What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
The First Rapid Column was one of the few mechanized units of the Kuomintang. In the middle of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1942, Chiang Kai-shek called on young students to enlist in the country, and with youth as the backbone, he formed the first Tank Unit of the Kuomintang in Kunming. A battalion of officers and men traveled to New Delhi, India, to receive training in American tanks and equipped them with American tanks, and then participated in the Burma Road Operation. From going to the battlefield to fight the Japanese army, he left a beautiful record of undefeated battles.
After the Second Sino-Japanese War, Chiang Kai-shek expanded the battalion into a column with captured Japanese tanks and commanded it by his second son, Chiang Wei-kuo.
It was this mechanized unit, which had never suffered defeat, but in 1947 it "overturned" in battle with the East China Field Army, which did not have any mechanized equipment! In three days, this mechanized unit was completely destroyed, which surprised people. What's going on here?
01 Attack On Lunan
After the First World War in Subei, the Kuomintang was seriously injured, but Chen Cheng continued to adhere to the established policy of attacking Lunan with confidence. He believed that after the 74th Division successfully occupied Yancheng and Lianshui, the center of the New Fourth Army's northern Jiangsu base area, the New Fourth Army in central China was bound to move north to the southern part of Shandong, and would stubbornly hold on to this long-running Shandong Liberated Area. Since this was the case, gathering the main force to eliminate Huaye's troops on the battlefield in Shandong was a good choice for Chen Cheng.
At this time, the Nationalist army was divided into two routes, one was the 74th Division in Suqian on the southern front, which continued to confront Huaye's troops going north, and the other was the 26th Division led by Ma Liwu plus the rapid first column of mechanized troops, preparing to attack Linyi. Since the Battle of Subei had just ended, the Kuomintang did not dare to blindly attack, so they all rested in place.
Pictured: Captured Nationalist Forces
At that time, Hua Ye's entire unit had the fighting spirit and mood to fight the 74th Division to the death, and senior generals such as Chen Yi and Su Yu also advocated returning to the south to the division to eliminate the 74th Division and then returning to Lunan. But the situation is changing rapidly. Before the 74th Division could move, the Nationalist forces on the Lunan side gradually approached Linyi, the capital of the Shandong base area, with the intention of cutting off the main force of Huaye from the Lunan Liberated Area.
Chen Yi and Su Yu also immediately changed their tactics, determined to annihilate the enemy at Lunan. When Mao Zedong received telegrams from Chen Yi and others, he proposed to "concentrate 26 regiments and annihilate the 26th Division in the Lunan area." ", and thus there was an opportunity to engage the first rapid column.
02 Strategic layout
In order to complete this encirclement and annihilation mission, Chen Yi and Su Yu dispatched 27 regiments of troops with the intention of winning the first battle. They organized their forces into two columns, the right column was equipped with a total of 12 regiments, mainly responsible for annihilating the 44th Brigade of the 26th Division, cutting off its retreat, and blocking the follow-up troops who came to the rescue; the left column, led by the famous general Ye Fei, was equipped with 15 regiments, responsible for annihilating the main force of the 26th Division, the 169th Brigade and the First Rapid Column. By 1 January 1947, all units had arrived at designated combat sites.
The march of the Kuomintang side also soon brought annihilation opportunities to our army.
Ma Liwu's 26th Division, as the main force in this decisive battle, was in the middle position, and the troops on the left and right sides were responsible for cooperating. However, the Nationalist forces on both sides were too poorly coordinated and moved too slowly, directly causing the 26th Division to stand out and the danger that the various units would be cut off. So Ma Liwu ordered the advance to be stopped and mechanized troops were used to build fortifications on the spot. Ma Liwu initially expected Huaye's forces to launch an offensive on December 30 and 31, 1946, and ordered the mechanized troops to prepare for battle and prepare to do a great job to ask Chen Cheng for credit.
03 Unexpected
Ma Liwu was nervous for two days to find that Huaye's troops had not launched an attack, believing that Huaye might also be on New Year's Day in the next few days, and there would be no fighting. Therefore, Ma Liwu happily returned to the rear- Yixian County to watch the big drama on New Year's Day, and handed over the troops to the deputy division commander to manage. Just as Ma Liwu saw that Yue Fei was killed in "Wind Wave Pavilion", our army launched an attack.
At 22:00 on January 2, 1947, the various units of Huaye launched an attack from all directions with absolute superiority. After more than 3 hours of fighting, a battalion of the 44th Brigade stationed in the village was completely annihilated by the right column. When Ma Liwu received the news, he was taken aback and quickly ordered his troops to retreat west under the cover of a rapid column.
This was the hand that Ma Liwu had left for himself. Thinking that in case the war did not go well, the tank troops could tour around and cover the retreat of the large troops along the road in trucks, and he thought that Hua Ye could not stop the tanks at all. Naturally, the retreat will be smooth sailing.
However, the weather suddenly helped the Huaye Combat Troops!
On the morning of the 4th, the Lunan area was raining and snowing, almost all of them were foggy, and the visibility was extremely low. The rain and snow also caused the tanks and trucks of the first rapid column to trap pieces of mud and swamps. Ye Fei, Tao Yong and other front-line command generals quickly seized this opportunity and ordered their troops to charge forward from all directions. The tank troops could only hear the sound of charging horns in the sky, and they spun around the road like blind men.
Photo: Ma Liwu
Except for 7 tanks who managed to escape the encirclement, the rest struggled in the swamp. Some soldiers bombed tanks with explosive packs and grenades, and some brought sorghum poles and lit fireworks to smoke the pilots inside. These edicts eventually left the force tied.
After four hours of fighting, by 3 p.m., Huaye's troops had completely annihilated the 44th Brigade and the 169th Brigade of the 26th Division, and the First Rapid Column totaled more than 30,000 people. With the capture of 24 tanks and more than 200 trucks, the first phase of the Battle of Lunan ended in triumph.