Chapter 2119: Ren'an Qiang is surrounded

After the loss of Rangoon, the British troops in Burma withdrew north to the area of Prome, about 240 kilometers from Yangon. In mid-March, the British army units were combined into the 1st Burma Army, which was in Tonggu China

The 200th Division of the Expeditionary Force responded and served as the commander of the Irrawaddy River on the Western Front (right flank).

War.

The regiment consisted of the Anglo-Burmese 1st Division (Division Commander Major General Scott), the Anglo-Indian 17th Division (Division Commander Major General Smith) and the 7th Armored Brigade. The two infantry divisions each had three infantry brigades, and the 7th Armored Brigade had about 150 combat vehicles. The corps commander was Lieutenant General Slim. A total of 52 fighters and bombers of the Air Force. The total number of British troops was about 60,000.

Since the beginning of the Burma campaign, the British army has been defeated one after another, and its morale has become increasingly low. At this time, although he still has considerable strength, he lacks the will to fight. In Slim's words. It is "as difficult to lure a timid sparrow to your window sill to hold a position."

While the main force of the Chinese Expeditionary Force was preparing for the Battle of Pingmana in the center, the British army, which was responsible for the defense of the Western Front, could not withstand the attack of the Japanese 33rd Division.

Since the British army abandoned Prome on April 1, the British army retreated as soon as it came into contact with the Japanese army, and in less than half a month, it was about to lose the strategic places of Alan Temple and Magway on the Western Front.

The 33rd Division advanced northward in three directions, bypassing the British. Straight to the Ringanqiang oilfield. Alexander admitted to Shi that his subordinates were "talking about the Japanese and the tigers."

He attempted to hand over all the defense of the Western Front to the Chinese Expeditionary Force. Let the Chinese army act as a shield to cover the retreat of the British army to the Burma-Indian border, without taking into account the serious consequences of this for the Battle of Pingmanna in the center and the entire situation in Burma.

In his April 15 briefing to U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Marshall, Stilwell said he believed the British had written off Burma for some time.

He concluded from Alexander's reluctance to throw his troops into half the battle that he must have received orders from London. He was asked to withdraw from Burma with only symbolic resistance.

Johnson, Roosevelt's envoy to India, sharply dissected Yingyuan's intentions. He said the British would rather abandon Burma than owe China or make concessions to Burmese nationalists in order to hold Burma. In any case, they want to recover Burma at the peace table, and they want to recover Burma without any obligation to the future form of government.

The capture of Ringanqiang was the main task assigned to the 33rd Division by the enemy's 15th Army on 1 April. Ringanqiang means "oil river" in Burmese. It is the largest in Myanmar and the entire Indochina Peninsula

Oil fields, the main supplier of oil to the Allied forces on the battlefields of Burma. It is located on the east bank of the middle reaches of the Ayeyarwady River, about 100 kilometers south of the Alan Temple, surrounded by desert terrain where the oil wells and refineries of the Anglo-Myanmar Petroleum Company are dotted in a vast sea of sand.

If the invading Japanese army seized the Ringanqiang oil field, it would greatly change the oil supply of the Japanese army in the Pacific Theater and the Chinese theater. The main route to Ringanqiang is a highway and the Ayeyarwady River waterway.

After the Japanese 33rd Division captured Alan Temple on 7 April, it gathered forces in the area and prepared to attack Ringanqiang. The 33rd Division was based on the 213th, 214th, and 215th infantry wings

At the same time, the cadres were accompanied by artillery and engineering units to form the Araki Army, the Sakuma Army, and the Harada Army.

Attack north in three directions. Araki's troops attacked Magway first, Sakuma's troops attacked Ringanqiang in a covert and rapid attack, Harada's troops covered the right flank of the division in the direction of Shaswa and Tangdewenyi, and the division headquarters led the troops directly under the division to follow behind the Araki troops.

THE JAPANESE ATTACKING FORCES BEGAN TO MOVE TOGETHER JUST AFTER DUSK ON 9 APRIL. The troops set off by car on the evening of 9 April. Under the cover of Harada's troops, they marched towards Ringanqiang.

Since Harada's troops were on the east side of the Che Shiguang Highway, the British did not find out the whereabouts of Sakuma's troops.

At midnight on 16 April, Sakuma's troops advanced to about 5 kilometers east of Ringanqiang, and the lights of the frequent British vehicles on the Ringanqiang Highway could be seen in the distance.

Sakuma sent guides from the Burmese Independence Army (PAA) to find the Burmese masses and learned from them that a part of the British army had withdrawn north of the Bin River with tanks.

During the operation, the troops immediately divided into two roads and cut off the Ren'anqiang Highway from the north and south. He himself led the Wing Shangli and a mountain artillery brigade to occupy the intersection of the mountains in the northeast corner of Ringanqiang.

Block the return of the British army who had retreated from the defeat with Gwee, and send another brigade to occupy the north bank of the Bin River to intercept the British on the side of Jockberdan

Army reinforcements.

At the same time, Araki, who was advancing due north and south, encountered resistance from the defeated and scattered Anglo-Burmese 1st Division and the 7th Panzer Brigade on the 16th, and occupied Magway at 5 o'clock on the 17th. The Anglo-Burmese 1st Division and the 7th Armoured Brigade retreated to Er'anqiang and were surrounded by enemy forces. The Anglo-Indian 17th Division, stationed in Tangdweni and Shaswa, was pinned down by the enemy's Harada troops and did not dare to move lightly.

At 2 o'clock on April 14, the commander-in-chief of the British army, Alexander, sent an urgent telegram informing the British military intelligence brother on the side of Ren'anqiang that the road between Tangdewenyi and Magcheng had been intercepted. The Chinese Expeditionary Force was asked to provide assistance quickly. Luo Zhuoying, commander of the expeditionary force, believed that although Ringanqiang was not the combat area of our army, in order to carry forward the spirit of cooperation and cooperation among the allied forces, he ordered the 66th car to be stationed in Mandalay

The new 38th Division first sent the 113th Regiment, commanded by the deputy division commander, and quickly drove to Chokpadang, under the command of the commander of the 1st British Army.

The new 38th Division is the vanguard of the 66th Army of the Strategic Reserve of the Chinese Expeditionary Force. The predecessor of the division was the Tax Police Corps of the Ministry of Finance, and participated in the Battle of Songhu in 1937. It was reorganized in Changsha in 1938, and it was all American-style equipment. Sun Liren, the head of the regiment, and Qi Xueqi, the deputy commander of the regiment, both graduated from Tsinghua University and the United States Military Academy at West Point. Both civil and military.

In November 1940, the General Tax Corps was reorganized into the new 38th Division. Sun Liren served as the division commander.

Qi Xueqi served as the deputy division commander and director of the Ministry of Political Affairs. The whole division was included in the 66th Army and moved to Xingyi, Guizhou, to prepare for the merger into Yunnan.

In March 1942, the new 38th Division walked from Xingyi for half a month to Anning, west of Kunming.

On 27 March, he took a car from Kunming to Burma, and on 5 April he arrived at Chiang Kai-tai in Lashio to inspect Burma, and decided to send the new 38th Division to garrison Mandalay, with division commander Sun Liren as the commander of the Mandalay garrison.

On 7 April, the new 38th Division left one battalion to guard the Lashio airfield, and the main force of the division advanced towards Mandalay. At that time, although Dele, the ancient capital and the central city of Burma, was indiscriminately bombed by Japanese planes and set on fire by Burmese anti-British nationalists.

Mandalay has lost its former commercial prosperity, and the densely populated purple bloom scene is everywhere. Fragments of ruins and ruins, residents scattered and fled.

After Sun Liren took office. Immediately released in Chinese, English. A proclamation in three languages in Burmese declares:

"This commander is ordered to garrison the city, to protect this land, the people of Ans, and the people of Ans, and the people of the city are about four things; 1. Those who set fire will not be pardoned; Two. Those who kill people and oversell goods will be killed: 3. Acting as an enemy spy detective, killing will not be forgiven; Fourth, spreading rumors to confuse the public, disrupting public security, and killing the province without forgiveness. The rest of the lives and property of the monks and people are under the protection of the commander. ”