Counting the time, the U.S. military has just ended the Battle of Saipan on the Pacific battlefield, and the battle line is once again approaching the Japanese mainland. In distant Europe, the Allied forces, which have just completed the Normandy landing, are advancing deeply into France. The red army in the east also began to counterattack the German East Prussia region after entering Poland. The entire battlefield of World War II seemed to have sounded the clarion call for counterattack at this moment.
Things in Europe were too far away to be touched, but the Japanese army in the Pacific made the Americans feel more and more pressure.
Although the success of the island-hopping tactic turned the Japanese army's proud island chain defense into a display, the U.S. military's repeated approach to the mainland also increased their determination to fight to the end.
The crazy Japanese are preparing to shrink their forces on the Pacific battlefield, plan to establish an absolute defense circle, and use their last ounce of strength to fight the Americans to the end.
One of the islands, which was originally not strategically important and only 350 kilometers away from the mainland, has now become a defense focus. The Japanese army continues to increase troops on the island, intending to turn this place called Iwo Jima into a target for attackers. Nightmare.
Japan's so-called absolute defense circle generally refers to the main areas occupied by the Japanese army, including the Kuril Islands in the north, the Japanese Archipelago, the Philippine Islands, and the Ogasawara Islands, as well as Malay, Indonesia, and New Guinea in Southeast Asia, as well as North Korea and Northeast China in Northeast Asia. and North China.
This range was calculated based on the flight distance of American bombers at that time. Within this range, it was difficult for American long-range bombers to fly intensively to the Japanese mainland, and the Japanese archipelago was relatively safe.
But once the Allies break through this so-called "defense circle", the Japanese archipelago will no longer have peace. The B29 bomber can turn Tokyo into a scorched earth. Therefore, this is equivalent to the last fig leaf of the Japanese. If it is really torn apart by the Americans, it will become a disaster. Why don't you want to be teased and humiliated if you have no clothes on?
Therefore, the importance of the absolute defense circle is self-evident. In addition, in order to seek a breakthrough point, Japanese high-level officials have turned their attention to mainland China again... The military's long-planned "Army Operation Plan No. 1" has officially begun to be implemented.
In order to reverse the unfavorable situation in the Pacific battlefield, the base camp decided to open up the mainland transportation line from Northeast China to Vietnam, and at the same time destroy the airports in North and Central China to prevent the US military from using China's airports as springboards to bomb the mainland. Not long ago, in May, the Japanese invaders mobilized 500,000 troops and cooperated with the land, sea and air to implement "Operation Plan No. 1."
The Fourth Battle of Changsha kicked off, and the Battle of Henan, Hunan and Guangxi officially began. This time the Japanese army could be said to be the largest offensive on the Chinese battlefield since the invasion of China.
Since the offensive was mainly concentrated in Henan, Hunan and Guangxi, the Japanese wanted to connect the occupied areas of "Puppet Manchukuo, North China, South China, and Southeast Asia" to replace the sea routes blocked by the US military. As a result, the Kwantung Army, the China Expeditionary Army, and the Southern Army became a whole and relied on each other.
The Battle of Myitkyina had just ended some time ago, and Chiang Kai-shek was eager to send the expeditionary force back to China for this reason. The Japanese army was pressing on the border, and war broke out everywhere. Military intelligence reports came one after another. He could Aren't you impatient?
Although the 20th Army and the 11th Army were allowed to return to the DPRK, the situation in the entire Henan, Hunan, and Guangxi Battle was still not optimistic. After all, this battlefield covered half of China.
Since the end of 1942, because the Japanese army has focused its focus on the Pacific and Southeast Asia, it has slowed down its encroachment on China and transferred a large number of elites to the Pacific and Southeast Asian battlefields. Domestic senior officials believe that Japan is gradually being dragged away by the United States. Live, coupled with the victory of several staged battles, most people relaxed their vigilance and thought that the Japanese were starting to go downhill. However, they did not expect that they would suddenly play a big game, and they could not resist it at all.
Not long after the battle, the Japanese army launched an extremely ferocious attack on Changsha. However, due to the victory of the first three battles, the ninth theater was blindly optimistic and poorly prepared from top to bottom. In addition, the high-level officials were caught in internal fighting and the troops had a command disorder, which allowed the Japanese army to easily defeat the enemy. Yuelu Mountain destroyed the heavy artillery positions of the Kuomintang army, making the entire battle irreversible. Xue Yue was forced to retreat to Hengyang, and the fourth Changsha Defense Battle failed.
Japan has assembled 500,000 troops, 250 aircraft, built 14 new mixed brigades and 8 field supplementary teams, equipped with thousands of cannons, 100,000 war horses, 15,000 cars, and hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles. The purpose of the huge combat force is to deliver a heavy blow, severely inflict heavy damage on China, and at the same time open up the road transportation lines connecting Southeast Asia.
The inertia of time is still so huge. Although this time Hunan and Guangxi received reinforcements from the two major armies of the Expeditionary Force, they still could not stop the iron hooves of Japanese artillery and armor. The front lines in various places were tight. Except for the Hengyang battlefield, other places were completely defeated.
Although Hengyang was the city that held out the longest, due to ammunition consumption and soldier casualties, logistics supplies could not be sent to the front line in time, making it difficult for the Hengyang defenders to maintain their defense line. The Japanese troops rushed into the city several times to engage in more brutal street battles with the defenders. .
However, because the Japanese army was determined to win Hengyang, in addition to the offensive, there were also a large number of reinforcements on the periphery. The 11th Group Army that came to support was still a step too late. It was blocked by the Japanese army and could not enter the battlefield. Hengyang's defense could only rely on the first Tens of thousands of people in the Tenth Army.
Song Xilian's phone number at the headquarters was almost full of calls. Chiang Kai-shek was urging him, Xue Yue was urging him, and Fang Xianjue, who was surrounded in Hengyang, was also urging him, but if he couldn't get in, he couldn't get in.
It was thought that after the troops were equipped with some American weapons, they would have an advantage over the Japanese army, but the actual results were not satisfactory.
Compared with the troops stationed in India, the Western Yunnan Expeditionary Force lags far behind in terms of combat effectiveness and equipment quantity. To put it mildly, the former is only slightly better than the domestic front-line troops. It really does not have much advantage over the Japanese. It is even less possible to defeat many enemies with a small number like the Indian Army and the 88th Army.
Throughout the long Battle of Changheng, the Chinese and American air forces fully supported ground operations and once cut off the Japanese logistics supply line, but it was difficult to make up for the negative consequences of the Kuomintang's overall inferiority and misdirected command.
The defense battle of Hengyang lasted for more than two months, killing more than 25,000 Japanese soldiers and injuring nearly 60,000 people. It shattered the Japanese base camp's original plan to open the Hunan-Guangxi line to Yunnan and Myanmar within 7 days. The Hengyang defenders sacrificed more than 16,000 people, and in the end only less than 1,000 people remained.
The people of Hengyang alone sacrificed more than 3,000 people to transport ammunition for digging fortifications, and the thousand-year-old city was razed to the ground. The anti-Japanese soldiers and the people of Hengyang paid a heavy price.
In the end, with no reinforcements outside and no ammunition or food supplies, a group of senior generals including Fang Xianjue, the top commander of the city defense and commander of the Tenth Army, finally surrendered to the Japanese army on the condition of sparing the wounded soldiers.
The battlefield situation in China has deteriorated sharply since the war started half a year ago. By October, most of the land in Henan, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and other provinces had been lost. The casualties of the troops exceeded 400,000. Five air force bases and more than 20 airports were destroyed by the Japanese army. Destroyed one after another, China suffered heavy losses.
The domestic defeat seemed to be due to the lack of assistance from the allies and the delay in the Western Front battlefield. But in fact, the biggest reason was that the Kuomintang army had a serious shortage of troops. In name, it had 1.3 million troops, but in fact it was more than 1.3 million troops. There are no more than 1 million people, and there are many internal factions and intrigues among each other.
When the Japanese army invaded central China on a large scale, the units of the First Theater Command stationed in Henan were the first to go into battle. However, the Fifth and Ninth Theater Commands did not launch large-scale attacks on the Japanese army, thus preventing the Japanese from sending reinforcements to the First Theater Command.
Similarly, when the fourth and ninth theaters were attacked, other theaters were equally unable to respond, let alone massive reinforcements. Let me ask, can they win through such a coordinated battle?
The Japanese troops brutally burned, killed and looted wherever they went. Hundreds of thousands of refugees were displaced during the war. Hundreds of people died of disease, cold and hunger every day. Countless civilians were brutally murdered, leaving more than 60 million people homeless.
However, the Kuomintang did not make a full retreat. Several theaters were still preparing for counterattacks, and non-governmental organizations in various places were doing their best to fight against the Japanese aggressors.
Fortunately, the expeditionary force opened the Burma Highway half a year ahead of schedule. This lifeline of China began to transport a large amount of materials to the country. Compared with the original time and space, at least the military losses were not as high, and more counterattack forces were retained.
At this time, the 88th Army marched in, defeated the Japanese defenders such as Mandalay and Meiktila, captured a large amount of land, and wiped out more than 60,000 enemies. Finally, Baldy Jiang, who was in a state of distress, was given a shot in the arm.
Baldhead is indeed an outstanding politician. He immediately began to publicize the impressive achievements of the New 88th Army of the Expeditionary Force, in order to stabilize people's morale, as if to say: Look, although we failed to withstand the Japanese attack this time, We were pinned to the ground and rubbed hard, but the expeditionary force also severely wounded the Japanese in Burma. Although we were in pain, they were beaten as well as the little devils. So as long as we persist in the struggle and fight back, we will be able to do it. Get the victory…
At the same time, the bald head also gave a series of awards and commendations to all the officers and soldiers of the 88th Army. Anyway, he was the old trick of appointing officials and making wishes. He completely forgot that two months ago, he was scolding Mr. Liao in Chongqing for his wolfish ambitions...
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