During the Battle of Taierzhuang in 1938, when the Japanese Isoya Division attacked Taierzhuang on a large scale, Li Zongren, commander of the Fifth Theater of Operations, ordered the 85th Army under the command of Tang Enbo's Army to attack Zaozhuang from the South from the Baodugu Mountains, and the 52nd Army and the 13th Army attacked Yixian County, threatening the enemy's left back. When the 52nd Army was ordered to advance from lanling town to Yixian county via Guoliji, the 25th Division of the 75th Brigade under its jurisdiction was ambushed by the Japanese at Guoliji, with hundreds of casualties. After the Japanese brought in large troops, the 25th Division was ordered to retreat eastward to the mountains.
????????????????????????????????????????? Guan Linzheng
On March 29, the Japanese Banyuan Division, from the west of Linyi, came about 3,000 infantry, cavalry, and artillery combined arms, bypassed the linyi city held by Zhang Zizhong and Pang Bingxun, and invaded Xiangcheng, north of Lanling Town. After the devils invaded Xiangcheng, they sent a reinforced squadron of about 200 people to invade Liuzhuang, a major town southwest of Xiangcheng. The devils occupied Liu Zhuang and held the strategic road, so Tang Enbo ordered the 52nd Army Guan Linzheng to eliminate this group of devils.
After Guan Lin obtained the order, he gave this task to the 145th Regiment of the 25th Division. A few months earlier, the 145th Regiment had suffered heavy casualties in two battles in Baoding, Hebei and Zhanghe, Henan, and all the remaining veterans of the regiment were allocated to supplement other regiments. While in Luoyang, the regiment absorbed more than 2,300 recruits, and although these recruits had undergone up to 3 months of training, they had no actual combat experience. Therefore, this mission was handed over to the 145th Regiment, which could not only annihilate this group of devils, but also train the combat ability of the recruits, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.
?????????????????????????????????????????? Guan Linzheng and his men were on the front line
Liuzhuang is located in the southwest of Xiangcheng, with more than 50 residents, and the outside of the village is surrounded by wheat fields and the terrain is open. After receiving the task of annihilating the enemy, Han Meicun, commander of the 145th Regiment, led the whole regiment to rush to the outskirts of Liuzhuang and urgently deployed the combat mission. Han Meicun occupied two small villages northwest of Liuzhuang with the first battalion, and built a fire network against Liu Zhuang to prevent the devils from sneaking west; the second battalion evacuated to the southeast of Liu Zhuang and quietly approached Liu Zhuang; ordered the mountain artillery, mortars, and Suluotong small artillery to occupy positions in two small villages 700 meters away from Liu Zhuang to suppress the fire of the devils, and the regiment headquarters was set up near the artillery positions.
At about 7 a.m. on March 30, the ministries were ready, and Han Meicun ordered an attack. For a moment, the shells of mountain artillery, mortars, and SuLuotong small cannons were fired at Liu Zhuang at the same time. Some of the thatched huts in Liuzhuang were hit by shells and set on fire. Since the inhabitants of the village had already moved away, the defenders were able to carry out bold shelling. After dozens of minutes of shelling, a company of the Second Battalion stormed into the houses in the northeast corner of Liuzhuang.
????????????????????????????????????????? The Japanese army entered the town
There were only more than 200 ghosts entrenched in Liu Zhuang, and more than 2,300 people of the 145th Regiment besieged Liu Zhuang, and the ghosts became turtles in an urn. However, the Devil Scouts were quite tenacious, and the 145th Regiment, which originally thought they could take Liu Zhuang with a single blow, suffered a loss here. After the shelling, Liu Zhuang did not move at all, and the 1st Company of the First Battalion rushed into Liu Zhuang, but was suddenly shot fiercely by the Japanese army. Bullets rained down from different angles, and the 1st Company killed more than 10 brothers on the spot. The officers and men of the whole company rushed to kill bravely, but the devil's marksmanship was very accurate, and the soldiers who rushed in front were knocked down and injured before they could approach the courtyard wall.
The most bizarre thing is that the devil's bullets come from nowhere, and the bullets seem to have eyes. The first battalion rushed in two companies in succession, both of which were repulsed by the devils. After half a day of fierce fighting, a battalion of the 145th Regiment actually advanced to a distance of 50 meters from the mouth of the village, and suffered one-third of its own casualties. Seeing the situation, Han Mei village ordered the second battalion to reinforce and advance, and it was necessary to seize the devil's fire point at the mouth of the village.
The officers and men of the second battalion were ordered to cross the open ground and pounce on the devil's fire point at the mouth of the village. The mountain artillery and mortars of the 145th Regiment fought one after another, flattening all the outer walls of the village that the devils were holding, and in the dust and smoke of the sky, the unburned flames were still burning in the village. Blowing up the wall, the officers and men of the second battalion quickly launched an attack, but as they approached the village, the devil's bullets came out of the ground again. The officers and men of the second battalion who rushed to the front were caught off guard, and more than a hundred people were killed and wounded by the devils.
Towns under Japanese occupation
In the puffs of dust, the Japanese gunshots shot out like raindrops from different corners of the village, and these bullets came close to the ground, as if they were coming out of the ground. Due to Liu Zhuang's high position, the defenders became the most conspicuous living target for the devils when they crossed the open field, and many soldiers were knocked down before they could figure out what was going on.
For a time, the first echelon of the charge suffered heavy casualties, and a loyal body of a warrior fell on the open ground. In the sunlight, on the snow that has not yet melted, blood stains the snow red. Han Meicun was shocked to see this, how could a mere 200 Japanese soldiers be so tenacious, could it be that the devils would fly in the sky and have three heads and six arms? Han Meicun then ordered the formation of a death squad and concentrated its firepower to take down the village headquarters first.
The three-way death squad was quickly formed, and the death squad soldiers advanced in three ways, and the devils at the mouth of the village could not take care of the left and right, and the firepower was gradually suppressed by the defenders. Immediately, the three-way death squad rushed into the devil's hidden position and strafed the devil with blazing fire. After half an hour of fierce fighting, most of the devils at the head of the village were completely annihilated, and more than 40 remnants of the enemy rushed to the west of the village, and the officers and men of the first battalion who had already ambushed and waited here concentrated their firepower and killed all the fleeing devils at the edge of the ditch.
???????????????????????????????????????????? Elite Japanese troops
After taking down the fire of the village, Han Meicun went to the stronghold to check and saw an incredible scene: only to see the devils digging dense gun holes in the house, and digging a series of holes under the wall roots. There was a layer of door panels on the hole, and the door panel was covered with a thick layer of soil, and the devils shot first behind the wall, and after the wall was blown up by shells, the devils drilled into the hole and fired their guns. This is why even intensive bombardment could not kill the devils, who hid in the holes in the ground and fired, and the bullets came out of the ground, shooting the defenders covertly and accurately, causing a lot of casualties to the defenders.
In response to this tactic of the Japanese army, Han Meicun decided to use the method of concentrated explosion to attack. He concentrated the light and heavy machine guns and grenades of the whole regiment, suppressed the devil's fire with light and heavy machine guns, and covered the commando team to throw grenades into the holes where the devils were hiding, killing the recalcitrant devils like "stewed gophers".
????????????????????????????????????????? Suroton machine gun
After the attack began, the light and heavy machine guns hit the devils unable to lift their heads, and the death squad soldiers rushed to the mouth of the hole in multiple ways, and after a bundle of grenades was thrown into the hole, a violent explosion broke the door panel, and the devil, along with the door panel, was blown up in the air, and the limbs flew randomly. One hole after another was taken down, the whole regiment attacked in multiple ways, and the elite soldiers of the squad followed up the operation, and the ghosts were killed and wounded, and they were gradually forced into a desperate situation. Although the Japanese army was small in number, its will to fight was quite tenacious. The devils relied on the hole to shoot, and when the defenders approached, the devils suddenly burst out of the hole, like trapped wolves rushing out of the cage and pounced on the defenders, in the fierce hand-to-hand combat, both sides paid a lot of casualties.
The fierce battle lasted until eight o'clock in the morning of the next day, and after a day and a night of stubborn resistance, the battle gradually came to an end. In a large courtyard, more than 50 Japanese troops were forced into a corner. After running out of bullets, most of the devils stubbornly resisted to the end, and were eventually shot back and forth by the defenders' 3 light and heavy machine guns, killing them in the corner, and the dying devils were captured on the spot.
??????????????????????????????????????? Han Mei village with captured Japanese shells
When cleaning up the battlefield, more than 10 Japanese soldiers still hid in the wall hole and refused to come out, and the ghosts hiding in the wall hole shot out one shot at the west and one shot out, making senseless resistance. Finally, Han Meicun ordered all the openings to be sealed and grenades were thrown inside. After a few rounds, the ghosts hiding in the cave were all killed, and the defenders dragged out more than 10 ghosts from the hole.
In a pit in Liu Zhuang, Han Meicun and the others also dragged out the body of a ghost officer, who was a middle officer. From the devils, Han Meicun and the others found a diary wrapped in patent leather, and this devil," Zhongzuo, wrote crookedly on the last page: "The imperial army fought fiercely in Liu Zhuang for a day and night, and the squadron of two hundred imperial troops was crushed." ”
???????????????????????????????????????? Bullets left over from the battlefield
From the confessions of the captives and the captured documents, it can be seen that this Japanese force came from a detachment of the Itagaki Division's Katano Wing, and its main task was to reinforce the Isoya Division in Taierzhuang and cover the main force of the Japanese army to the south. This group of ghosts entrenched in Liuzhuang and attacked south from this stronghold, but was unexpectedly besieged by Han Meicun's new army, and was eventually completely annihilated in Liuzhuang.
In the Battle of Liuzhuang, a regiment of Han Meicun (about 2300 people) besieged 200 Japanese troops for a day and night, killing and wounding more than 180 Japanese troops, 2 dead platoon leaders and 3 platoon leaders of the 145th Regiment were wounded, and nearly 1,000 soldiers suffered casualties. In this battle, although the new corps lacked actual combat experience, it had the advantage in terms of numbers and heavy weapons, and although the Japanese army had few people, it had high combat quality and strong combat effectiveness, and only 200 people blocked a regiment for a day and night.
????????????????????????????????????????? Taierzhuang Battle Memorial Wall
Han Meicun has always been unforgettable about this battle, and he once commented on the Japanese army: "The ghosts in the early days of the War of Resistance were like a group of wolves who were not afraid of death, but even the strongest wolves could not defeat the hunters, and the final fate of the Japanese army was only destruction." ”
[This article is collected by Barnyard Shi Hou to collect anti-war materials, memoirs to sort out and write, errors and omissions, Jingxi readers correct]