Chapter 329 Kwantung Army defending from the east and attacking from the west
However, although he had no intention of doing it again and stabbing the Japanese flank in a decent manner, Yang Zhen was on the front of the Japanese defense on the eastern front, with Fenghai Railway as the center and dividing line, and the line from Xi'an to Beishan City in the west. The deployment of troops was strengthened along the line from Nanshan City to Wufeng Tower.
The Sixth Division, which had just been replenished and adjusted as one of the first main divisions of the Anti-Japanese Alliance, was transferred between Beishan City and Nanshan City, and was assigned a howitzer battalion and a Japanese-made cannon battalion to continuously launch tactics against the Japanese troops on the Qingyuan front line. A series of systematic attacks were carried out in a shallow, deep and roundabout way to pull out the Japanese army's troop assembly points and blocking positions redeployed on the front of Liaodong.
In order to disperse the density of enemy troops in Siping's front, Yang Zhen strengthened the deployment of troops in this direction, even though he would rather weaken the limited follow-up troop investment in the front battlefield, and ordered Wang Xiaoming to command all the troops on the eastern front, from Xinbin to Qingyuan. , launch a diversionary attack in the direction.
If possible, blow up the Qingyuan Hongtoushan copper mine that was left out in the last harvester operation. Of course, if it can be taken down, that would be the best. If not, then blow it up completely. Yang Zhen plans to Taking advantage of the Japanese army's current mentality of making up for the situation before it is too late, the Kwantung Army was given a good lesson in tactical psychology.
Let the Japanese army disperse a certain amount of troops and expose a gap that can be exploited in front of Siping. Although Yang Zhen concentrated the last bit of troops and launched a new round of offensive this time, it was just to coordinate Chen Hanzhang's battle on the western front, but it did not It means that Yang Zhen really stopped in the direction of Siping.
He does not yet have the ability to completely eliminate the main force of the Kwantung Army. However, he takes advantage of the Kwantung Army's current mentality of being overwhelmed on the eastern front and mobilizes the Japanese army's deployment on the Siping battlefield on a large scale to find favorable fighter opportunities and ruthlessly defeat the Kwantung Army. He was very happy to bite off another piece of fat from his body. His request was not high. He could just cripple the two main divisions deployed by the Japanese army on the Siping front line.
However, on the entire Siping battlefield, Yang Zhen still adopted the method of using small blades to cut through the flesh, constantly making shallow and deep detours. This tactic is more suitable for the actual situation of the current Anti-Japanese Alliance. Although the progress is slower, it is not as wide open as the beginning of the campaign. It was a great alliance, but it fought steadily, gradually consuming the Japanese front-line combat troops.
At present, the situation on the entire battlefield has reached a stage where stability is the main priority. Yang Zhen will never take any risky actions, but Yang Zhen also constantly uses feints to mobilize the Japanese troops on the three fronts of the entire Northeast battlefield. , trying to find fighter planes to deal with another Japanese army while fighting steadily.
He didn't know Yang Zhen's follow-up actions on the Eastern Front. He was just bluffing. In fact, he didn't need to worry about the Anti-Japanese Alliance replicating the last raid. Indeed, there were some soldiers who were in danger. Umezu Yoshijiro, who was in turmoil, was afraid that the first sneak attack would be successful. , will encourage the Anti-Japanese Alliance to try again.
The overly cautious Kwantung Army commander chose to strengthen the overall defense posture in the mountainous areas of Liaodong despite the fact that his troops were also insufficient. However, considering the defense in depth posture, General Umezu Yoshijiro's defense focus was still on Siping and Fengtian. surroundings.
Especially in the direction of Siping, although some troops were transferred to strengthen the defense lines of Liaodong and Fengtian, he continued to shrink his position in the direction of Siping, shrinking all the Japanese participating troops in the direction of Siping into a group and forming a posture. If you want to fight, I will fight. Anyway, I will not show up.
Umezu Yoshijiro's move in the direction of Siping made Yang Zhen, who still wanted to bite another piece of meat from the Japanese army, unable to do anything. The Japanese army used layers of semi-permanent fortification groups that supported each other to gradually adopt The tortoise tactic of rarely engaging in resistance or even tactical counterattacks made Yang Zhen, who had his mouth open, never find a chance to speak.
Its cross-firing anti-tank firepower, as well as a large number of anti-tank trenches and anti-tank obstacles, also made the progress of the armored troops put into the battlefield by the Anti-Japanese Alliance relatively slow.
After receiving Yang Zhen's order, Wang Guangyu, who was commanding at the front, concentrated the main force of the Second Armored Division many times, trying to fight a shallow and rapid penetration battle to separate part of the Japanese army in front of him. However, his many efforts were blocked. The Japanese army's greatly increased number of anti-aircraft artillery groups and new anti-tank tactics were used to contain it.
The Kwantung Army clearly learned from previous lessons and added air defense cover to the newly repaired fixed anti-tank positions on the battlefield. At the same time, it adjusted the deployment of front-line anti-tank gun positions, strengthened the camouflage of anti-tank gun positions, and adjusted various positions. Range requirements for anti-tank firepower.
The most heavily equipped Type 94 rapid-fire cannon is not allowed to fire at a distance of more than 100 meters. The most powerful Type 1 rapid-fire cannon is not allowed to fire at a distance of more than 150 meters. The Anti-Japanese Alliance has rapidly issued various anti-Japanese weapons that have appeared on the battlefield in the Northeast. There are photos of tanks and strict orders specifying the shooting targets of various anti-tank artillery.
As for the Type 88 and Taisho 14-year-old anti-tank guns that he had painstakingly collected and transferred to the front line as long-range anti-tank firepower, they strictly stipulated shooting targets. , and the Panzer IV equipped with a 75mm tank gun.
The German-made Panzer III tanks and American-made light tanks were handed over to the Type 1 anti-tank artillery. As for other types of light tanks, they were handed over to the Type 94 rapid-fire gun, especially the T-26 and BT, as well as the German-made Panzer II tank, the Czech type. The 38 and 35 tanks were all replaced by the Kwantung Army's Type 94 rapid-fire guns, which had the largest number of equipment.
At the same time, a large number of light machine guns and grenade launchers were deployed around the anti-tank artillery positions as cover fire, specifically used to block the infantry of the Anti-Japanese Alliance who cooperated with tanks to protect these anti-tank artillery. For this reason, Okamura Neji never abandoned the Fengtian arsenal. After that, almost all the light machine guns from the already depleted reserves were transferred to strengthen the front-line divisions.
Although this shooting distance is almost equivalent to a suicidal defense, for the Japanese army, it is the best anti-tank method. If it is like before, all anti-tank artillery will fight independently, and it will be destroyed three hundred meters away. If you open fire, you can only destroy your own anti-tank artillery positions from a long distance, one by one like a target.
In order to make up for the lack of anti-tank guns, Okamura Neiji also distributed a large number of Type 99 magnetic anti-tank mines to the troops in the Siping direction, and produced a large number of Molotov cocktail Molotov cocktails. He even ordered the frontline troops to organize Anti-tank brave team, also known as human anti-tank team.
In order to contain the tank shock wave of the Anti-Japanese Alliance, Umezu Yoshijiro took all the necessary measures in his opinion. Although these measures came at a huge cost, the too close firing distance made the survival time of a considerable part of the Japanese anti-tank guns useless. More than half a day.
As for those so-called meat bomb attacks that use Molotov cocktail Molotov cocktails, Type 99 magnetic anti-tank mines, and even the body covered with grenades or explosive packets, as long as the dispatched brave team is dispatched, they basically have no effect.
There was no reply, but the methods adopted by Umezu Yoshijiro still played a certain role.
Facing the Japanese anti-tank positions as desperate as fire hedgehogs and various anti-tank methods, the speed and breakthrough strength of the anti-tank offensive dropped significantly. Wang Guangyu organized multiple cluster offensives at a certain price.
, the effect is not obvious.
It can be said that in the direction of Siping, in the final stage of the battle, Umezu Yoshijiro's tactics of shrinking and adding fire hedgehogs were quite successful. After paying a heavy price and a long-term stalemate with slow progress, Wang Guangyu had to stop this.
Instead of using a tactic that is not worth the gain, use conventional tanks to cover the infantry, and adopt a tactic of attacking from both wings and breaking through in the middle.
However, in the direction of Siping and Liaodong, the overall strategy adopted by Umezu Yoshijiro was to focus on defense. However, in western Liaoning, the order he issued was exactly the opposite. Umezu Yoshijiro clearly ordered the two Japanese divisions deployed on the Xifuxin and Chaoyang lines to use
Due to the mountainous terrain of the local Nuruerhu Mountain, troops were mobilized to fight a limited offensive against the Anti-Japanese Alliance.
In Umezu Yoshijiro's view, if the Anti-Japanese Alliance can be driven out of the western foothills of Nuruerhu Mountain in the western Liaoning battlefield, the entire Nuruerhu Mountain can be controlled in his own hands, and the overall defensive position can be expanded northwestward to the Laoha River Basin.
, which can change the overall defense posture of the Kwantung Army in western Liaoning in the future.
This not only allows us to achieve a condescending posture when defending the Western Liaoning Corridor, but also allows us to use the hilly areas of Western Liaoning to block layers of attacks, consume the enemy's effective forces trying to enter Western Liaoning from the direction of Jehol, secure the Western Liaoning Corridor, and ensure the communication between the Kwantung Army and the Chinese dispatched troops.
The communication channel between them is smooth.
At the same time, it can also lay the foundation for re-entering Rehe in the near future. Although the current Kwantung Army general commander who currently believes that the best strategy of the Kwantung Army is defense, he is not sure whether he can regain Rehe.
Being too enthusiastic, he did not focus his defense on Rehe in this battle, but directly shrunk the entire western Liaoning front to the Nuruerhu Mountain line.
The current General Umezu Yoshijiro is no longer enthusiastic about regaining the lost ground of the entire Kwantung Army. His current thoughts are on how to defend South Manchuria, but he still believes that if the northwest front can be expanded to Laoha
River Basin, and controlling all of Nuruerhu Mountain in our hands will change the overall situation of future operations.
Nuruerhu Mountain is connected to the Qilaotu Mountain in the northwest, the Yanshan Mountains in the west, and the Songling Mountains in the hilly areas of western Liaoning. It is located at the junction of the Mongolian Plateau and the Liaohe Plain. To the east is the barrier of the Liaohe Plain, and to the east is the barrier of the Liaohe Plain.
To the south, it forms a corner with the hilly areas of western Liaoning, dominated by the Songling Mountains, and the mountains of eastern Hebei.
Although the mountains here are high, they are not steep. If we can fully regain control of the Nuruerhu Mountains and push the western Liaoning front to the Laoha River, we will be in a position where we can advance, attack, retreat and defend.
It is quite beneficial to change the situation of the whole western Liaoning and Jehol battlefield.
At the same time, in terms of strategic situation, if the entire Nuruerhu Mountain area is controlled, it will be more secure to ensure the safety of coal and mineral bases such as Fuxin and Beipiao in western Liaoning. Several major coal mines in Fushun suffered serious damage during this attack.
Since then, the coal in Fuxin and Beipiao has become the only remaining coal production base in southern Manchuria, and safety is of paramount importance.
If the two major mining areas of Fuxin and Beipiao were lost again, the Kwantung Army would really run out of coal. In order to ensure the safety of the mineral resource base in western Liaoning, Umezu Yoshijiro gritted his teeth and fought against the anti-alliance and advance army units on the western Liaoning front.
, started a mountainous offensive battle.
However, he was worried that the two divisions would be drained of blood in the tug-of-wars in the mountains. He repeatedly told the two division commanders on the front line that the speed of this limited offensive battle must be grasped.
, try not to go deep into the Laoha River Basin, and the attack stop line is strictly delineated on the east bank of the Laoha River.
However, in order to reduce the pressure on western Liaoning, Umezu Yoshijiro instructed the commander of the Fourth Army of the Kwantung Army in western Liaoning, Lieutenant General Washizu Jinhei, to appropriately organize squadron-level reconnaissance troops to penetrate deep into the enemy's army in disguise and attack the enemy's
Baggage and headquarters, but the strength and quantity of troops invested must be strictly controlled.