In March 1941, in Shanggao County, Yichun, Jiangxi Province, China, a small city in southern China, a small battle broke out, where the Chinese army defeated the Japanese army and won a comprehensive victory in the frontal battlefield of the War of Resistance Against Japan.
Compared with other large-scale battles in China's frontal battlefield, the Shanggao Campaign is not large in scale, whether it is the Chinese and Japanese troops participating in the battle or the battlefield range, it is relatively small, and the Chinese participating troops are mainly the 49th Army, the 70th Army, the 72nd Army, the 74th Army in the Ninth Theater, and the 78th Army in the direction of Wuning.
The Japanese participating forces are the 33rd Division regiment, the 34th Division regiment, and the independent mixed 20th Brigade regiment of the 11th Army of the Chinese Dispatch Army, and the chinese and Japanese forces have invested relatively few troops, lasting only 27 days, and the combat area is about 80 kilometers from Quangang to Anyi, about 80 kilometers from the north to the south; from the vicinity of Nanchang to the east of the upper height, the east and west are also about 80 kilometers, which the Japanese army calls "short-distance truncation operations."
However, for China, the Battle of Shanggao was of great significance, according to the report of the commander of the campaign, Luo Zhuoying, deputy commander of the Ninth Theater, the battle killed more than 15,000 people under the japanese major general infantry commander Nagai Nagawang and the commander of the Daisa Wing, Hamada, and suffered more than 20,000 casualties.
Battle of Kamikoku
In 1940, the Eighth Route Army launched the Hundred Regiments War in North China, which dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese army in North China, in order to ensure the security of the Japanese army in North China, in March 1941, the Japanese China Dispatch Army Command decided to draw the 17th Division of the 13th Army and the 33rd Division of the 11th Army from the Central China Front to reinforce the North China Front.
The 33rd Division was originally stationed in northern Jiangxi, together with the 34th Division to garrison the Nanchang area, after the transfer of the 33rd Division, the Chinese Dispatch Army Headquarters transferred the Shanghai Dispatch Army to supplement the Nanchang garrison with an independent mixed 20th Brigade Regiment.
As a result, the Japanese forces in Nanchang would be weakened, so the commander of the 34th Division, Shigeru Ohga, suggested to the commander of the 11th Army, Yuanbu Kaichiro, that while the 33rd Division had not yet been transferred north, concentrate the strength of the two divisions and plan to annihilate the Chinese army near Nanchang, mainly to annihilate the main force of luo Zhuoying's Nineteenth Army in the Ninth Theater.
The Japanese invasion of China
This time, the japanese army's goal was mainly on the 74th Army, which was temporarily put together in the Battle of Songhu in 1937, and in several major wars in the future, the 74th Army showed great power on the battlefield, achieved outstanding results, and was known as the Anti-Japanese Iron Army.
In July 1939, Wang Yaowu, commander of the 51st Division, was promoted to commander of the 74th Army, and at this time, the 74th Army had three divisions under its jurisdiction, the 51st Division, the 57th Division, and the 58th Division, with a total strength of 31,000 troops, which became a thorn in the eye and a thorn in the flesh of the Japanese army.
After the Japanese 33rd Division and the 34th Division decided to concentrate their forces to find the main force of the 19th Army, the independent mixed 20th Brigade of the Shanghai Dispatch Army, which came to replenish the defense, also came to Nanchang, and the Japanese army at this time had the strength of two and a half divisions, which further strengthened the Determination of the Japanese Army to launch the Shanggao Campaign.
On March 15, 1941, the Battle of Shanggao began, and the Japanese army attacked the 19th Army in three ways, with the 34th Division as the main attack point, supplemented by the 33rd Division and the independent mixed 20th Brigade. The 33rd Division of the North Road attacked the 70th Army from Anyi, and at noon that day broke through the defense of the 70th Army, occupied Fengxin, and the next day occupied Cheping to the west, intending to force the 70th Army to move in the direction of the upper heights.
After crossing the Ganjiang River in the west, the 20th Brigade attacked west along the Jinjiang River, and on the 17th successively occupied Qujiang and Ducheng, and then advanced towards Gray Port, intending to attack the Chinese troops near Shanggao from the rear.
The 34th Division of the Middle Road set out from Xishan Wanshou Palace on the 16th and attacked Gao'an along the Xianggan Highway, and on the 18th, the 34th Division captured Gao'an, and then continued to approach in the direction of Gaogao.
The Japanese plan was to encircle the Chinese army from both flanks, and eventually the three Japanese troops planned to annihilate the 70th Army, the 74th Army and the 19th Army Headquarters at Shanggao.
Three days before the start of the war, the Japanese army progressed smoothly, successively broke through the Chinese defense line, on the 17th, the Japanese 33rd Division was besieged by the 70th Army and the 72nd Army when pursuing the 70th Army to the Shangfu area, and the 33rd Division suffered heavy casualties and had to return to Fengxin on the 19th, and then rested here.
After the Japanese independent mixed 20th Brigade regiment on the south road occupied AshBu on the 20th, leaving an infantry brigade and the 102nd brigade to occupy Qujiang and Quangang, while the main force crossed the Jinjiang River in a vain attempt to join the 34th Division of the Middle Road, the 19th Army learned of this news, ordered the 49th Army to attack the 102nd Brigade at Quangang, annihilating most of it, and then the 49th Army chased after the main force of the 20th Brigade.
After occupying Gao'an on the 18th, the Japanese 34th Division in the middle of the road was too aggressive and fell into the encirclement of the 19th Army, in this case, the 34th Division still tried to break through the encirclement of the 19th Army and capture Shanggao.
In the face of the crazy Japanese army, the 19th Army stubbornly resisted, so that the Japanese 34th Division regiment has never been able to break out, and the independent mixed 20th Brigade regiment on the south road is moving closer to the 34th Division, in order to prevent the Confluence of the two roads of the Japanese army, wang Yaowu, commander of the 74th Army, ordered the 51st Division Li Tianxia to attack Gao'an, the two sides fought fiercely for two days, and the 20th Brigade was blocked and detoured from the side of the 51st Division to join the 34th Division.
However, even if the 20th Brigade joined the Japanese army in the middle of the road, this part of the Japanese army was still unable to break through the defense line of the Nineteenth Army, and in the face of the layers of encirclement by the Chinese army, the 34th Division was in danger of being completely annihilated.
On the 24th, the 19th Army further compressed the encirclement, compressing the 34th Division into an oval encirclement of 10 miles from north to south and 30 miles from east to west.
When the commander of the 11th Army, Yuanbu Kazuichiro, learned of this situation, he hurriedly ordered the 33rd Division to go to the rescue, and on the 25th, the 33rd Division attacked the position of Zhang Yanchuan's division that was encircling the Japanese army on the northern flank, and the division was attacked by the Japanese army, lost the battle, and retreated to the vicinity of the Land King Temple.
In the face of the frenzied attack of the Japanese 33rd Division, Zhang Yanchuan and Tang Boyin's division decided to abandon their positions and retreat to the area of Fenghuangwei and Zhuangfang, the 33rd Division was able to join the 34th Division at Guanqiao, and the 20th Brigade retreated to Gao'an to prepare for the retreat of the 34th Division.
On the 26th, the 34th Division retreated from Guanqiao one after another, and the Chinese army took Guanqiao as the target and tried to drag the Japanese 34th Division to form a second encirclement, completely annihilating the 34th Division, and on the 27th, the main force of the 34th Division broke through the encirclement of the Chinese army.
On the 28th, the Chinese army launched a general attack, pursued the 34th Division, eliminated the remaining Japanese troops, and successively recaptured Gao'an, Fengxin and other places, until April 3, the Japanese army shrank in positions and could not hold out, and the battle of Shanggao ended.
In this battle of Shanggao, a total of more than 15,000 Japanese troops were annihilated, and the infantry commander of the Japanese major general Nagawa Nagawang and the commander of the Daisa Wing Hamada were killed, and the Chinese army has always held the initiative in the battlefield in this battle, and won a major victory since the defeat at the Battle of Nanchang, which encouraged the enthusiasm of the Chinese soldiers and civilians to resist Japan.
This article was originally first published by @Saibei Autumn Wind Iron Horse (signed to defend the rights knight)
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