Chapter 244: The Bloody Battle of Songshan II

Wang Jingyuan is now at the foot of Songshan Mountain, looking at it with a telescope.

"Ziwen, if you can't attack it again this time, my main force will be abandoned."

Zhang Ziwen's original idea seemed naïve, but he didn't expect the Japanese army to be so stable, and the position was lost, and the dark fort could still be calm.

The trumpet sounded, and the 246th Regiment rushed directly to Songshan with the tactics of a sea of people.

Rush to high ground within 15 minutes and occupy the first half of the position.

Zhang Ziwen thought that he could succeed, but the enemy army held the rear half of the position and did not retreat.

Wang Jingyuan's face sank, and he said bitterly: "Elect the artillery, bomb Lao Tzu, and bomb him to death." Those who died in this attack will be given 100 pass tickets each. ”

No one questioned it, Zhang Ziwen could only shut up, Wang Jingyuan couldn't persuade himself.

The shells roared towards the high ground, and in the shells the soldiers raised their guns and rushed into the flames.

On the other hand, the 308th Regiment attacked about 20 meters in front of the fort on the first heights, sprayed the enemy fort with flamethrowers, and 40-50 enemy troops sprang out of the east and west forts to counterattack, and most of them were annihilated by the 308th Regiment.

The remnants of the enemy gathered in the communication trench on the north side of Heights A, preparing to counterattack again.

It was strafed by the artillery of the bamboo slope, the Yin Mountain, and the 4 heavy machine guns of the 308th Regiment. All of them were wiped out, and none of them slipped through the net.

In addition to those who were buried in the ground by shelling and burned in the fort, the corpses of the enemy in the vicinity of the fort were 68 .

Our troops captured 5 large and small guns, 1 antiaircraft machine gun, 5 light and heavy machine guns, and more than 20 rifles.

From August 3 to 7, all units of the 8th Army launched an attack on the Chen, Ha, Wu, and Weizhu heights and human villages around the main Fengzi Heights of Songshan to clear the road for the final assault on Songshan, which was the sixth siege of the Battle of Songshan.

After 5 days of hard fighting and heavy sacrifices, the perimeter was finally cleared and the road was opened to attack the main peak of Matsuyama.

Since the 8th Army took over the siege of Songshan on 2 July, it launched six sieges successively, and finally conquered the Rolling Dragon Slope Heights, but the troops suffered great losses.

There are only 8 officers and men left in the 1st Battalion of the 246th Regiment, only more than 10 officers and men in the 2nd Battalion, and only more than 20 in the 3rd Battalion of the 2nd Rong Regiment.

He Shaozhou did not use Zhang Ziwen, but transferred the 309th Regiment of the 103rd Division, which was on guard duty at Xiangyun Airport, and the 3rd Battalion of the 3rd Regiment of the Rong 1st Division at Baoshan Airport.

Songshan could not be attacked for a long time, which directly affected the overall situation of the counteroffensive in western Yunnan and northern Burma. At that time, the main forces of the 11th and 20th armies of the expeditionary force were attacking the enemy at Longling and Tengchong respectively, and the Indian army had already conquered Myitkyina.

Due to the Songshan Weike, the Yunnan-Burma Highway could not be blocked, which restricted the actions of the counteroffensive armies on all routes.

Under these circumstances, Wei Lihuang, commander of the expeditionary force, conveyed Chiang Kai-shek's urgent order that the Eighth Army should be allowed to recover Songshan in early September.

He Shaozhou urgently convened the commanders of all divisions and discussed countermeasures overnight.

The atmosphere in the Yin Mountaineering Headquarters was about to solidify, and sitting in the middle of a group of generals, Zhang Ziwen was a little embarrassed.

He Shaozhou just clicked on Zhang Ziwen, and Zhang Ziwen had to stand up.

"Now that the commander has ordered me, the commanders can only get the axe in the class. He believes that our army still has more than 20 days to spare, and there is plenty of time. The outlying positions have all been regained after two months of attack by the 71st Army and our army. The distance is not far, we can take civil fortifications and dig step by step to the feet of the enemy. ”

Everyone didn't believe it, because of the soil layer of Songshan, the civil fortifications were particularly difficult, and the Japanese artillery was not stupid, how could it be possible for you to dig it in a month's time.

"I think it's completely feasible, so we went here and blew up the mountain with explosives."

Talking about it all night, Li Migang wanted to refute it but found that He Shaozhou proposed it, so he had to give up.

"If you don't have any opinions, then do so, Wang Jingyuan is fully responsible, Zhang Ziwen assisted in commanding the military engineer battalion and the 246th Regiment of the 82nd Division, to carry out trench operations under the vertical of the sub-heights, digging two tunnels to the bottom of the enemy fortress on the top of the mountain, forming two medicine rooms, filling a large number of explosives for blasting. Bingren, Xiong Shou Chunlinsheng, you continue to maintain pressure on the Japanese army. ”

Zhang Ziwen looked at Xiong Shouchun, the commander of the 103rd Division, and didn't know how this Jiangxi person could suppress tens of thousands of Guizhou children.

Among the fortifications constructed by the Japanese army in Matsuyama, the fortress of Esub-Highland was the largest and most fortified, and the surrounding side fire network was the tightest. The attacking forces of the 8th Army stormed the sub-heights four times.

After reaching the top of the mountain, they could not penetrate the inside of the fortress, but were exposed to a dense network of fire on all sides, and each time they were severely injured and unable to stand.

Despite the repeated bombardment by planes and the continuous heavy artillery bombardment, the enemy fortress on the sub-high ground was not destroyed, and its solidity can be imagined.

The 246th Regiment suffered heavy casualties, and Zhang Ziwen transferred the first battalion of Dali to cover the fire of the civil fortifications in order to protect the engineers.

Beginning on 3 August, the 8th Army Engineer Battalion, in coordination with the 246th Regiment, began trench operations from the first line position about 150 meters away from the enemy, first digging four trenches with a depth of 1.8 meters each and a width of 1 meter, and gradually pressing into the sub-high ground.

Trenches were covered to prevent enemy grenadiers and grenades from killing or wounding. Due to the narrowness of the working surface. Sappers excavated in shifts, day and night, and the progress was fast.

From the 3rd to the 12th, about 12 meters were advanced each day and night, and each trench advanced about 120 meters. and communicate horizontally between the trenches, cover them, and build firing bunkers to cover the continuation of operations.

As the trenches pressed deeper into the enemy positions, the enemy's sabotage activities became more and more rampant. Engineers and covering troops were constantly killed and wounded by the enemy.

The trench digging troops braved the enemy's bullets and bullets to continue their work. When the trenches were advanced about 30 meters vertically below the sub-highland fortress, a tunnel was dug between the 1st, 2nd and 3.4th trenches, each 1.2 m high and 1 m wide, supported by a simple wooden frame.

From the 13th to the 18th, about 5 meters were excavated every day and night. It is estimated that it has reached the bottom of the enemy fortress, that is, the excavation chamber and the loading of explosives.

It was calculated in advance that in order to completely destroy the enemy fortress, it would be necessary to use 3 tons of TNT explosives, that is, 120 boxes of 25 kg of explosives each. Fill 70 boxes in the right pharmacy and 50 boxes in the left pharmacy.

On the 19th, the dawn charge was completed. Then fill the medicine room with hemp packaging soil, and then fill the soil along the tunnel and tamp it to increase the blasting power. By the afternoon of the 19th, the blasting preparations were all completed and ready for detonation. For the sake of safety, in addition to the installation of electrical initiating devices, a fuse was also laid as a preparation. The ignition position was set up near the command post of the Rong 3rd Regiment, about 500 meters away from the explosion point.

During the excavation of trenches and tunnels and the preparation for blasting, the units of the 8th Army continued to harass the enemy, and the air force and artillery continued to bomb to maintain pressure on the defending enemy and cover the difficult preparation of the blasting.

In the meantime, the 7th siege was launched on the morning of August 8, and the 308th Regiment cleared all the enemy troops between the two heights of Wei and Xin, and once captured the Wei Heights, but later due to insufficient troops. Retreat to the line of the unhigh ground to build fortifications and hold on.

The 307th Regiment once captured the Gui Heights, but retreated due to the threat of fire resistance from the enemy's side, and on the 10th, it again captured the Gui Heights with trench operations. On the night of the 11th, five soldiers of the 307th Regiment rushed into Dazhai, killed several enemy officers who were at a meeting with grenades, and captured one piece of Long 6734 Unit (code name of the 113th Wing).

On the 13th, the reinforced company of the 246th Regiment arrived at Hengtang and made contact with the 307th Regiment.

From the 13th to the 17th, the 307th Regiment continued to clear enemy shelters on both sides of the road in front of it.

The skirmishes of the 8th Army for several days exhausted the enemy and covered the completion of the preparations for the demolition of the heights.

On the 17th, the 3rd Battalion of the 3rd Rong Regiment arrived at Lameng from Baoshan, and the 2nd Company of the Junshan Artillery Battalion also arrived on the same day.

The 8th Army then decided to blast the high ground at 9 a.m. on the 20th and launched the 8th siege.