readx;? After reviewing the map, Lieutenant General Seishiro Itagaki decided that the best place to cross the Huangpu River was still the No. 30 Iron Bridge over the Huangpu River. Therefore www.biquge.info the Fifth Division, led by the Ninth Brigade, went straight to Bridge No. 30 with murderous vigour. Standing on the high ground on the south bank of the Huangpu River, Seishiro Itagaki observed the positions of the defenders of Jiangbei with a telescope, next to the commanders of the two brigades, Major General Noboru Kunisaki and Major General Masao Nakamura.

Noboru Kunizaki had attacked this position with Tani Shofu's 6th Division, so he was familiar with this position, so he explained the situation on the defenders' position to Seishiro Itagaki on the side, and told the commander of the Itagaki Division that the defenders had a lot of artillery, and the 6th Division was destroyed by the defenders' artillery fire by surprise because the artillery wing's position was set too close to the defenders' position.

As soon as Itagaki heard this, he immediately ordered the Fifth Field Artillery Wing of his division to retreat to a distance of 2,000 meters and then set up artillery positions, and to disperse the gun positions. The Fifth Artillery Wing not only has 24 75 infantry guns, but also 18 reinforced 105 howitzers, and the firepower of this artillery wing is in the forefront among many divisions and regiments, which is also where Seishiro Itagaki's confidence lies.

After everything was arranged, at 9 a.m. on 6 November, nearly 100 large-caliber guns of the Independent Heavy Artillery Brigade and the Fifth Artillery Wing of the Fifth Division opened fire at the same time, and the dense shells fell on the defensive positions of the 546th Regiment in two points. Most of the officers and some veterans of the 546th Regiment had experienced this intensity of shelling in the previous defensive battles, so they were quite calm, but those recruits, including the first batch of recruits who had been replenished after arriving in Songjiang County, had not experienced this intensity of shelling.

It was like the loud explosion of large-caliber heavy artillery shells after they fell, and the vibration of the ground made these soldiers' faces pale and their hearts beat faster. The large-caliber heavy artillery of the heavy artillery brigade was bombarding the rear of the position because it was afraid that the heavy artillery shells would fall on the bridge by mistake and damage the bridge, and the Fifth Artillery Wing did not have these scruples, and all the shells fell on the front-line positions.

The 75 infantry guns were helpless against those bunker fortifications, but the shells of the 105 howitzers could still cause damage to these fortifications. This kind of bunker fortification can withstand three shells of 105 howitzers at most, but there are almost no bunkers that can withstand three shells of 105 howitzers in a row, so the Japanese army's half-hour-long shelling brought 46 soldiers to the 546th Regiment, 12 soldiers died because of the collapse of an anti-artillery hole, and the rest of the soldiers were all killed and wounded because of the shock wave impact.

The Japanese army was still the same, and after half an hour of shelling, the soldiers of a squadron of the 9th Brigade launched a tentative attack on the position north of the bridge. The soldiers of the 1st Battalion and 1st Company of the 546th Regiment, who were guarding the front-line positions, were all hidden in the bunkers during the shelling just now, and the half-hour shelling did not cause the bunkers to collapse, so among the soldiers of the 1st Company, only two recruits were injured.

I saw that the Japanese infantry came up from the south of the bridge, but there were not many of them. The commander of the first company let the fighters into the position, and the heavy weapons in the bunker only allowed two heavy machine guns and two light machine guns to block the bridge deck, and the rest of the heavy fire did not move. The sharpshooters in the company are free to fire, and these are the experiences of fighting in previous defensive battles.

Bridge No. 30 is a steel frame structure bridge with a length of less than 100 meters, and there are netted steel girders on both sides and at the top of the bridge. Relying only on the cover of light and heavy machine guns, the difficulty of the attack increases a lot.

The Japanese set up a heavy machine gun position south of the bridge, and four heavy machine guns began to fire at the defenders' positions behind the bunkers, while the Japanese troops of this squadron also walked up to the bridge after lining up in an attacking formation. When the Japanese army reached the middle of the bridge, a company commander gave an order, and the light and heavy fire on the defenders' positions opened fire at the same time, and the dense bullets completely blocked the bridge deck. The Japanese soldiers who walked in front screamed and were knocked to the ground, and the Japanese soldiers behind hurriedly lay down, using their rifles and light machine guns to return fire while crawling forward.

Faced with this situation, the fighters with small arms in their hands all used single shots, which was an accuracy shot. At this time, you can see the difference between the veterans and the recruits in the team, the veterans are unhurried and calm, every bullet can bring damage to the Japanese army, and the recruits are often desperate to "bang puff" for a burst of guns, as for whether they can hit the target is only God knows.

In this way, the defensive line composed of a company of soldiers also made it difficult for the Japanese to move an inch, just like a few sharpshooters in the company, and every time a gun was fired, a Japanese soldier was killed, and officers at all levels were the first targets. After the Japanese squadron leader died at the gunpoint of the sharpshooter, the remaining dozens of Japanese troops retreated, and the first Japanese attack was repulsed. Seeing that the Japanese were retreating, the soldiers of the first company immediately left their positions and entered the bunker to avoid further shelling by the Japanese army.

Sure enough, not long after, the Japanese shelling began again. In this way, the artillery bombardment, the attack, the shelling, the attack, in one day, the 5th Division launched eight attacks, all of which were repulsed by the defenders. Seishiro Itagaki frowned, obviously dissatisfied with the scene. However, Itagaki didn't have much to do, the restrictions of the terrain and the ferocity of the defenders' firepower were all seen by him, and Itagaki was also helpless.

The next day, the Japanese dispatched nearly 100 airborne bombers, plus heavy artillery, to bombard the defenders' positions, but this bombardment destroyed two bunkers on the front-line positions, and also killed and wounded nearly 100 defenders. Xiao Yuanxin, commander of the 1st Battalion of the 546th Regiment, replaced the front-line position with soldiers from the 2nd Company, while the 1st Company, which had damaged half of its soldiers, withdrew to the rear to rest and recuperate.

The next day, there were Japanese planes to assist, and the Japanese infantry attacked more fiercely, several times the second company relied on grenades to push back the Japanese troops who were about to attack the position, just in the afternoon, the loss of the second company reached two-thirds, Xiao Yuanxin had to reinforce the third company, only to stabilize the defensive line. And the tenacity of the defenders also made a deep impression on Seishiro Itagaki.

Until 10 November, the 5th Division had lost two brigades of men at Bridge 30, but it was unable to advance an inch. The defenders' positions have been replaced by two battalions and three companies on the defensive, and in the past five days, basically one day, the soldiers of one company have lost almost everything, and they can only be replaced with a new company. This also made Wei Erxi, the commander of the 546th Regiment, a little uneasy.

Wang Haitao was in the command headquarters, listening to the report of the soldiers of the reconnaissance battalion, and found that his estimate was wrong, this time the Japanese army did not divide its troops to force the crossing of the Huangpu River, but launched an attack on the No. 30 bridge, the 546th Regiment was struggling to support the north of the bridge, while the 547th Regiment had nothing to do in Deshenggang. Under such circumstances, on the night of 10 November, Wang Haitao ordered the 546th Regiment and the 547th Regiment to change guards.

In all the previous battles, the 547th Regiment had nothing to show off, which made Zhang Lingfu, the commander of the 547th Regiment, unwilling, and now after the order to change the guard, Zhang Lingfu began to get excited. His own 547th Regiment finally had a tough battle to fight. After going to the position north of the No. 30 bridge, the first thing Zhang Lingfu did was to gather all the officers above the company level in the regiment and reiterate the military orders and military laws.

According to the convention, the first to go to the front-line position should be one battalion and one company, but Zhang Lingfu sent three battalions and one company with average combat effectiveness in the regiment. In Zhang Lingfu's thoughts, the worse the team is in normal times, the more it must be beaten in actual combat, so as to improve the combat effectiveness of this team as soon as possible. In order to prevent accidents, Zhang Lingfu put a battalion and a company on the second line of defense, and there is also a bit of a sense of sending a supervising team here.

Zhang Lingfu knew that his 547th Regiment was still inferior to the 546th Regiment, so Zhang Lingfu cleverly divided the 24 60 mortars of the heavy fire battalion into squads, and the two mortars of one squad were a support group to provide artillery support when the Japanese army approached the position. In this way, even if two mortars of a group are lost, they will not lose much heavy firepower.

This trick really worked, when the Japanese infantry approached the defender's first-line position, the two mortars each fired three rapid fires, so that the attacking Japanese soldiers were killed and wounded, and when the Japanese retaliatory shells came, the two mortars had already been transferred. This time the Japanese attack was even more difficult. Through the attack in the past few days, Itagaki Seishiro finally knew the strength of the Shina ace army in front of him, which was numbered as the New 90th Division.

This force is too difficult, the firepower is fierce, the soldiers are tenacious, and the commander is the team under his command who does not give himself a chance, and now the means that can be used are basically used, but there is still nothing to do about the position north of the bridge. Just when Seishiro Itagaki was at a loss, the commander of the 9th Brigade, Major General Noboru Kunisaki, came up with an idea.

Noboru Kunisaki came to the headquarters of the Fifth Division, and after meeting Seishiro Itagaki, he said: "Your Excellency, the more than 20,000 warriors of our Fifth Division are unable to cross the river from Bridge No. 30 due to the limitation of the terrain. As soon as the troops cross the river, we can attack the defenders from behind and thus crush or even destroy the defenders here. ”

After hearing this, Seishiro Itagaki nodded and said, "Yo Sai! Kunizaki-kun's idea is very clever, so I will send a telegram to General Yanagawa Heisuke, asking the general to come forward and let the navy cooperate with us to force the crossing of the Huangpu River, so that we can destroy the opposite Shina army." After saying that, Seishiro Itagaki went to the confidential office and sent a telegram of request to General Yanagawa Heisuke, the commander of the Tenth Army.