Chapter 48 The Third Battle of East Henan (XVI)
The sudden Japanese National Detachment was forced to pause and wait for reinforcements, but Huang Xiansheng's troops would not be stupid enough to just sit there and do nothing.
So, when the two 105mm heavy field guns from the 101st Field Artillery Regiment finally overcame the man-made rugged road and appeared in front of Colonel Kei Kunikata, the Japanese army, which had regrouped, was shocked to find that the Chinese soldiers in front of them had completely disappeared in the past 22 hours.
Although the Northeast Army in front of them escaped, the Kuomintang detachment managed to capture Linying and approached Xuchang, an important node on the southern wing of Zheng County.
Inspired by the experience of the 101st Division in the Battle of Linying, the Japanese Army in North China suddenly realized that instead of exchanging casualties with the Northwest Army in Zhongmu and Kaifeng, it would be better to concentrate its forces to attack other Chinese troops with weaker combat effectiveness, thereby achieving flanking and seizing Zhengxian first, and then opening up the Pinghan Road and encircling the Northwest Army and even the hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops in the entire Hebei-Shandong-Henan War Zone in the Zhengxian-Xingyang encirclement.
Dazzled by the wonderful prospect of resolving the Henan issue in one battle, the 5th Division, the 35th Division, and even the 110th Division, which had already deployed all four infantry regiments, began to shift the focus of their attack.
However, it takes a certain amount of adjustment time to readjust the focus of the attack. Therefore, when the Japanese army re-intensified its attacks on Xuchang and Xinzheng, the main forces of the Second, Seventh, Eighth Corps and the Third Army in the above-mentioned areas had already withdrawn to the established defensive positions outside Zhengxian County, leaving only a few delaying troops guarding the positions for the Japanese army to "receive". The main forces of the Japanese divisions turned to attack Xuchang and Xinzheng, not only failing to achieve the established goal of defeating the main Chinese forces, but also being a loss-making situation, as it gave the Kaifeng defenders more time to retreat.
Just as the 5th Division and the 101st Division of the Japanese army were meeting at the Xuchang Railway Station, the covering troops of the 229th Division were also retreating from the grain transport site in Hedong to Zhongmu.
By the time the Japanese army, whose punch was in vain, came to their senses and wanted to join forces with the 36th Division, which was fighting alone, to attack the Chinese blocking forces on the Zhongmou Line, they were greeted only by the smoke and dust from the comprehensive explosion between Kaifeng and Zhengxian sections of the Longhai Line. Thus, the war, which the Chinese called the "Second Lanfeng Battle" and the Japanese called the "Fourth Battle of East Henan", came to an end.
Yes, China can no longer fight.
In this battle, 12 Chinese divisions with weak strength suffered varying degrees of damage from the Japanese army, and other troops participating in the two war zones also suffered losses of varying degrees.
According to incomplete statistics after the war, the loss of troops alone was more than 150,000. In addition, the Japanese army also lost 224 artillery pieces with a caliber above 37 mm, more than 300 mortars of various types, more than 100 anti-aircraft machine guns and anti-aircraft machine guns, more than 70 tanks of various types, 26 armored vehicles, 200 cars and locomotives, 132 aircraft, and millions of rounds of ammunition in the Kaifeng military station inventory and more than 100,000 civilian casualties. In fact, the Japanese army could no longer fight.
The Japanese troops in central China on the southern front were planning the Battle of Changsha and were facing a Chinese counterattack in northwestern and southwestern Hubei. Therefore, Okamura Yasuji had strictly ordered the 101st Division and the 33rd Division to return to Hubei immediately after joining forces with the Japanese troops in north China to capture Xuchang.
The Japanese troops in North China had already been exhausted due to early losses, long supply lines and other problems.
According to the archives of the First Demobilization Ministry of the Japanese Army (i.e. the Army Ministry) that were reviewed after the war, it was discovered that in this battle, 8 Japanese divisions participated in the battle, with a total of nearly 200,000 troops deployed. Recruitment was drawn from the country and overseas Chinese three times. The final number of casualties exceeded 50,000. Among them, a considerable number of Japanese wounded could not withstand the long transportation process and died on the way because the Chinese side had massively destroyed the transportation lines. After the battle, both sides redeployed their troops and re-defended.
Among them, the Japanese Army used the 5th Division to guard along the Pinghan Road in Xinzheng, Xuchang and Linying, the 110th Division rested along the Longhai Road in Zhongmu, Kaifeng and other places, the 36th Division went to Yancheng, Luohe and Xinyang to guard the various strongholds on the Pinghan Road, and the 35th Division withdrew to the line of Xuzhou, Guide and Suxian.
The Chinese side retreated with the Second Corps to Xinmi and Dengfeng, the Eighth Corps to hold Yu County, the Third Army to control the northern Ru River Valley, the Seventh Corps to Jiyuan and Meng County north of , and the Second Army to set up defenses in Zheng County and Xingyang.
As a result, a new round of confrontation broke out between the two sides.
If you look carefully at the war zone map, you can find that although China lost a large amount of territory in this war, the situation in Henan has become favorable to China.
The Japanese army was forced to set up defenses along the long transportation lines. The situation along the Longhai Road was still good, but as for the Pinghan Road, the Japanese army was simultaneously facing attacks from China's two eastern and western war zones.
Even along the Longhai Railway where the situation was relatively good, the Japanese army, with its outnumbered troops, was unable to immediately launch further attacks on the vast Chinese-controlled areas on both sides of the railway line, not to mention the Pinghan Railway and Jinpu Railway where the garrison forces were even more outnumbered.
Since the Japanese army could not expand the occupied area, they could not immediately obtain enough manpower to rebuild the damaged transportation lines. The inability to repair the transportation lines meant that they could not obtain sufficient supplies to launch a new round of attacks.
Therefore, in a sense, the initiative of the battle has shifted to China.
Of course, the Japanese army was absolutely unwilling to fall into such a predicament. Therefore, after a short period of rest, the two sides were bound to face a new round of war.
In order to prepare for the inevitable battle, China quickly made a series of adjustments.
On November 7, 1939, the Northwest Military and Political Committee announced a series of personnel changes: Zhang Binnan, commander-in-chief of the Hunan-Hubei-Baoshu War Zone, returned to serve as deputy commander-in-chief of the Northwest National Defense Army, and the post of war zone commander was taken over by deputy commander-in-chief Liu Wenhui. At the same time, Lieutenant General Wang Baoyuan was appointed as deputy commander-in-chief of the Hunan-Hubei-Baoshu War Zone.
The Hebei-Shandong-Henan War Zone was renamed the Hebei-Henan War Zone, and the commander-in-chief Ma Kang was transferred to the commander-in-chief of the Mongolian Border Army Group. Shang Zhen, deputy commander-in-chief of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui War Zone, was appointed as the successor commander-in-chief of the Hebei-Henan War Zone.
Lieutenant General Chen Youliang, former commander-in-chief of the Mongolian Border Army Group, was appointed as deputy commander-in-chief of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Theater.
Li Guo, commander-in-chief of the Shanxi-Chahar War Zone, was transferred to become commander-in-chief of the reserve army group. Yang Aiyuan, former deputy commander-in-chief of the war zone, was promoted to commander-in-chief. Huang Sanxi, former commander-in-chief of the reserve army group, was transferred to take over as deputy commander-in-chief of the Shanxi-Chahar War Zone. Zhu Shouguang, chief of staff of the war zone, and Ge Jingen, deputy chief of staff, swapped their positions.
From the above appointments, it can be seen that the Northwest system gave up all the war zone commander positions and retreated to the second line in order to win over the side factions and achieve "real" unity among all factions.
It was precisely based on the Northwest’s concessionary attitude that both the Shanxi faction and the Northeast faction responded positively.
On November 9, 1939, the Northwest Military and Political Committee announced that former Vice Chairman Zhang Xueliang resigned from his post to serve as the second deputy commander-in-chief of the Northwest National Defense Army, and General Wang Shuchang (Northeast faction), General Yang Hucheng (did not take office), Lieutenant General Huang Guoliang (Shanxi faction), and Lieutenant General Geng Changchun (Northwest faction) were added as Vice Chairmen of the Military Commission.
On November 10, the Northwest Military Commission issued another order to cancel the numbers of He Zhuguo's Third Army and the 53rd Army and reorganize them into the Third Corps.
He Zhuguo was transferred to the position of corps commander, Jin Kuibi, commander of the 53rd Army, was transferred to the position of commander of the 63rd Army, Tang Junyao's 114th Division of the 53rd Army was incorporated into the 57th Army of the Second Corps, Sun Dequan's 130th Division was incorporated into the 63rd Army, and Feng Zhanhai's 103rd Division was transferred to the 51st Army of the First Corps.
In return for the disbanding of the 53rd Army, the Northwest Joint Logistics Command allocated 12 105mm heavy artillery and 18 75mm mountain and field artillery to the Third Corps.
The Third Corps was partially transferred with the Second Corps, which also belonged to the Northeast Army system, and the independent 19th Artillery Regiment was established on the basis of the Northwest transfer. At this point, except for the 16th Corps of Miao Chengliu, which belonged to the Jiangsu, Xuzhou, Shandong, Henan and Anhui war zones, the three corps of the Northeast Army system had achieved unified organization. While adjusting the Northeast Army, the Northwest National Defense Army held a review meeting on the "Second Lanfeng Campaign" in Xi'an.
The meeting mainly discussed the role of the mechanized brigade in the Battle of Lanfeng and the actual use of the 227th Division organized according to the new system on the battlefield.
Before the meeting ended, Dai Jiliang also specially arranged an introduction to the war in Europe.
In view of the German army's performance in the Battle of Poland and the powerful assault capability of the tank troops with air support in the Battle of Lanfeng, and also as a response to the Central Army's establishment of the so-called first armored division in China, after the battle review meeting, the Northwest Military Commission issued guidance on the reorganization of twelve mechanized brigades into four armored divisions.
According to this guiding opinion, Dai Jiliang personally proposed that Lieutenant General Ma Dabao, one of the first regimental commanders of the Shaanxi Army, be appointed as Chief of Staff of the Armored Forces Command. He also proposed that four senior lieutenant generals of the Northwest Army, Zhang Yueting, Zhao Lianquan, Sheng Chun, and Geng Zhijie, be appointed as commanders of the 1st to 4th Light Armored Divisions, and that four major generals, Pang Dazhang, Long Ziqiang, Guan Zhidao, and Sun Liren, be appointed as chiefs of staff of each division.
The Military Commission naturally approved this unconditionally.
Subsequently, the Military Commission's Organization Bureau quickly proposed a plan for the organization of light divisions. According to this plan, each motorized infantry division was to be composed of 2 armored regiments, 1 motorized infantry regiment, 1 assault artillery regiment, 1 anti-aircraft artillery regiment, 1 motor transport regiment, 1 armored search battalion, 1 rear maintenance plant, 2 front emergency repair shops, 1 field repair battalion, 1 field hospital and 1 field communications team.
According to the organization plan, the armored regiment will have a fixed organization of 2 tank battalions, 1 armored combat battalion, 1 air defense battalion, 1 support artillery battalion, and 1 maintenance company.
The motorized infantry regiment is composed of 1 tank battalion, 2 armored transport battalions, 1 air defense battalion, 1 support artillery battalion, and 1 maintenance company.
The assault gun regiment is composed of 3 assault gun battalions, 1 anti-aircraft battalion, and 1 transport battalion.
The air defense regiment is composed of two twin-barreled 20mm self-propelled anti-aircraft gun battalions, one single-barreled 40mm Bofors self-propelled anti-aircraft gun battalion, and one transport and supply battalion.
The Motor Transport Regiment is composed of three transport truck battalions.
Each tank battalion is composed of 18 tracked vehicles, the armored combat battalion is composed of 18 four-wheeled armored vehicles, the armored transport battalion is composed of 18 six-wheeled/half-tracked armored personnel carriers, and the assault gun battalion is composed of 12 75mm short-barreled self-propelled infantry guns and 6 47mm long-barreled self-propelled anti-tank guns .
The regimental anti-aircraft battalion was equipped with 18 three-barrel 12.7mm self-propelled anti-aircraft machine gun vehicles, the regimental support artillery battalion was equipped with 12 155mm self-propelled howitzers, the divisional armored reconnaissance battalion was equipped with 6 four-wheeled armored vehicles and 54 motorcycles, the double-barrel 20mm self-propelled anti-aircraft gun battalion and the single-barrel 40mm Bofors self-propelled anti-aircraft gun battalion had 18 each.
Self-propelled anti-aircraft guns The entire light armored division has a total of 90 tanks of various types, 78 armored fighting vehicles and armored transport vehicles, 54 assault guns of various types, 36 self-propelled artillery pieces/vehicles of various types, 108 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns and self-propelled anti-aircraft machine guns, 300 other vehicles such as trucks and bicycles, and more than 10,700 troops.
Although the organization of light armored divisions should be unprecedented in China, a country with weak national strength, the quantity and quality of technical weapons equipped by each division were far from comparable to those of European armored divisions of the same period.
Therefore, it was named so by Dai Jiliang who had higher expectations. Of course, those who did not understand Dai Jiliang's difficulties simply believed that the name of the Light Division had greater concealment because the Light Division was actually the command agency of the Northwest Armored Forces in the strategic direction, and the deployment of each division reflected the pattern of "focusing on the West and neglecting the East".
One division is deployed in Ximengjinshan Province, one division is deployed in Tianshan Province in the northern Xinjiang, and one division is deployed in the neighboring Yumen Province and Longshang Province. The only division responsible for the east is stationed in Ningxia Province and Shaanxi Province.
Therefore, several armored battle groups or mixed detachments were deployed under the command of the Second, Third, Sixth and Seventh Armies on the front line of the Anti-Japanese War and the Kunlun Group (formerly the Nanjing Group) on the western front.
The command levels generally adopted in the Northwest Army's direct troops are army group, army, cluster, division, detachment, regiment, group and battalion. Among them, army group, army, division, regiment and battalion are all fixed organizations. Cluster is formed by several divisions during a campaign or battle and is cancelled after the campaign or battle. The same is true for detachment and group.
However, in this reorganization of the light division, in order to ensure the breakthrough capability in an independent direction and the needs of anti-tank warfare, the Northwest Supreme Military Authorities deliberately retained a battle group and mixed detachment similar to the Northwest Air Force Independent Aviation Team. This also means that the Northwest Armored Forces have a status similar to the original Silver Eagle Corps.
