In the first clash between the mechanized troops of the Chinese army and the ace division of the Japanese army, the Chinese army annihilated more than 5,000 Japanese troops, killed the commander of the 21st Brigade, Masao Kimura, defeated the 5th Division of the Japanese Steel Army, and won a great victory in the frontal battlefield!
Why did the Chinese and Japanese armies gather at Kunlun Pass? How will the elite Japanese army rush to Kunlun's aid? How did the Chinese army achieve the final victory?
Congratulations on the Kunlun Pass Victory
The situation in Guinan was urgent, and the Iron Army went out to attack Kunlun
In 1939, with the loss of Guangzhou and Wuhan one after another, the international aid channel of China's War of Resistance relied on the Burma Highway and the Yunnan-Vietnam Highway in the southwest. In order to block China's external relations, the Japanese army decided to start from Guangxi and cut off the Yunnan-Vietnam Highway.
On November 13, the Japanese army raided Qinzhou Bay. At that time, the Chinese army in Guangxi was weak, and the Japanese army took advantage of the situation to press Nanning from the southeast, south and southwest directions, gradually forming an encirclement.
Under the superior strength of the Japanese army, on November 24, Nanning fell. On December 4, the Japanese took advantage of the victory to capture Kunlun Pass, the key pass in southern Guizhou. Since then, the Chinese army has faced off against the Japanese army along the line from the pass north of Nanning to Kunlun Pass.
The news of the loss of Kunlun Pass shocked Chiang Kai-shek, and two days later a military conference was held, and it was decided to concentrate the Guangxi forces and launch a battle in the Guinan region to retake Nanning in one fell swoop. Chiang Kai-shek commanded Bai Chongxi, and Li Jishen and Chen Cheng served as supervisors.
Chiang Kai-shek
Bai Chongxi planned to take advantage of the unstable foothold of the Japanese army to first retake Kunlun Pass and then Nanning.
In early December, the Chinese army gathered towards the Binyang area, and Bai Chongxi divided the Chinese army into three parts, the north road was the 5th Army under the command of Du Yuming as the main force, responsible for the main attack on Kunlun Pass; the east road was the 44th Army and the 66th Army commanded by Cai Tingkai, and the west road was four divisions commanded by Xia Wei, which were mainly responsible for the task of harassing and blocking Japanese reinforcements.
After the Japanese army occupied Kunlun Pass, the 5th Division regiment known as the "Steel Army" garrisoned Nanning, and the elite 42nd Regiment of the 5th Division Regiment, plus the artillery brigade, cavalry squadron, and combat artillery squadron, was responsible for garrisoning Kunlun Pass.
The 5th Army of the Chinese Army, which was the main attack, was a German ordnance unit carefully formed during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the first mechanized unit in China.
Du Yuming
The 5th Army had Dai Anlan's 200th Division, Zheng Dongguo's Honorary 1st Division, Qiu Qingquan's New 22nd Division, and two supplementary regiments, the Chariot Regiment, the Heavy Regiment, and the Heavy Artillery Regiment. Since its formation, the 5th Army has undergone more than a year of training and has been highly motivated.
On December 10, Du Yuming held a military conference in Qianjiang to discuss the next step of combat operations and mobilize for war. On 12 December, the units of the 5th Army secretly marched to the attack positions in accordance with the operational arrangements.
On December 15, Bai Chongxi issued the First Battle Order. After receiving the order, Du Yuming made final preparations for the launch of the Kunlun Pass War. Du Yuming used the military map to determine the task to the officers of the 5th Army who attended the meeting, and before the end, Du Yuming and the officers participating in the battle swore an oath: "We will definitely complete this mission to attack the stronghold, strike hard at the Japanese Kou, and recover Kunlun Pass!" ”
What difficulties did the 5th Army encounter in its offensive? How did the Japanese respond to the Offensive of the Chinese Army?
The elite Japanese army rushed to the rescue, and the battlefield was stuck in a stalemate
"Serving the country and sacrificing one's life and loyal soldiers to die in state affairs, there is no hesitation in spilling kunlun with the blood of the brave soldiers." What kind of anti-war song will the 5th Army write in the face of the imposing Japanese ace division?
At dawn on December 18, Du Yuming issued a general attack order, and the Battle of Kunlun Pass began. Immediately, the sound of the 5th Army's tanks marching, the roar of artillery fire, filled the night sky. Under the strong firepower of the Chinese army, the Japanese 41st Wing retreated to the core position.
The 5th Army then occupied Fairy Mountain, Lao Mao Ling, and 400 and 600 highlands. The 5th Army attacked until noon, capturing the northwestern highlands of Luotang and Tongxing, and then capturing positions such as Tongping and Shihan Pass.
In the face of the fierce offensive of the 5th Army, the Japanese army resisted with all its might, and asked for help from the 5th Division in Nanning, and the 21st Regiment of the 21st Brigade of the 5th Division of the Japanese Army went to reinforcements. At 5 p.m., more than 800 people from a brigade of the 21st Wing traveled by car to Liutang, south of Kunlun Pass, where they encountered the 5th Army.
Qiu Qingquan led the new 22nd Division to block the Japanese reinforcements here. When Qiu Qingquan saw that the Japanese army was only more than a thousand people, he immediately ordered the chariot troops to move, but the Japanese army was difficult to resist, and was defeated by Qiu Qingquan, and the army was scattered everywhere.
Qiu Qingquan
The new 22nd Division defeated Japanese reinforcements in less than two hours, winning the first big victory, and the 5th Army was excited!
On the 19th, Du Yuming focused his attack on Height 653. Highland 653 is a strategic point northeast of Kunlun Pass, overlooking the entire battlefield. The terrain was steep, and more than 200 Japanese troops were on the defensive, with the Honor 1st Division of Jeong Dong-kook as the attacker.
The commander of the 3rd Regiment personally led the charge, but it was unsuccessful, and the whole regiment suffered heavy casualties. At the critical moment, the reserve battalion commando team, led by two officers, broke into the enemy position with bayonets and grenades, and launched a fierce white-knife battle with the Japanese army. Eventually, the Honor 1st Division occupied Heights 653.
The Japanese troops at Kunlun Pass resisted with all their might, and the reinforcements of the Japanese 21st Brigade began to launch multiple counter-offensives against Laomaoling, Position 653, and Position 441. Qiu Qingquan commanded the new 22nd Division to come to the aid of the Japanese army in a bloody battle, and the Liutang position changed hands day and night, falling into a stalemate situation.
The Japanese army in Kunlun Pass tried its best to resist, and the Japanese reinforcements attacked rapidly, du Yuming decided to use the reserve, Dai Anlan's 200th Division, to serve as the main offensive task of Kunlun Pass, and the honorary 1st Division, which had suffered a lot of losses, was responsible for containing the two wings of the Japanese army.
After the 200th Division took up the main offensive task, Dai Anlan used chariots and artillery to coordinate operations and launched a fierce offensive against Kunlun Pass. The 200th Division fought fiercely with the Japanese army at Kunlun Pass, and by the 20th, Kunlun Pass seemed to show signs of loosening.
The Japanese troops on both flanks of Kunlun Pass, under the pressure of the Honorary 1st Division, could not support Kunlun Pass. On the same day, the chariots of the 200th Division attacked Kunlun Pass several times. However, the Japanese army set up a large number of anti-defense artillery on both sides of the city gate, and the chariots had no choice but to withdraw from Kunlun Pass.
Imamura, commander of the Japanese 5th Division, learned that the advance of Liutang was blocked, and hurriedly sent Masao Kimura, commander of the 21st Brigade, to lead the main force of the 21st Brigade to aid Kunlun Pass. Masao Kimura led his troops to break through The Six Ponds and Seven Ponds to block the battlefield, while the 200th Division and the Honor 1st Division that attacked head-on suffered more than 2,000 casualties, unable to support Qiu Qingquan.
At this moment, the 92nd Division on the West Road rushed out to support Qiu Qingquan on the front. The new 22nd Division, with the cooperation of friendly forces, tried its best to counterattack, and finally restored the positions of Liutang and Qitang captured by Masao Kimura, and the Kunlun Pass reinforcements were blocked at Liutang and Qitang.
By the 23rd, the 5th Army and the Japanese army had been fighting fiercely for 6 days, but no effective breakthrough was made on the battlefield. The 200th Division and the Honor 1st Division of the attacking force fought a front of 10 kilometers, the concentration of troops was low, the artillery fire was scattered, and the infantry and artillery coordination was not mature enough, which frustrated the offensive of the 5th Army.
Kunlun Pass Victory
Du Yuming strengthened the cooperation between the Honorary 1st Division and the 200th Division, forming a siege of Kunlun Pass. Receiving a report from the Kunlun Pass defenders, the commander of the Japanese 5th Division, Imabari, urgently ordered the Taiwan Mixed Brigade and the Sichuan Detachment to return to Nanning to support Kunlun Pass.
For a time, the situation in Kunlun Pass was in a state of stalemate, so how could the Chinese army make a breakthrough and break the deadlock?
The morale of the Japanese army collapsed, and the Nationalist army recaptured Kunlun
When Kunlun Pass was stuck in a stalemate, an accident caused the morale of the Japanese army to collapse, and the 5th Army laid the foundation for victory in one fell swoop.
On the 24th, after receiving an urgent order from the commander of the division to rush to the aid of Kunlun Pass, Kimura Masao led his troops in a vain attempt to cross the Kutaoling Road, and was ambushed by two regiments of the Honor 1st Division, the Japanese suffered heavy losses, Kimura Masao was seriously wounded, and died the next day.
The reinforcements of the Japanese commander were killed, and the morale of the Japanese army was broken. The morale of the two regiments of the Honorary 1st Division, which served as a frontal blockade, was greatly boosted.
In order to quickly conquer Kunlun Pass, Du Yuming readjusted his deployment and assisted the 92nd Division with a regiment of the new 22nd Division to block the Japanese army and block the food and ammunition supplies of the Japanese army at Kunlun Pass. The main force of the new 22nd Division served as the general reserve of the 5th Army, and the position was defended by friendly forces on the western road.
On the 26th, the 5th Army planned a large-scale offensive with the 200th Division as the main attack and the new 22nd Division as the reserve, and launched an attack on the strongholds around Kunlun Pass under the cover of heavy artillery regiments. After 3 days and nights of fierce fighting, the 200th Division captured the northwest highlands of Kunlun Pass, and the Japanese army's food and ammunition supply had been cut off, and it became a matter of time to conquer Kunlun Pass.
The Japanese troops in Kunlun Pass, although they had run out of food, began to eat wild vegetables, and then nibbled on the bark of trees, intending to resist to the end. The soldiers of the Japanese 5th Division are mainly from Kagoshima, Kyushu, which has long been influenced by Bushido, learned martial arts from an early age, and has a relatively high military quality and will to fight, which is also an important reason for the strong combat effectiveness of the Japanese 5th Division.
By the 29th, the 200th Division had successively occupied the highlands around Kunlun Pass, and after several days of fierce fighting, the 200th Division suffered serious losses, its combat effectiveness had seriously declined, and it was no longer able to launch an attack. Du Yuming ordered the new 22nd Division to take the lead in the attack, and the 200th Division launched a general attack on Kunlun Pass with one support.
On the 29th, the 5th Army organized a fierce offensive and sent commandos to attack Kunlun Pass. Between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. on the 30th, the battle was fierce, the new 22nd Division fought bravely, the Japanese army stubbornly resisted, and the battle was extremely fierce. At 10:30, the new 22nd Division recaptured Kunlun Pass.
After the new 22nd Division broke through Kunlun Pass, the remnants of the Japanese 42nd Wing committed suicide by raising their knives and cutting themselves off, loyal to the emperor.
The 200th Division and the Honorary 1st Division regained the 441st Heights. The reinforcements learned of the loss of Kunlun Pass and retreated towards Jiutang. The Western Route Army and the East Route Army contained the Japanese forces in the direction of Nanning, and the 5th Army took advantage of the situation to attack Jiutang.
The morale of the Japanese troops in Jiutang was shattered, and under the blows of the 5th Army, they collapsed and rushed toward Nanning. The Japanese army held in Badang, the 5th Army suffered serious casualties, and needed to replenish its troops in time, so it handed over the defense to friendly troops to take over and went to Silong to assemble. Since then, the blood battle Kunlun Pass has come to an end.
Bloody battle at Kunlun Pass, 150,000 Chinese troops fought against the 5th Division of the Japanese Ace Division, fighting kunlun pass. The Chinese army beat the Japanese army raw to eat the bark of the tree, cut off the abdomen and committed suicide, killed the commander of the 21st Brigade of the Japanese army, annihilated more than 5,000 Japanese troops, won the great victory of Kunlun Pass, which inspired the Chinese people, and encouraged the confidence of the whole country in the war of resistance.