Chapter 297: Changchun Offensive and Defensive Battle of Weiyuan Fort Blocking (1)
After the eleven divisions surrounded the Lotus Mountain, Umezu Mijiro did not immediately order to launch a general attack on the Lotus Mountain, and now Lin Junxiong's new army was besieged in Changchun City by himself, and the rear base of the new first army was also surrounded, Umezu Mijiro learned Lin Junxiong's tactics and consumed the fighting spirit of the other party in the two besieged places, and he wanted to make the new army completely desperate.
In addition to strengthening the monitoring of the New First Army in Jiandao Province and Tonghua Province, he also wanted to eliminate the Fifth Column of the New First Army in Xifeng County. Thinking that most of the main forces of the New First Army could be wiped out, Umezu Yoshijiro breathed a sigh of relief, the empire was losing on all fronts, and the lack of important war supplies such as oil made the empire even worse, and if it re-established its dominance in the northeast, it might be able to delay the empire's defeat.
The geographical location of Weiyuanbao Town at the junction of Xifeng County and Kaiyuan County is very important, the railway from Fengtian to Jilin passes through the town, and the highway from Fengtian to Jilin is only ten kilometers away from Weiyuanbao Town.
The deployment of the five verticals is mainly concentrated on the north and south sides of Weiyuan Fort, and the southern defense line covers Tashan from Weiyuan Fort to the south and extends to Maojia Wopeng Village, with a battle line of 20 kilometers; The northern defensive line extends from Weiyuanbao to the north to Fengji Highway to Shizigou Village, and the defensive line is 14 kilometers long. The Fifth Column plus the reserve force was only more than 50,000 people, and the 34-kilometer defense line made Diao Yongyun and Yun Dong also feel that the troops were seriously insufficient, but fortunately, the two guerrilla brigades in Xifeng County organized the local people to actively cooperate and support, and the various fortifications were successfully completed, and the people also spontaneously organized themselves to transport food and materials for the Fifth Column.
On November 30, the four divisions in the direction of Mukden led by Major General Yano Nobunaga arrived ten kilometers away from Weiyuanbao Town one day in advance, along the way several times the railway was bombed, had to turn the road, and then the road was destroyed in many places, many bridges were bombed, he had to take the troops around the railway, all the way down, Yano Nobunaga held back the fire, and finally arrived in Xifeng County, the reconnaissance force came to the front Weiyuanbao Town There was a new army blocking troops, he stomped the command knife fiercely, and ordered several reconnaissance troops to all attack, Reconnoiter the deployment of the blocking troops in the front, and on the other hand, call Umezu Mijiro to learn about the situation of the new 1st Army in Saifeng County.
At noon, Yano Nobunaga gathered the information from the reconnaissance unit and Umezu Mijiro, and a disdainful smile appeared on his face, "It is a fool's dream that a small new army and five columns dare to deploy more than 30 kilometers of defense, and want to stop my four divisions of the Great Japanese Imperial Warriors!" ”
At two o'clock in the afternoon, Yano Nobunaga sent two divisions to attack the front-line positions from Fort Weiyuan to Tashan. Thousands of shells roared together and poured down on the positions of the Fifth Column, which relied on the newly constructed less sturdy fortifications to fight bravely. The devils of the two divisions made a total of 7 charges to the position outside the town of Weiyuanbao and 9 charges to the position of Tower Hill, and after suffering heavy casualties, there was no progress.
At 6 o'clock in the afternoon, Yano's troops, which had encountered stubborn resistance on the southern defense line of the Fifth Column, had to retreat to rest. Yano Nobunaga sent two other divisions to attack the defensive line from Weiyuanbao Town to Shizigou Village in the north, charging many times in a row, and still unable to break through the five-column defense line with heavy losses.
On December 1, Yano Nobunaga sent a division to contain the defensive line north of Fort Weiyuan, and concentrated the forces of three divisions to carry out a key attack on Tower Hill on the defensive line south of Fort Weiyuan.
All the artillery of the three divisions of the devil attacked the position of the five columns, and Tashan was suddenly drowned in a sea of fire. After the fierce bombardment, the devils launched a fierce attack on the forward position of the Five Vertical Tower Hill from the front and the left and right flanks at the same time.
Responsible for the defense of the forward position of Tashan was the 118th Regiment of the Fifth Column, the commander of the regiment Liu Erlong personally commanded in the forward trenches, and the devils launched many attacks regardless of casualties, but the 118th Regiment retreated under heavy fire.
The devil seemed to be determined to break through the defensive line from Tashan, and then concentrated the fire of thirty or forty field artillery and howitzers, and bombarded fiercely for about 30 minutes, projecting more than 1,000 rounds of artillery (explosive) shells. Most of the fortifications of the forward position of the 118th Regiment were destroyed, and the troops suffered large casualties, and the devils took the opportunity to launch a group attack, Liu Erlong led the 118th Regiment to defend and not retreat, but in the end, due to excessive casualties, the devils took the opportunity to occupy the forward position on the left side of Tashan.
At this critical juncture, Hu Xianqiang, commander of the 109th Division, who was observing the front-line battle on a hill to the east, led the troops of a regiment of the reserve to penetrate the forward position on the left side of Tashan through the blockade of the devil's firepower, quickly organized personnel, stopped the devils, and stabilized the situation. The guard battalion of the 109th Division arrived in time, and after joining up with the reserves, it fought for 20 minutes with the devils who broke through, killing and wounding most of them, and recovering the lost forward positions on the left side.
The cunning devil took advantage of the forward position to defend the new army concentrated on the left forward position, launched a fierce attack on the right position, the 118 regiment three companies ran out of ammunition, and the follow-up ammunition supply was also cut off by the devil, the company commander Xu Zhongzhi led the fifty people who could still fight and the devil to start a white-edged battle, and finally only Xu Zhongzhi was left, he pulled the last grenade and died with the devil, and the front of the right position was occupied by the devil.
Liu Erlong took the 118th Regiment's 1st Battalion, 2nd Company, 6th Company, and 9th Company to take advantage of the devil's unstable foothold, and carried out a counterattack with rapid and courageous movements, repelling the devils, and the front of the position was recaptured by us.
After the stubborn resistance of the 118th Regiment, and with the support of Hu Xianqiang's guard battalion and reserves, the Tashan position withstood several suppressive frontal attacks by the devils. In the evening, the defense troops of the five columns paid the price of nearly 1,000 casualties and resisted the crazy attack of the devils, who paid the price of nearly 5,000 casualties and still could not enter Tashan.
On December 2, Nobunaga Yano halted the attack due to the heavy casualties of the previous two days of fighting, and adjusted the deployment of troops, increasing the reconnaissance area, trying to find the weak points of the Weiyuan fort defense line, or find a route that could bypass the Weiyuan fort defense line.
Diao Yongyun ordered the troops everywhere to step up the repair of the bombed-out fortifications while the devils were resting, and at the same time ordered the column commandos to attack and eliminate the devils' reconnaissance troops. Diao Yongyun took Yun Dong to various forward positions to personally supervise the battle, and organized "death squads" in various defensive positions, so as to attack at a critical moment and give the devil a fatal blow. At the same time, it is required that all parts of the defense line also take advantage of this opportunity to rush to repair the fortifications, reorganize the organization, and prepare for a fierce battle.
December 3rd was the fiercest day of the battle at Fort Weiyuan. After Yano Nobunaga's troops rested, they could not find the weakness of the Weiyuan Fort defense line, and the road was blocked by mountains or rivers in the distance, so they had no choice but to use the strength of three divisions to break through the two flanks and attack Tashan, and at the same time send a division to attack the area around Shizigou Village, trying to break through the Weiyuan Fort defense line.
At 7:30 a.m., the Devil's artillery began to bombard the positions of Tower Hill fiercely. After an hour of fruitless onslaught, the two divisions of the devil continued to feint at Tashan, and the other division quietly moved towards Maojiawopeng Village to the south of Tashan, trying to launch a surprise attack.
The devils carried out a group attack on the five-column defensive position of the Shizigou Bridge on the Fengji Highway on the west side of Shizigou Village. The 122nd Regiment, which held its position, responded calmly and repelled the devil's charge again and again. The devils piled up the corpses of the dead soldiers as active fortifications and advanced step by step to the front of the position, but in the face of the fierce fire of the 122nd regiment, the devils suffered heavy losses and could not move an inch.
The angry devil mobilized all the artillery fire and attacked the 122nd regiment on the opposite side of the bridge, and at the same time ordered the death squad to rush across the Shizigou bridge, and the commander of the 122nd regiment, Zhang Yunlong, decisively ordered the death squad to brave the devil's artillery fire to blow up the Shizigou bridge, cutting off the devil's intention to break through the defense line from the Fengji highway.
When he entered Maojia Woshan Village and found that the village was empty, the commander of the devil's division immediately realized that the situation was wrong, and before he could give the order to retreat, the sound of explosions was thought of everywhere in Maojia Wo Village, and the firewood piled up on the periphery of the village was ignited at the same time, and the whole Devil Division turned into a roast pig in Maojia Den Village, with frightened screams everywhere and chaotic gunfire everywhere, and Maojia Wo Shed Village became a hell for devils.
The Fengji Highway was blown up, a division in Maojia Wopeng Village had no return, the original four divisions were now only two divisions left, and they could not break through the Weiyuanbao defense line, and the four divisions they led would face the danger of annihilation, Yano Nobunaga did not dare to report the real casualties to Umezu Mijiro, and only hoped that today he could make every effort to break through the already crippled Tashan defense line, and he ordered to concentrate his forces to launch a larger-scale attack on Tashan.
At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Yano Nobunaga jointly attacked Tashan with two divisions, replacing the 118th Regiment of the 109th Division of the 119th Division defending the forward position of Tayama.
The devil's death squad was in front, followed by the infantry, covered by artillery, and launched a continuous attack. By 6 p.m., the 119th Regiment had repelled a total of 8 group attacks by the entire brigade and the entire wing of the Devils. During the battle, the 119th Regiment stubbornly resisted the enemy even though the contact between the battalion and company was interrupted from time to time due to the impact of the devil's artillery bombardment, and a large number of fortifications were destroyed. Although the casualties of the whole regiment were heavy, they always held their positions and did not give up an inch of land. At the height of the battle, the 1st battalion was in the left position, repeatedly counterattacked, and fought with the devils with bayonets more than 10 times, effectively striking the enemy's offensive spirit.
At half past six in the afternoon, Yano Nobunaga decided to launch another general attack. Attacking the left forward position of the devil a division with a submachine gun group impact, after being hit down by the 119 pattern, and then bare chest and back, carrying a big knife, rushing up again with a machine gun, one of them approached the front barbed wire, the 119 regiment death squad rushed forward, and the devil fought hard to defeat it, after repelling the devil 3 group impacts, the whole regiment was injured nearly half, the regiment commander Zhang Yuanshan was also stunned by a shell left beside him, and the wound on the top of his head was still bleeding. Regardless of his wounds, he quickly organized the men of the position, fought the enemy with stones, rifle butts, and bayonets, and held the position until the counterattacking troops arrived and repelled the enemy. The machine gun team of the 3rd Battalion and 1st Company of the 119th Regiment, led by the leader Jin Chenglin, killed 6 devils, took advantage of the counterattack to penetrate into the enemy's depth, and used 1 box of devil grenades to throw themselves into the enemy group. The devil immediately became confused and fled in all directions. 3 light machine guns were captured and returned to their positions in victory. After a day of fierce fighting, the Tashan defense troops repelled the repeated attacks of the devils and eliminated nearly 7,000 devils.