Chapter 91 squall

On April 26, the Japanese rescue team entered Laoaitang, about ten kilometers away from Guidong.Discovering that there was an interception before, the brigade decided to carry out a night attack that night. If the night attack was successful, it would be able to reach the vicinity of Longtan Town on the 28th. The night attack was considered a success, but when they passed by the west side of Laoaitang, they were intercepted by a larger number of Chinese defenders.The rescue brigade tried their best to attack, but there was still no progress until the 30th. What made them even more horrified was that the defenders on the opposite side were still increasing.

During this period, the 51st Division and the 100th Army continued to attack the 109th Regiment of the Japanese Army.The Chinese and American air forces also continued to assist in the battle, repeatedly carrying out strafing bombing against the Japanese army. At the beginning of the battle, due to the complex terrain in the Xuefeng mountain area and the cunning of the Japanese army, they had already taken cover when the Chinese and American fighter planes reached their positions. An infantry company's position was destroyed by its own aircraft. In order to solve this problem, Wei Demai sent an air signal liaison team to the various military divisions on the front line.The first-line troops made arrow-shaped red and white cloth, spread it on the ground, and then asked the liaison officer to use a wireless telephone to notify the combat command room or pilots at the airport, telling them how many meters in front of the signal arrow was the Japanese position, which greatly improved the situation. Increased the hit rate of aircraft bombing.

If the Japanese army hides, the frontline troops must take other more measures, such as sending plainclothes liaison officers to lurk in the forest or on the top of the mountain, and use reflectors to give instructions, or organize reconnaissance teams, deploy them around the Japanese army's assembly area, and release wolf smoke . The liaison team of the 51st Division consists of one US officer, two non-commissioned officers, and several soldiers. They follow the Chinese commander at all times, and instruct the pilots to shoot and bomb targets according to the needs of the front-line troops.

The napalm bombs dropped by the planes ignited the trees and deer camps on the Japanese defensive positions, and the actions of the Japanese troops during the day were greatly restricted. They cursed the "rampantness of the American planes" and described the air strikes of the Chinese and American air forces as "shocking the mountains. The situation is like a violent storm in the South China Sea." The situation faced by the 109th Regiment was already dangerous, but the commander of the division, Hishida, overestimated the seriousness of the situation. He still asked the regiment to break through the joint interception of the 51st Division and the 100th Army and continue to do a good job. Preparations for attacking Longtan.

Even if the other party is standing, you may not have a place to sit, not to mention that they have already removed all the benches.The 109th Regiment of the Japanese Army could only base itself on defense and concealment against the air during the day, and at dusk, it could carry out small-scale counterattacks with the support of mountain artillery.This kind of counterattack can sometimes be effective, but the loss is great, and it is often impossible to hold it during the day. Reality is stronger than people, and Colonel Takidera Yasuzaburo changed his strategy on his own, and decided not to fight back, but just to keep the existing front-line positions.

By studying the battle reports of the Gyudong battlefield and the captured Japanese materials, as well as interrogating the prisoners and conducting aerial reconnaissance, Qiu Weida determined that the 109th Regiment of the Japanese Army had gradually shown a state of exhaustion after continuous fierce fighting.Aerial reconnaissance also showed that about a brigade of Japanese reinforcements had arrived from the direction of the mountain gate, but was stopped by the reinforcements at Laoaitang, and the 109th Regiment became a lone army. Not to be missed, Qiu Weida then ordered the encirclement and suppression of the 109th Regiment of the Japanese Army. On the morning of April 30th, the various units began a general offensive. Among them, the 19th Division of the 100th Army was the main frontal attack, and the rest of the units, including the 51st Division, attacked from different directions.

Although the 3rd Battalion of the 109th Wing of the Japanese Army was a reserve team responsible for guarding the rear of the wing, it had also participated in fierce battles many times and was already short of personnel and ammunition.After being attacked, the troops were terrified. The captain ordered the confidential personnel to prepare to burn the telegram code, and at the same time distributed a rifle to each of the wounded and sick, and asked them to help them to the designated shooting position for defense. The Japanese army was short of manpower to the point of arresting them whenever they saw them. In critical moments, even the artillery battalion attached to the regiment was used as infantry and entered the front line to participate in the defense.

After a day of fierce attack, the 109th Regiment of the Japanese Army suffered a heavier blow and became a veritable remnant.By the night of April 30, there were only 86 combatable soldiers left in the third brigade. On the other hand, the Japanese rescue brigade was overwhelmed. There were nearly a thousand people when they set off, and they lost continuously along the way. After fighting the defenders on the west side of Laoaitang that day, only 417 people remained, and they still failed to join the 109th Regiment . Ling Tian, ​​head of the 116th Division, and Sakanishi, the commander of the army, were classmates of the Army Non-commissioned Officer School at the same time.Banxi knew well that the 116th Division was the main attacking force, and its success or failure had a great bearing on the entire battle, so he made a special trip to see Lingtian off in Shaoyang on the eve of dispatching troops.

Both of them admitted before the war that the combat capability of the Chinese army with American equipment would be completely different from that of the past, but no one expected that it would become so powerful, and the development of the battle situation in Xuefeng Mountain was completely beyond their expectations.