These days, "Eight Hundred" is relatively hot, telling the story of the retreat of the Nationalist army, with a battalion to hold the Sihang warehouse. Prior to this, the Battle of Songhu was defeated, and the key turning point was that on November 5, more than 100,000 Japanese troops landed in Hangzhou Bay and advanced towards Jiaxing and Pingwang. Attempted to join the Japanese army on the left and cut off the nationalist retreat. Facing the danger of being surrounded and completely annihilated, the Nationalist army had no choice but to order the withdrawal from downtown Shanghai to preserve its living forces.
When the Japanese army landed, only an infantry battalion and an artillery company of the Nationalist army were stationed here, and Hangzhou Bay was so important to the Battle of Songhu, why didn't the Nationalist army send heavy troops to defend here?
In fact, the Nationalist army paid attention to this at the beginning. With Zhang Fakui as the commander-in-chief of the Right Wing Army, he was responsible for the defense of Pudong and Hangzhou Bay. After field investigation, Zhang Fakui deployed three divisions on the coastline of about 90 kilometers of Hangzhou Bay. He recalled:
At that time, I had an intuitive inspiration and historical memory, that is, Qi Jiguang was in the era of Fujian and Zhejiang, and Japan had landed in Jinshan and disturbed Zhejiang, if the enemy used history as a basis, this history may be repeated... The coast has a water depth of more than forty feet, which is also conducive to landing sports beaches and can be used as a beachhead position.
"They even sent fishing boats to actively search for Japanese warships in the sea."
Japanese troops landed in Hangzhou Bay
However, in the early days of the Battle of Songhu, the main battlefield was on the left wing, and the right wing was basically silent for nearly 3 months. The Japanese occupied air superiority, and artillery fire also had an absolute advantage. The general method of play is to first bomb our army's positions with aircraft, then attack the rear of the positions, and then use heavy artillery to further destroy our army fortifications. Subsequently, tanks and infantry were used to attack our army's positions, and after opening the breakthrough, they swept the two flanks with infantry. The dense water network in the Shanghai area is not conducive to the construction of fortifications, and once it is repaired, it is often unable to withstand the bombardment of a round of artillery fire of the Japanese army, and can only resist with flesh and blood, with heavy casualties.
From Wusongkou, Luodian, Dachang, and Razaba, in every battle, the Chinese army did not give way to any land and heroically resisted, which shattered the disillusionment of the Japanese army of "destroying China in three months". However, the Chinese army has been fighting each other for many years, lacking modern warfare experience and not understanding the artillery fire of the Japanese army. Local forces, in particular, often charge in dense formations, were more severely damaged.
At that time, a well-trained central army could only resist for three days before being crushed by the Japanese army, while a division of the local army could only resist for one day.
Often a whole division goes up, and after coming down, there are only a few hundred people left.
It is precisely for this reason that China has mobilized all the troops that can be mobilized, and still feels that the troops are tight. When the Japanese army captured Dachang, China had already transferred the main troops in the reserve army, even the garrison area on the south bank of the Yangtze River and the garrison area on the north bank of Hangzhou Bay to prepare for the Japanese landing. At this time, only one division remained of the troops stationed in Hangzhou Bay.
On 30 October, there was a major personnel change on the front line. Zhu Shaoliang, commander-in-chief of the Central Army, was transferred to the post of chairman of Gansu Province, and Zhang Fakui was in charge of the headquarters and defense areas. After the Japanese army captured Dachang, the Pudong front in Zhang Fakui's defense area was also in a hurry, and there were no troops to adjust at this time.
On November 3, Zhang Fakui could only transfer the main force of the 62nd Division defending Hangzhou Bay into Pudong, leaving only an infantry battalion and an artillery company at Jinshan.
The Japanese side has long been eyeing the landing site of Hangzhou Bay and has sent spies to closely investigate the area. Due to the numbness of the Chinese people at that time, the government did not report the spy's reconnaissance activities to the government, and even provided them with services such as guidance under the temptation of money. Soon the Japanese spies came up with a detailed report:
"Jinshanwei has a vast sea surface and open terrain, which is very convenient for the distribution and movement of large troops" "Soldiers need to row about 20 minutes of small boats to get ashore, and there are large beaches and mud swamps on the shore that can sink knees" But he still thinks that this place is very suitable for landing" Fortunately, the Chinese army did not deploy here, and Jinshanwei was like an open mind. ”
On October 9, the Japanese General Staff Headquarters decided to form the 10th Army with the 18th Division, the 6th Division, the Kunisaki Detachment, and the 114th Division, with a total of more than 100,000 people, landing on the north bank of Hangzhou Bay. On October 20, the order was officially issued to reinforce the Shanghai operation. On November 2, the Japanese 10th Army, escorted by the 4th Fleet, assembled off the coast of Jeju Island, North Korea. On November 4, the day after Zhang Fakui transferred the main force of the 62nd Division, more than 100 Japanese ships entered Hangzhou Bay.
At dawn on November 5, when the sea was foggy and the tide was high, the Japanese army landed from Jinshanwei in two ways, and the Nationalist troops stationed here were defeated by the Japanese after four hours of fighting.
After the Japanese landed in Hangzhou Bay, Chiang Kai-shek called and asked Chen Cheng what to do. Chen Cheng replied that he should quickly retreat to the defense line around Wujin. Chiang Kai-shek agreed to retreat after half an hour, but immediately remembered that the Nine-Nation Pact was meeting and demanded another 3 days. Chen Cheng recalled this time
"The order of the troops has been chaotic, and orders cannot be issued."
Three days later, the Japanese conquered Matsue, and the Nationalists hurriedly issued a retreat order, but it was too late. The front-line troops were completely out of control, communications could not be communicated, and many troops who had not received the order to withdraw, seeing other troops retreating, also followed the retreat. And the evacuation orders were not prioritized, with hundreds of thousands of people scrambling to crowd several roads. There were Japanese bombing in the air, and there were Japanese pursuits behind them.
What could have been an alternate cover for an orderly retreat turned into a major rout.
Later, Chiang Kai-shek lamented in his diary:
After retreating from Dachang to the south bank of the Suzhou River, with Zhang Fakui as the commander, the Area of Jinshanwei and Zhapu was in charge of no one, did not pay attention to the importance of the flanks, only paid attention to the shortage of troops in Pudong, and transferred most of Jinshan and Zhapu to defend Pudong, so that the enemy army could take advantage of the void and enter, and the biggest failure of this remaining strategy was also the greatest failure. ”
But the chairman did not learn the lesson, and with his repetition and arbitrariness, such lamentations grew in the days to come.