Chapter 224: Double Encirclement

On the 25th, Du Luming rushed to the back of the scoop, but he was in a bad mood because the 55th Division did not come.

At this time, Du Luming received a telegram from the expeditionary force, and the 96th Division, as the general reserve, was all transferred to Pingmanna, but it was still far away in Lashio;

As for the temporary 55th Division of the 6th Army, which was originally scheduled to be assigned to his command and participated in the Battle of Wengu, it has not yet begun to be transported.

The most infuriating thing is that the army combat anti-aircraft artillery battalion assigned to the 200th Division is also far away in Lashio, and the British army still has no action.

The British army only had a cold telegram, and although the new 22nd Division could try to start the delivery date and transportation schedule, in fact it was quite difficult. I don't dare to say when the 55th Division will be able to start transporting for the time being.

Du Luming scolded his mother directly to the sky, turned back to the adjutant and said: "Call Liao Yaoxiang, and desperately want to keep the fire of the 200 divisions for me."

Under these circumstances, the main force of the Chinese Expeditionary Force failed to launch an attack as planned, and lost the first good opportunity to annihilate the enemy since entering Burma. From a planned offense to a feeble defense.

The 200 Division, which was the mainstay of the Japanese army, had been fighting for a week, had suffered seven or eight hundred casualties, and had been surrounded by the enemy on three sides.

The Japanese army was not the same in terms of thinking, because they had not encountered fierce resistance since the beginning of the Pacific War, and the 55th Division was repeatedly defeated, losing troops, and the commander of the division, Lieutenant General Takeuchi Kan, was severely reprimanded by the commander of the 15th Army, Iida, and became angry, and pushed the command post to the vicinity of the front line, and launched a fierce attack on Tonggu.

The 56th Division, which had been redeployed to the 15th Army, departed from Singapore on 19 March and arrived in Yangon on 24 March. Lieutenant General Iida ordered the division to move quickly to the vicinity of Tonggu to strengthen the offensive force. The commander of the 56th Division, Lieutenant General Masao Watanabe, immediately deployed the search wing as the advance force, and rushed to Kawagu by car, followed by the main force of the division by car, train, and even bicycle.

Speaking of the 56th Division, it was a nightmare for the British army, directly forcing the British army to surrender in Singapore, capturing 10,000 cars, and the total number of cars in China at this time was less than 8,000.

At dawn on March 25, the 55th Division of the Japanese Army was dispatched, with the 112th Wing as the wing and the 143rd Wing as the left wing. The cavalry wing, accompanied by an infantry squadron, attacked along the Sitang River valley in an attempt to press the 200th Division towards the Sitang River in order to annihilate it.

Dai Anhui commanded the 200th Division to respond calmly to the battle with the city fortifications, and advanced by burning the forest. More than 30 enemy planes took turns bombing Tonggu, and most of the ground buildings in the city were blown up. But our troops took advantage of their positions and suffered few casualties.

Repeated enemy attacks were repulsed.

At night, when it was time for the teaching team, each squad fought separately, striking at the Japanese army's logistics and raiding the supply depot.

On the 26th, the Japanese army bypassed the west and concentrated their main forces to attack the northwest corner of the city, blowing down the city wall with tunnel operations and using erosive poison gas.

The 600th Regiment guarding the place suffered heavy casualties. The position was broken through by the enemy. The enemy and the enemy engaged in short-handed combat, and street battles broke out. Our army retreated to the east of the railway, and the enemy and Japanese occupied the west of the railway, half of the enemy and half of the enemy and half of the ancient city.

"The troops on both sides confronted each other just across the railroad. Less than 100 meters apart. Due to the interlacing of canine teeth, none of the enemy's aircraft artillery came in handy. Therefore, the Japanese army scattered the forward troops 200 meters behind before they mobilized planes to bomb them.

Then the artillery bombardment followed, and the brothers of the 200th Division had to hide in the trenches and do not move.

After the Japanese bombardment, the infantry came up again to charge, but the Chinese army remained still.

By the time the Japanese had charged to only forty or fifty meters. All the mechanization and grenades were fired at the enemy like a raging storm.

The enemy was heavily wounded and retreated. Battles like this have to go back and forth many times a day.

In the fierce battle, the casualties on both sides were heavy.

Our army is fighting alone. With thousands of casualties, the troops were exhausted and their combat effectiveness was seriously reduced. The offensive of the enemy's 55th Division was frustrated one after another, and the losses were also heavy, and the attack power had reached the limit. The situation in Tonggu has reached the final critical moment, and the enemy and us continue to fight while waiting for reinforcements."

Du Luming put down Dai Anlan's long telegram, where did he go to find reinforcements, the reinforcements were only him and a hundred and ten guards.

"Continue to urge Liao Yaoxiang, whether he, the commander of the new 22nd Division, still wants to do it."

At this time, the vanguard regiment of the new 22nd Division and the two supplementary regiments of the Fifth Army Headquarters arrived in the area of Yedasi, about 20 kilometers north of Tonggu, on 24 and 26 March, and the cavalry regiment and engineer regiment originally attached to the 200th Division also withdrew to Yedasi and the area south of it.

Du Luming, who learned the news, was very happy and proved that his troops were still under his command, and immediately ordered Liao Yaoxiang.

"Command the troops in Ye Dasi to attack south to relieve the siege of Tongzhan."

Liao Yaoxiang sent his main regiment and two supplementary regiments from the military headquarters to the south to reinforce, just as Dai Anlan thought, the Japanese army really deployed north of Tonggu.

The 55th Division of the Japanese Army blocked our southward reinforcements with one part and continued to attack Tonggu with the main force.

The enemy and us were engaged in close combat, the Japanese artillery fire was fierce, and the officers and men of the 200 divisions suffered heavy casualties although they were heavily defended.

However, when Zhang Ziwen was stationed on the east side of the Xidang River, the position in Dongcheng remained unshaken, but the 599th Regiment suffered heavy casualties. go up

The search wing of the 56th Division, which came from the valley, advanced to Bago on the night of the 27th, continued its advance on the 28th, and reached the headquarters of the 55th Division south of Xianggu at noon.

Wing Commander Hirai Kisuke Daisa made contact with the 55th Division, and after learning about the battle situation, he immediately moved to the east bank of the Xitang River with the last force of the wing. The bridge is to the left rear of the Tonggu defenders, which is Zhang Ziwen's former enemy headquarters.

On March 28, the 1st Division of the 55th Division of the Japanese Army had established positions at key points in the northern part of Tonggu.

The new 22nd Division on the side of Yada West was reinforced to attack Tonggu with all its might. Under the cover of aircraft and heavy artillery, the Japanese army advanced by blasting our positions one by one. And once again, he let loose erosive poison, and some officers and men of the guerrilla detachment were poisoned.

However, with the stubborn resistance of the re-established position, although the casualties were heavy, the morale was strong, and it was held until the evening, and the arrays in the city were still standing.

The Japanese attack was again frustrated, and at night they disguised themselves as British and Burmese soldiers or Burmese civilians, driving ox carts loaded with agricultural products, with guns and ammunition hidden on them, in an attempt to infiltrate the inside and outside of the city.

But now the war is raging, and since the 200 divisions have entered the city, they have never seen the Burmese people, and the officers and men of the 200 divisions are very vigilant, and they have seen through the enemy's tricks and will destroy the enemy in disguise.

In the battle that day, the 200 divisions surrendered 7 mortars, more than 100 rifles, 6 machine guns, and a lot of gas masks.

In the morning of the same day, the main force of the New 22nd Division, one artillery and one combat vehicle each attacked southward, and by the afternoon they occupied the outer ring of Nanyang Station and some buildings at the station between Ye Daxi and Tonggu, destroyed the enemy's artillery position, and captured one mountain artillery.

The two hundred divisions were still surrounded by the Japanese army, previously one and now two.