Chapter 45 18. The Mysterious Volunteer Armored Train

If it is said that the Volunteer Army still has armored units, this is a bit shocking. When the Japanese army attacked Tang Juwu, the subjects of the captured equipment photos were either swords or spears. According to statistics, the number of volunteers reached more than 200,000 at the most, but the guns did not exceed 130,000 at most. The rest can only rely on swords and spears up. The Northeast War of Resistance entered the stage of the Volunteer Army. In the comparison of equipment between the two sides, the Japanese army did have a great advantage.When attacking Heilongjiang Province, due to the tenacious resistance of the officers and soldiers of Ma Zhanshan, the Japanese army dispatched its aviation force to the maximum and mobilized a large number of armored vehicles to give full play to its equipment advantages.Even when the tanks were insufficient, the Renault FT-17 light tanks that originally belonged to the Northeast Army and were captured by the Japanese army in Shenyang were mobilized.When being interviewed by a reporter, when asked if he had a plane, Ma Zhanshan could only smile wryly, saying that there were only a few thousand soldiers who had followed him for many years in the Jiangqiao position, and nothing else.There were indeed some gaps in equipment between the Chinese and Japanese armies at that time.However, the Northeast Army centrally managed the air force after Zhang Xueliang changed its flag. At that time, Heilongjiang Province did not have a single aircraft in the whole province.Lost the arsenal in Shenyang, and cut off contact with Guannei. The biggest gap between the Volunteer Army and the Japanese Army is training and equipment.Especially in the later period, the Japanese army strengthened the blockade of communication inside and outside the pass, and the weapons and ammunition of the Volunteer Army became a bottleneck.Li Chunrun, a famous general of the Liaodong Volunteer Army, died after being seriously injured in order to keep several ships of ammunition transported in.If the Volunteer Army is really equipped with armored troops, then maybe the situation in the Northeast will be a different situation.However, it is not entirely correct to say that the Volunteer Army has absolutely no heavy weapons. In the "Complete Collection of Photos of the Manchuria Incident" published by the Japanese Army's Military Service Department, there is a set of photos taken when the Japanese army captured Hailin. An armored train captured by the Volunteers.Judging from the photos, this armored train consists of at least two sections, a steel armored turret car with a watchtower (it seems that the turret has been removed or blown up), and a troop carrier with an open door on the side.Its shape is similar to the Russian armored trains equipped in the Northeast Army.The Volunteer Army actually owns such a chariot, and people can't help but marvel at the "luxury".

According to the records of the Japanese army, this armored train once effectively blocked the Japanese army's invasion of Hailin, and even repelled the attack of the Murai Brigade of the 10th Division. In this photobook, the Japanese army used one page to describe the cause and effect of the battle.Its contents are as follows—— To the Jilin rebels who were attacked by our XX Regiment (should be the 2nd Division) and retreated to the vicinity of Yilan (the Japanese name for the Volunteer Army coalition formed by Ding Chao, Li Du, Wang Delin, Feng Zhanhai and other departments), because Ma Zhanshan's The rebellion forced the XX Regiment (should be the Second Division) to retreat in the direction of Fangzheng and become active again.At this time, the investigation team of the League of Nations came to Manchuria to investigate. Taking this as an opportunity, the Jilin rebels went on the offensive again.Beginning on April 18, in order to show their existence and threaten Manchukuo, the Jilin rebels began to attack Fangzheng along both sides of the Songhua River.The Jilin army (referring to the puppet Manchukuo puppet army headed by Xiqia) on the outskirts of Fangzheng gave up the area on the left bank of the Mazhu River almost without a fight, and retreated to Fangzheng.Other rebels in the north of Jilin (the Volunteer Army) responded one after another, and their soldiers pointed directly at Harbin.For this reason, the Kwantung Army is determined to concentrate its forces and completely wipe out the Jilin rebels in northern Jilin.The No. XX Regiment (should be the 10th Division) that had newly arrived from China for reinforcements immediately concentrated on Harbin, handed over the defense to the XX Regiment (should be the 2nd Division) and started the crusade.The No. XX Regiment (should be the Tenth Division) took the Murai Detachment (the Murai Brigade) as the front, and set off from Harbin on April 21 to the front line of Yimpo.Afterwards, the commander of the army (should be Shigeru Honjo, commander of the Kwantung Army) ordered a regiment in Yida (should be the Yida Brigade) to be included in the No. 10 regiment (should be the Tenth Division) and head towards Ningguta As the attack advances, the Murai Detachment advances towards Hailin, supporting each other with Yitian's troops.

The Murai detachment finally captured Hailin on April 28th amidst the successive resistances of the enemy.However, during the march, the avant-garde Colonel Funabashi's unit was blocked by an enemy armored train at Aotou, west of Hailin, on the afternoon of the 27th, and the battle line fell into a stalemate.A night attack was launched on the armored train that night, and the fighting between the two sides continued into the train.It was not until four o'clock in the morning on the 28th that the armored train was finally captured, and the fighting process was very tragic. Hailin, today's Hailin City, is located in the southeastern part of Heilongjiang Province, which is a mountainous and hilly area. It is 290 kilometers away from Harbin, the capital of the province, and only 12 kilometers away from Mudanjiang City. It belonged to Ning'an County at the time of the "September 18th" incident.Its land is the throat of Heilongjiang, which goes east to the sea and goes south to the Tumen River. Today, the forest coverage rate still reaches 71.3%, and the folk customs are fierce.The bandit hero Yang Zirong died here.The background of the fall of Hailin by the Japanese side is roughly the same as that recorded by the Chinese side. In April 1932, because of Ma Zhanshan's second uprising, Li Du and other generals of the Volunteer Army in Yilan were deeply encouraged, so they tried their best to counterattack Harbin in three ways.Among them, the Ma Zaizhou Department of the Left Route Army marched along the coastal forest and Tieling River routes.When the combat situation was good, the Japanese troops with the Murai Brigade and Yitian Brigade of the 10th Division sailed down the Songhua River by ship to surround the Volunteer Army and suddenly appeared outside Yilan City on May 17. , Li Du and Ding Chao, who were sitting in Yilan, were caught off guard and only had time to take a few people out.The capture of Hailin and the confrontation with the armored train of the Volunteer Army should be a battle in this Japanese raid.

Before and after the "September 18th" Incident, China's armored forces were still in their infancy. Therefore, the armored trains that once showed their prestige in the Soviet-Polish War were one of the most important weapons in the Northeast Army's armored forces. and other places gave the Japanese army a major blow.During the Anti-Japanese War of the Northeast Volunteer Army, some former Northeast Army generals led troops to participate in the battle, and the armored trains they belonged to were probably the heaviest weapons and equipment of the Volunteer Army.As mentioned in the information, the armored trains with iron armor and cannons did indeed pose a major threat to the Japanese army. The Colonel was at the rank of regimental commander in the Japanese army. Although it is unbelievable that an armored train blocked a regiment of Japanese troops, but think about it Having been confronted with opponents who used broadswords and spears, and suddenly found that such a big guy was coming, the Japanese army probably didn't know how to deal with it for a while.According to records, Ma Zhanshan and Su Bingwen's troops also used armored trains to fight against the Japanese army.It's a pity that there are too few such weapons, and they can only be used by relying on railways, so they cannot completely control the situation of the battle.At the same time, from the outcome of the battle of the Hailin armored train, it can also be seen that there was a lack of cooperation among different arms in the Chinese resistance force at that time, so the armored force could not get strong support from the infantry.This kind of problem was not resolved until the Songhu Anti-Japanese War in 1937.

Due to the lack of archives and historical materials of the Volunteer Army, there is no record in the Chinese historical materials which unit of the Volunteer Army belonged to the armored train that resisted the Japanese army in Hailin.However, judging from the combat situation at that time, this train probably belonged to the Ding Chao Troop of the 28th Brigade that was operating in the area at that time.Ding Chao served as the commander of the Middle East Railway in 1929. According to records, the troops of the road protection army were equipped with armored trains obtained from the White Russian army, and they were used in supporting the Ma Zhanshan Army.Therefore, it is possible that Ding Chao's troops retreated from Harbin with it and used it all the way to Yilan.

This is just a speculation, and more historical materials are needed to support the historical truth.But to see the Volunteers using such behemoths to fight the Japanese in photographs of old enemies is indeed a shocking discovery.