During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, especially in the early period, because Japanese soldiers were deeply poisoned by their so-called "Bushido" spirit, they regarded being captured as a great shame, and often died with the enemy or launched a suicidal charge to seek death when the war was unfavorable. This made it very difficult to capture the Japanese army, and in many cases the commanders and fighters were more inclined to kill the Japanese army, even if sometimes our army captured the wounded of the Japanese army, but because of its non-cooperation, they always wanted to die with the soldiers of our army who were treated, so there were not a few soldiers executed by our army. In order to encourage the troops to capture more Japanese prisoners, the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army once issued an order to reward the troops for meritorious service as long as they could capture the Japanese troops who were alive.
▲The Japanese army held a ceremony in front of the Yasukuni Shrine to strengthen the spirit of "Bushido"
However, when some troops carried out this order, they were too mechanical and rigid, and even became an extreme situation in order to capture prisoners and take the lives of commanders and fighters to earn honor. During the "Hundred Regiments War," this strange thing happened in my Shandong base area.
In September 1940, after completing the tasks of the first phase of the "Hundred Regiments War", the Lubei detachment of the Eighth Route Army continued to cooperate with the main forces, and the other was led by the commander to rest in the area of Huiwangzhuang, Lingcheng, Dezhou, and the troops of the detachment were stationed in several villages near Huiwangzhuang.
▲Oil painting of the Hundred Regiments War
In the early morning of 12 September, after receiving information that our troops were resting nearby, the Japanese puppet army stationed at the border town stronghold immediately organized a total of more than 150 people from 1 small detachment of the Japanese army and 1 squadron of the puppet army to go out to sweep up. The Japanese puppet army marched all the way to Huiwangzhuang, and because the enemy bypassed the sentry set up by our army on the main road, our army did not detect the enemy's movements in time. It was not until the enemy's forward approached the village that it was discovered by the sentry of our army stationed outside the village, and the sentry of our army asked for the password of the other side, but the other side did not answer, but immediately lay down and launched a battle formation, the sentry immediately fired a gun to the alarm, but then was knocked down by the Japanese army.
▲The Japanese army is in line
After hearing the sound of gunfire, the troops camped in the village immediately rushed out, and the detachment cadres began to organize the troops to return fire. The 5th Company first rushed out of the village, cut off the formation of the Japanese puppet army, and opened fire on the Japanese fiercely. The 8th Company also came from the west and launched an attack on the puppet army. After discovering that it was the main force of our Eighth Route Army, the puppet army immediately lost its fighting spirit and fled back to the stronghold after leaving the Japanese army behind.
After the puppet army escaped, the Japanese troops of this squad were immediately caught in the disadvantageous situation of being attacked by our army. The 8th Company and the 10th Company of the 3rd Battalion of the nearby village also rushed to reinforcements, and after fierce fighting, our army had compressed the Japanese army into a small river bend at the east end of the village. At about 10:00 a.m., the Japanese began to counterattack, capturing a small temple north of the river bay and using it as a basis for resistance.
▲The machine gun positions of our army
The 5th Company braved the fierce fire of the Japanese army to launch an attack, burst into the temple to engage in a white-knife battle with the Japanese army, and after some fighting, occupied the small temple, which was the 8th company after driving the puppet army out of the battlefield and rushed to participate in the battle. At this time, our army had 4 companies of troops against the Japanese army and 1 squad, which had an absolute advantage in both strength and firepower, and could have ended the battle quickly and completely annihilated the Japanese army.
But just as victory was about to be won, the commander of the detachment suddenly ordered the troops to seize the Japanese machine guns and capture the Japanese at all costs. As a result, the attacks of various units of our army began to be afraid of their hands and feet, and several companies had to temporarily stop attacking and confront the Japanese army in an attempt to rush up and catch the japanese after running out of Japanese ammunition.
Our army uses mortars to bombard the enemy
After winning a respite, the Japanese reorganized their firepower and resisted. Instead, with fierce fire, the 5th Company was blocked in the small temple, and watching the casualties of the 5th Company gradually increase under the fire of the Japanese machine guns and grenadiers, fortunately the 8th Company pulled the courtyard wall open, covered the 5th Company to protrude the small temple, and launched a hand-to-hand combat with the Japanese army.
The Japanese army raised its hand and surrendered to our army, which only happened at the end of the war
In hand-to-hand combat, the japanese squad leader Kono was killed by our army, but because our army's attack was too muddy and watery, it did not dare to kill the Japanese army, resulting in a lot of casualties in the troops, and it was not until the evening that the battle ended, annihilating most of the Japanese squad, killing 18 Japanese soldiers, and capturing 1 machine gun shooter, killing and wounding more than 70 puppet soldiers, but our army paid a heavy price, almost all of the 5 companies were wiped out, and only more than 10 people were left.