Speaking of the famous anti-Japanese generals on the Internet, Sun Liren is another hot figure in addition to Zhang Shuai's brother Lingfu, and the Battle of Ren'an Qiang must be mentioned. Whether Liao Yaoxiang, who is also a Gemini star fighting in Burma, can be listed depends on the mood of others.
Compared with the internet celebrities, Liao Yaoxiang is a bit unremarkable. Although he annihilated many Japanese troops, he never saved the British, so when Sun Liren went to England to receive honors, he could only watch; he was not like Hu Lian, who had won a stone defense battle in eight years, and was also blown into Stalingrad.
Legendary experience
Liao Yaoxiang was a student of the sixth term of Huangpu, and from this point of view, his promotion speed is very special among the generals of the Nationalist Army.
In early January 1940, the Battle of Kunlun Pass ended. Liao Yaoxiang, deputy commander of the new 22nd Division, replaced the wounded division commander Qiu Qingquan in the battle and was promoted to division commander because of his battle merits. Hu Lian was not promoted to commander of the Pre-9 Division until a year later, and Sun Liren was leading the rebuilt Tax Police Corps to train in Guizhou, which had not yet entered the nationalist order, and worried every day that Dai Kasa wanted to annex his troops.
Before the Great Armageddon, when Liao Yaoxiang was the commander of the corps, in addition to Li Tao as a sixth-term classmate, Liu Yuzhang, Xiang Fengwu, Long Tianwu, Zheng Tingji, and Pan Yukun were all Huangpu's fourth and fifth-term brothers. If you count the commanders of the main corps of the Nationalist army at that time, the chief officer of this most powerful mobile corps is unique in terms of junior qualifications. As the commander of the corps, quansu's rank is cavalry colonel, which is also the reason.
After Liao Yaoxiang graduated from Huangpu, he was sent to study at the Army Officer School of Saint Cyr in France, which was different from the nature of Sun Liren's self-funded study abroad. In 1935, Jiang Baili was assigned by the Nationalist government to various countries to assess the study of international students, and he greatly praised Liao Yaoxiang.
After Liao Yaoxiang returned to China, he first went to Gui Yongqing's teaching corps as a major company commander and lieutenant colonel's staff chief, and participated in the defense of Nanjing. Later, when the 200th Division, the country's first mechanized unit, was formed, he Yingqin was elected as the chief of staff of the division. Later, he formed a new 22nd Division with Qiu Qingquan, the former deputy commander of the 200th Division, with Qiu as the division commander and Liao as the deputy division commander, which was subordinate to the Fifth Army.
Liao Yaoxiang was responsible for the reorganization and training of the troops. Not only did he give meticulous guidance to large and small exercises, and his lectures in the classroom were vivid and incisive, but he was also able to explain and demonstrate from regiments, battalions, companies, platoons, squads, and individual soldiers, which won the hearts of the army. During the inspection, the Reading Group of the Central Military Commission said: "The Fifth Army ranks first among the southwestern armies, and the new 22nd Division is the first of the Fifth Army." ”
Liao Yaoxiang participated in the Battle of Kunlun Pass and the First Expedition into Burma within the formation of the Fifth Army.
The full name of the first expeditionary force is the first road of the Chinese expeditionary force, and it seems that there is a follow-up second and third road to this name, but the war was lost, and there was no more below.
After Liao Yaoxiang led the new 22nd Division through the Savage Mountain and retreated to India, only 3,000 people remained. Stilwell did not like peanut rice and fought him over the leadership of the Chinese army in India.
Stilwell and Liao Yaoxiang
At first, Stilwell wanted to replace all the officers above the battalion level of the reconstruction unit with Americans, but not only did the old Chiang oppose it, but also caused public anger. Later, the old Chiang Kai-shek took the initiative to ease the contradictions on the face of US aid, abolished the headquarters of the commander of the first road of the expeditionary force, and established the general headquarters of the army stationed in India, with Stilwell as the commander-in-chief. At the same time, the New First Army was established, under the jurisdiction of the New 22nd Division and the New 38th Division, and the deputy commander-in-chief and commander was Zheng Dongguo, who took office in the spring of 1943.
In this regard, Stilwell held US aid in his hands, and his method was to reduce the establishment and authority of the military department, concentrate great power on the general headquarters, and elevate Zheng Dongguo. As a result, there were only thirty or forty people in the military department, there were no direct subordinate units, and the task was only to manage military style and discipline. In contrast, the size of the troops directly under the General Headquarters is astonishingly large. Counts include:
3 artillery regiments, 1 heavy mortar regiment, 2 engineer regiments, 1 heavy automobile regiment, 1 mule and horse heavy regiment, 7 light tank battalions, 1 anti-aircraft machine gun battalion, 1 independent signal battalion, 1 special agent battalion, 1 independent gendarmerie battalion and 1 foot transport regiment.
In October 1943, the Northern Burmese Counteroffensive Began, and in April 1944, three divisions were airlifted into the battlefield. In May, with the new 22nd Division and the new 38th Division as the backbone, the New Sixth Army with Liao Yaoxiang as the commander and the New First Army with Sun Li as the commander were formed. The New Sixth Army also had the 14th and 50th Divisions under its command.
Outstanding results
Military fans and friends often talk about the new First Army and the New Sixth Army, who is more powerful. Combat effectiveness is not better than the head and equipment, and it cannot fight a battle, but there is no doubt that Liao Yaoxiang's new 22nd Division's achievements in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression are more prominent.
The new 22nd Division was formed in 1938 and became famous at Kunlun Pass. This battle was part of the Battle of Guinan, and it was also a rare highlight of this battle. The opponent was mainly the 21st Brigade of the 5th Division of the Japanese Army, which was a standing division with strong combat effectiveness, and it was also the Pingxing Guandajie of the Eighth Route Army. In the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, two great victories were won by the Kuomintang and Communist forces, which is also very interesting.
During the battle, the new 22nd Division first blocked Japanese reinforcements in the Wutang and Liutang areas, and then strengthened to attack Kunlun Pass and conquer it in one fell swoop.
In addition, a set of data is listed for military fans to think: According to Bai Chongxi's telegram on January 24, Kunlun Guan killed more than 4,000 enemy brigade commander Masao Nakamura and wing commander Miki, and the nationalist casualties were about 14,000. Some military fans love to use the battle loss ratio to discuss victory and defeat, how to evaluate the Kunlun Guan's great victory?
In March 1942, the Expeditionary Force entered Burma for the first time.
First, the Japanese army besieged the 200th Division in Tonggu with the main forces of the 55th and 56th Divisions, but due to the destruction of the British airfield, the division was interrupted and lost air cover. In the case of the enemy being outnumbered and the British army retreating, Stilwell still insisted on attacking the Japanese army, and Du Yuming fell out with him for this reason.
According to Du Yuming's orders, the new 22nd Division attacked the 200th Division to break through, and the Japanese army occupied only one empty city. The new 22nd Division fought more fiercely with Gu than Ren'anqiang to defeat a japanese brigade, but he saved Chinese soldiers rather than the British, so few people mentioned tonggu's siege and only knew about ren'anqiang's victory.
The most beautiful battle fought by the new 22nd Division was the successive resistance battles of the Swag. In order to cover the retreat of the main force of the army, the new 22nd Division was attached to two new regiments, and fought against five companies of the Japanese 55th and 18th Divisions, with their superior artillery fire and air support. From the time the attack was unblocked to the completion of the defensive mission, the duration of the operation lasted for a total of 21 days. The results of the battle listed in the telegram below are the most intense weeks of fighting.
Excerpt from "The Frontal Battlefield of the War of Resistance Against Japan"
It is difficult to retreat from the enemy, and the national army often turns the retreat into a rout. The defense of this campaign was well fought, and Du Yu was still full of praise in his memoirs tomorrow night.
Then, there is no then. The reasons for the failure of the first entry into Burma were manifold: the British army was selfish and arrogant and arrogant, Stilwell acted recklessly regardless of the actual situation, Luo Zhuoying only followed Stilwell's orders, Lin Wei was the microphone, Lao Jiang was as always remotely controlled, and Gan Lichu's Sixth Army was about to collapse at a touch...
A chicken feather, a sigh, really not worth it for those foreign soldiers who buried their bones. I will have time to write this history in the future.
The Second Northern Burmese Counteroffensive, which began in October 1943, was divided into two phases. In the first stage, with the new 38th Division and the new 22nd Division as the main force, it was divided into two ways to attack. The New 22nd Division participated in the first phase of the reconquest of the Hukang Valley, the Menggong Valley and Myitkyina, and the second phase was only half-fought, and in December 1944, due to the Japanese invasion of Dushan in Guizhou, the New Sixth Army, except for the 50th Division, returned to China urgently. In 1945, the army participated in the Battle of Western Hunan Province.
In the first stage, the casualties of each division, the casualties of the Japanese troops, the data are shown in the table below. Compared with the new 38th Division, the number of enemy casualties was comparable, and the casualties of the New 22nd Division were slightly higher. It is believed that military fans and friends will consider more factors such as the combat environment and other factors than only look at the battle loss ratio through the Kunlun Pass victory.
Sun Liren was pro-American, and the new 38th Division got a lot of equipment and good equipment, which was what Zheng Dongguo said. Lao Shi's attitude toward Liao Yaoxiangxin 22 can also be seen in his diary.
On March 4, 1944, the battle report of the Chinese and American armies, Lao Shi wrote:
66 [Regiment] cut off the road south of Mengguan and ambushed the Japanese army. Claims to have killed 100 people, maybe only 25.
……
At 5:45, Frank Merrill entered the Walla Basin. One person died and seven were injured. He said the Japanese lost at least 25 times as much.
Liao Yaoxiang did not have a good relationship with the leader, so he let the leader complain in the diary.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Liao Yaoxiang was awarded the Order of freedom by the United States and the Cross by the United Kingdom in addition to the Order of the Blue Sky and The White Sun Medal.
The combat effectiveness of the troops stationed in India is bursting, and it is not as simple as "American equipment and American training."
If the Indian army is equipped with American weapons and has carried out relevant technical training, logistics including adequate food security, this is no problem. However, it is incorrect to attribute the excellent performance of the indian troops in the counteroffensive in northern Burma entirely to the United States.
What is more convincing is to look at the success of its own troops, which are fully trained by the US military, in the counteroffensive in northern Burma.
The U.S. military has a unit in the theater code-named "Unit Galahad", also known as the "G-shaped regiment", which is equivalent to about 3,000 people in a regiment. The commander was Brigadier General Merrill, so it was also called "Wheat Detachment".
Brigadier General Myrrell and Lieutenant General Stilwell
The Wheat Detachment had nearly 2,000 bush-trained officers and men, 674 veterans who had fought in battles such as Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands, and MacArthur sent 274 veterans, more than 900 of whom had extensive jungle combat experience. The Mai detachment, with all kinds of jungle combat light and heavy weapons and equipment, was well-equipped and well-equipped, and it was trained for more than three months in Mumbai, India.
Liao Yaoxiang on the right, Li Tao on the right, and Liu Jianzhang on the left
The Wheat Detachment joined the battle relatively late. After the new 22nd Division captured Mengguan on 5 March, the Japanese fled to Valuban. The troops stationed in India immediately divided into two routes, with the new 38th Division advancing in a hurry and cutting off the enemy's rear traffic in a roundabout way; the new 22nd Division and the new 38th Division besieging Valuban. On the way to The Walluban, the Mai detachment was attacked by two Squadrons of japanese troops and retreated, "abandoning guns, shells, wireless telephones and other equipment." Throwing away the armor, its shape is quite awkward." Sun Liren sent a battalion of the 113th Regiment of the New 38th Division to break the siege.
At that time, in addition to more than 200 people left in the rear, the Mai detachment had a total of 2750 troops, and the two squadrons of the Japanese army had less than 400 people. There is no one who fights like this. At this time, Liao Yaoxiang's troops captured the headquarters of the 18th Division near Varuban, and the contrast was a bit stark. Liao Yaoxiang blew a little bull while he was happy, and the old Shi diary brought emotions:
The U.S. troops did not play well, and then the commander performed.
Xue Qingyu, director of the Military Medical Department of the New First Army, participated in the whole process of the Second Burmese War with Sun Liren, and he later compared the one attack and one defense commanded by Sun Liren with the raid on Myitkyina commanded by the US army. The Bautner in the table is a different transliteration of the Chief of Staff of the Indian Army, the American Baudnor.
Selected Literature and History Materials of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
The five and a half regiments listed in the table are the Mai Detachment (G-Shaped Regiment), the 42nd Regiment of the 14th Division, the 88th Regiment, the 89th Regiment of the New 30th Division, and the 150th Regiment of the 50th Division, as well as the Artillery Division I and the Kachin Reconnaissance Detachment.
In this campaign, first the commander Merrill misjudged the enemy's situation, the reinforcements were ineffective, and failed to take advantage of the enemy's reaction to win in one fell swoop; after changing to Budeno, he did not listen to the Chinese side and cut off the enemy's rear road, resulting in an increase of 2,000 enemy reinforcements, heavy casualties, slow progress, and was replaced by Lao Shi; after the three Yi commanded, the actual commander was Zheng Dongguo, who personally came to the front.
Brigadier General Berryd
The Mai detachment participated in the whole battle, except for the time when it was beaten by the Japanese army, it was the battle of Myitkyina, and then completely withdrew from the battlefield.
The U.S. military color identification is complete. It can't always be said that the US military only cares about equipping and training the Chinese army, and delays its own troops, right?
To explain again, the army stationed in India and the expeditionary force are proper nouns that cannot be confused in military history. By January 1944, more than two months after the start of the northern Burmese counteroffensive, there were 32,293 Chinese officers and soldiers trained at the Ramga base.
In fact, various sources are very vague about the training of the troops stationed in India. The memories of Stilwell's Diary, Zheng Dongguo and others are unknown. The fourth volume of Zhang Xianwen's History of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression only mentions: "The Chinese army stationed in India has adopted US military equipment and new training methods, greatly enhanced its firepower equipment, communication capabilities, and mechanical performance, and significantly improved the quality and combat skills of officers and men." ”
This ambiguity has also created an impression for many friends: All military training of Chinese officers and soldiers is the responsibility of the US military. However, looking through the recollection materials of middle- and lower-ranking officers and men of the Indian Army, this statement is highly questionable.
Zhu Neng, deputy commander of the 64th Regiment of the New 22nd Division, said this in his recollection:
According to Li Mo'an, a classmate of Gong Delin, Liao Yaoxiang wrote three books during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression: Tactics of Small Troops, Methods of Forest Warfare, and Tactics of Street Markets and Rural Areas. Stilwell brought the books back to the United States and translated them into English by the War Department. This can be corroborated with Zhu Neng's memories.
Objectively speaking, American equipment and technical training, adequate logistical support, and food supply for officers and men have indeed played an important role in enhancing the combat effectiveness of the troops stationed in India.
At the same time, it should also be noted that compared with the domestic troops, the supplementary soldiers of the Indian Army are all strong student soldiers selected by the country. The quality of the soldiers is far superior to that of the illiterate and semi-illiterate Zhuang Ding.
In addition, compared with the lack of sufficient training to go to the battlefield after domestic replenishment, the indian troops have absolutely sufficient training time. The new 38th Division trained in Guizhou for three years before entering Burma for the first time, and trained in India for more than a year before participating in the northern Burmese counteroffensive.
Finally, I would like to emphasize one point: Officers and men of the Indian garrison have a strong desire to "fight back to the motherland, and the firm will to fight is unmatched by the US military detachment participating in the war."
In December 1944, the officers and men of the New 22nd Division flew back to China by plane, accompanied by U.S. liaison officers
The over-mythologization of "American equipment, American training" can be put to rest.
Similarly, the rhetoric based on West Point textbooks, what the U.S. military said, and so on reflects a bad mentality.
The transformation of the Northeast Battlefield from arrogance to jealousy
In February 1946, the New Sixth Army entered the northeast. At this time, the 50th Division under its original command was transferred to the New First Army and supplemented by the 207th Division of the Youth Army. The whole army is equipped with American weapons, a total of 34,000 people.
From the first confrontation between the Democratic Coalition Army in Shaling on February 15 and its retreat to the north of the Songhua River in June, in many encounters with the New Sixth Army, except for the 2,000 people of the 14th Division in the first two anshan defense battles, the New 22nd Division was defeated.
This objectively reflected the gap in our army's combat effectiveness at that time. When talking about the defeats of this period, there are many friends who attribute it to the lack of bases, but that is not the whole problem.
I like Zhang Zhenglong's attitude of being able to tell history comprehensively and profoundly, of course, there are some improper views. Without hardship and hardship, without cutting through thorns, how can the three-year liberation war in northeast China be called magnificent?
After the "Seven-Seven Conference" and the following summer offensive, our army practiced internal skills on the one hand, and on the other hand fought monsters and upgraded. The strength of the troops has been continuously expanded, and the combat effectiveness has been rapidly improved.
In May 1947, according to a telegram from the Eastern General Staff to the Central Military Commission, the strength of our army was:
Headquarters and direct subordinate 22,469 people.
The Artillery Command and its subordinate artillery, anti-aircraft artillery, chariots and other units 7952 people.
The field troops include the first, second, third, fourth, and sixth columns and 11 independent divisions (brigades), plus artillery (excluding the total straight), a total of 207,330 people, 4,633 light machine guns, 1,098 heavy machine guns, 187 mountain, field, and howitzers, more than 600 other types of guns, and 1,498 grenadiers.
The troops of the local military region, including four independent brigades of the Jire-Liao-Liao-Liao Military Region, are incompletely counted as 225253; 2,729 light machine guns and 484 heavy machines; 52 mountain and field guns; and more than 260 other types of guns: 1,518 grenadiers.
There are still many local armies, including county armies and Western Manchurian Mongol cavalry, which are not counted.
During this period, our army and the New Sixth Army fought several more times.
In early October 1946, Chiang Kai-shek's army invaded the Tonghua and Andong areas, and the 3rd column of our army attacked Xifeng County, and the engineer corps of the 207th Division and the 5th Regiment of the division (owed 1 battalion) came to the aid.
During the Xinkailing Campaign, our army annihilated more than 1,500 people in the 14th Division of the New Sixth Army and the 184th Division of the 60th Army in the direction of southern Liaoning.
In the "Three Lower Jiangnan and Four Bao Linjiang", the 3rd Regiment of the 2nd Brigade of the 207th Division (owed a battalion) captured 1370 people below the commander of the regiment; the 2nd Regiment of the 1st Brigade of the 207th Division of the J-207 Division had 1 reinforced battalion.
During the summer offensive, our Southern Manchurian troops annihilated more than 1,500 people of the New 22nd Division in the Nanshan Chengzi area. This victory in the fight against the new 22nd Division shows that the combat effectiveness of the Democratic Coalition Army has been significantly improved compared with a year ago.
In the subsequent battle of three fights and four peaces, Chiang Kai-shek concentrated the main force of 10 divisions to reinforce. Dong Zong decided to take a feint on Siping and dispatched 9 divisions to prepare to annihilate the New 6th Army. Without cutting off its retreat, only 1 regiment of the 14th Division was annihilated, and the New 22nd And 169th Division was destroyed. In order to find another fighter and avoid passivity, Dongzong decided to end the offensive.
Du Yuming ordered Liao Yaoxiang to lead the New Sixth Army to pursue our army, and Liao was worried that he would be refused to carry out the order, so Commander Du only applied to the principal for the Qingtian White Sun Medal for Chen Mingren and the Order of Yunqi for Zhou Fucheng. There was also the scene where Chen Chenghou went to the northeast and in order to win liao Yaoxiang over and reissue him with medals.
Compared with the new Sixth Army when it first arrived in the northeast a year ago, it dared to take the initiative to stand out as a regiment, and liao Yaoxiang's change also reflected the fear of the fighting strength of the Democratic Coalition Army.
After Chen Cheng arrived in the northeast in August, he began to reorganize his army, and Liao Yaoxiang was promoted to commander of the 9th Corps that month, and Chen Cheng did indeed win him over.
The 9th Corps has jurisdiction over the New Third Army and the New Sixth Army. The 14th Division, which originally belonged to the New Sixth Army, was transferred out and formed into the New Third Army with the 54th Division of the former 13th Army and the Provisional 59th Division; the 207th Division was changed to a direct subordinate to the Northeast "Suppression General"; the New 22nd Division, a backbone unit of the New Sixth Army, was added to the 169th Division formed by the local security forces, and Li Tao succeeded him as commander.
The formation of this small corps was roughly equivalent to that of Commander Qiu and Commander Hu, who later held the position of commander of the reorganized army, but the huangpu sixth-term students came to the front.
After that, the New Sixth Army carried out mobile tasks in the Shenyang area for a long time, and did not fight with our army in the two major offensives in autumn and winter.
Grand finale
In the last article about the New First Army, we talked about a turning point in the Liaoshen Campaign, that is, after the liberation of Jinzhou, the attack on Jinhu was changed to the Battle of Western Liaoning.
There was once a popular passage on the Internet: 101 chiefs determined the location of the enemy's headquarters according to the proportion of long and short guns captured in the battle, and mobilized troops to annihilate them. Some self-media authors moved it to the Battle of Liaoxi to illustrate the accuracy of the 101 calculation.
It's a bit of a joke. Planning and commanding the battles of large armies is far from being comparable to the battles of a single method of warfare, and is the ceiling of the art of war. Such large-scale battles were few and far between during the Liberation War, and there were very few people who could control them.
"The road of famous generals is a difficult road, and those who are not wise, courageous, and prosperous cannot do it." ——Mr. Mingyue on the famous general of that year, careful tasting.
The author often uses Go as a metaphor for war, but the game is far more complicated than chess. We often see some generals of the National Army who perform well in the local areas, and always make some fatal mistakes at critical moments. For example, when Du Yuming retreated into Burma for the first time, he did not dare to make up his mind to break through the Japanese blockade, nor did he dare to retreat to India in violation of the principal's intentions, but chose to cross the Savage Mountain; Huang Baitao forgot to build a bridge; Zhang Shuaige was annihilated in three days... Now it was Liao Yaoxiang's turn.
It cannot be said that Liao Yaoxiang was uncertain, the battle had been fought for more than a month, and the top level of Chiang Kai-shek's army had not yet unified the policy of the campaign: the old Chiang's counterattack on Jinzhou was a futile gamble, Wei Lihuang's retreat to Shenyang was a slow suicide, Du Yuming's retreat to Jinhu was doomed to be flanked, and Liao Yaoxiang advocated that retreating to Yingkou was the only vitality, but it was contrary to the high-level.
In a moment of hesitation, the vitality is lost.
During the panicked retreat, Chief of Staff Yang Kun forgot to report to Liao Yaoxiang on the important military intelligence of the main column of the People's Liberation Army, resulting in the regimental headquarters being raided and destroyed; in the panic, Liao Yaoxiang reported in Mingyu that the deployment position of the troops was clearly known to the 101 commanders.
If you use the metaphor of Go again, it is like suddenly encountering a new move in fast chess, whether you can make an appropriate response is the most test of the commander's skills.
It cannot be said that the military quality of the senior generals of the Jiang Army is not good, but the eldest brother of the system they are in, Principal Jiang, has never given them the opportunity to exercise and upgrade. From this point of view, it is a blessing for the people.
In the great victory in western Liaoning, more than 100,000 people from 5 armies and 12 divisions under the jurisdiction of the Westward Advancing Corps were completely annihilated. Liao Yaoxiang, together with Li Tao, commander of the New Sixth Army, Xiang Fengwu, commander of the 71st Army, Zheng Tingji, commander of the 49th Army, and Wen Xiaoshan, deputy commander of the New First Army, were captured.
After Liao Yaoxiang was captured, he worked as a teacher at the Nanjing Military Academy for a time and then went to Beijing in January 1956 to study in Xuanwai Gongdelin. In 1961, he was pardoned and served as a commissioner of culture and history and a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
On December 2, 1968, Liao Yaoxiang died of a heart attack in Beijing. In 1980, the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference mourned, and the ashes were placed in Beijing's Babaoshan Mountain.