Glorious Mission 1937

Chapter 610: The Great Victory of Changsha and the Fall of Singapore

With Lao Jiang's instructions, Xue Yue and the others dare not be negligent, and urge the troops to speed up their march, and must arrive at the predetermined position before launching a counterattack. Someone will not be soft.

In fact, the Japanese army has already noticed something unusual. On the afternoon of September 9, the Japanese reconnaissance plane discovered that there were many Chinese troops marching urgently on both sides of the third division and the sixth division. The information was reported to the No.5 army commander. After the battle, Ananwei was taken aback immediately, and immediately judged that the ninth war zone was planning to swallow the two divisions he led in one go.

Anan, who was in a cold sweat, immediately ordered the 3rd Division to retreat. At the same time, he ordered the 3th Division to ensure the retreat of the [-]rd Division and ensure the safety of crossing the river.

This action of the Japanese army greatly stimulated Xue Yue. He judged that the Japanese army was planning to escape, and immediately ordered the 20th Army and the 26th Army under his command to attack immediately, and the 10th Army defending the city also moved with all their strength to contain the Japanese 45rd Army. division.Soon the main force of the Third Division and the 6th Infantry Regiment and the [-]th Regiment of the Supplies Army stationed near Langli City, the crossing point of the Japanese army, fell into a bitter battle.

Faced with the simultaneous attack by the three armies in the Ninth War Zone, the Japanese army made frequent mistakes. The position of the 3th Squadron of the 45th Infantry Regiment was abandoned after sunset, and the position of the 7nd Battalion was infiltrated that night. But it also paid the price of 2 soldier casualties.

The 6th Regiment of the Supplies was also attacked most violently, because it was a supply unit.Therefore, the combat effectiveness was not very strong, and more than half of the casualties occurred in just half a day, so they had to ask for help from the Sixth Division headquarters.

At the same time as the fierce battle, the 3rd Regiment of the Supplies and other units were loaded with ammunition and food and were rushing to the front line. At 9:5 on the evening of September 23th, the unit ran into the troops of the 30th Army of the Communist Party of China near Langli City.After half an hour of fierce fighting, the department was forced to occupy a position near Chatang Village and asked for help from the 26rd Division.The 3rd Division, who was overwhelmed by themselves, called back, "I hope to bear my self-respect for the time being, and do everything possible to fight tenaciously."

After receiving the order to retreat, the 3rd Division immediately ordered the 68th Wing to accommodate the casualties, and then under the cover of the 18th Wing, which suffered less losses.retreat back.However, as soon as they withdrew to Mopanzhou, they were blocked by the 4th Army of Ouzhen.The 4th Army was a newly added unit. It can be said that it was waiting for work at leisure. It caught the Japanese army by surprise and fought fiercely for several hours.The Japanese suffered heavy casualties.The 18th Infantry Regiment and the 13rd Battalion of the 3th Regiment to the southeast were surrounded.

Fortunately, the 68th Wing of the Japanese Army came for reinforcements.However, the 4th Army blocked the Japanese army with only a vanguard brigade, which was far less than the Japanese army in terms of strength. After several hours of fierce fighting, the Japanese army finally broke through the encirclement.

Relatively speaking.Only the retreat of the 6th Division was relatively smoother.The main force of the division began to retreat after sunset on the 4th, and the covering troops began to retreat at 22:5. Although they were fired by some artillery in the ninth theater, there was no army chasing after them. Therefore, at dawn on the 20th, the division had passed the Langli Army Bridge , on the right bank of the Liuyang River.However, the Sixth Division did not suffer any losses at all. The field hospital of the division and an infantry brigade protecting the field hospital departed late, and after being attacked, they returned to the dark battlefield to recover the wounded, reload, and investigate. It was time-consuming to point out the personnel, so a division of the [-]th Army caught up and made dumplings. After three hours of fierce fighting, the unit was wiped out.

At the same time, the 40th Division of the Japanese Army continued to fight hard with the 37th Army in the Guanjiaqiao area. At dawn on the 5th, the Army Aviation reconnaissance report showed that the 40th Division had been completely surrounded, and the 95th Division of the Ninth Theater had occupied the highlands to the west of the division.Immediately, the No.11 Army Command ordered the 40th Division to retreat immediately. At this time, the 235th Regiment of the division was in a tight siege in Zhulin City, and the 234th Regiment was ordered to assemble in Dashantang, and fell into all-day fighting .The Japanese air force provided support, but it was ineffective, and the troops were short of ammunition, and there was chaos.

On the night of the 5th, the division headquarters of the 40th Division decided to break through the enemy's north-south line of defense in Dashantang after midnight and turn towards Chunhua Mountain. A group of Chinese cabbages let the ninth theater chop.In the middle of the night, the 236th Wing finally captured the Dashantang area and completed the assembly. The 234th Wing occupied the positions around the Dashantang and controlled the retreat of the division.At this time, the regiment's rifle bullets were no more than 236 to 10 rounds per person, and each hand grenade was 15 to 1.The 2th Division began to retreat along the Elephant Trunk Bridge-Xiangtu Bridge-Wenjialong-Chunhua Mountain road at 40 am on the 6th.

In the early morning of September 9, Xue Yue issued a pursuit order. At this time, there was no enemy near Changsha.Except for the two divisions left in Changsha, the 6 divisions of the 6 armies belonging to the Ninth War Zone all joined the ranks of chasing the Japanese army.

9月8日，日军第6师团及第3师团陆续突出拦截线，第40师团亦从春华山东侧北撤。第99军、第37军再在麻石山、麻峰嘴等地进行截击。日军一面抵抗、一面撤退。至10日，日军退至汨罗江北岸才得以收容、整顿。第九战区的第20军、第58军、第73军、第4军、第37军和第78军尾追至汨罗江南岸后，第78军于13日从浯口渡过汨罗江，向长乐街以北实施超越追击。

On September 9, the Japanese army retreated to the original defense area of ​​Xinqiang Hebei. The 13th Army, the 20th Army, and the 58th Army and other squadrons searched and wiped out the remaining Japanese troops south of the Miluo River, and at the same time faced the Japanese troops north of the Xinqiang River. Attack on the ground.By the 78th, the situation before the start of the battle was basically restored, and the command post of the 15th Army also withdrew to Hankou.

In this battle, China suffered more than 6 casualties, nearly 13,900 Japanese soldiers were killed and wounded, 21138 were captured, and a large amount of supplies were seized, including 815 rifles, 81 light and heavy machine guns, 34 mountain cannons, radio Taiwan [-] and a large number of other military supplies, achieved the third victory in Changsha.

In addition, because this battle coincided with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Allied forces retreated steadily in the Pacific battlefield.However, the Chinese Nationalist Army won the battle against the Japanese army in Changsha, which attracted widespread attention from the world media at that time. US President Roosevelt said: "The victory of the Allied forces is due to the victory of the Chinese army in Changsha", and announced that he would lend money to China. 5 million US dollars, the Allies also decided to appoint Jiang Zhongzheng as the Supreme Commander of the Allied "China-India-Myanmar Theater".The British media also used the headline "Only the clouds over Changsha are truly dazzling when the Far East is covered with dark clouds".A large number of journalists and visiting groups from the Soviet Union and the Western Allies also visited Changsha.

The sensation caused by the Great Victory in Changsha not only significantly improved China's international status, but also raised Chiang's personal prestige. Excited, Chiang immediately rewarded the generals with meritorious service. Li Yutang, commander of the Tenth Army, Promoted to Deputy Commander of the 27th Group Army.Fang Xianjue, the former commander of the 10th Division, was promoted to the commander of the 10th Army.Ge Xiancai, the former major general of the 28th regiment, was promoted to the deputy commander of the 10th division.

Although China has made great achievements on the battlefield, the American and British troops in the South Pacific were hit hard again after the Battle of the Philippines.A month ago, Churchill told the Americans.The island fortress of Singapore could withstand a six-month siege.

Although General Percival, the supreme commander of the British army in Singapore, had 18 troops, he stood firm to repel the enemy's attack.He made the same mistake as General MacArthur: he concentrated all his forces on the shore of the strait.He did not listen to General Wavell's advice.The troops of the British No.[-] Division were transferred and deployed on the open ground northeast of the Causeway of the Strait. He believed that the enemy was most likely to launch a strong attack there.The northwest coast was defended by Gordon Bennett's Australian troops.In order to establish a line of defense, they are rolling in the swamp with thick tropical vegetation.The jungle blocked the field of fire and hindered the traffic between the various tactical positions.

Convinced that Percival had enough troops and supplies to withstand an imminent Japanese attack, Governor Sir Shenton Thomas declared that Singapore was about to write "a glorious page in the history of the Empire".But because of poor publicity, while the military was actively preparing fortifications, civilians were standing in the way, insisting on written permission from the "competent authority" to dig trenches on golf courses or cut down palm trees.

The extent of the danger was only realized when the costly new installations at Changi Naval Base began to be blown up with dynamite.

Merchants immediately stopped selling goods on credit to European customers, and increasing air raids caused uncontrollable fires.Since there were no air-raid shelters, casualties were heavy.The ditch outside the city has become a graveyard of corpses covered with flies. Drunken deserters in shabby clothes roam the streets, looting bombed-out houses, and the queues of refugees who are about to become refugees form a long snake formation at the pier.

The final act of British tragedy in Malaya was played out on the evening of September 9, when General Homofumi Yamashita sent his Guards division across the strait to seize the area that controlled the entrance to the now-bombed Janggii naval base. small island.This was a feint attack to get rid of the defense of the defenders. At this moment, the Japanese artillery began to fire violently, and the sound of the artillery was like rolling thunder.

The Japanese bombardment was spectacularly successful, and by dawn there was a cloud of smoke over the burning oil depots, which had been destroyed to prevent the burning oil from flowing into the strait.As the day wore on, the fire was directed westward in an orderly manner, knocking down machine gun bunkers and fortifications around the Channel Causeway.

Singapore, which Churchill thought could hold out for half a year, actually lasted less than ten days. On September 1941, 9, the day after the end of the Changsha Battle, all order in Singapore collapsed.According to the Japanese order, General Percival, together with his senior officers, drove to the Ford Motor Factory in Bukit Zhima behind the Japanese front line at 5 o'clock in the afternoon to negotiate with the Japanese commander Yamashita.

As a defeated player on the Chinese battlefield, Yamashita, who was almost executed as a scapegoat, was waiting for these British guys complacently.Different from Yamashita's complacency, Percival's face was haggard, and his bloodshot eyes showed his painful feeling of failure.

The Englishmen, whose uniforms were covered with grime, looked pitiful as they sat down in rows on the other side of an uncovered table.When they learned through an interpreter that this was not a negotiation to discuss the terms of surrender, and thus became even more disturbed, the round-headed Japanese general suddenly pointed to the surrender document spread out in front of them on the table, and asked rudely: "Sign or sign?" Don't sign?" Although Percival was depressed, he was not ready to accept this final humiliation, and planned to get up and leave.However, after consulting with his officers, he was still determined to save his soldiers and the citizens of Singapore.At [-]:[-], in front of the movie camera that took the shots, he endured the humiliation and signed the surrender document.

The British army was forced to surrender unconditionally due to lack of water and shells. At this time, there were still more than 8 British troops.In this battle, the Japanese army killed and wounded about 1 British troops at the cost of only about 14 casualties, which can be said to have won more with less.In this way, the "Oriental Gibraltar" and the world-renowned fourth largest military port Singapore, which the United Kingdom had worked hard for 20 years, fell into the hands of the Japanese army, and the gateway to the Indian Ocean was opened.

Japan finally conquered the proud "Lion City" and smashed the foundation of British imperialist power in the Far East.More suffering and death is yet to come!Although Yamashita promised to spare the lives of civilians that night, many European women and children were rounded up and imprisoned in Zhangyi Prison in an operation that later became a routine, and a large number of Chinese were executed mercilessly.The little hope of the Allies in Southeast Asia was also extinguished, and the prestige and reputation were all wiped out because of this battle. (To be continued..)