Battle of Songhu

Brief introduction

The Battle of Songhu began on the morning of August 13, 1937, when the Japanese army used the Japanese concession and the warships on the Huangpu River as the base to shell the Zhabei area, and our army began to fight back, and ended with our army's westward retreat on November 12. [1]

In this campaign, the Japanese army, with Senior General Matsui Ishine as commander-in-chief, successively invested nearly 300,000 troops in the army, navy, air force, and special forces, mobilized more than 130 ships, more than 400 aircraft, and more than 300 combat vehicles, and arrogantly claimed to occupy Shanghai within one month. At that time, the Nationalist Government was first commanded by Feng Yuxiang and then by Jiang Zhongzheng (concurrently) as the commander of the 3rd Theater of Operations. It has successively mobilized the central troops, troops from Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and other places, the tax police corps, the teaching corps of the Central Military Academy, and some provincial and municipal security corps, with a total strength of about 700,000 divisions, to bravely meet the battle.

Results

The Battle of Songhu thwarted the strategic intention of the Japanese army to break through in the center and achieve a quick victory, and shattered their dream of destroying China in three months. It was a historical turning point in China's transition from a local war of resistance to a full-scale war of resistance.

In this battle, more than 60,000 Japanese casualties were inflicted, and more than 200 planes and more than 20 warships were destroyed and damaged by our troops. However, our army stubbornly defended the front controlled by the superior firepower of the Japanese army with backward weapons, coupled with improper command, suffered heavy casualties, about 300,000 officers and men sacrificed their precious lives, and more than half of our regiment-level cadres were lost, resulting in a fault line in the middle and lower layers of our army, resulting in a decline in our army's combat strength in the future.

The Battle of Songhu ended in defeat

Battle of the Upper Heights

The "Battle of Shanggao" is famous at home and abroad, and is also known as the "Battle of Jinjiang". In the Battle of Shanggao, the Chinese army killed the commander of the Japanese major general, Iwanaga, and the captain of the Osa, Hamada, killed and wounded more than 16,000 Japanese soldiers, shot down 1 enemy plane, captured more than 2,800 Japanese military horses, and countless baggage materials. He Yingqin, chief of staff of the Central Military Commission, called it "the most splendid battle since the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression." Chiang Kai-shek was very satisfied with the 74th Army, which served as the main force of the attack, and awarded the 74th Army a "Flying Tiger Flag" in the name of the Military Commission, which was the highest reward in the National Revolutionary Army.

background

At that time, the Japanese invaders attempted to pull out the nail of the 19th Group Army of the Chinese army stationed in Shanggao, and from January onwards, the Japanese troops entrenched in Nanchang successively transferred the troops sent to western Hubei and Wuhan back to their original stations, and actively replenished their troops and increased supplies. The Japanese army actively carried out river crossing and night combat exercises, and the main force of the 3rd Flying Regiment of the Japanese Air Force invading China flew to Nanchang Airport one after another. The Japanese army was divided into three routes, with a total strength of about 65,000 troops, equipped with 40 combat vehicles and 150 aircraft, with the commander of the 11th Army Corps, Kazuichiro Sonobe, as the commander-in-chief.

The course of the battle

On March 15, 1941, Kazuichiro Enbe commanded 2 divisions and 1 independent mixed brigade to attack the Shanggao area by 3 routes from Anyi, Nanchang and other places, in an attempt to attack and annihilate the main force of the 19th Group Army in the 9th Theater of the Kuomintang Army.

AN Yi; After the 34th Division of the Japanese Army occupied Gao'an, it continued to attack Guanqiao, Sixi and other places; The 1st Brigade of the 20th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade of the South Road was blocked by the 49th Army of the Kuomintang Army in the area of Ducheng and Jinglou, and the main force was stopped in Gray Port, and was forced to cross the river to the north to join the 34th Division. Luo Zhuoying, deputy commander of the 9th Theater and commander-in-chief of the 19th Group Army, made up his mind on the 19th: to use the existing positions to resist one by one, and lure the Japanese army into the Shanggao area to encircle and annihilate them. Immediately telegraphed the order: "Strictly punish all armies to attack the enemy, and make sure that the enemy who penetrates deep into the north and south of the Jinhe River will be annihilated in the north and south areas of Gao'an." "In order to enhance the attack force of the Luo Group, the Commander's Department of the First Theater dispatched two divisions of Wang Lingji, Chen Liangji and Fu Yi of the Sichuan Army to the south from the Sandu Command District. Feared by the strict military discipline and knowing that reinforcements were about to arrive, the morale of the various armies was greatly boosted, and they fought bravely to fight the enemy first, and the battle to encircle and annihilate the Japanese 34th Division was launched in the Shanggao area.

The 34th Division of the Japanese Central Route Army was already in a desperate situation, but the 34th Division's ambition to seize Shanggao was not dead, since the 19th was stopped by Yu Chengwan's division near Sixi on the east bank of Surabaya, the 34th Division on the 20th adopted the tactics of cone-shaped breakthrough, concentrated more than 10 artillery pieces and more than 30 aircraft, concentrated on bombarding the Tang and Gangsiluo areas on the west bank of Surabaya, the position was destroyed, the enemy army then took the opportunity to divide the stall and Gangxiluo to force the crossing, Liao Qiling Division 1 bravely plugged the gap, fierce fighting until the night, the enemy brigade swarmed to the vicinity of Zhitangkan, the position was broken. At midnight on the 21st, Liao Qiling led his troops to move to Baimao Mountain, Xinshuxia, and the line of Caoshe to connect with the diagonal positions of Panjiaqiao, Yuntou Mountain, and Leijia Mountain of Yu Cheng Wanshi, as well as the reserve positions of Shigong Bridge and Downhill Bridge Xulou, so as to ensure Shanggaocheng. At that time, the main force of the 34th Division was attracted by the diagonal position, and the fierce battle continued to be fierce, but it still did not break through.

Under the strict supervision of Xue Yue and Luo Zhuoying, all the armies participating in the war fought bravely. In order to cut off the rear route of the Japanese 34th Division, Wang Yaowu ordered Li Tianxia to clear the remnants of the enemy on the south bank of the Jinjiang River on the 21st and lead his troops to advance to Gao'an. Unexpectedly, the 20th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade also assembled its headquarters that night, and launched an offensive on the 22nd, and as soon as the forward of the Li Division came out of Stone Street, the main force of the 20th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade crossed the river from the north bank of the Jinjiang River, and attacked through Lujiawei, attacking Lazhu Mountain with one force, and crossing from Hujia in the west of Stone Street to the south, copying the flank back of Li Division, and bombarding from north to south with 9 aircraft and 4 cannons. Li Shi was defeated and retreated to the southwest highlands of Stone Street. After Wang Yaowu received the report, he immediately changed the deployment: ordered the main force of Li Tianxia's division to be transferred to the left; The field supplementary regiment directly under the command of the army, which was placed near Yintang, rushed to Huayang to block the enemy's westward attack. At a speed of 1 hour and 15 miles, the field supplementary regiment braved the sky to strafe and intercept the troops by strafing and helping the troops, and at about 7 o'clock they seized Huayang and its unnamed heights in the northeast. At about 9 o'clock, the enemy army was so big that with the bombing cooperation of more than 10 planes, they pounced on Huayang, and the officers and men of the whole regiment fought bloodily. The 20th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade could not capture Huayang, so it turned to Kuangjia with the main force, and joined more than 1,000 people who crossed south from Baichetou to rush to Xiongfang along the river, intending to detour to the left flank of our army, and the 1st Battalion attached to the mortar 1st Company was sent to the left to extend to the left and engage the enemy in a T-shaped encounter. The enemy reinforced, counterattacked, and attacked the southern end of Xiongfang with a group, the Kuomintang army resisted to the death, and the enemy did not succeed, but set off a large number of incendiary bombs and poison gas. In the first half of the battle, Xiongfang was lost. Li Tianxia sent two regiments on the right flank to help first, and recaptured Xiongfang at midnight. At the same time, Stone Street and Jigongling were also conquered by Li Shi. The 20th Brigade of the Japanese Army, which was independently mixed, fell into the dilemma of being on its back.

The two sides fought fiercely until the early morning of the 24th, crushing the 34th Division's offensive against Nie's family and Baimao Mountain. In the morning, the 34th Division threw more than 3,000 remnants of the 20th Brigade and Regiment of the Independent Mixed Brigade transferred from the south bank of the Jinjiang River into battle, and the 3rd Reinforced Regiment of the Japanese Army also dispatched more than 70 planes and dropped more than 1,700 bombs. At noon, the enemy planes bombed in turn, and the enemy infantry had taken advantage of the gap to break through the downhill bridge, and the commander of Lai's infantry, Li Hanqing, led his sergeant team to counterattack several times, repeatedly hand-to-hand combat, and the Japanese suffered heavy casualties, and finally expelled the enemy from the downhill bridge. At this point, the 34th Division of the Japanese Army had lost its skills and was in a desperate situation.

Originally, Luo Zhuoying ordered all armies to take Gao'an as the goal of advancing and encircle and annihilate the Japanese army. Due to changes in the battle situation, on the afternoon of the 22nd, the reinstated armies were ordered to move forward to the northeastern area of Shanggao. On the afternoon of the 23rd, the two armies of Liu Duoquan and Li Jue entered Shijie, Guanqiao Street, and Yanggongwei separately, approaching Gray Port and Gaoyao, and the encirclement of the 34th Division had been completed. At the same time, Luo ordered all the armies to reduce the encirclement again and attack the enemy. On the 24th, Li Juejun and Zhang Yan regained Nanchaluo, reverted to Bijia's fierce attack, and advanced to the cold line of Jiezipo and Kengkou. Tang Boyin's division also arrived at the Temple of the Land King, and then attacked Sixi. The two divisions of Wang Lingji's army, Fu Yi and Chen Liangji, also spread out on the front line of Heshe and Leishi, attacking and advancing from north to south. At this point, the 34th Division was compressed into an oval encirclement of 10 miles from north to south and 30 miles from east to west. The Bi family, where the headquarters of Dahe was located, had been placed under the onslaught of the Kuomintang army, which caused the Japanese army to be shaken on all fronts.

In order to avoid the doom of the annihilation of the whole army, the 34th Division hurriedly asked the commander of the 11th Army, Yuanbu, for help, and Yuanbu immediately ordered reinforcements from the 33rd Division, and sent its chief of staff, Yuki Kinoshita, together with the chief of staff of operations, Yamaguchi Nakasa, and Captain Orene, to command all units on the spot to cover the 34th Division's escape back to Nanchang.

After receiving the order, the 33rd Division immediately sent its infantry brigade commander Shoji Araki to command the 215th Infantry Wing with a mountain artillery brigade as the right column; with the 214th Infantry Wing as the left column; On the 24th, the main force of the division was the central column, and on the 24th, it dispatched from Niuxing, Fengxin and other strongholds, and again attacked Wuqiaohe and Cunqian Street, and then rushed to Tangpu and Guanqiao respectively. On the morning of the 25th, the 33rd Division swooped down on the Kengkou, Jiezipo, and Nanluocha in front of the position of Zhang Fangchuan's division, which was encircling the Japanese army on the northern flank, and swooped down to meet the 34th Division's breakthrough. Zhang Shi was invincible and fell into the danger of being attacked by the enemy on his back, so he retreated to the vicinity of the Land King Temple at dusk and got in touch with Tang Boyin's division. Then the Sakurai Division attacked the Tang Division's Liangshannao and Tongzikeng positions. In view of the unfavorable situation for his own army, he voluntarily led his two divisions to withdraw to Fenghuangwei and Zhuangfang, so that the 33rd Division entered Guanqiao to join the 34th Division. In order to meet the breakthrough of the 34th Division, the 20th Brigade was independently mixed and returned to Gao'an on the 24th. On the 26th, the 104th Independent Infantry Brigade advanced westward, and on the 27th, it advanced towards the Dragon Regiment, occupied the containment position, and covered the retreat of the 34th Division.

On the morning of the 26th, Luo Zhuoying received an informal report that Zhang Yanchuan led two divisions out of the battle, but considering that Wang Yaowu's army had made progress in the frontal attack on the east and west of Shanggao, most of the remnants of the enemy on the south bank of the Jinjiang River had been cleared, and the Sichuan Army and the Northeast Army that came to help rushed to the battlefield, the Chinese forces were still superior to the Japanese side, so they decided to carry out a second encirclement battle and completely annihilate the 34th Division. At that time, the two divisions of Zhang Yanchuan and Tang Boyin were strictly ordered to abide by the previous order and do their best to intercept them near Guanqiao to prevent the enemy from breaking through and reinforcing the enemy; ordered Yu Chengwan's division to attack and advance through the north of Panjiaqiao; The two divisions of Liao Lingqi and Song Yingzhong attacked bravely with Guanqiao as the target; Wang Kejun's division attacked the enemy's flank east of Guanqiao; Fu Yishi to the south of Jiangjiazhou; Chen Liangji's division often turned to the southeast, demanded the enemy's fierce attack, and quickly gathered and annihilated the remnants of the enemy, so as to achieve complete success.

On the 27th, the 34th Division, under the support of the 33rd Division and the 20th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade, broke through the encirclement of the Chinese army, and marched eastward in the direction of the Diwangmiao according to the marching sequence of the division headquarters, baggage, independent mountain artillery team, wounded transport team, field hospital, and rear guard troops. In order to completely annihilate the fleeing enemy, Luo Zhuoying issued a general attack order at midnight: at noon on the 28th, all units targeted Guanqiao Street and Nanchaluo, and attacked fiercely to completely annihilate the remnants of the enemy.

On the 28th, Wang Kejun's division advanced to Guanqiao through Yanggongwei, and met the 34th Division's eastward retreat brigade, and Wang's division immediately blocked the line of the Moziling on the north and south highlands of Yanggongwei, and fought fiercely to contain the enemy on the line of the Toad Monument and the Tiger Ridge, and the 20th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Regiment that came from Gao'an to respond was also blocked near Longtuwei. Liao Lingqi's division, which was tasked with a frontal attack, pursued to the line of the Changling Ridge and the Barbarian Mei Heights, biting the rear guard of the 34th Division, and a fierce battle ensued. At noon, Li Tianxia's division arrived, and spread out on the front line of Shangluo Xiang, Shanyuan Li, and Fang Mind, attacking and caressing the enemy's right back; Yu Cheng Wanshi also arrived at Longxing Mountain, detoured to the south of Guanqiao Street, the remnants of the enemy retreated to the city and resisted, after the Liao Division's fierce attack, the city and the enemy fought to the unitary, annihilating more than 600 people defending the enemy. On the same day, Luo Zhuoying also issued a north-south flank attack on the peripheral armies at Shenshi, and quickly resolved the remnants of the enemy near Yanggongwei and Longtuwei, and immediately gave the order to pursue bravely.

On the afternoon of the 29th, Xue Yueqi and Liu Duoquan led Wang Tiehan, Wang Kejun, and Chen Liangji as the right pursuit army, and pursued the enemy Araki detachment along the Hunan and Jiangxi highways through Gao'an and Dacheng; Li Jue led Zhang Yanwei, Tang Boyin, and Song Yingzhong as the left pursuit army, and mortar the 33rd Division along Fengxin Avenue of Wuqiao River. At that time, more than 2,000 people of the 20th Brigade were holding on to the area of Longtuwei and Yanggongwei to attack our army, and Japanese planes came to bomb to cover the 34th Division's rout. The two divisions of Wang Tiehan and Wang Kejun attacked in the east, and the two divisions of Zhang Yanchuan and Tang Boyin pressed in the west, and the enemy suffered heavy casualties. On the afternoon of the 30th, they abandoned the two strongholds and broke to the northeast, and a group of more than 600 people fled to the vicinity of the village front street, and was falling into the main position of Zhang Yanchuan's division. At this point, the remnants of the enemy on the periphery were basically cleared, and the Liu and Li pursuit armies pursued and advanced in accordance with Xue Yue's telegram order.

On the 31st, Chen Hongshi advanced to the 2nd column to recover Gao'an, and Wang Tiehan's division recovered Xiangfuguan; It was the morning of the day, Zhang Yanchuan and Song Yingzhong, and the two divisions were restored to Fengxin; When Wang Tiehan was not in charge, he also Kexia Xishan and Wanchun Palace; On the 3rd, the armies pursued to the vicinity of Dacheng and Ganzhou Street, and because the Japanese troops had retreated into their original positions and held on to the danger, Luo then ordered the battle to stop.

Results

In this battle, the Chongqing Kuomintang Army Command announced the following results: killing and wounding more than 15,000 people under Iwanaga, commander of the infantry brigade of the Japanese major general, and Hamada, commander of the Ozuo Wing, more than 2,800 military horses, 10 artillery pieces of various kinds, and more than 1,000 rifles. In 1975, the War History Office of the Defense Research Institute of the Japanese Defense Agency compiled the book "Army Operations in the China Incident" revealing the embarrassment of Oga Shigeru's adventure: "At 2 o'clock in the morning of the 28th, the 8th Artillery Squadron, which was in charge of guarding the field hospital, was finally attacked by the superior Chongqing Army at the western end of Dimiao Village, resulting in the heroic death of all the squadrons after dealing with the artillery. Sakurai's division covered Oga's retreat and was severely attacked by the Chinese army: "On the 28th, it crossed Sixi and entered the east bank, and although it began to retreat on the 29th, it was completely defended and unable to shoot soon after its departure. Later, he received air-dropped ammunition and returned to his original station on 2 April after indescribable hardship. ”

significance

The Battle of Shanggao was the only time that the Kuomintang army won a victory when the number of people was inferior to the Japanese army (due to empty salaries and the lack of part of the establishment, the national army only had about 40,000 people in total, and the Japanese army only had more than 70,000 people)!

The victory in the Battle of Shanggao was due to the good fighting qualities and correct combat command of the Chinese officers, the fighting spirit of all officers and men who forged ahead bravely and the heroic spirit of treating death as home, and embodied the national integrity of the Chinese military and the people of uniting as one and hating the same enemy, as well as a high sense of national self-esteem and pride.

The victory in this battle dealt a heavy blow to the arrogance of the Japanese invaders and greatly boosted the Chinese nation's anti-Japanese fighting spirit! The glorious achievements of the descendants of Yan and Huang bravely resisting foreign aggression will surely shine in the annals of history and will be remembered for centuries!