Chapter 41 capture team

After the capture of Wuhan, the Japanese army gradually felt stretched in terms of strength due to the stretching of the front line.Chiang Kai-shek had already understood this, and he analyzed at an internal military meeting: "According to the enemy's ideals, why doesn't he want to advance into our Changsha and Nanchang in one fell swoop, and he can't attack again when he enters Yuezhou? This is not his strategy. This is not counted, but he has actually exhausted his strength." Invasion of China has become a huge burden on Japan's national power, but it can't just quit, so it has to hang on like this without embarrassment, which is to fall into what the Chinese call "protracted war of resistance."In order to defend the occupied area in Central China, Okamura took Wuhan as the center and deployed seven divisions and two mixed brigades belonging to the Japanese Eleventh Army on the north and south banks of the Yangtze River. In Fengxin and other city defense positions, squadron-level troops guarded the small hill strongholds on the periphery, and between these small strongholds, brigade-level troops were arranged to respond at any time.

For the vast rural areas, the Japanese army was unable to fully deploy defenses. At most, at important checkpoints and ferry crossings, some squad-level troops were deployed for guarding, and the rest could only be handed over to the puppet army for maintenance. The embarrassment that the Japanese army could only occupy points but not control the surface in the occupied area made the Military Commission feel that it could do something. In October 1939, Chiang Kai-shek decided to launch a winter offensive, organizing a regular field army to attack the Japanese army, and at the same time let the well-organized guerrilla troops advance behind the enemy's rear to make up for the lack of regular battles with guerrilla warfare.

Before the start of the winter offensive, the Seventy-Fourth Army was ordered to defend part of the Nineteenth Army's positions on the north bank of the Jinjiang River.At this time, the headquarters of the Eleventh Army of the Japanese Army had already grasped China's winter offensive plan in advance by intercepting and deciphering the secret message, and all departments were taking precautions.When the 74th Army arrived at the point of defense, they found that the 101st and 106th Divisions of the Japanese Army were also defending alternately with the 33rd and 34th Divisions.The Japanese army mobilized very frequently, and in order to cover up, they used artillery to disrupt the Chinese positions from time to time.

The Seventy-Fourth Army decided to take the opportunity to test the reality of the opponent and the strength of the position.From the evening of November 15th, the 58th Division began to form several "capture teams". The title of "capture team" first came from the battle of Nanchang. At that time, because the enemy's situation was unknown, such a short and capable small force was established. The purpose was to capture the enemy and find out the designation of the Japanese army. The "capture team" consisted of plainclothes teams carrying pistols, hemp ropes, and sacks, as well as combat companies with live ammunition, so that in case of encounters with large Japanese troops, they could still fight and break through with reliable firepower.

"Tongue grabbing" (that is, capturing prisoners) on the frontal battlefield is much more difficult than imagined.The "capture team" of the 60th Army once failed to capture a single prisoner for more than ten days. Later, the division headquarters held a meeting and worked out more than a dozen capture plans, but none of them succeeded.In the end, the Japanese army couldn't stand it anymore, and sent troops out to sweep up, but was repelled by the "capture team". Only then did the two wounded soldiers be caught, and the number of the Japanese army on the opposite side was found out.

The "capture team" of the 58th Division also encountered a situation where they could not catch the "tongue". To make matters worse, all the Japanese troops shrank in the fortifications of the positions and did not take the initiative to run out to sweep.There was no choice but to attack hard. There were several layers of deer villages and barbed wire fences in front of the Japanese positions, which were very difficult to break through. Even if the attacking troops cut the barbed wire and rushed in from the gap in the deer villages, the light and heavy machine guns of the Japanese secret firepower points could still fire from the side, allowing the attacking troops to advance Can't, can't retreat, and thus fall into the coverage and siege of its firepower net.

The "capture team" thus suffered a great deal of loss and gained little. On November 25, Luo Renlin, deputy of the 173rd Regiment of the 58th Division, personally led his troops to carry out the attack. After the "capture team" broke through the barbed wire and the Luzhai, they also encountered a concentrated blockade of Japanese light and heavy machine guns. A deputy battalion commander and hundreds of people below The rest were killed.It was not until dawn the next day that the "capture team" was able to withdraw. However, this time the "capture team" entered the interior of the Japanese military fortifications and seized many military flags, books and important documents.The documents show that the Japanese army on the opposite side of the 74th Army has indeed changed from the 106th Division to the 34th Division.

The Military Commission's winter offensive order was issued on November 21, but considering that the Ninth War Zone had not been completed after the battle in Changsha, the launch date of the attack was postponed to December 12. Two years ago, on December 12, the Japanese army launched a large-scale massacre in Nanjing.The Chinese army chose this day to launch an offensive, showing an unyielding will to resist the war.According to the plan, the Nineteenth Army was divided into three corps, namely the Security Corps, the Advance Corps, and the Reserve Corps. The Seventy-Fourth Army was included in the Security Corps, and its task was to carry out a feint attack.On the same day, the security corps launched the first wave of false attack, and Wang Yaowu sent the 51st and 58th divisions to attack Xiangfu Temple.

In this feint attack, the Seventy-Fourth Army focused its energy on destroying the Japanese army's transportation and communication facilities in addition to attacking the enemy in front of it with a small force.During the destruction, Wang Yaowu discovered that the main force of the Japanese army had never shown up in the field, and that those who tried to restore traffic were small units, and they retreated as soon as they fought. From this, he speculated that the activities of the 34th Division of the Japanese Army in the occupied area Capabilities are rather limited. Why not take this good opportunity to expand the results of the battle? Besides, it would be too small to let an elite division like the Seventy-Fourth Army take on tasks such as feint attacks and chopping telephone poles.Wang Yaowu called Luo Zhuoying and volunteered to ask for a breakthrough.

Luo Zhuoying was very happy to hear that you were afraid of being timid and timid on the battlefield, but not afraid of your arrogance, so he ordered the 74th Army to join the offensive, but the main goal was still limited to cutting off the Japanese army's traffic, rather than attacking fortified ground. On December 15, the assembly of the 57th Division was completed, and Wang Yaowu also led the army and the troops directly under it to move forward.At this time, the friendly army was blocked by the enemy, and the offensive came to a halt. The 74th Army got an excellent opportunity to play.

The 34th Division of the Japanese Army deployed a large number of strongholds with squadron-level forces to the west of Fengxin, and coordinated with brigade-level forces to form a defensive depth.After the 57th Division rushed forward, it even conquered 15 strongholds, but the next Xiaoling position was heavily fortified. The Japanese army formed a dense firepower network by virtue of the terrain and fortifications. Spits flames, making it difficult for attacking troops to approach. Under such circumstances, Shi Zhongcheng, the commander of the 57th Division, ordered the mortars of each regiment to be concentrated to provide fire support for the infantry attacking Xiaoling.