Chapter 20: The Breakout Battle
The newcomers began to slam on the door, searched one by one, and there were no Japanese soldiers in several houses in a row, and their courage gradually grew. The tactical actions of breaking the door, alerting, and covering www.biquge.info also began to look like each other, which made me feel a little relieved.
"Onboard!"
"Ahh
"Smack"
The movement in front of me made my face change, and I hurriedly led people over, these unlucky people really met the Japanese army. When I rushed over, the wounded Japanese soldier was already dead, and there were three corpses in the living room, which were the owners of the house, and the corpses seemed to have died for more than a day or two. At the end of the corridor was a newcomer, a bayonet stuck in his lower abdomen, his face was painful, his mouth kept coughing up blood, he seemed to want to say something, but after all, nothing came out.
The newcomers around him were silent, Li Ming knelt on the ground, tears flowing, and he kept saying sorry. The person who died was his classmate, and when he searched the innermost bedroom, the Japanese soldier suddenly pounced, and this newcomer helped him block a knife in order to save Li Ming.
"Get up, don't let him die in vain, live well, kill a few more devils to avenge him." I pulled Li Ming up, I didn't want him to be so wasted.
The corpse wrapped in a white cloth was carried away by two soldiers, Li Ming didn't cry anymore, he wailed like a beast and frantically kicked open the door to search for the Japanese soldiers, I was afraid that he would have an accident, so I followed him closely.
By the time the city was searched, it was late at night, the gunfire had died down, and peace had temporarily returned to the devastated town. Tonight was destined to be a sleepless night for the remaining six newcomers, all kinds of good and bad thoughts filled their brains, I also went through this period, and knew that this period was very dangerous, so I put away all the bullets and bayonets of the newcomers before resting to prevent them from hurting themselves or others. But this is not a long-term solution after all, and I have to find some other way to distract them, and I slowly fell asleep with this thought.
After taking Taunggyi, our division temporarily lost the offensive mission, and the expeditionary force sent troops to help the British and French protect their colonies, but now it is embarrassing that the British and French have plans to abandon these places, and the expeditionary force has gradually become an outcast when they retreat.
The next day we still had no instructions on what to do next, and it was said that there was a disagreement between the Expeditionary Force General Command and the Allied General Command. The Allied command rejected the operational plan on the part of the expeditionary force and refused to supply the expeditionary force with supplies, citing the low quality of the expeditionary force's soldiers, which led to excessive waste of weapons and ammunition.
The soldiers of the 200th Division, who were idle, began training in squads and platoons, and I made a plan on my own, ignoring the training regulations issued above. I modified the training I received at the U.S. military training camp, and many of the training could not be carried out due to a lack of necessary equipment. The shortage of supplies also made it impossible to carry out physical fitness and shooting training.
In the early stage, I focused on the training of queue and bayonet fighting, in order to improve their obedience and endurance ability, and bayonet training was to let them suffer less losses in hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese army.
Worried that there would not be enough time for the follow-up training, the preliminary training lasted only one week. The follow-up training is mainly based on tactical movements, battle formations in different situations, and guns.
During the battle, I found that many veterans of the expeditionary force had non-standard tactical movements and battle formations, which led to many unnecessary sacrifices, which was the reason why I carried out this training. According to gun training, it is a helpless approach, the shortage of bullets leads to live ammunition shooting is just a good wish, I can only let my soldiers hang heavy objects on the muzzle of the gun to practice aiming, and the accuracy of shooting will be high when the hand is stable.
I had a lot of plans for the future, but the situation changed and these trainings were stillborn. The Japanese army bypassed the heavily defended areas of the expeditionary force and attacked the weak rear of the expeditionary force from the direction of Thailand, Laos. The British and their servant armies in Thailand and Laos were crushed in a single blow, and the Japanese army drove straight in, cutting off the expeditionary force's retreat from Burma. Fortunately, the British army did not bastard to the end, and still greeted the command of the expeditionary force when they retreated.
The British army had many cars, plus air cover, and the speed of retreat was fast. The expeditionary force was miserable, the army that was thrown out to wipe the butts of Britain and France was stretched too wide, and there was a serious shortage of transport vehicles, which could not withstand the penetration of the superior mechanized army of the Japanese army.
By the time our division learned of the disconnection of the rear road, it was too late, and we were almost surrounded by the Japanese army. The 200th Division retreated overnight and moved in the direction of Ba Mo and Nankan.
On May 10, 1942, we encountered the scattered units of the 6th and 66th armies, and the troops were replenished, and my platoon was finally full. I was unsettled by the limitations of the 200th Division's tanks and transport vehicles, which led us to follow the main road, and the Japanese were able to easily figure out our route of march.
In the following days, we were intercepted by the Japanese army on a small scale, and we successfully broke through the blockade with the strong penetration ability of the tanks. When I arrived at the territory of Xibao, the Japanese blocking force disappeared, which relieved the officers and men of the 200th Division, who had been caught in a bitter battle, but my sense of unease became even stronger.
The disappearance of the Japanese blocking force may be because we broke through too quickly and the Japanese lost the opportunity to outflank, so they gave up the blocking. But there is still a possibility, that is, the Japanese army has already prepared the encirclement, and the goal of blocking has been achieved, so open the pocket and wait for us to enter the urn, I personally prefer the second situation.
I reported my opinion to Camp Commander Zhang, but in exchange for his nosy evaluation, no one will pay attention to your opinion if your status is low. I can only resign myself to fate, I hope I am too worried.
On May 18, in my concern the 200th Division reached the Mogok Highway. The low-lying terrain is surrounded by winding hills on both sides and dense jungle, making it a great place for ambushes. The commander of the 200th Division also sensed that something was wrong, and hurriedly ordered the troops to stop advancing and build a defense on the spot, but it was too late.
First, it was reported from the front that a large number of Japanese troops had been discovered, and Japanese troops also appeared on the left and right sides one after another, and according to the reconnaissance, the enemy was two brigades of the 56th Division of the Japanese Army. Although there were no Japanese troops in the rear, we were driven all the way here by the Japanese army, and it was impossible to retreat, and the atmosphere of despair began to spread throughout the 200th Division. At present, there is only one way, to quickly take advantage of the fact that the Japanese army is not firmly on the ground to find an opportunity to break through.
The terrain to the east was low, and with a friendly force not far from here, the division headquarters concentrated all its forces and launched an attack after sending a distress telegram. From here, we can clearly see that the Japanese army is stepping up the construction of defensive positions, and when the fortifications are completed, we can not fly, and the 200th Division quickly concentrated all the large and small artillery and launched a fierce bombardment on the eastern slopes.
"Boom" "Boom" "Boom"
Due to the topography, the shelling was not satisfactory, and many shells crossed the hill and fell behind the mountain. We won't have a second chance to break through, and the division headquarters sent all the tanks in a desperate gamble. The cross-country ability of the M3 tank was not outstanding, and the dense woods seriously affected the speed of the tank's assault, and the Japanese anti-aircraft guns seized the opportunity to destroy several tanks one after another.
"Our army wants to carry forward, sincerely unite without deception, determined to save the country, fierce men can defend the Quartet, not afraid of knives and guns, vow to surrender the enemy, personally die long, serve the battlefield, only a good son......"
I don't know who started it, the officers and soldiers of the 200th Division sang a military song, and everyone knew that the last moment was coming, either they rushed out to survive, or they were surrounded here and died, and the officers and soldiers of the 200th Division, who had dealt with the Japanese army many times, knew how the Japanese army treated prisoners of war.
The tank knocked down the trees that had grown for an unknown number of years, and opened a straight path through the jungle until they were hit and ignited a fire that emitted thick black smoke. The trees in the jungle provided us with cover, and the Japanese bullets broke the branches on our heads, and the fallen leaves fell on our shoulders, and from time to time soldiers fell with blood spraying and never got up again.
I handed over Wang Li and Xiaoshi to the gang of newcomers, and I rushed up with the rest of the platoon, and I wanted to give them a way out. The Japanese troops in other directions began to shrink the encirclement, gradually compressing our range of movement, and gunfire began to appear on both sides.
"Boom" "Boom"
Violent explosions rang out all around me, and the fleshy dirt hit my body with a terrible pain, and the soldiers with missing arms and legs cried out over their wounds, but no one came to help them.
The addition of Japanese artillery made matters worse, and the formation of the attack began to be chaotic, with some soldiers still charging, while others lay down to avoid the shelling. Our artillery was almost blown up after a few shells, and there was no way to counterattack, so the Japanese artillery attacked unscrupulously, and if we couldn't open the gap, the shells of the devils alone could wipe us out.
"Brethren! If you want to kill me alive! ”
An officer on horseback stood out in the attacking crowd, brandishing a pistol and rushing to the front of the line with a group of well-armed soldiers. With his encouragement, the soldiers lying on their stomachs gritted their teeth and crawled up and walked through the artillery fire.
"Boom" "Boom" "Boom"
The Japanese spotted the officer on horseback, and a dense barrage of bullets came at him, and the horse fell to the ground with a wail, and the officer was wounded, clutching his belly and trying to get up.
"Divisional Commander!" The soldiers wearing steel helmets hurriedly went up to help him, and it turned out that he was Diane, the commander of the 200th Division.
"Leave me alone! Attack! Diane broke out in a cold sweat on her forehead and couldn't stand up in pain.
"Divisional Commander!"
"Are you trying to me off?"
Those soldiers had no choice, leaving two of them to support the division commander, and the others gritted their teeth and continued to attack. Under the attack of the officers and men of the 200th Division, regardless of life and death, we finally rushed to the top of the mountain.