In early September 1941, the Japanese invading Japanese army gathered the 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 40th Divisions and 4 brigades and regiments with about 120,000 troops to cross the Xinqiang River from the port, Tongxi Street, and Xinqiang respectively, and launched an attack on China's Ninth Theater in an attempt to annihilate the main force of the Ninth Theater. Xue Yue, commander of the Ninth Theater, mobilized 3 group armies, 12 armies and 33 divisions to engage in fierce battles with the Japanese army, and the Second Battle of Changsha broke out.
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Bai Hui zhang
At the southern end of the middle section of the New Wall River, there is a small town called New Wall, with 101 households, and the 102nd Division of the Fourth Army of the National Revolutionary Army is defending here, guarding the New Wall River. The Xinqiang River was the focus of the Japanese army crossing the river and was the first gateway to defend Changsha City. After the outbreak of the Second Battle of Changsha, the units of the 102nd Division urgently strengthened the entire line of fortifications, and built a heavy cover against the heavy artillery of the Japanese army, the people of the new wall town and the surrounding villages were evacuated in advance, the troops who infiltrated the enemy's rear were recalled in time, and a major war was about to break out in the new wall river.
On September 17, the Japanese troops on the north bank of the New Wall River concentrated the strength of 3 divisions and regiments, and attached tanks, cavalry, and artillery to attack the positions of the Fourth Army, and the Japanese first bombarded the town of New Wall with heavy artillery, and for a time the bullets fell like rain, and the town suddenly became a piece of rubble. At that time, the division commander Bai Huizhang set up most of the machine gun bunker fortifications of the 102nd Division in the hills on both sides of the town, and the diagonal fire concentrated on blocking several ports where the Xinqiang River crossed the river. Although the Japanese army had a large number of troops, it was swept away by oblique fire and several strong crossings were unsuccessful.
On the bank of the New Wall River, the Japanese army was repelled several times, and the corpses of the devils floated in the river and drifted with the water, slowly flowing downstream. The Japanese army did not succeed in the forced crossing, so they concentrated their forces from the right wing of the 304th Regiment to cross the Xinqiang River and prepare to establish a bridgehead position after crossing the river. Bai Huizhang, the commander of the division, saw the situation and ordered Xu Shijun, the commander of the 304th Regiment, to lead his troops to destroy this enemy. Commander Xu immediately organized a battalion of troops to launch a fierce attack on the Japanese troops crossing the river, and the soldiers bravely rushed to kill, and dozens of Japanese troops who sneaked onto the bridgehead were completely annihilated.
At the bridgehead position, the Japanese commander Who led the team was captured, and when this Japanese commander was escorted to the division headquarters, he saw the commander of the BaihuiZhang Division and saluted with his chest and hips, and said in half-baked Chinese: "Your army is very good, and there is a famous army." The Japanese cobia truthfully told the japanese army and asked Bai Huizhang not to kill him. Bai Huizhang took the prisoner into a prisoner-of-war camp and handed him over to the rear for reform.
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The Japanese fired across the river
At noon, 6 Japanese planes flew over the defenders of the New Wall River to carry out repeated bombing, and the Devil's cannon also carried out extended fire to cover the sappers to repair the destroyed military bridge on the New Wall River. The commander called in heavy mortar reinforcements and aimed them at Japanese sappers who were rushing to repair the bridge. After dozens of mortar rounds, the Japanese bridge collapsed, and the Japanese tanks that were slowly passing through the bridge had to stop.
On the side of the 306th Regiment, the Japanese cavalry forcibly waded through the new wall river, and the position was broken by the Japanese cavalry. After the Devil's cavalry rushed to the position, they were interspersed with attacks everywhere, and Chen Xizhou, the commander of the 306th Regiment, was in a hurry several times, and Bai Huizhang strictly ordered him to hold his position and not to take a step back. More than 10 minutes later, the Japanese cavalry crossed along the line and attacked in separate units, and Bai Huizhang ordered the regiments to hold the stronghold, swear to coexist with the position, and without orders, they were not allowed to take a step back without authorization, and urgently dispatched supplementary regiments to build a second line of defense.
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New Wall River Defenders
Fierce battles were fought along the xinqiang River, and all officers and men of the whole line fought fiercely with the combined infantry, cavalry, and artillery of the Japanese army, although the equipment was not as good as the Japanese army, and the physical strength was not as good as that of the Japanese army, but no one took a step back. On the banks of the New Wall River, the officers and men of the 102nd Division sacrificed one after another, and the land on the banks of the New Wall river was sprinkled with the blood of the soldiers. During the fierce battle on the New Wall River, the division commander Bai Huizhang pushed the headquarters to the vicinity of Tongxi Street, close to the command of the New Wall River Front, and the Shells of the Japanese Army fell near the command post from time to time.
In the evening of the battle, the 1st Battalion of the 306th Regiment was besieged by a large number of enemy soldiers of the Japanese 13th Wing at the Position of Bijiashan, and the battalion suffered heavy casualties and was difficult to support. At this time, Bai Huizhang had no troops to adjust, and he had to order the engineer battalion directly under the division to go to reinforcements. The engineer battalion is the treasure of the division commander, and most of the engineers have graduated from the Guizhou Daowu Hall and the military academy, and can build mines, clear mines, build bridges and pave roads, set up barricades and telephone lines, and belong to all-rounders. Unless the last resort, the division commander could not bear to send them into battle.
New Wall River Guild Wars
After three days and nights of fierce fighting on the banks of the New Wall, only the battalion commander Yang Jiong and sun Yimin, the 3rd company company, were left in the engineer battalion, and 31 wounded soldiers. There were about seven or eight hundred enemies on the front of the engineering battalion, and the Japanese army had broken through the defensive line and was gradually crossing the river, and Bai Huizhang urgently asked the commander Ou Zhen, who ordered the whole army to retreat to Tongxi Street. The next day, the Japanese cavalry attacked Zhanjia Mountain and took the opportunity to attack the Tongxi River.
In the position of the 305th Regiment, the whole regiment suffered heavy casualties. The first battalion of Chen Kai's headquarters was only left with more than a hundred people left in Gujia Village, and was heavily besieged by the Japanese army. The commander of the second company, Zeng Dezheng, led his troops to engage in a white-knife battle with the Japanese army, and in the end, none of the entire company died in the battle. Xu Jinjiang, acting commander of the second battalion, led 18 men to hold Huangnigang to be attacked by enemy cavalry, and all of them died heroically. The third battalion, Sun Guozhen, led his troops to fight with the Japanese army on the river, but unfortunately was stabbed by the Japanese army and died heroically.
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Japanese cavalry
As the battle became critical, Commander Ou Zhen called from Guanwang Bridge and asked the whole division to persist in the battle and make every effort to block the Japanese advance to cover the deployment of the counterattack after the completion of the theater troops. Bai Huizhang said: "Now that the enemy infantry is attacking our various stronghold positions separately, the enemy cavalry is running amok, and there have been heavy casualties in the past few days, and there are less than a thousand people left, please send a regiment of troops to reinforce." ”
Ou Zhen replied, "The army only has one part of the ninety divisions used for decisive battles, and it cannot draw troops to fight." Commander Xue has an order, the current battlefield success or failure, the responsibility is in our army, I will entrust this task to you. Bai Huizhang put down the phone and said indignantly:
"Fight alone, fight alone!"
Anti-Japanese soldiers
After Bai Huizhang finished making the call, he said to Chief of Staff Xiong Qinyuan: "The European commander refused to send reinforcements, and now there are less than a thousand soldiers in the line of fire, the battalion commander is almost finished, and some scattered troops are left to guard various strongholds. I decided to supervise the battle with the 305th Regiment, and Deputy Division Commander Chen to the 304th Regiment, and we will serve our lives with a decisive death, and you will be fully responsible for all the affairs in the rear of the division headquarters. "Say it, Bai Huizhang rushed to the position of the 305th Regiment."
In the position of the 305th Regiment, Bai Huizhang took up the battle with a gun to supervise the battle until the forward position fought side by side with the officers and men. The officers and men of the 102nd Division fought for another 2 days, slowing down the pace of the Japanese offensive with heavy sacrifices and buying time for the rear counterattack deployment. At this time, the commander ordered the 102nd Division to retreat and rush to Huanghua City to concentrate on standby. During the retreat, the logistics heavy troops of the 102nd Division and the families of the battalion were bombed and strafed by Japanese aircraft, and the Japanese cavalry pursued and killed along the road, and the corpses on the road were buried. At that time, the Japanese army had preemptively occupied Huanghua City by the 102nd Division, so the 102nd Division had to withdraw to the town of Tianxin in Zhuzhou to assemble.
In Tianxin Town, when the officers and men of the whole division were assembled, there were less than 100 officers and personnel, and only about 540 soldiers were left. In Tianxin Town, Bai Huizhang said to the remaining officers and men: "Up to now in this battle, there are only more than 600 officers and men in the whole division, and 90% of the number of casualties has been lost. In previous battles, the Guizhou soldiers who left the province earlier have suffered casualties, and few officers have survived. Since the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the soldiers of Guizhou have experienced all kinds of vicious battles, and the officers and men of Guizhou have lived to the death and have lived up to the people of the country! ”
Soon after, He Yingqin sent a telegram of condolences: "The division is brave in battle and resists the strong enemy. Defend Changsha, do your best, and give praise. For the soldiers who have just died, we will send deep condolences. Bai Huizhang called back: "Respect for the teachers, shenghui's troops, the elite of the enemy in every battle, the pain of annihilating the stubborn, wounding our soldiers, living with their own lives, it is really deeply guilty." He should serve his life and do my duty. At the same time, the military department sent a joint salute to mourn the fallen soldiers:
Taking the lead, the new wall river is outstanding, and the male style is still there;
The three armies are covered in white, and the blood dandan on the banks of the Miluo River is still alive.
Monument to the 102nd Division
In 1942, Bai Huizhang requested the approval of the Military Commission to build a memorial tower for the anti-Japanese martyrs of the 102nd Division of the National Revolutionary Army outside the south gate of Guiyang, the hometown of the Qianjun generals, to commemorate the heroic deeds of the officers and men of the 102nd Division in the War of Resistance.
[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]