After the base camp happily agreed to provide reinforcements to the two divisions of the North China Front within ten days, the general commander of the China Expedition Army, after receiving the telegram from Okamura Neiji, faced the unfavorable battle situation.
There is no such thing as digging and searching. At present, the 11th and 13th armies under the direct control of the dispatch army basically have no large-scale combat missions and can allocate part of their troops to support the North China Front Army.
General Hata Toshiroku knew very well that if the North China Front really lost Shanxi and the Peking-Tianjin area in this battle, his position as commander of the dispatched army would be over. After all, the North China Front was within the China Expeditionary Forces system.
If the war is defeated, he, the commander of the general army, will not be able to bear this responsibility even if he wants to. The key issue now is not to hold accountable, but to protect Pingjin, Suiyuan, and Shanxi.
General Hata Junroku generously transferred the 86th Infantry Regiment and a field artillery battalion from the 22nd Division directly under the 13th Army of the Expeditionary Force. Four infantry brigades and two mountain artillery squadrons were affiliated to the 63rd Division.
.The 109th and 138th regiments of the 116th Division, two artillery squadrons, a howitzer squadron, and all the rapid-fire artillery of the 13th Army were temporarily organized into a detachment. The commander of the 116th Division was Shunjiro Takeuchi.
Lieutenant General provides unified command.
The 11th, 12th, 13th, 17th, and 20th brigades were formed independently from the 13th Army, and three infantry squadrons were drawn from each. In addition, the 14th and 18th brigades were drawn from each of the 14th and 18th brigades directly under the Eleventh Army.
Two infantry squadrons. The reinforcement army is directly under the jurisdiction of four mountain artillery squadrons, a field artillery brigade, plus two rapid-fire artillery squadrons drawn from the 11th Army, commanded by Major General Haruo Yamamura, commander of the 13th independent mixed brigade.
It's just that the reinforcements mobilized by General Hata Shunroku this time did not include a complete division, or even a complete independent mixed brigade. In previous battles with the Japanese army, although a large number of reinforced troops were equipped, the infantry as the backbone was still a single unit.
The style, which is mainly based on the establishment, has completely changed.
Although the entire reinforcement force is composed of elite soldiers and generals drawn from each division, overall it is a colorful platter. Except for the Takeuchi detachment commanded by Lieutenant General Shunjiro Takeuchi, it is composed of two regiments of the 116th Division.
It can be made up of basic elements.
The mountain village detachment is a complete hodgepodge of troops drawn from several independent mixed brigades. The mountain village detachment has a total of 19 infantry squadrons, each drawn from seven independent mixed brigades. The artillery is from the 13th Army
The directly subordinate artillery force was drawn from the 11th Army. The rapid-fire artillery force was drawn from the 11th Army.
Not to mention the squadron leader level, there are five temporarily formed infantry battalion captains, one from each of the five independent mixed brigades directly under the 13th Army. Not to mention having experience in coordinated operations, there are five infantry battalion captains.
They are quite strangers to each other. They have not even met each other.
This temporary formation is completely different from the previous detachment that used a certain unit as the basis and added additional troops to form a detachment. It is unprecedented in the Japanese military's previous operations. According to normal principles, this detachment should carry out a period of
Time has passed. However, the development of the war situation has made General Hata Shunroku have no choice but to bite the bullet and let this hodgepodge directly enter the battlefield.
There is no way. The 11th Army is responsible for the Sixth and Nineth Theaters, which have the strongest combat effectiveness against Chongqing, and is also responsible for attacking Chongqing and completely solving China. It is the only field corps of the entire China Expeditionary Force. Although the Eleventh Army has a strong force
, but facing such a vast front, it is really powerless.
Shunroku Hata did not want to weaken the already limited offensive capabilities of the Eleventh Army by deploying too many troops. And facing only the Thirteenth Army in the third theater, although the pressure on the battlefield was not great, the defensive tasks were considerable.
Heavy. Especially the areas controlled by the Thirteenth Army are the richest Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions in China and are also the economic center of China.
The rice abundant here is the main source of military food for the Japanese army and an important source of financial resources for the entire dispatched force. Since the 15th Division of the Nanjing Garrison Force has been transferred away, Shunroku Hata can only transfer a batch from various aspects.
Troops. The reorganized divisions have been mobilized. The current dispatched army really does not have that strength.
However, considering the adequacy of the troops, in addition to these troops, General Hata Junroku also called the Tokyo base camp. They will be assembled in Japan to prepare to form the 62nd Infantry Brigade of the 170th Division. They will be allocated in advance.
To the North China Front. The four infantry brigades of this brigade that are to be transported to Ningbo will be immediately transferred to Tianjin Port for landing.
But for Okamura Neiji, the base camp did not have any ambiguity and agreed to give him reinforcements from two divisions. The China Expedition Army Headquarters in Nanjing was also deploying troops and generals at all costs. However, these troops scattered in various places
Troop assembly and transportation require a lot of time.
China's area is too large, and the Japanese army's front line is too long. With insufficient troops, all divisions are scattered throughout the country to ensure the occupation of the occupied areas. With so many troops, even if there is no encounter
To intercept and block the Chinese army, even mobilization and assembly will take a long time.
What's more, of the two divisions promised by the base camp, one is still in the Philippines and the other is still in the Indochina Peninsula. If transported by sea, it will take less than ten days and a half to get off. This is still a group of jellyfish in the Navy. If they can be mobilized for transportation
In the case of the fleet.
Before these reinforcements, which are still on paper, arrive, Okamura Neiji knows that he can only find a way to quickly stabilize the war situation. At least, he will penetrate the enemy's tentacles deep into northern Shanxi and fight back at all costs to prevent the war situation from getting worse.
Go down. On the one hand, he kept urging the mobilized reinforcements to assemble and set off immediately, and on the other hand, he desperately urged the 69th Division to go south immediately.
What he didn't expect was that when the main force of the 15th Division was being transported to Shanxi via the Zhengtai Railway, it suddenly encountered fierce air attacks from the Anti-Union Army fleet at Jingxing and Yangquan stations. Due to the tense war situation, the two trains were seriously overloaded.
The column was suddenly filled with several infantry brigades, and Jingxing and Yangquan stations were bombed at the same time.
The two military columns, together with the entire Jingxing and Yangquan stations, were razed to the ground by more than thirty anti-Japanese planes loaded with bombs. The main force of the entire 15th Division, except for the five infantry brigades that set off earlier, has not yet arrived in Taiyuan.
He was bombed and went straight back home. Lieutenant General Naoji Sakai, the commander of the 15th Division, was also killed in the air raid.
The lifeline of the Shanxi battlefield, which was closely protected by the Japanese army, was also interrupted during the bombing. The North China Front Army urgently dispatched a field railway unit for emergency repairs. Under the continuous anti-Japanese air raids, it was difficult to complete the repairs. Usually here
Just after it was repaired, it was blown up again over there. The bridge here was just barely passable, and the station over there was blown up again.
Since the entire battle started, the Shota Railway was bombed for the first time. In addition to causing heavy losses to the Japanese army, Okamura Neji immediately had an unpleasant feeling in his heart. He immediately sent a report to the commander of the 69th Division, Inoue Sadae.
, ask him to stop going south and immediately shrink back to Jining.
But no matter how the North China Front Army's high-power radio called, there was no answer except a lot of interference. After the 69th Division cut off all contact, in less than a day, the 110th Division
The regiment's radio call sign, unlike the intermittent contact it had in the past, has completely disappeared.
By April 10th, when the Japanese army was in Suinan and Suidong, the only two divisions on the battlefield, radio communication was completely interrupted, which made Okamura Neji feel deeply uneasy. The radio signal on the battlefield was completely blocked.
The interruption indicates that these two divisions are likely to be in danger.
Faced with an unfavorable battle situation, Okamura Neiji could not care about anything else. As the reinforcements mobilized from the base camp and the dispatched army headquarters could not arrive for the time being, he immediately dispatched troops who had just returned from Jishan to Taiyuan. He was originally planning to pass through Taiyuan.
The 222nd Regiment of the 36th Division returned to Changzhi via the Baijin Railway, plus the two independent brigades of the Fourth Brigade stationed in Taiyuan.
The Thirty-sixth Infantry Regiment of the Thirty-sixth Division, commanded by Major General Sakuma, formed a detachment and immediately took trucks to go north. It passed through Ningwu, Shuoxian, Pinglu, Youyu, and after exiting the killing tiger's mouth, passed through Liangcheng and immediately reinforced Jining.
.Okamura Neiji directly ordered Major General Zusama Kuto not to have any entanglement with any Chinese troops during the reinforcements. He must reach Liangcheng within three days at all costs.
Order Lieutenant General Qing Shuiju, commander of the 41st Division, not to have any entanglement with the Communist Army in the Taiyue area. All the main forces of the division will set off as soon as they can gather a regiment. Make every effort to get rid of the Communist Army in the Taiyue area.
harassment, immediately sent reinforcements to the direction of Datong in northern Shanxi.
In the view of Okamura Neiji, Datong, which has a solid city defense to rely on, can hold on for much longer than the 69th Division, which was separated from the protection of the strong city due to his own command errors. The 110th Division is now alone in the
On the Suidong battlefield, Okamura Neiji wanted to rescue him but was beyond his reach.
But the 69th Division must be rescued. If the 69th Division, which has lost contact now, really has an accident, or is wiped out by the Anti-Japanese Alliance, then the entire Suinan battlefield will no longer have room for recovery.
.It will even be implicated in the battlefield in northern Shanxi, and there will be a chain of defensive collapses.
In fact, after Okamura Ningji gave the order to the commander of the 69th Division, Lieutenant General Sadae Inoue, to retreat to the south, it didn't take long for him to realize that he had made a big mistake. The enemy forces around Jining all
It is a tank mechanized force. In the field, this kind of opponent has a huge impact on the 69th Division, which is basically pure infantry and has only one squadron of anti-tank guns.
In Jining, there is not only a solid city wall to rely on. In Jining, a transfer station for transferring supplies to Suidong and Suinan through Shanxi, there is also a large amount of ammunition, food and other supplies. If we rely on the defense of the fort, sixty
The Ninth Division can hold on until a large number of reinforcements arrive. However, his own intervention may push the Sixty-ninth Division into the abyss in advance.
But the order has been issued, and General Okamura Neiji himself cannot change it. Changing the order early and late will only plunge the troops below into chaos, and it will also have a considerable impact on his prestige as a commander. Moreover,
For Neji Okamura, even though he found that he had made certain mistakes in his decision.
However, he insisted that this mistake might not really happen. What the Anti-Japanese Alliance was most worried about now was the Sixty-ninth Division's reinforcement of the Suidong battlefield instead of retreating south to Datong. He ordered the Sixty-ninth Division to retreat south, and he also
It was a surprise. The result of the 69th Division waiting to withdraw from the Datong battlefield to the south may not really be an abyss.
Okamura Neiji's view was too idealistic, and he also underestimated the judgment ability of the front-line commanders of the Anti-Japanese War. The result of the Sixty-ninth Division's southward retreat was the worst outcome he could imagine.
Development. Less than four hours after the Sixty-ninth Division retreated south, both the North China Front Army Headquarters and the First Army lost direct contact with the division.