Chapter 21: Battle of Lanfeng (VI)
Under the cover of the supporting troops, Zhang Zizhong's troops finally retreated to the Pingjing Pass line with little loss. However, Lieutenant General Guan Guici, who led the troops to rescue, only withdrew the damaged Shuikou and Yuanshan detachments to Anlu for rest and recuperation, and withdrew part of the 218th Infantry Regiment that was pinning down the Ninth Army at the Jiuli Pass line to Xiaochang for alert.
He led the remaining three and a half infantry battalions of the 33rd Infantry Regiment, two squadrons of the 33rd Search Regiment, one and a half battalions of the 33rd Mountain Artillery Regiment, seven squadrons of the 33rd Engineer Regiment, one battalion of the 33rd Light and Heavy Regiment, as well as five infantry battalions of the 19th Infantry Brigade of the 16th Division, two infantry battalions of the 31st Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Division, three cavalry squadrons of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment of the 3rd Division, and the 101st Regiment of the 101st Division, and quickly marched to Suixian and Zaoyang.
At this point, in order to rescue the besieged Saeda Detachment, the Japanese army had assembled four divisions, 23 infantry, cavalry, engineering, artillery, and logistics battalions, totaling about 22,000 troops in northwestern Hubei.
The Japanese army was coming in full force, and the three armies and six divisions of one army group and one corps that the Chinese side deployed to encircle and annihilate the Saeda Detachment had either not yet been fully replenished or had been hastily gathered after being dispersed and reorganized. Therefore, such a force could neither immediately eliminate the more than 10,000 besieged Japanese troops, nor could it easily withdraw enough troops to resist the Japanese reinforcements that came to rescue them.
However, Liu Wenhui, who was determined to win a "Zaoyang Victory" in northwestern Hubei, had already prepared a plan for this.
Long before encircling the Saeda Detachment, Liu Wenhui mobilized Dong Yanping's 111th Division of the 51st Army, Li Lanchi's 112th Division of the 56th Army, Zhang Zhankui's 20th Reserve Division of the 39th Army, Tang Ying's 151st Division directly under the 15th Corps, and Xu Siping's artillery regiment directly under the deputy commander's unit, totaling about 38,000 people, with more than 40 75-meter mountain field guns and 105-meter heavy field guns, to advance rapidly eastward.
They arrived in Zaoyang the day after the encirclement and annihilation began, drove away the Japanese garrison troops who saw the situation was not good, and then quickly built temporary defensive fortifications west of Shahe and along the line of Zongzi Mountain, Guangtu Mountain and Dashanbao, thereby blocking the first wave of Japanese reinforcements.
However, Liu Wenhui seemed to feel that it was not safe enough. In order to prevent the story of Zhang Zizhong's troops' failure on the verge of success from happening to himself, Liu Wenhui felt that he should add fuel to the fire of the Japanese army to prevent the 11th Army from having enough energy to withdraw troops to reinforce the Zaoyang front.
For this purpose, Liu Wenhui specially called Zhang Binnan to ask for help.
Zhang Binnan quickly agreed to Liu Wenhui's request and ordered Pan Wenhua's 17th Corps, which was lingering in the area east of Wufeng, to withdraw Mu Suzhong of the 168th Division of the 44th Army and Huang Gang of the 19th Reserve Division of the New 19th Army to move to Zhicheng and Songzi to threaten the Japanese army's rear in Yichang, shake the Yangtze River water transport, and thereby disperse the Japanese army's forces...
After a loud bang, before the smoke from the recoiled cannon had cleared, the artillerymen, already sweating profusely, had already rushed to the front of the cannon.
Some were clearing the chamber, some were ejecting the bullet, and some were even being loaded quickly with a shell weighing more than ten pounds. After just one minute, all preparations for another shot were completed.
The preparation speed of the 105mm heavy field gun is definitely not as fast as the six- or seven-minute high speed that mountain artillery units can usually achieve, nor is it as fast as the two- or three-minute firing speed that the same type of artillery can achieve in the hands of the Northwest Artillery.
But in the eyes of other spectators, the heavy artillery unit's ability to carry out continuous firing at a rate of one round per minute was already an incredible high standard. Based on this, they could loudly announce that the 11th Independent Heavy Artillery Regiment was a rare elite division in the country.
There was another loud bang, and the shell flew out of the gun in a relatively straight trajectory, covering a distance of nearly 4,000 yards, and hit the ground heavily, flattening everything around it in a moment.
"Mother!"
"asshole!"
"Michiko!"
"May the great god Hachiman bless you!"
The Japanese soldiers who were hiding from the bombardment either ran cursing regardless of the scattered shrapnel or knelt in the bomb craters in the standard bulletproof posture, covering their ears with their hands and praying for the blessings of their families and gods.
At this moment, in the eyes of the Japanese army, time seemed to stop flowing...
In fact, the Japanese army had never seen such a degree of bombardment, but usually they were delighted as the perpetrators. Therefore, when they truly experienced this baptism of steel, some unexpected confusion would occasionally occur.
Fortunately, the heavy artillery bombardment that frightened the Japanese army soon stopped. This was not because the artillery unit was soft-handed, but it was a necessary action to ensure the life of the barrel.
You should know that before the war, Zhang Xueliang had purchased 72 105mm Northwest-made German-style heavy field guns for the Northeast Army from the Northwest for six battalions so that they could be assigned to each army.
However, Wan Fulin's poor performance in the Xudong Campaign caused huge losses to the Northeast Army and Northeast Artillery.
After November 1938, the Northeast Army was ordered to reorganize and reorganize, and the heavy artillery unit could only be reduced to 5 heavy artillery battalions and 11 heavy artillery companies, with a total of no more than 32 guns.
In fact, this number was less than half of the pre-war number. Huang Yongan's 11th Independent Heavy Artillery Regiment under the First Corps only had 2 battalions, 5 companies and 15 heavy field guns. Among these 15 heavy field guns, only 2 companies with 6 guns could be used on the Zaoyang Line.
Zhang Xueliang also tried to ask the Northwest to supplement the heavy artillery units of the Northeast Army, but the Northwest Joint Logistics Headquarters refused to provide any more heavy artillery to the Northeast Army on the pretext that the 105 heavy field gun was not suitable for the mountainous areas on the border between Henan and Hubei. However, the supply of artillery shells was not restricted. Even after Zhang Xueliang later served as the director of the Northwest Ordnance Bureau, he was unable to improve this.
Since there was no hope of supply, the Northeast Army naturally cherished the use of these big guys. Even if they had to pull them out and fire a few shots, they could only fire and stop, and would never dare to waste the short service life of the gun barrel. Therefore, the scene before our eyes allowed the Japanese army to break free from the depths of hell.
Of course, the Japanese troops who were hit by heavy artillery bombardment were not having an easy time either. Within just five minutes, more than three-digit casualties were reported in the encirclement plowed by 30 heavy artillery shells, not to mention the unexpected surprise of accidentally detonating a hidden Japanese artillery position and destroying three 75mm Type 38 field guns.
"Can you find out where the Chinese heavy artillery positions are?"
At this moment, Major General Yoshishige Saeda asked Lieutenant Colonel Hidenosuke Yamada, commander of the 101st Field Artillery Regiment, with a gloomy face.
"Can the Imperial Army's artillery destroy them?"
"The Chinese Army's heavy artillery positions are not static, and we cannot be sure which position the enemy will use to fire."
Lieutenant Colonel Yamada Hidenosuke answered dejectedly.
"Besides, the 75mm field guns used by our army have a short range and cannot increase the firing angle to increase the range. Therefore, even if we lock onto the enemy's artillery positions, we cannot deliver a devastating blow."
"Are we just going to let the Chinese army's heavy artillery destroy the Imperial Army 's positions one by one?"
Major General Saeda Yoshishige was furious, but Lieutenant Colonel Yamada looked helpless, so Saeda Yoshishige grabbed the field telephone.
"Get me Captain Oshima."
The phone was not connected, probably because it was cut by shrapnel during the shelling. Saeda was just about to ask the telephone operator to check the line when he heard shouts of victory outside. He looked at Yamada in confusion.
"what happened?"
"Sir."
A Japanese staff officer with gauze wrapped on his head rushed in excitedly.
"The plane. Our plane."
Yoshishige Saeda showed joy on his face. Regardless of his subordinates' obstruction, he rushed out of the shelter and looked up.
Under the blue sky and white clouds, several Japanese planes covered with plaster pills were seen flying towards the Chinese army's positions in a show of force.
Bombs were dropped and strafing was carried out, and soon several obvious columns of smoke rose into the sky.
"Good job. It would be even better if we could knock out the Chinese heavy artillery."
Lieutenant Colonel Yamada beside him was gesticulating with joy. As he spoke, the circling Japanese planes seemed to have discovered something and immediately swooped down somewhere like vultures smelling the stench of a corpse.
"Great! We must have discovered the Chinese army's heavy artillery! Come on, blow it up!"
However, what Saeda and Yamano who were watching the battle did not expect was that the Chinese side would actually resist. This was not just the insignificant sporadic firepower of the Czech machine guns. The Japanese planes were faced with not only 20mm Suroto dual-purpose machine gun shells, but more importantly, dense 12.7mm special anti-aircraft machine gun shells.
The Suroton anti-aircraft gun was fine. Although it had a large caliber, its rate of fire was low and it could not pose much threat to high-speed Japanese planes. But the 12.7mm special anti-aircraft machine gun was different. The rapidly fired bullets formed a series of fire nets in the air, tightly blocking the Japanese bombing route.
If it were just that, the Japanese planes would not be afraid, but the power of the 12.7mm machine gun bullets was great enough. Just two bullets were enough to penetrate the thin shell of the Japanese plane. If it happened to hit the fuel tank, it would immediately create an expensive torch.
Seeing that several bombing attempts failed and a fighter plane finally escaped with a trail of black smoke, Major General Saeda couldn't help but feel anxious: "Send another message to the division headquarters and the army headquarters. Our detachment is deeply surrounded by the Chinese army. The enemy's heavy artillery has repeatedly bombarded and bullets have rained down. Many places of our detachment's positions have been damaged, and the Tangzhuang position has also been divided... What's more worrying is that there are only a few artillery pieces left, and the shortage of ammunition is even more serious. I hope the division headquarters and the army headquarters can give clear guidance..."
The Saeda Detachment was in imminent danger, and the Nonomura Detachment was also facing a siege from at least three divisions of the Northwest Army. In this critical situation, it seemed that the Japanese army could only resolve the current crisis with a decisive attack.
On April 26, the 27th Division and the 32nd Division, which had been severely criticized by the front headquarters, finally attacked from the Minquan front. The two sides then engaged in a full-scale battle on the long battlefield between Lankao and Qixian.
Of course, even though Lieutenant General Masaharu Honma, who claimed to be sober, took action, he also kept a hand in case of emergency. He conspired with Lieutenant General Wu Den'nan, the commander of the 36th Division, to use the troops of the 36th Division that did not go south as the general reserve to hold the Ningling line to support the battlefields in the west and south...
