In December 1941, the Japanese and the Kosovars launched the Pacific War, the British and American allies lost in various battlefields, and after almost no decent resistance, they were easily captured by the Japanese and the Philippines, Malaysia and other places, and tens of thousands of troops were captured by the Japanese. The Japanese then landed in Hong Kong in an attempt to establish a solid forward base in southern China.
In order to prepare for the battle in the South Pacific region and to contain the main force of the Ninth Theater of Operations to the south for reinforcements, the commander of the 11th Army stationed in Wuhan, Anan Weiji, gathered more than 80,000 people and went all the way south, and the Third Battle of Changsha began.
The Chinese Theater of the Pacific War
"Use Me a Xiangzhuang River and Mountain" Part 9: Autumn Wind Leaves Fall
In the large-scale battle between China and Japan, the two sides had no objection to victory or defeat, that is, the Third Battle of Changsha.
In this battle, the devil lost convincingly.
Anan committed suicide by caesarean section on the eve of Japan's surrender, leaving a suicide note saying that the Third Battle of Changsha was the biggest regret of his life!
Japanese Army General Anan is the only one
Chiang Kai-shek also wrote in his diary that the Third Battle of Changsha was the most certain and proud work since the July 7 Incident.
The greatest contributor to this victory was the Tenth Army, which was ordered to hold Changsha.
Unfortunately, however, when xiaobian searched for veterans of the Tenth Army, he found that he could not find a survivor who had participated in the Third Battle of Changsha.
After experiencing the Battle of Changsha, the Battle of Changde, the Battle of Hengyang, and several major bloody battles, there were almost no people who could survive to the end.
Regarding the Third Battle of Changsha, Xiaobian only found a memoir, which was written by Ge Xiancai, then deputy commander of the Pre-Tenth Division of the Tenth Army and commander of the Thirty Regiment.
On January 2, 1942, the Ge Xiancai Regiment under changsha shouted, and the Chinese army launched a charge, sweeping the autumn wind.
The Tomb of the Fallen Soldiers of the Third Battle of Changsha of the Tenth Army
Yuelu Mountain, 300.8 meters above sea level, is the commanding height of Changsha City. Across the river, Changsha's urban area can be seen from afar.
During the War of Resistance Against Japan, Yuelu Mountain was the key to the defense of Changsha. On Yuelu Mountain, the remnants of the War of Resistance can also be seen everywhere.
Remnants of the Yuelu Mountain War of Resistance
Today, in the high view of Yuelu Mountain, facing the east bank of the Xiang River, you can find the ruins of such a fort. These artillery positions played a huge role during the Second and Third Battles of Changsha.
In order to defend Yuelu Mountain, the Nationalist army built trenches stretching for nearly ten kilometers here, most of which have now been hidden by deep grass, but the outline is still clear.
Battle monument of Changsha
On the north side of the Xiangguling Stone Pavilion, there stands a 2.35-meter-high and 1-meter-wide "Changsha Battle Monument", and the front and back sides of the inscription have been mottled and difficult to identify.
In the forecourt of Yunlu Palace, there are 13 changsha battle memorials, and people who come here may not notice that these handrails are engraved with names, let alone think that these more than 5,000 names were once young and vivid faces, and they died in the bustling hot land in front of them.
In the Third Battle of Changsha, the 10th Army held changsha and had the title of Taishan Army
In that extremely tragic history of the War of Resistance, a mountain and a city depended on each other.
In December 1939, the First Battle of Changsha
In the Second Battle of Changsha, the Tenth Army stationed in Changsha suffered heavy losses and had not yet had time to make up for it, and three months later, the Tenth Army received military orders again and held Changsha for four days, waiting for reinforcements from the periphery to arrive.
The Tenth Army had three divisions under its command, the 190th Division held directly north of Changsha, the 3rd Division connected to the 190th Division's position to the east, deployed along the Liuyang Gate and the Southern Grand Cross Road outside the city, and the Pre-Tenth Division connected to the right flank of the 3rd Division, and turned from the southeast through the South Gate to the defense of the Xiang River. Along the Xiang River to the west, heavy artillery on Mount Yuelu was put in charge.
At dawn on December 29, 1941, the enemy began a fierce attack on the positions of our 190th Division and the 3rd Division. The sound of gunfire, the rumble of the cannons, the incessant sound, and the earth shook. The war gradually spread.
An enemy force drilled a gap in the cracks and sneaked into the houses near the White Sand Ridge, using the high wall as a cover to threaten the safety of the left side of the second line of defense south of Tianxin Pavilion.
——Excerpt from "Memoirs of the Kuomintang General Ge Xiancai's War of Resistance"
Memoirs of General Ge Xiancai's War of Resistance
Before the three battles in Changsha, Ge Xiancai had just been promoted to deputy commander of the Pre-Tenth Division.
However, division commander Fang Xianjue believed that the situation on the battlefield was changing rapidly, and a regimental commander who judged the hour and sized up the situation and commanded flexibly could sometimes even influence the outcome of a battle.
Therefore, Ge Xiancai was required to continue to serve as a regimental commander and take on the task of defending the second-line positions in the south.
The war was fought on New Year's Day in 1942, and in the early morning of this day, Toyotaro, the commander of the Devil's Third Division, who threatened to spend the New Year in Changsha, sent a siege ace, and the 6th Wing Kato Su a large group began to launch a fierce attack on the pre-tenth division position south of the city.
At this time, no one knew that fang Xianjue and Toshima Shotaro, two seemingly unimportant orders, had become the key to determining the outcome of this battle.
Changsha Tianxin Pavilion
Tianxin Pavilion, once the commanding heights of Changsha's urban area, is now submerged in a forest of high-rise buildings. As the last barrier in the southeast of the ancient city of Changsha, this place has always been a place where soldiers must fight.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the large and small hills surrounded in front of the tianxin Pavilion city wall have always been the most fiercely contested by the enemy and us. Ge Xiancai's regimental headquarters was located in the repair center near tianxin Pavilion.
Beginning in the early hours of New Year's Day, Suichi Kato led a large group of ghosts to attack the vicinity of Baisha Ridge and encountered desperate resistance from Ge Xiancai's troops.
It was night, and the flames of war burned red the sky in Changsha's urban area. Baisha Ridge, Huilong Mountain, Miao Gaofeng and Loess Ridge near Tianxin Pavilion are full of smoke and smoke.
The Chinese army and the Japanese army engaged in a fierce street battle in Changsha
By the early morning of January 2, after a day and a night of hard defense, the first line position of the Pre-Tenth Division was broken by the Japanese army, and only more than 50 people were left in the 28th Regiment of more than 1,000 people, and the 30th Regiment led by Ge Xiancai also suffered heavy casualties.
In order to consolidate the defensive line, but also to avoid the bombing of enemy aircraft, Ge Xiancai sent all the civilian personnel of the regiment headquarters and the special agent company to the front line, and only a few of Ge Xiancai's personal guards were left in the regiment headquarters.
Suddenly, a bomb exploded outside the small courtyard of the regimental headquarters.
The war was so fierce that my guard was able to lie on the ground and sleep, and the bomb woke him up, sat up and pointed at the enemy plane and scolded. I was annoyed: "You scold it and it can't be heard, get away, don't bother me here." ”
The guard who was driven away by Ge Xiancai, named Han Zaiyou, was deeply loved by Ge Xiancai.
He is tall, rugged and humorous. He has a special skill, that is, marksmanship. Sparrows within thirty meters of him, one shot at a time, almost bulletless.
The Third Battle of Changsha
Scolded by Ge Xiancai, Han Zaiyou did not say a word, lifted the wooden shell gun, and went to the position of the Sixth Company near Baisha Ridge. Just a few devils were lurking in front of the position, looking near the Tianxin Pavilion.
The commander of the sixth company shouted, "Han Zaiyou! Your marksmanship is very accurate, not far in front of the mound, hidden enemies, from time to time stretch out the gun to shoot at me, you are ready, wait for him to emerge, quickly give him a shot, if you knock down my guest please.
When I had planned a counterattack, Sergeant Guard Han Jae-woo returned to the regimental headquarters and said proudly, "Commander! I was in the position of the Sixth Company and killed at least two enemies. ”
After saying that, he closed his eyes and stuck out his tongue, made a grimace, walked away for a few steps, and lay down again.
When collecting and sorting out post-war materials, xiaobian found a surprising coincidence.
According to the records of the Japanese war history: the Japanese army Kato Suichi Shōsa led 3 adjutants, at about 2 o'clock on the 2nd, sneaked into the vicinity of Baisha Ridge to reconnoiter, encountered the Nationalist army, was shot through the abdomen, and was killed shortly.
And this time coincided with the time when Han Zaiyou killed the two devils in the position of the sixth company.
Battle of Changsha
Of course, who killed Suichi Kato is now unverifiable, but the importance of Suichi Kato to the Japanese army is beyond doubt.
After the war, both China and Japan concluded that during the Third Battle of Changsha, the battle for the body of Suichi Kato was used as a turning point in this battle.
In order to retrieve Suichi Kato's body, the Japanese launched a frenzied attack on the Position of Baisha Ridge. However, at that time, Ge Xiancai did not know that the madness of the devil was actually to retrieve a young man who had been killed.
At dawn, the enemy, with intensive artillery fire, violently bombarded the positions south of the regiment, followed by a strong infantry attack, and twelve enemy planes took turns to bomb and strafe at low altitude. All the houses near the positions were blown up and set on fire, and the smoke from the explosions and the sand and dust they stirred up were mixed together, obscuring the space, and objects could not be seen clearly from more than ten meters away, and the fierceness of the battle had only been seen in the past few days. Although the enemy suffered heavy casualties, they still attacked one after another. After six hours of fierce fighting, our position stood unharmed, but the more the enemy's troops fought, the fewer our troops became, and the situation was in danger.
The anti-Japanese general Ge Xiancai
At eleven o'clock and twenty o'clock, seeing that the fight would continue, it would not be able to support the dusk, Ge Xiancai made a bold decision, abandoning the defense for attack, and reporting to the division commander Fang Xianjue the tactic of attacking instead of defending and attacking his unpreparedness.
Fang Xianjue believed that the enemy was strong and inferior, and a strong attack did not necessarily gain an advantage, and suggested that Ge Xiancai lead 30 regiments to withdraw to the city wall of Tianxin Pavilion to reduce casualties. However, Ge Xiancai believed that once the retreat was withdrawn, the army was in turmoil, and if the devils took advantage of the situation to attack, Changsha might be attacked by the Japanese.
"Soldiers should have the spirit of taking risks and committing difficulties, and they should be determined to attack recklessly, and I will not ask you for instructions or reinforcements from you, and you will only be dead as thirty regiments." The situation is urgent and urgent, I will start to act, and you will also plan in advance to deal with the aftermath, so as not to be temporarily confused. ”
After speaking, Ge Xiancai hung up the phone. Ge Xiancai later learned that long before he made the decision to die, Fang Xianjue had also written a suicide note, preparing to coexist and die with Changsha.
"Yunhua My Wife: Our army has been ordered to hold Changsha this time, and the task is heavy. The survival of Changsha is related to the success or failure of the overall situation of the War of Resistance, and I am determined to martyr the country with death... Don't be sad. Husband, Zi Shan. ”
The anti-Japanese general Fang Xianjue
Subsequently, Ge Xiancai issued a general offensive order to the battalion commanders: Taking the sound of the regimental headquarters charge trumpet as the standard, as soon as the trumpet sounded, the onslaught began, and there was no retreat.
Hearing that he was going to charge at the devil, Han Zaiyou was very excited, quickly changed into a magazine, and prepared a German-made twenty-shot submachine gun for Ge Xiancai.
After taking a few steps, he returned and moved Ge Xiancai's reserve cartridge to the left pocket, always careless, but thought that the left side was more convenient for the regiment leader to change bullets.
He looked down and smiled, took a dozen steps, and stood in front of me. I understood his intentions, as if an enemy bullet had passed through his chest and would not hurt me. Again, don't let me go beyond his front, sigh, intended to be unspoken.
Two years later, at the Battle of Hengyang, the sergeant Guard Han Zaiyou was unfortunately killed!
The city gate at the south gate of Changsha
Today, from the south gate of Changsha, along Huangxing Road all the way to the south, to the south of labor square Donggua Mountain, a straight line distance of 705 meters, the roadside high-rise buildings, many shops, is changsha's most prosperous downtown area.
When most of the citizens of Changsha, holding a bowl of stinky tofu, walked through the bustling streets, it was difficult for anyone to think that more than 70 years ago, in addition to the rice fields and mountains, there were only a few dilapidated houses, let alone know that during the Third Battle of Changsha, Ge Xiancai's regiment launched a charge against the Japanese Kou along this route.
At exactly 12 o'clock on January 2, 1942, in front of the city wall of Tianxin Pavilion, a majestic and desolate charge sounded, and in a flash, the Chinese soldiers with black and gray faces jumped out of the trenches and rushed to the devil's position.
When the second blow was repeated, a stray bullet broke a hole in the trumpet tube, and the commander pressed the hole with his left palm and continued to play continuously. At the same time, each battalion company trumpeted more than a dozen army trumpets, each with its own unit trumpet, and then blew the charge trumpet. Suddenly, the whole regiment rushed toward the enemy with a shout, and the sound of killing, trumpeting, and dense gunfire rushed into the Ninth Heaven, shaking the sky and shaking, and the momentum was great.
Caught off guard, the ghost was completely confused by the sudden charge of the defenders. The soldiers of the 30 regiment led by Ge Xiancai rushed out of the position for seven hundred meters and reached the edge of the rice field outside the south gate. The devil ran backwards for more than two thousand meters before stopping.
Artillery
In this way, the positions of the two armies, which were originally intertwined with canine teeth, suddenly opened up a distance of more than a thousand meters. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the 150(150) caliber heavy artillery deployed on Yuelu Mountain suddenly launched a threat, and one shell after another smashed into the unsteady Japanese Kou. The position of the Devil's Third Division collapsed in an instant.
On January 2, all major newspapers in Hunan praised Ge Xiancai's abandonment as an attack with a big headline, and the Hunan Daily even used the number one big character headline to say: "Ge Xiancai is the leader of the regiment, Zhao Zilong is the second." ”
It is worth mentioning that when Ge Xiancai led the charge, five cooks of the Thirty Regiments were carrying food to the position, and seeing that the regimental commander Ge Xiancai was the first soldier, the five people also surged with anger and blood, picked up the flat burden, and rushed to the enemy camp. After withdrawing to the position, the flat shoulders of the five cooks were replaced by "three or eight big covers" .
Whether they killed the enemy or not, I don't know, but the flat burdens were lost. Each person was armed with an enemy weapon "Type 38" rifle, walked to the place where the food was placed, dumbfounded, how to pick up the meal without a flat shoulder? It is true that these five cooks voluntarily participated in the battle, and they were not fabricated to increase the glory of the charge.
Chinese troops pursued the Japanese in the city of Changsha
What is not mentioned in Ge Xiancai's recollection is that in this charge, the Pre-Tenth Division also had another victory, that is, the body of Kato Suichi was found on the battlefield.
At this time, the Kato Brigade of the 6th Regiment of the 3rd Division, known as the ace of the Japanese army, was annihilated from the captain of the brigade, Suichi Kato.
In Kato's body, there is a Japanese military battle plan, including military secrets such as the deployment of Japanese troops and ammunition reserves.
It was from this battle plan that Xue Yue judged that the Japanese Kou was already at the end of the crossbow, and he excitedly knocked on the table and said, "Although it is only a thin piece of paper, it is better than ten thousand machine guns!" ”
On the second day of January, after dusk on this day, fierce gunfire broke out in the east of the Loess Ridge east of the city, and the Fourth Army on the periphery first attacked the outskirts of Changsha, forming a counter-encirclement trend, and in a fierce battle with the enemy, surrounded the enemy in Changsha, and was in the danger of attacking from the belly and back, smashing its plot to capture Changsha. The enemy withdrew north overnight, and the Third Battle of Changsha ended the core garrison battle in Changsha.
Anti-Japanese general Xue Yue
On the evening of January 2, Xue Yue issued a general offensive order to the various units of the Ninth Theater of Operations.
After 96 hours of bloody battle in the ancient city of Changsha, the besieged Japanese began to collapse completely.
The 96-year-old Zhang Zhengguo was in the 73rd Army, and after the counterattack order, his unit bit the Japanese Kou Sixth Division and chased from Changsha City to the Xinqiang River.
"When we rushed over from Hubei, the order was given from above, Yueyang was our gate, and the enemy entered our home when he entered Changsha, so we must drive out."
"When I crossed the river on this side of Rongwan Town, there was a raft crossing the army, and three ghost planes came and killed some of the Central Army, and those who crossed the river fought in Changsha City for a day and a night."
"Fight with the Japanese with bayonets, and when you go to the New Wall River, you will also fight bayonets, each person will carry two grenades, and after throwing two grenades, you will put on the bayonet, and the devils will fight hard, and the eyes will be killed." The national enemy hates ah, which one does not hate the Japanese devils? I want to eat their flesh raw and drink their blood! ”
The Tarzan Army grenade battle was very successful
After paying the price of more than 50,000 casualties, the devils fled back to the north of the New Wall River.
The commander of the Japanese Sixth Division, Kanda Masatsuka, prepared to commit suicide by caesarean section, and if it were not stopped by the guards, the executioner who had participated in the Nanjing Massacre would have been killed under the city of Changsha.
Kanda Masatsuka in 1945
After the war, according to Zhao Zili, deputy director of the General Staff Office of the Ninth Theater, it was the middle of winter, and the Japanese Kou had a lot of coats and military blankets; the weapons they could not carry had time to destroy; the Japanese army had no choice but to abandon the corpses on the battlefield, and this time it was too late to burn and bury them.
Chiang Kai-shek and Zhao Zili took a group photo
Later, Wu Yizhi, chief of staff of the theater, collected hundreds of Japanese corpses that had not yet been buried, buried them together, piled them into a high platform, and carved stones to commemorate the "Wukou Mass Grave".
Unfortunately, more than 70 years later, Wu Yizhi's handwritten "Wokou Tomb" has disappeared, and the remaining majestic Tianxin Pavilion is still listening to the autumn wind and leaves.
In January 1942, after the Third Battle of Changsha, the Chinese army cleaned up the corpses of Japanese soldiers on the battlefield
In Ge Xiancai's memoirs, when mentioning the Third Battle of Changsha, he issued an exclamation of success.
After the Third Battle of Changsha, the Nationalist army captured the spoils of the Japanese army
After the Changsha victory, the United States announced a loan of half a billion US dollars to China, Chiang Kai-shek was appointed supreme commander of the allied forces in the China-India-Burma theater, and the United States and Britain announced the abrogation of the unequal treaty against China. On the Double Tenth National Day of this year, Chiang Kai-shek excitedly announced that he had fulfilled this last wish of Sun Yat-sen, the father of the country.
Japanese officers and soldiers captured at the Third Battle of Changsha were in the shelter
After this battle, the Japanese 11th Army suffered a huge blow, and in the next two years, the devils had little ability to launch a large-scale war in Hunan, until the Battle of Changde in 1943, when the war in Hunan was rekindled.
The 10th Army Taishan Army in the TV series "Changsha Defense War"
The 74th Army, which frightened the Japanese army
Tomorrow, Xiaobian will continue to talk about the tenth article of "Use Me a Xiangzhuang River and Mountain" - the death of the tiger.
I hope that my generation will think about the rise and fall of the world, do not forget the national shame, and revitalize China!
The alarm bells are always ringing, don't forget the national shame!