Adhering to this point of view, not only General Hata Shunroku, the commander of the Chinese Expeditionary Forces who was in Peiping to supervise the war, but also the chief of staff of the North China Front Army, and almost all combat staff officers, including Lieutenant General Ichiro Nanada, the commander of the Mongolian garrison, I think so too.
Of course, there are still sober people among the entire North China Front Army. At least their commander Okamura Neiji does not think so, although he does not think that the large number of enemy troops appearing on the Guisui Front has as much power as reported by Nishihara Issaku. There are a large number of tanks, but the real enemy situation is definitely not Nishihara Issaku's bluff.
But at the moment, he has put all his mobile power into the battlefield. Unless he plans to really give up control of parts of Shanxi, he will mobilize a large number of troops from the already unstable Shanxi to reinforce the Guisui front line. , otherwise, with the troops he can mobilize now, it will be impossible to mobilize troops to support Guisui.
Originally, according to his intention, it was best to give up the Guisui and Baotou front lines temporarily in order to concentrate the limited forces and defend northern Shanxi as much as possible. As for the Guisui front line, if it was given up, it could be recaptured at any time. However, Hata, who came to Peiping in person, General Junliu stubbornly believed that the territory established by his predecessor could never be lost in his own hands.
General Hata Toshiro would rather take the risk of dividing his troops for defense and stick to Guisui and Baotou. Even Okamura Neji's order for the cavalry group to abandon Baotou and the entire army to shrink to Guisui was directly passed by him through him in Lieutenant General Nishihara Issaku, a student at Army University, was directly dismissed.
Of course, Xiyuan Yice himself believes that the two strategic points of Guisui and Baotou are basically located behind the entire front, and there are natural dangers in the Yinshan Mountains to the north to rely on. In addition to the enemy forces on the Hetao side, the enemy forces on the eastern battlefield , it is difficult to threaten this direction in a short period of time.
It is the farthest controlled area to the west by the Japanese army in mainland China, and is connected to the rear by railways. It is the forward base for the Japanese army to attack westward to occupy Ningxia and Gansu, or to go south to Shaanxi to outflank China's rear area during the Anti-Japanese War. The stubborn Part of the reason for not wanting to give up Baotou.
If Nishihara Issei can follow the order of Okamura Neiji and withdraw the Baotou garrison back to Sui, then even if the 4th Cavalry Brigade is completely destroyed by Mu Changqiu outside Guisui City, the entire Guisui army will be destroyed. The city will not eventually reach the point where it has no troops to defend and will be captured in a short period of time.
If the Guisui battle drags on for a long time and occupies one-third of the entire roundabout force, and the infantry even occupies half of the force, and is restrained and cannot be deployed on the Jining battlefield in a short time, then the Anti-Japanese Alliance can be deployed in Suinan The military strength will appear to be seriously insufficient.
What's more serious is that if Xiyuan Yice voluntarily abandons Baotou, then the Hetao side will definitely take advantage of the situation and seize Baotou, and even go east to fight for Guisui. Unless Yang Zhen wants to steal the enemy at this time, otherwise his The entire combat goal cannot be achieved at all, at least the control of Baotou will be lost.
However, it was the Sixth General Hata Shun who commanded and deployed the North China Front and kept gesticulating, which seriously interfered with Okamura Neiji's overall command. Lieutenant General Nishihara Issaku was stubbornly unwilling to give up Baotou and shrunk the entire army to return home. Sui's response directly led to the loss of Guisui City in a short period of time.
Moreover, the troubles caused by these teachers and students also caused Okamura Neiji to concentrate his troops to defend Chadong and Chanan, use the favorable terrain to consume the effective forces of the Anti-Japanese Alliance, and then mobilize the reserve team to counterattack, completely disrupting the entire plan. Nishihara Issei is now He went to the West, but his stubbornness brought harm to the entire war situation of the Japanese army, which was difficult for the Japanese army to make up for.
General Okamura Neiji's combat plan was repeatedly interfered by his immediate superiors. This was certainly the reason why the Japanese army was passive until now, but Okamura Neiji himself did not expect that the Anti-Japanese Alliance would actually dispatch an entire armored force. Division, strengthen a large number of infantry and cavalry, adopt this tactic of large-scale detours, directly cross the Yinshan Mountains and penetrate into Suinan.
Okamura Neiji, who has always had a very keen sense of smell, did make some mistakes in judgment this time. Even if it was an emergency telegram from Nishihara Issaku, he did not completely disbelieve it, but he was still doubtful. After receiving Ce's advanced telegram, he still did not think that the steep Yinshan Mountains could be crossed by tanks.
Okamura Neiji believes that even if there are roads from Bailing Temple and Wulanhua to Guisui, this kind of terrain is simply not suitable for large-scale armored and mechanized cluster operations, let alone such a large-scale armored cluster crossing the Yinshan Mountains. , can tanks be used on a large scale in mountain warfare?
Even Okamura Neiji made a mistake in judgment, so whether it is the 69th Division that is gathering in Jining, or the independent mixed group that was transferred from northern Shanxi at the end of last year to take over the 26th Division to take charge of the defense of northern Shanxi. The third brigade had almost no preparations for possible crises to the north.
Coupled with the large-scale electronic interference and suppression implemented by Yang Zhen in Chen Hanzhang's detour operation throughout the Suidong area, the Japanese army's radio contact was always intermittent, and most of the intelligence exchanges could only be made through the unreliable Due to the lack of wired communication and first-hand intelligence, it was often not possible to ascertain it immediately, and it often affected the Japanese army's judgment of the battle situation.
After the roundabout operation led by Chen Hanzhang began, the entire North China Front Army, including the Japanese army in the Suidong area, never had a satisfactory grasp of the battle situation on the front line. The 26th Division was encircled and relied on the 110th Division to use wired telephones. reported.
The first telegram from Issaku Nishihara to Ichiro Nanada was sent, but the subsequent telegrams were not received by Ichiro Nanada. The farewell telegram he sent to Ichiro Nanada before committing suicide was not received at all by Ichiro Nanada. It was not received, that is to say, the Eastern Front Assault Group had reached Jining, and the North China Front Army here did not know that Guisui had been lost.
After doing this, the 26th Division did not react until the tanks of the Anti-Union Alliance had already rushed in front of them. However, reacting and coming up with a countermeasure immediately were completely different things. In addition, the Anti-Alliance Air Force From time to time, they would come over and bomb them randomly. In this chaotic situation, even if the Japanese army was well-trained, it would be impossible to stabilize it in a short time.
As soon as they got off the train at Jining, Sanchakou, and Suji stations on the Pingsui Railway Line, the troops of the 26th Division who were about to assemble were suddenly rushed into chaos, except for the 59th Independent Brigade who got off at Hongshazui Station. The two brigades of the regiment got off the bus at a deep position and were not under attack for the time being.
All the troops who were gathering, or who had just entered the station and were about to get off the train, were all rushed by the armored infantry covered by the tanks of the Anti-Japanese Alliance. Even the troops who had just entered the station at Sanchakou Station and had not had time to get off the train were suddenly rushed by. An incoming Anti-Japanese Alliance tank company blocked the carriage, and suffered heavy casualties under the attack of vehicle-mounted machine guns and tank guns.
An ammunition train that was parked at Sanchakou Station was hit by an overcoming anti-Japanese tank gun, causing a violent explosion. The large number of artillery shells carried on the train, and the thick smoke caused by the explosion, caused a huge explosion more than ten kilometers away. Jining County can see it clearly.
Faced with the chaotic situation caused by the sudden impact of tanks, the commander of the 69th Division, Lieutenant General Sadae Inoue, and the chief of staff, Colonel Yamamoto Ryo, used radio communication that had not yet been communicated. The wired telephone lines of the cut off railway system were immediately mobilized and deployed. At this time, there was no enemy situation yet and an armored train on the Zhuozishan line was dispatched.
The intention of these two men is obvious, which is to take advantage of the heavy armor of this Japanese Type 94 armored train, as well as the two Taisho 14th-year-old 105mm anti-aircraft guns and the two 88-type 75mm anti-aircraft guns on the train. The powerful firepower of the anti-aircraft artillery disrupted the enemy's tank clusters, and the cover division troops were assembled. Didn't the enemy have tanks? It's not enough for me to fight you with armored trains.
However, as soon as this armored train passed through Basumu Station and before it could get close to Jining, it crossed paths with the Anti-Japanese Alliance and prepared to attack the flank of the Japanese army in Jining, a mechanical infantry battalion under the cover of a reinforced tank company. The two sides, who were both highly nervous about the encounter, started a fierce artillery battle as soon as they met.
Although the armored train was equipped with two 100mm anti-aircraft guns and two 70mm anti-aircraft guns that were the most powerful in this battle for the Japanese army in this battle. They could be used as anti-tank weapons and fired from 600 meters away. While shooting, he was the first to destroy an approaching T 34 tank and a BT fast tank.
However, the four artillery pieces of this armored train, and the other tanks that rushed forward were immediately pressed down by the entire line of the Anti-Japanese Alliance. After the first salvo, they were all silenced. Without the artillery, this armored train would become useless. The tiger with teeth was destroyed on the railway line between Basumu and Sanchakou stations five minutes later.
The two 105mm anti-aircraft guns equipped with armor-piercing projectiles on this armored train became the only weapons among all the weapons of the Japanese army in this battle that could penetrate the Anti-Union T 34 tanks, and this This unlucky tank became the only T-34 tank destroyed by Japanese artillery at a long distance in this battle.
Although the losses in this battle were not large, the inherent backward sighting system of the T-34 tanks and the problem of the tank commander also serving as loader were fully exposed. In this battle, this tank was originally facing the Japanese lead vehicle. However, due to the backwardness of the sighting system and the distance of 600 meters, the first shell fired directly flew away.
When the commander re-established the accurate target and was loading the second artillery shell, the Japanese artillery shells flew over first. Although the Japanese army's sighting system was only average, the large space in the tall body of the armored train allowed the vehicle to The accuracy and distance of the gun's sighting equipment exceeded that of the Soviet-made tanks in the Anti-Japanese Alliance.
Coupled with the level of training of the Japanese army, this armor-piercing round fired by the 105mm anti-aircraft gun directly hit the tank body. Although the Japanese army was only equipped with ordinary armor-piercing blasting grenades, this round directly hit the tank within 600 meters. The 105mm shell that hit also caused devastating damage to the tank.
A BT tank following this tank was also directly hit and destroyed by an armor-piercing blasting grenade fired by the Japanese 70mm anti-aircraft gun. In just a few minutes, two tanks were destroyed in succession, including There is also a tank with the best anti-union protection performance, which undoubtedly illustrates some problems.
There were only four artillery pieces on this Japanese armored train, but the first round of shooting destroyed two high-speed moving anti-alliance tanks, which is enough to illustrate the high level of training of the Japanese armored train crew. If the encounter distance between the two sides was farther, The higher the flexibility of this armored train and the smaller the target of the operation, the greater the losses of the anti-alliance armored forces it encounters will be.
Especially those behind the tanks, the dozens of half-track armored vehicles loaded with infantry whose defensive performance can only withstand light weapons fire. With the Japanese army's long-range shooting accuracy so high, coupled with the power of the Japanese artillery, I am afraid that the number of losses will be high. It will never be that light,