In fact, because Han Fuqu did not flee without a fight, the Fifth Theater was able to rely on the natural dangers of the Yellow River to defend, and actually withstood the Japanese attack for more than a month. It seemed that the start was much better than in history. However, the Japanese Navy suddenly attacked on 38
After the Spring Festival of 2016, they suddenly attacked Qingdao and increased troops at a rate of one full division every 3-4 days, directly threatening the river defense army's hundreds of thousands of people. After this shocking news reached the river defense front line, the original
The 100,000 people who could still grit their teeth and persevere collapsed instantly under the further intensified offensive of the Japanese army...
After crossing the Yellow River, the hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles of Shinozuka Yoshio's tank division were finally able to fully exert their power. With the support of hundreds of aircraft, they followed the Jinpu Road without any scruples after capturing Jinan.
Continuing all the way south, they successively captured Yanzhou, Jining, Zouxian, and Tengxian in just two days, and went straight to Lincheng, a transportation hub. Fortunately, Zhang Zizhong was ordered to lead the 59th Army to march overnight and got here first. Yoshio Shinozuka saw that the opponent was resisting.
It was very tenacious, but the tank division rushed too fast and could hardly keep up with fuel, ammunition and air support. The tanks also lost almost one-third due to breakdowns and battle damage, so they suspended the offensive and withdrew to Teng County.
, waiting for friendly forces from behind to arrive for support.
In this battle, the Japanese tank division alone suffered 70,000 or 80,000 casualties and prisoners, while the tank division only suffered a slight loss of two to three hundred people. Such a disparity in casualties made the top brass of the Japanese Army Department determined to expand armor.
The determination of the troops. But the problem is that in order to do so, it must compete with the navy for resources and military expenditures. This is tantamount to grabbing food from the tiger's mouth, and the difficulty can be imagined. However, at this time, the emerging "aircraft carrier faction" within the Japanese Navy and the traditional "aircraft carrier faction"
The struggle between the "Giant Ship and Artillery Faction" has also entered a fierce stage, giving the Army an opportunity to take advantage of the situation.
Finally. After a fierce struggle, the "giant ship and artillery faction" completely lost power. Japan therefore abandoned all production plans for battleships, battlecruisers and most heavy cruisers, and devoted all its efforts to the production of aircraft carriers and various supporting ships with outstanding air defense and anti-submarine capabilities.
As well as the supply ships that had been ignored by Japanese high-level officials before, the new carrier-based aircraft not only accelerated the research and development progress significantly, but also put forward higher requirements in terms of performance...
The Army has also benefited greatly from this. Because the aircraft carrier route occupies relatively less production capacity and resources than the "giant ship and artillery" route, the little bit of squeeze out is already an astronomical figure for the Army, which is used to poverty.
According to a secret agreement reached in advance by both parties, the Army can produce at least 12,000 "chariots" (including tanks, armored vehicles and self-propelled artillery) within three years. Although this is estimated based on the size and tonnage of "chariots" currently in service in Japan
Yes, in fact, as Japanese tanks were upgraded much faster than in history, only more than 5,000 tanks were finally produced. But even so, it still greatly enhanced the combat effectiveness of the Japanese army...
The defeat of the northern section of Jinpu Road not only caused various places in Shandong to fall one after another, but also made the Fifth Theater Commander Li Zongren feel increasingly powerless. Although taking into account the factors of the commander, the combat effectiveness of Chen Mingren's reorganized 88th Division was no less than that of the same period in history.
Tang Enbo Corps; and because of the deterrence of the Fifteenth Army, the under-strength Japanese Central China Front Army has been looking for excuses to circumvent the base camp and has been unwilling to send troops north along the Jinpu Line to join the North China Front Army because the old and cunning new commander of the Japanese Army Central China Front Army, General Hata Shunroku, was worried
The 15th Army suddenly broke out from the Dabie Mountains, cutting off the retreat of the Japanese troops heading north; and because the losses in Songhu and Nanjing were much smaller than at the same time in history, Chiang Kai-shek rarely squeezed out a little more troops to support the Fifth Theater, making the Fifth Theater
Even now that the Shandong Army has been almost completely wiped out, it still has four to five million soldiers to fight. But Li Zongren is far less confident than he was in history...
This is because historically the Fifth War Zone has the Dabie Mountains in its hands. It can advance and attack, and retreat and defend. Even if it cannot defeat the Japanese army, it can retreat into the Dabie Mountains to avoid being completely annihilated by the Japanese, and continue to use a combination of mobile warfare and guerrilla warfare.
Persistence in the war of resistance. But now the Dabie Mountains are the territory of the 15th Army. After the fifth theater lost Shandong, the remaining defense areas are almost all undefeable plains, while the Dabie Mountains to the west are the territory of the 15th Army.**
It is possible to escape in, but it is absolutely impossible to use it as a base to persist in the war of resistance. As the boss of Li Zongren and Gui's clique, if he can lead his troops to retreat into the Dabie Mountains but can only leave through a road, he really can't bear the humiliation.
.....
In this way, the four to five million soldiers in the Fifth Theater could only fight head-on with the elite Japanese troops. If the Japanese North China Front Army had not been worried about the Fifteenth Army's sudden march into Shandong, Seishiro Itagaki (after the successful breakout, the Japanese base camp appointed him as the rebuilt First Army)
The entire 5 full field divisions of the 1st Army (Commander of the 1st Army) have been on hold as a precaution. There are not enough troops to be used directly to attack the enemy. The fifth theater may not be able to hold on long ago...
..
It was precisely because of the difficult situation in the Fifth Theater that Chiang Kai-shek had no choice but to approve the designation of the new 38th Division. On this condition, he asked the Red Party to launch a large-scale campaign in North China to contain the main force of the Japanese North China Front and relieve the Fifth
The war zone is currently under tremendous pressure. On behalf of the Red Party, Zhou Gong agreed to this request, but at the same time said that the Red Party could only guarantee to launch an offensive in the first half of 1938, but the specific time, where and how to attack could not be determined in advance.
Yes, Old Jiang knew that what Duke Zhou said was right, so although he was anxious, he finally nodded in agreement. But let alone Old Jiang, even Duke Zhou did not expect that the first to launch the attack was not the Fifteenth Army or the Eighth Route Army.
Such a regular army...
Let’s start from the beginning. After Itagaki fled back to Pingjin, he immediately reported to the commander of the North China Front, General Juichi Terauichi, that the Red Party was likely to have mastered the "Imperial Army" telecommunications code, and suggested that he would devise a trap for the Red Party troops to exploit.
, but Juichi Terauchi was not as courageous as Itagaki. At that time, the strength of the Japanese North China Front Army was extremely empty. If reinforcements from the mainland and Manchuria had not been coming to Pingjin in a steady stream, and the navy was reluctant to protect them, they would not even be able to protect themselves.
These are all problematic. How could Juichi Terauchi have the courage to take the initiative to fight the Red Army again at this time? What made Seishiro Itagaki even more frustrated was that Juichi Terauchi believed that the harm of the password being mastered by the enemy for one or two more months would be greater than if the troops were replenished.
Setting up a trap to annihilate the enemy may bring benefits, so the matter was immediately reported to the base camp, so that Itagaki Seishiro's plan to implement a counterinsurgency plan came to nothing... (To be continued. If you like this work, welcome
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