Chapter 232: Sunset and Western Mountains Section 1 Tears welled up in my eyes
The military strength of the Japanese army in World War II can be said to be a roller coaster for a while, 37 years ago it was still a roller coaster just started, after the start of the full-scale war of aggression against China, the Japanese army rapidly increased its troops, and the strength of the army expanded several times more than before the war, and the conscripted soldiers basically came from the reserve force before the war, and they were basically reserve soldiers with actual combat experience. Watermark Ad Test: Watermark Ad Test
This roller coaster all the way up, finally reached its peak after the outbreak of the Pacific War, the army's divisions from more than 10 years in 37 years to more than 100 at once, the number of soldiers in the entire army is extremely inflated, and at this time looking at the huge Japanese army and navy, the overall combat effectiveness is not as good as 37 years, the reason is very simple, after all the reserves are conscripted, they have to start recruiting from the civilian population, and after training, they will be sent to the battlefield to directly face the cruel war.
At the end of '43 and the beginning of '44, in order to maintain the military strength in a vast area from the Pacific Ocean to Southeast Asia, from Japan to China, the wartime cabinet revised the conscription law and extended the age of conscription to between 15 and 60 years old.
For example, the 47th Division is not at all the establishment of those field divisions, and in terms of numbers, it is less than one-third of the number of the A Division, and it has only three wings and some auxiliary units, and the number of 10,000 people is not as large as the mixed brigades established by the Japanese army in 37 and 38.
For example, the 91st Wing, a civilian conscripted in Japan, was sent to the Chinese battlefield as the advance force of the 47th Division after three months of emergency training, and was originally intended to be used as a garrison. Look at the strongholds and communication lines, guarding the turrets and towns, and I don't plan to go deep into the mountains controlled by the Eighth Route to fight.
The rescue team composed of this wing should not be optimistic about thousands of people. There are more than 200 people who have actually fought and seen the battlefield. Most of them are non-commissioned officers and senior privates who are drawn from combat units to lead new recruits, and even some of the lieutenants who lead the troops are new graduates of the army non-commissioned officer school. It's not as good as those sergeants!
For example, the captain of the bicycle squadron and the infantry brigade that led the way was originally an officer in the army stationed in Taiwan, and he was very good at bullying the common people, so he had never been on the battlefield! I haven't fought against Eight Roads. He, Zhongzuona, was purely boiled out of the years when he was stationed in the army! Therefore, in the first half of the night, as soon as he encountered an ambush from the Eighth Road, the soldiers were in chaos, and he was also confused, and he didn't even see the shadow of the opponent clearly, so he ordered the whole line to retreat.
It can be said that the Japanese Army has now basically transferred the remaining elite troops to the Pacific and Southeast Asian theaters, and the main forces of the Chinese Dispatch Army and the Kwantung Army have also been transferred to carry out the battle plan of the mainland line of communication and replace them as troops to deal with the Eighth Route Army. Many of them are such improvised third-rate garrisons.
Looking at the main opponents of the Japanese army in China, we won't say much, just say that there are battles with the Japanese army every day, and the source of troops in the Eighth Route mainly comes from the people in the base areas. These ordinary people are not ordinary, down to seven or eight years old, up to young adults, including women, have received military training carried out by the Eighth Route Army and the local government of our party, and it is an exaggeration to say that everyone is a soldier!
That is to say, these ordinary people who have already received basic military training have been fighting and fighting against the Japanese puppet army for a long time, and whether it is in terms of psychological hatred for Japanese devils or their initiative to join the army in order to defend their homeland, they are much more unforgettable than those civilians urgently recruited in Japan have a more unforgettable understanding of war.
In addition, the Eighth Route Army is fighting at their own doorstep in the mountains they are familiar with, and their familiarity and adaptation to the environment are better than those of the Japanese army, which is far away from their homeland and extremely dependent on logistics supplies.
Therefore, at the end of 43, the overall strength of the Eighth Route Army and the base areas was steadily rising, while the Japanese army was on the contrary declining!
The Kato Wing, which opened a three-way offensive posture in the iron camp, was actually really effective was the squadron that set off at night to return to the ravine on the east side of the ancient wall, most of this squadron was composed of veterans who had returned from injury and had actual combat experience, and it was originally to be dispersed to the infantry team of the Kato Wing to bring new recruits, and they received the task of going south to rescue before they were assigned, so they were put into a squadron alone, and it was precisely this squadron composed of veterans that was the most effective devil unit. Almost broke through the right flank defense of the training camp.
Look at the devil troops on the middle and west roads, there are many people, each road is more than two squadrons of infantry teams, and artillery support, but it does not give full play to the characteristics of the Japanese army's strong mobility, infantry artillery and mature tactical use, how to look at it, how do you think these devil soldiers are a little afraid of war, hiding and hiding under the mountain, how far away they are still outside the range of the eight roads on the mountain. (Pingnan Net)
It is no wonder that the recruit training has only been three months, and the soldiers who have fought live ammunition have gone to the battlefield for the first time, and in the process of marching, they have been caught by the local guerrillas of the Eighth Route for a while, a mine for a while, two rows of cold guns, and a meeting of the dead and wounded companions, and the blood and gunsmoke, so that they understand that coming to China is not like the instructor said during the training, it is the same as a rural outing, how can there be mines and grenades in the outing!
This was finally driven by the officers and was about to approach the position of the Eighth Road, and as soon as the gun rang out, a large area fell on the ground with a hula la, and he didn't aim at the gun with his head crackling and crackling, and he didn't care where the bullet hit, anyway, put a few rows first to give himself courage.
The two infantry guns brought up were not ambiguous, anyway, the shells were plentiful, and the shells were fired, and the officers of the artillery team ordered the artillery bombardment to be extended, and the impact point of the shells had been moved to the mountain villages and terraces on the middle road, and the infantry on the west road had not moved for a long time.
You see the veteran squadron that people outflanked, the planes in the sky are still bombing and strafing, this group of old devil soldiers came out of the concealment, with the squad as the tactical group, and quickly launched an offensive formation on the front line of the earth cliff, as soon as the planes strafed and bombed to the west, the tactical cluster of the infantry squad immediately dispersed and became an offensive line with the squad as a unit, from the assembly area to the bottom of the earth cliff, less than two hundred meters, and soon rushed over, if it were not for the fact that our Eighth Road position has always had observation posts, I am afraid that the devils have boarded the earth cliff, The fighters in the anti-artillery hole haven't noticed it yet!
In this way, it is actually a tie, that is, the three companies of the special training camp are hard, the devils do not count the casualties, they do not count the casualties, bayonets to bayonets, blood to donate blood, all the veterans in the special training camp, you are not qualified to go to the special training camp if you have not been a Balu for more than three years, and you have not killed a few devils and made meritorious contributions!
Look at the Western Front again, finally according to the training mode, finally dispersed in squads under the cover of machine guns and grenadiers, and attacked on the mountain beam, the speed is simply incomparable with the veteran squadron, the veteran devil is a 200-meter sprint speed, and the recruit is a cat waist rubbing step by step! The soldiers of the second company of the special training camp on the mountain beam were impatient, and shouted for the devil to climb quickly!
After an offensive battle, the two squadrons on the Western Front consumed thousands of bullets and hundreds of shells, plus a number of projectiles from grenadiers, and they didn't kill the Eighth Road, but they didn't see it, because they didn't see the shadow of the Eighth Road, and they were injured by four, pay attention, it wasn't bullets and artillery grenades, two of them were too hard when they lay down, and they broke their heads and noses, and two of them had serious ankle sprains!
Those two squadrons in the middle are even better! On the hillside and highway under the ancient wall, a semicircular formation was placed in the distance, and not a single shot was fired! When the east and west roads were withdrawn, they gave an order and retreated!
Dare to fight fiercely on this veteran squadron on the Eastern Front, with more than 70 casualties, and almost half of the troops are lost! Standing in the valley, Kato Osa looked at this instructional exercise halfway up the mountain with a telescope, and with tears in his eyes, he said to the adjutant general, "Let's remove all the people, it's not enough for the joke of the eight roads on the mountain!"
At the same time, Kato sent a team of people to pick up the veteran squadron back, don't retreat and be wiped out by the Eighth Road, he keeps this little fire!
When the veterans were brought back, Kato Osa, in front of the seven or eight hundred soldiers on the west and middle roads, bowed deeply to the veterans covered in gunpowder smoke and blood, saluted a standard military salute, and then assigned all the uninjured veterans to this infantry brigade.
Then Kato ordered that the newly deployed veterans could kill people in front of the battle if they found that there were any more soldiers who were afraid of battle and stagnant and did not obey orders during the next attack! The responsibility is borne by him Kato!
The captain and several squadron leaders who bullied the common people in Taiwan were also temporarily replaced, Kato personally went into battle to temporarily serve as the captain, and several of his cronies and staff members could be regarded as fighting in the war, and they served as squadron leaders respectively, redeployed and deployed, no longer attacking the east, and went all out to storm the village of Tieyingpan and the mountain beams and terraces that controlled the road.
Kato's tears for a long time finally didn't fall, this time he rolled up his arms and sleeves and was ready to go into battle in person, Kato is still a genuine officer, this guy is a bit similar to Shimizu Daisa's experience, they have been fighting in the Northeast for many years, accumulating military merits and ranks, and then they were transferred to the army in Kannai, but the difference between him and Shimizu is that Shimizu has not fought with **, and Kato has not fought with the Eighth Road!