dilemma:
Continue the poison gas and fire attacks?
Under the Eighth Route Army's desperate fighting style, the effect was not very great, and the Imperial Army even suffered more losses... The Imperial Army's wearing of gas masks affected their combat effectiveness, so that several times the number of troops were scattered and routed by the Eighth Route Army.
But if we don’t fight like this, what other tactics can we use to conquer Siping?
The hysterical Umezu Yoshijiro ordered the imperial soldiers to attack only with incendiary bombs and not to contact the Eighth Route Army.
This seems to be a solution, because Japanese incendiary bombs can be launched with grenade launchers. They continue to draw the fire a hundred meters ahead, and at the same time prepare themselves for defense, such as setting up machine guns, waiting for the Eighth Route Army to rush up.
Fire blocked it.
However, the reality is much more complicated than Umezu Yoshijiro imagined, and this tactic cannot be effectively implemented in actual combat.
The first reason is that the streets in Siping are straight. Once the Japs set fire and advance along the fire, they will actually expose themselves to the guns of the Eighth Route Army... The Eighth Route Army can spot them from a distance and kill them one by one, while the Japs
At this time, we didn’t even know where the Eighth Route Army was.
Second, there may be Eighth Route Army soldiers hidden in every house in Siping. It is almost impossible for the Japs to avoid close combat. From time to time, several soldiers or even civilians holding wooden sticks will rush out from the burning houses.
Work hard.
There is a saying that "a trapped beast still fights".
The combination of poisonous gas and fire attacks has indeed caused some areas to lose hope of survival.
But just because they have lost all hope of life, they are able to throw away all their burdens and make a last ditch effort, and the potential that this last ditch effort can unleash cannot be described as "amazing", it can even be called terrifying.
Because there was a commoner, and he was an old man in his sixties. When he rushed out of the house, he was still covered in flames. He stabbed a Japanese to death with a spur given by the soldiers of the Eighth Route Army. The Japanese who came for reinforcements stabbed several Japanese with bayonets.
After getting down, he still used his last bit of strength to take out two grenades from the Japanese corpse, ignited them and threw them out...
Therefore, smart commanders will never push the enemy to a dead end. They will give the enemy a plausible way of survival, allowing the enemy to perish in fear and hesitation.
From this perspective, Umezu Yoshijiro is not a smart commander.
But it was the tanks of the Eighth Route Army that completely defeated the Japanese tactics.
Ding Wei soon discovered the advantages of tanks on this battlefield.
"The only equipment we can use normally is the tank!" Ding Wei said: "The space of the tank is relatively closed. If the protection is good, poisonous gas will basically not be able to enter the tank cabin!"
The political commissar said: "But the tank can't fire either. Once it fires, the tank cabin will be filled with smoke, which makes the tank cabin that already lacks oxygen even worse. In addition, poisonous gas will pour back into the tank cabin along the gun barrel!"
"Then don't fire!" Ding Wei made a quick decision: "They can fight with machine guns!"
As a result, more than a dozen "Sherman" tanks were sent to the streets to fight the Japanese.
Because the tank armor is thickly covered and fills the gaps, it is not afraid of poisonous gas, and the Japanese who are setting fire are in the open, so the tank can safely fire at the Japanese with its parallel machine gun and heading machine gun.
The strings of bullets flew out, leaving the Japanese with no protection or cover, and the Japanese soldiers wearing gas masks and clumsily performing tactical maneuvers screamed in agony.
After several rounds throughout the night, the Japanese did not take any advantage at all.
However, the casualties of the Eighth Route Army were also very heavy. There were more than a thousand people lying on the street who could not come back, and more than two thousand people were injured by inhaling poisonous gas or had their skin burned.
You must know that the total strength of the Eighth Route Army in Siping was only three regiments of more than 8,000 men, and the number of casualties that night was close to half.
However, this was not a problem at all for the Eighth Route Army.
Originally, the people in Siping were still hesitating. They didn't know whether they should support the Eighth Route Army or stay on the sidelines... Most people chose to wait and see.
This is not to say that they do not support their own army, but that they protect themselves wisely. They are worried that the Eighth Route Army will eventually fail to defeat the Japanese and the disaster that will eventually be brought to them.
But now, after last night's battle, they understood that the Japanese wanted to kill them, but the Eighth Route Army risked their lives to save them.
So there was nothing to hesitate about, of course we had to unite with the Eighth Route Army!