Soviet-style equipment of the 200th Division
In January 1938, the armored corps directly under the Kuomintang Military and Political Department was expanded into the 200th Division, and heavy weapons such as tanks, armored vehicles, anti-aircraft guns, and anti-aircraft guns from the Soviet Union were all transferred to the division, and Du Yuming, commander of the armored corps, succeeded him as the division commander for unified command and training. In November, the division was expanded into the 11th Army, and the following year it was reorganized into the 5th Army, with Du Yuming still as the commander. At that time, it was equipped with more than 80 Soviet-made T-26 tanks, 100 German-made "Haosu" armored vehicles, more than 400 American-made Ford trucks, more than 40 motorcycles, and 24 150-mm howitzers.
The Battle of Kunlun Pass
The 5th Army was a strong force in the U.S. War of Resistance
In the ensuing Battle of Kunlun Pass, the 5th Army inflicted heavy losses on the elite 5th Division of the Japanese invaders, killing the commander of its 21st Brigade, Kimura Zhengxiong. In January 1942, the Japanese invaded Burma in an attempt to cut off the Yunnan-Burma Highway, the last international communication route connecting China to the outside world in the anti-Japanese battlefield. At the request of the British colonial authorities, the 5th Army and other units were organized as reinforcements for the Chinese Expeditionary Force in Burma, but due to the treachery of the British Army, they had no intention of fighting side by side, but instead used the Expeditionary Force as cannon fodder to cover their escape, which eventually led to heavy losses for the Expeditionary Force, and the 5th Army only had more than 2,000 people of the 22nd Division left to withdraw into India.
In the spring of 1945, the Fifth Army was equipped with all American-style equipment in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, and the military headquarters had an armored vehicle company and a 105-mm howitzer battalion directly under it, a 75-mm mountain artillery battalion at the division level, a combat defense artillery company and a heavy mortar company at the regimental level, and a rocket artillery platoon at the battalion level, and each company and platoon reinforced mortars, light and heavy machine guns, and submachine guns. In 1947, the Fifth Army added one tank battalion, one automobile battalion, and one heavy mortar company, and one flamethrower company at the division level, greatly increasing its firepower.
Dress up in American gear
1 division was transferred to form the 70th Army
The army's equipment has been greatly strengthened, and it ranks among the five main forces of the elite of the United States along with Zhang Lingfu's reorganized 74th Division, Hu Lian's 18th Army, Sun Liren's new 1st Army, and Liao Yaoxiang's new 6th Army, but the loss of its troops is far from catching up with the consumption. In the summer of 1947, Liu Bocheng and Deng Xiaoping led 120,000 people of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army to advance into the Dabie Mountains, and annihilated the 70th Division and other units of the Kuomintang Army that were trying to block it in the southwest of Shandong. In January 1948, in order to rebuild the 70th Division, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the transfer of the 96th Division from the 5th Army as the backbone of the new army.
In order to complete the establishment of the three divisions of the 5th Army and to cope with the upcoming Huaihai Campaign, in October 1948, Xuzhou "Suppression General" ordered the provisional 24th Division of Huang Zongyan to be incorporated into the battle sequence of the 5th Army. The division was adapted from the 3rd Division of the 1st Army of the "Peace Salvation Army" of the Wang puppet government during the Anti-Japanese War, and these puppet troops were stationed in the Shangqiu area before the Anti-Japanese War, and were stationed together with the 5th Army at that time, so they were favored by Qiu Qingquan and asked to be transferred to his command.
Qiu Qingquan stills
The puppet army division was quickly annexed
Although the provisional 24th Division was a puppet army, when the Kuomintang army was losing and retreating at that time, Qiu Qingquan really had no other source of troops, so he had to hold the mind that "being able to pull out pus is a good plaster, and no matter how bad it is, it is better than nothing", and pulled the division under his command. However, as soon as the division was transferred in, Qiu Qingquan, who had been promoted to commander of the 2nd Corps, arranged for it to be placed near his corps headquarters, surrounded by subordinate troops. Soon, all the commanders above the battalion level of the division were replaced by people from the 5th Army, and the division commander Huang Zongyan was also secretly demoted to the deputy commander of the 5th Army.
As a result, the provisional 24th Division, which had nearly 10,000 people, was quickly annexed and quickly became the force of Qiu Qingquan and Xiong Xiaosan, the new commander of the 5th Army. The 5th Army was also able to replenish the establishment of three divisions, with a total of about 40,000 men, including the troops directly under the army.
The 5th Army was finally destroyed in the Huaihai Battlefield