This article is the 8th part of "An Inch of Mountains and Rivers and an Inch of Blood, 22 Large-Scale Battles of the War of Resistance"
#致真知灼见 #
After the End of the Battle of Wuhan, the Japanese army occupied Wuhan. Okamura Ninji targeted the Suixian and Zaoyang regions in the hinterland of Hubei.
The Suizao area has been a strategic town since ancient times, and if it is controlled, it can threaten Wuhan to the east, Shangluo to the west, Nanyang to the north, and Jiangling to the south. After the Battle of Wuhan, most of the main forces of the 5th Theater were deployed in the Suizao area (east of the Old River Mouth) to threaten the Japanese forces in the Wuhan area.
Whether the Japanese army was to attack north in the next step or to eliminate the threat of the Chinese army, it was necessary to capture the Suizao area and eliminate the main force of our 5th Theater of Operations, especially Tang Enbo's troops.
For the Chinese army, the Suizao area is an important place to guard Chongqing, and it is also not to be lost. Li Zongren, commander of the Fifth Theater, ordered the formation of two armies on the left and right flanks and the Jiang defensive army to resist the enemy and wait for an opportunity to counterattack.
01 Strength of both sides
In Okamura's plan, the main target of the Battle of Suizao (known to the Japanese as the Xiangdong Campaign) was Tang Enbo's 31st Army. In order to achieve this goal, the Japanese army used three divisions, namely the 3rd, 13th, and 16th Divisions. All three divisions were veteran divisions of the Japanese Army, the 3rd Division was formed in 1888 and the other two were formed in 1905. These three divisions did not have a full number when they participated in the Battle of Suizao, and each division had about 13,000 people, so the total strength of the Japanese army in the Battle of Suizao was about 40,000 people.
After the Battle of Wuhan, in addition to Tang Enbo's 31st Group Army, China's Fifth Theater also had 6 group armies, 18 armies, 44 infantry divisions and other units, except for a few troops with complete equipment, the other units were almost half of the full quota, and the total strength was almost 200,000 people.
02 Li Zongren could not command Tang Enbo
Before the Japanese attack, comprehensive intelligence analysis, Li Zongren judged
The main force of the Japanese army will advance west along the Xianghua Highway to attack Xiangyang and Xiangfan.
Li Zongren was ready to recreate the great victory of Taierzhuang, he planned
On the Xianghua Highway through which the main enemy army passed, part of the troops were used to lure the Japanese army to the Suizao area, and then Tang Enbo's 31st Army rushed out from behind to cut off the Xianghua Highway, and the frontal troops joined forces with the Tang Army to encircle and annihilate the Japanese army.
But Li Zongren could not move Tang Enbo.
The Tang Legion is the Headmaster's concubine unit and is a strategic Einsatzgruppen. Although the Tang Legion was assigned to the 5th Theater of Operations, however
Without the approval of the Central Military Commission, the 5th Theater of Operations was not allowed to use the Tang Army without authorization.
Therefore, when Li Zongren proposed this idea, Tang Enbo strongly opposed it, and the two argued, and Tang Enbo actually brushed his sleeves and left. A theater commander commanding subordinates without moving is not uncommon in Tang Enbo, Hu Zongnan and other generals of the Central Army.
Even during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the so-called feud between the concubines and the miscellaneous cards still existed, and it was a strange bad debt.
03 Battle of Ta'er Bay
On 30 April, the Japanese began a massive offensive after a tentative attack. The Battle of Suiju officially began
The Japanese attacked from the north and west of Hubei in multiple directions, actively looking for the main force of the Chinese army, especially the 31st Group Army, in an attempt to encircle and annihilate the main force of the Chinese army.
Fierce fighting was fought in the Taal Bay area, which was the main direction of japanese attack. Ta'er Bay is a strategic place, once broken by the Japanese army, it can attack the positions of the 173rd Division to the north, the rear roads of the 174th Division and the 189th Division to the south, and even the Japanese army can encircle the 39th Army on the left.
The two sides fought a deadly battle at Tar Bay. The main position in Ta'erWan was preceded by a shallow river, and the Chinese army's positions could only be built on low mounds, easily covered by Japanese artillery fire. The officers and men of the garrison are in a hurry,
A lot of fake fortifications were built on the positions to attract Japanese firepower. The defenders built machine gun positions on either side of the fake fortifications, and dug several scattered pits not far from the fake fortifications.
The Japanese first used dozens of cannons to bombard our positions in Ta'er Bay for 2 hours. After the artillery bombardment, the Japanese army thought that our defenders were either dead under the onslaught of artillery fire or were afraid to retreat, and the brigade of infantry rushed to the position in a dense formation. When the enemy approached the position, the defenders in the scattered pits and machine gun positions suddenly opened fire, and under the sudden onslaught, the Japanese were killed and wounded and had to temporarily retreat.
After several days of fierce fighting at the Tarwan position, the Japanese army used aircraft, tanks and artillery, and the firepower was very fierce. The 84th Army, which was defending Tarwan, was unable to support itself and began to retreat across the board. Along the Xianghua Highway are plains, suitable for the impact of the Japanese mechanized troops, and the retreating 84th Army was attacked by the Japanese tank troops and suffered huge losses.
The entire retreat was chaotic, and at the same time, our army's defensive line in the northern Hubei region was also broken by the Japanese army.
04 The Japanese retreated?
At the same time that the Japanese army attacked ta'er Bay, the Japanese army in the western Hubei area also launched a fierce offensive against the Chinese army.
Defending western Hubei was the army led by General Zhang Zizhong. Most of Zhang Zizhong's troops experienced the battle in Wuhan, the personnel were not orderly, the weapons and equipment were inferior, and the continuous combat also made the soldiers very tired. Zhang Zizhong said when doing the pre-war mobilization:
Now that the country is in danger, we should make up our minds to fight with the Japanese and the Japanese for the survival of the country and the nation, at all costs. It is also glorious to die."
Although Zhang Zizhong's troops held their positions with the determination to die, and Zhang Zizhong even personally led a team across the river to counterattack the Japanese army, the war situation deteriorated. The Japanese, supported by superior firepower, successively broke through Zhang Zizhong's positions, and then the troops quickly advanced west and north in two ways.
After the Various Japanese Troops broke through the defenders' positions, the encirclement of Zaoyang was basically formed.
The Japanese hoped to encircle and annihilate the main forces of the 5th Theater, especially the Tang Army, in a narrow area from Tongbai to Zaoyang.
Under such circumstances, Li Zongren issued a retreat order. But Li Zongren's plan was for the armies to retreat and abandon all areas east of the Xiang River. Considering that it would be too embarrassing to give up, the headmaster ordered the troops not to retreat at full speed, to counterattack in a timely manner, and even asked the Tang Army to stay behind for the time being. And this is exactly in the arms of the Japanese army,
The Japanese 3rd Division entangled the Tang Army, while the 13th Division moved rapidly north, preparing to form a siege of the Tang Army.
Tang Enbo was controversial during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and his operation in Taierzhuang was considered by many to preserve his strength to avoid war, and he refused to obey Li Zongren's dispatch arrangements at the beginning of the Battle of Suizhao. However, some people believe that Tombaugh does not stick to orders and will make decisive responses according to the situation on the battlefield. Its perception of danger was very acute, and the Japanese army from Xuzhou to Wuhan was never able to achieve the goal of encircling and annihilating its main force. During the Battle of Suizao, Tang Enbo found that the Japanese army was going to surround him, and despite the principal's orders, he quickly ordered the whole army to retreat.
At the same time as the Tang Army successfully retreated, the troops of the 5th Theater of Operations also successfully withdrew.
Unexpectedly, the retreat of the Chinese army actually created the risk of the Japanese army being encircled. Okamura did not want to take any risks and ordered the whole army
"Immediately turn back and destroy the enemy's miscellaneous army from the northeast of Dahong Mountain." The sudden retreat of the Japanese army surprised the Chinese army. Although the pursuit order was quickly issued, the Japanese troops were not seriously pursued by the Chinese army except for the 13th Division regiment that was blocked.
Chinese troops then recaptured all but SuiXian, and the Chinese and Japanese returned to their pre-war posture. The Battle of Suiju came to an abrupt end.
The Battle of Suiju was the first battle in which China and Japan entered a phase of stalemate. Judging from the final result, it is difficult to say who won on both sides. In addition to occupying Suixian County, the Japanese army did not achieve the purpose of encircling and annihilating the main force of the 5th Theater; and the Chinese army failed to stop the Japanese attack, if it were not for the Japanese army's active retreat, the recovery of lost land would be very difficult, but the main force of the 5th Theater, especially the Tang Army, was not surrounded and annihilated by the Japanese army. For Okamura Ninji, the most important strategic objectives were not achieved, and the threat of the 5th Theater to Wuhan remained.
The road to the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression is still difficult and tortuous, and the Chinese military and people are still struggling to support themselves in the dark.