But at the moment, the few troops that Eitaro Uchiyama has left in his hands are almost negligible compared to his 12th Army's defense line, which stretches hundreds of kilometers from Puyang in the west to Bohai Bay in the east. As for the 22nd Division, it is already
Because the battle damage was too great, we could only retreat to Xuzhou to rest and replenish our supplies. We would not be able to go to the battlefield in a short period of time.
This does not include the Thirteenth Army, which is currently grinding and chirping, constantly sending him reports, and wants the Sixty-fifth Division to return to its organic form. But for Uchiyama Eitaro, the Sixty-fifth Division will not return to the Thirteenth Division whether it is life or death.
It's a military establishment. Are you kidding? With only such a small amount of troops in hand, the Sixty-fifth Division is being transferred away. Wouldn't the entire Luzhong defense line be opened wide?
As long as Lieutenant General Uchiyama Eitaro has not received the order to be dismissed and remains in the position of commander of the 12th Army for one day, at least until new reinforcements arrive, it is impossible for the 65th Division to be returned to its organizational structure. Of course, Uchiyama Eitaro
He also knew that when the base camp study was completed, he, the commander of the army, would also receive an order to be dismissed.
But this commander of the Twelfth Army, who was obviously more responsible and believed that before the dismissal order from the base camp came down, he would have to be a monk for a day and become enlightened for a day. Still stubbornly refused.
At the request of the three armies, the Sixty-fifth Division was secretly detained in disguise, and the order given to the Forty-eighth Division to rescue the battlefield east of Texas was revoked.
In fact, before receiving the order, they rushed slowly but still did not have time to reach the battlefield. The entire Hebei-Shandong border battlefield had come to an end. At this moment, they had just arrived in Boxing and had not yet had time to cross the old route of the Yellow River. The Hebei-Shandong border battlefield had come to an end.
After that, instead of him giving an order to stop the advance, the commander of the 48th Division, Lieutenant General Kitagawa Kazuo, had already given an order to stop the advance.
Uchiyama Eitaro is smart, but Kitagawa Kazuo is not a fool. Everyone is from the Army University. Under the Japanese Army training system, strategic vision is half a pound, and no one is better than the other. Uchiyama Eitaro
As a front-line commander, Lieutenant General Kitagawa Kazuo, who does not want to make the same mistakes as his alumni, is also scheming?
The two divisions on the battlefield east of Texas have lost contact. The 48th Division, which currently has only two infantry regiments and not even much artillery, will not ask for trouble by touching the tiger's butt.
At least until the transferred regiment returned to its original state, he had absolutely no intention of crossing the Yellow River.
Lieutenant General Kitagawa Kazuo was not stupid. Without the cooperation of friendly forces, he took two pure infantry regiments, which did not even have a few combat anti-aircraft guns, to fight against the enemy's two armored tank divisions.
The 48th Division, which had no friendly forces to rescue them, had already stopped advancing before receiving the order.
After Uchiyama Eitaro's order was issued, Kitagawa Kazuo happily accepted the order. On the spot from Qingcheng to Xinzhai along the Yellow River, he switched to full-line defense. In addition to repeatedly urging Uchiyama Eitaro to return the transferred regiment as soon as possible
In addition to the establishment, construction of large anti-tank trenches and various fortifications began immediately.
Although the defense area designated by Eitaro Uchiyama for the 48th Division is not far from the Jiaodong Peninsula, it is not the main activity range of the Shandong Communist Army. Although the garrison here must always be on guard, there is not much water left after the Northeastern Communist Army has killed them.
of the Yellow River.
But after all, there is no need to deal with the Shandong Communist Army who have no warrior spirit and only engage in sneak attacks all day long, causing trouble for the people and making them unable to sleep all day long, making the 48th Division feel like they are living in a nightmare all day long.
Although the hundreds of tanks on the north bank of the Yellow River were like a nightmare, making the 48th Division live in fear.
I am afraid that the opponent will kill the Yellow River that has little water that day, but at least the 48th Division can have a good sleep. Of course, if the supplies of the 12th Army can be arrived on time. For the 48th Division, although it is still on guard,
We have to fight against the enemy, and we have to go all out to repair various anti-tank fortifications. Compared with the previous days in Jiaodong, the current days are like paradise.
For Eitaro Uchiyama, the two divisions originally scheduled for rescue had collectively become gods. The 22nd Division and the 65th Division collectively withdrew to the south of the Yellow River. The entire battlefield north of the old route of the Yellow River was basically empty.
If there is any room for recovery, I will naturally not be so stupid that losing two of them is not enough, and I have to pick up another one.
After the gunfire from the direction of the 115th Division's operations subsided, Uchiyama Eitaro simply gave the order to the 48th Division to stop advancing, move to garrison on the spot and build a defense line. This was already in the hands of his 12th Army.
After this battle of unprecedented scale, there were only two divisions left.
If in the end this little organic force suffers any serious losses, he, the commander of the Twelfth Army, and his old classmate from the Army Sergeant School will become the bare commanders of the brothers who are suffering. And with such a small force
, if they are all lost to the north of the Yellow River, what else can he use to defend Luzhong? Once Luzhong is controlled by the enemy, the entire Shandong will be unprotected.
If Shandong is lost, the entire Jianghuai region will be opened wide. The North China Front Army may have to sleep on the same kang with the Thirteenth Army. By then, I am afraid that the organization of the North China Front Army will be impossible unless it is abolished. Territory
They are all gone and have been driven to central China. Can they still be called the North China Front?
Therefore, Uchiyama Eitaro, who reacted quickly, immediately issued an order to stop all northward marches after the battlefield east of Texas ended. At the same time, he immediately thought of ways to mobilize additional troops for the 22nd Division, hoping to quickly defeat this division.
, restored to the point where it can fight.
In order to raise enough troops, Uchiyama Eitaro even abandoned Okamura Neiji's blockade and the entire Jiaodong Peninsula except Qingdao, and concentrated all his troops to defend Jinan and Jinpu Railway along the Yellow River and Jinpu Railway.
Safety.
Qingdao is the territory of the navy, and what the navy does has nothing to do with him. He can only withdraw all the army and control the area west of Linyi to Licheng. Anyway, the army is already working on expanding Lianyungang, losing Qingdao, Yantai and Weihai. As long as Longhai is guaranteed
The section of the railway east of Xuzhou is open, which is enough for the current North China Front. As for General Okamura's blockade area, let him go to hell.
The entire Hebei-Shandong border battlefield, along with the two divisions in the Dezhou battlefield, adopted an unscrupulous retreat method to ensure their final safe withdrawal from the entire Shandong territory north of the Yellow River, the last Japanese-controlled area. This also announced the battle between the east and west.
Among the battlefields, the battlefield on the eastern front along the Hebei-Shandong border has completely come to an end.
At the same moment when the Hebei-Shandong border battlefield came to an end, the First Army, which suffered equally heavy losses on the Ping-Han line, also successively abandoned the last two cities controlled by southern Hebei, Handan and Cixian, and the entire northern Henan north of the Yellow River.
Anyang, Xinxiang and other strategic towns, as well as the Dao-Qing Railway, all the remaining troops were withdrawn across the old line of the Yellow River in one fell swoop.
The First Army was a partial division in the entire combat plan. Therefore, its troop strength and firepower equipment were far inferior to those of the Twelfth Army fighting against the Anti-Union East Cluster, and it suffered more heavy losses in this battle. Pinghan
The 50th Division and the 117th Division, which were attacking frontally on the front line, were all defeated. The two full-strength divisions together only withdrew more than a thousand people.
Of the two divisions that were the main attackers on the Ping-Han Line, one of the two division commanders withdrew safely, and the other was seriously injured by the Anti-Alliance artillery fire, but luckily saved his life. He once served as the chief of staff of the Kwantung Army for many years.
The amount of time he spent dealing with the Anti-Japanese Alliance was far beyond the comparison of Eitaro Uchiyama and Seiichi Yoshimoto.
During this battle, the subordinates of the First Army were strictly ordered to not enter the battle zone except for the battlefield in southeastern Shanxi, and all division commanders of the participating troops fighting against the Anti-Japanese Alliance in front of the Ping-Han Line. The two division headquarters must be within a distance of the battlefield.
, at least thirty kilometers of rear command.
All divisions participating in the war are not allowed to carry military flags, and their front-line command is coordinated by the chief of staff of each division. In addition to Yoshimoto Sadai's painstaking calculations, the division commanders and first-level officers of the Japanese troops fighting on the Ping-Han line are not like they were in the East
Like my colleagues on the front line, they either died gloriously on the battlefield, or received a long-term free residence permit in a Chinese army prisoner of war camp.
Although the commander of the 50th Division, Lieutenant General Sadao Ishimoto, when the entire army was defeated, in order to organize the retreat of the troops and boost the morale of the enemy, he violated orders and entered the war zone. His convoy was hit by long-range artillery from the Anti-Japanese Alliance and was seriously injured.
But Haolai also escaped. He was neither captured nor killed in battle, but finally ran back alive.
This is undoubtedly a big miracle for the Japanese army, where more and more officers at the level of lieutenant general are killed in battle. Of course, this miracle is based on the divisions and division commanders of the First Army.
The officers did not enter the war zone at all, but only set up command posts in Handan and Daimyo in the rear.
However, although the two division commanders at the level of lieutenant general did not suffer as heavy losses as on the Eastern Front, among the officers above the rank of colonel who participated in the war, only one captain of the 302nd Regiment of the 50th Division, Chiaki Nagano, returned.
Colonel. The rest of the first-level officers of Colonel were either killed in battle or disappeared on the southern Hebei plain. The two divisions that attacked the Pinghan-Han line and the two chiefs of staff who were sent to the front line for coordination and command all disappeared.
Among the several major general officers, only one had his leg broken by a mortar bomb and was evacuated early to escape the disaster. This result is definitely a heavy loss for the current First Army. Two divisions
The regiment leader survived and was basically safely withdrawn. He only looked better on the outside, but in his heart he was still the same as his colleagues on the Eastern Front.
The entire Pinghan-Han Line collapsed, and the two divisions participating in the battle were completely destroyed. The two divisions that were too deep behind "enemy lines" on the battlefield in southeastern Shanxi, after receiving Yoshimoto Sadai's order to retreat at all costs, despite taking
Using the gecko's tail-cutting tactic, they fought tooth and nail to open a bloody path and reluctantly retreated to the territory of Jincheng.
But it is not that easy for these two divisions that have been targeted by the deputy commander-in-chief to retreat. One division that was divided and surrounded around Changzhi, although under the support of the other division at all costs, was finally able to retreat.
They broke through the tight encirclement, but the total casualties of the entire division reached 70%. In the end, they only had 20% of their troops. After losing all their heavy equipment and wounded, they reluctantly broke out of the encirclement.
Although the situation of the other one is better, it suffered heavy losses in the long and fierce battle. Especially during the retreat, it encountered the 18th Group Army participating in the battlefield in the southeast of Shanxi. Various troops interspersed across a large area, detoured, and adopted various methods.
Under the multi-channel interception and killing tactics of mobile ambush, more than half of them suffered casualties and lost their combat effectiveness. Without long-term repairs, they would have no combat capability at all.
The current tragic situation tells Yoshimoto Teiichi that if his First Army, which currently does not even have the strength to demolish the Eastern Wall to repair the Western Wall, continues to struggle on the Ping-Han Line and continues to invest troops in it, it will only aggravate the First Army's situation.
It's just the loss of one army. Now the entire war situation has collapsed. No one else can save it, so don't hold on just to save face.