On November 7, 1939, after the Japanese army was ambushed by our army, Japanese Lieutenant General Norihide Abe personally led the elite brigade of the Japanese Army to Laiyuan, Hebei Province, intending to continue the sweeping plan and retaliate against our army.
Along the way, the Japanese army led by Abe Norihide burned many villages and plundered many supplies, but they were never able to fight our army head-on, and finally entered the ambush circle step by step, and were forced to be killed by shelling.
1. The Japanese army and our army fought at Loess Ridge
The Second Brigade led by Norihide Abe was withdrawn by our army while fighting, and the Japanese army was introduced into the Loess Ridge area. Subsequently, several guerrilla units of our army marched in different directions, intending to fight an ambush and completely eliminate this Japanese army that had penetrated deep into the hinterland.
The Japanese army could not find any trace of our army, so it had to set up a command headquarters in a village in loess ridge, intending to investigate while fighting. This temporary japanese headquarters set up on the front line gathered many Japanese commanders. Norihide Abe, who led the Japanese army in the sweeping up, was also among them.
Because the Japanese army had fallen into the ambush circle of our army, a regiment that arrived at the ambush site next to the Japanese headquarters found the headquarters in the village.
The political commissar of a regiment used a telescope to observe that there were many Japanese officers in the courtyard, observing the surrounding terrain, and the Japanese soldiers were also on close guard around, and the political commissar and the regimental commander successively observed the headquarters of the Japanese army, and concluded that this was the front-line headquarters of the Japanese army, as long as the headquarters could be destroyed, the Japanese army would be in chaos, and when the time came to take advantage of the situation, it would easily win the victory, so the plan to bomb the Japanese headquarters was formed.
Second, the shell 800 meters away hit accurately, and Abe Norihide was seriously injured and killed
After the two made a judgment, they immediately dispatched the mortar company, took a mortar up the hill, the company commander of the mortar company, after going up the hill, visually measured the distance from the top of the hill to the headquarters, although the distance of 800 meters was within range, but it was not an easy task to hit accurately. Company commander Yang Jiuping also transferred Li Erxi, the main gunner in the company.
As the main attacker of the mortar company, Li Erxi quickly measured the distance, set the direction, and only waited for the company commander to give an order to see the difference, it can be said that this is a plan that only allows success and does not fail. With the order of the company commander, Li Erxi loaded two mortar shells in a row, and the four shells landed impartially on the Headquarters of the Japanese Army.
For a while, the Japanese troops in the courtyard were in chaos, and the remaining two shells were also shot out in the panic of the Japanese army. Although the commander of the operation, Norihide Abe, was not killed on the spot, he was also seriously injured and died only three hours later, a generation of "famous generals" who did not understand how they lost their lives in the end.
At that time, our army did not know about it, and it was not until thirteen days later that it learned that this beheading operation killed a senior Japanese officer. And this is also the first time that our army has killed the highest-ranking Japanese officer.
The success of this decapitation greatly dealt a blow to the arrogance of the Japanese army, but also improved the morale of our army, coupled with its dramatic nature, which was often mentioned afterwards.
Third, can Norihide Abe really be called a famous general?
The beheading was quite dramatic, and it was also hyped up afterwards, and Japan spared no effort to praise the commander of the Japanese army. If you look at Abe's resume, he is still far from meeting the standards of a famous player.
In 1907, Abe graduated from the military academy and joined the army, and it was not until 1933 that he served as the army's chief sō. Before that, most of his positions were aide-de-camps, staff officers, these positions for a "famous general", for a "famous general", before entering the customs in 1938, Abe Norihide basically had no bright record.
At that time, Japanese newspapers vigorously praised Abe Norihide, which was actually a common means used by them. At that time, in order to boost the morale of the troops, all the generals who died on the battlefield, regardless of their ability, were praised and praised.
Moreover, judging from the Japanese army's sweeping plan, after Abe Norihide was killed, the pace of the Japanese army's sweeping was not affected, and our army was finally forced to withdraw from the Loess Ridge. Therefore, Norihide Abe is a "flower of famous generals", which may only be a fake in the Japanese media.
However, although Norihide Abe was not a famous general, under the hype of Japan, the news of his death in battle became a well-known event. Moreover, the Japanese media may not have taken into account that although the portrayal of Abe Norihide as a high-ranking general can boost the morale of the Japanese army, it has also greatly enhanced the confidence of our army.
Li Erxi, the gunner who killed Abe Norihide, was later awarded the title of "Sharpshooter" At the critical moment of the War of Resistance, he was able to kill the senior generals of the Japanese army and complete the decapitation operation, which further strengthened our army's policy of resisting the Japanese army and fighting guerrilla warfare. Therefore, the victory of this decapitation operation is still of great significance.