In this battle, two companies of the Eighth Route Army killed and wounded 400 Japanese troops, only 73 wounded themselves, and it was later made into a movie
On June 9, 1942, the most brutal moment of the Japanese army's "May Day sweep", the 22nd Regiment of the Eighth Route Army's Jizhong Army fought a rare and vicious battle with the Japanese army in Songzhuang, Shenze County, Hebei Province.
The 22nd Regiment is the main regiment of the 7th Military Subdistrict of the Jizhong Military Region. At that time, the regiment had to disperse its operations because of the anti-"sweeping", and the regimental commander Zuo Ye came to Songzhuang with two companies. The legend of this battle lies in the fact that two companies of the Eighth Route Army, with a small number of troops, fought against more than 2,500 well-equipped Japanese troops on the plains based on an isolated village. The enemy was outnumbered, and there was a huge disparity in strength and equipment, but the two companies of the Eighth Route Army killed and wounded the Japanese wing commander Sakamoto Yoshitaro Daisa, and as many as 460 people. What about yourself?
Only 73 people were injured.
The 22nd regiment created a miracle.
How did the battle start? On June 8, Yoshitaro Sakamoto, commander of the Independent 12th Infantry Wing of the Japanese 26th Division, held a one-day meeting with some officers in Nisigoro, and after the meeting, went to Shirasho on the 9th. Passing by Songzhuang, they were unexpectedly discovered by the Eighth Route Army. The two armies went on.
Sakamoto Yoshitaro they had a guard of more than 300 people, and after the battle began, the Japanese troops in the vicinity immediately reinforced, and the more they gathered, the more they became a siege of the Eighth Route Army.
At first, the Eighth Route Army blocked the Japanese army according to the first fortification on the side of the earthen wall of the vegetable garden outside the village. The Japanese pounced. However, several charges were suppressed by the Eighth Route Army.
The Japanese army was not reconciled, and continued to charge, "Ya Ya" screamed. The ambushed Soldiers of the Eighth Route Army were silent. When the Japanese rushed to the front, suddenly they struck a head-on blow. Machine guns and rifles don't strike indiscriminately. When the enemy enters the circle of fire, the warriors throw grenades and engage in melee combat.
Why only melee combat?
Because bullets are precious. The soldiers' slogan was: "Whoever can save bullets can persevere until victory." "Officers and men all keep this creed and do not shoot without aiming. In such a battle, how did they defeat the Japanese army?
In addition to melee combat, the two companies of the 22nd Regiment had an advantage, everyone could shoot and was good at shooting, so the limited number of bullets played the greatest role.
The 7th squad of the 1st company was guarded in the east, and the 7th squad leader was named Li Qingzhai and was a first-class shooter. Under an earthen wall, he adopted a kneeling shooting posture, "snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap," and fired seven shots in a row. The Japanese army was moving from north to south, no more, no less, and he put down seven of them. He was so excited that he forgot that the enemy was using the same bullets against him. He stood up and beckoned a nearby warrior, "Look at me another one!" The head was exposed, unfortunately, "snapped", and a Japanese bullet flew over and took his life.
2 companies guarded the temple platform in the west of the village. Liao Zhiguo, deputy company commander of the 2nd Company, found that the Japanese had installed a radio not far ahead, and three light machine guns were firing at it. When he chose a Japanese machine gun shooter and ammunition man to pick up the bullets, he "snapped", fired one shot, and knocked two Japanese soldiers over with one shot.
The machine gun also stopped roaring.
The machine gun shooter of the 2nd Company, named Bian Tingjie. He was a veteran of nine years as a skilled worker at the Hanyang Arsenal and had been a machine gun shooter since joining the Eighth Route Army. In the fierce battle, he used a shuttle of bullets to kill 27 Japanese troops. Then, in order to save bullets, he put the machine gun aside, took the rifle to fight the Japanese, and actually knocked down four Japanese soldiers with two shots, but unfortunately the third shot was empty. He stopped firing his gun, grabbed the grenade and hit it again, threw out a grenade, and the Japanese were blown up. At this point, he turned around and ran back to his position.
In the fierce battle, the Japanese army was beaten to the point of fainting.
Under the cover of a field gun and two Type 92 heavy machine guns, a group of Japanese troops rushed up again. Each of the ten of them carried a light machine gun and charged at the east entrance of the village guarded by 1 Company. The charging Japanese troops took out the spirit of Bushido, screamed in spite of life and death, and ran over. The soldiers of the 1st Company took out grenades and were preparing to pull the fire, "Boom! rumble! The shells of the Japanese covering the infantry charge flew straight over, but landed in the charging Japanese troops, exploded, and then "boom", "rumble", and another cannon, two guns, all landed in this area. Four shells saved the 1st Company of grenades, more than 30 Japanese soldiers lay down, and the remaining Japanese Bushido spirit was gone, and ran back to their own people to settle the account.
During the battle, Sakamoto Yoshitaro and a group of officers rushed to a position 30 meters in front of the position of the 1st Company, and the commander of the left leaf regiment gave an order: "Fight! ”
The 1st Company concentrated only one heavy machine gun, three light machine guns and a grenadier, saying that it was too late and fast, and opened fire together. The grenadier hit it particularly accurately, and a bomb fell on Yoshitaro Sakamoto, knocking his head crooked, and other officers suffered many casualties.
After the living Japanese army retreated, the machine guns and rifles of the dead Japanese troops were still thrown next to the dead bodies, and they were only a mile away from the wall of the vegetable garden. But the warrior did not go out to get it.
Why?
Because the Japanese fire was very strong.
But the Japanese did not dare to come and get it, because the grenades of the soldiers were also too powerful.
The correspondent Lu Wen found a long bamboo pole and stretched it out, but the machine gun was not caught, but two Three-Eight rifles were fished over.
The warriors built a total of four fortifications in Songzhuang. They fought with the Japanese for eight hours in the first and second fortifications, and then held on to the third fortification until dark. The two sides fought in the village and fought hard for a day. Before dark, the Japanese army charged more than 30 times, but when it rushed into the village and was beaten out of the village, the Japanese army held the Eighth Route Army, and there was really no way at all. By nine o'clock in the evening, night had completely fallen, and after a day of fierce fighting, the Japanese army had also stopped.
The warriors began to break through.
Under the command of the commander of the left leaf regiment, the two companies rushed together towards the northeast corner. Walking to the edge of the ditch, the Japanese did not notice them. Because most of the Japanese were asleep, the sentries stood behind the firelight and could not see the front clearly. Warriors stepped over dead bodies and sleeping Japanese soldiers. Curiously, a small soldier touched the mouth of a Japanese soldier on the ground with his hand to see if he was dead or alive, but he was bitten by the Japanese army. The Japanese sentry spotted it and immediately opened fire. The soldiers threw grenades in their hands, some rushed forward, some fought with the climbing Japanese soldiers with bayonets, stabbed each other to death, picked up the Japanese guns, and ran forward.
They rushed in this way to wake up the sleeping Japanese troops, and some Japanese troops ran with the breakthrough Eighth Route Army in a daze. When the warriors found them wearing steel helmets and preparing to shoot, they were frightened to run back violently.
Just like that, two companies burst out.
However, during the breakout, 14 fighters were wounded and 9 were killed.
After the two companies broke through, the Japanese army was still unconscious. On the second day, at dawn, reinforcements from Baoding were reinforced overnight, and the Japanese troops who had participated in the previous day's battle held a charge. However, after rushing into the village, there was no figure found, which was very strange, thinking that it was ambushed, so the gun "crackled" and sounded. When the Japanese troops outside the village heard this, they hurriedly machine-gun artillery and fired at the village together.
In fact, the Eighth Route Army had already left Songzhuang far away.
In this battle, the two companies of the 22nd Regiment had more than 300 men, killed and wounded more than 400 Japanese troops (one said 1100 people), seriously wounded the squadron leader (one said to be the brigade commander) Sakamoto Yoshitaro, and only 73 of his own casualties (including 23 casualties during the breakthrough).
After the battle of Songzhuang came out, he received commendations from Yan'an. Later, in New China, it was also made into a movie, called "Songzhuang Battle".