This article is "An Inch of Mountains and Rivers and An Inch of Blood" 15: The Third Battle of Changsha
Just two months after the end of the Second Battle of Changsha, Anan once again launched operations against the 9th Theater of Operations. This was the "Third Battle of Changsha" in the history of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and this time Xue Yue used his Heavenly Furnace Tactics to make the Japanese army suffer fiercely.
01 Anan's only careful thoughts
The outbreak of the Third Battle of Changsha has an important background in the international situation.
In the second half of 1941, the Japanese army advanced rapidly in the Pacific and Southeast Asian theaters.
This speed of advance made Anan in the Chinese battlefield worry
"The Chinese battlefield has become a secondary battlefield." Anan has been trying to find new opportunities for combat, hoping to actively fight to avoid becoming a "secondary battlefield".
In December 1941, the Japanese 23rd Army prepared to plan an attack on Hong Kong– which gave Anan only a reason to start another campaign.
Anan and chief of staff, Kinoshita, prepared to launch another attack on Changsha on the grounds that they were planning the 23rd Army's operation in Hong Kong. In the battle plan drawn up by Isamu Kinoshita this time,
The Japanese first planned to crush our 20th Army on the front line of the New Wall River with the strength of the 6th and 40th divisions, and to surround and annihilate the main force of the 20th Army; then to crush our 37th Army with the 3rd and 6th divisions.
In this plan, the Japanese army did not know whether it would capture Changsha, but in fact, both Anan and Toshima Fangtaro of the 3rd Division had the idea of capturing Changsha, but because of the fear that their superiors would not approve it, the battle plan did not clearly state that they wanted to capture Changsha.
And this ambiguous battle plan laid the groundwork for the fiasco of the Japanese army in this battle.
After summing up the gains and losses of the last two battles in Changsha, Anan's only opponent, Xue Yue, decided to adopt the "Heavenly Furnace Tactics" to deal with the Japanese attack.
What is the "Heavenly Furnace Tactic"? Xue Yue himself said so
The Heavenly Furnace Fighters, in order to form a deep network of stronghold positions in the predetermined battle ground, and allocate the necessary garrisons,
By means of ambush, trapping, flanking, interception, tail attack, blockade, etc., the ground force is depleted one by one, its sharpness is dampened, and then the superior forces are used in the decisive battle to carry out counterattacks and counter-encirclements, and to annihilate the enemy.
Gai is a method of retreating and fighting decisive battles, and the new strategy of annihilating the enemy to win due to changes in the enemy, such as furnace melting iron, such as fire alchemy, hence the name.
02 The Japanese army broke through the New Wall River
On December 23, 1941, two infantry companies of the Japanese 40th Division launched an attack on our defensive positions on the north bank of the New Wall, and the Third Battle of Changsha officially broke out.
Defending the forefront was the 20th Army of the Sichuan Army, and the commander Yang Hanyu was Yang Sen's nephew.
The 20th Army faced an attack by three Japanese divisions, and Xue Yue asked it to hold out for 10 days before moving to the Japanese flank and waiting for the opportunity to pursue.
On December 24, 1941, the Japanese 6th and 40th Divisions all entered the north bank of the New Wall River, and after heavy artillery bombardment, the 40th Division took the lead in attacking. In the process of crossing the river, the 134th Division of our 20th Army made a fierce blockade of the enemy. The Japanese advance was very fierce, and at 2 p.m., the Japanese had broken through the front line of the 134th Division.
At night, the Japanese 6th Division crossed the Xinqiang River under the cover of rain and snow, and stormed the positions of the 133rd Division. At midnight, the first line position of the 133rd Division was also breached by the Japanese.
On December 25, 1941, the 3rd Division also crossed the New Wall River behind the 6th Division.
In just one day, the front line of the New Wall River was completely breached by the Japanese army. The three divisions of the 20th Army were caught in a scuffle with the three divisions of the Japanese army, and Yang Hanyu's communication with the various departments was temporarily interrupted. In the fierce battle, although the 20th Army was disrupted and the officers and men had to fight for themselves, they were able to hold their positions, withstand wave after wave of attacks by the Japanese army, and vowed not to retreat until the last man fought.
Although the soldiers of the 20th Army had been insisting, the casualties of the troops were too large, and on the 3rd day of the fight, Yang Hanyu decided to move the troops in advance according to the original plan. Although the time set by Xue Yue was not completed, it was not easy for the Sichuan Army to fight this position with 3 divisions of the Japanese army with 3 divisions of hard steel (2 of which were elite divisions).
03 Bitter Battle miluojiang
After the Japanese broke through the position of the New Wall River, the 3rd and 6th Divisions entered the north bank of the Miluo River on the evening of the 26th, and the 40th Division also advanced to Changle Street on the north bank of the Miluo River.
The bitter battle continued on the Miluo River.
The Chinese defenders at Miluo river were the 37th Army on Hunan mainland, plus two divisions of the 99th Army.
On December 27, 1941, the Japanese 6th Division and the 40th Division attacked separately, but were repulsed by the defenders in person. But the 3rd Division broke through the positions of the 99th Division.
The next day, the Japanese 3rd Division crossed the Miluo River. The 99th Division fought while retreating, and in the process of retreating, it also continued to kill and wound the Japanese army.
On December 30, 1941, the Japanese army, supported by aviation and artillery, laid siege to the 37th Army. After a full day of fierce fighting, the 37th Army's blockade task was completed and began to move to the mountains; late that night, the 99th Army, under the orders of Xue Yue, also began to leave the battlefield, retreated westward, and hid in the mountains on the right side of the Guangdong-Han Railway.
The 37th Army and the 99th Army formed a situation of attacking the Japanese army from the east and the west, only to wait for Xue Yue's order. The 20th Army behind the Japanese army also continued to harass the Japanese army.
The 3rd, 6th, and 40th Divisions of the Japanese Army have all crossed the Miluo River, and the next step is Changsha City. Although the dispatch headquarters did not approve Anan's request to capture Changsha, Anan only ordered the 3rd Division to attack Changsha.
Anan didn't know what he was about to pay for the decision.
04 Hunan is the grave of Japanese soldiers
With a few orders from Anan, the 3rd Division eagerly began to attack Changsha, and the commander of the 3rd Division, Toshima Futaro, like Anan, had a strong interest in capturing Changsha.
In order to lure the Japanese army to attack Changsha, Xue Yue only released 10th Army to defend Changsha City. ——
Whether the 10th Army could hold Changsha before the encircling troops reached the designated position became the key to Xue Yue's entire Heavenly Furnace Tactics.
It was New Year's Day in 1942, and the weather that had been raining and snowing for many days had finally cleared. The Japanese soldiers swept away the bitterness of fighting in bad weather for many days, and the 3rd Division proudly believed that there would be no more fighting in Changsha.
They were able to have a comfortable New Year in Changsha.
However, the heroic 10th Army was not prepared to let the Japanese enter Changsha so easily.
The first to take on the enemy was the Reserve 10th Division. The Japanese, supported by aircraft and artillery, launched an onslaught on the positions of the 10th Division. The officers and men of the 10th Division fought bravely, and Ge Xiancai, the commander of the 30th Regiment guarding the south gate of Changsha, refused the order of the division commander Fang Xianjue to retreat to the city wall, and he decided
"To attack and defend is to die." He said:
Absolutely not to be pushed back,。。。 As soon as I retreat, the enemy will follow, and that is the real danger. I have thought about it and am ready, and soldiers should have the spirit of risk-taking and difficulty, and be determined to attack recklessly. I will never ask you for instructions again, nor do I want you to reinforce, you will only be 30 regiments dead... Either the enemy died or I went to Huangquan and decided to die with the enemy
After Ge Xiancai said these words, he led the entire regiment of officers and men to pounce on the Japanese troops in front of him, and the Japanese army did not expect that the defenders would dare to counterattack, and there was a great chaos.
The fighting in Changsha was still scorching, and the Japanese were eager to capture Changsha. Beginning on January 2, 1942, the two sides fought fiercely at the east and south gates of Changsha, with the Japanese breaking through the position several times, but the Chinese defenders stubbornly took back the position several times. Soldiers of the Chinese and Japanese armies repeatedly engaged in white-knife warfare, and the two sides also sent death squads to carry out grenade-style mutual explosion attacks.
Under such a brutal battle, the 10th Reserve Division still did not retreat, and the Japanese army still failed to occupy Changsha at a heavy price.
The Japanese army, which had been unable to conquer for a long time, was exhausted and ran out of ammunition. On January 3, 1942, a large number of Chinese troops had begun to appear at the encirclement site. Records of the Japanese war
"Behind them appeared about 30 divisions of the Chongqing Army, which were compressing the encirclement."
The 40th Division, which was responsible for covering the rear, had begun to suffer fierce attacks from our army, and the companies were caught in a bitter battle.
The 37th Army and the 99th Army began to besiege the Japanese army one after another.
Soldiers of the 37th Army wrote the following sentence in Japanese near the Japanese position: "Hunan is the grave of Japanese soldiers."
At this time, Anan also knew that Changsha was already impossible to capture, and whether these 3 divisions and regiments could retreat was unknown.
On January 4, 1942, Xue Yue and Anan Weiji both gave orders on the same day, but the former ordered a pursuit and the latter ordered a retreat.
Hunan began to truly become the graveyard of the Japanese army. All three divisions of the Japanese army were attacked to varying degrees, and the situation was very embarrassing
Surrounded by heavy troops, the Japanese army ran out of ammunition and food, the Chinese military and civilians were firmly walled and cleared, and it was difficult for the Japanese army to find food, and it was difficult to forage for food in cold weather. ——
The soldiers of the 24th Regiment of the Japanese 6th Division, who were captured by our army, were too hungry to walk.
The 6th Division was divided into 3 separate sections by our army, and when the bullets were exhausted, they had to use bayonets for hand-to-hand combat. In order to resist our attack, all the officers and signal soldiers of the headquarters of the 6th Division regimental headquarters threw themselves into battle.
The Japanese 3rd Division was caught between our 79th And 4th Corps, and the whole army fell into chaos. Heavy and wounded blocked the already muddy road, and under the siege and interception of our army, the advance was very slow. During the melee, the flag of the 3rd Division was blown up, and the entire upper body of the flag guard soldier was blown up, and the commander of the 3rd Division, Toshima Fangtaro, was almost killed here.
The 40th Division was not much better, and after a few days of bitter fighting with my 37th Army, it could only abandon the wounded and heavy loads, leaving no more than 15 rounds of rifle ammunition per person, and only 1-2 grenades were left per detachment.
When crossing the New Wall River, when they learned that the Chinese army was about to catch up, the Japanese army rushed to the front and made a mess."
Many trampled on each other, so many people drowned in the water."
On January 16, 1941, the exhausted Japanese army finally withdrew to the north bank of the New Wall River, and the Third Battle of Changsha ended.
05 Different casualty data
Regarding the outcome of this battle,
The war report released by the Japanese army claimed that the Japanese army killed 1591 people, killed 108 officers, and wounded 4412 people; while Xue Yue's report showed that the Japanese army was killed or wounded more than 50,000 people.
The difference in data between the two sides is so large that it is clear that there are different degrees of moisture in the data of both sides.
The japanese casualties are not only this number, just look at a column to see:
Less than 500 Japanese troops survived the war with a 3,500-strong wing. Moreover, the Japanese army abandoned a large number of corpses in this battle, which had never happened in previous battles. It was obvious that the Japanese casualties were staggering.
And Xue Yue's number of annihilated enemies is also obviously exaggerated, the Japanese army is only 100,000 people in this battle, if the casualties reach more than 50,000 people, then the Japanese 11th Army is not crippled? In fact, this does not match the facts.
Regarding the number of Japanese casualties, later generations of experts and scholars believe that casualties are between 10,000 and 20,000.
In the Third Battle of Changsha, our army undoubtedly achieved a great victory
Looking back at this great victory, our army's victory was mainly due to the proper tactics and the unity of the military and the people. At the same time, when we look at the Japanese army, there are also many problems that lead to the fiasco.
First of all
The purpose of the Japanese operations was unclear
。 Changsha was not captured in the battle plan, resulting in insufficient weapons and ammunition, the roads were destroyed by our soldiers and civilians, and the transportation of weapons and grain and grass was not smooth. This time, the Japanese army brought some field guns and mountain artillery, and the heavy artillery firepower was not as good as our army.
Secondly, at this time, most of the main forces of the Japanese Army were transferred to the Pacific Theater, and the supplementary soldiers had insufficient combat experience and poor morale. Records of the Japanese war
"The officers and men have no idea about their future actions and are in a state of doubt."
However, the coordination between the various armies of our army is uneven, and the level of combat effectiveness is uneven, which also prevents our army from further expanding its achievements.