Rise from eight hundred.

Chapter 1514 Fight again!

"On July 7, the Chinese attacked the field hospital of the 3th Division of the 11th Army. Although our army suffered heavy losses, it was obvious that the Chinese had run out of tricks and had no choice but to risk their lives to sneak out of the defense line and launch a suicide attack to retaliate against our army.

Now, the 3rd Division and the 27th Division have arrived. The total number of our troops surrounding Hengyang has reached 10. Hengyang is a small place that our army can easily break through! "Yokoyama Isamu said in a telegram sent to the four lieutenant general division commanders on the Hengyang front.

The fact that allowed Yokoyama Isamu to send such a confident telegram after suffering repeated setbacks naturally meant that he possessed sufficient strength.

此时，第3师团陈兵衡阳城东、城北，第27师团会合补充士兵高达万人编制重归2万人的116师团主攻衡阳城南，补兵超过7000位于城西的第68师团也迎来了自己的新任师团长堤三树男中将。

There are also two independent mixed brigades serving as reserve forces and for the outer defense of Hengyang, stationed 15 kilometers away from Hengyang.

In addition, the Japanese army's efforts to pave the road with two divisions finally paid off. Not only were a large amount of supplies transported to Hengyang through the roads that had been built, but a heavy artillery brigade equipped with 2 32mm heavy artillery had also arrived in the south of the city. In addition, part of the 150rd Tank Division was specially dispatched by the China Expeditionary Army Command to provide support.

The sharpest sword that Yokoyama Isamu prepared for the Hengyang defenders was in place.

The difference between the 3rd Tank Division and the 3rd Division is that there is an additional word "tank" in front of them, but the two are completely different things.

The World War has entered its third year. Mechanized troops are no longer a new term to the Western world, but this new thing is extremely rare in the East, whether in China or Japan.

The 3rd Tank Division was one of the very few mechanized units of Japan on the Chinese battlefield.

The division is composed of the 5th and 6th Tank Brigade, each of which has two tank regiments.

就以此次来衡阳的战车第13联队为例，该战车联队下辖1个轻战车中队，配备95式轻型坦克；3个战车中队，配备97式改中型坦克；1个炮战车中队。

The 13th Tank Regiment has a total of 14 combat light tanks, 57 medium tanks, 27 vehicles, and 1071 personnel.

The Type 95 light tank is easy to understand. It is an upgraded version of the Type 94, commonly known as the Little Bean. It just has an additional 37mm rapid-fire gun. The armor protection is actually the same, with an armor thickness of 6~12mm. Not to mention encountering a big guy like an anti-tank gun, even the 12.7mm heavy machine gun equipped by the Fourth Regiment can tear open its armor at a direct firing distance of 300 meters.

The Type 97 medium tank is quite rare. According to the Japanese self-test, the Type 97 medium tank's protective armor can withstand direct fire from the Type 94 rapid-fire gun at a distance of 150 meters, but it cannot withstand the German 37mm anti-tank gun used by China at the same distance. However, its attack capability is not weak, with a 47mm rapid-fire gun that can penetrate 400mm thick steel armor at a shooting distance of 45 meters.

Neither of these two tanks can match the ultra-light tanks currently equipped by the Fourth Regiment!

In addition to the 3th Tank Regiment, the 13rd Tank Division also sent the 3rd Mobile Infantry Regiment, the 3rd Mobile Artillery Regiment, the division search team and other combat units to Hengyang.

The 3rd Mobile Infantry Regiment was one of the few mechanized units in the Japanese Army that had both tanks and motor transport for its infantry. In addition to a light armored vehicle squadron at its headquarters, the regiment had three infantry battalions, a regiment artillery squadron, and a maintenance squadron, with a total of 3 tanks, 25 armored personnel carriers, approximately 15 vehicles, and a total of 90 combat personnel.

机动炮兵第3联队下辖3个炮兵大队，第1大队为汽车牵引90式野炮12门，第2、3大队为汽车牵引91式105毫米榴弹炮12门。

师团搜索队有4个中队，其中1，2中队为轻战车中队，各有95式轻型战车15辆，而第4中队为97式中型战车中队，有战车12辆。第3中队为乘车步兵中队。该搜索队总计人员800多人。

Although the 3rd Tank Division transferred from Henan Province has only about 6000 troops, it has hundreds of tanks of various types and nearly 30 artillery pieces, and its combat capability is even stronger than that of a Type B division.

  This point was vividly demonstrated in the battle in Henan Province not long ago!

After capturing Xuchang, the Japanese North China Front Army, with the 3rd Tank Division as its core, launched a lightning offensive against the flank areas, Shanxian County, Linru and other places where General Tang's troops were assembled at the time. In less than three days, they captured Linru, an important town in the rear of General Tang's troops.

At this point, the main force of the Japanese army in Henan Province, the 12th Army, had completely succeeded in encircling General Tang's troops. The three core troops under General Tang, the 13th, 29th, and 85th Armies, were all besieged. General Tang had to command his troops to break out of the mountainous areas around Song County, and the entire Henan Province campaign was doomed to failure.

Although the 3rd Tank Division was successful in the field battle, it was not so smooth in the battle to attack the city defense, especially the first attack on Luoyang City. The 1rd Mechanized Infantry Regiment suffered 3 casualties, and many Japanese tanks were destroyed by the anti-tank guns of the Chinese 215th Division under the city of Luoyang.

The regiment also suffered heavy losses in the entire "Henan Province Operation", with nearly a thousand casualties.

This also shows that the so-called mechanized division of the Japanese army is nothing more than pseudo-mechanized. Its artillery attack capability and self-defense capability are far from those of a real mechanized division.

But, on the battlefield in China, it is enough!

The Chinese side itself admitted in its summary report of the Henan Campaign that the Japanese armored forces’ participation in the battle “was like a gust of wind, resulting in a total defeat, which was extremely painful.”

At this point, the total number of Japanese infantry troops besieging Hengyang City reached 9, with more than 200 tanks of various types and nearly 150 artillery pieces of various calibers, including 32 105 caliber heavy artillery pieces and 24 howitzers.

Just looking at the number of people and the amount of equipment, it seems that there is no need to fight hard. The numbers alone can overwhelm Hengyang City.

To be precise, except for the time in 1937 when the Japanese 10th Army besieged the small town of Songjiang with 10 troops, the Japanese army never attacked a city held by the Chinese with such a crushing advantage again.

Judging from the number of heavy equipment invested by the Japanese army alone, the pressure faced by Hengyang City this time was far greater than that of Songjiang in the past.

After all, the 3 defenders of Songjiang that day only received orders to defend the city for three days and nights to buy time for the main force to evacuate.

But at this time, Hengyang had no way to retreat.

Yokoyama Isamu even gave up the siege principle of 'surround three sides and leave one side open' and surrounded Hengyang tightly.

It would be an exaggeration to say that not even a fly can fly out of Hengyang City. It is possible for one or two people or even dozens of people to sneak out of the encirclement under the cover of night, but it is impossible for hundreds of people to leave Hengyang.

On July 7, as the 8th Independent Supply Corps Regiment of the Japanese Army transported artillery shells to the suburbs of Hengyang, Yokoyama Isamu believed that the time was ripe for a second full-scale attack on Hengyang.

After 20 days of silence, deafening explosions were heard again in Hengyang City.

It is said that the thick smoke rising from the direction of Hengyang could be seen clearly even 30 kilometers away.

The Japanese attack pattern was still the trilogy of 'aircraft bombing, artillery bombardment, and infantry charge'. However, compared with the first round of attacks, the intensity of this round of Japanese heavy firepower, especially the coordinated attack of the air force and artillery, increased exponentially compared with the previous attack.

In the air, although the Japanese 5th Air Corps lost precious bombers and had no time to replenish them, with the full support of the Japanese Army Headquarters, it was reinforced by more than 97 Zero fighters and Type 100 bombers.

The morale of the 5th Air Corps, which received huge reinforcements, was high. It took the initiative to launch air strikes on Zhishan Airport and several important airports in Guilin and Liuzhou. China and the United States dispatched hundreds of fighter jets to respond.

On that day, China and Japan shifted the air battle from Hengyang to various parts of Guangxi Province. On July 7 alone, 9 Chinese pilots were killed and 29 aircraft were lost, while 39 American pilots were killed and 12 aircraft were lost.

The Japanese side had a record-breaking 87 planes shot down. Only 6 Japanese pilots of the shot down planes parachuted and were captured, and the rest were all killed in battle. This set a record for the number of planes lost by both China and Japan since the war began!

Judging from the number of lost fighter planes, China and the United States should have won a small victory, but several important runways were destroyed by crazy Japanese fighter planes by crashing into the ground, causing the number of take-offs and landings at several important airports to be drastically reduced in the next few days.

It was a pyrrhic victory, and air support to Hengyang was greatly weakened for at least the next week.

This also resulted in no Chinese fighter planes appearing in the sky over Hengyang during the day on July 7. Instead, the Japanese army dispatched its last 9 fighter planes to bomb the urban area of ​​HY and the hilltop positions in the south and west of the city.

Although the anti-aircraft battalion of the Sihang Regiment fought back, the bombs were carried by fighter planes at an altitude of 3000 meters. Only the 40mm anti-aircraft guns could threaten the Japanese planes, and only three Japanese planes were shot down, but the bombs of the Japanese planes still fell on the Chinese positions. In addition, the Japanese army concentrated all artillery to bombard the south and west of the city, especially the 3 32mm heavy artillery, which posed a particularly great threat to the Chinese positions.

The artificial cliff of Zhangjiashan Hill 221 finally collapsed completely after four hours of continuous bombardment from 150mm heavy artillery, turning it into a slope that could be climbed by running hard.

The ten-meter-deep trench in front was also destroyed by the terrible artillery fire, and even the machine gun position hidden in the trench was reduced to ruins.

Even the 16 soldiers of a machine gun squad hiding in the soldier cave behind it were killed by the shock.

But the Japanese army was still not satisfied. They launched an artillery attack from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., a full 10 hours, creating the most artillery preparation by the Japanese army on the battlefield.

According to statistics after the war, the Japanese army consumed 2.6 artillery shells, including grenades, armor-piercing shells, poison gas bombs, etc. in the bombardment on that day alone. If calculated based on 10 hours and 36000 seconds, on average nearly one artillery shell fell on the Chinese position every second.

This intensity may be far from comparable to the intensity of the Battle of the Five Sacred Mountains on the northern ice field in the next few years, when the Americans fired 30 artillery shells at China a day, but on the Chinese battlefield, it was already top-notch.

At dusk, the Japanese army launched a charge towards Hengyang across the mountains!

North of the city!

  The west of the city, which was defended by the 3th Regiment of the 7rd Division and included Duxian Temple, Yanglin Temple, Qingshan Street, and the County Middle School, had lost more than 105 soldiers that day after being continuously bombarded by 500mm howitzers and poison gas bombs, with nearly 300 killed on the spot!

Even with sufficient fortifications, the Japanese army still suffered 25% casualties, which was enough to prove the terribleness of artillery fire.

But after enduring a whole day of artillery fire, they had to face the attack of the 3th Infantry Regiment of the 68rd Division.

The 68th Infantry Regiment, which served as the main force in attacking the north of the city, directly dispatched its three infantry battalions and, under the cover of infantry artillery and heavy machine guns, launched a charge against the six main positions defended by the 3th Regiment.

  There were even 8 Type 13 tanks belonging to the 97th Tank Regiment accompanying the infantry in the charge!

The 47mm rapid-fire gun equipped on the tank is enough to penetrate any heavy machine gun bunker that remains in the artillery fire but dares to fire.

而第3师第7团仅有配属给他们的2门战防炮，用来对付就停留在400米外开炮掩护步兵冲锋的8辆97式坦克，实在是力不从心。

  In terms of both manpower and firepower, the 7th Regiment was far inferior to the Japanese army!

Under normal circumstances, the Chinese position with only 1500 people left would have an % chance of being breached under the Japanese army's reckless charge.

But after experiencing a month of bloody fighting and being constantly inspired in the past twenty days, the Chinese officers and soldiers have an extremely firm will!

Moreover, in the past twenty days, they did not sit and wait for the Japanese army to attack, but had already connected this front line of defense with a width of 1800 meters with deep trenches.

The criss-crossing trenches made the Japanese feel dizzy, and even the Chinese officers and soldiers who entered them had no idea which infantry company the position belonged to unless they looked at the signposts.

  What the 7th Regiment has stored the most in the past 20 days is not bullets, but grenades. On average, each officer and soldier is allocated 30 grenades!

The tactics they adopted were simple. They did not risk suppressing the Japanese heavy machine gun positions with firepower. Instead, they let the Japanese approach to within 40 or 50 meters, and then shouted "Grenade, throw!" while the observer screamed desperately.

Hundreds of grenades exploded in front of the position, forming a barrage of bullets, blowing the Japanese soldiers who were rushing over with their backs bent over into pieces.

"cast!"

"cast!"

Accompanied by roars, within 20 minutes, the 7th Regiment threw nearly grenades from various positions and consumed bullets of various types.

This was the amount of consumption that an infantry brigade would have to fight for a whole day to complete, but the 7th Regiment completed it in just 20 minutes, which would have been unthinkable in the past.

The massive firepower coverage also achieved fruitful results. There were more than 400 Japanese soldiers' bodies left in front of the positions, and the wailing of the wounded soldiers even drowned out the rumbling sound of the explosions several times.

The Chinese side did not remain silent either. There were also roars and howls of pain.

Some of the wounded soldiers had their arms blown off, and some had their intestines spilling out. They had to take off their military uniforms and wrap them around their bodies to prevent them from falling out of their bodies.

Under that kind of extreme pain, even a man made of steel would not be able to help but howl to relieve his pain!

"Hold on, brothers, hold on, we are going to fight these damn devils!"

Not to mention ordinary soldiers, even the colonel commander of the regiment had a nearly six-centimeter cut on his face by shrapnel. The flesh was turned up to both sides, opening and closing slightly as the army colonel continued to roar, like a baby's mouth.

That was caused by a number of frenzied Japanese soldiers who broke through the grenade barrage made by the Chinese and brazenly threw grenades at the Chinese trenches dozens of meters away.

The Chinese officers and soldiers in the trenches had no room to hide when faced with the melon mines that fell into the trenches. They could only stare with bloodshot eyes, throw the grenades in their hands fiercely, and then crawl in the depths of the trenches waiting for the decision of fate.

  Once you die, you will just die!

Those who are not dead shook their dizzy heads, shook off the dirt on their bodies, and returned to the battle!

If there is no way to hide, then don't hide. If you can't retreat, then stay where you are. Compared to the Japanese in the wild, they at least have endless trenches to hide in.

This should be considered a rare example in the history of the Sino-Japanese war in which the two sides killed each other face to face with grenades.

The 68th Infantry Regiment was forced to retreat, but the position north of the city remained intact.

However, in this wave of crazy shooting and grenade throwing, the 7th Regiment suffered more than 100 casualties again.

Due to the injuries caused by the explosion, many soldiers died of excessive bleeding before they could be carried to the rear.

In fact, even if these wounded soldiers were taken to the field hospital in the city, the probability of death would be higher than 70%.

They will not die from wound infection, but the huge amount of blood loss will not give them a chance to wait for the wound to become infected.

In this wave of battle, the 3th Regiment of the 7rd Division had almost enough soldiers killed to fill up an entire infantry battalion.

However, they had no time to cry, as in the afterglow of the setting sun, the second wave of Japanese attack arrived.

The commander of the 11th Army, Isamu Yokoyama, ordered that after a day-long artillery preparation, the infantry would attack until the early morning of the next day.

There are at least four more waves of attacks waiting for the 7th Regiment.

  However, the intensity of the Japanese attacks faced by the 7th Regiment was not even ranked among the top five in the entire Hengyang battlefield!

Huangchaling and Zhangjiashan were the two most important positions in this attack by the Japanese army.

  Looking at the Japanese troops attacking from three directions like locusts all over the mountains, even the experienced and well-trained commander of the 3rd Battalion, Li Jiujin, could not help but shrink his pupils!

Jinjiurō Ochiai, commander of the 27th Division of the Japanese Army in charge of the Huangchaling battlefield, stood in the field command bunker only 1200 meters away from Huangchaling, looking through a telescope at the Chinese positions where countless cliffs had been destroyed, with a grim expression on his face.

This battle will definitely be a success!