After all, more than 1,800 people in the Needle Valley detachment divided the more than 600 kilograms of food. No matter how you say it, each person can still get more than half a kilogram. Not to mention that they can eat a full belly! It is still necessary to calm down the belly that keeps making gurgling sounds.
It can be done.
This is also thanks to the artillerymen of the Fourth Army Regiment, which killed more than 100 Japanese troops in one blow. In a sense, it alleviated the distribution crisis of the Needle Valley Detachment.
For the besieged 231 Infantry Regiment on the other side, the battle to drop supplies was even more brutal!
Because of Tang Tuanzuo's bounty order, several infantry regiments have used their troops to capture the high ground occupied by the Japanese army and divide and encircle the Japanese army's positions. This resulted in large encirclements with small encirclements, and many parachutes landed almost face to face.
Between the Chinese and Japanese positions.
Being face to face on the battlefield means that both sides are within the range of each other's rifles. Usually when soldiers from both sides move in the trenches, they would bend over and nod without even daring to reveal themselves. Now that supplies fell between the two sides, then
Naturally, this means that whoever dares to pick it up will be completely threatened by the opponent's machine rifle.
Normally, this food is not a priority for the Japanese army, but for the soldiers of the 231st Infantry Regiment, who are about to run out of food and have already cut their rations in half, it is a material even more valuable than ammunition.
However, the Chinese side, which had sufficient supplies of logistical supplies, did not have this need. Even under the commander's order, it began to use mortars and machine guns to destroy the wooden boxes.
Seeing that the precious food was about to be destroyed by the Chinese, the Japanese commander who originally wanted to wait until night to use the darkness to grab food finally couldn't help it. He did not hesitate to use machine guns and grenade launchers to provide fire cover, and sent infantry to try to deliver the supplies.
Drag back to position.
How could China allow the Japanese to succeed?
The companies, platoons, and squads of the Fourth Line Regiment basically all had walkie-talkies, and they immediately used the walkie-talkies to call each company and battalion to conduct mortar bombardment on supplies and Japanese troops. The infantry also used rifles, machine guns, and 60-pounders to counterattack the Japanese troops.
Although the regiments of the 11th Division and the 18th Division did not have as advanced communication equipment as the Four Lines Regiment, they also had signal flares. Three red flares shot into the sky, which was the signal for the Japanese attack. Not only did all the infantry go to the front line, but the mountain artillery battalion was also torn apart.
The artillery jacket carries out artillery bombardment of the specified area according to the telegraph order from the front, entering a full battlefield state.
For the Japanese army, a tragic "battle for supplies" broke out on the afternoon of the second day of the Lunar New Year.
The Chinese and Japanese sides not only invested infantry, but also used almost all artillery. The intensity of the artillery fire was no less than that of the strong attack on the Niuchangpo battlefield.
However, this time the 231st Infantry Regiment was at a complete disadvantage. The Chinese invested more than 8,000 infantrymen and nearly a hundred artillery pieces of various types, including nearly 24 75mm mountain guns alone.
After the war, the battle that broke out because the Japanese airdropped supplies was jokingly called a "battle for stuttering" by Tang Tuanzuo.
Regardless of the strength of the troops or the intensity of the artillery fire, the Japanese side was at a comprehensive disadvantage, and one can imagine what the final outcome would be.
After the war, according to statistics from battle reports collected from the Japanese army, in the battle that lasted until the early morning, the Japanese army killed more than 870 soldiers and seriously injured more than 500, but they could take back less than one ton of supplies.
If compared based on the number of casualties and supplies, one life is almost equivalent to 800 grams of food!
The entire 231st Infantry Regiment received only about 3 tons of supplies that day. For Colonel Yamada Masakichi, who still had more than 3,000 troops, this was actually just a drop in the bucket, and was only enough for the 231st Infantry Regiment to survive for two more days.
"It seems that we have to welcome the 11th Army to airdrop."
On the second day after the war, Tang Dao received statistics from various ministries on the number of Japanese killed. Cai Yongguan, commander of the 4th Battalion, even took advantage of a high ground where the Japanese soldiers were too aggressive in grabbing food, resulting in excessive casualties, and directly sent a platoon to chase them with submachine guns.
After driving the remaining Japanese troops out of the high ground with intensive firepower composed of semi-automatic rifles, they suddenly discovered that this was really a good idea.
It is completely possible to take advantage of the Japanese army's thirst for food to lure the Japanese army out of their positions and kill them. In this way, the purpose of consuming the opponent can be achieved without the need to attack by force.
Although the top brass of the war zone and the military and administrative departments were eagerly waiting for the Japanese troops to surrender, Tang Dao just wanted to bury these Japanese troops directly in the mountains as fertilizer.
"Currently, the surrounded Japanese officers and soldiers have begun to run out of food. From a humanitarian perspective, in order to avoid more unnecessary casualties, our Chinese officers and soldiers urge Japan to surrender immediately. We guarantee preferential treatment for prisoners of war, and we are even willing to invite Western ambassadors to our country.
The embassy personnel arrived at the scene of the battle to supervise, and also requested the theater headquarters to convey our wishes to the Japanese side." The division commander surnamed Hu sent a message to the commander of the third theater on the second day after the airdrop of supplies.
This must be a time for China to be proud and proud! If the Western world, especially the Americans, could see this scene with their own eyes, would they feel that their investment would receive a sufficiently generous return? The commander surnamed Chen in the Third War Zone is a famous
The clever guy immediately sensed from this message the possibility of maximizing victory.
Now China has obtained several low-interest loans from the United States. Even if it takes the mines in Yunnan Province as collateral, if the Americans want to get back the principal and interest or even directly gain control of the mines, the prerequisite is that China can
Win this national war.
If China fails, hundreds of millions of US dollars will be gone, and the mortgaged mines will become nothing more than a piece of waste paper.
Unless the Japanese collectively show off their brains, they will admit that the ownership rights of these mines belong to the Chinese creditors.
The creditor is the one who wants the debtor to do well the most, and his level of concern is comparable to that of parents.
Therefore, at the invitation of the top brass of the Ministry of Military Affairs, the embassies of the United States, the Empire on which the Sun Never Sets, and the Gallic Rooster Empire all sent military attachés and reporters to depart from the mountain city by boat and arrive at the Shipai battlefield on the seventh day of the Lunar New Year.
"This may not be the most tragic battlefield I have ever seen, but it is definitely the saddest battlefield I have ever seen. The once arrogant Imperial Japanese Army is like a pack of lambs surrounded by wolves on this battlefield.
Due to lack of food and ammunition, they have long been unable to launch any attack on the Chinese. Their annihilation is actually just a matter of time, or it depends on when the Chinese commander decides to start attacking them.
But obviously, the Chinese army colonel surnamed Tang who was responsible for the siege was not willing to lose even one soldier because he wanted to end this battlefield as soon as possible. His battle plan only had one word "trap". He used guns and cannons to make an indestructible prisoner.
Cage, leaving thousands of people inside to starve to death.
In my telescope field of view, I have seen the remains of at least ten Japanese army soldiers. For some unknown reason, they died on the hillside, but no one buried them. Maybe the Japanese army did not dare to leave the position easily, or maybe
, there are not many places left to dig graves in their position.
From a humanitarian perspective, I don’t hope it will be the latter!
But my wish did not come true!
As one of the special envoys to persuade the Japanese army to surrender, I accompanied Lieutenant Colonel Hausen, the German military attaché, into the position of the Atsuya detachment of the 11th Japanese Army, and persuaded Major General Atsuya Itsuhara and his troops to surrender.
That was perhaps the saddest Army general I have ever seen. Lieutenant Colonel Hausen used a few pieces of chocolate he had with him as gifts to the already sallow-faced Major General Habutani Itsuhara. It only took Major General Harudani a few seconds to give away the two pieces of chocolate.
He ate all the chocolate and gave the last two pieces to some of his personal guards.
I never thought that in the east, I could see green eyes. Maybe it was my imagination, but the guards looked at those chocolates like lovers they hadn't seen for several years.
Major General Itsuhara Tsutani, who had two pieces of chocolate as an energy supplement, had enough strength to reply to us at this time. They would not surrender and would fight the Chinese until the last man.
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I admire his spirit very much, but his approach is not advisable!
Because, along the way, we have seen too many corpses, most of which died of injuries and hunger.
No one buried them either. These bodies, which were extremely thin due to hunger, were piled together like firewood piles in rural China.
Perhaps it is not that there is not enough space to dig graves, but that the Japanese, who are extremely short of food, do not want and cannot waste their already precarious energy on digging a large number of graves.
I can guarantee that I did not tell the Chinese about the current situation of the Japanese on the battlefield. To a certain extent, I began to sympathize with these invaders, who are known for their brutality, because after seeing these invaders who had to use grass roots and bark
When I was eating Japanese people with blank eyes, I even thought I had walked into hell."
This is the actual record of the Chinese battlefield published on the front page of the famous Boston News the next day. The narrator is Lieutenant Colonel Frank, the military attaché of the Imperial Embassy who personally entered the Japanese positions.
According to this lieutenant colonel who participated in the First World War, the despair that the lifeless positions brought to people was even comparable to the depression of the Battle of Verdun in which he participated.
The vast majority of American people who favor China cheered, believing that this marked a new stage in the Chinese battlefield, and that the retreating Chinese army might counterattack and complete the feat of driving the invaders out of the country.
But across the ocean in Japan, there was an uproar!
The news that China dispatched troops to defeat the Battle of Shipai did not block the news, but simply explained that it did not fully achieve the pre-war goal. This did not have a big impact on the Japanese people.
The Imperial Army has been playing a triumphant song, and occasionally failed to complete its planned combat objectives, but this was within an acceptable range.
But I never thought that the failure to achieve the pre-war goal would be so ugly. Thousands of imperial officers and soldiers were trapped in the encirclement of the Chinese, and their situation was so miserable that a foreigner called it the saddest thing.
The battlefield is like hell!
Not bad, the Japanese, who have always been highly disciplined, especially college students, actually staged a parade and staged a sit-in demonstration around the palace, hoping to severely punish the frontline generals who did not act.
Seeing that the situation was not good, the Japanese Army Base Camp immediately ordered China to dispatch the Army Headquarters to provide adequate support to the surrounded imperial officers and soldiers.
To use a Chinese proverb: "If there are conditions, go ahead; if there are no conditions, create conditions and go ahead!"
It was against this background that the largest airdrop operation in the history of the Japanese Army took place over the small stone plate.
From February 5, 1941, the ninth day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, the Japanese army mobilized 40 transport aircraft and 100 Zero fighter jets to carry out the first round of airdrops of supplies. By February 10, 1941, the Japanese army almost maintained one round a day.
The airdrop of supplies exceeded 45 tons, and hundreds of fighter jets and transport aircraft were dispatched continuously to airdrop more than 250 tons of various supplies.
It is said that just raising these supplies required the logistics support of a division.
The Japanese are also very stimulated by American newspapers. For these hungry colleagues who still fight to the end, there are more than 100,000 boxes of high-quality canned beef, and there are more than 100,000 boxes of cooked and uncooked rice.
80,000 kilograms, as well as a lot of milk candies, fresh meat and various vegetables.
Even if only one-third of these supplies could reach the hands of the Japanese army, they would not only last for ten and a half days, they would also be absolutely nutritious, and they would be able to subsidize half of the fat they had previously consumed.
But the Japanese, who were only responsible for airdropping supplies, did not expect that from the day they airdropped supplies, the famous battle "for the stuttering" began.
The soldiers on the high ground desperately fired at the wooden boxes scattered in the fields, and the artillery positions that had received replenishment of artillery shells were free of charge to smash the artillery shells at the area where the Japanese troops rushed out of the bunker.
According to post-war statistics, in these five days of fighting for supplies alone, the entire Chinese side fired 1 million rounds of bullets and 4,200 artillery shells. The ammunition consumption was even more than the 11th Division's 4-day defense of the Shipai Central Fortress battlefield.
.
This terrifying rate of consumption of ammunition even shocked Commander Chen who received the report. He could not figure out how all the bullets and shells could be consumed in such a short period of five days.
Isn’t it said that the Japanese all have positions and anti-gun holes? Tang Dao, the top commander on the front line, also ordered not to attack by force. Why would Mao have such a huge consumption? Is it possible that he has nothing to do to conduct live ammunition training on the mountain?
If he did not have enough trust in the teacher surnamed Hu, General Chen surnamed at that moment would have even thought that this was a false report of consumption and embezzled the materials.
"Reporting to Chief Chen, this battle is a battle for supplies airdropped by the Japanese army. Within five days, we have killed at least more than 2,000 Japanese invaders. Japanese corpses litter the fields.
At this rate, the Japanese invaders will be defeated before long, and a complete victory for our army is just around the corner!" Faced with Commander Chen's doubts, Division Commander Hu called back.
"Not good!" After receiving the message, General Chen slapped his thigh.
In 5 days, 2,000 people were killed. How many Japs were there in total in the encirclement? If this continues, it is true that a great victory will be achieved, but don't even think about wanting the whole world to see thousands of Japs surrender.
"In view of the shortage of supplies, our department will still focus on siege and attack as a supplement, and try to force the Japanese army to surrender!" General Chen called back immediately.
"Master, Commander Chen has called back, what should we do?" the major general's chief of staff handed the message to the division commander surnamed Hu.
"Regiment Commander Tang just called. There are only three highlands left in the Needle Valley detachment. There are about 400 soldiers on the highlands. He has planned to prepare for four hours of artillery fire and launch a final battle against them."
"Let him do it! The troops invested there are mainly composed of his four-line regiment, and we will do whatever he says." Commander Hu put down his tea cup and looked into the distance with bright eyes.
"Master, Commander Chen will come back to his senses someday," the major general's chief of staff reminded cautiously.
"How do you feel when you look back? I just made suggestions that I should make as a subordinate. The war to snatch supplies from the Japanese invaders is also the most normal tactic. Could it be that our officers and soldiers just watched the Japanese gorging themselves from the sky?
The fragrant beef can that fell down? This is unreasonable!" Teacher surnamed Hu smiled faintly.
"We are soldiers, so we should consider issues from the perspective of the battlefield. Politics is not for fools like us.
By the way, help me tell Commander Tang that the artillery battalion of our 18th Army is requesting to participate in the battle to annihilate the Needle Valley Detachment!"
"yes!"
February 6th, the tenth day of the Chinese New Year!
A total of 36 75mm mountain guns, 8 150mm mortars, 6 80mm howitzers, 28 82mm mortars, 40 60mm mortars, a total of 118 artillery pieces of various types, the final attack on the Needle Valley Detachment
The three occupied highlands were bombarded.
The loud noise that could be transmitted to 15 kilometers away lasted from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m.!
"Needle Valley Detachment, it's over!" Colonel Yamada Masakichi looked into the distance and sat slumped in the cold trench.
It's not just a matter of sadness, but the Japanese Army Colonel knew that the next one would be his 231st Infantry Regiment.
His remaining 1,500 men, even at their peak, could not last three days in the face of such a level of bombardment.
Not to mention that everyone is now as hungry as a ghost in hell.
And the reason for all this is because of that damn bite.
