During the Liberation War, when it comes to the 74th Division, its reputation is great. Because the predecessor of the 74th Division was the 74th Army of the Anti-Japanese Iron Army, which established many meritorious achievements during the War of Resistance Against Japan, under the leadership of Wang Yaowu and others, the 74th Army became famous, annihilated a large number of Japanese troops, and was the backbone of the War of Resistance Against Japan.
During the Liberation War, the original 74th Army was transformed into the integrated 74th Division, and its troops totaled more than 30,000 people, which was the number of one army. In the early days of the war, the 74th Division achieved certain successes in the Suhuai area, forcing our army to retreat in the direction of Shandong, and the two field armies were merged into one.
Under the leadership of Zhang Lingfu, the 74th Division began to become more arrogant, and on the battlefield in Shandong, Zhang Lingfu went deep alone and resolutely bit the main force of our army. Forced by the dangerous situation, our army, at the suggestion of Su Yu, planned to eliminate the 74th Division and caught Chiang Kai-shek's army by surprise.
In May 1947, 5 columns of our army surrounded the 74th Division, besieged it for three days in the Menglianggu area, and completely annihilated all the men and horses of the 74th Division with absolute superiority. The battle was a turning point in the Battlefield of Shandong, annihilating Chiang Kai-shek's ace troops that had supported the war.
The Battle of Menglianggu wiped out 30,000 people of the 74th Division and the surrounding additional troops, and it is reasonable to say that if 30,000 people can be eliminated, our army should be able to get a great replenishment and capture 30,000 guns. But the actual situation is a bit "big surprise", after cleaning up the battlefield, our army only captured 10,800 guns of various types, where did the other nearly 20,000 guns go?
First of all, some people will question the real number of our army to destroy the enemy, in fact, this does not need to be questioned, the lack of guns is not the number of our army's number of annihilation is wrong, but there are other reasons.
Because not all the personnel of the 74th Division were fighting on the front line, the division of labor among the entire army of thirty thousand people was relatively clear, there were front-line officers, they should be holding guns, and such people were also an important part of the composition of the 74th Division. Of course, in addition to this, there are artillerymen, intelligence services, logistics and others, these people are not fighting on the front line, most of them have no guns, or only a small number of guns.
From the perspective of modern troops, the ratio of personnel and firearms in the general army is less than 50%, that is to say, half of the people in a division have no guns in their hands. In the period of the War of Liberation, the 74th Division was formed as a US weapon, and the entire personnel system should be similar to that of the modern army, holding only one branch of the army, of course, there are other branches of the army, and not everyone in their hands has a gun.
In general, the modern war army is not a simple fight, but requires a lot of logistical support. For example, the guns need to be repaired when they are broken, and the logistics supply also requires many people to supply soldiers with food and drink, as well as armored divisions, artillery, medical soldiers, and other branches of troops.
In modern warfare, if an army is reduced by more than one-third, it has been dispersed and has no strong combat effectiveness. Under normal circumstances, the soldiers on the front line will be the first to be killed and injured, and the logistics is a bit futile without the cover of the front line soldiers. So in many countries in Europe and the United States, when a third of a unit was wiped out during the war, it was possible, or even allowed to surrender, without being punished by their own country.
In the Battle of Menglianggu, our army wiped out 30,000 people but only 10,000 guns, which is a very normal phenomenon. Of course, it is not ruled out that some places did not have time to search and missed some, after all, after the end of the war, our army needed to quickly withdraw from the battle position in order to get rid of the encirclement of chiang kai-shek's army on the periphery, and when it left, it seemed a bit hasty, and the weapons and ammunition may not be too late to be counted and collected, but it will not be many.
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