Chapter 29 kill the enemy

Frontal attack, fire support is indispensable.At that time, in addition to the Krupp field artillery of the 58th Division, the artillery company directly under the 51st Division also had three such treasures.Although the Krupp field artillery is old, the hit rate is very high. One day before dusk, the division headquarters of the 51st Division observed that a Japanese army was gathering in front of the hut village at the foot of the mountain, so it immediately called the artillery company to start shooting.The Krupp field guns loaded with incendiary bombs all hit the target accurately, and dozens of thatched huts were all burned down. The Japanese soldiers who had not yet been recruited were so frightened that they ran for their lives.

However, such concentrated shooting can only be done occasionally.The Japanese army can quickly measure the artillery position through sound measurement, hyperbolic cross-drawing, etc., and suppress the shooting after a few minutes.By the end of the Wanjialing Campaign, the 106th Division of the Japanese Army, which lacked artillery shells, was no longer capable of suppressing them. However, the artillery company commander of the 51st Division lacked battlefield experience and was still too cautious in combat. He hid his artillery in the woods during the day They dared not come out to fire a few shots until around dusk, which resulted in the inability of the infantry to coordinate at all.

If you are reluctant to lose the Krupp field artillery, there are mortars to help the infantry.Distributed to the troops, the 51st Division does not have many mortars, and each regiment has only one mortar platoon.Wang Yaowu then adopted the method of concentrating the mortars of the whole division, so that a mortar company can roughly be formed. In the Battle of Wanjialing, the role of mortars far exceeded that of Krupp field artillery.In addition to the fact that the latter is not used much, it is mainly due to the fact that the characteristics of the mortar are more suitable for mountain warfare. It is not only easy to carry and easy to operate, but also can take advantage of its curved trajectory to effectively kill and hide behind hills or positions. enemy.

At 8 o'clock in the morning that day, the 51st Division used mortars to focus on the Japanese positions in Zhang Gushan.With the support of the artillery, the large force took the Death Squad as the vanguard and roared up to the highland at the northern end of Zhanggu Mountain. They first dealt with the Japanese security forces with bare knives, and then launched a fierce attack on Serge Ridge. Although the Japanese army repeatedly reinforced them, they could no longer stop the Chinese army's offensive momentum. After annihilating more than 500 Japanese troops, the 51st Division completely occupied Zhanggushan.

In this battle, the two sides fought repeatedly five times, and the fierce battle lasted for four hours. The entire hillside was stained red with blood, so the Japanese called Zhang Gushan "Blood Ridge". A year later, when Tang Yongliang, who came to visit Zhang Gushan, was already covered with pines and cypresses, but the cruel battle scene was still there.He saw bones, leather shoes, and scattered military supplies everywhere on the half slope. On the edges and corners of the slope, there were many individual foxholes, machine gun holes, and even blasted rubble and burnt pine trees were still there. did not disappear.

The closer it was to Serge Ridge, the more bones there were, and some of the bones were covered with piles of black dead maggots.When I climbed Serge Ridge, I saw many skulls piled up on it, steel helmets, leather shoes, shell boxes, bayonets, and gas canisters, all thrown all over the ground. Tang Yongliang found the remains of several Chinese soldiers on the southern slope of Zhanggu Mountain.They all wear rubber shoes and carry rain hats. The soles of the red rubber shoes have turned white. Zhang Gushan is not high, but the mountain is not high, and the enemy will cry out. These heroes of the 51st Division won honor for the division, the army and the entire anti-Japanese army with their bloody sacrifices.

While the 51st Division was fighting for Zhang Gushan, the Japanese reinforcements also broke into the pass between Zhanggushan and Changling.Fortunately, the 58th Division had been prepared for a long time. The division cut in from the flank of Zhang Gushan. After six hours of fierce fighting, more than 300 enemies were wiped out, and the Japanese army's reinforcements to Zhang Gushan were completely cut off. Relying on the advantages of a large number of troops and strong attack spirit, the First Corps basically defeated the defense system of the Japanese 106th Division.At eight o'clock that night, all armies, like the Seventy-Fourth Army, attacked the Japanese army from all directions, with the Death Squad at the head. Thunder drums Liu Village.

Thunder and Drum Liu is the third scene that must be mentioned in the Wanjialing Battle besides Wanjialing and Zhanggushan.What is different from the previous two scenes is that Lei Ming Gu Liu has more dead horses than dead people.When Tang Yongliang went to visit, before entering the village, he saw rows of dead horse skeletons in the foothills, rice fields and ponds. The horse's mouth still has an iron bit, the horse's head is still tied with a leather bridle, and even the worn-out saddlebags still contain rusty horseshoes, but the half-destroyed yellow blanket clearly shows the facts and the ruthlessness of the years.Leiming Guliu is almost a horse cemetery. There are five or six hundred dead horses in a rice field only half a mile away.

On the half slope of a hill, there are two huge wooden plaques, one is "the monument of the imperial army's love of horses"; the other is "the monument of the love of horses of the Segawa troops".It is obvious that all the horses buried here are the baggage horses of the 106th Division of the Japanese Army. The Segawa troops belong to the logistics and supply troops, and they generally live in the rear during combat, and they should be covered by infantry units. However, the wooden sign on Wanjialing "the place where the Segawa troops and Beichuan troops fought hard" shows that they have long since given up. The horses joined the fight on foot.In fact, Tang Yongliang not only saw the graves of many soldiers of the Segawa Army in Wanjialing, but also picked up a tattered military flag marked "Segawa Army".

In Leimingguliu, the mules and horses of Segawa's troops suffered the same disaster as their masters.When starting from Mahuiling, the 106th Division was equipped with more than a thousand oriental horses to carry mountain artillery and luggage, and most of them were killed by bullets so far.