readx;

Chapter 1719 The Burmese Army's Intentions

After the British army was completely expelled from Burma, in order to establish the righteous image of its own national liberators, the government successively set up national governments in Malaya and Burma, and the main officials of the central and local governments at all levels were held by Malayans and Burmese, and a nominal parliament was established, and began to formulate a constitution under the guidance of the first adviser, which was greatly welcomed by the natives, and the two places gradually settled down. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

With the help of the Japanese army, the Malayan government formed three divisions of armed forces, and the Burmese government had previously had an armed force against the British army, the Independence Army, and this time the army was expanded to eight divisions in one go, plus ten divisions of the Lan-Indian Army, ten divisions of the Siamese Army and five divisions of the Indian Army, and the number of puppet troops controlled by the Japanese army quickly swelled to thirty-six divisions.

The role of the puppet army was to defend the place and hold the border together with the Japanese army. Taking the Burmese puppet army as an example, in addition to continuing to entrench in central and northern Burma, their main forces were all deployed to the west of Mandalay and Taunggyi to defend against possible attacks by the An Jia army.

Yangon, Myanmar.

It is the best season of the year, under the blue sky, flowers bloom, the weather is cool, and the breeze is blowing. In a large room in a small two-story building on the shores of Lake Royal in the middle of the city, a meeting is taking place about the future and destiny of Myanmar.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar Independence Army, Po Decha, stood in front of the unfolded map of Myanmar, with a baton in his hand, and said in a worried tone:

"The Shan Plateau area was acquired from Chinese territory in the wars 22 years after Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, and there is a certain amount of controversy, but after the British government and the Chinese government surveyed the boundary four years ago, although some areas are still unresolved, the border line between the two countries can be generally confirmed! But what about now, Jingdong, Lashio, Mengyang, and Myitkyina were all encroached upon by the squadron *** taking advantage of our war with the British, and our Mandalay was directly under threat! ”

Speaking of this, Podcha glanced at everyone in the conference room with deep meaning: "Before that, we fought against the British, and although we had more than enough strength to recover our homeland, we now have gathered four armies in Burma, and we are only waiting for the results of the naval battle to come, that is, we will wave our divisions into India, plus the eight divisions of our independent army, we have an absolute advantage in terms of strength." The squadron has only three divisions deployed in northern Burma, and there is only one regiment in the front-line position. ”

"I have a doubt!"

Dechen Thonou, who was supported by the Japanese army as chairman of the central administration of Burma, stood up and said: "A week ago, I was invited to attend a joint military-political meeting held in Singapore by Kenji Dohihara, deputy chief of staff of the Japanese army base camp, and this meeting reiterated the proposition of attacking India, and demanded that all armies must exercise restraint, that arbitrary and reckless military operations must be effectively controlled, and that no further situation against the will of the base camp should be allowed.

"At present, the British Navy submarines frequently attack and harass the sea transport from Malacca to the Andaman Sea, according to Kenji Dohihara, the chief of staff of the Japanese army, Admiral Ishihara Waner, believes that oil tankers, cargo ships and merchant ships are the link between the various battlefields, and their importance is no different from the joints of the human body.

Under these circumstances, the Japanese base camp suggested that the navy should equip the transport fleet responsible for sea transport with a special destroyer fleet and small escort aircraft carriers converted from merchant ships to escort the convoy, and this became a common practice, and instructed the combined naval fleet to annihilate the main force of the British Navy in the Indian Ocean in the shortest possible time. Once the navy is successful, the army will march into India, and there must be no excuse to shirk it! If we launch an offensive in northern Myanmar at this time, it will be difficult for *** people to explain there! ”

After Deqin Tunou sat down, Deqin, deputy commander-in-chief of the Independent Army, stood up politely and explained:

"The most important oil-producing area in Myanmar, the Ringanqiang oil field, is more than 100 kilometers southwest of Mandalay, and the Japanese army is actually very afraid of the squadron, which can be seen from its stationing two legions on the front line of Mandalay. If we are resolute in the battle, we can quickly defeat the squadron guarding the first line, it will definitely greatly boost the morale of the Japanese army, and the Japanese troops of these two armies will definitely be engaged in the attack and pursuit of the squadron, and with the strength of the army in the battle to destroy the British army, we can calmly follow behind the Japanese army and regain the lost ground. ”

The Minister of the Interior, Deqin Miao, disagreed, and shook his head again and again: "It is too unwise to pin your hopes on the Japanese!" As far as I know, the Japanese army assembled the main forces of the two armies at Mandalay with the intention of attacking the Imphal region of India via the temple of Jiling, Sidang, or Homarin and Rehi. The strategic deployment of the Japanese army is very obvious, before completely expelling the British army from Asia, try not to provoke the strong fighting Anjia army!

"Yes, I know that everyone deliberately avoided this terrible word and tried to replace it with a squadron, but we must face up to the reality that we are not facing an army in the ordinary sense, but an army that has defeated the Japanese, British and Soviet armies. The reason why we were able to stubbornly persist in the confrontation with the British army in central Burma was precisely because we purchased weapons and ammunition from the An Jia Army, which made the British army unable to do anything.

"Also, at the end of last year, the An Jia Army dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese army in the Malay Peninsula, and the Japanese army, which suffered heavy losses, did not have the idea of retaliation, but asked all departments to exercise restraint, what does this mean? Therefore, I am not optimistic that this active offensive will have any substantial effect! ”

The Chief of Staff of the Independence Army, Boliyah, said: "The Shan Plateau area is densely covered with hills and ravines, and it is extremely difficult for mechanized troops to deploy, and the weapon advantage of the Anjia Army is not obvious. In addition, it is precisely because the Japanese army is full of fear of the Anjia army that we should draw the Japanese army into the war against the Anjia army as soon as possible, and take advantage of the opportunity of the Japanese army's mass assembly to provoke a war between it and the Anjia army, so that we can have hope of victory. You might as well think that once the offensive against India is launched, the number of Japanese troops that can be used for the war in northern Burma will be drastically reduced, and it will be extremely difficult for us to recover our homeland on our own! ”

"Maybe we can negotiate with the Nanjing government?"

"We are now an independent sovereign state, and although it has not yet been recognized by the world, de jure we have inherited all the rights and interests of British Burma," said Agriculture Minister Dechin Danton. Since the UK has signed a legally binding document with the Chinese government, why can the other side not comply with it? Can't we surrender without a fight? ”

"Don't be naïve!"

The head of the War Department of the Independent Army, Dechinnu, pouted: "We should recognize the reality and think about who is now in charge of the country in southwest China!" Our opponent is a fanatical expander, who has invaded Annam, which is entrenched by the French, and Siam, an independent country, and then went north to occupy *** and Central Asia, and now is still using troops in Afghanistan. ”

Seeing that the argument was fierce, Bode thought about it for a while, and decided to spread the question out: "Well, it seems that everyone is not very clear about the reality, let me explain!" Many of us here have the experience of being trained in ***, and our original intention is to gain the independence of the country and the nation with the help of ***, which you don't deny, right? ”

Seeing that everyone nodded, Podcha continued: "Now that the British have been driven away, our contradictions with the Japanese have become acute. As early as last year's struggle against the British army, we organized the 'Free Burma Executive Council', which is the administrative basis of our governance of Burma, and they acknowledged this before contacting us. But what's going on now? Although we were helped to form a national government and a parliament, the Japanese command immediately bound it with a series of obligations......

"According to these obligations, our power is purely a formality, our natural resources must be controlled by *** for ten years, *** goods must be exempted from all customs duties for fifteen years, mines, oil fields, factories and lands seized from the British shall all be owned by ***, our government must undertake to provide for *** army until the end of the war, and at the same time must pay compensation of three thousand rupees for every Japanese soldier who died on Burmese soil!

"Since last month, the relationship between our Independence Army and the Japanese army has deteriorated day by day, clashes have occurred from time to time, we have put law and order in the areas under our control, fought against the massive increase in criminal offenses during the period of regime change, eliminated indiscipline among the fighters and outlawed the atrocities committed by *** soldiers against our people, and even shot and killed several *** soldiers who broke into their homes and robbed *** last week.

"According to reliable sources, the Japanese army has no intention of fulfilling the agreement it has signed with us, and is determined to ban the independent army and the attempts of the regime we have established to pursue a certain line of independence, and to form a government and army on its own, while local power is to be exercised by the administrative organs established by the British in the past, and the work of the administrative organs at all levels is supervised by the Japanese command. In such a situation, all of us here may lose our identity and status, and even our freedom......

"In view of this, we must establish a strong opponent to demonstrate the significance of our Independence Army, and attacking the Anjia Army is the best option! Only by letting Myanmar be completely chaotic can those of us who are committed to national and national independence be highly valued, whether it is *** people or Chinese, we must weigh the consequences of angering us! ”

"Damn *** man!"

"The invaders are all raccoon dogs!"

"We were betrayed by *** people......"

There was a lot of noise in the house, and many Burmese people in key positions in the new government were thrown into panic and anger.

"So it seems that there is only one battle!"

The chairman of the central administration of Myanmar, Dechen Thonou, looked solemn and asked, "Commander Podecha, do you have a specific plan?" ”

Podcha nodded, raised his baton and pointed to the map: "Since the Japanese army needs to have multiple passages into India, they have sent their own troops to occupy the key pass of the Gangao Mountains in the north, intercepted the Anjia army in Mengyang City, and only handed over the eastern and southern fronts to us for defense, therefore, I am ready to concentrate my forces and launch a sudden attack in the Dongse Valley, and put three divisions into the first wave, and then pull up the reserves of the three divisions, carry out a central breakthrough, and force the Anjia army back to Lashio along the railway."

"The Japanese army is stimulated by the news of our army's continuous victories, and will certainly be excited, with the bitter hatred of the *** people for the Anjia army, we only need to provoke a little in the back, it is not difficult to stimulate the Japanese generals in the Mandalay area to throw troops on the eastern front, as long as the Japanese army throws in one or two divisions, the Anjia army will definitely make targeted arrangements, the peace between the two sides on the front will be broken, then we will wait for the opportunity to withdraw, let the *** people and the Chinese go desperately!"

Deqin Tunou asked: "What if *** people are not fooled?" ”

Podcha sneered: "Once the war starts, there will be no *** people, if they don't move, we will take the initiative to choose to retreat and lead the An family army to Mandalay City." Mandalay is the gateway to the Irrawaddy Plain, protecting the safety of the midstream oil producing areas, no matter how calm the people are, they can't tolerate the threat of oil wells, and the tragic battle will inevitably start between the Anjia army and the Japanese army! ”

Everyone nodded their heads and applauded Podcha's clever layout, and the plan was finalized.

February 24, the sixth day of the Lunar New Year.

Throughout the area around Mandalay, dark clouds rolled in the sky, the wind howled, and heavy rain was coming. In this season, which is clearly a dry season, such bad weather is rare.

"Boom-"

As the sound of artillery bombardment sounded, the 1st Regiment of the 1st Division of the Burmese Independence Army rushed out of its position, quickly formed a straggler line, and began to move towards the position held by the Anjia Army on the opposite side.

Major Deqin Xingu, who had received professional military skills training in ***, stretched the skirmish line very wide, and the strength of a regiment almost covered the entire line of the left, center, and right positions.

As the Japanese army continued to increase its troops in Mandalay, the officers and men of the 245th Regiment of the 4th Mountain Division of the Anjia Army, which were defending the Meimu position, had long been wary of a possible attack by the Japanese army.

At the moment when the artillery sounded, the officers and men on the position entered the anti-artillery hole and patiently waited for the artillery fire to stop.

At this time, a warning came from the observation post that the enemy, not afraid of accidental damage, stepped on the artillery point of his own side to attack forward, and the main direction of the attack was the main position directly ahead.

For a long time, the Japanese army had never had a precedent for a coordinated attack by infantry and artillery, but the situation was urgent, and once the enemy was allowed to pounce into the trenches, the battle line was in danger of collapsing, and the officers and men of the company responsible for the defense of the main position had to rush out of the anti-artillery holes, brave the enemy's artillery fire through the communication ditch into the front of the position, set up general-purpose machine guns and rifles, and shoot at the enemy.

At the same time, various machine-gun bunkers and bunkers also opened fire on the surging enemy, and for a while, corpses fell at the front of the main position.

"That's not right! How did the Burmese army come? ”

Just when the commander of the first company saw clearly the military uniforms worn by the attacking army, he was slightly stunned, and before he could think about it more, the attacking enemy suddenly all lay down, and a terrible whistling sound sounded in the sky, and the entire main position of the eyebrows fell into a sea of terrifying fire. The Burmese Independence Army (PAA) unexpectedly concentrated more than 120 British 4.5-inch (114mm) howitzers captured in previous operations, and used intensive artillery fire to fire at the main position of Mumi. Subsequently, the mountain artillery unit carried out close and direct aiming with single artillery and heavy machine guns, destroying the firing points and bunkers.

When the Burmese army stopped shelling and the smoke and dust from the explosion had not yet dissipated, the Burmese army, which was lying on the front of the main position, quickly stood up, let out a shout, and directly pounced on the main position.

After a fierce battle in close combat, the Burmese army, which had an absolute superiority in strength, unexpectedly occupied the first line of trenches of the main position, and quickly launched an attack on the second and third lines of trenches more than 20 meters apart.

The commander of the first battalion was unwilling to be defeated, and quickly organized his troops to counterattack, but at this time another regiment of the enemy was put on the attack, and after a fierce fight, the second and third trenches, which had already been riddled with holes in the shelling, were lost one after another, and the main position of Meimu was completely lost, and the whole battle ended within half an hour.

Lieutenant Colonel He Da, commander of the 245th Regiment, who was holding a telescope and standing in front of an underground bunker lookout on a hill two kilometers behind the Meimu defensive line, was very surprised, and he hurriedly ordered the troops who urgently reinforced the main position to meet the officers and men of the first battalion that had been withdrawn, shrink the defensive front, and hold on to the second defense line of Meimu, which had already been fortified, in order to highlight the positions on both sides.

Although this defensive formation increases the difficulty of defending the two flanks, if the Burmese army continues to force the main position, it will be heavily killed by the flank fire from the extended positions on both sides.

Sure enough, the Burmese army, which had seized the main position of Meimu, did not stop, but even concentrated the strength of three regiments and continued to launch a concentrated charge against the main position 500 meters away, more than 50 meters higher than the first position.

The dense Burmese army, like maggots in a latrine, braved the dense rain of bullets fired from the front and the left and right flanks to rush to the main position.

At the forefront of the entire charging force, more than 200 Burmese "iron-blooded death squads" stripped off their shirts and rushed to the front with rifles with bayonets.

On the defenders' side, the officers and men of the first battalion, reinforced by four battalions and two companies, used general-purpose machine guns and mortars to organize intensive firepower and concentrate on strafing the Burmese army's assault troops, focusing on those members of the death squads who were bare-chested.

Blood was raging, stumps and broken arms were flying, and the Burmese soldiers who had been shot were constantly falling on the hillside, and the rolling corpses caused a wave of chaos.

In the face of heavy casualties, the members of the Burmese "iron-blooded death squad" were undaunted, and still maintained a firm pace, completely ignoring their lives, lined up in a straggler formation to meet the dense bullets fired by the officers and soldiers of An Jia.

Driven by the demonstration of the backbone of the "death squad" composed of Burmese extremist ethnic elements, the Burmese soldiers managed to reach a ridge 60 meters from the main position, despite the fact that the Burmese soldiers fell in pieces under the rain of bullets and bullets of the An Jia Army.

This distance represents death, the Burmese army forcibly launched three assaults, all of which ended in failure, and then the Burmese army began to use the bulging dirt bags or craters around the ridge to entangle with the An Jia army, many Burmese soldiers directly piled up the corpses of their companions and used them as a bunker chest wall, and the melon grenades fired by the grenadiers obtained by the Burmese army from the Japanese army intersected with the grenades thrown by the officers and soldiers of An Jia in the air.

Every mortar shell fired from the left and right sides of the defensive position and the rear can bring great damage to the Burmese army, but the Burmese army will not retreat from the battle, and still rely on the superiority of its strength to continue the attack without fear of death.

In the trenches, which had been reinforced several times, the soldiers of the Anjia Army were hit in the fierce fire, and the Burmese army advanced the artillery to the forward position of the Meimu that had just been occupied, and aimed at the secondary line was an artillery bombardment, each shell caused a large number of casualties, and in the trenches where flesh and shrapnel were flying, the medics often fell to the ground in the process of dragging the wounded.

In the rear headquarters, Zhou Feng, the political commissar of the 245th Regiment, was so anxious that he walked around and kept looking at his watch: "Why hasn't the Air Force come yet?" It's been almost an hour, didn't you say on call? ”

Lieutenant Colonel He Da pointed to the sky: "It is estimated that it will not come, there may be heavy rain at any time, and the sky is too dark, even if you barely lift into the air, you can't distinguish friend or foe...... The enemy has picked a good time to attack! ”

"Report!"

Major An Peihan, a communications staff officer, walked up to the regiment commander and reported loudly: "The division headquarters called, and after repeated discussions, the air force finally confirmed that we could not participate in the battle, and the division commander asked us to decisively withdraw from the battle and retreat to Gute. The terrain of Gut is more defensible than the Eyebrows, and the artillery regiment of our division is there, which is sure to deal a devastating blow to the enemy! The division commander said that we are mountain troops, not infantry, and we cannot be consumed in vain! ”

"Hey, this battle ...... fought"

Lieutenant Colonel He Da shook his head and ordered: "First let the second and third battalions on both flanks of the defense line withdraw and set up blocking positions in Weiwen and Naoqiu respectively. In order to avoid the detection of the enemy, one platoon was left behind and retreated with the first battalion and the fourth battalion. ”

"Yes!"

Major An Peihan turned around and left, and political commissar Zhou Feng said: "Lao He, I'll go and organize the evacuation and destroy the documents now, we have a lot of baggage, but don't fall into the hands of the enemy." ”

He Da nodded: "Okay!" Wait a minute, you lead the regimental headquarters and the five battalions to withdraw first, and I will go to the main position to buy as much time as possible for the troops to retreat. See you in the valley! ”

Zhou Feng didn't stop him, shook hands with He Da heavily, and turned to leave.