In "On Protracted War," the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression is divided into three stages: In the first stage, the Japanese army is in full swing and has successively annexed our great rivers and mountains, our army is in a state of strategic defense, and in the second stage, the japanese army's arrogance is gradually fading, but our army has not yet been able to defeat the Japanese army, and the two sides are in the stage of strategic confrontation. In the early days of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Kuomintang government organized four battles, and although the Chinese soldiers fought in bloody battles, they still won few victories and lost many battles, and frequently lost the territory of mountains and rivers, but since the Battle of Wuhan, the arrogance of the Japanese army has gradually converged, and the Japanese army has vainly tried to win a quick victory, and even clamored that the destruction of China within three months has been completely reduced to a bubble. Interestingly, the period of the Battle of Wuhan coincided with the completion of the book "On Protracted War", and it can be said that the Battle of Wuhan was precisely a test of "On Protracted War". Now let us open the history books and return to the Battlefield of China decades ago to witness the poems of heroes and sons and daughters bathing in blood and defending the country.
Campaign background
Since the Japanese army invaded China in an all-round way, key cities such as Beiping and Tianjin have successively fallen into the hands of the enemy, and the gateway to the North China Plain has been wide opened, and it is under the iron hooves of the Japanese army, and the day and night are not guaranteed. On November 12, 1937, the Songhu Hui Warring States Army was defeated, Shanghai fell into the hands of the enemy, and the arrogance of the Japanese army approached the Kuomintang political center of Nanjing, when the Nanjing Nationalist Government had a premonition that Nanjing would fall into the hands of the enemy, in order to preserve its strength, it took Chongqing as the accompanying capital, hoping to continue to fight against the Invading Japanese Army with Chongqing as the center. In December of that year, the center of the Kuomintang regime, Nanjing, fell, and the southeastern provinces inevitably fell into the hands of the enemy, so the domestic political and economic center of gravity shifted from the southeast to the southwest, when government agencies, ethnic enterprises, schools, refugees, and strategic materials moved to the southwest region centered on Chongqing, and Wuhan was the only way to the southwest region. Although some of the materials have been transported to the southwest region, but limited by the shipping conditions at that time, a large number of strategic materials are still accumulated in the Wuhan area, in addition, Wuhan is an important town of the country, has a fairly good industrial base, after the fall of Nanjing, Wuhan although there is no name for the capital, but has the capital of reality. Therefore, for the Nationalist government at that time, Wuhan, which had a large amount of strategic materials, could not easily lose to the enemy, at least until Wuhan fell, the Nationalist government must transfer important strategic materials to chongqing, the capital city, in order to accumulate strength and wait for the opportunity to defeat the Japanese invaders. Based on the above reasons, in June 1938, the Nationalist government formulated a battle plan for the Battle of Wuhan, the central idea of which was to take advantage of the characteristics of China's vast land and vast resources, exchange space for time, consume the strength of the Japanese army, and at the same time win time to transfer strategic materials and prepare for the long-term War of Resistance.
In order to end the war as soon as possible and get rid of the quagmire of war, the theory of quick victory in Japan has become popular, and they are clamoring to destroy China within three months in an attempt to force the Nationalist Government to concede defeat in order to force the Nationalist Government to concede defeat with a victory in a battle in order to prompt it to cut up land and pay reparations, while the Japanese Army continues to use the war reparations for the war of aggression; in addition, the Japanese army also fantasizes about using the Nationalist Government as a puppet to reduce the cost of the war of aggression and achieve the goal of feeding the war with war. For these reasons, the Japanese army attacked Nanjing, the political center of the Nationalist government, in December 1937, but before that, the Nationalist government had moved to Chongqing, when Wuhan did not have the order of the capital, but had the capital. Therefore, for Japan, Wuhan must be won, and Japan is trying to use the fall of Wuhan to attack the resistance confidence of the Nationalist government, in order to force the Republic of China government to surrender and complete the war demands as soon as possible.
At that time, Wuhan was of great significance to China, and the Japanese Kou regarded Wuhan as the fat meat of the road, Wuhan was in danger, wuhan was related to China's national fortunes, and Chinese soldiers were facing a test that had not been seen in a thousand years!
The initial battle was unfavorable
The Botian detachment, also known as the Taiwan Mixed Brigade, went up the river from Wuhu to Wuhan. On the night of June 11, 1938, the Botian detachment attacked the military town of Anqing at night, taking the lead in firing the first shot of the Battle of Wuhan, when it was heavy rain in Anqing, the troops stationed in Anqing were ineffective, and overnight, Anqing fell into the hands of the enemy. Anqing's geographical location is extremely important, as the gateway to Nanjing, sitting on Anqing can directly hit Nanjing. On the same day, Chiang Kai-shek angrily rebuked Yang Sen for his ineffective combat and the loss of the important town of Anqing, while Yang Sen said that the friendly forces were inferior to the Japanese Sixth Division, and that their flanks lacked cover, which was unfavorable to himself, so he had no choice but to withdraw from Anqing. In the end, Chiang Kai-shek did not investigate the responsibility of Anqing's loss.
After the occupation of Anqing, the Botian detachment continued to carry naval warships to the west, and arrived at the Jiangfang fortress of Madang in late June, which was designed by German advisers and painstakingly operated by the Nationalist army, and the Nationalist government spent a lot of money on it, for which the Nationalist government believed that madang fortress was a great weapon to prevent the Japanese navy from attacking. Before the war, Chiang Kai-shek believed that even if the Japanese navy was well-equipped, madang Fortress could resist the enemy for at least one month. After reaching the Madang area, the Japanese Navy tried to attack from the water, but this area was extremely difficult to capture, so the Japanese army switched to land attack. At this time, the nationalist defenders near Madang were Li Yunheng, but Li Yunheng did not fulfill his duties, giving the Japanese the opportunity to capture Madang. Although the Ma Dang defenders fought bloodily and repelled many Japanese attacks, but they were isolated and helpless, it was difficult to continue to resist the Japanese attack, and the helpless defenders had to ask for assistance from the Wuhan side, and the Wuhan side reacted quickly, Bai Chongxi ordered the 167th Division to take the road to support the Madang defenders at a rapid speed, while on the other hand, Li Yunheng immediately ordered the 167th Division to take a small road to support the Madang defenders after receiving the urgent message from Madang. Xue Weiying, commander of the 167th Division, deliberated repeatedly, and finally for personal reasons, he did not march according to Bai Chongxi's words, and finally missed the fighter, and Ma Dang lost. After the fall of Madang, although the Nationalist army tried its best to regain Madang, the Japanese army relied on the solid defense of Madang, and the Nationalist army could not attack for a long time, and suffered heavy losses. Afterwards, Chiang Kai-shek was furious at Madang's failure to defend, and after the war, he was held accountable; Li Yunheng was dismissed from his post for dereliction of duty and investigated, and Xue Weiying was executed by mistake on the fighter.
After the loss of Madang, although the Nationalist army tried its best to compete, but the losses were heavy, and had to retreat to Pengze. After meeting with the reinforcements of the 106th Division, the Botian detachment directly attacked Pengze. After the fall of Pengze, although the Nationalist army tried its best to counterattack, with the intention of recovering Pengze, but the effect was not good, the Nationalist army not only did not recover Pengze, but also fell into the hands of the enemy, and the defenders had no choice but to retreat to the Jiujiang area. After the Japanese army captured the lake mouth, after a short rest, it pointed straight to the Jiujiang. The Japanese army attacked Jiujiang on the night of the 23rd, but the Jiujiang defenders did not ask for assistance until 4:00 a.m., and the reinforcements rushed to Jiujiang were scattered by the Japanese army. In desperation, Zhang Fakui and other troops had to abandon Jiujiang, and Jiujiang fell.
Fight on the south bank of the Yangtze River
After the fall of Jiujiang, the Japanese army was divided into two routes, the Japanese 106th Division went south to attack De'an, and the Botian detachment, together with the Japanese Navy, pointed directly at Ruichang. On August 11, the Japanese army forcibly landed ashore from the port northeast of Ruichang, defeated the Nationalist 12th Army stationed there, and attacked Ruichang. Although the defenders vowed to resist to the death, in late August, the Japanese 9th Division rushed to Ruichang, and the situation took a sharp turn for the worse, and on the 24th, Ruichang fell. After the Japanese army attacked Ruichang, the Japanese 6th Brigade did not cut off the Guangdong-Han Railway as originally planned, but instead led the army to support the Japanese 101st Division, directly behind the defenders, the addition of the Japanese 6th Brigade Disrupted the Combat Deployment of the Nationalist Army, the Nationalist Army was defeated and retreated, and to the Wushimen position, the Nationalist army recovered its decline and resisted the crazy attack of the Japanese 6th Brigade.
The next day, the 6th Brigade returned to Ruichang to attack west along the Yangtze River with friendly divisions, the Japanese 27th Division attacked Zhenxi, and the Nationalist army blocked the attack of the Japanese 27th Division along the road line, and the two sides held out for a long time, until early October, the Japanese 27th Division regiment captured Zhenxi. After the fall of Zhenxi, the Japanese 27th Division successively took Xintanpu and Jinniu in Hubei. Although the defenders struggled along the Yangtze River to resist the Westward Advance of the Japanese Army, Li Fangchen, commander of the 18th Division, saw that the situation was unfavorable and feared absconding, causing the defenders to be confused, the fortress of Fuchikou fell, and the gateway to Wuhan was wide open, and the danger was imminent. Although the defenders tried their best to defend, the Japanese army successively conquered Yangxin, Daye, and Echeng. The Japanese 9th Division and the Botian detachment pointed directly at Yueyang in order to cut off the Cantonese-Han railway and besiege Wuhan.
The Japanese army in the south was frequently frustrated and made slow progress, and then Okamura Ning ordered the Japanese 101st Division to support the Japanese army going south, in an attempt to take De'an and capture Nanchang to provide cover for the Japanese army to advance west. The Nationalist army, under the leadership of Xue Yue, swore to defend the country to the death, and the Japanese army made slow progress and fell into a bitter battle. At the end of September, in order to break the deadlock, Okamura Ninji divided the 106th Regiment into five groups, hoping that the 106th Regiment could surprise the defenders behind them to disrupt the deployment of the defenders and encircle the Chinese defenders. However, the 106th Regiment accidentally lost its way while carrying out its mission, and was discovered by the Chinese defenders, Xue Yue commanded the Nationalist army to encircle the Japanese 106th Regiment, although the Japanese army sent the 27th Division to support the 106th Regiment, but its reinforcements were repelled by the Nationalist 32nd Army, and the Japanese 106th Division was isolated and helpless to organize a counterattack, but it was never able to break through the encirclement of the Nationalist army, and finally the Japanese 106th Division suffered heavy losses and was unable to undertake the offensive task, and the Japanese army's attempt to infect Chang was temporarily frustrated. Then the Japanese army took advantage of the shortage of troops in De'an City, sent troops to De'an, and the defenders vowed to resist to the death, not giving way to any land, and repelled the Japanese army many times.
The Japanese attack on the south bank of the Yangtze River was not satisfactory, and the Chinese soldiers, under the leadership of Xue Yue, vowed to defend the country to the death and severely damaged the Japanese army, which was exciting.
Bloody north bank of the Yangtze River
In early June, the Japanese 6th Division moved south from Hefei, and by early July the Japanese occupied Taihu Lake and east of the Wangjiang River.
In late July, the 6th Division broke through the Nationalist defense line one after another, and by early August the Japanese army had captured Huangmei, and although the Nationalist army organized troops to try their best to capture Huangmei, the Japanese released poison gas and the Nationalists suffered heavy losses. Unable to make a strong attack, the Nationalist army surrounded the Japanese 6th Division, cut off the Japanese retreat, and then attacked the Japanese 6th Division from the front, intending to annihilate it in one fell swoop. However, the Japanese army relied on poison gas to survive the repeated onslaughts of the Nationalist army, and then reinforcements arrived, and the Japanese 6th Division counterattacked after resting, and although the Nationalist general Bai Chongxi went to supervise the battle, it did not help, and the Nationalist army suffered heavy losses and was forced to withdraw to Guangji. The Japanese army followed the nationalist army and attacked Guangji, and although the defenders fought bravely to kill the enemy, Guangji eventually fell.
After the fall of Guangji, after a short rest, the Japanese 6th Division ordered the Imamura detachment to attack tianjia town, which was the gateway to Wuhan, where the nationalist army was heavily garrisoned, and the imamura detachment was struggling and making no progress in this move. However, in late September, Fuchikou fell, the Nationalist defenders had to retreat, and Tianjia Town fell. At this point, the gateway of the Yangtze River has been opened, and Wuhan is in danger.
Defend Dabie Mountain
On August 22, the Japanese Second Army set out from Hefei and pointed directly at Dabie Mountain, the Japanese army even ke Dabie Mountain gateway Lu'an and Huoshan Mountain, and then the rear soldiers divided into two roads, the left road crossed the north of Dabie Mountain, directly to Wuhan, and the right road captured Luoshan and Xinyang, detouring to Wuhan.
On September 2, the Japanese army approached Yejiaji on the left side of the road, Song Xilian and other troops stationed in the nearby Fujin Mountain blocked the Japanese road, the Japanese army had to capture The Fujin Mountain, the Japanese army first used aircraft to carry out wild bombardment, and then concentrated fire to bombard Fujin Mountain, and finally ordered the infantry to capture the position. However, the 36th Division of the Nationalist Army, which was responsible for guarding the town, was well-equipped and was the ace unit of the Nationalist Army, and according to the danger of defending it, the Japanese army could not attack for a long time and suffered repeated setbacks. On the 6th, the Japanese decided to surprise the rear of the Nationalist army, but the detour troops were found by the garrison and suffered heavy losses. The Japanese army could not conquer for a long time, so they had to call for reinforcements, and on the 11th, the Japanese reinforcements reached Fujin Mountain. In order to preserve its strength, the Nationalist army only defended and did not attack, Song Xilian and other troops fought fiercely for nine days, suffering heavy casualties, but the Nationalist army had no reinforcement support and had to retreat first, turning to shawo and Xiaojieling, while the Japanese army took several cities and approached Xiaojieling. As the last line of defense of Dabie Mountain, Xiaojieling is extremely important to the Nationalist army, if the Japanese army breaks through this defense line, it can directly attack Wuhan, and the Nationalist army will be completely defenseless. The Nationalist defenders took advantage of the terrain to repel successive Japanese onslaughts, and from September 18 to mid-October, the Japanese army was unable to break through the Nationalist defense line. In late October, the Japanese army, which had been fighting for a long time, broke through the nationalist defense line, crossed the Dabie Mountain, and captured Macheng on the 25th of that month, but at this time the Nationalist government had abandoned Wuhan, and the Japanese army's wishes were disappointed.
Compared with the rather unsmooth Left Route Army, the Japanese Right Route Army appeared to be quite smooth, and since the Japanese army was divided into advances, the Right Route Army attacked Gushi and fell after a fierce battle. Then the Japanese army marched west along the road to prepare to capture Huangchuan, at that time responsible for garrisoning Huangchuan was the famous general Zhang Zizhong of the Nationalist army, General Zhang Zizhong held here for 10 days, greatly delaying the pace of the Japanese attack, after the 10th, General Zhang Zizhong withdrew safely, the Japanese army took Huangchuan to Luoshan, Xinyang area, and Hu Zongnan and other troops waited here for a long time. At that time, Hu Zongnan and other units had the most advanced weapons and equipment of the Nationalist Army, sat on the only tank unit of the Nationalist Army and the largest artillery formation of the Nationalist Army, and had the strength of the seven divisions of the three armies, while the Japanese army only had two divisions and regiments, and before that, the Japanese army and General Zhang Zizhong fought fiercely for more than 10 days. Li Zongren had suggested that Hu Zongnan hold tongbai mountain and Pingjing Pass, and cover the retreat of the army behind the palace, but Hu Zongnan insisted on withdrawing and shrinking Nanyang, causing the wuhan gateway to be opened widely and there was no danger to defend.
Guangzhou was lost
In 1937, after the fall of Tianjin, Qingdao and Shanghai, Guangzhou became the most important port in China at that time, an important gateway for the Republic of China government to communicate with the outside world, and many relief materials were transported to Guangzhou from all over the world. Therefore, for Japan, taking Guangzhou can not only cut off China's gateway to communication with the outside world, but also cut off the Republic of China government from accepting aid from all over the world, thus isolating the Republic of China government and forcing the Republic of China government to surrender.
However, such an important gateway was not taken seriously by the Nationalist government, and at that time, Guangzhou's defense was loose, all the troops were transferred to Wuhan to participate in the war against Japan, and Guangzhou's troops were empty, which gave the Japanese army an opportunity.
In order to successfully take Guangzhou, the Japanese army dispatched three divisions and, with the cooperation of the Japanese Navy, secretly marched to the Guangzhou area. And the Japanese army formulated a surprise attack on Guangzhou, the Nationalist army has long heard, Guangdong Governor Wu Tiecheng once sent a telegram to Chongqing, but Chiang Kai-shek believes that the surprise attack on Guangzhou is a smoke bomb released by the Japanese army, the main purpose of which is to divert the attention of the Nationalist army, if the Nationalist army at this time to send troops to Guangdong for deployment, then the Wuhan troops are weak, it will fall into the Japanese army's treacherous plan, not only that, Chiang Kai-shek also ordered the Guangdong defenders to send a division of troops to the Wuhan War, but Chiang Kai-shek may be too focused on the situation in Wuhan, However, the importance of Guangzhou to the Nationalist government was ignored. This order was issued, and some of the troops of the Nationalist army went to Wuhan, and the Guangdong troops were empty, which was in the arms of the Japanese army. On October 11, the Japanese army took advantage of the Nationalist army to focus on the Wuhan battlefield, another way, directly took Guangzhou, the evening of the same day 70,000 Japanese troops landed in Daya Bay, Guangdong, the Japanese army took advantage of the lack of troops in Guangdong, even under several cities, in just ten days, the Japanese army has reached the city of Guangzhou. Yu Hanmou's 12th Army was empty, and in the face of the Japanese tiger and wolf offensive, it suffered heavy damage, and retreated in successive defeats, and finally had to abandon Guangzhou and lead the army to withdraw. The city of Guangzhou, the Cantonese-Han railway was controlled by the Japanese army, in view of the lessons of Nanjing, Chiang Kai-shek believed
There was no need to be bitter and stubborn, to do the battle of the trapped beasts, Wuhan had no need to hold on, so he ordered the Nationalist army to abandon Wuhan. On October 26, the Japanese army conquered Wuchang and Hankou, and the next day Hanyang fell, ending the Battle of Wuhan.
epilogue
In the Battle of Wuhan, when the weapons, equipment, and morale of the Chinese soldiers were far behind those of the Japanese army, they still swore to fight to the death, not giving way to any land, the soldiers spilled their blood, and blocked the advance of the Japanese army with their flesh and blood, and the Chinese soldiers used their lives as chips to win a lot of time for the smooth transfer of strategic materials. Now we review the Battle of Wuhan, we can find that there are still many problems in the Nationalist army, on the one hand, the military discipline of the Nationalist army is a mystery, such as the Battle of Madang, Li Yunheng did not fulfill his duties, but instead engaged in hedonism, giving the Japanese army a good opportunity to conquer Madang, and although the Madang defenders tried their best to resist, but the Nationalist army did not cooperate well, Xue Weiying missed the fighter plane, which eventually led to the loss of Madang, the Nationalist army fell into a passive situation again, in addition, although most of the soldiers fought bravely to kill the enemy, there were still greedy and afraid of death, and this was the case with Hu Zongnan and other troops. As a result, the nationalist army has repeatedly fallen into an unfavorable situation. In addition, the generals of the Nationalist army lacked the awareness of the overall situation, and Chiang Kai-shek paid too much attention to Wuhan, but only ignored Guangzhou, resulting in the loss of Guangzhou, the Guangdong-Han railway fell into the hands of the enemy, and Wuhan had to be forced to abandon.
In summary, the results of the Battle of Wuhan could be better, but for all the above reasons, Wuhan fell. However, it is undeniable that although the Nationalist army temporarily withdrew and the Japanese army won a great victory on the surface, since then the War of Resistance Against Japan has entered a confrontational stage, and the illusion of the Japanese army's quick victory theory has been completely broken. We won a strategic victory and retained the seeds of victory in the War of Resistance, and the Battle of Wuhan told us that there is a kind of victory called retreat!