This unit is known as Chiang Kai-shek's Royal Forest Army, and it is even an army that frightens the Japanese by saying its name, and they also participated in almost all the major battles in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, repeatedly beating the elite Japanese troops, which shocked the world for a time, and they were also the first of the five main forces of the Anti-Japanese Resistance, which was the 74th Army, the ace army of the Kuomintang.
This well-equipped, brave and good fighting unit once won 5 flying tiger flags in the army, you know, the flying tiger flag was the highest honor symbol in the national army at that time, but it was such an ace unit that killed all sides on the anti-Japanese battlefield, but it was destroyed after the end of the War of Resistance.
So how strong are they? What kind of miraculous battles have been created on the battlefield, and how did they step by step towards extinction at the peak?
In the Battle of Songhu, there were too many troops pouring into Shanghai, in order to facilitate the coordination and coordination of command operations, the Nationalist Army Headquarters reorganized a number of military-level divisions, Wang Yaowu's 51st Division and Yu Jishi's 58th Division merged into an army, which is what we know as the 74th Army, the whole army 8 regiments, a total of 21,000 people, Yu Jishi served as the commander, at the beginning of the formation, the 74th Army showed outstanding strength on the battlefield, becoming a shining dark horse in the Nationalist army.
After the outbreak of the Battle of Songhu, the 74th Army was ordered to deploy in the area of Wusongkou, the two divisions cooperated with each other, repeatedly blocked the Japanese army, unlike other panicked Nationalist troops, the 74th Army was calm and self-assured, especially the 51st Division stationed in Luodian, although the troops had lost more than half, but still held the front to block the Japanese army, they also played a great role in motivating the whole army, with the arrival of Japanese reinforcements, the battle situation took a sharp turn, which was very unfavorable to our army, and the Nationalist army could only retreat in its entirety.
After the fall of Nanjing, they fought bravely on the battlefields of the whole country to kill the enemy, and at this time they did not know that they would work with friendly forces to completely annihilate the entire division of the Japanese army, thus making a name for themselves in the world and the whole country.
In July 1938, the Battle of Wanjialing broke out in De'an, Jiangxi, the First Corps of the Nationalist Army stationed in Jiujiang frequently mobilized troops, causing a rift in our defensive line, in order to break through the Nationalist defense line as soon as possible, the Japanese 106th Division was ready to launch a detour to the southwest of De'an, coordinating with the frontal attack troops, trying to annihilate 20 divisions of the Nationalist Army, this attempt also allowed them to open their own door to hell.
The Nationalist troops who received the information made a plan and arranged a "pocket array" at Wanjialing, waiting for the enemy to throw themselves into the net, and the 74th Army, as the main force, also garrisoned the edge to prevent the enemy from escaping.
Seeing that the situation was critical, the Japanese 106th Division decided to abandon the plan and find a breakthrough to highlight the encirclement of the Nationalist army, but they just chose the zhanggushan area where the 58th division of the 74th Army was located.
After two days of bloody fighting, this land has been full of corpses, the 58th Division has only 500 people left, and finally even Yu Jishi's guards have been sent, under the tenacious struggle of the soldiers, in addition to the commanding heights, the position is still firmly in the hands of the 74th Army.
In order to completely cut off the retreat of the Japanese army, Zhang Lingfu of the 51st Division led a group of elite warriors to boldly penetrate the enemy rear and launched a surprise attack on the Japanese army from behind Zhang Gushan on October 7, annihilating the enemy army in one fell swoop and cutting off the last retreat of the 106th Division.
Other nationalist units also began a general offensive against the 106th Division on October 9, and in the end, only a few Japanese troops escaped from the siege, and the Battle of Wanjialing ended.
The victorious Victory of Wanjialing was a campaign to completely annihilate the entire Japanese division and regiment during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and it was also an unprecedented victory in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.
At the same time, the commander of the Japanese army invading China, Okamura Ninji, also called the battle his worst defeat.
In the Battle of Wanjialing, the 74th Army bore the brunt of it, shocking the whole army with the ability to attack and defend, and this was only their initial start, and then they would create greater miracles.
In frequent battles, the rapidly tempered and growing 74th Army began to expand, under the jurisdiction of the 51st Division, 57th Division, 58th Division, Yu Jishi was transferred by Chiang Kai-shek to the Tenth Army and the commander of the 86th Army, the commander of the 51st Division Wang Yaowu was promoted to the commander of the 74th Army, under the leadership of this general, the 74th Army set a record that shocked the whole country.
In September 1941, the Battle of Shanggao broke out, located in the upper reaches of the Jinjiang River, Shanggao, not only a retreat route for the Nationalist army stationed in Changsha, but also a forward base for the Japanese army to attack Gannan Province.
Due to intelligence errors, the Japanese troops on the north and south roads failed to keep up in time, and the Japanese 34th Division on the middle road went deep alone, facing the invasion of the enemy's large firepower, the 74th Army stationed on the south bank of the Jinjiang River fought bravely, even if the casualties were heavy, they did not give in, and the Japanese army's plan to encircle Shanggao from the south bank was crushed.
The 57th and 58th Divisions also withstood the Japanese artillery bombardment and poison gas attacks, and launched 7 white-knife battles with the Japanese army, and The commander of the 57th Division, General Yu Chengwan, personally led his troops to kill the enemy.
On the battlefield, there is only one belief in the whole army: even if you die, you must keep the high!
Adhering to this belief, the Nationalist troops fought bravely and together with the large troops completed the encirclement of the Japanese 34th Division and hit the Japanese army hard.
In the successfully concluded Battle of Shanggao, the Nationalist army killed and wounded a total of 15,000 Japanese troops, the casualty rate of the Japanese division and regiment was as high as 70%, and the 74th Army, which performed well in the battle, not only played the name of "Anti-Japanese Iron Army", but also won their honor, the first martial arts certificate of the National Government and the highest honor "Flying Tiger Banner".
In November 1943, the 74th Army participated in the Battle of Western Hubei, and the 8,000 soldiers of the 57th Division fought a deadly battle against 40,000 Japanese troops in Changde City.
In the case of insufficient logistics, the 57th Division still held the city for 16 days, annihilated nearly 10,000 Japanese troops, the Battle of Changde East Gate, an inch of mountains and rivers and an inch of blood, in the end of the battle, only 89 Tiger Army survived to highlight the siege, this battle is known as the Miracle of the War of Resistance.
The persistence of the generals also showed the iron backbone of the Chinese, so the 57th Division once again won the "Flying Tiger Banner", and the glory of the 74th Army continued.
In 1945, in the last Battle of Xiangxi in the frontal battlefield of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, in order to occupy the Zhijiang Airfield of the Sino-US Joint Air Force Base, the Japanese Army united 5 divisions and regiments of about 100,000 people to attack West Hunan in three ways.
The Nationalist side dispatched the 4th Front, the 27th Army and the 10th Army to hold a strict position and fought a great decisive battle with the Japanese on the land of western Hunan Province, and the 74th Army, as the main force of the 4th Army, also lived up to the expectations of another miracle.
The Japanese 68th Division tried to capture the southwestern military town of Wugang, but only more than 500 people from 1 battalion of the 172nd Regiment of the 58th Division of the 74th Army were stationed in Wugang, and the Japanese 68th Division, which had a heavy tank unit, threatened to capture Wugang within a few hours, but in the next few days, they would be severely beaten in the face.
On April 27, the Japanese army relied on artillery and tanks to attack on three sides of Wugang Castle, and the soldiers of the 1st Battalion built a solid defense line with glutinous rice and triad clay in advance, and the Japanese attack for several consecutive days failed to get closer to Wugang Castle.
The soldiers of the 1st Battalion withdrew after seven days and seven nights of holding out, and in this battle they lost nearly half of their troops, eliminating hundreds of Japanese troops with tank units, which can be called another miracle.
In Longtan on the other side, the 51st Division of the 74th Army was still very successful, and a trump 116th Division of the Japanese Army sent the 109th Regiment deep into the hinterland of Xuefeng Mountain to try to take zhijiang directly nearby, and by the time the Nationalist army detected the Japanese tracks, they were less than 50 kilometers away from the headquarters of the 4th Group.
The 2nd Battalion of the 153rd Regiment of the 51st Division did not wait for the Japanese to attack, and was ordered to retake the Eagle Mountain position, they held the position, and when the reinforcements arrived, only 7 of them were left in the forward position, and their courageous resistance laid the active foundation for the follow-up troops, and also dragged the Japanese army to longtan.
The 57th Division stationed at Jiangkou was not inferior to the brother troops, not only blocking the fierce attack of the main force of the Japanese 116th Division of more than 9,000 troops, but also killing and wounding nearly 6,000 people.
With the 74th Army in front to attract fire, the Nationalist army completed the encirclement of the Japanese 116th Division, and eventually the Japanese army collapsed completely, leaving only a few to flee.
In the Battle of Xiangxi, the 74th Army annihilated 12,547 Japanese soldiers at the cost of killing 2,171 warriors and wounding 3,054, and the prestige of the 74th Army reached its peak and also obtained two "Flying Tiger Flags".
Then in 1945 it was airlifted to Nanjing, accepted the surrender of Japan, and was stationed in Nanjing, but after the peak, it was decay.
In 1946, Zhang Lingfu took over as the commander of the 74th Division, and they were well armed and equipped, and in 1947 they fought with General Su Yu, the god of war of our army, in the Huaye area, because the lone army was deep, they were besieged in the Menglianggu area, and after holding out for four days, they ran out of ammunition, and the ace troops who had killed the four sides on the anti-Japanese battlefield disappeared into the long river of history.