78 years ago today (December 23, 1941), the arrogant and overly arrogant Japanese army launched the Third Battle of Changsha, and 60,000 Japanese troops wanted to "beat the rabbits" by the way to the south to capture the Japanese army in Hong Kong. As a result, I did not expect to meet a resourceful anti-Japanese general of the Nationalist army - general Xue Yue, a first-class general, Who sacrificed a strange "heavenly furnace combat method", and almost wrapped all 60,000 Japanese troops in dumplings in the winter solstice, leaving only a few Japanese troops to escape. The Third Battle of Changsha became the first victory of the Allies after the "Pearl Harbor Incident", that is, to encourage and dispel hatred! And unexpected international benefits have been received.
Let's see how the arrogant Japanese army was "dumpling-wrapped" 78 years ago.
After the two Battles of Changsha, the Japanese army provoked trouble again
In October of the 27th year of the Republic of China (1938), Wuhan fell, and Changsha's military strategic position as the gateway to defend the southwestern provinces became more and more prominent. For Japan, the capture of Changsha was an important step in its will to resist the Chinese army and force the Chinese government to submit; for the Nationalist government, which moved its capital to Chongqing, the defense of Changsha was more urgent and important than ever.
Therefore, in September of the 28th year of the Republic of China (September 1939) and the 30th year of the Republic of China (1941), China and Japan fought the First and Second Battles of Changsha respectively. In the first two battles of Changsha, from a strategic point of view, the Chinese army prevented the Japanese army from driving deep and deep into the southwest, which can be regarded as a victory for China; but from a tactical point of view, the Losses of the Chinese army were greater, and the two sides did not distinguish between victory and defeat.
By October 1941, the Japanese Guards Cabinet was overwhelmed by the fall of the war, and Hideki Tojo became the new prime minister of Japan, and then decided to go to war against the United States, Great Britain, and the Netherlands. On December 8, the Japanese Combined Fleet attacked Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Naval Base in Hawaii, and the Pacific War broke out. On the same day, the Japanese 23rd Army stationed in Guangzhou began to attack Hong Kong under British occupation. On December 9, the Chinese Nationalist Government officially declared war on Japan, ordering all theaters to launch attacks on the Japanese troops in front of them in response to the British operations in Hong Kong, and drawing reinforcements from the Ninth Theater of Operations from the Fourth Army and the Seventy-fourth Army to the south. At the initiative of the Japanese Eleventh Army, the Japanese base camp decided to preemptively attack northern Hunan to contain the troops of the Ninth Theater to the south, thus opening the curtain of the Third Battle of Changsha.
60,000 Japanese troops want to "fight rabbits with grass"
(The arrogant commander of the Japanese 11th Army, Anan Weiji)
On December 23, 1941, the commander of the Japanese 11th Army, Anan, commanded only a few brigades of about 60,000 people, launched a diversionary attack on the 30 divisions and 300,000 Chinese troops under the command of Xue Yue in response to the Japanese army marching toward Hong Kong. Because the early stage was too smooth, Anan was only a few hot-headed, arbitrary determination to attack Changsha, and in the case of attacking Changsha, he refused to immediately withdraw his troops, and as a result, he fell into General Xue Yue's "Heavenly Furnace Tactics", was surrounded by the nationalist army, ran out of ammunition and food, and almost destroyed the entire army.
The Heavenly Furnace Tactics were put forward by General Xue Yue in summing up the unfavorable factors of the first two "Battles of Changsha."
(General Xue Yue, a famous anti-Japanese general)
As the commander of the Ninth Theater, Xue Yue (1896-1998, Zi Boling, Guangdong Lechang, nicknamed "Tiger Boy", died at the age of 102. In particular, it was pointed out at the pre-war meeting that the victory over the enemy mainly depended on careful preparation in peacetime and the strong morale of the unity of the army and the people. At the meeting, he also put forward the following tactical concepts: Deploy heavy troops on both sides and on the front where the enemy penetrates deep into the interior of northern Hunan Province; when the enemy advances to the liuyang River area, the troops will carry out a frontal counterattack and pursuit; and the troops in the eastern mountainous areas and along the Xiang River in the west will carry out flanking attacks and encirclements. This tactic is the "Heavenly Furnace Tactic" created by General Xue Yue.
The "Heavenly Furnace Tactic" is actually a tactic of "retreating and fighting a decisive battle", luring the enemy to go deeper, and then "wrapping dumplings". The "Heavenly Furnace" is to lay out the troops in the combat zone, lay out a network of strongholds, and consume the enemy's strength and morale in stages by ambushing, trapping, flanking, and tailing, and finally, "dragging" the enemy army to the decisive battle area, and then fiercely encircling and annihilating it. From Yueyang, there are nearly 150 kilometers of railway lines, but there are 4 rivers across it. Xue Yue used this terrain to form a chess array, from north to south, first the Xinqiang River, the south bank of this river is the first line of defense of Changsha, its front from the antlers to maishi, more than 100 kilometers wide, here placed 7 divisions of heavy troops, plus the guerrillas on the Mufu Mountain, there are as many as 100,000 people. This tactic resulted in a record of large-scale battles since the formation of the Japanese army. After these three battles, Xue Yue, who commanded the great victory of Changsha, was called the Tiger of Changsha by the Japanese, and the Japanese did not dare to launch another attack on Changsha for several years.
(The Japanese never attacked Changsha City.)
This method of warfare and the victory of this battle also made Xue Yue a world-famous anti-Japanese general.
The outcome of the campaign was encouraging, and the hatred was relieved and relieved
According to the results of the battle, according to the records published by the Military Commission of the National Government of China and the Ninth Theater, the more than 60,000 main forces of the Japanese army participating in the battle were almost completely destroyed, with 56,944 casualties (including 33,941 dead and 23,003 wounded),? 139 officers and men under the Japanese squadron leader Matsuno Eiki were captured, and 1,138 rifle guns, 115 light and heavy machine guns, 11 mountain guns, 9 radio stations, and other military supplies were captured; 31,346 officers and men of the Chinese army were killed or wounded.
(Some loot)
This victory brought unexpected international benefits
The Third Battle of Changsha (known to japan as the Second Battle of Changsha) was the first victory won by the Allies after the outbreak of the Pacific War. As far as the Chinese battlefield is concerned, even the biggest victory in the strategic counter-offensive phase from March to May 1945: the Battle of Xiangxi, cannot be compared. Moreover, it brought great international benefits to China during the War of Resistance.
Soon after the end of this campaign, the United States announced that it would borrow $500 million from China, and the Allies also decided to appoint Chiang Kai-shek as the supreme commander of the Allied "China-India-Burma Theater." The following month, Chiang Kai-shek visited India and fully lobbied India to join the Allied camp. Subsequently, the United States and Britain announced the abrogation of the unequal treaty with China. In the two years that followed, the Japanese did not dare to launch a large-scale offensive against the Ninth Theater.
This time the Battle of Changsha was won, and Chiang Kai-shek felt warm in the haze around the Huangshan Villa. He smiled easily and said, "This Battle of Changsha is actually the most certain and proud work since the July 7 Incident." Xue Yue received the highest reward given to him by Chiang Kai-shek, the Order of the Blue Sky and White Sun. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt also awarded General Xue Yue a Medal of Independence.
The British newspaper The Times commented: "Since pearl harbor, the only decisive victory of the Allies has been the great victory of the Chinese army in Changsha. ”
The former wartime command post of the Ninth Theater Commander's Headquarters in the Battle of Changsha, located near the Aiwan Pavilion of Yuelu Mountain in Yuelu District, Changsha City, was listed as a cultural relics protection unit of Hunan Province in 2011 to commemorate this far-reaching conference battle.
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