The night of February 7, 1941, Wuhan
The three towns of Wuhan are not peaceful at night. Starting from the 4th, the Military Command Bureau will come out to cause trouble almost every night. When bombers fly in, they will light bonfires and direct the national army's most advanced Leo 451 bombers to bomb away from the residents. Although the goals in the area were not very successful, they still made the Japanese army so exhausted that they did not even dare to close their eyes at night.
However, this also made the various Japanese military units immune to the sudden appearance of the mountain city aircraft group at night. Well, it could also be that they lay down, but they couldn't resist anyway. You can do whatever you like. We just don't share your common understanding.
But the Japanese army would never have dreamed that from the first day, the night bombing of the three towns in Wuhan was a strategic deception. Even today, the highest authority personally led the fleet to tease the Japanese army during the day just to tire out the Japanese army in Wuhan.
In the middle of the night, a Leo 451 bomber took a deflection after flying over Wuhan, put down the glider they were towing, and then lowered its altitude to continue bombing the city. From beginning to end, the Japanese military in charge of air security found nothing unusual. Even the elite squadron defending Hankou Middle School was busy extinguishing several floating bonfires that suddenly appeared on the surface of Nanhu Lake.
The sixty transport aircraft were all provided by the Air Marshal. During this period, the MiG-2 transport aircraft were used to tow them back from Hans. As original cargo, their performance is absolutely first-class, even if they are equipped with T-27 tanks and tL37 combat Passenger cars also don't affect their performance.
It wasn't until they passed over the South Lake and took the bonfires on the water into the air that the Japanese army finally discovered these ghost-like gliders. But now it was too late to do anything. In the direction of Hankou Middle School, three of them were hidden among the students. Youth League members have already fired a series of red flares into the sky to point out the specific direction for the glider formation.
Two large gliders first landed on the playground of Hankou Middle School. A dissatisfied Japanese team responsible for the defense rushed towards the gliders without any hesitation. The two Type 92 heavy machine guns located at the entrance of the headquarters also spit out tongues of fire. Although The troops were insufficient, but the old Japanese's tactical literacy was really high, and he did not flinch even in the face of emergencies and powerful opponents.
But many times, just relying on courage and tactical literacy is simply not enough. Before the Japanese could rush to the glider, two T-27 tanks rushed out, covering the infantry behind, and rushed toward the main building of Hankou Middle School.
For a moment, the Japanese who had been killed by their opponents tried to retreat under the cover of machine gun fire, and then relied on the reinforced concrete building to hold on. However, their opponents would not give them this opportunity at all. At that time, more than a dozen T-27 tanks and nearly twenty TL37 combat passenger vehicles had successively emerged from the gliders that had landed one after another. Under the cover of these vehicles, hundreds of infantrymen organized in the early stage had surrounded and killed them. In a short time, all the Japanese outside the main building were killed.
Without giving the Japanese time to react, under the personal leadership of Major General Zhang Zhonglin, deputy commander of the 58th Division of the 74th Army, hundreds of people climbed over the windows of the teaching building and stormed in. Suddenly, the whole building was in chaos. Late at night, you could see the flames flickering through the windows of the teaching building, which was very intense.
The Military Command Bureau had long ago sent the architectural drawings of this building back to the mountain city, so everyone in this commando team, composed of elites from the 58th Division, both officers and soldiers, were very familiar with the internal terrain of the teaching building, even better than their opponents. That is to say, those personnel from the Eleventh Army Headquarters who hurriedly withdrew, and each of them had a ppd34 submachine gun, beat the Japanese army to the point of losing their temper.
Within twenty minutes, several soldiers pulled out Lieutenant General Sonobe and Ichiro who were preparing to commit seppuku in the basement of Hankou Middle School. Looking at the embarrassed senior Japanese general, Major General Zhang Zhonglin showed a relieved smile on his face.
At this time, the Japanese troops who came from Hankou city for reinforcements did not even appear in their sight. Even the vast majority of the Japanese troops did not know that their headquarters had been attacked. After all, in order to keep it secret during this period, The headquarters of the Eleventh Army has been secretly transferred several times. In Wuhan, the officers below the colonel are actually unaware of this situation, so it is a natural reaction to come for reinforcements.
Three green signal flares were fired into the air, and a crane transport plane that had been hovering in the sky landed, picked up Lieutenant General Sonobe and Ichiro who were tied into rice dumplings, and then flew away. The take-off and landing distance of this kind is only a few dozen meters. The light transport aircraft is really suitable for carrying out this kind of mission. The only thing it lacks is that its carrying capacity is really poor. At best, it can only fit four people in it. For the more than 700 commandos here, it is really too much. not enough.
After completing the mission, General Zhang Zhonglin did not retreat to Nanhu as planned. Instead, he gathered the 18 t-27 tanks and 32 tL37 combat passenger vehicles that were still in hand and attacked the urban area of Wuhan, causing the military commander responsible for the response to retreat. The commander of the Wuhan Station was so angry that he had to issue an emergency order to ask his subordinates to provide intelligence support and cover for the 58th Division Commando.
The highest authorities waiting on the river east of Wuhan also got angry and ordered the fleet to return to Wuhan to prepare to meet Zhang Zhonglin's troops. As for meeting the arrested Lieutenant General Sonobe and Ichiro, they could no longer care about it.
Speaking of this, Major General Zhonglin is not acting recklessly. The Japanese army is actually too weak in Wuhan. The full divisions in the hands of Lieutenant General Sonobe and Ichiro have been stationed in the south of Wuhan to prevent the possible emergence of The forwards of the Ninth War Zone are wrong. Although there are still more than 20,000 Japanese and puppet troops in the city, they are distributed on both sides of the Yangtze River. There are only more than 10,000 people here in Hankou, of which the Japanese troops are less than 4,000 at best. In various parts of the city, "cooperating" with the puppet troops in combat operations is mostly carried out on a small and squadron scale.
Moreover, because a large number of armored vehicles were used in the Ninth War Zone, the Japanese had already transferred all the few heavy weapons in the hands of the Hankou garrison. Today, the Japanese army in Hankou only has a few Type 92 heavy machine guns and grenade launchers. Or something, it's not on the same level as their commandos at all.
The Japanese army also would not have thought that an organized unit would appear in the urban area of Hankou. Under such circumstances, if they did not take the opportunity to do something, it would be very inconsistent with Zhang Zhonglin's bold and reckless character.
As a result, the entire city of Hankou was immediately fought. The 58th Division commando team of more than 700 people was not only beaten less and less, but more and more were beaten. In less than an hour, they fought in the urban area of Hankou. Not to mention a single one, the team expanded to 2,000 people.
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