Chapter 44: The Battle of Huishan Wharf
4.44 Battle of Huishan Pier
Shanghai on the 20th was still in the midst of fierce battles, which became less noticeable in the face of the sinking of the Japanese flagship Izumo. Pen | fun | pavilion www. biquge。 info
Before dawn, the Japanese launched a series of counterattacks in retaliation for the night attacks of the Chinese navy, but the attack of the devils, which was obviously insufficient, was met by the Chinese army, and after losing a few hundred people, the Japanese retreated.
On the same day, the Nanking government set up a base camp with the highest authority as the generalissimo. The national battle sequence was drawn up, and the south of the Yangtze River in Jiangsu (including Beijing and Shanghai) and Zhejiang were designated as the 3rd Theater of Operations, with Feng Yuxiang as the commander of the theater, and the main points of the operational guidance were promulgated: (1) Operational guidelines: The 3rd Theater of Operations, for the purpose of consolidating the capital and maintaining the economic source, quickly besieged the enemy near Shanghai and broke the enemy's attempt to land along the rivers and along the coast. (2) The division of the Corps defense area: north of Suzhou Creek and west of the Huangpu River, it belongs to the 9th Group Army, with General Zhang as the commander-in-chief. South of Suzhou Creek, Pudong and the left bank of Hangzhou Bay, belonged to the 8th Group Army, with Zhang Fakui as the commander-in-chief. In the morning, our army launched a general attack on three routes, and the 98th Division attacked Yangshupu with all its might. The 36th and 87th Divisions advanced to the line of Broadway Road, Tangshan Road, and Huade Road. The 99th Division, the 11th Division and the 2nd Regiment of the Teaching Corps controlled Jiangwan and the downtown area and were the general reserves.
The highest authorities personally gave the first order after taking office--- launch a fierce assault on the Japanese troops at the Huishan pier!
At 4 p.m. on the 20th, the Chinese Air Force bombed Huishan Wharf and other Japanese positions.
Sporadic shelling and firefights did not stop throughout the day!
In the evening, the "Outside" of the major newspapers adjusted the results announced in the morning, and the number of sunken Japanese ships was revised to three, with a total displacement of more than 10,000 tons!
This is a big win like never before!
Admiralty consciousness is in the limelight! The highest authorities went to the phone three times a day to praise them, and the Jiangyin fortress was excited!
At 21 o'clock in the evening, General Zhang ordered all units to prepare to launch an attack on Huishan Wharf at 0:00 on the 21st, and then asked all divisions participating in the battle to hold a meeting of officers at and above the battalion level to concretely implement the general combat plan.
At 0:00 on the 21st, the 9th Army launched a diversion attack in addition to the 88th Division, the 36th Division, the 87th Division, and the 98th Division launched a full-scale attack on the Japanese army.
Colonel Hu Jiaji, commander of the 216th Regiment of the 36th Division, commanded 2,000 officers and men to follow up behind the armored troops, breaking through several streets of the Japanese army before dawn, and the 106th Brigade advanced to the line of Shajing Port, Yuezhou Road, and Kunming Road, and joined the attacking 87th Division before the sky turned white.
The 98th Division's 292nd Brigade attacked the Japanese troops around Huishan Wharf, while the 294th Brigade cooperated with the 36th Division to advance from Shajing Port to Baoding Road towards Broadway Road. The divisions went well that night,
After dawn, the Japanese fleet immediately organized naval artillery fire to cover the fire of our troops, the infantry of the Chinese army was struggling under the shelling, unable to follow up the tank battle immediately, the tank vehicles that lost the cover of the infantry went deep alone, and soon fell into the heavy encirclement of the Japanese army, some tanks were blown up by the devil's blasting group, but most of the tanks were destroyed by the Japanese anti-tank guns, and finally only 3 combat vehicles rushed into the core position of Huishan Wharf, but soon they were also hit by the Japanese naval guns, and they were shot and caught fire. Captain Guo Hengjian, commander of the 1st Company of the Armored Battalion, and Captain Zheng Shaoyan, commander of the 2nd Company, were killed in the attack.
After losing the tanks, the 36th, 87th and 98th Divisions fought bloody battles with the Japanese army in the area of Tangshan Road, Zhaofeng Road and Huishan Wharf.
The 1st Battalion of the 212th Regiment of the 36th Division attacked the intersection of Zhoushan Road and Huade Road, and was met with crossfire from Japanese troops from high-rise buildings on both sides. Major General Chen Ruihe, commander of the 106th Brigade, rushed to the front line to command when he heard the news, but was also seriously wounded.
Division commander Song Xilian ordered Colonel Li Zhipeng, commander of the 212th Regiment, to take over the command, and urgently transferred the 215th Regiment to rush to the aid and continue the onslaught.
Major Li Zeng, commander of the 2nd Battalion of the regiment, was the first to be killed on the spot, and when the battalion saw that the frontal attack could not succeed, it made a detour through an alley, preparing to climb the window from behind a tall building and break into the Japanese position. As a result, when the battalion was climbing, the Japanese tank suddenly rushed out, cut off the only alley leading to the street, and then bombarded it with incendiary bombs, and more than 300 officers and soldiers died in the fire, and no one survived!
After several hours of hard fighting, the 216th regiment took Broadway Road and rushed straight to Huishan Wharf, because the anti-aircraft artillery failed to keep up and could not destroy the strong iron gate of the wharf, so it had to climb over the wall to enter, the regiment commander Colonel Hu Jiaji took two guards to take the lead in turning into the wall, and was immediately fired by the Japanese flank, two guards were killed and wounded by the regiment commander for cover, and Colonel Hu Jiaji was also hit by 5 bullets! Luckily, it didn't hit the point. Commander Hu was seriously injured and could not get out of the line of fire, so he immediately organized firepower to shoot at the Japanese army and continued to command the operation!
The entire 36th Division was killed!
At the same time, the 87th Division also began to attack, and the 259th Brigade captured several Japanese positions by the afternoon, but it was still blocked by the perimeter of Huishan Wharf. The 261st Brigade had recaptured Yangshupu, and the Japanese troops who had escaped from their positions set fire to the streets in an attempt to block our offensive, but the retreat of the Japanese army was cut off by the 36th Division and had to retreat into the British concession and surrender to the British army.
In order to coordinate with the Yangshupu attack on the Japanese army, Zhang Fakui's headquarters ordered the 337th Regiment of the 55th Division and an artillery battalion to attack the Japanese troops at Xinmitsui Wharf and its vicinity at midnight on the 21st. By 4 a.m. on the 22nd, the dock was captured, and the remnants of the enemy retreated to the warships on the river. In addition, along the Yangtze River estuary in Pudong, a regiment of the 57th and 55th Divisions entered the line of Zhelin, Nanqiao, and Minhang for defense, and built fortifications on the north bank of Hangzhou Bay in the area from Jinshanwei to Haining, and soon the 28th Army and other units took over the defense.
Although this attack reduced all the Japanese troops to the inner ring of Huishan Wharf, our troops suffered great losses.
The armored corps, in particular, basically lost their combat effectiveness. There were many casualties among the middle-ranking officers of the other divisions.
But such a tragic offensive ultimately failed, mainly for two reasons, first of all, our army overestimated the combat effectiveness of tanks for urban operations, and the war in urban areas showed that tanks were not suitable for use in large cities, and our army did not know about this, which was also not expected by German advisers.
Secondly, the national army did not have infantry and tank coordination tactics, and at that time, tanks involved a tactical problem in all countries, that is, how infantry could cooperate with tanks, not to mention the Chinese army, which had just formed armored forces.
The focus of the Chinese army's combat plan is still to highlight infantry operations, and there is no mention of how to use armored vehicles, especially the coordinated tactics of infantry and tank, not to mention the commanders of grassroots units, and even many high-ranking generals do not know how to use them.
Most of the Chinese troops participating in the war saw their tanks for the first time, and they even thought that armored vehicles were indestructible weapons, and they did not even send the infantry to cover the combat vehicles, and as a result, the armored vehicles without infantry cover soon fell into the heavy encirclement of the Japanese army! As soon as the armored troops came out, they suffered heavy losses, which also hit the morale of the infantry!
Fortunately, the tactic of interspersing the flanks was successful, and it can be said that the one-day battle on the 21st dealt a fatal blow to the Japanese forces in Shanghai, and the last line of defense of the Japanese marines was on the verge of collapse.
In the early morning of the 22nd, the Japanese troops in Shanghai sent an urgent telegram to Tokyo, and they even wrote directly in the telegram:
"The Chinese army in Songhu is tactically brave and well-equipped, if it cannot get reinforcements from the army division within 24 hours, the war in Shanghai will be erosive, and the defeat of the imperial army will be irreparable!"
Huang Haoran's 99th Division was mentioned many times in the telegram, saying that the 99th Division was the elite of the Chinese army, and that it had caused tragedies of the imperial army in Shanghai many times, and the army should pay special attention to the 99th Division!
The hatred of the Japanese army should be Huang Haoran's favorite gift!
He and his 99th Division enjoyed such an "honor"!
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