On the modern battlefield, armored soldiers are the nemesis of light infantry. The "blitzkrieg" strategy pursued by Germany in World War II was to give full play to the speed, defense and firepower advantages of armored clusters, creating a series of appalling lightning victories.
In the War of Liberation, the Kuomintang army also attacked the poorly equipped PLA infantry with a rapid column, who knew that it encountered Su Yu in Shandong, and the result can be imagined that the fast column of the Nationalist army that crushed the light infantry by force was actually all tied up.
This past incident occurred in the Battle of Lunan in January 1947, and the protagonists were the rapid column of the reorganized 26th Division of the Kuomintang Army, and the Shanye and Huaye troops led by Chen Yi and Su Yu.
First, the origin of the rapid column of the Kuomintang army
At the end of 1946, Xue Yue, director of the Kuomintang Xuzhou Appeasement Office, commanded the reorganized 11th, 74th, 26th, 51st, 77th, 59th Divisions, and the 7th Army to launch a campaign in northern Jiangsu and Lunan, and after comprehensively invading and occupying the liberated areas of central Jiangsu, continued to attack Shandong and exchanged fire with our shanye and Huaye troops in the Lunan area.
Chiang Kai-shek attached great importance to the Shandong Theater, and included the fast 1st Column, the most elite armored unit of the Kuomintang army, in the sequence of xuzhou suiju troops, and assigned it to Ma Liwu's reorganized 26th Division, in an attempt to tear apart our army's defense line with powerful firepower.
What is the origin of this rapid 1 column?
The Nationalist army began to form a tank unit in 1942, when the nationalist army sent a battalion of tank soldiers to New Delhi on an expedition to India and Burma, where american advisers conducted regular training and then equipped with American-made M3A3 light tanks. This battalion fought bloody battles with the Japanese army for three years and achieved a total victory.
After the surrender of Japan, Chiang Kai-shek expanded the armored units with captured Japanese tanks and established ten rapid columns.
At that time, the Concept of Armored Forces was not used on a large scale in Chinese military circles, and Jiang Weiguo had studied military affairs in Germany and had a good understanding of the theory of Guderian, the father of blitzkrieg, believing that the ten fast columns of the Nationalist Army at that time were nothing more than auxiliary tank battalions of infantry and could not play an equipment advantage at all.
Under its advice, the Nationalist army condensed and refined the ten rapid columns into three. In September 1946, the Rapid First Column was formally formed, and its troops included a tank battalion (45 tanks), a car regiment, the 5th Artillery Regiment, a search battalion, an engineer battalion, and an 80th infantry brigade, with a total strength of more than 10,000 troops.
Most of the armored units of this column had fought with the Japanese, the soldiers had experience and morale, and the tank and artillery fire was also very fierce, which was regarded as an ace unit by Chiang Kai-shek's army.
In fact, the American and Japanese light tanks equipped by the Rapid 1 Column at that time were already very backward compared with the mainstream tanks of Europe and the United States in the same period, but in China, especially in the face of the PLA, which was mainly infantry, it had a very big advantage.
Ma Liwu led the reorganized 26th Division and the Rapid 1st Column north to attack Lunan, looking at everything and determined to win, and at first did let Huaye (at that time, the Central China Field Army had not yet merged with the Shandong Field Army, and Huaye here still referred to the Central China Field Army) suffer some losses.
Second, Ye Fei had suffered the loss of the rapid column
At the end of September 1946, Ma Liwu led the reorganized 26th Division, with the cooperation of the 33rd Army and the reorganized 51st Division, to attack zaozhuang and Yixian (present-day Zaozhuang Yicheng District), with the goal of the Tongjinpu line, to join Wang Yaowu, and the next step was to invade Linyi, the capital of our party at that time in Shandong.
At that time, Chen Yi led the main force of the Shandong Field Army in northern Jiangsu, and Su Yu joined forces to resist the integrated 74th Division. Ma Liwu's move to encircle Wei and save Zhao was strategically unexpected and disrupted Chen Yi's deployment.
Chen Yi only left one Ye Fei column to stay in Shandong, at this time the enemy attacked the rear, and could only take one head, first Gu Subei, wait for Zhang Lingfu's division to be solved, and then return to save Shandong.
Responsible for blocking Ma Liwu was a column led by Ye Fei. Ye Zhong had a total of 25,000 people, and his strength was the strongest in the Shandong Field Army. At that time, the intelligence of our army's inquiry was inaccurate, thinking that only Ma Liwu had more than 17,000 people in one division, and our army's strength was superior, Ye Fei gave Chen Yi a package ticket, confident of repelling the enemy.
Who knows, as soon as the fire is exchanged, it is found that the situation is not right.
The first is that the troops are not right. The enemy fought more and more, and Ye Fei unexpectedly heard the names of 3 corps and divisions from the mouths of the nationalist prisoners, and after a little calculation, he found that the total strength of the enemy had doubled that of our army, and the situation suddenly became grim.
After a day and night of fierce fighting, the enemy fought more and more, and Ye Fei's column positions were in a hurry, but they could still hold out.
At the critical moment, Ma Liwu pulled up the rapid 1st column and took the lead with the tank battalion, which immediately received remarkable results.
Before the tank charge, the Rapid 1St column prepared for artillery fire and aircraft fire. The American 105 mm howitzer of the 5th Artillery Regiment continued to bombard fiercely, and there were 3 aircraft in the sky that strafed the main position of Ye Zhong, so that the Huaye soldiers could not lift their heads.
After a round of explosions, the tank cluster began to charge. Shi Zuhuang, then the captain of the Kuomintang Armored Corps Teaching Corps (the actual head of the armored troops), confident that his firepower was enough to suppress the communists, triumphantly took the tank front to supervise the battle.
Ye Fei's column engaged the tank troops for the first time, without any experience in anti-tank combat, nor did it have anti-tank weapons, and was slammed by the rapid column, which suddenly confused its position and the defensive line was penetrated. With no reinforcements and unfavorable conditions, there was no point in holding on to any more, so Ye Fei fell to his feet and pounded his chest and ordered his troops to withdraw from Yixian and Zaozhuang.
When the Kuomintang side heard the news and boasted of the so-called "Great Victory in Lunan," Jiang Weiguo, together with his wife, went to Yixian County with a large number of condolences to visit the rapid column and gathered all the officers and men of the tank battalion to give a lecture. It is in vain to send death!
Ma Liwu also boasted to his subordinate officers and men: We have the first rapid column of the ace army, which is a very glorious and proud thing. With such a strong weapon, we can be invincible and invincible.
On November 11, Yamano's forces stormed the Nationalist reorganized 77th Division, which was in a precarious position. Ma Liwu urgently ordered the rapid column to rescue and attacked the PLA troops sideways.
The First Rapid Column was ordered to go out and again encountered the old enemy Ye Fei's column.
The rapid column repeated the same trick, and the tank battalion immediately launched 7 tanks, covered by 3 aircraft, and launched a ferocious attack.
Ye Zhong still felt tricky at this time, not knowing how to deal with these fierce iron knots. Although the officers and men regarded death as if they were dead, regardless of machine gun fire, one after another approached the tank and climbed onto the tank to attack, but it was difficult to have any effect. By noon, the rapid column had intensified its offensive, increasing the number of tanks to 25 and infantry to 1 brigade.
Ye Fei was not willing to lose again, and threw the general reserve into the battlefield to counterattack fiercely, the rapid column infantry once collapsed, only the tank battalion was still able to stabilize the position, and 25 tanks lined up in a triangular position to form a fire network to prevent the PLA soldiers from approaching the explosion.
At this time, the grenades could no longer threaten the tanks, and could only rely on manpower, explosive packs and gasoline bottles to blow up, but due to the limitations of the terrain, it was difficult to work, and the two sides fought a confrontation.
After the war, the Kuomintang again boasted about it, and issued an order to commend the 1st Rapid Column.
Third, Su Yu struck
Ma Liwu and the Rapid Column won consecutive battles at Lunan and became increasingly arrogant, and at the end of December 1946 prepared to launch an attack on Linyi.
At this time, Chen Yi and Su Yu had just completely annihilated the 69th Division of the Kuomintang army in the Battle of Subei, temporarily repelling the pursuit of the Kuomintang army on the Jiangsu side, and in order to teach Ma Liwu a lesson, Chen Yi and Su Yu, under the instructions of the central authorities, withdrew most of the main forces into Lunan and prepared to surround and annihilate Ma Liwu.
This was also the first time that Su Yu led his army into the Shandong region to fight.
Previously, Su Yu spent most of his time fighting with the Japanese army and the Kuomintang army in the liberated areas of central China, entering Shandong for the first time, and facing the Ma Liwu Division, which repeatedly caused great trouble for our army and had obvious equipment advantages, Su Yu attached great importance to it and agreed with Chen Yi to concentrate the strength of 26 regiments and surround and annihilate the 6 regiments of the reorganized 26th Division with the momentum of killing chickens with cattle knives.
Ma Liwu was arrogant and arrogant, believing that the armored troops had strong firepower, the People's Liberation Army could not move, and the speed of maneuver was also fast, disregarding the taboo of the soldiers who could not venture alone, he led his troops to break away from friendly troops and advance to the Xiangcheng area of Linyi 70 miles.
At this time, Ma Liwu's troops and the large rear troops pulled away for more than 100 miles and went deep into the liberated areas, and the local people were very hostile to the Kuomintang army and did not provide them with intelligence. Ma Liwubu was like a blind man riding a blind horse, in the middle of the night, he did not know how to fight, so he had to temporarily garrison Xiangcheng and Lanling, waiting for the follow-up troops to follow up, and then fight a decisive battle with the People's Liberation Army.
Che Fanru, commander of the rapid column, believed that being exposed to the enemy for a long time would inevitably be dangerous, and repeatedly asked Ma Liwu for instructions to withdraw his troops to the area around Yixian County, but Ma Liwu was not allowed.
Che Fanru was very selfish, afraid of danger at the front, so he excused himself to go back to Nanjing to ask for instructions and slipped back. The armored corps system has always been systematic, and Ma Liwu could not take the car as if it were any way, so the troops had to be commanded by deputy commander Zou Zhenyue.
This Zou Zhenyue was also not very familiar with the tactics of the armored troops, and in order to prevent the ENCIRCLEMENT of the People's Liberation Army, he ordered the tanks to be juxtaposed to form a three-sided fan-shaped position, to dig an outer trench in front of the position, to set up a deer in front of the trench, and to position the artillery behind the tank position. After these deployments were completed, Zou Zhenyue thought that he was "impregnable," but in fact this was completely cocooning himself, causing the chariot troops to lose their original superior mobility and be in a passive situation of being beaten.
Among the Kuomintang generals, very few had experience in Germany, most of them were trained by the Whampoa Military Academy, and most of them did not know much about the tactics of armored troops. According to Jiang Weiguo's recollection, Shi Zuhuang, the commander of the armored corps, was a layman who did not know how to use armored troops and how to give full play to the maximum efficiency of armored troops, so the Ministry of National Defense once proposed to disperse armored troops to infantry divisions in battalions, and he did not know how to refute them.
If it were not for this General Zou's formation, the rapid column would not have been surrounded by PLA infantry quickly.
All this brought Su Yu an excellent opportunity to encircle and annihilate.
Chen Yi and Su Yu discussed this matter and felt that although the opportunity was good, it was fleeting and could not let Ma Liwu come back to his senses. Su Yu recalled that the preparations before the war were only carried out for eight or nine days, and the various units also entered the predetermined attack position.
Ma Liwu was not a fool, and in the past few days, the main force of the People's Liberation Army had been mobilized, and he had also heard about it, and when he learned that there were actually 11 divisions of PLA troops surrounding him, he could not help but feel worried in his heart, and asked Xue Yue for instructions on what to do and whether to temporarily retreat.
Xue Yue disagreed, Linyi was far away, how could he retreat, ordered Ma Liwu to continue to insist, and the follow-up troops immediately followed.
Ma Liwu took a reassuring pill and relaxed his mind. Based on the enemy's situation, he personally drew up a plan for "meat and mud warfare": If the PLA attacked it on a large scale, it would attract the PLA to the area around the central stubborn area, and then carry out a roving attack with chariots, so that the PLA's attacking troops would "leave no piece of armor."
Ma Liwu was ready and looked forward to the battle. But until the morning of New Year's Day 1947, the People's Liberation Army did not see the People's Liberation Army launching an offensive.
Ma Liwu thought that there would be a battle to be fought in a few days, so he simply took a car back to YiXian county to celebrate New Year's Day, leaving deputy division commander Cao Yuheng to sit in the army.
The PLA troops did not have the leisure to celebrate New Year's Day, at the moment of the war, Su Yu has been nervously observing the development of the situation, after confirming that the follow-up troops of the Kuomintang army did not follow up, in 1947, at 22 o'clock on January 2, Chen Yi and Su Yu ordered a general offensive.
That night, Ma Liwugang and Li Yutang, commander of the 27th Army, drank a small New Year's wine, and in a slight drunkenness, returned to their division headquarters station, watched the Peking opera "Wind and Wave Pavilion", and saw yue Fei being tried and about to be tortured, Ma Liwu was uncomfortable in his heart, and suddenly Li Yutang called an emergency phone, came up and said: "There is a fight ahead!" ”
Ma Liwu was so frightened that he immediately called the front to inquire about the situation, but the telephone was no longer open, and as soon as the front division headquarters started fighting, the telephone line was cut off by the Platon Army. Ma Liwu was so anxious that he hurriedly took two companies in a truck and prepared to run towards the city. As a result, the scouts on the road said that the front was blocked by the communists and was very unsafe.
Frightened, Ma Liwu returned to YiXian county and reported to Xue Yue, requesting that the 26th Division and the 1st Rapid Column be withdrawn to Yixian County. Xue Yue had no choice but to agree.
Fourth, 1 tank is not left for the enemy
The rear of the Kuomintang was in chaos, and the front was also a big mess.
The PLA has an absolute superiority in troop strength, and has already blocked the road of reinforcements from all directions to the Nationalist army in advance, and there are two focal points on the battlefield, one is Mazhuang, where the headquarters of the 26th Division is located, and the other is Lanling, where the rapid 1st Column is stationed.
As soon as Ma Zhuang started fighting, Deputy Division Commander Cao Yuheng felt too much pressure and the artillery fire of the communist army was too fierce. So he quickly called Zou Zhenyue and asked the fast column to come to the rescue.
Zou Zhenyue's side was also besieged, fearing that he would be ambushed if he could easily move, and only sent two tank platoons to test the firepower of the communist army. As soon as I went out, I saw a fire on the road ahead, and I didn't know what the situation was, so I slipped back to the station.
On the evening of the 3rd, Huaye's 8th Division took advantage of the victory to advance and directly attacked Mazhuang, where the headquarters of the reorganized 26th Division was stationed.
According to the plan of meat and mud warfare, the enemy troops in Mazhuang sent 4 tanks to patrol around Mazhuang, as a fortress of activity, not only not afraid of small arms attacks, but also mobile transfer at any time, where they are tight, they will go to reinforcements, which is a great threat to the 8th Division's attacking troops.
But this kind of meat slime plan is also a matter of course, Ma Liwu's idea is based on the situation of Ye Fei's column, of course, you can use tanks to charge the infantry. However, at this time, the Huaye and Shanye troops were ten times more powerful than Ye Zhong, and there were American-made howitzers that had just been captured in the Battle of Subei, and the firepower was not what it used to be. The 8th Division, in charge of the main attack, was assigned an artillery battalion.
The artillery battalion of the 8th Division aimed at 4 arrogant tanks, pulled in the anti-defense guns, risked their lives to advance to a distance of 400 meters from the enemy, flattened the gun port, and fired directly at the tanks, destroying 1 on the spot, and the other 3 tanks returned to Shonai in a hurry. The 8th Division took advantage of the situation and launched a fierce attack on Mazhuang.
The first rapid column saw that the headquarters was in danger and once again dispatched tanks to break the siege, but under the desperate interception of the reinforcements, the tanks of the rapid column could not advance. The two enemies could not meet each other, and the morale of the enemy in Mazhuang fell sharply. The 8th Division soon broke into Mazhuang and completely annihilated the headquarters of the reorganized 26th Division, and the two infantry brigades under it were also annihilated by the PLA, and the remnants fled into the 1st Rapid Column garrison.
Although the 1st Rapid Column was relatively complete, seeing that the infantry had been lost, Zou Zhenyue was frightened and frightened, and immediately ordered the troops to rush out of the encirclement.
If you hadn't posed as a cocoon to bind yourself before, it would have been very fast to escape, after all, the flesh and blood body was difficult to stop the steel monster. By the time the rapid column had screeched off its antlers, filled in the trenches, and prepared to break out, the Plakmen had surrounded them layer by layer, intercepting the way in all directions.
Soldiers have clouds, surrounded by three ques. Su Yu did not block all the enemy's ways, only there were not many troops in the direction of Leaky Lake. Zou Zhenyue panicked and obediently fled in this direction. As a result, they fled to the side of leaky juice lake, the road in front was dug up, and the fast column was forced to leave the road and enter the area of leaky juice lake by the ARTILLERY fire of the People's Liberation Army.
Leaky Lake is not a lake, but a depression eight or nine miles wide, with a large swamp inside. In drought, it is flat land, people and horses can pass, and heavy equipment cannot pass quickly. When it rains, it becomes a muddy field, and people are not good to walk.
Su Yu's predetermined battle plan was to drive the enemy's armored troops here, tie their wheels and tracks, and make their steel monsters cripples.
On the morning of January 4, the rain and snow were heavy, and God helped a lot, as soon as the rapid column entered the leaky lake, it made a big noise, and the tanks, trucks, and heavy artillery were all trapped in the mud, unable to enter or retreat, only the dull roar of the engine and the cheers of the Kuomintang officers were heard, only Zou Zhenyue fled with 7 tanks, and the rest were all stuck in the mud and could not move.
Like a fierce tiger descending the mountain, the officers and men of our army rushed into the enemy position and exploded with grenades and explosives, causing the enemy to cry out in a frenzy.
Officers and men of the People's Liberation Army bravely rushed into the enemy position and launched an attack on the invincible tanks. Some jumped on the tank with grenades and ordered the driver to stop; some stuffed grenades into the tank, blew up the tracks, and paralyzed the tank. In this thrilling battle, Zhang Xue'an, the combat hero of the 8th Division, jumped on the enemy tank alone and forced the driver to surrender; the combat hero of the 1st Division, Li Yaoqing, also single-handedly captured 1 enemy tank.
According to statistics, our army captured a total of 24 tanks, 48 American-made howitzers, and 475 vehicles of various kinds in this battle, and most of the rapid 1 column was destroyed.
After the war, Chen Yi and Su Yu personally went to the scene to inspect, and Chen Yi excitedly sat on a captured tank and took a group photo with the soldiers. Chen Yi also wrote a poem:
The rapid column rose like a fly, and the Indo-Burmese return came from the advocate. Lunan mud could not be carried, and the tanks turned into scrap iron piles.
After the Battle of Xiangcheng, The commander of Chen Su ordered his troops to take advantage of the situation to counterattack, and on January 9, they attacked Yi County and surrounded the remnants of Ma Liwu. After two days of fighting, the remnants of the 26th Division were successfully resolved and Ma Liwu was captured.
The captured tank soldiers of the Kuomintang army said: "We have been fighting in the Indo-Burmese battlefield for three years, and we have been rushing forward, and the Americans can also look up to us." I didn't expect to lose so badly today. ”