What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
In the winter of 1939, counting from the "918 Incident", China's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression had entered its ninth year. During the year, China's coastal areas had been largely lost to the enemy, leaving only meager supplies transported by the two international lines of communication, the Burma-Burma and Yunnan-Vietnam Highways, which supported the Yufu to maintain a confrontation with the Japanese on the frontal battlefield.
However, it was in such an unfavorable situation that in order to end the operations in the Chinese battlefield as soon as possible, the base camp of the Japanese army invading China planned to attack Hainan and Qinzhou Bay in Guangdong Province, in order to cut off the Yunnan-Vietnam Highway and weaken China's military strength.
In November 1939, with the assistance of the Navy and Air Force, the Japanese army captured Hainan with two divisions plus a Taiwan brigade, and then further landed in Qinzhou Bay, all the way north, directly to Nanning, the capital of Guangxi Province at the time.
After a brief period of resistance on the periphery, the Nanning garrison withdrew, causing the Japanese on the Nanning side to easily occupy the city without a bitter battle. After the occupation of Nanning, the Japanese army continued to attack separately, of which the 21st Wing of the Japanese 5th Division and some artillery and cavalry units occupied Gaofeng Pass and Kunlun Pass (occupied on December 4) north of Nanning. Because Kunlun Pass is located at the throat of the southwest international communication line, the Japanese army's move is tantamount to choking China's blood vessels for receiving foreign aid and purchasing international arms and other materials.
The situation instantly became severe, at that time, the main force of the Chinese army was in a bloody battle with the Japanese and Kou in the battlefield of the Two Lakes, and after the Yufu side learned of the unfavorable news of the war in Guangxi, it was very surprised and rushed to the aid of Xu Tingyao's 38th Group Army at that time, trying to expel the Japanese and restore the smooth flow of communication lines. Bai Chongxi, who was the director of the Guilin camp, was also doubly stressed, and under the encouragement of the reinforcements who arrived near Binyang one after another, he decided to take Du Yuming's Honorary First Division of the Fifth Army as the main offensive force and retake Kunlun Pass from a frontal attack.
(The Battle of Kunlun Pass involved chariot troops)
Du Yuming's Fifth Army under Xu Tingyao's command was the unit with the highest degree of mechanization, the largest number of veterans, and relatively strong combat effectiveness among the combat units under the Chongqing regime at that time. The so-called rescue of troops such as firefighting, the Honorary First Division of the Fifth Army received the order, and immediately concentrated its tank and howitzer units to cover the infantry attack on the Japanese defensive positions. The newly formed 22nd Division attacked Wutang and other places to contain the Japanese reinforcements to Kunlun Pass.
At this time, the Japanese troops on the Kunlun Pass side were weak, with only one infantry company and one cavalry company with a complete structure, because the Japanese Kou despised the counter-offensive ability of the Yufu side, so soon after occupying Nanning and the surrounding areas, they divided their troops to attack Zhennanguan and the Yu Han Plotting Department in Guangdong. When the Japanese troops in Nanning received the news that Kunlun Pass was besieged, they had no troops to send for a while, so they had to bomb our army with an air force in an attempt to slow down the attack speed of the Honorary First Division. However, the Chinese side was determined to win, and despite the sacrifices, it recaptured the main position of Kunlun Pass after a bitter day of fighting.
After the Chinese troops in the direction of Kunlun Pass successfully attacked, they were trying to consolidate their positions, but the Japanese counterattack began. Kunlun Pass is located in a mountainous area, the terrain is complex, in addition to the tortuous road system, it is a dotted mountain pass, many of which form a horn with the main position of Kunlun Pass. Therefore, when Kunlun Pass is retaken by our army, it is not difficult to explain that the Japanese troops shrinking to nearby positions will quickly press from many directions.
Due to the excessive casualties of their own side and the lack of support, the Kunlun Pass position was lost again, and the defending Japanese army not only seized the position, but also received reinforcements from more than a thousand Japanese troops from the direction of Nanning. The fighting was briefly at a stalemate. The Honorary First Division, which was responsible for the frontal attack, suffered heavy losses and attritions, and high-level generals such as Du Yuming and Zheng Dongguo were very distressed.
Seeing that the operation on the Kunlun Pass side could not be opened for a long time, the Yufu and Guilin camps continued to exert pressure, demanding that the front-line combat troops retake the pass at all costs and restore the communication line. Bai Chongxi, director of the Guilin camp, was more experienced; after learning about the offensive situation from the generals at the front, he believed that the offensive troops should not be dispersed and used, but should select several key passes to break through at the same time, focusing on cutting off the connection between Nanning and the Kunlun Pass defenders, "closing the door and fighting dogs", isolating the enemy defenders of Kunlun Pass, and then breaking through in one fell swoop.
After rearrangement, the frontal attack troops were replaced by Qiu Qingquan's newly organized 22nd Division, while Zheng Dongguo's Honorary First Division was instead responsible for attacking from other directions, and under the new round of offensive organized by the Chinese army, the once silent gaofeng Pass, Fairy Mountain, 441, 653 and other highlands around Kunlun Pass were killed again, and the cannons continued.
The Japanese were exhausted in the previous battles, and the attrition was also very large, when they found that the opponent had attacked with the pressure of Mount Tai, they hurriedly resisted, and the commander of the 21st Brigade of the Japanese Kou, Masao Nakamura, worried about the loss of the Kunlun Pass, personally commanded the counterattack of the 42nd Infantry Wing, and as a result, he was injured in the abdomen by our army's shrapnel, and lost consciousness in pain. At night, the Japanese military doctor tried to operate on him to remove shrapnel, at this time, several shells fell on Nakamura Masao's house and exploded, Nakamura was already seriously injured, and after this fright, he was even weaker, and he died after struggling for less than half a day in shock and fear, and he also became the highest ranked Japanese Kou in this battle.
Nakamura's death cast a shadow over the remnants of the Japanese defenses, already plagued by hunger and sickness. At this time, the Chinese army had already occupied the Jiutang and other key passes around Kunlun Pass with the assistance of artillery, forming a siege of the enemy troops in the main position of Kunlun Pass, and the Japanese in Nanning had no troops to adjust, and could only watch as the Kunlun Pass defenders were annihilated. On December 30, the 65th Regiment of Qiu Qingquan's newly organized 22nd Division fought hard for several days, cleared the enemy troops on the periphery, and then struggled to invade Kunlun Pass. After a fierce white-knife battle, the remnants of the Japanese Kou "jade fragments" were completely finished, the Chinese army once again regained this pass, and the southwest international communication line was restored to traffic after nearly a month of paralysis.
At the Battle of Kunlun Pass, the Japanese suffered more than 5,000 casualties, and the attacking Chinese army also paid more than three times the casualties in the case of mechanized troops. After that, the Japanese army learned that the offensive in the direction of Nanning was blocked, and sent reinforcements from other battlefields to counterattack, which led to another battle in Binyang and other areas. After the Battle of Kunlun Pass, China and Japan fought a tug-of-war in Guangxi for more than half a year, and then due to the defeat of France in the European War, the Japanese Kou took advantage of the situation to seize Vietnam on the French Indochina Peninsula, and the enemy's goal of cutting off the Yunnan-VietnamEse Highway had been achieved. Guangxi thus spent more than three years of calm, until the outbreak of the Battle of Yuxianggui in 1944.