Before reading, please click a "follow", which is not only convenient for you to discuss and share, but also can bring you a different sense of participation, thank you for your support!
On May 30, 1943, the location of Shipai Fortress, Yichang City, Hubei Province, a fierce battle was underway, however, unlike the hustle and bustle of artillery fire and bullets poured out in the world's imagination, ordinary people could not hear any sound on the battlefield if they were a little farther away, and it was the case for three hours, as for the reason was very simple, just because during this period, neither China nor Japan used "industrial weapons", and the main theme of the scene was only one, that is, the "white-knuckle battle" of hand-to-hand combat!
Nearly 20,000 people fought together with bayonets, and of course, because of this, the largest white-knuckle battle of the Second World War left a strong mark in history, and it was also called the world and the Battle of Stalingrad!
So what's going on here? It is obviously a modern war, why did the two sides adopt such a "primitive" way to fight the winner, and which side won the final victory in this battle?
Top priority
Everything has to start with the background of the outbreak of the Shipai Defense War.
Since the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1937, the regular army of the Kuomintang was losing and retreating on the front line, and the successive losses of North China, Shanghai, and Nanjing also led to the forced relocation of the Nationalist Government led by Chiang Kai-shek, from Nanjing to Wuhan, and from Wuhan to Chongqing.
On the one hand, after the Battle of Wuhan, the long supply lines had already made the Japanese army feel powerless, and on the other hand, under the constant harassment of the New Fourth Army and the Eighth Route Army behind enemy lines, the Japanese army had to transfer a large number of standing divisions to the occupied areas to stabilize its territory.
Seeing this situation, the Japanese army originally wanted to delay time, that is, to negotiate peacefully with the Nationalist Government, temporarily stabilize the situation on the front line, and wait until the occupied areas were stabilized before attacking, but it was obvious that such an idea could only be a pipe dream, not to mention that the tragic death of 300,000 soldiers and civilians in Nanjing made the Chinese people hate it to the core, and to say that Chiang Kai-shek himself, as long as he dared to agree to the peace talks, would be stinking for 10,000 years in that minute, and he would be dragged down from the altar by other high-level Kuomintang leaders who coveted the "big position."
Therefore, this peace talks have come to an end, and have been replaced by-for-tat battles!
At the end of February 1940, the Japanese army launched a fierce attack on the Fifth Theater, in order to turn the tide of the war, Chiang Kai-shek and Li Zongren also abandoned their previous suspicions and chose to appoint the famous general Zhang Zizhong, who served as the commander-in-chief of the Right Army, commanding the 33rd and 29th armies to block the enemy.
Under the wise command of General Zhang Zizhong, the main force of the Japanese army suffered heavy losses, but the price was also very great, he himself died on the battlefield, becoming the highest-ranking officer in the history of the Anti-Japanese War, and the defense line of the 33rd Group Army also collapsed.
It's a pity that due to the huge gap in strength, the follow-up, after four consecutive months of resistance, the important town of Yichang in Sichuan still fell, without this barrier, the situation in Chongqing, the capital of Chongqing, can be called precarious, at that time, Chiang Kai-shek and others can only put all the treasures on the Shipai fortress, they are gambling, betting that the Japanese army with heavy losses in the Battle of Zaoyi will not launch a second wave of offensive so quickly, and they are also betting, betting that the natural danger of Shipai can keep the enemy out of the capital!
Facts have proved that God bless China, Chiang Kai-shek bet right, after the fall of Yichang, the Japanese army did try to directly capture Shipai in one go, but due to the huge losses before, this attempt was only a small-scale temptation, the vanguard they sent could not break through the strong fortress of Shipai, coupled with the previously mentioned, the situation in the occupied area is unstable, our party is constantly harassing behind enemy lines, the battle line is too long, supplies and transportation are difficult, Japan's national strength is stretched and so on. The coercion of Chongqing could only be stopped, and by the time the war broke out again, it was already in 1943.
So what happened in 1943? The results are obvious: First, as Chairman Mao expected, in the protracted war, the Japanese army's disadvantage is getting bigger and bigger, and the strength of China and Japan is already approaching balance under the elimination of each other's strengths; second, the successive defeats in the Pacific theater have also doubled the pressure on the Japanese government; although it has not yet been defeated, the defeat has been manifested, and anyone with a discerning eye can see that Japan is not an opponent of the United States at all, and sooner or later they will lose all the territory east of the Pacific Ocean and Southeast Asia.
Therefore, as far as Japan is concerned, the only way to end the "Sino-Japanese War" now is to end the "Sino-Japanese War" as soon as possible, either to gather all forces to take over the entire territory of China, or to coerce the Chiang Kai-shek government to surrender and realize the "exercise of sovereignty" in the true sense in the occupied areas; after all, only in this way can Japan have a way back after the defeat in the Pacific War and will not be directly wiped out by the United States.
The Japanese government thought so, and the Japanese army on the front line did exactly that, and their goal was very simple, basically three steps, the first step was to besiege western Hubei and eliminate the living forces of our army, the second step was to capture Shipai and open the door to the southwest, and the third step was to besiege Chongqing, and then depending on the specific situation, it was decided whether to directly occupy the whole territory of China or force the Chiang Kai-shek government to surrender.
Defend the Stone
In the case of successive defeats in the Pacific War, the Japanese army directly aimed the spearhead at southwest China, it can be said that the Nationalist Government and China at that time had reached an extremely dangerous situation, as long as the Japanese army's conspiracy succeeded, although our party still retained a good strength, but without the central government, our army would be unable to support it alone, and in the end, what greeted us was most likely the tragedy of the destruction of the country and the extinction of the species.
Therefore, how to destroy the plan of the Japanese army has become the first priority of the Nationalist Government, of course, as a prerequisite for all problems, whether Shipai can be held has become the top priority, and this is also the background of the outbreak of the Shipai Defense War.
Obviously, both sides have reasons why they must not fail, and for this reason, the Chinese and Japanese armies also waited for the day of the decisive battle, and on May 5, 1943, the battle finally began!
In the early morning of the same day, the Japanese army mobilized almost all its mobile forces to launch a siege on the defense line of the Sixth Theater, but the 10 armies of our Sixth Theater were not vegetarians, they relied on the Jiangfang to launch a fierce counterattack, and through continuous operations for half a month, they successfully dragged the war into a stalemate stage.
Seeing this situation, the Japanese commanders knew that it would not be beneficial for them to fight a protracted war, so they quickly changed their operational policy, that is, they no longer pursued the annihilation of the living forces of the Kuomintang army, but directly concentrated their superior forces to attack the Shipai Fortress!
From the perspective of the Japanese army, the Kuomintang army at this time was exhausted, and it was even more immobile under the resistance of its own small troops, and it was completely easy to take the stone card, but this is not the case, the Japanese army's actions have long been aware of it, and everything in front of them is just an illusion, under Chen Cheng's conception, the new strategic deployment is as follows, that is, to lure the Japanese army between the Shipai fortress and Yuyang Pass, and then send reinforcements to drive them to the west bank of the Yangtze River and then encircle and annihilate!
However, although this plan is good, it has a crucial prerequisite, that is, the defenders of Shipai must withstand the pressure and withstand the onslaught of the Japanese army, if they lose too quickly, then all plans will come to naught.
The mission of the main general of Shipai is not arduous, but in this regard, Lao Jiang and Chen Cheng are still relatively relieved, the reason is very simple, only one point, that is, the defender of Shipai is the 11th Division of the 18th Army, and the defender of Shipai is the famous Huangpu fourth period student, Chiang Kai-shek's confidant and favorite general - Hu Lian.
Mention Hu Lian's name, I believe everyone has a number in their hearts, whether this person is in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression or the War of Liberation, the performance is extremely brave, especially in the battle against foreign enemies, he first led the death squad in Shanghai to fight hand-to-hand with the Japanese army, and then in the defense of Jiuhua Mountain, he was resourceful and used mine tactics to destroy more than 60 Japanese warships in one fell swoop.
In addition, in the Battle of Changsha and the Battle of Zaoyi, Hu Lian also made great achievements, such a wise and brave general Chiang Kai-shek is not at ease, who else can he rest assured? Facts have proved that Hu Lian has not failed to live up to this trust.
Before the battle began, Hu Lian realized the key point of the battle, that is, to avoid a hard confrontation with the Japanese army in the open area, try to smooth out the gap between the enemy and us in terms of mechanized weapons and artillery, and it is best to rely on the valleys and peaks near the Shipai fortress to block or ambush, only in this way can you defeat the strong enemy and hold the Shipai.
This is also a trip, no, with May 27, 1943, the Japanese army launched an attack through Beidou Chong, Hu Lian's tactics played a big role, the vanguard of the Japanese army marched into the valley in a hurry, directly fell into Hu Lian's ambush, the troops can be called heavy casualties, and had no choice but to temporarily retreat and then make plans.
The Japanese army dragged on for a whole day, or did it not regroup until dawn the next day, and decided to use the advantages of the air force and artillery to "plow the ground" first, and at the same time cooperate with the machine guns to continuously strafe the ground, in a vain attempt to break out of the ambush of our army!
However, what the enemy never expected was that Hu Lian actually expected even this layer, because of his rich combat experience, Hu Lian knew too much about the tactics and tactics of the Japanese army, and he knew that in the case of a frustration in the attack, the Japanese army would definitely put into strong firepower, so as early as the night of the battle, he issued an order to the soldiers, that is, everyone should use natural mountains and rocks to build bunkers, and they were not allowed to expose their tracks in the face of bombing and strafing, and they could not open fire until the enemy arrived at the designated position!
In this way, under the command of Hu Lian, the Japanese bombing basically did not work, and the overconfidence hurt them, thinking that the Chinese army had already been blown to pieces, but unexpectedly, as soon as the troops entered the valley, the attack from our army swept in!
Since then, the second wave of the Japanese offensive has failed, but when you think about it, you know that the worst battle is yet to come.
The largest white-knuckle battle in the history of World War II
Under the desperate resistance of the front-line troops, the Shipai defenders got a lot of preparation time, and Hu Lian also made excellent use of this time difference, and through his own experience against the enemy, he developed a series of ambush tactics, and the Japanese army suffered heavy casualties in just two days, so the results are really happy, but it is clear that this is just an appetizer, the gap in strength still exists, and the more tragic battle is only now kicking off.
Continuing from the above, in the battle of the second day, even if the Japanese army used air force, artillery, and even poison gas bombs, they still failed to move forward.
On the other hand, it is the same on the side of our army, under the incessant pouring for two days, the 11th Division is almost out of ammunition and food, if it drags on, who wins and who loses can only depend on the destiny of heaven, if you don't want to hand over your fate to God, you can only take the initiative to attack, with the bayonet in your hand to protect the capital and the people in the rear!
In this way, the two sides reached a rare agreement, and a large-scale white-knuckle battle that lasted for three hours was staged.
Although Hu Lian had secretly prepared the fleeing ships, in a vain attempt to escape alone in the event of defeat, but under the baptism of the scene, the morale of the soldiers also reached its peak, and the Japanese army was the same, looking at the Chinese soldiers who had retreated bullets and bayonets loaded, their eyes also appeared with a fanatical look, saying that it was too late and that was fast, only in an instant, the two sides invariably launched a charge, more than 10,000 Chinese soldiers fought against more than 8,000 Japanese elites, and it is not yet known who won and who lost.
According to the memories of the surviving veterans at that time, during those three hours, the whole battlefield was terrible quiet, there was not a single gunshot, artillery, only the poofing of bayonets into the body, and the roar of severe pain, such primitive tactics were never seen since the beginning of the war, but fortunately, in the end, it was the national army that won the victory, at the cost of 1,500 casualties, directly wiped out more than 2,000 Japanese troops, and then instantly shattered their fighting spirit.
Seeing that the enemy could not be defeated, on May 31, the Japanese commander had to order a retreat, and this happened to be our plan, and a Chinese army on the flank immediately pounced, and immediately launched an encirclement and annihilation operation against the remnants of the Japanese army.
At this time, the Japanese army was already exhausted, where could it still launch an effective counterattack, and not only this Japanese army, but also the entire Japanese army in the Yuyang Pass and Changyang area were also crushed, and finally retreated to the sphere of influence before the Battle of Western Hubei.
Looking at this result alone, the two sides seem to have fought to a draw, but from the perspective of strategy and war losses, the Chinese side has undoubtedly achieved a great victory, after all, we have eliminated a total of more than 25,000 Japanese troops, and also smashed the Japanese government's strategic attempt to occupy Chongqing, and then the invading Japanese army completely lost the ability to occupy the whole of China.