Chapter 537 The battle for the periphery of Tongliao
After the Battle of Bayantala, both Chen Hanzhang and Chuan Bingmi met by chance and adjusted their deployments at the same time. Their intentions were actually very simple. Chen Hanzhang wanted to capture Tongliao as soon as possible.
Control Kailu and open up direct contact with Wang Guangyu.
His opponent Kawami's idea is very simple, that is, to hold on for as much time as possible to ensure the flank security of the two divisions attacking Linxi, and to buy time for the Kwantung Army headquarters to adjust its deployment. For Tongliao, Umezu Yoshijiro
The general's order to him was that even if only one soldier was left, Tongliao and Kailu would never be lost.
Compared with the Linxi battlefield, the Kwantung Army headquarters paid far more attention to the Tongliao battlefield. Since the battle in the direction of Bayantala, General Umezu Yoshijiro and Chief of Staff Yoshimoto Sadichi sent a telegram almost a day, giving strict orders to the 14th Division.
The regiment must stick to the front line of Tongliao at all costs.
Afraid of the majesty of the general commander, his deep connections in the army, and the favor he received from the emperor, even Lieutenant General Kawaami did not dare to disobey his orders too obviously. In reality,
We were already in an unfavorable situation and abandoned the Tongliao front line.
In fact, Chen Hanzhang gave up the fight for the periphery and concentrated his main force and tanks on the two key points of the county. He was definitely not preparing to pick on the weak. Perhaps the siege of Kailu County was relatively simple, but the attack on Tongliao County
Attacking is definitely not that easy.
Zaibingmi was very self-aware and took the initiative to shrink the troops in the periphery. Except for the main strongholds outside the county, he reduced all the remaining troops and firepower to the two county towns. Facing the situation that had already been reduced to the two county towns, there were also a large number of natural
The main force of the 14th Division could be used as a barrier. One can imagine the difficulty Chen Hanzhang faced.
The most disadvantageous thing is not the strength of the Japanese army, but the terrain restrictions that make the attacking troops destined to attack from the east and south. In this way, although the Xiliao River, the natural barrier of Tongliao County, can be avoided,
The front left for attack is unusually narrow.
At this time, there was still plenty of water and the river was wide. Far from comparable to the Xiliao River that had almost stopped flowing in later generations, the direction in Tongliao turned a complete bend on the edge of Tongliao County. The rivers in the west and north directions were like a pair of rivers.
Like big hands, it embraces Tongliao County in its arms.
Although such a geographical environment is prone to floods, it is quite beneficial to defense during wartime. Tongliao County is located at a turning point of the Xiliao River. Even its west city wall is close to the Xiliao River embankment. It can be said that Xicheng
The gate is the West Liao River embankment.
The north gate is only four or five miles away from the Xiliao River Embankment. Even if it is less than this four or five miles away, if a moat is added, there are two fairly wide trenches connected in the middle, and the entire north and
In the vast area to the west, without sufficient tools for crossing the river, there is only one bridge in the west that can be used as a crossing channel.
If the troops choose to forcibly cross the Xiliao River from the front of Tongliao County, they will not only face firepower in the city, but also with Tongliao County on the other side, even if the troops break through the Japanese defense line of the Xiliao River, it will be difficult to gain sufficient offensive depth.
Even if the attacking troops can break through the Japanese defenses along the river in the north and west of Tongliao City, the attacking troops crossing the river will still be in a desperate situation with no way out. The attacking troops may even be intercepted by the Japanese troops and are in mutual danger. Unable to respond, if we choose to cross Tongliao head-on, even if we can capture Tongliao County, the cost of casualties will be huge.
Although Lieutenant General Chuan Bingmi abandoned various fortification groups on the railway line between Tongliao and Shuangliao, he still maintained the entire triangular defense-type permanent defense on the north bank of the Xiliao River starting from Yanjiaweizi in the north, Xinglongtun in the east, and Sanhetun in the west. The fortification group and the defense lines formed by using the Xiliao River system on the north and west sides of Tongliao County did not give up.
If the troops choose to break through from this direction, the progress will be delayed even longer, so Chen Hanzhang chose a frontal containment, and the main force detoured from the flanks to the east of Tongliao County and was out of the artillery range of the city, and chose a location to forcibly cross the Xiliao River to avoid A heavy concentration of Japanese troops.
Although the troops avoided Tongliao County, which was heavily guarded by the Japanese army, and were temporarily freed from the multi-layered fire suppression and interception they might encounter when crossing the river, when they chose to attack the front, they seemed a bit narrow. However, in the absence of tools to cross the river, Under the circumstances, it is also a more favorable choice, and it is also conducive to accelerating progress.
The 53rd and 54th regiments of the 18th Division, responsible for fighting in the Tongliao direction, moved quickly. The two battalions of the 54th Regiment and the reinforced 1st battalion of the 53rd Regiment broke through the Xiliao River from Jiaogan to Dahan. After the Japanese defense, they immediately turned around and headed west. With the support of tanks, and after repeated battles, they successively captured Qianjiadian and Kongjiawobao, the defensive support points in the northeast of Tongliao County.
The two battalions of the 53rd Regiment adopted the tactic of killing a chicken with a knife, braved the intensive artillery fire from the Japanese artillery position outside the north gate of Tongliao on the south bank of the West Liao River, and used continuous blasting to capture the 14th Division on the north bank of the West Liao River on the northern front of Tongliao. The last two supporting points of the regiment are Sanhetun and Hanjiaweizi.
Tang Yong, the commander of the 53rd Regiment who commanded the operation, was very smart. When he arrived at the Bayantala battlefield as the vanguard of the 18th Division, he had watched the battle with the attack force of the 3rd Division and knew that the Japanese fortifications in front of him were extremely strong. , and there was strong artillery cover from the Japanese army on the south bank of the river, and behind it was the Xiliao River. He could not make a roundabout way to fight, so he could only attack head-on from the front, resulting in an unusually narrow attack surface.
Faced with this situation on the battlefield, unless he planned to use up all his troops, he could only outwit but not attack by force. After carefully observing the Japanese fortification group, he used a smoke screen to cover the assault of the troops, and used the flames assigned to him to All the injectors were allocated to two sharp knife companies.
Under the circumstance that the enemy's covering firepower on the other side was quite dense, he did not adopt an attack posture of two battalions advancing head-on, nor did he use battalions and companies as the combat organization. Instead, he adopted a coordinated attack by squads and platoons in a point-to-point combat mode. The platoon was used as the attack force to launch the organic unit, which was strengthened with a recoilless rifle and a 12mm anti-aircraft machine gun. As for the company's rocket launchers and general-purpose machine guns, they were all transferred to the squad.
As for the main attack platoon, he not only strengthened a flamethrower, but also assigned a squad from the regiment's engineer company. He equipped all the explosives on hand to the three main attack platoons that directly penetrated the three core fortifications. All the mortars of the third level of the regiment, battalion and company, and the captured 92 infantry gun were gathered together, plus the regiment's 14mm machine gun, to form three fire support groups according to the distance of the range, specifically to fight against the Japanese counterattack cluster, and blockade the Japanese army's communication trenches, cutting off the Japanese army's front and rear support.
Although his tactics and equipment configuration were different from what Chen Hanzhang required, his performance on the battlefield was extremely outstanding, even far beyond his imagination. Under the cover of the infantry, he deployed it to the main attack core fortifications. A group of engineers from several sharp knife platoons used continuous blasting to completely destroy the entire Japanese fortification group on the north bank without receiving artillery cover behind them.
The tactics were used properly. After only two hours of fighting, the 53rd Regiment, with a total strength of no more than two battalions, overfulfilled the division commander Wang Jun's order to eliminate the Japanese fortification group on the northern front of Tongliao within six hours, and annihilated it cleanly. Covered by artillery fire from the south bank of the river, the two Japanese squadrons successfully advanced the front to the embankment on the north bank of the Xiliao River.
And cover two 122 rocket launcher companies directly under the artillery, a 100mm howitzer battalion, a 155 heavy howitzer company, and two companies of the field artillery battalion of the 18th Division Artillery Regiment, forming a powerful artillery group on the spot. It was deployed as the main supporting firepower to capture Tongliao County and coordinate the main force's siege of Tongliao County.
After all artillery deployments were completed, they opened fire immediately. While conducting fire strikes on the artillery field deployed by the Japanese army in Tongliao County, they also covered the two battalions of the 18th Division that had arrived on the bank of the Xiliao River in an attempt to cross the river and attack the ancient temple in the northeast of Tongliao. Attack on the front line.
The process of this battle, even in the eyes of Chen Hanzhang, who has always been very demanding, was an extremely exciting battle. Even Chen Hanzhang, who has always been easy to praise others, directly used the five rare words "classic battle" to describe it. Evaluation, in his words, if Bayantala had fought this battle, they would have broken through the Xiliao River line at least three days ago.
However, the unit's follow-up attack operations, because the Japanese army took the lead in burning and sinking all the ferries on the Xiliao River. Due to the lack of effective tools to cross the river, the 53rd Regiment failed in many forced crossings. However, the Xiliao River Bridge in the west of Tongliao County was attacked. The battle also failed due to the stubborn resistance of the Japanese army and insufficient troop input from our own side.
Although they failed to capture the Xiliao River Bridge in the west of the city, the offensive of the 53rd Regiment forced Lieutenant General Chuan Bin to blow up the only highway bridge over the Xiliao River in the entire Tongliao territory to prevent the Anti-Japanese Alliance from seizing it. After the bridge, we crossed the Xiliao River, the natural barrier on the north and west sides of Tongliao, and launched a three-sided siege on Tongliao.
Although Tang Yong's operation to seize the highway bridge failed, the Japanese defenders who forced the west gate of Tongliao took the initiative to blow up the only highway bridge on the Xiliao River in Tongliao, which made the connection between the Japanese troops in Tongliao and Kailu In fact, it has been cut off in disguise.
After several failed forcible crossings and a failed battle for the bridge, Tang Yong, the commander of the 53rd Regiment, commanded the troops and constantly adopted feint tactics to confront the Tongliao defenders. On the one hand, he covered the deployed artillery positions and on the other hand, he contained the north of Tongliao City. Japanese troops were not transferred to other directions.
Although Tang Yong failed in his attempt to seize the bridge and could only retreat to Hexi Town, the Armored Brigade Motorized Infantry Regiment was stubbornly resisted by the Japanese, and the terrain was quite unfavorable and the offensive was hindered, so he had no intention of inserting it into place. They completed the task of dividing the Japanese troops between the two places on their behalf.
Compared with the northern front, which only faced the 53rd Regiment across the river, which seemed a bit dull, the eastern front in Tongliao County was extremely fierce. After the 54th Regiment seized Kongjiawo Fort, the Japanese army in Tongliao fired artillery fire in the city. Under the cover of the enemy, a large number of troops were dispatched to repeatedly compete with the 54th Regiment.
Kongjiawobao is the gateway to the eastern part of Tongliao. Beyond the line of Kongjiawobao is the small street base line one mile away from Tongliao County. After taking the small street base, Tongliao County is also within easy reach. To the east of Tongliao City is the
The Xiliao River in the north and west directions serves as a natural barrier, and the south has a sand ridge as a natural barrier. It is incomparable.
The terrain from here to Tongliao County is flat. As long as you cross Kongjiawo Fort, you can go to Tongliao County. Moreover, Kongjiawo Fort is the eastern part of Tongliao County, the core area of the ring defense fortifications and the permanent fortification group. If Kongjiawo Fort is
The front line of the fort was occupied by the Anti-Japanese Alliance, and the Japanese defenders in Tongliao could only rely on the city wall as the last line of defense on the periphery.