Major Kurokawa Honor was actually not the first Japanese officer to die in the Battle of Hengyang.
June 1st at 6am!
The forward troops of the Japanese army on the East Road arrived at Quanxi City, about 20 miles away from Hengyang City!
The first to arrive were the plainclothes teams. They did not wear military uniforms, but their ferocious nature remained unchanged. Fang Xianjue's worries came true. The Japanese plainclothes teams captured dozens of Chinese civilians in nearby villages who had no time to escape, and forced them to walk on the road at gunpoint.
The front of the team covered the Japanese army's seizure of the new dock on the east bank of Lishui River, preventing the Chinese defenders from firing.
As time went by, by 1 p.m., more and more Japanese troops arrived. A squadron leader came to the edge of Leishui River to carefully observe the movements on the other side. Under the blazing summer sun, the two sides of Leishui River were calm and calm, and even the reeds were scattered.
like a statue.
The Japanese infantry squadron leader did not dare to be careless and ordered the soldiers to use infantry cannons to fire across the river to test for movement. The shelling continued for 10 minutes but there was no sound. Only then was it confirmed that the Chinese defenders had indeed dispersed.
As a result, the Japanese troops rushed down to the river, took motorboats and wooden boats and rushed to the other side at full speed.
The brigade commander had promised these two infantry brigades that whichever infantry brigade could put its flag on the terminal of Hengyang Airport within two days would be the winner.
As the 6th Infantry Brigade of the 57th Infantry Brigade of the 68th Division, they marched all the way to the banks of the Leishui River, which is less than 15 miles away from Hengyang Airport. How can they still hold back their thoughts of winning the first prize?
At the same time, Lieutenant General Sakuma, commander of the 68th Division, was still on a truck 40 kilometers away from Hengyang. His eyes stayed on the map of Hengyang in his hand, and he had no intention of looking at the scenery outside the window.
It is about to become a fertile land occupied by the empire under the iron heel of the 68th Division. If it had been anyone else, it would have been no longer as high-spirited as possible?
It's not that Lieutenant General Sakuma has no interest, but that the Japanese Army Lieutenant General knows the importance of this battle for the 68th Division, which has finally won the main attack on Hengyang.
If the fight is successful, the C Division may be upgraded to a B Division like the 116th Division. If the fight is not successful, the division commander will have to serve as deputy to Yokoyama Isamu, and the 68th Division will be completely reduced to a security guard.
division.
Therefore, after Sakuma won the Battle of Tanzhou, he planned the battle against Hengyang, especially the Hengyang Airport on the east bank of the Xiangjiang River, which was a must-win area for him. Even if the 11th Army Headquarters temporarily revised the battle plan,
He ordered the 68th Division to attack the west of Hengyang City. He also ordered the two independent infantry brigades under the 57th Brigade under the division to remain unchanged and rush to Hengyang Airport, making a heavy promise.
"Your Excellency, Division Commander, the 6th Infantry Brigade sent a telegram. They have crossed the Lei River and are about to arrive at the outskirts of Hengyang Airport!" When the convoy stopped, the captain of the division's communications squadron ran to the front of the car and rubbed his forehead to get rid of it.
A tired Japanese Army Lieutenant General reported.
"Yo Xi! Call back to Major Ogasawara and order them to speed up their march and try to reach Hengyang Airport in the evening and capture it." A trace of excitement flashed in Sakuma's eyes.
The Guangdong-Hankong Railway has been successfully cut off. If the airport is captured again, the Chinese defenders in Hengyang City will be alone and will no longer be able to receive any assistance from the outside world. His Excellency Hengshan Yong shouted at the military meeting, "Get it in three days."
The slogan "Go to Hengyang!" will not become an empty talk.
"Miki-kun, what are you writing about?" Major Shichiro Ogasawara, captain of the 6th Infantry Battalion, who was standing on the bank of the river, suddenly asked Kazuo Miki, the second lieutenant communications officer who was standing slightly behind him.
"Your Majesty, Major, this is a diary to record my mood!" Second Lieutenant Kazuo Miki replied slightly awkwardly.
"Oh? Can you show me that? I also want to know what my soldiers are thinking when the Imperial Army is advancing in full swing." Ogasawara Shichiro looked at the group of soldiers who had boarded the ship and started to leave the shore.
The mood is obviously very good.
The captain had already spoken, but Second Lieutenant Kazuo Miki still dared to hesitate and respectfully handed over his diary.
"In May of Showa 19, the sky was clear. This was a rare sunny day since we entered the water towns of Hunan Province in China. The comrades were chasing and running in the fields. Such ease was also due to the complete defeat of the Chinese army.
Just the day before, that is, May 24, we finally captured Tanzhou, an important city in Hunan Province that the imperial army had been unable to capture for a long time. In order to capture this city, countless imperial soldiers sacrificed their lives, presumably two years ago.
My brother who died in the battle at Tanzhou City can finally rest in peace.
On May 26, the short vacation came to an end, and our division received an urgent combat order, which required us to assemble quickly and march to Hengyang. Although everyone is eager to relax, as an imperial soldier, combat is where we gain glory.
Way.
Prior to this, the imperial army had swept across China's Yu and Gui provinces. Although the Chinese army was said to have millions of soldiers, it was vulnerable to the imperial army.
This time, the 116th Division has taken the lead in advancing towards Hengyang as a vanguard force. The war is imminent, but everyone firmly believes that Hengyang is bound to be won this time. Ono-kun and I made a bet, who will kill less enemy troops after Hengyang is captured?
Invite anyone to drink.
On the 29th, our unit was getting closer and closer to Hengyang. Along the way, we encountered minimal resistance, but these have become things we are used to, and fleeing without fighting has long been a habit of the Chinese army.
On the 30th, our army approached Hengyang, and our aviation forces were constantly circling above. This has always been our army's combat habit. We used intensive artillery fire to destroy the enemy's will to resist, and then used the Bushido spirit to completely eliminate them.
Captain Ogasawara invited several squadron commanders to drink. I, a little communications officer, was also lucky enough to attend. During the dinner, everyone talked about the upcoming Battle of Hengyang. For this purpose, our 11th Army committed three divisions to participate in the attack on the enemy city.
The siege, but in the eyes of the gentlemen here, this is a bit unnecessary. To capture a small Hengyang, there is no need for three divisions of the imperial army.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! That night, everyone drank a lot and was in a happy mood. Everyone was celebrating the upcoming victory.
Far away mother, Kazuo misses you very much. I separated from you a year ago and came to a foreign country. But mother, please don’t worry. I will definitely complete my brother’s unfinished business with full glory and look forward to us in Tokyo.
goodbye."
Major Shichiro Ogasawara softly read the words that his communications lieutenant had been recording in the past few days, with the corners of his mouth slightly raised.
The communications lieutenant's relatively happy mood is all due to the military exploits of the imperial army!
"June 1st, Qing! Our infantry brigade, led by Mr. Ogasawara, is crossing the river with high morale..."
This is what Kazuo Miki just wrote!
"Miki-kun, your writing is very good, but I still have to give you some advice. When you keep mentioning me in the diary, don't forget the brigade commander and the division commander!" Major Ogasawara Shichiro said with a full face.
He guided with a smile.
"Hi!" Kazuo Miki quickly stood up and lowered his head.
"Dong dong dong dong!" The terrifying sound suddenly tore through the sky!
That's the sound of rapid-fire cannons firing continuously!
The two Japanese officers who were having a conversation suddenly turned their heads and looked towards the center of the river, where water columns continued to rise on the river.
A Japanese captain who was standing on the front of the motorboat and looking around was caught off guard and was lifted into the air by the air wave from an exploding shell. He rolled several times in the air and fell into the rushing water.
In an instant, there was a roar of gunfire and fire on the river!
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!" A lung-splitting voice sounded from the shore.
The diary recording the happy mood of Second Lieutenant Kazuo Miki fell to the ground and was stained with mud!
Ambushing in the reeds on the riverbank across the Lei River is the 1st Battalion of the 568th Regiment of the 190th Division.
After the 190th Division arrived in Hengyang on June 30, Fang Xianjue arranged to defend Hengyang Airport. A total of more than 2,100 people from the 568th Regiment, an engineer company and a guard company directly under the 190th Division had a simple dinner in Hengyang City, and left Hengyang overnight.
Crossing the Xiangjiang River in the east of the city, they stationed at Hengyang Airport where there were no more fighter planes taking off or landing.
As the Japanese thought, Hengyang Airport was far away from the city and could have been abandoned. However, the Hengyang army still needed supplies. Once the Guangdong-Hankou Railway was cut off by the Japanese army, the airport would become the only access.
Fang Xianjue's idea is that if the Japanese army places its main attack direction in the southwest of the city, Hengyang Airport can be defended as long as it can. If the Japanese army invests heavy troops to attack the airport, the defenders will destroy the airport and then withdraw into the city.
You can’t just hand over the important points of an airport to others!
Of course, a more important tactic is attrition! Even if the Japanese army kills or injures hundreds of people during the attack, it will weaken part of the Japanese army's strength for future sieges.
This is actually very cruel. Hengyang Airport is located on the plain east of the Xiangjiang River and cannot be defended. The consumption of the Japanese army is actually a consumption of the officers and soldiers of the 10th Army.
But as the saying goes, "Compassion does not control troops." Even if he has understood this for a long time, Fang Xianjue, the supreme commander, will still do this.
All the positions outside Hengyang City were actually used to consume the Japanese army, consuming not only blood and lives, but also morale.
The Japanese army is not a wooden person without emotion. The large number of corpses and wounded soldiers will also make them fearful. When the Japanese army clears all the positions outside the city, their morale will definitely be far worse than when they first arrived. At that time, Hengyang City will have a glimmer of hope.
As for the Hengyang defenders, their morale may be low, but for a lone army, do they still need to use morale to improve their combat effectiveness? If you don’t want to die, you have to fight hard. All Chinese people still in Hengyang, including Fang Xianjue, have no
Second option.
The 190th Division, which chose to accept the order, quickly arrived at Hengyang Airport under the leadership of division commander Rong Youlue, and sent the first battalion of the 586th Regiment to Leihe 20 miles away. The combat mission assigned by Rong Youlue to the battalion was not difficult.
The first battalion did not need to defend, but only needed to slow down the Japanese attack speed to gain time for Hengyang Airport to deploy its defenses.
But Major Yang Jihe, the commander of the first battalion of the 190th Division, is no ordinary person. During the Battle of Changde, he was still the deputy battalion commander and personally led an infantry company to fight hand-to-hand with the enemy, killing more than 70 Japanese soldiers with a record of 80 deaths and 30 injuries.
, and used the dead Japanese soldiers as barricades to form fortifications, with only a dozen remaining soldiers hiding behind the fortifications made of Japanese corpses to face the reinforcements of the Japanese shooting, in order to cover the evacuation of the wounded soldiers injured in the hand-to-hand combat.
That guy, the Japanese army's crazy machine gun bullets were fired at the fortifications made of corpses, and real flesh and blood flew everywhere. Yang Jihe, who was hiding behind, had his head and face covered with flesh and blood, as ferocious as a devil, taking the lead in breaking into a barricade.
Several Japanese soldiers just watched as a red figure jumped out from the pile of corpses, holding a submachine gun and shooting at them.
It is a pity that no one has kept that extremely horrific and bloody scene deep in their memory, because all the Japanese soldiers who were stunned and slightly delayed were shot and killed on the spot.
The strong smell of blood even suppressed the smell of gunpowder smoke on the battlefield for the first time, causing the Japanese army to suspend the offensive for 15 minutes. It was during these precious 15 minutes that reinforcements from the 190th Division arrived. Yang Jihe, who already had only five soldiers,
The captain survived.
It is said that the Chinese soldiers who came for support stared at the 'blood demon' who lowered his gun and grinned at them for a long time before confirming that this was one of their own.
After the Battle of Changde, the ruthless Yang Jihe was directly transferred to the First Battalion as the battalion commander.
Just say, how could such a ruthless person even offer a little resistance?
"Battle Commander Yang, I order you to take your people and withdraw immediately." The commander of the 586th Regiment called from the fortifications being set up about 7 miles behind.
"You can't just take advantage of the little devil like this. You have to let the bastard know how powerful he is. If you retreat without a fight, it will only increase the enemy's morale and destroy your own prestige!" Yang Jihe twisted his neck and directly criticized his captain.
.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! The colonel leader also has no temper. 'Courage' itself is a double-edged sword. If you use it well, you will be invincible. If you use it poorly, it will be terrible.
The word "reckless" comes to the fore, and one bad move can lead to the death of hundreds of people.
Fortunately, Major Yang Jihe was not a reckless man. He not only planned to attack halfway across the river, but also had the confidence to fight against the Japanese army because of the four combat artillery pieces behind him.
Fang Xianjue is also a smart man. He knows well that it is not easy for more than 2,000 officers and soldiers of the 190th Division to go upstream. Since he has given him such an arduous task of defending Hengyang Airport, how could he not give him some support?
Not only did it promise to support the Hengyang Airport position with 8 artillery pieces in the city, but it also allocated 4 of the few combat defense artillery pieces in the city to be deployed directly to the 190th Division.
The 37mm anti-tank artillery made by the German Empire has been one of the most reliable reliance of Chinese infantry since the Songhu War began.
The effective range of 1,000 meters can be used as artillery to kill infantry, or it can directly aim at armored targets and fixed fortification targets. The 30mm thick armor on the front of the Type 89 main battle tank equipped by the Japanese infantry can often be penetrated by this gun in one hit.
.
Such artillery can be used to kill wooden boats and motorboats.
The motorboat at the front was immediately bombarded and rolled continuously on the river. The more than 10 wooden boats that followed were blown up and saw debris flying everywhere. The only way to survive was to jump into the river.
Fortunately, it was already June, the temperature was already 30 degrees, and the river was not too rough at this time. As long as the water quality was good enough, we could still swim back or to the other side of the river.
But unfortunately, the infantry battalion led by Yang Jihe was the sharp knife battalion of the 586th Regiment. It was equipped with more than 20 light machine guns alone, not to mention 5 heavy machine guns.
"Hit me. I'm so hot that I don't even dare to go into the water. How dare you play in front of me like this?" Yang Jihe was both a ruthless person and a wonderful person. He immediately gave the order with a glare.
20 light machine guns and 5 heavy machine guns opened fire together. The Japanese infantry in the water could only be living targets. The surface of the Leishui River was stained red with blood. Only a handful of the more than 300 Japanese infantry who boarded the ship were able to escape back to their own river bank.
More than 95% of them were buried in the 300-meter-wide Leishui River.
The list of those killed or missing in action includes a Japanese captain and 4 Japanese second lieutenants!
Ogasawara Shichiro on the other side of the river was so blinded by the sight, but he couldn't do much.
His infantry brigade was equipped with 12 heavy machine guns and 2 infantry cannons, but the Chinese firepower points were all hidden in the wide reed swamps, and the Japanese army could not determine the specific location of the firepower points in a short period of time.
Fire coverage? Relying on 2 infantry guns, it’s better to save money! Don’t fire a few guns, but they are stolen by the rapid-fire guns ambushed by the Chinese on the opposite river bank. Then the 6th Infantry Battalion is really going to cry.
Already.
This wave of fierce fighting lasted only 15 minutes and ended with a complete victory for China. From this moment on, the defense battle of Hengyang officially began.
The 11th Japanese Army used the lives of 304 infantrymen to sacrifice their flags! It was considered a blood sacrifice!
In the afternoon, the 6th Infantry Brigade changed its strategy and continued to feint attack Yang Jihe's battalion on the bank of Lei River with one unit. However, the main force of more than 400 people bypassed Quanxi City and quietly crossed Lei River from the south, intending to outflank this daring force.
Chinese troops stayed on the river bank to block them.
Yang Jihe had already deployed two infantry squads to guard his flanks 5 miles away. Once the Japanese troops were discovered, they immediately lit a bonfire of wet wood as a warning. Four of the heaviest anti-war artillery were sent to them early.
Five horse trough defense line at the rear.
As soon as the shadow of the 6th Infantry Brigade appeared, more than 500 officers and soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the 586th Regiment immediately ran away with their guns in hand.
The more than 400 Japanese infantrymen of the 6th Infantry Brigade, who were exhausted from running and marching on a hot day, were directly put into EMO.
The Chinese fled as described by the second lieutenant communications officer Kazuo Miki, but why was the taste so bitter?
Little do they know, a more bitter taste is yet to come!
It's night! Miki Kazuo wrote in his diary: "Mom, we underestimated the enemy's will to resist. The corpses of more than 200 imperial officers and soldiers have been piled up in the grass. They were fished out of the river in the evening.
Yes, their faces are as white as the snow in their hometown. On a summer night in Hunan Province, China, I am actually a little cold!"
