Lashio, the position of the Second Division of the New Third Army of the Expeditionary Force is filled with smoke.
The 114th Regiment of the Eighteenth Japanese Division launched a fierce attack on the position of the 2nd Division of the New Third Army;
More than 2,000 Japanese soldiers lined up in skirmish formation and attacked aggressively. They invested a regiment-level force as soon as they came up. This was the rhythm of preparing for a desperate effort. After two consecutive days of low-intensity attacks, the Japanese soldiers started to take serious action.
At the 18th Division Regiment Headquarters, Lieutenant General Mutian was observing the battlefield situation with a telescope. This was the first attack of the day, and he had high hopes for a regiment being committed at once.
In the past two days, the 18th Division did not put in much effort. It was more like clocking in to go to work.
The protagonist of the Battle of Mandalay was the Sixth Division, and the others were supporting roles. This made Lieutenant General Muta, who had always been very proud, very unhappy. In his heart, the Eighteenth Division was no weaker than the Sixth Division.
Lieutenant General Muta watched and said to Chief of Staff Soushiro Imaoka:
“Imaoka-kun, judging from these two days of fighting, the Third Army of the Chinese Expeditionary Army is a force that is not weaker than the Independence Army;
The situation of the Sixth Division is very bad. They are already deep in the ruins of Mandalay city, suffering heavy casualties and in urgent need of our support.
The 18th Division has been blocked here for two days. You go to the 114th Regiment to supervise the battle. You must break through the Chinese defense line today. "
Colonel Imaoka took the order and left. Muta turned to the commander of the 55th Division, Lieutenant General Tanaka Shinichi, and said:
"Tanaka-kun, do you smell a hint of conspiracy?"
The 55th Division had just been rebuilt and had average combat effectiveness, so they only cooperated with the 18th Division to fight. Tanaka Shinichi was also a step lower than Muta in terms of momentum.
His actual combat experience was not comparable to that of Lieutenant General Mutian. Mutian's question made him confused for a moment and said in confusion:
"Hey, Mutian-kun, do you mean that Chu Xiong has a conspiracy?"
Mutian nodded and said:
“The three armies of the imperial army attacked Mandalay City, and they had been advancing in tandem before;
Now our left and right armies were blocked by strong enemies. Only the commander of the 6th Division in the middle drove straight in, and soon he reached the city gates. "
Anyone who can be a division leader is not a fool. Tanaka seemed to have discovered some problems when he heard this, and then said:
"No wonder Mutian-kun suddenly stepped up his offensive. Is this to quickly break through the Chinese blockade and support the Sixth Division from the right wing?
Do we need our 55th Division to flank Lashio from the right? "
Lieutenant General Mutian shook his head and said:
“It’s useless, north of Lashio is all virgin forest, which is not suitable for large corps operations at all;
If you want to make a roundabout way back to Mandalay City, Lashio is the place you must pass through. During the first Battle of Mandalay, the imperial army captured Lashio, cutting off the retreat route of the Chinese Expeditionary Force and forcing the Fifth Chinese Army to The Sixth Army and the Sixth Army were defeated and returned to China.
If the Chinese Independent Division, the New 7th Division, and the New 9th Division hadn't suddenly come out, the Chinese Expeditionary Force would have been defeated long ago.
This history is the history of blood and tears of the 55th Division, which Lieutenant General Tanaka naturally knew, and the enemy New Third Army in front of them was the New Ninth Division a few months ago.
"Moutian-kun, if this offensive cannot capture the Chinese positions in one fell swoop, let's switch to the 55th Division. We have some old scores to settle with the New Third Army."
Lieutenant General Tanaka said through gritted teeth. Lieutenant General Mutian nodded to express his understanding and raised his telescope again to look in the direction of Lashio.
He accidentally saw a group of small black dots floating in the sky from behind Lashio. He thought they were a group of migrating birds and didn't pay much attention to them;
Shao Qing, he suddenly reacted and his face turned pale with fright.
"Bagaya Road, air strike? Air strike! I know where Chu Xiong's conspiracy is!"
Unfortunately it's too late...
Over Lashio, dozens of B17 Flying Fortress bombers, escorted by 32 Mustang fighter jets, flew past Lashio City and headed straight for the headquarters of the 18th Division;
The 2,000 Japanese soldiers in front of Lashio City were still beyond their discernment. Their targets were naturally the main forces of the Japanese 18th Division and 55th Division, focusing on the baggage, headquarters and artillery units.
The harsh air defense whistle sounded, and the Japanese anti-aircraft machine guns were set up, but it was a drop in the bucket.
Ferreira is not the protagonist this time. Their mission is to protect the bombers. If no Japanese fighter jets come over, he can only earn an appearance fee this time, which is better than nothing.
After the bomber group reached the target, looking at the densely packed and panicked Japs below, the bomber pilots shouted excitedly, while the rookies of the Chinese Air Force, who were the bombardiers on board, had their nervous palms sweating.
When the planes swooped down one after another and the captain gave the order to drop bombs, the rookies followed the training instructions and mechanically dropped 600-pound (272 kilograms) aerial bombs one by one, with each plane flying 8 bombs;
30 aircraft and a total of 240 heavy bombs were dropped into the ghost group one after another, almost covering the core areas of the 18th Division and the 55th Division. Lieutenant General Muta closed his eyes in pain and couldn't bear to look directly.
The destructive power of a 600-pound aerial bomb after it exploded can only be described as terrifying. The killing radius exceeded fifty meters. Groups of Japs were blown to pieces, piles of supplies were blown up, and thick cannons were blown up. The pipe was twisted into twists by the explosive torque...
Just after the explosion, dozens of planes swooped down again, using their onboard machine guns to frantically sweep away the escaping Japanese soldiers, one after another.
Ferreira finally found a place to use it this time. He drove his beloved Mustang fighter plane to sweep back and forth, leaving corpses all over the ground for the devils underground.
"Chu, this is given to you for free!"
Ferreira and others were reveling in the air, while the hearts of Lieutenant General Muta, Lieutenant General Tanaka and others below were bleeding. If anger could kill, Ferreira would have been killed instantly by Muta because he was so arrogant that he was too hateful. Got it!
After firing all the bullets, they fluttered their wings provocatively, and then walked away. They had to return to the scene to reload. The next target was the Japanese left army.
The Expeditionary Force's plane had just left, and the Japanese were still in extreme confusion. Rolling dust rose up from the left defense line of Lashio City, sweeping towards the Japanese flank...
"Bagaya Road, Armored Group!"
Lieutenant General Muta almost fainted and muttered desperately:
"Chu Xiong is too insidious, the Eighteenth Division..."
At this time, several division staff members came, picked up the two division commanders who were in despair and ran away. It would be tragic if the two division commanders were captured alive.
"Come on! Kill all the idiots!"
Commander Sun Fumin rode a tank and rushed to the front. If Chu Xiong knew this, he would definitely scold him. It was too arrogant. Is this the job of the commander?
Unfortunately, Sun Fumin had no consciousness at all and commanded more than a hundred tanks and armored vehicles of various types in the mechanized division to rush towards the panicked Japanese;
They were too lazy to shoot with guns and just drove tanks to crush them. A large number of Japanese were crushed into meat paste. It is really hard to count the results of this battle.
Behind the tanks were hundreds of trucks, half carrying troops and half carrying fuel, accompanying the attack.
Under the double attack of aircraft and tanks, the 18th Division and the 55th Division were defeated and suffered heavy losses;
After dispersing the Japanese right-leg army, the mechanized division did not continue to pursue them, but turned and attacked southward at a high speed. The target was naturally the Japanese left-leg army.
The defeated troops of the 18th Division and the 55th Division were handed over to the infantry divisions of the New First Army to clean up.
