——At all costs, occupy Cao Baji, which dereliction of duty, military law engaged!
This is a classic clip from the movie "The Battle of Huaihai in Armageddon", which depicts the key battle around Huang Baitao's army, the Battle of Cao Baji.
Cao Baji is the last key to locking huang Baitao's army
Cao Ba ji, also known as Bayi Ji, is located between Xuzhou and Nianzhuang, and the road from Xuzhou to Nianzhuang passes through here, making it an important transportation base. Li Mi's corps, which had previously been stationed in this area, built a large number of fortifications nearby, and left a regiment waiting for Huang Baitao's troops to take over.
On November 8, after crossing the canal, Huang Baitao's corps (under the jurisdiction of the 25th, 44th, 63rd, 64th, and 100th Army) stayed in Nianzhuang for one day. On November 9, Huang Baitao received an order from the commander of Xuzhou to abandon the 63rd Army in Yaowan and move closer to Xuzhou. And if Huang Baitao's corps wants to withdraw from Xuzhou west of Nianzhuang, it must go through Cao Baji.
Huang Baitao also knew the importance of Cao Baji, so he asked the 44th Army to send troops to Cao Baji. Wang Junze, commander of the 44th Army, sent the 449th Regiment of the 150th Division as the vanguard and quickly marched to Cao Baji.
After observing the movements of Huang Baitao's corps, Su Yu noticed that Huang Baitao wanted to slip away. But the big net has been spread, how can we easily let Huang Baitao slip away? Cao Baji is the last gap in this big net, as long as Cao Baji is occupied, Huang Baitao's legion will become the turtle in the urn.
At this time, the 4th, 6th, 8th, and 9th columns pursuing from the rear were preparing to encircle from the east, south, and north, and the 7th and 13th columns in the south were also rapidly interspersing towards Cao Baji, intending to completely blockade the main force of Huang Baitao's corps stationed at Nianzhuang.
For a time, the eyes of both Su Yu and Huang Baitao were focused on the humble town of Cao Baji, and the gains and losses of Cao Baji were also related to the development of the entire war situation.
When the narrow road meets the brave one wins, Su Yu orders that the 7th column and the 13th column do whatever it takes: take cao baji.
The most unfortunate unit was the 44th Division of the 100th Army
The first corps to be annihilated in the Battle of Huaihai, everyone knows that it was Huang Baitao's corps, so I have to ask which one was the first division to be annihilated? Many people may not be able to answer, the answer is The 44th Division of Liu Shenghe of the 100th Army of Huang Baitao's Corps, which was completely annihilated by Cao Baji on November 11.
The 44th Division was the main division of the 100th Army, formerly known as the Honorary Second Division of the Kuomintang Army, and was Chiang Kai-shek's elite concubine unit, with strong combat effectiveness. In 1947, it was incorporated into Li Tianxia's integrated 83rd Division, which is now the 100th Army.
Previously, when Huang Baitao's regiment crossed the canal, let Zhou Zhidao's 100th Army Hall, and the 44th Division was the general rear guard unit that was the last to cross the bridge. Liu Shenghe, commander of the 44th Division, was unhappy with this arrangement, but he could only helplessly lead his troops to the Area of Bajiayang to block Huaye's pursuing troops.
By the evening of the 8th, the main force of the corps had all crossed the river, and Liu Shenghe led his troops to prepare to go to the canal iron bridge. However, at this time, a regiment of the 25th Army thought that the troops had crossed the river and was about to hastily blow up the iron bridge. Zhou Zhidao, commander of the 100th Army, rushed up and scolded:
"Lao Tzu still has a division that has not crossed the river, which one dares to blow up!"
Thanks to Zhou Zhidao preventing the bombing of the bridge, Liu Shenghe quickly led the leading troops of the 44th Division across the river, but the 44th Division and two regiments were delayed. It happened that a truck full of explosives at the head of the bridge had a series of explosions, and the 25th Army unit guarding the bridge mistakenly believed that the People's Liberation Army had come, so they hurriedly pulled the explosive lead and blew the iron bridge off. When the follow-up troops of the 44th Division arrived, they rushed to the same place, and were eventually completely annihilated by the Huaye troops who were chasing them.
At this time, Liu Shenghe, who had crossed the river, was sad and bitter, and his 44th Division was full of nearly 10,000 people before the war. In order to cover the main force, the two main regiments under his command were left on the other side of the river, and only two infantry battalions and the troops directly under the division headquarters were left in his hands, adding up to only three or four thousand people, and what else was fought in this battle, so Liu Shenghe directly told the commander Zhou Zhidao: His 44th Division could not fight, and requested to go to Xuzhou in advance for replenishment.
Zhou Zhidao was also very annoyed that Huang Baitao let him go behind the palace, so he did not even greet Huang Baitao and let the 44th Division go directly. However, when Huang Baitao knew about this matter, he did not pursue it, after all, it was his own 25th Army troops who blew up the bridge, causing the 44th Division to be unable to cross the river, and he knew that he was in a loss, so he also acquiesced.
At this time, the 44th Division was secretly happy, because it could return to the safe Xuzhou base camp in advance, and there was no need to worry about being afraid in the mill. Early in the morning of November 10, the remnants of the 44th Division finished breakfast and walked from Zhao Dun to Cao Baji to the west.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, the 44th Division reached Cao Baji, which was still ninety miles away from Xuzhou, and if there was no accident, it would be able to reach the Xuzhou base camp tomorrow. Here, Liu Shenghe also met the 8th Regiment of the 3rd Division of the 9th Army left behind by Li Mi's corps, and the 449th Regiment of the 150th Division of the 44th Army. Therefore, at this time, Cao Baji gathered three national army forces, and the strength of the army was about three regiments.
It happened that the 8th Regiment of the 9th Army was also going to Xuzhou, so Liu Shenghe and the regimental commander Peng Jianming discussed and set out together, and the two troops also took care of it, so the two nationalist forces advanced along the two sides of the road to Xuzhou.
Less than an hour later, the vanguard of the 44th Division was blocked by Hua Ye. Liu Shenghe also wanted to organize troops to charge, but at this time, the troops were like birds of fright, thinking that Huaye's large army was coming, so they scattered everywhere and fled. The officers and men of the 44th Division, who ran back to Cao Baji, found that the 449th Regiment that remained here had also run away. In fact, at this time, cao baji was only the vanguard of the 7th column and the 13th column, and its main force had not yet arrived.
After the 8th Regiment, which set out with the 44th Division, was blocked, the regimental commander Peng Jianming organized a counterattack and broke through several blocking lines in succession, and by the late night of the same day, it had advanced for more than ten miles. However, while fighting, Peng Jianming found himself surrounded, because the large army of Huaye 7 Column came. So on the night of the same day, the 8th Regiment was completely annihilated, and the regimental commander Peng Jianming was captured.
The remnants of the 44th Division, who had hidden in Cao Baji, listened to the continuous sound of gunfire in the west at night, knowing that it was the 8th Regiment that was engaged in a firefight with Hua Ye, and when the gunfire became weaker and weaker, they understood that the 8th Regiment was no longer able to do so.
Hua Ye's next target was Cao Baji's 44th Division, and Liu Shenghe did not dare to run at this time. Although it was only a few hours away from the main force of Huang Baitao's regiment in Mill Village, the night march was too terrible. He clearly knew how strong the PEOPLE's night combat ability was, and perhaps at this time Hua Ye's troops were lying in ambush outside, waiting for the 44th Division to walk out of Cao Baji.
Commander Zhou Zhidao sent a telegram saying: At dawn tomorrow, friendly troops will definitely come to the rescue, and they must hold out for one night. Therefore, the division commander Liu Shenghe ordered the whole division to stay in Cao Baji and use Cao Baji's existing fortifications to hold on.
The 44th Division was also unlucky enough, first left as a rear troop, attacked by huaye's pursuing column in turn, and when crossing the bridge, the two regiments were abandoned on the other side of the river. Now only one of the remaining regiments wanted to run back to Xuzhou, but they were surrounded by Cao Baji.
Battle of Cao Eight episodes
Liu Shenghe knew that the only thing that could save the 44th Division now was to survive this night. He ordered the only two infantry battalions in his hands to defend the eastern, western, and northern sides of Cao Baji. The divisional headquarters was stationed in the south.
At this time, Liu Shenghe still had more than 3,000 soldiers in his hands, and he thought that there was still hope for holding out for one night, so he was determined to use Cao Baji's strong fortifications to hold on to the end.
Late that night, Huaye's 13th Column launched a fierce attack on Cao Baji, and only the vanguard of the 13th Column, the 114th Regiment of the 38th Division, arrived. Commander Zhou Zhijian ordered the 114th Regiment of the 38th Division to take the lead in launching the offensive, and the follow-up troops immediately followed.
The 1st Battalion of the 114th Regiment took the lead in opening a breakthrough in the north, but the counterattack of the 44th Division was also extremely fierce, so the two sides repeatedly fought around this gap. But eventually at about two o'clock in the morning, the gap was blocked by the 44th Division, and some of the commandos of the 1st Battalion were trapped in enemy positions, and the situation was very critical.
So the 114th Regiment immediately dispatched the main forces of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions to carry out the second round of onslaught, intending to rescue the trapped people. Under the cover of artillery fire, most of the trapped soldiers of the 1st Battalion were rescued. But more than thirty commandos were still trapped in a bunker position within Cao Baji. And because the position was too deep, the receiving troops on the periphery could not break through, and the 114th Regiment was difficult to break through on its own.
In the end, the more than thirty commandos were all killed due to the lack of ammunition.
At dawn on the 11th, the 112th and 115th regiments arrived one after another, so they launched a new round of onslaught, with the 112th and 114th regiments launching a breakthrough from the north, and the 115th regiment detouring to the south to encircle. In the face of Huaye's powerful artillery fire, the Nationalist army in the north was the first to resist, and the position was once again torn open for breakthrough. The positions of the 44th Division immediately disintegrated, and the rout officers and men roamed everywhere. The remnants tried to break through to the southeast, but were completely annihilated by the 113th Regiment that had rushed in.
According to Tan Jiping, director of the Political Work Office of the 44th Division, when the division commander Liu Shenghe saw that the general trend had gone, he shouted: "Brothers, run for your lives!" This is where I am buried. He then raised a gun to commit suicide.
Huang Baitao's corps became the turtle in the urn
After the 44th Division was completely annihilated, Huang Baitao's corps was completely blockaded and killed, and fell into the encirclement of 6 columns in Huaye. At this time, the main force of Huang Baitao's corps in Nianzhuang was only 7 divisions, with a total strength of more than 70,000 people.
The current Huang Baitao Corps is a turtle entering the jar, don't think about coming out.
This was followed by the fierce Battle of Nianzhuang, and the battle of Huaihai was resumed in the next period. Thank you all for reading.