Chapter 896: Almost Annihilated
The Honorary Fourth Regiment, the Honorary Fifth Regiment, the 359th Brigade, the 717th Regiment, and the 718th Regiment are responsible for besieging the troops of the 26th Division of the Swiss Army, while the 359th Brigade Headquarters and the 719th Regiment, the Special Service Battalion, the Reconnaissance Battalion, the Supplementary Battalion, and the Combat Defense Artillery Battalion directly under the Honorary Second Division are responsible for containing the 109th Division of the Japanese Army.
The troops of the 109th Division want to rescue the troops of the 26th Division, they have a certain degree of difficulty, as long as they dare to move, then the departments will inevitably attack them immediately.
The special service battalion and reconnaissance battalion directly under the headquarters of the 2nd Division are elite troops, and the reconnaissance battalion is equipped with tanks and armored vehicles, and they are on the periphery of the 109th Division, keeping an eye on the dynamics of the 109th Division.
After Anan Weiji learned in detail about the situation of the Eighth Route Army outside his division, he thought that it would be very difficult for his division to rescue the 26th Division, but Anan Weiji also knew that if he stood by and watched, then the troops of the 26th Division would be completely wiped out.
After hesitating for a long time, Anan quickly began to send a telegram to the North China Front, hoping that the North China Front would send aviation to support his troops in the battle.
At two o'clock in the afternoon of September 23, 1938, the North China Front Flying Team dispatched the 90th Squadron, the 3rd Squadron of the 65th Squadron, the Japanese dispatched 36 light bombers, 12 fighters began to go to Wutai County, and 48 planes came to the area of Hutou Mountain at the same time.
Aerial bombs began to fall, huge explosions rang out, and in an instant, the ground shook as if the world was apocalyptic.
Large holes appeared in the ground, and almost all the houses were blown to pieces within the bombardment range.
Five Vickers tanks of an armored platoon of the 2nd Armored Battalion of the 4th Regiment of Honor were attacked by Japanese aerial bombs, and all five tanks were blown up on the spot.
Because of the dispatch of the Japanese air force, the units of the Eighth Route Army had to stop their operations and temporarily hide themselves from the Japanese bombing.
The Japanese 36 light bombers bombed for 40 minutes, and then they, including the fighters, began to reduce their altitude, and the Devil Air Force used machine guns and machine guns to strafe the Eighth Route Army on the ground, while the Japanese 109th Division transferred the 69th Wing, the 136th Wing, and two mountain artillery brigades to quickly begin to advance towards the 26th Division.
Two Type 95 tanks and four Type 92 armored vehicles of the Jia Leiping reconnaissance battalion led the cavalry company of the reconnaissance battalion and two infantry companies and a machine gun company of the special service battalion to begin to harass the reinforcements of the Japanese 109th Division, but four Japanese fighters immediately appeared in the sky, and the Japanese fighters began to strike at the ground troops using machine guns.
Three of the four Type 92 armored vehicles were destroyed, more than thirty infantry were killed, and the troops had to begin to withdraw.
THE 24 75MM MOUNTAIN GUNS OF THE TWO JAPANESE MOUNTAIN ARTILLERY BRIGADES IMMEDIATELY LAUNCHED A STRIKE, CAUSING CASUALTIES TO THE EVACUATED TROOPS.
At four o'clock in the afternoon, the Japanese reinforcements began to make peace with the troops of the 26th Division, and at the same time the Japanese aviation began to withdraw.
Half an hour after the withdrawal of 48 planes, when the commander of the 359th Brigade was preparing to redeploy for an attack, 36 Japanese bombers began to appear over Wutai County.
This time, the Japanese army dispatched the 27th Squadron, which had 36 heavy bombers under its command.
Thirty-six heavy bombers appeared over Wutai County, and one aerial bomb after another began to be dropped, and the units of the Eighth Route Army, which were fighting in the northern part of Wutai County, once again became the focus of the Japanese air force's strikes, and the units of the Eighth Route Army, which originally wanted to continue to attack the troops of the 26 th Division of the Japanese Army, had no choice but to hide themselves again.
But even so, when the Japanese bombers bombed, there were still casualties.
The troops of the 26th Division of the Japanese Army and the troops of the 109th Division quickly joined together, but at this time, the troops of the 26th Division of the Japanese Army suffered a very serious blow, and the three independent infantry wings of more than 10,000 people, and the reinforcements of the 109th Division were only more than 2,000 people.
The reinforcements of the 109th Division did not dare to continue to stay in place, they knew that this place was still within the strike range, even though they still had two infantry wings and two artillery brigades in their hands, but they were still not at ease, after all, the 69th Wing and the 136th Wing were all strike troops, and they were not full.
At five o'clock in the afternoon, the reinforcements of the 109th Division of the Japanese Army, under the cover of aviation, began to withdraw in the direction of Dashicun.
As the Japanese troops began to withdraw, the units of the Eighth Route Army could only watch the Japanese troops withdraw because of the Japanese bombers.
At 7 o'clock in the afternoon of September 23, the encirclement and annihilation operation of the Japanese 26th Division and other units of the Honor Fourth Regiment ended, and in this operation, the Japanese 26th Division annihilated a baggage wing and an artillery wing, and severely damaged the 11th Independent Infantry Wing, the 12th Independent Infantry Wing, and the 13th Independent Infantry Wing, and the Japanese 26th Division only had more than 3,000 troops left.
In this operation, the troops of the Eighth Route Army almost annihilated all the units of the Japanese 26th Division, and if it had not been for the timely appearance of the Japanese air force, the Japanese 26th Division would definitely have been annihilated.
Night soon came, and the reinforcements of the Japanese 109th Division also began to return to Dashi Village, and the Japanese troops temporarily stopped attacking, and they began to defend with Dashicun as the center, with the current 109th Division's capabilities, they completely lost their ability to attack.
And Anan Weiji himself knows that now the troops of the 109th Division have rescued the remnants of the 26th Division, but this means that the troops of the Eighth Route Army besieging the 26th Division are now beginning to concentrate on the 109th Division.
Anan Weiji's worries are very reasonable, and now the Honorary Second Regiment, the Honorary Fourth Regiment, the Honorary Fifth Regiment, the Honorary Sixth Regiment, the reconnaissance battalion directly under the division headquarters, the special service battalion, the supplementary battalion, the combat defense artillery battalion, and the 359 Brigade of the 120th Division, these troops are more than 20,000 people, and at present, the troops of the Eighth Route Army have an advantage over the 109th Division in terms of numbers and weapons.
However, there are still casualties in the Eighth Route Army, especially Sun Weiguo is currently in a coma, and Brigade Commander Wang of the 359th Brigade is responsible for commanding all troops, but Brigade Commander Wang took into account the situation of both sides, and he did not dare to make a direct siege of the Japanese 109th Division.
At 9 o'clock in the evening of 23 September, Sun Weiguo was urgently escorted to the county seat of Wutai County for rescue, while the various units deployed in the northern part of Wutai County were scattered, and they were firmly encircling the troops of the 109th Division of the Japanese Army.
At the same time, at the headquarters of the Japanese North China Front, the commander of the Japanese army, Terauchi Shouichi, immediately convened an emergency operational meeting.
After the mobile unit composed of the 2nd Independent Mixed Brigade, the Independent Garrison, the cavalry of each division and the armored corps were completely annihilated, the 26th Division of the Japanese Army suffered another devastating blow, which Terauchi Shouichi could not tolerate, and he demanded that Ishihara Wanji must give him a reasonable explanation.