The topic of today's article is the bullets of the Eighth Route Army.
In 1940, a rumor began to spread quietly among the Japanese army in North China: the Eighth Route Army was equipped with a new type of bullet that made a terrifying whistling sound when flying, and would shatter in the body after hitting the human body, causing a huge wound.
Japanese soldiers said the bullet's warhead showed an eerie red color, perhaps a special marker of the Eighth Route Army.
So, does the Eighth Route Army really have such a bullet? The answer is: there really is!
Since 1940, the Eighth Route Army has successively begun to equip this red warhead bullet, which is produced by the Eighth Route Army Military Industry Department itself, and today it can still be seen in the "Eighth Route Army Taihang Memorial Hall".
The existing border area makes red round-headed bullets
In the japanese veteran's diaries, the bullet was called the "deadly red round head" — "after hitting the shoulder, the wound was completely torn, as if the entire shoulder had been forcibly dug out of the hole." ”
This description of the wounded soldiers of the Japanese army is enough to prove the power of the "red round head".
In our impression, the weapons and ammunition of the Eighth Route Army are not very backward, and how can there be such powerful bullets?
In fact, this kind of "red round head" bullet is precisely a reflection of the backwardness of the ammunition in the base area - it is an "unqualified" product.
To uncover the secret of the "Red Round Head", let us first understand the source of the Ammunition of the Eighth Route Army.
Unreliable national government
After the Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army, it was said that all weapons and ammunition should be provided by the National Government, but this was not the case in practice.
In the 1941 document of the Central Military Commission, "Military Construction in The Anti-Japanese Base Areas," there was a passage that read: "The Kuomintang has not issued a single bullet for two years, and it is possible to issue very little in the future." ”
It can be seen from this that during the most arduous period of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Nationalist Government cut off the supply of ammunition to the Eighth Route Army.
In fact, whether the Eighth Route Army could obtain ammunition from the Kuomintang was always affected by "relations between the two parties."
For example, in the year from the July 7 Incident to July 1938, the kuomintang-communist relations were good, so the Eighth Route Army obtained ammunition not only in a timely manner, but also in sufficient quantities.
I found such a set of data: on August 20, 1937 (at this time, the Red Army had not yet been reorganized into the Eighth Route Army), Nanjing issued to the Red Army "300,000 rounds of seven-nine infantry bombs, 200,000 rounds of seven-nine machine shells, 200,000 rounds of barge shells, 620 mortar shells, and 1 grenade. 50,000. ”
Here is a list of ammunition accepted by the Eighth Route Army office in Shaanxi:
Source: Research on the Source of Ammunition of the Eighth Route Army During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression
But from the second half of 1939 onwards, the situation changed.
In 1939, the Kuomintang constantly created friction near the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, which led to tensions between the two parties. Subsequently, Chiang Kai-shek used the "cut off of supply" to coerce the Eighth Route Army, and in December 1939 he issued this instruction: "Before the Eighth Route Army withdraws from Suide and drives to Hedong, it must not fire any more ammunition."
Since then, the Nationalist government has completely stopped supplying ammunition to the Eighth Route Army, and the Eighth Route Army can only rely on capture and self-control to replenish ammunition.
Ammunition is scarce
Since the Eighth Route Army went to fight behind enemy lines, fighting has become more and more frequent, and due to the loss of ammunition support from the National Government, the ammunition of the troops has gradually become scarce. Although the specific ammunition reserves of the various units at that time were different, the ammunition of all troops began to be stretched due to supply difficulties.
The 115th Division, the main force of the Eighth Route Army, was well stocked with ammunition during the Battle of Pingxingguan. According to Li Tianyou, then commander of the 686th Regiment, each soldier in the Battle of Pingxingguan received more than 100 rounds of ammunition and two grenades, which was already a very luxurious configuration for the Eighth Route Army.
Soldier of the Eighth Route Army
However, when the 115th Division fought with the Japanese, it found that there were still not enough bullets.
In the battle of Laoye Temple, in order to prevent the Japanese army from seizing the commanding heights of Laoye Temple, the soldiers of the 686 Regiment actually ran out of ammunition, and the fierceness of the battle was rare in the civil war, and the ammunition supply of the troops immediately felt the pressure. The main force is still like this, and the situation of other units can be imagined.
In January 1941, Nie Wenkui, a soldier of the Eighth Route Army, received only 5 rounds of ammunition. When receiving the bullets, the company commander also patiently instructed that we should keep firmly in mind the "three no-hits": we must not fight if we are not sure, we will not fight if we are far away, and we will not fight if we are not sure. At that time, even the regular troops of the Eighth Route Army could only receive 10 rounds of ammunition before the battle.
Japanese "Meiji 30-year-old" ammunition box
At the same time, the Japanese soldiers were well armed with ammunition.
Japanese riflemen during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression carried a "Meiji 30-year ammunition box" that had been in shape since 1897. It has two front boxes and one rear box. The front box is divided into two compartments, each of which stores 15 rounds of ammunition, a total of 30 rounds, and the two front boxes carry a total of 60 rounds of ammunition.
The rear box is spare ammunition, and the bullets inside are generally sealed with oil paper and have ventilation holes at the bottom. In general, this stockpile cartridge is rarely used. The rear box can hold 4 x 15-round magazine packs for a total of 60 rounds.
Calculated, the standard carrying capacity of an infantry infantry of the Japanese army is 60 (2 front boxes) + 60 (1 rear box) + 5 (inside the gun) = 125 rounds. When marching, they would carry an additional 60 to 80 rounds of ammunition.
This would allow each soldier to carry 200 rounds of ammunition, enough to sustain two battles. A Japanese Taisho Type 11 machine gun group carried a total of about 450 rounds of ammunition.
The front box is divided into two compartments
As a result, the Japanese soldiers became "walking ammunition depots" in the eyes of the Eighth Route Army, and they attached great importance to capturing enemy ammunition to replenish themselves. For some time, "capture" became the main source of supply for the Eighth Route Army.
The devils are getting more and more cunning
The Eighth Route Army, which mainly relied on the capture of supplementary ammunition, was soon detected by the Japanese army, and the cunning devils immediately took "anti-capture" measures.
After 1940, the number of bullets carried by each Japanese soldier was strictly limited to a maximum of 40 rounds. The Japanese also strictly controlled the ammunition reserves of the puppet army to prevent the Eighth Route Army from obtaining ammunition from the puppet army.
At the same time, the combat style of the two armies at this stage also changed, which made it more and more difficult for the Eighth Route Army to capture ammunition.
In general, in order to capture enough ammunition in battle, at least two conditions are required:
1. It is necessary to form an organization to eliminate the Japanese army;
Second, when the Japanese army was destroyed as a formation, it was not yet time to shoot all the bullets.
If the Eighth Route Army wants to achieve the above two conditions, it must consume as little ammunition as possible while winning a quick victory. But after 1940, it became very difficult to do that.
The Eighth Route Army wore captured Japanese coats
Around 1940, the devils began to play a new trick in the plains - the cage policy. They built bunkers near large towns in the plains and connected them by road, thus dividing the battlefield into many smaller pieces to limit the activities of the Eighth Route Army.
As soon as the devils did this, it would be very inconvenient for the Eighth Route Army in the plains area to operate in brigades and regiments, and it would only be possible to carry out operations with battalions as the mainstay. Therefore, there are more small battles, fewer big battles, and there is a sharp decline in captures.
However, in the mountains, the brigade-level and regimental-level units of the Eighth Route Army were still active, so there were the Battles of Chenzhuang, the Battle of Loess Ridge, and the Battle of Dalonghua.
However, although the Eighth Route Army was able to capture a certain amount of ammunition in these battles, its own consumption was also very large, and there is a set of data below:
In the Battle of Loess Ridge, our army captured 53,500 rounds of various ammunition, consumed 116168 rounds of various ammunition, and captured 46. 1%；
In the Battle of Dalonghua, our army's consumption and capture were equal, both 50,000 rounds;
In the Battle of Chenzhuang, our army could only capture 1 round for every 5 rounds of ammunition consumed.
Since then, "sweeping and counter-sweeping" and "encroachment and anti-encroachment" have become the main forms of fighting between the Eighth Route Army and the Japanese army, which makes it more difficult for the Eighth Route Army to destroy a large group of the Japanese army.
Spare ammunition in a Japanese bullet box
In November 1941, when summarizing the defense of Huangyadong, Peng Dehuai also admitted that it was difficult to carry out a large-scale encirclement and annihilation of the devils under the conditions at that time.
Without a short-term war of annihilation, the Eighth Route Army would lose its source of ammunition supply and face the danger of "having guns and no ammunition."
Shell casings! Shell casings!
As the situation of ammunition replenishment on the front line became increasingly severe, Mao Zedong specifically raised the issue of arms at the Sixth Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in October 1938.
"It is required that every guerrilla war base must try its best to establish a small arsenal. The degree of homemade ammunition, rifles, grenades, etc., makes guerrilla warfare without the risk of lack of arms. ”
But how easy is it to produce bullets in the base areas? In addition to the lack of machinery and equipment, the bigger problem is that there are no raw materials.
Bullet casings during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression were made of brass. However, in the anti-Japanese base areas, there was neither the ability to smelt brass nor enough pure copper reserves, so it was impossible to produce bullet casings.
Bullet casings cannot be made, let alone produced bullets? The arsenals in the base areas can only retreat to the second place - self-made reloaded ammunition, also known as "rebuilt bullets."
The so-called reloading bomb is to trim the old shell, then reload the gunpowder and the new primer, and finally install the ammunition made of the warhead.
Soldiers of the Eighth Route Army and captured weapons
Compared with the manufacture of grenades and shells, the process of reloading bullets is more complicated.
To make a reload, you need a scrap shell, gunpowder, and a remanufactured warhead. Then clean, shape, annealing, look at the bottom fire eye, the bottom fire, loading the propellant, loading the warhead, tightening the shell, the bullet port and the bottom fire point shell paint, inspection, over the full ammunition gauge, rolling and other dozens of processes.
The Eighth Route Army produces reloaded ammunition, and the most needed raw material is the shell shell.
Since 1941, used shell casings have become "strategic materials" of the Eighth Route Army, and leaders at all levels have attached great importance to the collection of shell casings, and have constantly ordered the troops to pay attention to the collection of shell casings.
On January 13, 1941, Jude gave a clear instruction in a telegram to the troops: "The headquarters is now free of bullets ... In the future, all those who receive bullets must bring bullet casings, one for one, otherwise they will not be fired. ”
During this period, the collection of shell casings became a frequently mentioned issue from the Central Military Commission down to the commanders of various divisions and brigades. In the gap between extremely heavy combat tasks, the Eighth Route Army also had to do everything possible to collect shell casings.
The riflemen of the Eighth Route Army would carefully collect the bullet casings scattered around the area before moving their positions, and hand them over to the squad leader after the battle; the machine gunners had no time to collect them during the battle because they had to change positions frequently, but when cleaning the battlefield, other fighters would help find the shells according to the memories of the machine gunners.
Once near Linyi, the 686th Regiment of the 115th Division set up an ambush circle and prepared to ambush a Japanese army. However, the number of Japanese troops who entered the ambush circle exceeded expectations, so our army was unable to completely annihilate the enemy army and could only quickly leave the battlefield.
Two days later, the 686th Regiment sent a small force back to the battlefield to collect the shell casings scattered there. In the end, more than 400 shell casings were all found and handed over to their superiors.
The Eighth Route Army's collection of shell casings with extraordinary "enthusiasm" also attracted the attention of the Japanese army.
During the battle, some fighters found that in order to prevent the Eighth Route Army from picking up the shells, the devils even began to pick up the shells; the Japanese machine gunners also covered a cloth bag outside the shell throwing window and took away all the shells thrown by the machine guns. This shows the cunning and eyeliner of the Japanese army.
Japanese machine gunners pose
Shell casings collected by the troops were sent to the bullet factory. Here are some processing machinery for the production of reloaded bombs, which can greatly improve production efficiency. According to Shen Dingxiang, who was involved in the production of reloaded ammunition at that time, he recalled:
"In the workshop of the bullet factory, Vice Chairman Zhou Enlai obtained from the enemy-occupied areas two shell bottom machines, two shaft punching machines, two tight-mouth machines, two mouth-closing machines, one yuan car, and one lathe and one small punching machine from the enemy-occupied areas."
In addition to large-scale production in factories, the Eighth Route Army also set up a reload squad, which carried finished warheads and simple tools to follow the combat troops and manufacture reloaded bullets on the battlefield site for direct use by the troops.
Soon, the Eighth Route Army's bullet factories expanded to two. By 1943, the number of reloaded bullets at the Jin-Cha-Ji Arsenal alone had reached more than 1 million rounds. Most of the more than 7 million rounds of ammunition produced by the arsenals during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression were reloaded.
Smokeless gunpowder
After solving the problem of the shell casing, the technicians of the Eighth Route Army turned their attention to gunpowder.
As the homeland of gunpowder, China can produce it by the people. In fact, the bullets made in the base areas were originally made of "black powder" made by the common people.
But this gunpowder has caused many problems in its use, and the warriors have a lot of opinions.
The "warhead extension punch" used by the Eighth Route Army
According to the recollection of military personnel, this kind of bullet loaded with black powder will produce a strong black smoke around the soldier after firing, and the black smoke will not only seriously affect the aiming, but also expose the firing position, attracting enemy fire.
The use of this black powder bullet is often the end of a battle, and the warriors are smoked to the ground.
Obtaining smokeless powder became an urgent task.
At first, the military industrial personnel obtained smokeless gunpowder by dismantling the firing cartridges of Japanese shells, removing the smokeless powder strips filled in the medicine barrels, and then cutting the powder strips into bullet casings.
However, this method was soon abandoned. The Eighth Route Army's captured cartridges were already limited, and some of them had to be used by artillery; and there was a great danger in dismantling the barrels.
The Headquarters of the Eighth Route Army and the Military Industry Department of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region decided to manufacture smokeless gunpowder on their own.
In January 1940, in a village in Tang County, Hebei Province, the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Industry Department of the Eighth Route Army set up a pottery tower made of water tanks here and began to produce nitric acid and sulfuric acid.
Processing machinery used in the Eighth Route Army Arsenal
From August 1940, the Eighth Route Army was able to mass-produce nitric acid and sulfuric acid. Three comrades from the Technical Research Office of the Ministry of Industry of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region successfully developed smokeless gunpowder using self-produced raw materials, which was quickly promoted to other base areas.
By 1942, two bases had successfully produced concentrated sulfuric acid, and smokeless gunpowder had been produced subsequently, and they had also manufactured different types of gunpowder on this basis.
After 1944, the quantity of gunpowder production in the base areas swelled violently. Take the Taihang District as an example:
Production of 26 kg of mercury was produced in 1944, which soared to 118 kg in 1945; In 1944, 760 kg of propellant were produced, which increased to 10,203 kg in 1945; In 1945, 15,503 kg of high explosives were produced.
The Eighth Route Army finally broke through the technical difficulty of smokeless gunpowder.
Red round head
In addition to shell casings and gunpowder, another difficulty in reloading ammunition is the warhead.
A brand new Japanese 6.5 mm rifle cartridge with a lead core in the warhead and a copper armor. The structure of the warhead is a soft copper skin on the outside of a hard lead core. The same is true of the warhead structure of the reloaded bomb.
The reload uses a recycled shell, and the warhead can only be remanufactured from copper and lead.
As mentioned above, the Eighth Route Army was already very short of copper, and it did not have the ability to smelt it on its own. The only way to make warheads is to recycle old metals containing copper. They found that copper dollars from the Qing Guangxu period were very suitable for making warheads.
The military personnel first squeezed and beat the collected Guangxu copper dollars to create copper utensils similar to test tubes, and then poured the melted lead liquid into it, which became a warhead after sealing. This warhead will take on the color of a copper dollar – dark red.
However, copper elements have one drawback: they are harder than pure copper and are very difficult to process.
When using a human screw press to produce copper-dollar warheads, workers often work for half a day and can't produce much. The technician then came up with the idea of using a mule horse as a power to drive a stamping press to press the copper dollar. After experimentation, this approach was successful.
The raw materials pressed with this method of soil will have many fine cracks on the surface, and the surface of the warhead will also retain these cracks after being made. These cracks could not be removed, and could only be simply polished and treated, and handed over to the troops for use, which was later called "made in the border area" or "red round head".
When the red round-headed bullet flies at high speed after firing, air will pour in through the gap, creating a harsh whistling sound. High-speed air can also cause the copper skin to peel off, exposing the lead core.
Therefore, when the red round-headed bullet enters the human body, the cracked copper skin will shatter into a large number of fragments under resistance, and the lead core will also be extruded and tumbled in the body, much like a Dam bullet. Therefore, the wounds it caused were far larger than those of ordinary bullets, bringing a serious psychological shadow to the ghost soldiers.
However, the red round-headed bullet also has obvious defects, and the rough processing has led to its poor accuracy and range is far less than that of the newly built bullet.
This is the origin of the bullet mentioned above, which was called "deadly red round head" by the ghost soldiers. It is actually a special model that appeared in a specific historical period and is an emergency product; but it is also the epitome of the Chinese military and people's tenacious resistance to the war and the fear of a strong enemy.
postscript:
For the Eighth Route Army, the shortage of ammunition was always a lingering pain during the War of Resistance. Although the production capacity of the base arsenal is constantly expanding, after all, it is not a mechanized large-scale production, so the production capacity is always insufficient.
Eighth Route Army's "Shell Extension Punch"
In the early period of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the distribution and combat capture of the Nationalist government was the main source of ammunition for the early Eighth Route Army; when the Nationalist government stopped distributing ammunition, the Eighth Route Army was less and less captured due to the limitations of the battlefield environment, and in 1941-1942 it fell into the predicament of lack of ammunition.
In the midst of difficulties, the red military industry is self-reliant, trying its best to produce self-made bullets, so that the proportion of self-made ammunition is getting higher and higher. In the middle and late period of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the production of ammunition in the base areas was relatively on the right track, and great progress was made in the production of reloaded bullets with high precision and technical requirements.
From 1943 onwards, although still constrained by raw materials, the Eighth Route Army Arsenal was still in difficulty, providing valuable ammunition support to the troops.
According to statistics, from 1937 to 1945, the anti-Japanese base areas built 130 arsenals, with nearly 20,000 employees and 7.8 million rounds of ammunition, which made important contributions to the guerrilla war led by the Communist Party, laid a solid foundation for the entrepreneurship of the new Chinese military industry, and injected red genes into the current modern military enterprises.
Under the arduous conditions of resisting foreign enemies, the people's military industry has stepped out of its own glorious road step by step.