EBE Chapter 740 "Operation No. 1" Phase 2
Chapter 740 "Operation No. 1" Phase 2
In order to fight the Hunan-Guangxi Campaign in the "Operation No. 1" plan, the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, as the only field corps of the Japanese Expeditionary Force in China, began to expand the 11th Army of the Japanese Army drastically after the end of the Battle of Changde. The commander of the 11th Army, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama
With the addition of new recruits from Japan, the commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, expanded the 11th Army of the Japanese Army to ten divisions and several independent mixed brigades, as well as a large number of special forces. In addition, in addition to the necessary garrison forces to maintain the Japanese-occupied areas, the commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, had more than seven divisions that could be used for front-line combat in the Hunan-Guangxi Campaign in this "Operation No. 1".
This time, the Japanese 11th Army Commander Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama assembled more than 265,000 troops on the front line of the Chinese government's Ninth War Zone. Given the gap in combat effectiveness between the Chinese army and the Japanese army, anyone with a little military knowledge can know how difficult this battle is. If the Chinese government's Ninth War Zone does not have 700,000 to 800,000 troops, this battle cannot be won.
In the previous three Changsha battles, the offensive forces dispatched by the Japanese 11th Army were basically based on three divisions, with a total strength of about 100,000 people. The regular troops of the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese government maintained a strength of 300,000 to 400,000 in each Changsha battle.
This means that the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese government always used an offensive force four times that of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army. It also required the Chinese army commander to make proper plans in the battle and the soldiers of the front-line troops to fight for their lives in order to have a chance to defeat the offensive force of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army. This is also the cruel fact of the war between the Chinese Army and the Japanese Army.
However, during the Hunan-Guangxi Campaign, the number of 400,000 troops originally under the command of Commander Xue, the commander of the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese government, not only did not increase, but was weakened because the Chinese government withdrawn some troops to form the Chinese Expeditionary Force.
Before the outbreak of the Fourth Battle of Changsha, the Chinese government's Ninth War Zone had only 20 divisions that could be immediately deployed into combat, with a total of 60 regiments, which is about seven to eight armies. This was almost equal to the number of offensive divisions assembled by the Japanese 11th Army.
In the combat sequence of the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese Government, except for some units like the Tenth Army of the Chinese Government that can withstand the attack of a Japanese division alone, there is no other army-level unit that can withstand the attack of a Japanese division.
War is a confrontation of the comprehensive strength of the army. Only when the strength of the two armies is relatively reasonable, can the fierce Japanese army be defeated through the performance of commanders and the efforts of officers and soldiers. Therefore, it is obvious that the situation of the Fourth Battle of Changsha made it almost impossible for Commander Xue, the commander of the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese government, to win.
Another point is that Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, also conducted a very thorough study of the disastrous defeats of several of his predecessors in Changsha, and was already familiar with the "Tianlu Tactics" that Commander Xue, commander of the 9th War Zone of the Chinese government, was proud of.
The commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, formulated a highly targeted combat plan against the "Tianlu Tactics" of Commander Xue, the commander of the 9th War Zone of the Chinese government. Together with the previous Battle of Western Hubei and Battle of Changde, it was proved that the commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, was indeed very cunning and difficult to deal with.
Relying on the unprecedentedly abundant manpower of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, divided the attacking forces into three columns: left, center, and right. Among them, the left and right attacking forces arranged by Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, had a total of three divisions and an additional detachment, which were specifically responsible for intercepting the troops of the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese Government, who were blocking the enemy in northern Hunan and then moving into the mountains on both wings under the "Tianlu Tactics" of Commander Xue, commander of the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese Government.
Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Japanese Army, was in charge of the four Japanese divisions that were responsible for the central attack, and they were divided into two echelons, front and rear, to carry out the "barrel attack". This meant that the troops that were prepared to stay behind the Japanese attacking forces in the "Tianlu Tactics" of Commander Xue, commander of the 9th War Zone of the Chinese government, would suddenly be hit by the second echelon of the Japanese 11th Army's central attacking forces.
With this arrangement made by Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, the troops of the 9th War Zone of the Chinese Government could only suffer a total defeat under the attack of the offensive forces of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army. They could no longer form a "furnace" encirclement situation against the offensive forces of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army that attacked Changsha as they had done in the previous three Changsha battles.
Moreover, according to the combat plan of Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, the serious consequence that the troops of the 9th War Zone of the Chinese Government would have to face was that under the premeditated and fierce attack of the offensive forces of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, the troops of the 9th War Zone of the Chinese Government, which successively resisted in northern Hunan and then jumped to the outer line, would be defeated in a very short time.
It would even become difficult for these troops of the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese government to protect themselves. They would no longer be able to follow the attacking forces of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army to launch attacks and harassment. These troops of the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese government would also be unable to reinforce Changsha or encircle the troops of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army attacking Changsha. As a result, there would naturally be no so-called "battle" under the city of Changsha.
On May 27, 1944, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, commanded the seven divisions of the 11th Army on the front line to attack southward in three routes.
Among them, the Japanese 11th Army was responsible for the frontal attack in the center, which included the Japanese 3rd Division, 13th Division, 116th Division and 68th Division. The commander of the Japanese 11th Army, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, ordered the central attacking forces to force a crossing of the Xinqiang River and Miluo River and capture Changsha and Zhuzhou.
The 40th Division and the 17th Independent Brigade of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army were responsible for the right-wing attack. The commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, ordered the right-wing attacking troops to attack Chenjiang and Yiyang along the west bank of Dongting Lake, and then attack Hengyang.
The attacking forces responsible for the left wing were the 13th Division and the 3rd Division of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army. Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, ordered the attacking forces on the left wing to attack Pingjiang and Liuyang after breaking through the Tongcheng defense line, forming a pincer attack with the attacking forces on the right wing.
Commander Xue, commander of the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese government, ordered his troops to rely on the existing positions in the mountainous area southeast of Tongcheng, Hubei Province, the south bank of the Xinqiang River in Hunan Province, Yuanjiang River and Yiyang area, to fight against the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army step by step, consume and delay the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army.