The Fourth Osaka Division was a joke during the Japanese invasion of China. Its reputation as "the most useless division in the world" has long been known in the Japanese military circles, so Sawada Shigeru, who served as the division commander, was The promotion to the commander of the 13th Army once caused an uproar in the Japanese government and the public. At this time, Sawada Shigeru's blind eye in Hainan helped him a lot. It is true that the Fourth Division is weak, but Sawada Shigeru's one division However, a senior officer with a senior rank went to the front line and was blinded in one eye. Some officers believed that this fully demonstrated his personal bravery and loyalty to His Majesty the Emperor. Therefore, despite objections, he still secured his position as the first officer. The position of commander of the 13th Army, and as the Fourth Division produced two heroes in succession and began to show their talents in New Guinea, this credit was naturally recorded on his head, so the officer who served in the Fourth Division Instead, his resume became his capital, and he began to receive the heartfelt support of the middle and lower-level officers of the 13th Army just like his predecessor.
The Qinling Mountains have been a natural barrier for guarding Shaanxi since ancient times. The existence of the Qinling Mountains has also made Sichuan, China's rear area, worthy of its name. This is also the main reason why the Japanese base camp has to consider opening a front against China in the Indo-China Peninsula. However, Because the Cadet Expeditionary Force and the Northeast Expeditionary Force have now firmly controlled most of the Indochina Peninsula, completely blocking the Japanese army's plan. First, Koizumi Minichiro proposed it, and then Yamamoto Isoroku and Yoneuchi Mitsumasa reconsidered, and the Japanese base camp There began to be calls for using airborne troops to overcome the natural barrier of the Qinling Mountains and use troops against China's rear. This call had no market, because in the Japanese military system, its airborne troops were a joke like the original Fourth Division. Japan developed airborne troops. No, they were called paratroopers at that time because of the influence of the Germans. At the beginning of World War II (from a Western perspective), Germany dispatched more than a hundred paratroopers to descend from the sky and unexpectedly captured the defense line of the Albert Canal in Belgium. The Eben Emaar Fortress opened the eastern gate of Belgium, and was no longer able to stop the German cavalry. The Japanese nation has a characteristic. When they see good ones, they want to learn from them. Since paratroopers have this wonderful effect, and Germany is their ally, then There is no principle that cannot be learned first, but after two years, although the Japanese paratroopers took shape, accidents occurred frequently during training, and they gradually faded out of the sight of the military bosses.
Since paratroopers can't do it, what other way does the Japanese army have to cross the Qinling barrier? It's still airborne, but the tool is not a parachute, but a glider. This plan was first proposed by Koizumi Miichiro, and the reason why Koizumi Miichiro knew that the Navy was in charge of the Army's affairs , that was because of a post I saw on the military website before traveling. The post analyzed the reasons for the defeat of the Japanese army and believed that the most critical problem lay in the failure to attack Sichuan, the rear area of China at that time, thus giving the central government of China a chance to breathe. , this post proposed that the empire should give priority to solving the China Incident before sending troops to Southeast Asia, and the way to do this was to cross the natural barrier of the Qinling Mountains. The author of this post was obviously a military fan and had a deep understanding of the situation on the Sino-Japanese battlefield at that time. He proposed that since paratroopers could not So why can't we just use gliders to make a forced landing? At that time, Japan was fully capable of building enough gliders within a certain period of time. And when Japan completely controlled the sky in China, the gliders could safely fly over the Qinling Mountains and then be protected by fighter jets. The post more directly pointed out that as long as the empire could dispatch 300 gliders at one time and parachute more than 30,000 troops over there, it would be able to guarantee the occupation of a stronghold, and with this stronghold, the empire could continue to By increasing the number of troops in Shaanxi, we will have the ability to continue fighting against China's rear area.
In order to promote this combat plan, Koizumi Toshiichiro wrote in a telegram to persuade Yamamoto Isoroku: If the empire wants to comprehensively defeat the United States, it must prioritize solving the China incident so that more elite troops can be deployed to the Pacific battlefield. In China, the imperial army In fact, there are only three enemies. These three enemies are the Central Army, the GCD Army and the Xubing Army. Facts have proved that the cost of defeating the Xubing Army at this stage is too high for the empire to make ends meet. In this case, it is better to attack China first. In the rear, completely defeat the Central Army and the GCD Army. As long as these two armies are defeated, the empire will be able to win over the warlords in China and use China to control China against the Xuebing Army...
Yamamoto Isoroku was heart-pounded. With his suggestion, Yoneuchi Mitsumasa was also interested in this plan. Under their influence, Tojo Hideki also began to seriously consider the feasibility of the strategy, and then the relevant discussions expanded to include the entire military. senior executives,
Although the Xuebing Army defeated the Japanese army's attempt to reinforce Madang and disabled the Japanese 13th Independent Brigade, it failed to have a decisive impact on the current battle situation in Madang. Without reinforcements, the little devils became even crazier. Step by step, Rao Guohua fought for every tunnel, every bunker, and every hiding place with the student army. Before Ouyang Yun returned to Guangzhou, Rao Guohua invested in fourteen regiments one after another, but the result was frustrating. The regiment's nearly 15,000 cadets continued to launch fierce attacks on the Japanese army, but in the end they only captured one-third of the mountain fortifications. The price they paid was that more than 4,000 cadets died in the battle, and more than 2,000 cadets were seriously injured. As for the Japanese army, according to the officers on the front line, there are at least 3,000 people.
There was no chance at all, and the weapons and equipment with excellent performance could not play their role. This made the soldiers of Rao Guohua's department extremely frustrated. The moment Ouyang Yun's plane landed at Baiyunshan Airport, the deserters finally appeared. About one The trainees in the platoon were unable to withstand the kid's suicide offensive and collapsed, which suddenly plunged the frontline trainees into chaos. The Japanese army took this opportunity to regain the tunnels and hiding holes lost during the day, and the trainees were able to recover in just half a day. There were more than a thousand casualties within an hour.
The cadets of a defeated platoon were actually a company. After the company commander died in battle, the deputy company commander failed to stabilize the troops. As a result, all the surviving cadets of the company became deserters.
It is not that there have been deserters in the history of the Xuebing Army, but it is unique in such an organic system and at the company level. The Xuebing Army attaches great importance to political and ideological work. This is why the Xuebing Army is called the unbeatable iron army. In the words of Ji Xingwen, who was full of pride when he met Tan Kah Kee one time, each of us students is a spiritual giant. Let the so-called bushido spirit of the little devil go to hell.
The cadets who formed a company became deserters, which directly caused heavy casualties to the troops and lost the day's victory. Rao Guohua was furious after receiving the report and ordered them to be shot immediately. Then he held a meeting of officers above the regimental commander, at which Reiterating the order of the General Headquarters, he finally said angrily: "The three-day time limit is approaching. We have actually failed. Failure is not terrible, but desertion is our greatest shame. Everyone, the Commander-in-Chief has already Back in Guangzhou, I originally wanted to use Ma Dang as a gift to welcome him, but now, everyone, we have made huge sacrifices. If we still can't win Ma Dang in the end, wouldn't our brothers' deaths be in vain? I'll wait. We will call the headquarters to ask for a day's grace. I hope everyone will do more work as soldiers when they go back. Tomorrow will be our last chance."