However, compared with the current tranquility of the Jizhong battlefield, the current battle in the Tianjin battlefield to the north of Jizhong has fallen into a bitter battle. Previously, Tao Jingfei took into account the characteristics of Tianjin's urban area being wide from north to south and narrow from east to west, so he adopted an east-west approach.
, seize the bridge on the Haihe River, divide the Japanese army into northern and southern parts, and then attack the south first and then the north.
After breaking through Tianjin's peripheral defense line, clearing out various Japanese strongholds outside Tianjin such as Yangliuqing and Junliangcheng, and successively seizing a series of key points such as Haiguang Temple, West Railway Station, Ditou, and Peiyang University, Tao Jingfei concentrated the forces of four divisions on two
With the cooperation of the tank regiment, they attacked from the West Railway Station and Haiguang Temple in the west of the city, and from the Dagong No. 7 Factory and the Tannery Factory in the east of the city.
Adopting an east-west attack tactic, they launched an attack on the urban area of Tianjin. The meeting points of the two armies were chosen at Jintang Bridge and Wanguo Bridge in the urban area of Tianjin. At the same time, a division was assigned to a brigade in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Region and a brigade in the Bohai Navy Region.
Two independent regiments attacked northward from both banks of the lower reaches of the Hai River, aiming directly at the British and French concessions.
According to Tao Jingfei's idea, he would attack from the east and west and attack from south to north with one force, which could effectively disperse the Japanese defensive forces. At the same time, he would have a one to two advantage in terms of force. As long as he took
Going down the line between Jintang Bridge and Jingang Bridge, the Japanese defense forces in Tianjin were cut off in the middle. It would not be a problem to capture Tianjin in a short time.
But after three days of fierce fighting, the result was completely different from what Tao Jingfei had originally imagined. Faced with the stubborn resistance of the Japanese army and the order from his superiors not to use heavy weapons. After three days of fierce fighting, all but one of the attacking troops seized the Italian territory.
The concession separated the connection between the Japanese army that was stationed in the original British and French concession area and the Japanese army in other parts of the city. It was never possible to complete the division of the main Japanese army in Tianjin.
In particular, there were many battles for Jintang Bridge, Wanguo Bridge and Jingang Bridge, the three most important bridges on the Haihe River in urban Tianjin. Under the blockade of fierce artillery fire from Japanese naval ships, as well as the tenacious blocking of the surrounding defenders, counterattacks were made at all costs.
All failed. In other words, Tao Jingfei's offensive was thwarted across the board after penetrating deep into the inner city.
A group that launched an attack on the front line of Jintang Bridge and Zizhulin Port was blocked by the firepower of several Japanese light ships and a gunboat on the Haihe River. Repeated attacks never succeeded. Especially on the front line of Jintang Bridge, because of the Japanese
The artillery fire was extremely violent and caused considerable casualties.
Although the two main attacking battalions of the regiment, despite the Japanese artillery fire interception and extremely fierce counterattack, at the cost of two-thirds of casualties, after repeated battles, they captured a series of important targets such as the Fujian and Cantonese Guild Hall, the Tianjin County Government, and the Zhang Family Courtyard.
.Forcibly pushed the attack line to the line of Drum Tower, which was not far from the target Jintang Bridge. However, due to excessive casualties, the ability to continue the attack was lost.
The troops attacking the front line of Jintang Bridge suffered heavy casualties and could only switch to defense on the front line of Drum Tower. Although the troops at Jingang Bridge upstream of Jintang Bridge successively captured the Jinhuaqiao and Jinzhong Bridges, the attack on Jingang Bridge also progressed extremely slowly.
.After several hard battles, a breakthrough has not yet been achieved, and the Japanese army has reached a stalemate on the front lines of the Engineering College and the Lawyers Association.
The attacking troops on the eastern front were also in a stalemate with the Japanese army east of the Bac Ninh Railway. Although they captured the Laolongtou Station, the attack on Wanguo Bridge was also frustrated many times. Troops interspersed with each other, at large and small areas along the Bac Ninh Railway
In the small alley, they were caught in a tug-of-war with the Japanese army.
Although the Japanese troops on the Tianjin battlefield lost a considerable amount of troops on the periphery, apart from the part of the Japanese troops stationed in Tanggu, there were only two regiments of the 27th Division used to defend the inner city, plus the independent 15th Brigade.
, and other miscellaneous troops, the total strength of the troops is only more than 30,000.
Even if we add in the more than 3,000 armed expatriates who were urgently mobilized, as well as some puppet troops and police, the total strength is less than 40,000. Together with the six divisions plus two brigades invested by the Anti-Japanese Alliance, as well as part of the Bohai Navy District, activities in Tianjin
Compared with the two independent regiments in the south, in terms of strength comparison, they were only half of the troops invested by the Anti-Japanese Alliance.
However, after the Anti-Japanese Alliance entered the urban area for offensive operations, the regulations restricting the use of heavy firepower made the front-line attack troops significantly different from the Japanese army in terms of firepower. In particular, the Japanese army could also obtain Japanese troops stationed in the lower reaches of Jintang Bridge and the Zizhulin Port area.
Regarding the fire support of naval ships, the difference in fire power between the two sides is even greater.
Even after the Anti-Japanese Alliance broke into the inner city, they invested two entire regiments with more than a hundred tanks. However, the large and small alleys in Tianjin also restricted the use of tanks. The tank troops could only charge along the main streets, while the Japanese army used the streets.
The houses on both sides and the anti-tank preset positions were set up, which caused considerable losses to the anti-alliance tank troops.
After three days of hard fighting, except for the Jinhua Bridge and the Jinzhong Bridge, which have little actual strategic significance, what is really strategically significant is the Haihe River, which divides the main urban area of Tianjin into east and west parts, and the large and small river sections below Zeng Gong Temple.
However, only one bridge was captured.
However, it is somewhat ironic that this bridge was built after the Japanese army occupied Tianjin. It was a wooden bridge connecting the original Japanese concession and Hebei. Although ordinary people privately call it a new bridge, the official name of this wooden bridge is
It's Nihonbashi.
However, this bridge, which was mainly made of wooden structure, was burned down by Japanese naval ships at the Zizhulin Pier downstream using incendiary bombs fired from naval guns within a short period of time after it was captured. Not only did it fail to play the role Tao Jingfei expected,
Instead, the Hedong troops crossed the river and attacked a battalion in the original Japanese concession in Tianjin. Because the breach opened was blocked again, the connection with Hedong was cut off.
In order to prevent the Anti-Japanese Alliance from using the frozen section of the Haihe River to cross the river, and to facilitate the movement of its own ships, before the battle started, a large number of explosives were deployed on the Haihe River in Tianjin. After the Anti-Alliance attack was launched, Zeng Zeng was
From the Gongci Temple to the Yufeng Cotton Mill, all the frozen river surface exploded.
The only bridge captured was destroyed, and the ice floes on the river were blown up, making it impossible to cross the river using the ice. The troops that launched an attack from Haiguang Temple to the Japanese Concession in Tianjin were blocked by the Japanese army at the former Japanese Consulate and the East Asia Hospital.
The front line could not get closer to it. The battalion crossing the river east of the river fell into an isolated and helpless situation.
The current offensive and defensive battle in Tianjin is in such a tough battle. In addition to the Japanese artillery in Tianjin City, which is fully engaged in interception, there are a few ships deployed in the section below the Zenggong Temple on the Haihe River. With their own maneuverability, as well as a few
The small number of naval guns combined with ground artillery caused huge casualties to the anti-alliance attack forces.
Although these naval ships are mainly light ships, the largest old-fashioned gunboat has a full load displacement of only more than a thousand tons. However, the caliber of the main gun is not small. Most ships over a hundred tons are equipped with
A 120mm caliber high and flat dual-purpose gun.
On the battlefield, with the cooperation of two icebreakers, these ships continued to maneuver rapidly up and down along the blasted surface of the Haihe River. The naval guns had large calibers, long ranges, and far more power than those of ground artillery. Almost every day
A ship is equivalent to a mobile artillery battery.
And even though it is a small-caliber naval gun, it is not very powerful, but it has a considerable advantage, that is, it has a fast rate of fire. At the same time, when the caliber is the same, the range of the naval gun is longer than that of ground artillery.
The power of artillery shells is generally greater than that of ground artillery of the same caliber.
The main reason for the failure of the attack on Jintang Bridge, Jingang Bridge and Wanguo Bridge, these strategic-level bridges, was that these warships opened fire desperately to support the Japanese defenders during the battle. The explosion points of their shells were accurate and hard.
On the advancing route of the attacking troops, dense walls of fire were fired, causing extremely heavy casualties to the intersecting anti-alliance troops.
Although the Anti-Alliance Air Force participating in the war, two squadrons of attack aircraft transferred from the Tanggu battlefield braved Japanese warships and surrounding air defense firepower, adopted low-altitude raid tactics, and sank some Japanese warships, weakening the Japanese to a certain extent.
The threat of warship guns.
However, some of the remaining Japanese warships, with no way out, ignored the air threat from the Anti-Japanese Alliance and continued to cooperate with the army's defense with naval gunfire. Even the Japanese navy soldiers whose ships were sunk were also
Rifle machine guns were issued and incorporated into the army to participate in ground defense operations.
In order to protect the safety of the people in the city during this battle, the Anti-Japanese Alliance did not even use artillery in street fighting, let alone aircraft? Therefore, it is very clear where the focus should be on the Japanese army in the deployment of air defense firepower.
The main anti-aircraft weapons in hand were deployed on both sides of the Haihe River.
Coupled with the large number of anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns equipped on the Japanese warships themselves and transferred from the Japanese naval warehouse in Tianjin, they posed a huge threat to the alliance's attack aircraft group. Anyway, these warships only operated on limited rivers.
During the battle on this section, the Japanese army did not consider the carrying capacity of the ships at all.
As long as there are empty seats on the warship, anti-aircraft machine guns and single-barreled or multi-barreled 25mm machine guns are installed everywhere. Although the 25mm anti-aircraft guns and 13mm machine guns are equipped with
Very common. However, the narrow river surface also restricted the entry route of the anti-alliance attack fleet, so that these anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns, which were actually not very good in performance, could still exert great power.
The Japanese army used the anti-aircraft firepower on these ships, coupled with the army's anti-aircraft artillery groups on both sides of the river, to form a dense air defense firepower network over the Haihe River to ensure the safety of ships on the Haihe River. Although the narrow river surface also limited the movement of Japanese warships
Maneuvering capability allowed Japanese ships to maneuver up and down, unable to effectively avoid anti-alliance air attacks.
However, its intensive ground anti-aircraft firepower caused the anti-alliance attack fleet participating in the war to pay an extremely heavy price. In addition, it could only use ordinary high-explosive aerial bombs and airborne rockets for low-altitude dive attacks, so the attack methods were relatively simple.
As a result, the results of the battle were not satisfactory, and the threat from Japanese warships was not completely resolved.
Although the anti-alliance aviation forces participating in the war braved the intensive ground firepower of the Japanese army, they launched a desperate attack. During the attack, they also destroyed one-third of the Japanese ships deployed on the Haihe River, as well as a large number of Japanese soldiers using civilian barges modified with 92 infantry cannons.
The small gunboat even sank the Asagao destroyer, the flagship of the entire Japanese navy deployed in the Tianjin fleet and the largest tonnage.
The entire Japanese Navy is deployed in the fleet in Tianjin. The ship was originally donated by the Japanese Navy to the Puppet Manchukuo. Later it was deemed uneconomical and was brought back. It is equipped with three 120mm naval guns. It is also the entire fleet of ships on the Tianjin battlefield.
Among them, the most powerful destroyer HMS Kan was also sunk by the Anti-Alliance aviation.
However, during the air strike, more than 20 of the more than 30 attack aircraft invested by the Anti-Japanese Alliance were shot down and more than a dozen attack aircraft were damaged. This loss was a major blow to the aviation force, which was not the focus of deployment and was not on the Tianjin battlefield.
Basically, it can be said that it has reached the point of breaking out. Almost all the aviation units participating in the attack fleet have been lost, and they are no longer able to cooperate with the ground forces, so they can only withdraw from the battlefield.