"On July 3, the Chinese attacked the field hospital of the 116th Division of our 11th Army. Although our army suffered heavy losses, it can also be seen that the Chinese were at the end of their rope and had to risk their lives to sneak out of the defense line and use suicide attacks against us.
The army fought back.
Now, the 3rd Division and the 27th Division have arrived, and the total force of our army encircling Hengyang has reached 100,000. Hengyang is a small place, and our army can easily break it!" Yokoyama Yongzai issued 4 troops to the Hengyang front line.
This is what the lieutenant general's division commander said in his message.
For Isamu Yokoyama to be able to send such a message of confidence after repeated setbacks, it is natural that he has sufficient strength.
At this time, the 3rd Division formed troops in the east and north of Hengyang City, and the 27th Division gathered to replenish troops with up to 10,000 soldiers. The 116th Division, which had returned to 20,000 men, mainly attacked the south of Hengyang City, and the 68th Division in the west of the city also added more than 7,000 troops.
Welcomed his new division commander Lieutenant General Tsutsumi Mikio.
There are also two independent mixed brigades serving as reserves and as Hengyang's peripheral defense, stationed 15 kilometers away from Hengyang.
In addition, the Japanese army's use of two divisions to pave roads finally yielded results. Not only did a large amount of supplies arrive in Hengyang through the roads that had been built, a heavy artillery brigade equipped with 32 150-meter heavy artillery has also arrived in the south of the city, and a
The 3rd Division of Tanks specially dispatched by the China Dispatch Army Headquarters for support.
The sharpest sword that Hengshan Yong thought he had prepared for the Hengyang defenders was in place.
The difference between the 3rd Chariot Division and the 3rd Chariot Division is that there is an additional word chariot in front of it, but the two are not the same thing at all.
The world war has entered its third year. Mechanized troops are no longer a new term to the Western world, but this new thing is extremely rare in the East, whether in China or Japan.
The 3rd Tank Division is an extremely rare mechanized force that Japan has on the Chinese battlefield.
The division is organized under the jurisdiction of the 5th and 6th tank brigades, and each tank brigade has 2 tank regiments.
Take the 13th tank regiment that came to Hengyang this time as an example. The tank regiment has 1 light tank squadron, equipped with Type 95 light tanks; 3 tank squadrons, equipped with Type 97 modified medium tanks; 1
A squadron of artillery tanks.
The 13th Tank Regiment has a total of 14 combat light tanks, 57 medium tanks, 27 vehicles, and 1,071 troops.
The Type 95 light tank is easy to understand. It is an upgraded version of the Type 94, commonly known as Xiaodouding. It just has an extra 37mm rapid-fire gun. The armor protection is actually the same. The armor thickness is 6~~12mm.
When it comes to big guns like anti-tank guns, even the 12.7mm heavy machine gun equipped by the Four Lines Regiment can tear through its armor at a direct range of 300 meters.
The Type 97 medium tank is quite rare. According to the Japanese self-test, the protective armor of the Type 97 medium tank can withstand the direct fire of the Type 94 rapid-fire gun at a distance of 150 meters, but it cannot withstand the Germanic weapons used by the Chinese at the same distance.
It is a 37mm anti-tank gun. However, its attack capability is not weak. It has a 47mm rapid-fire cannon, which can penetrate 45mm thick steel armor at a shooting distance of 400 meters.
Neither of these two tanks can match the ultra-light tanks currently equipped by the Four Troops!
In addition to the 13th Tank Regiment, the 3rd Tank Division also sent combat units such as the 3rd Motorized Infantry Regiment, the 3rd Motorized Artillery Regiment, and the Division Search Team to Hengyang.
The 3rd Motorized Infantry Regiment is one of the few mechanized units of the Japanese army that has both combat vehicles and infantry transport vehicles. In addition to a light armored vehicle squadron at its headquarters, the Regiment has three infantry brigades, a wing artillery squadron, and maintenance units.
The squadron has a total of 25 combat vehicles, 15 armored personnel carriers, about 90 vehicles, and a total of 4,000 combat personnel.
The 3rd Mobile Artillery Regiment has three artillery brigades. The 1st Brigade has 12 Type 90 field guns towed by cars, and the 2nd and 3rd Brigades have 12 Type 91 105mm howitzers towed by cars.
The division search team has 4 squadrons, of which the 1st and 2nd squadrons are light tank squadrons, each with 15 Type 95 light tanks, and the 4th Squadron is a Type 97 medium tank squadron, with 12 tanks. The 3rd
The squadron is a mounted infantry squadron. The search team has a total of more than 800 personnel.
Even though the 3rd Tank Division transferred from Henan Province only has about 6,000 troops, it has hundreds of tanks of various types, nearly 30 artillery pieces, and its combat capability is even stronger than that of a Type B division.
This was clearly demonstrated in the recent Battle of Yu Province!
After capturing Xuchang, the Japanese North China Front Army, with the 3rd Tank Division as the core, launched a lightning offensive in the flank areas where General Tang's troops were gathered at that time, such as Shaanxi County, Linru and other places. In less than three days, they captured Tang's territory.
Linru is the important town behind the general's headquarters.
So far, the 12th Army, the main force of the Japanese army fighting in Henan Province, has completely succeeded in encircling the troops of General Tang. The three core units of General Tang, the 13th, 29th, and 85th, were all besieged. General Tang had no choice but to
Commanding all the ministries to break through the mountains around Song County, the entire Henan Province campaign was defeated and the situation was settled.
Although the 3rd Tank Division succeeded in the field battle, the attack on the city defense did not go so smoothly, especially in the first attack on Luoyang City, the 3rd Machine Infantry Regiment suffered 215 casualties.
Many Japanese tanks were destroyed by the Chinese 94th Division's anti-aircraft artillery under Luoyang City.
The regiment also suffered heavy losses in the entire "Henan Province Operation", with nearly a thousand casualties.
This also shows that the so-called mechanized division of the Japanese army is just a pseudo-mechanization. Its artillery fire attack capabilities and self-protection capabilities are far from a true mechanized division.
But, on the Chinese battlefield, it is enough!
China itself admitted in its summary report of the Henan Province battle that the Japanese armored forces' participation in the war was "like a strong wind, which resulted in the total defeat of the war, which is extremely sad."
At this point, the total strength of the Japanese infantry besieging Hengyang City reached 90,000, as well as more than 100 tanks of various types, and nearly 200 artillery pieces of various calibers, including 32 150-caliber heavy artillery and 24 105-caliber howitzers.
Just looking at the number of people and equipment, it seems that there is no need to fight hard. The numbers alone can crush Hengyang City.
To be precise, except for the time in 1937 when the Japanese 10th Army besieged the small town of Songjiang with 100,000 troops, the Japanese army had never attacked a Chinese-held city with such a crushing advantage.
Just judging from the amount of heavy equipment invested by the Japanese army, the pressure faced by Hengyang City this time is far greater than that of Songjiang in the past.
After all, the 30,000 Songjiang defenders that day received military orders only to defend the city for three days and nights to buy time for the army to evacuate.
At this time, Hengyang had no way to retreat.
Hengshan Yong even gave up the essence of siege warfare of "surrounding three towers and one tower" and surrounded Hengyang to death.
It is definitely an exaggeration to say that not even a fly can fly out of Hengyang City. It is possible for one or two people or even dozens of people to sneak out of the encirclement at night, but it is impossible to say that hundreds of people can leave Hengyang.
Don't think about it.
On July 8, as the 4th Regiment of the Japanese Independent Heavy Troops transported artillery shells to the suburbs of Hengyang, Isamu Yokoyama believed that the time was ripe for a second full-scale attack on Hengyang.
Hengyang City, which had been silent for 20 days, once again heard a deafening explosion.
It is said that the thick smoke rising in the direction of Hengyang can be clearly seen even 30 kilometers away.
The Japanese attack routine is still the trilogy of "aircraft bombing, artillery bombardment, and infantry charge". However, compared with the previous first round of attacks, this round of Japanese heavy firepower, especially the coordinated attack of air force and artillery, is stronger than the previous attack.
Increased exponentially.
In the air, although the Japanese 5th Air Corps lost precious bombers and had no time to replenish them, with the full support of the Japanese Army Base Camp, more than 100 Zero fighters and 97 Explosive Fighters were reinforced.
The 5th Air Corps, which received huge reinforcements, had high morale and took the initiative to conduct air strikes on Zhishan Airport and several important airports in Guilin and Liuzhou. China and the United States dispatched hundreds of fighter jets to respond.
On this day, China and Japan moved the air combat from Hengyang to various parts of Guizhou Province. On July 9 alone, 29 Chinese pilots died and 39 fighter planes were lost, while the American side lost 12 pilots and lost 28 fighter planes.
The Japanese side had a record-breaking 87 downed fighter planes. Only 6 Japanese pilots who were shot down were parachuted and captured. The rest were all killed in battle, setting a record for the number of fighter planes lost by both sides since the beginning of the war between China and Japan!
In terms of the number of fighter planes lost, China and the United States should have achieved a small victory. However, several important airstrips were destroyed by crazy Japanese fighter planes by crashing into the ground, causing several important airports to take off and land aircraft in the next few days.
The quantity had to be reduced significantly.
This was a disastrous victory, and at least for the next week, air support for Hengyang would be significantly weakened.
This also led to the fact that during the day on July 9, not a single Chinese fighter plane appeared over Hengyang. Instead, the Japanese army dispatched the last 32 fighter planes to bomb the urban area of HY and the hilltop positions in the south and west of the city.
Although the air defense battalion of the Fourth Line Regiment fought back hard, the bombs were carried by fighter jets this time, and they all dropped bombs at an altitude of 3,000 meters. Only the 40mm anti-aircraft cannon could pose a threat to the Japanese planes. They only shot down 3 Japanese planes, but the Japanese planes
The bombs were still dropped on the Chinese position.
In addition, the Japanese army concentrated all artillery to bombard the south and west of the city, especially the 32 150mm heavy artillery, which posed a particularly huge threat to the Chinese positions.
The man-made cliff at Zhangjiashan Heights 221 was bombarded by 150mm heavy artillery for four hours, and finally completely collapsed, turning into a slope that can be climbed up by running hard.
The ten-meter-deep trench in front was also destroyed by terrible artillery fire, and even the machine gun positions hidden in the trench were reduced to rubble.
Even the 16 soldiers from a machine gun squad who were hiding in the soldier cave behind were killed by the shock.
However, the Japanese army was still not satisfied. They launched an artillery bombardment from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. for a full 10 hours, creating the best artillery preparations of the Japanese army on the battlefield.
According to statistics after the war, in this day's shelling alone, the Japanese army consumed 26,000 rounds of various artillery shells including grenades, armor-piercing projectiles, poison gas bombs, etc. If calculated based on 10 hours and 36,000 seconds, there would be an average of nearly one round per second.
The shells fell on the Chinese position.
This intensity may not be comparable to the intensity in which the Americans fired 300,000 rounds of artillery fire on China a day in the Battle of the Five Sacred Mountains on the Northland Icefield in the next few years, but on the Chinese battlefield, it is already top-notch.
At dusk, the Japanese army launched a mountainous charge towards Hengyang!
North of the city!
The west of the city defended by the 7th Regiment of the 3rd Division was surrounded by Duxian Temple, Yanglin Temple, Qingshan Street, County Middle School and other positions. After being continuously bombarded by 105 howitzers and poison gas bombs, more than 500 soldiers were lost that day and died on the spot.
Nearly 300 people!
Even with sufficiently complete fortifications, the battle damage was still 25%, which is enough to prove the terrifying power of Japanese artillery fire.
But after suffering under artillery fire that lasted all day, they had to face the attack of the 68th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Division.
The 68th Infantry Regiment, which served as the main force in attacking the north of the city, directly dispatched its three infantry brigades. Under the cover of infantry artillery and heavy machine guns, they launched a charge against the six main positions defended by the 7th Regiment.
There were even eight Type 97 tanks belonging to the 13th Tank Regiment accompanying the infantry in the charge!
The 47mm rapid-fire gun equipped on the tank is enough to penetrate any heavy machine gun bunker that dares to fire despite remaining in the artillery fire.
The 7th Regiment of the 3rd Division only had two combat anti-aircraft guns assigned to them, which was really insufficient to deal with the eight Type 97 tanks that were just 400 meters away and firing to cover the infantry charge.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Regardless of military strength or firepower, the 7th Regiment is far inferior to the Japanese army!
In normal times, the Chinese position with only 1,500 people remaining would have an 80% chance of being breached by the Japanese army's costly charge.
However, the Chinese officers and soldiers who have experienced a month of bloody battles and have been continuously inspired during these more than 20 days are extremely determined!
Moreover, in the past twenty days, they did not wait for the Japanese army to attack. They had already connected the 1,800-meter-wide defense line with deep trenches.
Not to mention that the Japanese were dizzy after entering the criss-crossing trenches, even the Chinese officers and soldiers who entered them did not know which infantry company the position belonged to without looking at the signboards with road signs.
In the past 20 days, the 7th Regiment has stocked the most not with bullets, but with grenades. On average, each officer and soldier has been allocated up to 30 grenades!
The tactics they adopted were very simple. They did not brave the rain of bullets fired from the Japanese heavy machine gun positions to suppress fire. Instead, they allowed the Japanese troops to get close to a distance of forty or fifty meters. In the desperate roar of the observers, "Grenade, throw it."
!”
Hundreds and thousands of grenades exploded in front of the position, forming a barrage and blasting the Japanese soldiers who were bending over and charging into pieces.
"cast!"
"cast!"
...
Accompanied by roars, within 20 minutes, the 7th Regiment dropped nearly 10,000 grenades from various positions, consuming 40,000 rounds of various bullets.
This is the amount of consumption that originally took an infantry brigade a whole day to complete. The 7th Regiment completed it in only 20 minutes. It would have been unthinkable before.
The massive firepower coverage also achieved fruitful results. There were more than 400 Japanese corpses in front of each position, and the wails of the wounded soldiers even overwhelmed the rumbling explosions on several occasions.
The Chinese side did not remain silent either. There were also roars and howls of pain.
Some wounded soldiers had their arms blown off and some of their intestines leaked out. They had to take off their military uniforms and wrap them around them to prevent them from coming out of the body.
Under that kind of extreme pain, even an iron man made of steel would not be able to help but cry out to relieve his pain!
"Hold on, brothers, hold on for me, I'll fight with the stupid devils!"
Not to mention ordinary soldiers, even the colonel commander of the regiment had a nearly six centimeter gash on his face caused by shrapnel. The flesh was turned up on both sides and opened and closed slightly as the army colonel continued to roar.
, like a baby's mouth.
This was caused by many crazy Japanese troops who broke through the grenade barricades made by the Chinese and blatantly threw grenades at the Chinese trenches dozens of meters away.
The Chinese officers and soldiers in the trench faced the melon mine that fell into the trench. They also had no room to hide. They could only stare with blood-red eyes, throw the grenade in their hands fiercely, and then crawl deep in the trench to wait for the judgment of fate.
If you die, you can only die!
Those who are not dead shake their groggy heads, shake off the dirt from their bodies, and rejoin the battle!
If you can't hide, then don't hide. If you can't retreat, then stay where you are. Compared to the Japanese in the wild, they still have endless trenches to take shelter.
This should be regarded as a relatively rare case in the history of war between China and Japan in which grenades were used to kill each other face to face.
The 68th Infantry Regiment was forced to retreat, and its position in the north of the city stood still.
However, in this wave of crazy shooting and grenades, the 7th Regiment once again suffered more than 100 casualties.
Due to the injuries caused by the explosion, many soldiers could not wait to be carried to the rear and bled excessively before taking their last breath.
In fact, even if these wounded soldiers were carried to a field hospital in the city, the probability of death would be higher than 70%.
It's not that they will die from wound infection, but the massive blood loss will not give them a chance to wait for wound infection.
In this wave of battles of the 7th Regiment of the 3rd Division, the number of soldiers killed in battle almost filled up an infantry battalion.
However, they had no time to cry. In the afterglow of the setting sun, the second wave of Japanese charges came.
The commander of the 11th Army, Yokoyama Isamu, ordered that after a day-long artillery preparation, the infantry would attack until the early morning of the next day.
Waiting for the 7th Regiment, there are at least four waves of attacks.
But the intensity of the Japanese attack faced by the 7th Regiment, looking at the entire Hengyang battlefield, is not even among the top five!
Huangchaling and Zhangjiashan were the two most important positions attacked by the Japanese army this time.
Seeing the Japanese troops covering the mountains and plains like locusts, attacking from three directions, even the 3rd Battalion Commander Li Jiujin, who was well-informed and had practiced calmness everywhere, couldn't help but shrink his pupils!
Shinkuro Ochiai, commander of the Japanese 27th Division in charge of the Huangcha Ridge battlefield, stood in the field headquarters bunker only 1,200 meters away from Huangcha Ridge, looking at the Chinese position with a telescope at the many cliffs that had been blown down.
