On August 13, 1937, the Battle of Songhu was officially launched
This battle, which lasted for more than three months, directly launched a war between China and Japan. It was a series of battles with heavy casualties, and some people even directly compared it to it
The "Verdun meat grinder" of the East.
In fact, there were many strategic and tactical details hidden in this battle, which had a very far-reaching impact on the advancement and subsequent trend of the war, and in this world-renowned battle, the Japanese wanted to devote their national strength to end this war of aggression directly within three months, and the middle way was blocked. At the beginning, Chiang Kai-shek's strategic direction was to retreat, but later he changed his mind, directly opening the prelude to this tragedy of large-scale casualties.
So what are the stories and details in the strategic deployment of this war? What was the result? What far-reaching impact did it have on the direction of the entire War of Resistance Against Japan?
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The background and strategic concept of the Battle of Songhu led the Japanese by the nose
In 1937, the Lugou Bridge Incident completely tore off the disguise of invading China and directly launched the eight-year war that followed. Although the Lugou Bridge Incident was the beginning of the war, in fact the first large-scale battle between the two sides was the Battle of Songhu a month later.
At that time, the Chinese military and people were united in their hearts, and the anti-Japanese sentiment was high, and both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party entered a rather intense state of preparation for war. In order to fight this war of aggression well, not only did a large number of troops from all over the country be recruited and mobilized, but also made careful arrangements on strategic issues.
Logically, the next trend of the battle from Beijing should also be from north to south, all the way to resist or attack such a development process, so why did it start from the Songhu area later, all the way from east to west. In fact, this was the strategic concept first put forward by Chen Cheng, a Kuomintang general in the "Civil Engineering Department" at that time.
(Chen Cheng)
The basis of this strategy proposed by Chen Cheng is that since ancient times, most of the battles from north to south have been relatively successful, such as Zhu Di fighting from Beijing to Nanjing, and finally coming to his nephew's imperial throne, opening the Yongle era. Although this kind of thing has certain psychological factors in addition to geographical and environmental advantages, the rise and fall of the country cannot be sloppy.
Unlike from north to south, the failure from the east to the west is supported by quite scientific theories and events, such as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement. The reason for this situation mainly depends on the stepped terrain of China's high west and low east, as well as various complex terrains in inland areas represented by dense river networks, which are very unfavorable to the mechanical operation of heavy weapons such as tanks. Therefore, before the Battle of Songhu between China and Japan began to fight, the most important thing was to change the direction of the enemy's battlefield and disrupt their battle plans.
In order to guide the enemy's troop deployment to the east and south, Chiang Kai-shek mobilized a large number of troops to assemble in Shanghai, and on August 13 took the initiative to launch an attack on the Japanese Marines stationed in Hongkou, and the Battle of Songhu was officially launched, and the Japanese were successfully led to the eastern front by our army as preconceived.
At a glance at the Battle of Songhu, Chiang Kai-shek changed his combat orders several times
At dawn on the 15th, reinforcements of the Japanese Tenth Army landed on the Songhu battlefield from Jinshanwei at the instructions of General Matsui Ishigen, and after completing the landing, they immediately divided the 6th Division and the 18th Division to detour the key railway line in the rear and approached the center of Songhu, and Shanghai was in a hurry. It is worth noting that this batch of Japanese kosovars included the notorious Japanese general Tani Shoufu, who planned the Nanjing incident, but he was sent to the International Military Tribunal in Nanjing for trial shortly after the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan and paid for his sins.
(Chiang Kai-shek)
And this stage Chiang Kai-shek committed
Mistakes in the first strategic command
。 According to the initial deployment of troops, the landing site of the Japanese Tenth Army should have been stationed with the main forces of the 4 divisions and 1 brigade of the Eighth Army led by Zhang Fakui, but as the battle unfolded,
Chiang Kai-shek did not dissuade him from transferring this part of the garrison to the frontal battlefield in Shanghai, which led to the lack of guards in Jinshanwei and was exploited by the Japanese
，
And occupied Songjiang, an important strategic stronghold that could be attacked and retreated, and because of this, the Chinese army had a tendency to be wrapped up and could only retreat backwards as a whole.
At that time, the Chinese army had already shown early signs of being attacked by the enemy on its back, with the original japanese main force in the front and Japanese reinforcements in the rear, according to Japan's strategic deployment, after completing the encirclement of Shanghai, they would quickly end the battle, and then shift the focus of the war to the battlefields in the inland areas of central and eastern China.
In fact, the Dachang area in the Songhu area had already been lost in the large-scale bombardment of the Japanese army before, and the Chinese army in the Suzhou area at that time was attacked on its back and could only be forced to abandon the important positions such as Jiangwan, which had been held, and make a strategic shift towards the south bank of the Suzhou River.
However, just before the whole army completed the retreat, Chiang Kai-shek changed his mind again, and he decided to distribute some troops to stay in the Zhabei front, so Xie Jinyuan, the deputy commander of the 524th Regiment at the time, led a battalion of troops to the Zhabei Sihang warehouse.
The main reason for Chiang Kai-shek's mistake was due to the great hopes placed in Europe and the United States, when the League of Nations was about to convene a meeting in Geneva to discuss the situation of the world war. Chiang Kai-shek, on the other hand, pressed all the treasures at this meeting, in a vain attempt to influence the Sino-Japanese war situation through international relations, or to make the Japanese retreat from the difficulties to end the concept of invading China. Obviously, Chiang Kai-shek miscalculated and overestimated human nature.
On the other hand, it was fast
Xie Jinyuan led more than 400 soldiers to garrison a Sihang warehouse in the Zhabei area, and in order to confuse the enemy, he announced that more than 800 troops were stationed here, and this nominal 800 people was also known as the 800 strong men
。 At this time, the Xie Jinyuan department stationed at the Sihang warehouse became the only strategic stronghold in the Hebei region of Suzhou after the retreat of other troops, and it was actually in the center of the enemy's sphere of influence, and the dangers faced could be imagined.
However, Xie Jinyuan and others did not give up resistance or have any feeling of retreat, from the very beginning of the station, he explained the current situation to the soldiers under his command, and he wanted to use the Sihang Warehouse as a base for these 400 people, fight with the enemy or be killed by the enemy as his own grave, in short, without the retreat order of the superior, they had to stay here until the last moment.
Soon the Rikou found Xie Jinyuan and the others and immediately launched a fierce attack and attack on them, in the next step
In 4 days, Xie Jinyuan led the warriors to hold the last stronghold, successfully repelled 6 crazy attacks of the enemy, and annihilated hundreds of Japanese Kou
However, the gap between the enemy and us was too large, and soon all the areas around the Sihang warehouse were occupied by the Japanese army. The Japanese also openly planted their own plaster flags nearby, and among the red and white fluttering on all sides, the Chinese flags of the Sihang Warehouse were particularly conspicuous.
Therefore, many times we have to believe in the strength of spirit and thought, the banner represents the Chinese military and people have not given up the faith and will to resist, with this banner, the people have the backbone, with support and hope, if the soldiers have not given up resistance, the people will never give up the struggle, the local anti-Japanese national salvation groups will continue to run and fight, accumulate small streams into rivers, sometimes must persist until the last moment. Therefore, when Xie Jinyuan received the order to retreat, they had become great heroes in the eyes of the local people, and even the retreat process was welcomed by the people.
It can be seen from the Battle of Songhu that although the Japanese army at that time lacked strategic vision and tactical analysis, the Kuomintang Chiang Kai-shek side was not invulnerable, and several of his mistakes did cause military and civilian losses to a certain extent, which regrettably this situation could have been avoided. For example, in
Before the large-scale landing of the Japanese Tenth Army, Chiang Kai-shek had already issued the order to retreat to the Xindenberg defense line, but it was not long before he insisted on changing his mind despite the persuasion of Chen Cheng and others.
As with the reasons just mentioned, his analysis of the current international situation has been wrong, especially the intervention of international forces is too persistent and attached importance to it. He hoped that countries such as Britain and the United States could intervene in China's battlefield, but
At that time, these Western countries were also chicken feathers in the face of Hitler's rise, and they had no intention of paying attention to what happened in the East, and the United States was just out of the heart-wrenching economic crisis of 1929, and now it is facing an important problem of reviving and developing the economy, and then through isolationist policies, constantly reminding themselves not to get involved in the quagmire of war
。 Although these countries that Chiang Kai-shek pinned his hopes on had some interests in the Shanghai area that could not be abandoned, in the face of their own survival, these small profits may not be enough to make them care enough to stand up for Chiang Kai-shek.
Therefore, when the situation on the Songhu battlefield entered a white-hot stage, and the Japanese army's strength had successfully completed the encirclement between the north and the south, Chiang Kai-shek still ignored the suggestions of the advisers and repeatedly issued wrong orders, resulting in hundreds of thousands of soldiers falling into a dilemma, and the frontal battlefield defense line was directly broken by the enemy.
In the end, it was Gu Zhutong and Chen Cheng who immediately adjusted their combat strategy, allowing Wu Keren to lead the Kuomintang 67th Army from Songjiang to the direction of Jinshan, stopping the march of the Japanese 61st Division, delaying the enemy's attack time, and winning valuable vitality for the hundreds of thousands of soldiers who were currently in danger.
(Wu Keren)
When Wu Keren's 67th Army arrived at Songjiang, before it could complete its deployment, it was attacked by the Japanese army and had to resist desperately for three days, and finally
All the soldiers of the 67th Army, including Wu Keren, were martyred
。
After breaking through the Songjiang defense line, the Japanese army directly divided its troops to Nanjing, and the main force continued to advance towards the Jiaxing area.
After cutting off the important communication lines in the Shanghai-Hangzhou area, the Japanese 16th Division also landed in the Taicang area of Jiangsu Province, and completed the integration with the Japanese 6th Division and the 18th Division, which had completed the landing before. Once again threatening the safety of hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops, Chiang Kai-shek finally gave the order to retreat. However, this order came too late, and the enemy's already deployed offensive front launched an all-round attack from the air to the ground against the retreating Chinese troops in the next ten days, and finally the retreat turned into a rout, resulting in a tragedy of hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers, and Shanghai was completely declared.
After three months of brutal war, the Battle of Songhu was also completely over.
290,000 Chinese soldiers paid for their lives, a large area of Songhu fell into the hands of the enemy, and cities such as Shanghai and Nanjing after the fall became fish and meat to be slaughtered by the Japanese, which directly led to the tragedy in Nanjing.
On the other hand, the Japanese army has been caught in the quagmire of war since the end of the Battle of Songhu, and the desperate resistance of the Chinese army is to tell the Japanese that it is a hundred-day dream to want to destroy China in three months, even if they use their national strength to win the Victory in the Battle of Songhu, it is only the beginning, and the next Battle of Wuhan and changsha, they have to face more elite troops and more rigorous tactical resistance, and this time-consuming, costly, and serious losses they will have to carry out for 8 years.
Just as originally conceived, in the face of the environment and terrain in the southern and central regions, the Japanese could never find their superiority in the Battle of Songhu, and Chinese also proved to these Japanese that our military and civilians were united in their determination and firm belief in driving out the Tartars and restoring China, and that the invaders would eventually be defeated by us.