Wang's plan for Taunggyi, 80 kilometers southeast of Mandalay, is an important location. ?.?Chinese However, General Dai Anlan's 200 divisions failed to withstand the onslaught of the Japanese 33rd Division and withdrew from Taunggyi. Taunggyi and Mitiera, 50 kilometers southwest of Mandalay, are the two gates of Mandalay on the left and right, and Wang Haitao is preparing to let the Japanese soldiers in, and then close the door and beat the dogs.

In order to prepare for this pocket formation, Wang Haitao asked General Du Yuming to give an order to the 200th Division, so that the 200th Division would continue to retreat in the direction of Lashio, and defend Lashio together with the 96th Division and the 66th Army, so as to attract the 33rd Division of the Japanese Army to the north on the premise of ensuring that the Yunnan-Burma Highway would not be cut off by the Japanese army. And the 93rd Division, which had retreated to Myitira, was also to withdraw from Myitira after symbolic resistance.

As soon as the 200th Division retreated, the 33rd Division of the Japanese Army followed the 200th Division to the direction of Lashio like a dog that smelled meat. The 18th and 56th Divisions of the Japanese Army also pounced on Myitira along the Rangoon-Mandalay railway. After the Japanese 55th Division lost several more infantry brigades at Ringanqiang, only one infantry wing remained, and the division commander Takeuchi Kan commanded this infantry wing to advance from Ringanqiang to Mandalay.

General Stilwell proposed to use the British ** team to block the Japanese army in the direction of Ren'anqiang, but Wang Haitao never believed the British army and did not agree. In the end, Wang Haitao sent the new 22nd Division of the Fifth Army to garrison Minjian between Ringanqiang and Mandalay to stop the advance of the 55th Division of the Japanese Army. The commander of the new 22nd Division was General Liao Yaoxiang, and after receiving the order, he immediately led the new 22nd Division to Minjian for garrison.

The Japanese 18th Division, as soon as it arrived at Myitira, launched an attack on the Chinese defenders in Mytiera. The Ninety-Third Division is not ready to defend Mitiera now, so it has not shown its full strength. After a day of fierce fighting, the 93rd Division voluntarily abandoned Mithira and continued to retreat to the north. When the Japanese 18th Division and the 55th Division continued their offensive towards Mandalay, Wang Haitao knew that the Japanese army had entered the pocket and the battle plan had officially begun.

Wang Haitao's battle plan was to defend Mandalay with the 210th Division, and when the Japanese army relaunched an attack on Mandalay, he sent the 93rd Division to reoccupy Mythila and the 90th Division to occupy Taunggyi. Then the 90th and 93rd Divisions attacked the Japanese near Mandalay from two directions, in order to encircle and destroy the Japanese near Mandalay.

This battle plan was very bold and the premise of completing this plan was that the troops stationed in Mandalay could withstand the onslaught of the Japanese army on Mandalay and ensure that Mandalay was not lost, otherwise the plan would be a joke. Du Yuming's concern about this plan was whether only one 210th Division could withstand the onslaught of the Japanese army and keep Mandalay.

At that time, when Du Yuming learned about Wang Haitao's entire battle plan, he pinched a cold sweat for Wang Haitao because he was worried about this. In Du Yuming's view, even the strength of one army may not necessarily be able to block the onslaught of the 18th division of the Japanese army, let alone the use of more than 10,000 people in one division, and the Japanese army is still a half-division. After sending the newly formed 22nd Division to Minjian, Du Yuming had no troops at his disposal, so he could do nothing about it.

Wang Haitao is very sure in his heart, the strength of the 210th Division Wang Haitao knows in his heart, coupled with the assistance of the heavy artillery brigade, armored brigade, and guard brigade, the Japanese army is two reorganized divisions, and I am afraid that it will not be able to please it. However, the only thing Wang Haitao was worried about was the powerful air power of the Japanese army. When arranging defensive positions, Wang Haitao repeatedly stressed the issue of air defense to Tang Hongming, commander of the 210th Division.

Wang Haitao used all the anti-aircraft weapons he could use, half of which was used for air defense of the heavy artillery brigade and Mandalay City, and the other half was handed over to Tang Hongming for use. Mandalay's defensive position is not actually in Mandalay City, but in Amarabra, a small town just a few kilometers south of Mandalay. The headquarters of the 210th Division is located in this city of Amarabula.

Amarabra is not as big as the ancient city, and although it has walls, it is not strong. The two 10th Division's six existing infantry regiments were fortified in the city of Amarapura. The 460th Brigade accepted the task of attacking Ringanqiang, and the construction of the fortifications outside the city of Amarapura was completed by the Engineer Regiment and the 461st Brigade. With the help of those construction machinery of the engineering regiment, it is really twice the result with half the effort to build fortifications.

In the more than ten days that the Japanese army repaired at Legu, then attacked Myitira, and then advanced to the city of Amarabra, the 210th Division had already built a complete fortification here in the city of Amarabra. Zigzag trenches, bunkers, barbed wire, bomb shelters, communication trenches, anti-aircraft gun emplacements, mortar emplacements, artillery positions, and so on. In particular, the air-raid shelters are dug in the ground at a depth of two meters, and the roof of the holes is reinforced with rough wood, so that the air-raid shelters can effectively prevent the direct hit of heavy aerial bombs.

It's just that the amount of work to dig such an air-raid shelter is too large, and if there is no engineering machinery from the engineering regiment, the 210th Division will not be able to dig a few in ten days. The positions outside the city were mainly used for air defense by German-made 37 mm caliber twin self-propelled anti-aircraft guns. These anti-aircraft guns have not really been used in actual combat since the 210th Division was equipped, and the anti-aircraft gunners are holding their breath to let the little Japanese planes taste the power of the anti-aircraft guns in their hands.

There were a total of 60 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, and Tang Hongming put 40 of them outside the city, forming a four-line firepower network. In addition to 10 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, there are also more than 10 MG34 heavy machine guns equipped with anti-aircraft gun mounts in each fire network to make up for the gap in the fire network. In order to conceal the anti-aircraft fire, the positions of these anti-aircraft weapons are placed below ground level, making it difficult to see from the ground.

As for the 210th Division's powerful heavy artillery regiment, it was also divided into two, and 30 German-made 15O-caliber heavy howitzers and 50 75-caliber field guns were deployed in the city of Amarabra, and another 20 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns were assigned to air defense duties. Another thirty German-made 1o5 self-propelled howitzers were deployed outside the city, along with thirty light armored vehicles.

Tang Hongming concentrated all the combat vehicles in the armored regiment, except for the thirty light armored vehicles mixed with self-propelled howitzers, somewhere outside the city. These chariots were Tang Hongming's killer weapon, and they were used to carry out assaults on the Japanese army at critical moments. All these weapons and equipment of the distant Japanese army were Tang Hongming's confidence in withstanding the Japanese attack, and the Japanese army was destined to kick a steel plate under the city of Amarabra.

After a day of fierce fighting, the 18th Division of the Japanese Army captured Myitira, the gateway to Mandalay, at a small cost, which also made the division commander Shinichi Tanaka full of confidence. In Tanaka Shinichi's view, the 90th Army of China was the same thing, the 55th and 56th Divisions fought for more than ten days and lost troops and lost troops and defeated the ancient city, not because of how powerful the Chinese army was, but because the combat effectiveness of these two divisions was too poor. The strength of the Echina's army was still vulnerable in front of its own 18th Division.

After the capture of Myitira, the Japanese repaired for a day, and then with the 56th Division as the vanguard, they directly attacked Mandalay. On the morning of the third day, the 56th Division was the first to reach the front of the defenders' positions at Amarabra. After learning that there was a defensive position arranged by the Shina army ahead, the commander of the 56th Division, Captain Bianpio, ordered the troops to stop advancing and set up positions, and on the other hand, he reported the enemy situation to Lieutenant General Tanaka Shinichi, the commander of the 18th Division.

In the face of the tight defensive position laid by the squadron, Du Bian Pifu did not attack easily, but stood on a high place and carefully observed the defenders' positions. At this observation, Du Bian Pifu couldn't help but gasp, the layout of the position here is better than that of the same ancient city. Thinking about the attack in the ancient city, Dubian Pifu's scalp was numb.

At noon, the 18th Division also arrived at the city of Amarabra, and the division commander Tanaka Shinto also observed the situation of the defenders' defensive positions. Although Tanaka Shinichi and Dubian Pifu are both lieutenant general division commanders, the 18th Division is a veteran A division, so the division commander Tanaka Shinichi is also a cut above Dubian Pifu. This is just as a lieutenant general and division commander of the Central Army in China must look down on the lieutenant general and division commander of the miscellaneous army.

The two division commanders sat together, and Tanaka Shinichi said: "Dubian-kun, the Shina army has laid a defensive position in front, as the soldiers of the Great Japanese Empire, it is the mission of His Majesty's warriors to attack, so please command the warriors under Dubian-kun to attack the position of the Shina people first." "Tanaka Shinichi's purpose is very clear, that is, to use the 56th Division to test the defensive capabilities and firepower of the defenders.

Dubian Pifu also understood Tanaka Shinichi's thoughts, but he didn't dare to oppose Tian Shinichi's request at all, but said: "Tanaka-kun, my 56th Division lost an artillery wing in the battle with the ancient one, and without artillery support, the attack will be very difficult, and I hope Tanaka-kun can give my division artillery support." Seeing that Bibian Pifu was so easy to speak, a smile appeared on Tanaka Shinichi's face.

Tanaka Shinichi replied: "Please rest assured that not only will my mountain artillery wing provide artillery support to your division, but I will immediately request a large amount of air support from His Excellency Commander Iida." Hearing that Tanaka Shinichi simply agreed to artillery support, Dubian Pifu said goodbye to Tanaka Shinichi and returned to his division to prepare for the attack.

After the battle with the ancient world, less than half of the three infantry wings of the 56th Division remained, which can be described as a broken nerve. In the few days of repairing the fortifications, Dubian Pifu organized all the soldiers in the division who could fight into the infantry wing, and received part of the reinforcement from Lieutenant General Iida Shojiro, commander of the 15th Army, and at this time it was considered to be organized into two infantry wings, but the artillery could not be replenished in time, and the current 56th Wing combined with less than 50 large and small artillery, and most of them were small artillery such as Type 92 infantry guns and 80 mortars.