How powerful the Japanese bayonets were
During World War II, Japan could only exchange quality for quantity due to the lack of domestic resources. So when European armies used semi-automatic rifles and submachine guns, the Japanese used manual rifles and bayonets on the Chinese battlefield. According to General Yang Chengwu, when our army fights bayonets with the Japanese army, it often takes three or five fighters to change to one Japanese army. So how powerful is the Japanese devil's bayonet fighting?
A veteran of the Eighth Route Army named Liu Rulin from the Shaolin Temple put it this way: Because he had practiced martial arts, he was appointed as a bayonet instructor in the army after entering the army, but it was difficult for him to take advantage of the bayonet fighting with the Japanese army on the battlefield. In a battle, he was also stabbed by the Japanese army, and if he did not arrive in time for his comrades-in-arms, he would have died on the battlefield.
Bayonet training for the Japanese army
Even the Eighth Route Army from the Shaolin Temple could not defeat the Japanese army, and it was evident how powerful the Japanese army was in fighting bayonets, so why did the Japanese army fight bayonets so powerfully? There are two main reasons for this, the first is the problem of training. Japanese bayonet fighting is a tradition, as early as the end of the 19th century, the Japanese army already had the concept of military bayonet art. By the outbreak of World War II, almost every man in Japan had to practice bayonets, and even bayonets became a schoolwork program for Japanese middle school students.
Therefore, the vast majority of the Japanese troops who appeared on the battlefield in China had a lot of experience in fighting bayonets. At that time, the Japanese bayonet fighting tactic was a triangular formation of a veteran and two recruits, with the veteran attacking left and right in the front, and the recruit protecting the flank on both sides of the veteran's rear.
This tactic of the Japanese army can be attacked and retreated, and it can exert a very strong lethality under the tacit cooperation. At that time, the Chinese army was much worse than the Japanese army in training, whether it was a soldier of the Nationalist army or a soldier of the Red Army, they were basically peasants before entering the army. The hand holding the hoe suddenly grasps the gun, which is difficult to adapt to, coupled with the lack of training, the soldiers of our country lack cooperation with each other, and they will naturally suffer losses when facing the bayonets of the Japanese army.
The gap in the physical fitness of Chinese and Japanese soldiers
In addition to the gap in training, the gap in physical fitness also made our army suffer a big loss when fighting bayonets with the Japanese army. Industrial countries and agricultural countries are completely two concepts, and China is now an industrial country, so the current Chinese people have never experienced the feeling of starvation. But as long as we usually pay attention to the situation in India, Africa, South America and other countries and regions, we will find that there are a large number of people in these countries who are suffering from famine, and these countries and regions are all agricultural countries.
During World War II, China was a standard agrarian country, and soldiers had difficulty feeding before enlisting in the army. However, Japan has long entered the ranks of industrial countries, so the food of the Japanese army is much better than that of the Chinese army, and the physical fitness of Japanese soldiers is much stronger than that of our soldiers.
According to the veterans of the Eighth Route Army, in the early stage of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, although the Japanese soldiers were short, they stripped off their clothes and were all tendon meat, and the soldiers of our army who were higher than them could not hold the Japanese army at all. Under this gap in physical fitness, our soldiers and the Japanese army will inevitably suffer losses when fighting bayonets.