Although the Thirty Army under the command of Yoshio Hongo also suffered heavy losses under the siege of Du Kaishan, all units of the Forty-fourth Army that participated in the battle lost at least one-third of their troops. But compared to those who were attacked,
Compared with the disorganized Thirty Army, his entire defense system still remained relatively intact.
The most critical thing is that despite being cut off from the 30th Army, his 44th Army worked hard and relied on the favorable terrain of the mountainous area from Zhonggu to Chaihebao to survive the surrounding anti-alliance siege.
However, he was always tightly hugged together and was not divided by his opponents.
Moreover, as soon as the battle started, this cunning Japanese Army Lieutenant General transported all the large amounts of ammunition and food originally stored in Fushun to the first and second line positions of Zhonggu and Chaihe Fort. Compared with Tieling and Pingdingbao,
After the front line was lost, the Thirty Army lost almost all the ammunition and food originally stored in Tieling, and was about to run out of ammunition and food. His Forty-fourth Army was still well-fed and well-fed, with sufficient ammunition.
The only regret is that because the back road is cut off, the winter clothes that should be changed by the season cannot be delivered to the troops. Although the weather in southern Manchuria is not bad, it is already very cold in the morning and evening. In addition, fighting in mountainous areas, this night
The climate is still somewhat cool. Wearing thin summer clothes to fight in this season gave his troops a serious cold.
However, the Forty-fourth Army still had plenty of food and ammunition. Except for the inconvenience of making a fire for cooking in the face of the enemy's air superiority, there was no need to worry about other aspects. Even after half a month of siege, they
The 44th Army will not be in danger of starvation.
The most important thing is that Yoshio Hongo believes that the mountainous area east of the entire Zhongchang Railway is vast. Although his Forty-fourth Army also suffered heavy casualties, it is far from being damaged. At present, it still has vitality.
, the Forty-fourth Army, which has plenty of ammunition on hand, is still confident of a successful breakout as long as it concentrates its fists and attacks northeast of Chaihe Fort.
The tanks of the Anti-Japanese Alliance can pass through mountainous areas and bypass their own defense lines to penetrate behind them. Could it be that the Japanese army, which has always been good at fighting in complex terrain, cannot move through mountainous areas? It is impossible for the enemy to fortify everywhere in such a vast mountainous area.
If you can open a retreat channel, you can still be sure of escaping to heaven.
There was sufficient ammunition and food on hand, and although the losses of each unit were heavy, except for a few units, most of the unit structures were still intact, which gave Yoshio Hongo the confidence to break through. He believed that as long as his actions could achieve
It's sudden and the chance of protruding out is quite high.
However, as the encirclement of the surrounding anti-alliance forces shrinks more and more tightly, how can we safely stand out? This is a very difficult problem for Lieutenant General Hongo Yoshio and his chief of staff, Major General Ohno Takejo.
There is no doubt that the direction of the breakthrough can only be to the east. Under the current situation, it is impossible to break out to the west to join the Thirty Army.
But Xiang ** surrounded the retreat route after opening the breakthrough, how to avoid the enemy's pursuit, and how to get rid of the enemy's entanglement and withdraw the troops covertly under the enemy's nose. This made Hongo
Lieutenant General Yoshio and Major General Ohno Takejo were in trouble.
After several days of fierce fighting, the 44th Army indeed held the second line of defense. However, under the enemy's deliberate behavior, it became more and more entangled with the enemy. It wanted to get rid of the enemy as quietly as possible.
Army, withdrawing the troops is not an easy task for the current 44th Army.
Moreover, the only breakout directions that can be chosen are all in mountainous terrain. The heavy weapons currently equipped by the 44th Army cannot be carried at all. The rest should be discarded or blown up, and how to carry a large number of wounded. For this purpose
It is also a difficult problem for Lieutenant General Go Yoshio.
The two men gathered together on the map and studied it carefully for most of the day, but they decided to adopt the method of attacking in the east and attacking in the west. They sent one force to the southwest to attack Tieling and Pingdingbao with all their strength, forming a 44th Army
It is necessary to re-establish contact with the Thirty Army.
At the same time, the main force gradually shrank on the north and south lines, and gave up some secondary positions. With two independent mixed brigades relying on favorable terrain, they prepared to take over the defense in the north and south directions. The rest of his forces secretly marched towards the two wings of Chaihe Fort.
After all the troops arrived, the entire army made an all-out effort to break out of the encirclement along the mountains on both sides of Chaihe Fort eastward.
The mortars and mountain guns that could be carried were all dismantled and mounted on horses. The field guns and howitzers that could not be carried were all abandoned after covering the main force's breakout, except for removing the breech blocks and taking them away. All the seriously wounded were cremated and burned.
The lightly wounded were organized into the blocking troops on both wings. Each of the breakout troops carried five days of supplies, as well as 120 rounds of ammunition and four grenades.
Light and heavy machine guns, grenade launchers each carry two bases of ammunition, mortars, mountain guns and infantry guns each carry sixty shells. The remaining food, ammunition and other supplies, including all trucks, are all thrown away
.After the main force broke through, the covering troops blew up all the field guns and howitzers that could not be carried.
After highlighting the enemy's defense circle along Chaihe Fort, the entire army passed through Dadianzi, crossed the Fenghai Railway at the Nanzamu line, and then retreated with all its strength toward Benxi. Using the main force of the enemy forces in Liaodong, they were fighting fiercely with the Third Army. Behind them
With their troops weak, Huanren withdrew to Kuandian via Xinbin.
As for the troops that are too entangled with the enemy on the front line and cannot be withdrawn, they will be responsible for covering the breakthrough of the entire army. When the gecko tail-cutting tactic should be used, it must be used decisively. How to ensure that most of the troops are
Rushing out is what you should consider most.
In order to ensure that the main force of the Forty-Fourth Army could finally break through and take out as many main forces as possible, these two led a group of senior staff officers from the Forty-Fourth Army Headquarters to get the
came up with what they thought was the most detailed plan.
All units to which it belongs have formulated strict breakout plans. When breaking through, each unit should either counterattack or take a detour in that direction. Which unit should take the lead, which unit should stay behind to intercept the rear.
Detailed plans were made for when and in what direction the troops would break out. The entire breakout plan was even directly implemented at the brigade level.
When reducing the so-called burden, that is, the heavy equipment that was inconvenient to carry, as well as all the wounded, these two showed a decisive and even ruthless side. In addition to blowing up all the heavy weapons that could not be carried, they all
In addition, they actually ordered that all seriously injured people who could not move should be cremated alive.
You must know that during the fierce fighting in the past few days, the number of seriously wounded people in the entire Forty-fourth Army was not dozens but thousands. Burning all these seriously wounded people together with the corpses of those who died in the war,
For the so-called breakout operation, these two people did not even care about the most basic human nature.
The Kwantung Army Headquarters requested the Forty-Fourth Army to withdraw to Benxi and cooperate with the Third Army's operations. Yoshio Hongo and Major General Ohno Takejo simply threw it aside. Benxi was too close to the enemy, even if they could
They had an advantage for a while, but once the enemy troops following them came to pursue them, the Forty-fourth Army would be the unlucky ones. So these two men decided to retreat directly to Kuandian.
Here, Yoshio Hongo is carefully making preparations for the breakout and constantly adjusting deployments. Opposite him, Du Kaishan is a little upset. The Western Front Corps has completed the division of the Thirty Army, and he
The offensive here has never made any significant progress.
Although the encirclement was completed, facing the hedgehog-like Forty-fourth Army, the overall progress was quite limited. These little devils in front of them were indeed quite skilled, and the entire defense line was set up quite cunningly. Although the attacks for several days have been
Most of the peripheral strongholds have been cleared, but the core area of the entire defense system has not yet been penetrated.
Putting down the telescope in his hand, Du Kaishan turned his head and said to the Chief of Staff Ye Chao beside him: "Old Ye, this kind of attack is not strong enough. The connection between Zhonggu and Chaihe Fort must be cut off, otherwise on such a mountain, a mountain
We won't be able to defeat this 44th Army even if we keep chewing it for another month."
"Tell the troops on the front line that I am giving them two days. I must win the key points of Shangyu, Xiayu, Majiazhai on the southern line, Mengjiazhai, Shuangtailing, and Dazigou on the northern line.
, in order to complete the division of the enemy's 44th Army. Tell them to dare to boldly intersect, and not to push forward in a straight line."
"Also tell Xiong Botao that no matter what method he uses, Shuangtailing and the enemies on the front line must be eliminated before tonight. I handed over to him a 203 howitzer company assigned by my superiors. Why is the progress still so slow?
?The backing is the most important stronghold outside Chaihe Fort. If we cannot capture the backing, we cannot directly attack Chaihe Fort."
After quickly recording Du Kaishan's order, Ye Chao said hesitantly: "Commander Du, I think we should be more stable now? The closer we are to the core area of the Japanese army, the stronger the resistance of the Japanese army will be. And the enemy
The army's artillery is deployed in semi-underground fortifications, and the Japanese army, which has the commanding heights, can cover almost the entire battlefield with its firepower range."
"The attack routes of our various units have always been blocked by enemy artillery. Our progress has always been slow. The main problem is that we cannot suppress the enemy's artillery. The attack routes available in mountainous areas are limited, and it is impossible for us to launch on one battlefield.
Too many troops."
"In this kind of mountain-to-mountain battle, enemy artillery is always a serious threat to our army. If we continue to fight like this, even if we can completely annihilate the 44th Army, the price we will pay will be very high. I
Let’s see if we can stop temporarily and let each unit summarize their experience and adjust their tactics based on previous battles?”
Following Ye Chao's persuasion, Du Kaishan tapped the map and said, "Brother Comrade, I understand all the things you said. But have you not noticed that after these days of fighting, there is something abnormal about the Japanese troops in front of us? On the surface, it seems that the Japanese troops are fighting
It's quite satisfactory, but haven't you noticed that the Japanese army is always shrinking its troops?"
"Indeed, it seems that they have to fight for each hilltop repeatedly. But in fact, every battle, except for Zhaojiatun, Jinjiazhai North Mountain, Chaihe Donggou, Shuangtailing and other central key points, all the way to the east of Chaihe Fort
Apart from the Chai River coast, artillery is the main means of counterattack in other directions, and the actual number of troops invested is not very large."
"They are relying on the relatively favorable terrain they hold on to consciously weaken our offensive strength. You didn't find that after they were broken through by our army on the periphery of their second line of position, when our army advanced to attack in depth, their main
Most of the positions that are repeatedly contested by our army are concentrated in areas where their artillery fire can cross-cover them."
"Compared to the front slope, they focus more on relying on the surrounding commanding heights to compete with our army for ridge and reverse slope positions. Even the ridge position is not the main focus of the battle with our army. Once the battle for the ridge fails, they will immediately retreat to
Anti-slope position. At this time, it is difficult for our artillery to hit their anti-slope position."