When we talk about the elite Kuomintang troops, we cannot but say that the "Officers' Teaching Corps" is a new type of unit established by Chiang Kai-shek with the help of the Germans.
Our impression of the Kuomintang "German weapon" troops basically comes from film and television dramas, they wear German helmets, and the uniform style is also different from other Kuomintang troops.
However, the existence of the "Teaching Corps" of the Kuomintang Army was abolished soon after, and what was the reason why its "glory" was so short-lived, and what kind of background and story did its emergence and rapid demise have?
It's a long story. In April 1927, Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Jingwei broke up, and the Kuomintang had two "National Governments" - the National Government in Nanjing and the National Government in Wuhan.
Subsequently, Chiang Kai-shek, who regarded the Whampoa Military Academy as a life, established a separate "Central Army Officer School" in Nanjing, which was historically known as the Whampoa Military Academy "Nanjing Main School".
At this time, chiang no longer befriended the Soviet Union, but instead contacted and hired German military advisers, and began to promote the German military system, training methods, and weapons and equipment at the Central Military Academy.
The Officers' Training Corps is a teaching unit set up by the Central Military Academy to play an exemplary role for the Kuomintang troops; it can be said that the Officers' Training Corps is the "seed" of the Kuomintang's German ordnance units and an important part of the elite German ordnance units.
In 1930, the "Second Teaching Division" formed with the graduates of the Central Military Academy as the backbone came out of nowhere, "a small test of the bull knife", and the first battle was a big hit in the Central Plains War.
Soon, the "Second Teaching Division" made meritorious achievements and actually defeated Ji Hongchang, the number one tiger general in Feng Yuxiang's Northwest Army, whose combat quality surprised Old Jiang and praised him.
Therefore, Lao Jiang decided to amplify the superiority effect of the "Second Division of Teaching" and set up the "Central Military Academy Officers' Teaching Corps" with some of its troops as the backbone, looking forward to training a number of officers of the Central Army and preparing to form more "German weapons" units.
By 1936, the officer training corps had been expanded into a B-type division, and Gui Yongqing of the "Foreign Faction" had also appointed a large number of backbone officers with "foreign backgrounds".
Because of its "full of foreign flavor," its good food, good clothes, and good equipment, in the eyes of other Kuomintang troops, this unit is both mysterious and "full of pride," and the miscellaneous army is even more "envious, jealous, and hateful."
During the Battle of Songhu, the officers' teaching corps was again expanded into a fully equipped armor division, and the commander was still Lieutenant General Gui Yongqing, and later the famous "Qiu Tiger" Qiu Qingquan served as chief of staff.
Three regiments of the Officers' Instruction Corps were thrown into the Shanghai battlefield, and as soon as they took over part of the defense area of Hu Zongnan's First Army, they fought a bloody battle with the Japanese Kou on the line of the Suzhou River Bazi Bridge, killing many enemies, and their combat strength surprised the Japanese Kou greatly.
However, in the First World War in Shanghai, the Teaching Corps, like other Nationalist troops, suffered heavy casualties in the three regiments involved in the battle.
Old Jiang was heartbroken, and he really did not want the "seed" of this elite unit to be submerged in the sea of blood, so he personally ordered the remnants of the three regiments of the Teaching Corps to quickly withdraw to Hunan for replenishment.
At this time, an unexpected change changed the fate of the Officers' Teaching Corps, which not only lost its soldiers and suffered heavy injuries as a result of the change, but finally almost completely destroyed the army until it was revoked.
When retreating from Shanghai, the officers' instruction corps was originally ordered to withdraw to Hunan and carry out rectification training together with 3 other supplementary regiments, but after the troops retreated to Nanjing, the order changed.
This mutation involved a person, who was General Tang Shengzhi, who was then the commander of the Nanjing garrison.
Whether Nanjing is "kept" or "abandoned" has not been unanimously expressed at the top level of the Kuomintang, and at the seminar, the participants "said that the public is justified, and the mother-in-law is justified."
He Yingqin, Bai Chongxi, Xu Yongchang, and others suggested "abandoning" for very good reasons: Since it had been decided that a protracted war of resistance would be made, there would be no need to fight a war of attrition with the Japanese in Nanjing; the Battle of Songhu had already proved the japanese army's combat strength, and Nanjing would certainly not be able to hold on, and it was advisable to retreat immediately after making symbolic resistance in Nanjing.
Tang Shengzhi believed that the abandonment of Nanjing was a matter of great importance, and that Nanjing was both the "capital" of the Nationalist government and the burial place of the "Father of the Nation" Mr. Sun Yat-sen, and that abandoning Nanjing would not be able to account to the people and the international community.
Tang Sheng intellectually defended Nanjing and voluntarily "coexisted and died with Nanjing!" ”
Chiang Kai-shek sided with the main "guard" faction and decided to stick to Nanjing.
During the meeting, Chiang Kai-shek asked Tang Shengzhi after his death: "Brother Meng Xiao, it seems that only you and I are advocating defending Nanjing.
Tang Shengzhi had no way to retreat, and simply said: "I will stay, or that sentence, the oath of office and Nanjing to coexist and die!" ”
After Tang Shengzhi became the commander of the Nanjing garrison, he immediately began to deploy the defensive city, and due to the weak strength of the troops, Chiang Kai-shek also successively sent additional troops to Nanjing.
When Tang Shengzhi learned that the Officers' Instruction Corps of the Central Military Academy was about to withdraw from Nanjing, he immediately found He Yingqin and requested that this strong brigade be left in Nanjing and join the sequence of defending troops.
He Yingqin rejected Tang Shengzhi's request, was Old Jiang's order so easy to change? What's more, He Yingqin knew very well why Old Jiang had withdrawn from the Teaching Corps at this time, so his tone was non-negotiable.
Tang Shengzhi immediately lost his temper: "Raise soldiers for a thousand days, use soldiers for a while, don't use them at this time, and when will you stay?" ”
He Yingqin saw that Tang Shengzhi did not spare him, and could only kick the "ball" to Lao Jiang.
Old Jiang did not say anything at first, but he could not stand Tang Shengzhi's stalking and beating, and his words were reasonable, and finally he was relieved.
Therefore, with one order, the officers' teaching corps remained in Nanjing, and its fate was linked to the city of Nanjing.
The task of the officers' instruction corps was to defend the Zhongshan Gate and the Taiping Gate from Xiaolingwei to the northern foothills of the Purple Mountain, and there were key defensive points such as the West Mountain, the Sun Yat-sen Cemetery, the Linggu Temple, and the Purple Mountain in the defense area.
From the night of December 7, when the cavalry regiment of the Teaching Corps was suddenly attacked by the Japanese army, to the 12th, the Japanese army launched a general offensive on all fronts, and fierce battles were everywhere in the south and east of the city.
The officers and men of the regiments and battalions of the Teaching Corps repeatedly charged and killed with the Japanese Kou, and the number of people fought less and less, but the fighting spirit was still high, and none of them retreated, especially the 5 regiments that were guarding the Purple Mountain, until the general retreat of Nanjing, they had been sticking to the peak position and not giving in.
At about 10:00 p.m. on the 12th, the zhonghua gate and the direction of the lower pass suddenly burst into flames, and the communication between the commander's command headquarters and the subordinate units of the officers' instruction corps was interrupted at the same time, and each unit could only send signal troops to communicate with the headquarters.
The signal soldiers risked their lives with the order of The Commander-in-Chief Gui Yongqing: Each regiment took control of its own troops, immediately assembled at Xiaguan and the Three Forks River, and except for light weapons, all heavy equipment was thrown away and destroyed.
It turned out that the defense of Nanjing was over, and Tang Shengzhi issued a general retreat order.
Gui Yongqing, commander of the Teaching Corps, said to Qiu Qingquan, chief of staff: "Pack up and hurry up." ”
Qiu Qingquan insisted on staying behind to coordinate the troops, so as to avoid confusion in the retreat.
However, at this time, the city of Nanjing was already in disarray, and a large number of Kuomintang troops who had received the order to retreat rushed to the river in search of boats to cross the river, while the gendarmerie troops who had not received the retreat order were still performing their duties to prevent the troops from withdrawing from the battlefield.
After the defeat of Songhu, the Kuomintang army had not yet fully emerged from the shadow of the chaotic retreat, and the tragedy was repeating here in Nanjing, and the degree of chaos was definitely no less than that of the Shanghai retreat.
Qiu Qingquan, chief of staff of the Officers' Instruction Corps, and Lieutenant Colonel Liao Yaoxiang, were unable to run out of Nanjing City; they took off their military uniforms, changed into the clothes of ordinary people, mixed with the common people, pretended to be refugees, and escaped from Nanjing City after going through all kinds of hardships.
There were about 5,000 officers and men of the Officers' Training Corps who broke through from Nanjing, and they went to Hubei and incorporated the reconstructed 46th Division, and the 3 new corps that the Teaching Corps stayed in Hunan for training supplemented other units.
The Kuomintang "Officers' Teaching Corps" was thus "short-lived," and when it opened, it was stunned by four seats, and when it withered away, it was eclipsed.
At that time, in addition to the "Officers' Training Corps," several regular Kuomintang units, such as Song Xilian's 36th Division, Wang Jingjiu's 87th Division, and Sun Yuanliang's 88th Division, which could meet German standards, as well as Song Ziwen's Tax Police Corps. These troops can be called the main force of the national army at that time.
As the main force of the Nationalist army, the German Mechanic Division participated in the entire Battle of Songhu, and from October 5 to 9, 1937 alone, in 5 days, the German Mechanic Division lost more than half.
After the fall of Shanghai, all the German mechanic divisions retreated to Nanjing to rest, and then participated in the defense of Nanjing, the battle was extremely fierce, the losses were extremely heavy, and "there was no German mechanic division after that."
The end of the Kuomintang"," the "Officers' Training Corps," was even more dismal, it was revoked, and because its duration was so short, later historical records are rarely recorded.
Nevertheless, the "Officers' Teaching Corps" is, after all, a fresh force that was once active in the anti-Japanese battlefield and should not be forgotten.