readx; On the night of April 20, 1945, the Germans gathered more than 10 tanks under the cover of dozens of other armored vehicles, with more than 2,000 troops, launched a fierce attack on the 6732nd Infantry Battalion of the 67th Infantry Division of the Chinese Army in Polycastron. The remnants of the 6732nd Infantry Battalion were driven out of Polycastron by the Germans. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

At this point, the 6732nd Infantry Battalion was forced to withdraw after three days of hard defense in Polycastelon to avoid the fate of being surrounded and completely annihilated, and after joining the remnants of the 2nd Infantry Company and the 4th Infantry Company deployed on the periphery, the total strength of the battalion was only about 600 men, including the wounded. Before the war, the strength of the battalion reached a scale of 1,000 men, which means that in this small battle of Polycastlon, at least 400 soldiers of the battalion were martyred.

Of course, although they were beaten out of Polycastron, they held the fortified city and inflicted heavy casualties on the Germans attacking head-on.

In order to attack this small Polycastelon, in addition to the attack of more than 4,000 men and more than 10 tanks three days earlier, the Germans also sent two tank companies with a total of more than 30 tanks or assault guns to participate in the battle, and reinforced an infantry regiment.

All of them combined, the German army in order to conquer this small Polycastron army participated in the battle with more than 7,000 troops and more than 50 tanks or assault guns. This is completely the strength of a small infantry division, and the 6732nd Infantry Battalion is nothing more than an ordinary mechanized infantry battalion, they only have a thousand troops and four assault guns.

However, despite the absolute inferiority in strength, the 6732nd Infantry Battalion still inflicted heavy casualties on the Germans, with more than half of the German casualties in the battle, reaching more than 3,000 people, and the battle loss ratio of the 6732nd Battalion reached an astonishing eight to one, and more than 20 tanks or assault guns were destroyed.

Due to the resolute resistance of the 6732nd Infantry Battalion, although it failed in the end, it also inflicted heavy losses on the German army, so that the German army could not continue the counteroffensive to the west even if it conquered Polycastron.

In this battle, the commander of the 6732nd Infantry Battalion, Major Weng Shutong, was martyred at 2 a.m. on April 21, and the command of the battalion was taken over by Deputy Captain An Yunqing.

Although this move was the right choice in terms of tactical choices at the time, after all, although the town of Polycastron was lost, there was still a bridge to defend, and if the bridge was held, then he would be able to wait for reinforcements from the 3rd Division and create favorable conditions for a counterattack on Polycastron. However, although intellectually he made the right choice, he still disobeyed Weng Shutong's final order to hold out to the last man, and at the same time violated the tactical requirements of the 67th Division headquarters to require the battalion to hold on to Polycastron.

This small battle of Polycastelon created a war hero "Weng Shutong" who was widely recognized by the people, especially after the suicide note he wrote that night was discovered, it touched the hearts of almost all the people, in the eyes of ordinary people, a general who wins battles every day They have seen too much, but tragic heroes are rare, and Weng Shutong obviously meets such requirements: prominent family background, excellent military school results, heroic and resolute in battle, fighting to the death, and most importantly, he died. If he doesn't die, no one will care about him, the point is that he is dead, and the dead are always easy to arouse people's sympathy.

This battle also created a deserter "An Yunqing" who was widely criticized by the Chinese people. Although any sane soldier can see that Captain An Yunqing's tactical choice at that time was correct, he chose to retreat and held the Polycastel Bridge for a day and a night, waiting for an infantry battalion of the 3rd Division to come to the rescue, and the 3rd Division counterattacked Polycastron to defend the passage forward, and after the 3rd Division counterattacked Polycastron, it solved the danger that the supply of the 67th Infantry Division was cut off.

After the battle, Captain An Yunqing was promoted and awarded the Silver Double Sword Medal after a short period of time, but at that time the domestic public opinion on this battle was already very large, even Chen Jingyun personally inquired about the matter, the army was forced to domestic pressure to quickly suspend him and transfer back to the country to be investigated by the investigation team, and finally although the investigation team determined that An Yunqing had no command fault and resumed his duties, it still caused a great impact.

In the minds of the people, he has turned into a deserter!

In the following years, this battle with mixed reputations was mentioned from time to time, and the Shanghai film industry even made a movie called "Four Hundred Deaths" for this purpose, the protagonist is naturally the glorious and great Weng Shutong, the plot begins with Weng Shutong's youth, and then says that after the outbreak of the war against Germany, he left his wife and children to go to the battlefield and died, along with another 400 soldiers, and An Yunqing was portrayed as a villain and led the troops to retreat at the last moment. The oppression of domestic public opinion made An Yunqing take the initiative to retire just three years after the war, and soon left a sentence "I have no regrets for the country and the nation, but I am ashamed of the souls of hundreds of soldiers that night!" Wearing a colonel's gown, carrying the Silver Twin Swords Medal for the Battle of Polycastelon, and wearing the saber he had personally awarded to Chen Jingyun when he graduated from the Nanjing Army University, he shot himself and died.

Weng Shutong, who died in battle, did nothing wrong, and he firmly carried out the task that his superiors told him to hold on to Polycastron until he died. An Yunqing, who led the retreat and held the Polycastel Bridge, did not do anything wrong, he managed to avoid the destruction of the entire 6732nd Battalion and hold the vital bridge, and the 3rd Division, which was late in reinforcing the 3rd Division, was not wrong because they received a temporary support for the Turkish Seventh Army from their superiors.

Who is responsible for the heavy casualties of the 6732nd Infantry Battalion is no longer a clear question!

Although Polycastlöm caused a great repercussion after the war, at that time, it was only a small battlefield in the entire Greek campaign, and it would not have caused such a huge repercussion without the death of Weng Shutong and the hype of many war correspondents.

On April 21, 1945, the 6732nd Infantry Battalion, under the leadership of Deputy Captain An Yunqing, temporarily withdrew from Polycastron, and relied on several positions in the suburbs outside the city, and at the same time in the case of increased support from the Air Force, finally held the bridge, and the 334th Infantry Battalion of the 3rd Division arrived that night with light and rapid march, which greatly alleviated the crisis of the 6732nd Battalion, and then the entire B battle group of the 3rd Division arrived, accompanied by a tank battalion, and carried out a large-scale counteroffensive against Polycastron. After a few days of hard fighting, the Germans defending the place were already exhausted, and now under the counterattack of the Chinese Army's 3rd Division's division, they only held out for one day before losing Polycastelon again, and then a tank battalion, two mechanized infantry battalions and a self-propelled artillery battalion of the 3rd Division B Battle Group quickly pursued westward, completely crushing the Germans in front of them, thus completely ensuring the supply line of the right flank of the 67th Division.

When the 67th Division received sufficient supplies, it successfully withstood the counterattack of the German forces on the eastern and western fronts.

By this time, the European Expeditionary Force in the Chinese Army had completed the task of encircling the German-Italian forces in Thessaloniki, and the strength of a whole division and a battle group had completely cut off the logistical supply channels of the German-Italian forces in Thessaloniki and the road to the west.

At this time, the 2nd Armored Division was reinforced by a battle group of the 16th Armored Division, and once again launched a general attack on Thessaloniki, and the 67th Division also launched an offensive from the Western Front.

On April 24, an Italian infantry regiment of the German-Italian coalition in Thessaloniki inherited the fine tradition of surrender of the Italian Army and surrendered to the 2nd Panzer Division, followed by the formal surrender of the 4th Panzer Army under the leadership of Lieutenant General Hendley, the commander-in-chief of the German-Italian army.

Thus, the Battle of Thessaloniki, which lasted nearly ten days, finally came to an end.

The Battle of Thessaloniki, due to the defeat of the Battle of Polycastelon, coupled with the negative impact is relatively large, although the battle has achieved an undisputed victory for the Chinese Army in the overall strategy, but in the hearts of the people, the defeat of the Battle of Polycastelon is an eternal pain in their hearts, the martyrdom of 400 soldiers, plus Weng Shutong's death battle did not retreat and finally died, and An Yunqing's unauthorized retreat, all made this battle full of controversy.

Although this battle was full of controversy in later public opinion, it was undoubtedly a big victory in the military leadership at that time, as for the small defeat of Polycastron, in the eyes of the high-level who had seen tens of thousands of casualties at every turn, it was nothing at all, they valued the overall strategic victory, and the victory or defeat did not matter as for the tactical details.

"In this battle, although our army is still a little rusty in terms of tactics, the younger generation of generals of our army have grown up, especially Major General Xie Chanan, who has the style of his father in command." In the backyard of the Nanjing Presidential Palace, Shen Gang and Chen Jingyun, who were already full of white hair, sat together and talked about the European war situation.

For people of Chen Jingyun and Shen Gang's level, it doesn't matter how the battle of Thessaloniki was fought, the important thing is that it was won, and the price of victory was not big.