The defenders of the three infantry regiments in the east, west and south cities of the 43rd Army have replenished 800 soldiers from the transport battalion and more than 1,600 new soldiers. The strength of the troops has basically not changed much compared to the previous day.
However, the combat effectiveness has dropped by at least half, and the ratio of veterans to recruits has increased from four to one a day ago to a terrifying one to one.
Naturally, the Japanese army was not much better. Last night Yanagawa Heisuke left an infantry supplementary brigade to replenish the 6th Division with a full 5,000 supplementary troops. The four severely damaged infantry regiments were almost restored to full strength, but their combat effectiveness was also insufficient.
Avoided decline.
In the street fighting on the second day, China and Japan were like two giant beasts that had been fed and drunk on the surface but had become weak. They re-entered the arena where it was either you die or I lived. The fight was even more intense than the previous day.
A bit more tragic.
Not only was the proportion of new recruits on both sides increasing, but as soon as the battle started, the casualties of new recruits increased rapidly due to experience problems, but also because in the morning, intelligence that the independent regiment's convoy was getting closer and closer to Songjiang reached the Sixth Division.
Although the Independent Regiment had to frequently enter the mountains and fields to set up positions and engage in fierce battles with Japanese aircraft due to the constant bombing and harassment by the Japanese navy in the sky, Hisao Tani knew that Chinese reinforcements would eventually arrive.
If it were two days ago, Hisao Tani might not have paid much attention to the Chinese army. Regardless of whether it was an independent regiment or not, in front of the Sixth Division, which is known as the "strongest division on the surface", no matter how many people came in front of it,
A plate of food. But after fighting in Songjiang for two days, even if Hisao Tani didn't want to admit it, he still had to admit that the tens of thousands of Chinese 43rd Army troops in the city alone were enough to make him miserable. If he came again
When thousands of people entered the city, his head really hurt, especially when it was an independent regiment led by the ruthless Liu Lang who was said to have defeated the 8th Division.
Therefore, he must capture the entire city before the Chinese reinforcements arrive. Even if he cannot capture the whole city, he must capture at least half of it, so that he can invest more troops and heavy firepower. As long as he can use
In a space with heavy firepower, even if the Chinese come to reinforce it, it will be useless.
From the moment he received the information, the crazy Tani Hisao began to invest more infantry into the city. In addition to the two infantry regiments in Xicheng District leaving an infantry brigade as a reserve force, the five infantry brigade totaled 5,000 troops.
After being put in, one infantry regiment in each of the other two urban areas and all three infantry brigades entered the battlefield except the regiment headquarters guard squadron which was not used.
In terms of infantry alone, Hisao Tani deployed 11 infantry brigades totaling more than 10,000 people in three urban areas.
But that's not all. Hisao Tani even divided the 36 field guns of the artillery regiment into three directions: east, west, and south to support the three cities. Instead of shelling 6,000 meters away, the field guns were pulled inside the city wall.
, bombard the target at close range.
The artillery observers boarded the balloon and observed the city from a position less than a kilometer away from the front line, providing the artillery with bombardment coordinates. They not only bombarded the buildings and streets guarded by Chinese soldiers, but even bombarded areas in the city that might become command posts.
buildings, as well as Chinese mortars and mountain artillery shelling.
This move was a bit like attaching bayonets to the cannons, and it also caused great losses to the Chinese soldiers in the city. When Lieutenant General Tani saw Hisao Tani, he almost revealed his trump card and went straight to the game, and no longer hid it.
As a result, they not only used machine guns to target Japanese artillery observers a thousand meters away, but also used 16 long-hidden mountain cannons to counterattack Japanese artillery.
The distance between the artillery on both sides is no more than 1,500 meters. Field artillery is against mountain artillery, and mortars are against infantry artillery. The Japanese army has artillery observers who are not afraid of death and float high into the sky. The Chinese have special forces who sneak into the battlefield to act as eyes. The needle points are against the wheat awns, and the bayonets are against them.
bayonet.
The artillery, which originally had a much lower death rate than the infantry, suffered a much higher casualty rate than the infantry in this bayonet-style artillery battle.
In just two hours of artillery battle, more than 12 of the 16 mountain cannons of the 43rd Army were damaged in the battle, and only four mountain cannons hidden in the military headquarters building were still firing wildly.
The Chinese artillery force was almost completely wiped out.
That is to say, because the mortar has a light body, after a few shots, it can carry the gun and run away before the Japanese artillery fire comes. The loss is relatively small, but it is still a loss of almost 50%.
The Japanese army, however, was not much better. The observation balloons that were raised at close range at great risk became targets for the machine guns hidden in the buildings. In the three cities of east, west and south, the Japanese army lost more than 15 balloons, including the ones above.
There was no way to escape the artillery observer who was smashed into a pulp.
The 75-caliber field artillery, which is more powerful and difficult to move, has become the key target of Chinese mountain artillery. The precise coordinate reconnaissance of the special forces has become one of the main reasons for their heavy losses. More than 18 field artillery were blown up.
Especially the terrifying artillery shell explosion. The explosion of 300 artillery shells with an explosion range of 200 meters not only took away the lives of nearly a hundred Japanese artillerymen, but also turned the supreme commander of the Japanese Sixth Artillery Regiment into ashes.
.That was also the second regimental commander-level colonel officer of the Sixth Division killed in the Battle of Songjiang.
Although, it won't be the last one.
These were only the casualties of the artillery on both sides. Both sides invested a total of more than 20,000 infantrymen to fight selflessly in a city with an area of only 2 square kilometers. The casualties were even more terrible.
The two warring parties have even stopped carrying the bodies of their own dead, because even the stretcher bearers have already carried their guns onto the battlefield.
This battle can be described as a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
As for the casualties of the artillery, the commanders of both sides basically turned a blind eye to the battle reports, even if their hearts were bleeding; as for the casualties of the infantry, the top commanders of both sides basically did not know. In fact, they did not want to know, they only knew,
Throw his soldiers into the battlefield wave after wave.
Killing the opponent and advancing (holding) their own positions is what the two top commanders on both sides want to do while looking at the map with red eyes.
Death has become the cheapest thing on this battlefield.
Even the most cowardly soldiers no longer have much fear of death after getting used to it. It is not a numbness to death, but a numbness to survival. Death is normal, but living is unexpected.
According to Japanese battle reports a few months after the war, on this day alone, the Sixth Division used 20 infantry guns, 12 mountain guns, 13 rapid-fire guns, and 36 field guns to participate in the bombardment of Songjiang City.
A total of more than 13,000 rounds of incendiary bombs, high-explosive bombs, armor-piercing bombs and other types of artillery shells were consumed every day, almost all the artillery shells stored in the Sixth Division were consumed.
This desperate attack was one of the reasons why the Japanese base camp ultimately attributed the defeat of the 6th Division to Hisao Tani's too radical approach.
After this day, not only did the Sixth Division's artillery of various calibers suffer more than 30 battle losses, but more importantly, even if there were cannons, there were not many artillery shells left. Unless they could wait until the baggage troops were berthed in 10 hours
Replenishment on transport ships in Hangzhou Bay.
It's a pity that the Sixth Division could not wait until that time.
In fact, although Hisao Tani was crazy, he did not completely lose his mind. Faced with the reinforcements that could arrive at any time from the Chinese army, he almost invested most of his own troops in Matsue Castle, but the Japanese Army, which had 25,000 troops,
The lieutenant general still has a reserve force of up to 3,000 people consisting of engineers, cavalry, baggage troops and division and regiment guard troops.
The 105 howitzers of the 6th Artillery Regiment under the division are still at the rear. With 2,000 rounds of artillery shells, they can blast any incoming enemy into ashes. Moreover, there is also a howitzer of the 114th Division nearby.
The infantry brigade can not only guard the artillery regiment, but can also be deployed on the battlefield at any time.
Hisao Tani, who has far more powerful troops than the Chinese 43rd Army, still retains nearly half of his strength, but forced the Chinese Army Lieutenant General to use all his trump cards.
At the height of the fighting, the infantry regiment guarding North City even ignored the danger that the Japanese might launch an attack from the north gate and sent seven of its nine infantry companies through underground pipelines to support West City and South City, where the battle was most urgent.
If the Japanese army has spies in the 43rd Army, Songjiang North City, which is only garrisoned by two infantry companies, will be like a paper barrier. It does not need an infantry brigade, but only two infantry squadrons can penetrate it with one blow.
It's a pity that the Japanese intelligence personnel are not that good. Not only is the Sichuan dialect difficult to learn, but on this terrible battlefield, even spies are likely to be used as cannon fodder on the battlefield. Yellow and blue
The two types of military uniforms are the symbols of soldiers from both sides aiming and shooting. It doesn't mean that someone who shouts "dig you, dig in" can block the muzzle of the gun aimed at you.
Under the crazy attack of the Sixth Division, the 43rd Army gradually exhausted its vitality and its position shrank little by little. Even the commanders of each regiment began to personally go into battle with pistols to supervise the battle.
In Xicheng District, where the Japanese army was mainly attacking, the commander of the 152nd Regiment, Xie Guji, was killed at around 3 p.m.
Liu Xueyuan, who happened to be in the headquarters building of the 152nd Regiment, witnessed all this with her own eyes. She wrote in her field diary of the Songjiang Battle that day: A company commander led less than a platoon of soldiers back to the position near the regiment headquarters.
The lieutenant, who had lost his helmet and had blood on his face, lowered his head and said something to the angry-faced commander. I don’t know if he was defending or asking for more soldiers, but I knew that he was definitely not cowardly, because
, this was the third time that he led his soldiers to the battlefield, but still failed to regain the position. The Japanese army had already attacked an area less than 200 meters away from the regiment headquarters. It was unknown when the entire Xicheng District defense line would be lost.
Through the window, I could see the anger in the eyes of the leader of the liberation group 30 meters away. It was so hot that it could almost ignite the battlefield. He pulled out his pistol and fired. The bullet hit the lieutenant who turned around and was about to return to the battlefield. The lieutenant seemed not to be aware of himself at all.
I was shot and ran a few steps towards the battlefield before falling to the ground. I don’t know how to describe my mood at that moment. Although I also know that military orders are ruthless and military law is ruthless, I still can’t understand Commander Xie’s actions.
Decisive.
But I was wrong. The captain took off his military uniform and put it on the lieutenant who was shot by himself. Then, holding a pistol, he stood in front of the group of soldiers. He wanted to take the lieutenant's place and replace him.
He completed the military order.
Military orders are like mountains! Look at death as if you are home!
My mind was filled with these eight words, and the rest was blank, but that was also the last time Captain Xie appeared in front of my eyes.
A blazing fireball rose up in front of my eyes, drowning Captain Jie who rushed into the battlefield 50 meters away!
With tears streaming down my face, I remembered that "I would like to be a ghost on the battlefield after death, but not a native of my hometown during my lifetime!"