Quartermasters can also fight the devils

Chapter 424: Got Beaten Badly

At five o'clock in the morning, the Soviet and Mongolian coalition forces, including three infantry divisions, two cavalry divisions, five armored brigades, one machine gun brigade, one airborne brigade, and a large number of aircraft and artillery, launched a large-scale attack on the Japanese army.

Under the Soviet army's massive artillery coverage, the civil engineering fortifications built by the Japanese army in the Mongolian wilderness were quickly razed to the ground by the Soviet artillery, which not only caused a large number of casualties among Japanese officers and soldiers, but also forced the remaining Japanese officers and soldiers to use engineering shovels to dig out simple individual shelters to fight.

Faced with the fierce attack of the Soviet army, the Japanese army's defense line was forced to retreat continuously. In order to make up for the disadvantage on the battlefield, the Japanese army organized troops to launch a counterattack against the Soviet army. However, the Japanese army could only organize 3000 infantrymen without artillery cover to carry out this counterattack.

This almost suicidal counterattack by the Japanese army was stopped by the barbed wire and field fortifications in front of the Soviet position. The Soviet artillery then fired two rounds of accurate bombardment, blasting the Japanese attacking forces that were suppressed in front of the position into a bloody mess. Immediately afterwards, the Soviet tank troops began to rush towards the Japanese counterattack forces, which completely defeated the Japanese counterattack forces.

The Japanese counterattack troops were basically wiped out in front of the Soviet field fortifications, and only a few scattered officers and soldiers escaped. After destroying the Japanese counterattack troops, the Soviet tank armored forces continued to chase the Japanese army and made a large detour to encircle the Japanese army, completely surrounding the 23rd Division of the Japanese Army on the opposite side.

Under the fierce bombardment of Soviet heavy artillery, tanks and aerial bombs, the surrounded Japanese 23rd Division suffered heavy losses.

Under the Soviet offensive, the 64th Regiment of the 23rd Division of the Japanese Army, the 13th Artillery Regiment, and the 1st Battalion of the 26th Regiment were completely wiped out, killing Colonel Takemitsu Yamagata, commander of the 64th Regiment, Colonel Takahide Ise, commander of the 13th Artillery Regiment, and Colonel Toru Morita, commander of the 71st Regiment. The only 22 cannons of the Japanese Army were also completely destroyed by the Soviet Army.

The fighting lasted until August 2000st. After being bombarded by tens of thousands of tons of artillery shells for eleven days, the rd Division of the Japanese Army, which had run out of ammunition and food, decided to break out. The rd Division organized a suicide squad of more than officers and soldiers, who tied grenades to their bodies at night and launched a close combat breakout against the Soviet positions outside the encirclement. They used human bombs to open a breakthrough, allowing the remaining Japanese troops to successfully break out of the Soviet encirclement.

In view of the unfavorable situation of the 23rd Division of the Japanese Army in the Nomonhan area, in order to win the war with the Soviet Union, the Japanese Army Headquarters decided to withdraw troops from the battlefield in China to reinforce the battle in the Nomonhan area.

The Japanese military headquarters acted very quickly, and immediately ordered the 5th Division stationed in Qingdao, the 14th Division stationed in Kaifeng, the 9th and 10th Field Heavy Artillery Regiments, nine rapid-fire artillery squadrons, 16 field anti-aircraft artillery teams, a flying squadron, and 22 motor squadrons to reinforce the Nomonhan area and participate in the war against the Soviet Union.

In addition to the headquarters dispatching troops fighting in the interior of China to reinforce the Nomonhan area, the Japanese Kwantung Army Headquarters also dispatched the 4nd Division, 9800 people from the 7th Division, 8000 people from the th Division, anti-aircraft artillery units and the main force of the border garrison to advance to Nomonhan, attempting to launch a counterattack against the Soviet army in the form of a decisive battle. However, this crazy behavior of the Japanese Kwantung Army Headquarters was strictly stopped by the Japanese Army Headquarters when the attack was about to be launched.

At the same time as the Japanese army sent large-scale reinforcements to the Nomonhan area, the Japanese ambassador to the Soviet Union also asked the Soviet Union to cease fire in Nomonhan. In mid-August, the overall situation in Europe changed dramatically.

Although the Soviet army won the battle in the Far East, the Soviet Union has always focused on Europe. In addition, both the Soviet Union and Japan were unwilling to consume too much of their national strength on the eve of drastic changes in Europe, and neither wanted to expand the war at this critical moment.

After emergency negotiations between Japan and the Soviet Union, the two sides stopped fighting on September 16, and then the Japanese ambassador to the Soviet Union and Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov signed an armistice agreement. Due to Japan's military failure, Japan finally had to make concessions, recognize the current border line between Manchukuo and Mongolia, and end the conflict.

Before the Nomonhan Incident, the Japanese headquarters was actually debating the strategy of "advance north" or "advance south".

The so-called Northward Advance Plan was to have the Japanese Army launch an offensive from northeast China toward Siberia in the Soviet Union. The combat goal was to attack the area around Lake Baikal. After all, in the eyes of the Japanese army, the Soviet army should be the same as their predecessors. If the Japanese army could defeat the Russian army in Port Arthur before, then it could also defeat the Soviet army now.

The Southward Advance Plan was mainly based on the Japanese Navy, which went south to seize Southeast Asian resources, especially oil from Dutch Indonesia.

As a result, this time the arrogant Japanese army was beaten badly by the Soviet army in the Nomonhan area and was beaten without any chance to fight back. This shows that the strength of the Soviet army was still quite strong for the Japanese army. At the same time, it also led to the Japanese headquarters setting the future combat direction as the strategic goal of advancing southward, which eventually led to Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor two years later, and then declared war on the United States, and finally was beaten by the United States and surrendered unconditionally. Of course, this is all a story for later.

After being severely beaten by the Soviet Union this time, Japan also felt that it had lost face in the international arena. Therefore, in order to restore the morale of the people and the army at home and improve its own international reputation, Japan once again turned its spearhead to the soft persimmon: China.

After Japan and the Soviet Union signed an armistice agreement, the Japanese Imperial Headquarters ordered Commander Okamura Yasuji of the 11th Japanese Army to immediately launch a large-scale battle against China to regain the ground lost in the Soviet Union.

So in September 1939, just after the Battle of Nomonhan, in order to further undermine the Chinese army's will to resist, the commander of the 9th Army of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Okamura Yasuji, once again concentrated more than 10 troops to attack Changsha from northern Jiangxi, southern Hubei, and northern Hunan, attempting to annihilate the main force of the Ninth War Zone of China in the shortest possible time.

The Chinese government had long known that the Japanese army's combat goal after occupying the three towns would be to capture Hunan Province and open up the Guangdong-Hankou railway line between the three towns and Yangcheng. At the same time, if the Japanese army occupied Hunan Province, they could attack Shancheng, China's temporary capital, from Hunan Province.

In order to deal with the Japanese attack, Commander Xue, who had been promoted to commander of the Ninth War Zone, began to assemble troops and deploy defenses early in the morning. The New 22nd Army, which had previously participated in the Sui-Zao Campaign, was directly requested by Commander Xue from the Military Commission to participate in the battle in the Ninth War Zone due to its excellent combat performance.

(Thanks to Wu Wen Xi Dong 11, the Duke of Wei who loves beef jerky, the one who eats dumplings without vinegar, and the director of Shenlong Library for their gift support! Thank you all for your support and encouragement!)