7.27 China's War of Resistance without a Military Industrial System

After the 25th Army moved to the 5th Theater, Huang Haoran chose Suxian in Anhui Province as the location of his group army headquarters. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Placing the headquarters in Su County, Huang Haoran naturally has his intentions, and what he likes is the superior geographical location of Su County, which can advance or retreat.

As long as the 25th Group Army can firmly grasp the strategic point of Suxian, no matter what changes will occur in the battle situation in the 5th Theater, the 25th Group Army will be able to jump out of the encirclement of the Japanese army at any time from Suxian and continue to fight the Japanese army in Henan and western Anhui.

With the experience of asking the Sichuan army to defend Wuhu in the defense of Nanjing, Huang Haoran felt that it was safer to take this important retreat into the hands of his own troops......

The troops participating in the battle on the southern front of the Jinpu Road were the 99th Army and the 100th Army, with a strength of about 15,000 troops, and the main forces of the 25th Group Army were now assembled in the areas of Mengcheng, Suxian, and Suixi. According to the agreement between Huang Haoran and Chief Li, in the operational sequence of the 5th Theater, Huang Haoran's 25th Army is the general reserve of the 5th Theater!

The 5th Theater's special preferential treatment of the 25th Group Army made the commanders of several other group armies complain quite a bit about Chief Li, but fortunately, the reasons given by Chief Li were very tenable.

Commander Li believed that Huang Haoran's 25th Group Army had only been established for a short time, three of the six divisions had just been formed, and the number of recruits accounted for more than half of the total strength.

If it weren't for the fact that the Central China Front on the southern line of Jinpu Road came too quickly, Commander Li would not even let Huang Haoran send the 99th and 139th Divisions to assist the 21st Army.

Since Chief Li, the commander of the Fifth Theater, took the initiative to stand up for the 25th Group Army to relieve the siege, Huang Haoran didn't bother to come forward to explain, anyway, in the eyes of the local troops, a descendant unit like the 25th Group Army could not be approached, not to mention that Huang Haoran had just swallowed a division of the Sichuan Army in Anqing!

Liu Zhaomu's initiative to take refuge actually became Huang Haoran's annexation of the local troops in the mouth of the local troops! It's a wonderful thing!

Training and reorganization are still the top priorities of the 25th Army at the moment! Fan Jie and Feng. Richie's golden combination is still Huang Haoran's choice.

After the entire army became busy again, Huang Haoran and Wang Huanzhi began to chase the Military Commission to "ask for debts"! If the 25th Army wants to develop, it needs weapons and equipment! At present, Huang Haoran sends several telegrams to Wuhan every day to ask the Military Commission for weapons and equipment that should be allocated to the 25th Group Army.

The form of war has developed rapidly, and the primitive physical combat has long been replaced by the confrontation of the use of weapons, so weapons and equipment have become one of the important factors that determine the outcome of the war!

Due to the vast territory of China and the serious asymmetry in the strength of the Chinese and Japanese air forces, in fact, the war of resistance against Japan that the Wuhan government was waging was mainly a land war. Therefore, the burden of resisting the Japanese invaders was more on the shoulders of the officers and men of the Chinese army.

China has a huge population base, and if they give the Military Commission time, they can form one new regiment after another. As long as they are equipped with weapons and equipment, these recruits will become infantry regiments that can go to war.

Although the recruits recruited by Huang Haoran in Anqing are still rookies, they have all become infantry regiments that can go to the battlefield. But in Wuhan and the rear, those new regiments of the Military Commission are still some half-finished products!

This is not to say that the training ability of the 25th Group Army surpasses that of the Training Department of the Military Commission, the reason why Huang Haoran was able to pull up the 25th Group Army so quickly is mainly because he has a large number of weapons and equipment in his hands that Wang Huanzhi got back!

What is lacking in the warehouses of the Military Commission is weapons and equipment!

Even the most elite soldiers need weapons to be able to fight the Japanese on the battlefield! It is impossible to form an army without weapons and equipment! The Military Commission can train a million new troops, but it cannot provide weapons, and it can only be used as coolies!

The Wuhan government's backward military-industrial system has long been doomed to the current predicament of the Central Military Commission. As expected, the lack of weapons and equipment will always accompany the entire process of China's resistance against Japan from now on! It's getting more and more intense!

In the early days of the establishment of the Nanjing government, in the face of the backward equipment of the Chinese army, the Nanjing government launched a series of weapons and equipment construction matters.

Due to the backwardness of China's industrial base, the construction of military factories is very slow.

Faced with the practical needs of national defense construction and army building, the Nanjing Government had no choice but to purchase large quantities of arms from abroad. Although these advanced foreign weapons bought back with gold, silver and foreign exchange have greatly accelerated the pace of building China's army, they have also seriously hampered the efforts of the Nanjing Government to seek self-sufficiency in weapons and equipment. During this period, due to the end of the First World War, European countries disposed of a large amount of weapons and equipment to China at low prices. As a result, some people in the Nanjing government even proposed that the development of the domestic military industry should be temporarily stopped, because since it is difficult to satisfy the army in terms of quality and price of domestically produced weapons, it is better to pick up more bargains from foreigners.

It is precisely because of the short-sightedness of the decision-makers, coupled with the congenital deficiencies of China's military industry and the difficult development environment in the later period, that the level of weapons and equipment of the Chinese army has not been improved as a whole. Until the outbreak of the September 18 Incident, the military strength of the Nanjing government did not show any substantial improvement! In fact, this is one of the reasons why the highest authorities could not stand up to fight the Japanese in 1932.

After the September 18 Incident, in order to prepare for war against Japan, the Nanjing government made great efforts to introduce a number of "German weapons," set up the first batch of "German weapons," unified the targets of standard weapons, and began to establish its own military industrial system. However, due to the still existence of the restraining effects of political, economic, scientific, technological, military, and other factors, the Nanjing government eventually unwittingly fell into a vicious circle of becoming more and more dependent on foreign arms for construction. Although this wave of learning from Germany has improved some of the equipment level of the Chinese army, it still has not substantially changed the backward appearance of the Chinese army's equipment.

Until the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the Chinese Army was still an army using Wanguo brand weapons and equipment!

In the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, the Chinese Army, whose weaponry was far inferior to that of the Japanese army, launched a series of strategic battles under the command of the Nanjing government: the Battle of Songhu and the Battle of Nanjing.

The bravery of the anti-Japanese soldiers could not make up for the gap between China and Japan in military strength, and the Chinese army still lost East China! The direct consequence of the failure of these two battles was the heavy losses of the elite officers and soldiers and advanced weapons and equipment of the Nanjing government!

In the Battle of Songhu, because the Japanese Central China Front had an absolute advantage in weapons and equipment, most of the time, the firepower on the battlefield showed a one-sided situation.

The Japanese offensive process was actually very simple, basically bombarded with aircraft and naval guns, then army artillery shelling, then tank attack to open the way, and finally infantry charged to occupy the position. But with such a set of tactics that have not changed for a hundred years, the Japanese army swept through China's economically developed areas, and hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops were completely defeated in the East China battlefield!

The serious backwardness of the Chinese Army's weapons and equipment made the Battle of Songhu very tragic!

Before the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the Military Commission introduced a lot of advanced equipment for the army, but it was still far from being able to meet the needs of the troops participating in the war! Moreover, the imbalance in the allocation of weapons and equipment has also made these small number of advanced weapons in the hands of the Chinese army not play their due role!

Take the anti-tank artillery specially designed to deal with tanks, the 36th, 87th, and 88th divisions that participated in the Battle of Songhu were all equipped with them, and it should be said that they could completely limit the use of Japanese tanks.

But this is not the case in terms of actual battlefield effects! Because the Chinese Air Force is far weaker than the Japanese Air Force, and the army lacks anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns, ordinary machine guns can only shoot at a height of 500 meters, and rifles can only hit about 200 meters, so the sky of the Songhu battlefield is completely controlled by Japanese aircraft! Having lost air supremacy, the Chinese artillery could only run for their lives under the threat of Japanese aircraft!

In order to avoid the bombing of Japanese planes, the battle defense artillery of the German armor division could hardly continuously attack the Japanese tanks, and could only fight for a while and stop for a while. Sometimes, even after a few shots, they were forced to quickly shift positions by Japanese planes. Under such harsh conditions, no matter how sophisticated the German-made anti-aircraft guns were, they probably would not be able to play a role......

The situation of the twenty German-made chariots sent to the Songhu battlefield was even more tragic! Because the infantry did not know how to accompany the attack and coordinate with the chariots, the precious chariots fell into the heavy encirclement of the Japanese army and suffered heavy losses! Only a few hours after the German-made tank entered the battle, five were destroyed and eight were damaged!

Due to the lack of heavy equipment, the Chinese army was unable to carry out a strong offensive operation against the Japanese army. As a result, the highest authorities could only demand that the Chinese army implement the tactic of "holding its ground and persevering and not retreating".

Relying on light weapons and a small number of artillery to resist the joint air-ground attack of the Japanese army, the result was naturally only that the Chinese army paid a higher price! In addition, the Nanjing government army was poorly trained in peacetime, and its proficiency and hit rate were far inferior to those of the Japanese army in the use of light and heavy weapons, which made the situation on the Songhu battlefield even more one-sided.

The Battle of Songhu lasted three months, and the Chinese army lost 300,000 elite troops in the ratio of "sacrificing ten people in exchange for one casualty of the enemy"! Quite a number of troops "have suffered heavy casualties even before they have even discovered the enemy, and they will have to make up for them after three or five days of fighting." ”

This has to be said to be a kind of sadness!

In the Battle of Songhu, the foreign equipment, especially the advanced equipment, accumulated by the Nanjing government before the war was almost completely lost!

Since then, the supply of weapons and equipment for the Chinese army has never been sufficient......

If we say that in the Songhu battlefield, it was the wrong tactics that led to the huge loss of weapons and equipment of the Chinese army. Then in Nanjing, the huge loss of weapons and equipment is due to the fierce war!

During the entire defense of Nanjing, Huang Haoran's Nanjing garrison consumed nearly 4 million infantry and machine gun shells, more than 30,000 mortar shells, more than 5,000 mountain, field, and howitzer shells, and more than 70,000 grenades. It can be said that half of the success of the Nanjing garrison was piled up with guns and bullets!

According to the statistics of the Central Military Commission itself, as of January 28, 1938, the total loss of weapons and ammunition of the Chinese Army was: 237,000 rifles, 9,500 light machine guns, 2,500 heavy machine guns, 950 mortars, 460 mountain, field, and heavy artillery, 508 million infantry and machine gun shells, 2.76 million artillery shells of various types, and 7 million grenades.

Such a rate of consumption is not something that China's small and poor military factories can satisfy!

Under the strict orders of the highest authorities, the only task of the Military Commission in the early stage of the Anti-Japanese War was to obtain sufficient weapons and equipment to make up for the losses on the battlefield! Since China has never been truly unified from the founding of the Republic of China to 1937, the military commission's weapons and ammunition reserves have not been done very well! After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the major arsenals were relocated to the rear one after another under the orders of the government, which caused a greater impact on the domestic ordnance production!

You must know that even if these military factories do not stop working and relocate, the country's weapons production will not be able to keep up with the number of losses. Now that this work has been suspended and relocated, the source of weapons for the Military Commission has suddenly been reduced by more than half!

As a result, the need for foreign arms began to become more and more urgent!

However, since Japan had long expressed strong dissatisfaction with Germany's supply of Chinese arms and was constantly putting pressure on Germany, Hitler was also eager to show goodwill to Japan. After entering 1938, it became difficult for China to obtain weapons and equipment from Germany. With the deterioration of relations between Germany and Wuhan, it is believed that in the near future, the Military Commission will forever lose the possibility of purchasing army equipment from Germany.

To add insult to injury!

At the same time, because the wartime financial resources were on the verge of exhaustion, in addition to exchanging agricultural and mineral products for weapons and equipment from foreign countries, the Central Military Commission often had to first obtain loans from foreign countries, and then use these loans to purchase the army weapons it needed, and this undoubtedly further increased the difficulty for China to obtain foreign equipment.

If it weren't for the fact that the Soviets were anxious to make the Chinese army strong and entangled with the Japanese, and delivered part of the military supplies ahead of schedule, I am afraid that the Military Commission would have been able to play an empty plan now.

Without equipment, recruits and new units could not maintain normal military training: artillery training was carried out with wooden horses and cannons, and infantry with wooden machine guns. Without live-fire training, the soldiers' shooting skills were naturally extremely inferior, and they often fired their guns everywhere without waiting for the Japanese troops to approach, and as a result, they provided good targets for the Japanese artillery. What's more, many recruits were often thrown into the battlefield without any training, and these newly recruited soldiers did not know how to keep and maintain their weapons, and even threw grenades too early, and were thrown back to their positions by the Japanese army. The little new weapons that the Central Military Commission has painstakingly acquired are often unable to exert any power because the officers and men do not know how to use them.

The Chinese army is already short of weapons and equipment, and if it does, it cannot be effectively trained and used. Therefore, although the Military Commission has been working hard to obtain foreign aid and self-made weapons, the situation of the Chinese army's "poor equipment" has not changed. Due to various factors, such as inadequate equipment, insufficient training, lack of command, political corruption, and economic collapse, this army, which has several million officers and men, has not only failed to "become stronger and stronger the more it fights," but its combat effectiveness has plummeted to the terrifying point that "10 Chinese divisions may not be able to stop one division of the Japanese army."

While the Military Commission is running around for the source of weapons and equipment, and responding to the needs of wartime, the Wuhan government can also be said to have racked its brains!

In view of the situation in which the Chinese army "abandons countless weapons and ammunition due to heavy casualties after every battle, or abducts from the unit, or is hospitalized with the wounded officers and men," the Ministry of Military Affairs has not only demanded that the military and government organs in the front and rear areas take strict care of the ordnance, but has also decided that "in addition to the fact that each division shall send special personnel to the combat unit at any time to the theater for inspection and collection, the relevant collection organs shall notify the units at any time to send personnel to collect the ammunition, or submit it to the Central Military Commission for order to return it, or hand it over to the original officers and men to bring it back to the original unit." In order to have the opportunity to collect at any time, so as not to reduce the original strength; At the same time, all units were instructed to organize battlefield clean-up teams to clean up and pack up the weapons and ammunition left behind."

In addition, the Ministry of Military Affairs has also promulgated special measures to reward the collection of gun shells for the purpose of melting shells or refitting guns and shells; In addition, on the basis of suggestions from all sides, a number of new repair shops have been set up in order to speed up the efficiency and speed of weapons repair.

It can be said that in order to solve the problem of weapons and ammunition, the Ministry of Military Affairs has become a rag-picker!

As a result of these efforts, by the beginning of 1938, the CMC had only replenished the Army with a total of 174,000 rifles, 6,000 light machine guns, 2,000 heavy machine guns, 900 mortars, and 700 field guns.

Although the quantity of replenishment is not equal to the quantity of loss, and even many of the newly replenished weapons and equipment cannot meet the needs of combat units in terms of quality, after all, they can barely maintain the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army.

Entering the period of the Battle of Xuzhou, the lack of weapons and equipment has become a common phenomenon in the Chinese army! Huang Haoran's 25th Group Army also encountered the same problem, the Military Commission gave Huang Haoran a huge establishment of 6 divisions and 1 brigade, but only allocated enough weapons to equip one regiment! If it weren't for Huang Haoran's solid family background and the fact that the troops he annexed were themselves equipped with weapons, the 25th Group Army would probably have to distribute broadswords and spears to combat troops!

Wang Huanzhi has done his best, the officers and soldiers of the 187th Division, the 188th Division and the 189th Division can still only be equipped with some old sleeves and old Harchikai machine guns, if such weapons are left before the start of the Anti-Japanese War, Huang Haoran doesn't even bother to look at it, but now, even M1888 has become a delicacy in the eyes of the 25th Group Army!

A country without a military-industrial system has to resist foreign humiliation, and this process can only be arduous...... (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )