Chapter 64: The Battle of Shanggao and the Encirclement and Annihilation of the Enemy (2)
The headquarters of the commander of the 34th Division of the Japanese Army, the Ogamo Division, was located in Bijia Village, which was in the center of the encirclement of the Nationalist Army, and was now completely covered by the heavy artillery fire of the Nationalist Army. However, the Nationalist Army has gradually pressed the encircled enemy, and the encirclement is shrinking step by step, and the situation of the devils of the 34th Division is already precarious.
In order to avoid the doom of the annihilation of the entire army, the commander of the 34th Division, Agashige, hurriedly asked for help from the 11th Commander's Circle.
Commander Kazuichiro of the 11th Army, who received a distress telegram from Oga Shigeru, was anxious and angry. After the dignified Japanese Imperial Army entered China, it was invincible and invincible, but now it was surrounded by the Chinese army, which it had always looked down on, and it also sent a plea telegram for help. This is truly a disgrace to the Imperial Japanese Army.
Although he kept scolding words like "Yaga", "Piggy" and "Shame", the work in the hands of Enbe and Ichiro did not dare to delay for a moment. He immediately ordered Sakurai to lead the Japanese 33rd Division to rush to the Kamigao Front to urgently reinforce the 34th Division. In order to ensure the implementation of the reinforcement plan, Enbe specially sent his chief of staff, Isamu Kinoshita, to lead people to supervise the battle, command all units to reinforce in a timely manner, and try to cover Ogamo's 34th Division at any cost to escape from the encirclement of the Chinese army.
On March 24, after receiving the order of the commander of the Circle Division, the 33rd Division of the Japanese Army, under the supervision of the Chief of Staff of the Military Department, Isamu Kinoshita, did not dare to slack off for a moment and immediately sent reinforcements.
Sakurai immediately ordered the commander of the 33rd Division's Infantry Brigade, Araki Shoji, to lead his 215th Infantry Wing plus a mountain artillery brigade as the right column; and with the 214th Infantry Wing as the left column; He personally led the main force of the division as the central column, and dispatched from Niuhang, Fengxin and other strongholds to attack Wuqiaohe and Cunqian Street again. Under the fierce fire attack of the 33rd Division of the Devils, the national troops guarding the line lost their positions one after another and had to retreat to the south. The devil continued to pursue, sending troops to Tangpu and Guanqiao to attack frantically and desperately.
In the early morning of March 25, the main force of the Japanese 33rd Division fiercely attacked the position of the 9th Division of the 70th Army, which was encircling the Japanese 34th Division on the northern flank.
Division Commander Zhang Yanchuan led his troops to stubbornly resist the front line of Kengkou Leng, Jiezipo, and Nanluocha in front of the position, and fought a bloody battle with the devils who were attacking frantically and trying to break through to the 34th Division. The battle was extremely brutal, and after vainly trying to meet the 34th Division's breakthrough devils, they bombarded the positions of the 9th Division indiscriminately, and then launched a group charge above the squadron level.
Not long after the formation of Zhang Yanchuan's division, the combat effectiveness itself was not strong enough, and the weapons and equipment were also poor. After a whole day of desperate struggle with the devils, they suffered heavy casualties, and finally they were unable to stop the attack. In addition, the flank position has been broken through by the devils, and it is in a dangerous situation of being attacked by the enemy on the belly. In desperation, at ten o'clock in the evening, the remaining troops were withdrawn to the vicinity of the Diwang Temple, and the 19th Division led by the division commander Tang Boyin got in touch, stabilized the position, and re-established the position here.
Subsequently, the Sakurai Division attacked the positions of Liangshannao, Tongzikeng and other positions guarded by the 19th Division of the National Army.
At that time, Li Jue, the commander of the 70th Army, was not on the front line, and Zhang Yanchuan commanded the all-out operation as the deputy commander. However, as the devil's troops increased and the attacks became more and more intense, the balance of forces was very large, and the situation became more and more unfavorable to the 70th Army, which was resisting the enemy head-on. Without the consent of the commander of the theater, Zhang Yanchuan led his two divisions to abandon the frontal blocking position and withdrew in the direction of Fenghuangwei and Zhuangfang.
The 33rd Division, which was relieved by Japanese reinforcements, successfully entered Guanqiao and joined up with the embarrassed 34th Division of Ogamo.
At the same time, in order to meet the breakthrough of the 34th Division, the 20th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade also withdrew to Goan after the 24th after receiving the reinforcement order from the commander of the Circle Division. At this point, the devil's three people basically converged.
On March 26, the 104th Independent Infantry Brigade of the Japanese Army was ordered to move westward, and they occupied the containment position to cover the retreat of the 34th Division.
Because Zhang Yanchuan of the 70th Army failed to block the 33rd Division of the Devil outside the position, and rashly led his troops to withdraw from the position, so that it could smoothly join the 34th Division that had been surrounded by our army, Luo Zhuoying was very angry about this, and he was hesitating whether to deal with Zhang Yanchuan according to the charge of desertion and desertion of duty according to military law.
However, Luo Zhuoying considered that the 74th Army led by Wang Yaowu had made great progress in attacking in the frontal direction of Shanggao, and most of the remnants of the devils on the south bank of the Jinjiang River had been cleared. In addition, the troops of the Sichuan Army and the Northeast Army who rushed to reinforce have also arrived on the battlefield. At this time, on the battlefield of Shanggao, the strength of the Chinese army was much stronger than that of the Japanese. He temporarily dismissed the idea of punishing Zhang Yanchuan, and was determined to carry out a second encirclement battle to completely annihilate the 34th Devil Division, which had been beaten like a frightened bird and covered in bruises.
In the early morning of the 26th, in view of the fact that all the troops were already in place, Luo Zhuoying strictly ordered the two divisions of Zhang Yanchuan and Tang Boyin, one to abide by the order issued by the theater commander's headquarters before, to launch an attack in the direction of Guanqiao, try their best to block the retreat of the Japanese army, and strictly prevent the enemy from breaking through or reinforcing the encirclement.
At the same time, Yu Chengwan, commander of the 57th Division of the 74th Army, was ordered to lead his troops to advance beyond the enemy attack north of Panjiaqiao. Liao Lingqi, commander of the 58th Division, and Song Yingzhong, commander of the 107th Division, led their headquarters to attack Guanqiao bravely. Wang Kejun, commander of the 26th Division, led his troops to attack the enemy's flank from the east of Guanqiao. Fu Yi, commander of the newly formed 15th Division, led the troops to attack south of Jiangjiazhou. Chen Liangji, commander of the newly formed 14th Division, led his headquarters to the southeast to find the enemy and attack fiercely. All units were required to quickly gather and annihilate the remnants of the enemy, attack the enemy's 34th Division with all their might, and strive to completely annihilate the enemy.
On March 27, the 34th Division, with the 33rd Division and the 20th Independent Mixed Brigade, desperately highlighted the encirclement of the Chinese army. According to the division, the regiment fled in a hurry in the direction of the land king temple, and the remnants of the army were extremely embarrassed.
In order to completely annihilate the fleeing enemy, Luo Zhuoying issued a general attack order at midnight on the same day, and he asked all units in the theater to launch the most fierce attack at all costs before noon on the 28th, with Guanqiao Street and Nanchaluo as the target, and strive to completely annihilate the enemy's 34th Division.
On the 28th, Wang Kejun, commander of the 26th Division, led his troops to attack and advance in the direction of Guanqiao through Yang Gongwei, intercepting more than 2,000 fleeing enemies led by Iwanaga, commander of the infantry brigade of the Japanese 34th Division, and Hamada, commander of the Osa. Division Commander Wang Kejun immediately ordered the troops to occupy the Moziling on the Yanggongwei Heights to block the enemy.
In order to escape, the Japanese army desperately launched an attack on the position occupied by the 26th Division of the National Army. However, Wang Kejun led all the officers and men of the 26th Division, braving the bombardment of the enemy's planes and artillery and the frantic attack of more than 10 armored vehicles, and resolutely blocked the enemy on the front line of the Toad Monument and the Tiger Ridge. They and their brother troops, who arrived later, surrounded the enemy. The Nationalist army then launched an attack on the enemy. After a fierce battle, Major General Iwanaga, commander of the infantry brigade of the 34th Division, and Wing Commander Daisa Hamada committed suicide, and more than 2,000 devils were annihilated.
At this time, a wing of the 20th Brigade of the Japanese Army, which was coming from the direction of Gao'an, was also blocked near Longtuwei and could not move.
The 58th Division, led by Division Commander Liao Lingqi, who was tasked with a frontal attack, pursued the enemy to the front line of Changling and Manmei Heights on the same day, where it intercepted the rearguard troops of the 34th Division and engaged in a fierce battle with them.
At noon on the 28th, Li Tianxia led his 51st Division to the battlefield, and they deployed their troops on the line of Shangluoxiang, Shanyuan Li, and Fang Tou, and launched an attack from the enemy's flank and back.
Yu Chengwan also led the 57th Division to Longxing Mountain, and they detoured back to the south of Guanqiao Street to attack. The remnants of the 34th Division retreated into the streets and resisted. The 58th Division launched a fierce attack on the enemy, and they fought fiercely with the devils, fighting with the enemy street by street and house by house, and after a bloody battle, they completely annihilated more than 600 defenders of Guanqiao Street.
On the same day, Luo Zhuoying issued an order for a general attack on the troops, requiring all units to completely annihilate the enemy who had been surrounded, and not let an enemy slip through the net.
On the afternoon of the 29th, the Theater Command ordered Liu Duoquan, commander of the 49th Army, to lead three divisions, Wang Tiehan, Wang Kejun, and Chen Liangji, as the right pursuit troops, to pursue the Devil Araki detachment who fled in a hurry along the Hunan and Jiangxi Highway through Gao'an and Dacheng.
At the same time, Li Jue, commander of the 70th Army, was ordered to lead the three divisions of Zhang Yanwei, Tang Boyin, and Song Yingzhong as the left pursuit troops to pursue the 33rd Division along the Fengxin Avenue of the Wuqiao River.
At this time, more than 2,000 people of the 20th Brigade of the Devil's Independent Mixed Brigade were stubbornly defending the area of Longtuwei and Yanggongwei to attack our army, trying to cover the escape of the enemy's 34th Division. Wang Tiehan and Wang Kejun led two divisions to launch a fierce attack on this group of enemies from the east, and Zhang Yanchuan and Tang Boyin two divisions surrounded them from the west. On the afternoon of the 30th, two strongholds were abandoned, divided into small groups and fled northeast. One of them, more than 600 people, fled to the vicinity of the village front street, and got into the pocket laid out by Zhang Yanchuan's reserve 9th Division, and suffered a devastating blow, and most of this group of devils was annihilated.
On the 31st, Chen Hongshi led the 2nd Column to regain Gao'an.
On April 1, Wang Tiehan led the 105th Division to recover Xiangfuguan; Zhang Yanchuan and Song Yingzhong led the reserve 9th Division and the 107th Division to reoccupy Fengxin; Wang Tiehan went on to recover Xishan and Wanshou Palace.
On 3 April, the various armies of the Nationalist Army pursued all the way to the vicinity of Dacheng and Ganzhou Street, and at this time, because the Japanese troops had retreated into their original positions and held on to them, the Theater Command ordered the battle to be stopped and the existing positions were consolidated.
After this battle, the Japanese 34th Division lost its armor and suffered heavy casualties, and almost suffered a catastrophe. The rest, such as the 33rd Division of the Devils and the 20th Brigade of the Independent Mixed Brigade, were also severely damaged. The battlefield in northwestern Jiangxi has returned to the pre-war situation of stalemate between the enemy and us.
The Supreme Command and the Ninth Theater Commander's Department commended all units and individuals participating in the battle, and especially gave special commendations to Xiao Xiong's special unit to resist the enemy in northern Jiangxi.