At the beginning of 1940, when the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression entered the stage of stalemate, at the military commissar of the Nationalist Army, the military bigwigs represented by Chen Cheng suddenly announced a decision: In order to better support the operations of various theaters and to facilitate the mobilization of the Central Military Commission and the need to establish strategic reserves, it was decided to select four army-level units nationwide as the forces directly under the Central Military Commission.
And this is the famous "Four Attack Armies of the Anti-Japanese War", for the ace troops of the national army, once they are included in the attack army sequence, whether it is in personnel, training or equipment, they will be given priority allocation, it can be said that leading the four major attack armies has always been the dream of every national army general.
Therefore, Lao Jiang and others are cautious in the selection of which troops can be selected for the four major attack armies, there are only 4 cakes in total, and there are dozens of mouths (armies) below, and it is not good for anyone to be selected.
Therefore, in terms of selection criteria, military exploits, qualifications and even factions must be taken into account.
The four major attacking armies of the National Army during the Anti-Japanese War
And Hu Zongnan's 1st Army, which bore the brunt of the attack, should also be counted as one, after all, the 1st Army, which undertook the dual tasks of friction with our army and guarding the Yellow River defense line at that time, and according to the region, as the only trump card unit of the national army in Jiangbei, and in terms of old qualifications, it must occupy a place.
Similarly, Du Yuming's 5th Army, not to mention, has been the pride of the national army since its establishment, the only mechanized army in the whole army, and in the Battle of Kunlun Pass, it directly defeated the 21st Brigade of the 5th Division, the most elite of the Japanese army, as well as Soviet equipment.
Both the quality of personnel and equipment are a trump card in the hands of the high command, and the selection of the 5th Army is well deserved.
The 5th Army, the ace of the Communist Army
Unlike the 5th Army, which was a demonstration army of the whole army, the 74th Army was fought out, from the very beginning of the Battle of Songhu, to the Battle of Lanfeng, and the Battle of Wuhan Wanjialing. After entering the stalemate stage, it belonged to the Ninth Theater and successively performed well in the battles of Changsha and Shanggao. It can be said that in the three years from 1938 to 1941, every hard battle between the 9th Theater and the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, there was an actual presence of the 74th Army.
Therefore, in terms of qualifications and achievements, the 1st, 5th and 74th armies deserved to be selected as an attacking army.
But to the surprise of many people, the 8th, 13th, 18th, 25th, 54th, 71st, and other armies from the central department did not catch the last train, but the little-known 2nd Army was selected.
Why?
Is the 2nd Army of the National Army really that weak brigade that is vulnerable?
The elite 74th Army of the National Army
A strong force in the war of resistance
Although it is known as the 2nd and one of the Central Army of the National Army, the background of the 2nd Army is not very good.
The earliest 2nd Army can be traced back to the end of the Central Plains War, and was formed based on the 9th Division of General Jiang Dingwen, one of the 8 King Kongs of Lao Chiang. However, although it has the blood of the Central Army and Jiang Dingwen vigorously builds it, the composition of the 2nd Army in the early stage was not stable (it continued until the later stage of the Anti-Japanese War), and many troops were in and out.
For example, at the beginning, the 8th, 9th and 13th Divisions were under its jurisdiction, but when it came to the encirclement and suppression of the Red Army and the Fujian Incident, it was under the jurisdiction of the 3rd, 9th and 80th Divisions, and after the Battle of Wuhan, it was under the jurisdiction of the 9th and 57th Divisions, and later supplemented with the 103rd Division, and after the Battle of Kunlun Pass, it was reorganized into the 9th, 76th and 103rd Divisions, and then the 103rd Division was transferred to the new 33rd Division.
After the end of the Anti-Japanese War, the 33rd Division was traded to honor the 2nd Division, and many times it was only under the jurisdiction of a 9th Division and a descendant.
2nd Army at the end of the Liberation War
However, despite the frequent changes in the establishment of the 2nd Army, they are not inferior in fighting.
During the period of the Agrarian Revolution, the 9th Division led by Li Yannian has always been a fierce enemy of our Central Soviet Region.
The 9th Division of the 2nd Army of the Anti-Japanese War first joined the Songhu battlefield, at this time Li Yannian replaced the old commander Jiang Dingwen as the army commander, subordinate to Chen Cheng's 15th Group Army, they fought together with other Central Army troops in northern Shanghai, in the process of covering the retreat of friendly troops, the 9th Division as a reserve, under the leadership of the army commander Li Yannian, and the Japanese army fought a bloody battle in Anting, successfully completed the task of the palace, and received the reward of Lao Jiang.
In the Battle of Xuzhou, the 2nd Army, as an external force, blocked the attack of the Sakamoto detachment of the Japanese ace 5th Division on the front line of Yuwang Mountain, blocked the encirclement, and encircled the Isogu Division, thus supporting Li Zongren's operation in Taierzhuang.
Later, it broke through from Boxian County in the encirclement of the Japanese army.
The national army troops of the Taierzhuang Anti-Japanese War
Battle of Wuhan, the 2nd Army was ordered to defend the fortress of Tianjiazhen, as the last barrier of Wuhan, in the battle Li Yannian's 2nd Army (actually a 9th Division), in the face of 15,000 Japanese troops, not at all timid, against the Japanese artillery and poison gas bombs, the bloody battle for half a month made the Japanese army unable to capture for a long time, the 2nd Army suffered more than 2,400 casualties in this battle, and the Japanese army on the opposite side also paid the price of 1,200 people, such casualties than the old thieves in Okamura had to admit that the 2nd Army was strong.
In the Battle of Guinan in the winter of 1939, the 2nd Army was also ordered to take over the 5th Army to defend Kunlun Pass and cover the retreat of friendly troops. Zheng Zuomin's sacrifice dealt a great blow to the 2nd Army, and in the early anti-Japanese war, he could be said to be a banner of the 2nd Army.
In 1943, after Li Yannian was promoted to acting commander-in-chief of the group army, Wang Lingyun became the army commander.
The 2nd Army of the Anti-Japanese War Front in Southern Guizhou
Therefore, when the 4 major attack armies were established in 1940, the overall combat strength was not strong, but the key was to work hard and always serve as the 2nd Army of the Royal Highness, which naturally became one of them.
The 2nd Army, which became the 4 major attacking armies, was mighty in the Battle of Yichang in the first battle, and cooperated with the brothers to encircle and annihilate the Japanese ace 13th Division (Sendai Division) in the Battle of Yichang, and the 2nd Army rushed into the city of Yichang several times and fought bloody battles with the Japanese army, if it were not for the 39th Division to break through and rescue at the risk of death, the 13th Division may have been destroyed in Yichang.
The national army in the counterattack in Yichang
Soon after the start of the Pacific War, the 2nd Army was transferred to the southern Yunnan front, under the command of Du Yuming, and received American-style officer training and re-equipped with American-style equipment. In the 2nd Expedition, the 2nd Army was assigned to Song Xilian's 11th Group Army and participated in the operation of the 56th Division of the Japanese Army in the direction of Mangshi, but it was more used as a defensive force to cover logistics and other operations.
It can be said that from the Battle of Songhu when Li Yannian led the 9th Division to participate in the war, to Wang Lingyun's in-depth operation in northern Burma, the 2nd Army has always supported the major battlefields as the trump card of the National Army Command, and is indeed worthy of the title of its own four major attack armies, and at the same time, it has also become one of the first 13 armies to be aided by the United States like the five main forces of the National Army.
However, because it has not been able to serve as the absolute main force in the direction of operations, it is a pity that it fell behind in the evaluation of the five main forces of the national army after the war.
Ace Unit of the National Army (U.S. Ordnance Army)
The national army tinker
During the Liberation War, the 2nd Army was reorganized into the 9th Division of the National Army.
But the 9th Division was really too important to the enemy's 2nd Army, so much so that the top brass of the National Army directly changed the entire 2nd Division to the entire 9th Division.
And in the battle against our army, the 2nd Army (the reorganized 9th Division) is still the tinkerer who does not show the dew, and he will make up for it wherever it is needed.
Its performance in the East China battlefield once gave our army a headache.
The 2nd Army of the Nationalist Army marching in Shandong
After entering the East China Battlefield in 1947, it was subordinate to the 2nd Corps of Wang Jingjiu and the 3rd Corps of Ou Zhen, and in the Battle of Menglianggu, everyone knew that Huang Botao's integrated 25th Division was desperately trying to save Zhang Lingfu, but few people knew that Huang Botao was followed by Wang Lingyun's integrated 9th Division (2nd Army).
In the battle of Linqu, where our army attacked, the reorganized 9th Division also came to stir up the situation, Wang Lingyun and the reorganized 64th Division attacked the 7th Column that we were responsible for blocking and reinforcing the 7th Column, and the 7th Column, which had just been promoted to the main force, faced the attack of the two integrated divisions (armies), and the pressure increased sharply for a while, and in front of the experienced and reorganized 9th Division, there were obvious loopholes in the defense line of the 7th Column, Wang Lingyun took the opportunity to overcome the blocking position of our army's Sanchadian, and Su Yuquan's plan to annihilate the entire 8th Division went bankrupt.
Machine gun positions of our army during the Battle of Linqu
In August 1947, the reorganized 9th Division in southwest Lu was transferred back to Jiaodong and incorporated into Fan Hanjie's Jiaodong Corps, and captured Pingdu, an important town in Jiaodong of our army in September, and together with Li Mi's 8th Division, it once broke through the 9th vertical defense line. In October, he met his old opponent 7 Column at Red Rock Mountain, but this time he was stubbornly blocked by the 7 Column.
After the end of the Battle of Jiaodong, the reorganized 2nd Army wanted to rush to the next battlefield to continue to make up for it.
But at this time, it ran into Nie Fengzhi's 9th Column, and the two ace troops were in an encounter, but this time the reorganized 9th Division still relied on defense and repeatedly delayed our army's attack, and the 25th and 27th Divisions of the 9th Column still failed to take it at the cost of 1,600 casualties, so they could only let the reorganized 9th Division flee back to Qingdao.
As far as matters are concerned, among the ace units of the National Army in East China, although the reputation of the reorganized 9th Division (2nd Army) is not as good as that of the reorganized 74th Division (Army), the 11th Division (18th Army) and the reorganized 7th Division (the name of the Guijun Gang Seventh Army), and it is not as good as the reorganized 8th Division (Army) with such a performance as Linqu, but the army has always played the role of the firefighting captain and the tinker, and it is one of the few troops that Lao Jiang can handle.
It also made Huaye's ace's 9th column suffer a lot of dark losses, and even gained the upper hand in the battle with the 7th column many times.
The disarrayed 2nd Army
By the end of 1947, the elite of the national army was fighting fewer and fewer, and the 2nd Army was no exception.
In December 1947, before leaving Shandong, the reorganized 9th Division (2nd Army) had been sharply reduced from 30,000 to 18,000, and this was the result of many replenishments, the number of mortars dropped by 1/3, the army's howitzers and field artillery were also lost, and there were still 36 mountain artillery left after replenishment.
Although the reorganization of the 9th Division (2nd Army) avoided the situation of annihilation in Shandong, it also fell behind from the front-line ace army, and after leaving East China, it was thrown to the Central China Suppression Headquarters, and participated in the Liu Deng operation of encircling and suppressing Dabie Mountain, and fought with the local troops in Zhongye.
In September 1948, the number of the 2nd Army was restored in Nanyang, and the 14th Corps of the old commander Song Xilian (which was subordinate to Song Xilian's 11th Group Army during the expeditionary force) was seized by Bai Chongxi in the Huaihai Campaign, resulting in the 2nd Army failing to join the Xu Beng battlefield, thus avoiding the fate of Huang Wei's corps.
Liu Deng's army swept through the southwest and surrendered to our 2nd Army
However, in 1949, after our army went south, it was heavily damaged by Liu Deng 2 Ye who crossed the river in Hubei, and followed Song Xilian to fight in southern Sichuan, and the remnants surrendered to our army in 1950 under the leadership of the last army commander Chen Kefei.
The 2nd Army, one of the 4 major attacking armies of the National Army, thus became a historical ......