In the three major battles of the People's Liberation Army, the Liaoshen Campaign and the Pingjin Campaign all had a relatively large advantage over the Nationalist army, but in the Huaihai Campaign, the nationalist army had more troops than our army, and most of the nationalist troops on the Huaihai battlefield were elite of the central army, so the battle was not easy. In this case, we can still annihilate 550,000 enemy troops, and it has to be said that the fight is very beautiful.
At that time, our army invested in the Huaihai Campaign with the East China Field Army and the Central Plains Field Army, of which Huaye's strength and weapons and equipment were relatively better, while Nakano's strength was smaller, and its weapons and equipment were relatively poor.
According to statistics, at that time, there were 7 field columns put into combat by the Central Plains Field Army, with a total strength of 140,000 people, and the average number of people per column was only about 20,000 people.
Among them, Chen Geng's 4th Column had more than 30,000 troops, which was the column with the largest number of troops in the middle field during the Battle of Huaihai, while among the other 6 columns, there were only more than 10,000 columns in 4 columns.
Taking the 3rd Column, which was the main force, as an example, the total strength before the Battle of Huaihai was only 17,724 people, which was the result of supplementing a considerable number of new recruits.
In fact, the reason why the Strength of the Central Plains Field Army is relatively small is that everyone knows that on the one hand, it is the attrition of the personnel who have advanced thousands of miles into the Dabie Mountains, and on the other hand, it is because some of the main forces have been drawn to support the construction of local military regions.
In fact, when it was still operating in the old base areas at the beginning of the Liberation War, the strength of the 3rd Column was not so small.
The 3rd Column was mainly formed by the main force of the Eighth Route Army of the Taihang Military Region during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and had a strength of 26,468 troops before the southward mobile operation.
After arriving at Dabie Mountain, the 20th Regiment of the 7th Brigade, the 24th Regiment of the 8th Brigade, the 27th Regiment of the 9th Brigade, the Column Teaching Regiment, and the Supplementary Regiment were drawn out and placed under the command of the West Anhui Military Region, so the field strength of the 3rd Column was left with 3 two-regiment infantry brigades.
By the beginning of 1948, the field strength of the 3rd Column was only 15,384 people, and the armament was not as good as before.
At that time, the situation of the column transferred out of Dabie Mountain was basically:
Each regiment numbered between 1,000 and 1,500 men, and the four columns totaled about 50,000 men.
Rifles, light and heavy machine guns were reduced by half, guns were reduced by two-thirds or even three-quarters, and the maximum number of rifles in a company was 40, and the average number of rifles was more than 30, which was almost equal to the weapons of a platoon.
Heavy machine gun companies have as few as 2 and as many as 4 per company. Each column rifle has 4000 to 4800 rifles, 35 to 60 heavy machine guns, and more than 310 to 420 light machine guns. There are 4 fewer mountain guns and more than 7 guns.
By the time of the Battle of Huaihai, the strength of the 3rd Column had increased to more than 17,000 men, but the state of weapons had not changed radically, and the main weapons and equipment of the column at that time were:
4808 rifles, with an average of 46 rounds per gun;
There were 349 light machine guns, with an average of 474 rounds of ammunition per machine gun;
There were 58 heavy machine guns, with an average of 2137 rounds of ammunition per gun;
(407 light and heavy machine guns in total)
There were 176 submachine guns, with an average of 54 rounds of ammunition per submachine gun;
There were 544 short guns, with an average of 5 rounds of ammunition per gun;
There are 6 flare guns, with an average of 8 rounds per gun;
There are 7 mountain guns, with an average of 73 shells per gun;
The American heavy mortar had 1 x, with 19 rounds;
There were 22 medium-caliber mortars, with an average of 135 shells per gun;
18 of the 60 guns, with an average of 16 shells per gun;
There were 56 small guns, with an average of 24 shells per gun;
There are 6 bazookas, with an average of 8 shells per shell;
There are 18 grenadiers, with an average of 16 shells per case;
In addition, there were 26,833 grenades, 1,253 kilograms of explosives and 778 horses.
Obviously, the situation of this weapon and equipment is not very good, and the relatively large caliber weapons of the entire column are only 7 mountain guns and 1 American mortar, which is not as much as the belongings of an infantry division of the Northeast Field Army in the same period.
In terms of artillery, we can also see that the 3rd Column only had 22 medium-caliber mortars at this time, an average of less than 4 per regiment, 60 guns and small guns totaled only more than 70, and the average infantry battalion could be divided into three or four, while Higashino could equip 60 guns to the company at that time.
In terms of light and heavy machine guns, there were less than 60 heavy machine guns, an average of 10 per regiment, and each battalion-owned machine gun company was 3 to 4 heavy machine guns.
For light machine guns, there are an average of more than 50 per regiment, and an average of 6 per infantry company.
As for the submachine gun, there is an average of 1 per 100 men, which is obviously relatively small; as for the rifle, the average number of rifles is only about 800 per regiment, which is obviously not much.
And many weapons are also less prepared, which is also more troublesome.
Therefore, before the Battle of Huaihai, when Chief Nakano evaluated the situation of the various departments, he said:
The 7th, 8th, and 9th Brigades of the 3rd Column each had 2 regiments, each brigade was very strong in combat strength, and the 19th Regiment of the 7th Brigade, the 22nd Regiment of the 8th Brigade, and the 25th Regiment of the 9th Brigade were all strong, especially the 19th Regiment, although the vitality could be maintained, but the number and weapons were not as good as before, and there were many unarmed hands.
That is to say, although the number of troops is not much, they still need to be bare-handed.
Although the 3rd Column of the Central Plains Field Army at this time had few troops, and there were many new recruits in the existing troops, and the weapons and equipment were relatively poor, as an old unit, it had been fighting everywhere since the Liberation War, and the combat experience of cadres at all levels was very rich.
After the Battle of Huaihai began, the 3rd Column was very enthusiastic about the battle, and after hearing the victory of its friendly neighbors, the capture of "a sea of people" and the victory products were "piled up like a mountain", they were very envious, and they were brave enough to try, demanding that the enemy be attacked in a war of annihilation, so that they could strengthen themselves.
And that opportunity soon came.
Everyone knows that in the Battle of Huaihai, the Central Plains Field Army captured Suxian County, thus controlling more than 100 kilometers of railway between Xuzhou and Bengbu, cutting off the Xu-Beng line, completing the strategic encirclement of Xuzhou, and creating extremely favorable conditions for the subsequent war.
The main force capturing Suxian was the 3rd Column of the Central Plains Field Army.
In fact, there are also many nationalist troops defending Suxian County, including the headquarters of the 148th Division of the 25th Army and its 3 regiments of the 442nd, 443rd, and 444th regiments, the 16th General Brigade of the Traffic Police and the 3rd Brigade of the 2nd General Brigade, the 6th Infantry Detachment of the Army, the New Corps of the 12th Army, the Armored Vehicle Company, the 63rd Warehouse of the General Headquarters of the Joint Service, the 205th Hospital of the Joint Logistics Department, the Headquarters of the Mengcheng Regiment in the Northern Anhui Division, the Left-behind Office of the 25th Army, the 3rd Brigade of the 58th Army, and the Joint Defense Units of the Suxian Security Police Brigade, totaling more than 14,000 people.
In terms of weapons and equipment, Suxian serves as an important rear supply base, in fact, there are many weapons, ammunition and supplies. Moreover, the city wall of Suxian County is tall and strong, with a large number of fortifications, and there is a moat around the city that is three inches wide, which is not easy to fight down. After all, the 3rd Column, with all the troops attached, totaled only more than 20,000 people, and the weapons and equipment after strengthening the artillery were not very good.
However, although there are many national army troops in Suxian County, the structure of the troops is too much, and it is difficult to form a joint force. Moreover, among these miscellaneous troops, either there are many new recruits in the regular units, or the miscellaneous units cannot fight a regular war, which is actually a state of chaos.
After Nakano's 3rd Column received the order to besiege the city, the enthusiasm of the various units was extremely high.
On November 12, the 25th Regiment of the 3rd Column 9th Brigade engaged the defenders of Suxian County and took advantage of the victory to occupy Xiguan; then the 26th Regiment went straight to the south of the city and occupied Nanguan; at dawn on the 13th, the 8th Brigade also surrounded Suxian from the north and east. By 4:00 a.m. on the 15th, the troops occupied Dongguan again.
After the occupation of the four passes, the 3rd Column immediately began a general offensive, carrying out a feint attack at the north and south passes, and a real attack at the east and west passes. In particular, 5 battalions were concentrated to attack the small east gate, and the heavy firepower was deployed to the front, and continuous blasting was carried out, forming a breakthrough and then inserting itself into the city; and the attack troops in the west of the city also broke into the city after a fierce battle.
By the evening of the 15th, the main force of the defenders had been annihilated, and by 3 o'clock on the 16th, All SuXian had been occupied, less than 4 days before the outpost battle. Siege battles are actually very efficient.
In the Battle of Suxian County, Nakano's 3rd Column killed and wounded more than 1,500 defenders, captured 12,570 men under Zhang Jiwu, deputy commander of the enemy's Jinpu Railway Guard Command, and captured a large number of weapons, equipment, and ammunition.
1 field artillery, 2 mountain guns, 30 large and medium-caliber mortars, 62 60 guns, 4 anti-aircraft guns, 11 bazookas, and 86 grenadiers;
2 anti-aircraft machine guns, 5 combat guns, 36 heavy machine guns, 162 light machine guns, 3254 rifles, 292 carbines, 561 portable machine guns, 225 short guns, and 11 flare guns;
More than 3,000 rounds of various types of artillery shells, 291,800 rounds of ammunition, 12 armored vehicles (9 destroyed), 50 cars, 1 armored train, in addition to a large number of communication equipment, food and other military supplies.
In addition, the 80th Regiment of the 9th Column of Nakano also captured 536 enemy soldiers, capturing 1 mountain artillery, 6 mortars, 23 60 small guns, 22 light and heavy machine guns, 27 long and short guns, 21 submachine guns, 8 carbines, and 68,000 rounds of ammunition.
Compared with the original weapons of the Nakano 3rd Column, we will find that many of them were captured more than the original equipment of the 3rd Column. As far as rifles and rifles were concerned, even most of the column's equipment was basically captured.
At the same time as a large number of weapons were captured, many captives became liberation fighters, which increased the strength of the 3 columns. Not only did it enrich the infantry company, but it also enabled the brigade to have a supplementary regiment and a regiment to have a supplementary company, which greatly enhanced the combat strength of the 3rd Column.
The Battle of Suxian of the 3rd Column is only a microcosm of the People's Liberation Army in the Battle of Huaihai, the Nationalist army is constantly being wiped out, the more we fight, the weaker we are, and we are getting stronger and stronger, which is also a miracle in the history of war.