Author: Jun Yi
Battle of Shanghai, it is one of modern China's most tragic war, more than 250,000 soldiers die in battle. The reason why this battle was fought so cruelly, first of all has to be found on the battlefield. With the popularity of the movie, the 88 Division of German Machinery Elite has become a familiar force. On the Songhu battlefield in 1937, the 88th Division entered the outskirts of Shanghai on August 12, 1937, and remained on the Songhu battlefield until the end of the battle, becoming one of the few troops to fill the entire battlefield. The price that
this division paid on the Songhu battlefield was also extremely tragic. After the bloody battle for three months, more recruits were added to 5000. By the end of the Battle of Songhu, there were very few veterans left before the war. Therefore, the 88th Division began to sum up the combat experience before the Battle of Songhu was over. It is through the accumulation of these experiences that we have gradually found a way to adapt to war.
The Chinese army's machine gun position
88 division participated in the first phase of the battle in the Battle of Songhu, which was a ten-day siege. In the ten-day siege, the 88th Division suffered more than 1,400 casualties including the brigade commander Huang Meixing. In this phase of the battle, the 88th Division concluded that the Japanese army used security forces to deceive the Chinese army every time. When the Chinese army saw the Japanese security forces retreating, they boldly attacked the main Japanese positions. At this time, the Japanese army did not open fire, and suddenly opened fire when the Chinese army approached the position. At this time, the Chinese army was stuck in an embarrassing situation of being unable to attack or retreat, and the offensive was easily disintegrated by the Japanese army.
Shanghai citizens condolences
During the attack, the Chinese army also changed its tactics and carried out infiltration operations with elite commandos. This method was proposed by the German consultant who supervised the training of the 88th Division at the time, and it was code-named "Operation Iron Fist." At that time, the 88th Division selected 500 strong and brave soldiers as the commando, carrying light and sharp melee weapons, with Major Liu Hongshen as the commander. At the same time, the whole division’s artillery fire was concentrated, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Wang Jie, the artillery battalion commander, and placed nearby as a cover. In addition, most of the automatic firearms were placed in the assault position for direct support. The operation is scheduled to begin at dawn, first violently bombarding the target area with artillery fire, and then launching an assault with automatic firearms. However, in the operation, with the successive sacrifices of Major Liu Hongshen and other officers, this round of assault operations also failed.
The Chinese army
that is charging is in the final analysis, this was determined by the fighting quality of the Chinese army at that time. In the post-war summary, the 88th Division wrote: “In view of the past, our team used dense formations to attack and charge. Although the usual education requires the team to evacuate, the actual operation has not followed the requirements of the code. Pay attention to evacuation, resulting in as many as four or five casualties from one shell" . It can be seen that although the 88th Division was one of China's well-trained units at the time, it still used what it didn't learn. Moreover, due to the poor organization of the Chinese military at that time, officers often lost effective restraint after their death. At that time, officers were often at the forefront, and the casualty rate of officers was much higher than that of ordinary soldiers. For example, at that time, Lieutenant Colonel Huang Yongwei of the 524th regiment was seriously injured and vacant, and the position was filled by Xie Jinyuan. Soon after the big market fell, Xie Jinyuan received the task of leading his troops to stick to the four-line warehouse. The first battalion of the z89z24 regiment has four company commanders. Only the company commander of z8
9z Deng Ying and the company commander of the machine gun company Lei Xiong are the "veteran cadres" of the original 88 division.
Chinese army machine gun position
Japanese army is very clever in tactics, the firepower points can constitute crossfire. Moreover, the Japanese army is also accustomed to using machine guns for indirect shooting, and the Chinese army often died unexplainedly under the Japanese fire net during the offensive. On the contrary, the Japanese army attaches great importance to the firepower of the Chinese army's machine guns. For example, the 42nd Brigade of the 14th Division participated in the war for a few days with 38 heavy machine guns, but only 4 were left by the Japanese. Therefore, in the summary, the 88th Division requires the troops to change positions of light and heavy machine guns at any time, especially not to set positions at the commanding heights. Because it is easy to be hit by the Japanese army. The even stipulates that every time the light machine gun is fired once or twice, the heavy machine gun fires 50 to 100 rounds, and the position must be shifted. At the same time, it also ordered non-good targets not to shoot.
Even if it breaks into the Japanese position, the Chinese army often refuses to spend time building positions due to attack fatigue. This situation often resulted in many times that the newly restored positions were counter-attacked by the Japanese and fell again. So the 88 division emphasized,No matter how tired the troops are, they must build fortifications in the first time.
A lot of time in the Songhu Battle was actually defensive. In the defensive battle, the Japanese had aircraft in the sky and tanks and heavy artillery on the ground. In such an environment, the Chinese army had to gradually explore the way of defensive warfare. For example, the position needs to be configured with multiple lines, heavy machine guns cannot be fired easily, and more indirect shooting is required to cover the location of the machine guns.
occupied complete air supremacy in the air, and the front-line troops could not work during the day. Later, the Chinese army used real and fake positions to avoid Japanese aerial bombing. The 88th Division also summed up the use of dark nights to send small troops to infiltrate the Japanese army and disrupt the Japanese offensive rhythm. By using existing mortars to enhance the firepower of the first-line infantry. These efforts have achieved good results in the Battle of Songhu. When
stayed at the Four Lines Warehouse in the First Battalion of the 524th Regiment, the 88th Division's main force blocked the Japanese on the south bank of the Suzhou River. Not only completely prevented the 2nd Brigade of the Japanese 68th Regiment’s attempt to forcibly cross the Suzhou Creek from the front of the 88th Division, it also fought against the Japanese troops forced to cross Zhoujiaqiao with the 36th Division. According to Japanese statistics alone, its 9th Division suffered 2804 casualties in the Battle of Suzhou Creek, and its 3rd Division suffered more than 840 casualties in the 34th regiment. The two divisions’ battle losses alone were about 5,000. about. Before the retreat on November 8, the fighting on the south bank of the Suzhou Creek had hardly made any progress. The 88th Division did not withdraw from the position until the Japanese army landed at Jinshanwei behind the Chinese army.
Japanese military history records: "During the sweep of the Xuejiazhai position, dozens of soldiers would rather die than surrender in the three solid concrete bunkers that were not destroyed. They fought with grenades. In the end, all of them died in the Suzhou Creek. They fought bravely. No less than our officers and soldiers. The frontal enemy of the wing, the number of corpses was 1950, and the prisoner was only one soldier who was seriously injured and unable to move. "It can be seen that the Chinese army defending the Suzhou River was tenacious.
Japanese invaders
Although there is a clear tactical gap between the Chinese army and the Japanese army, batch after batch of passionate men fight for positions with their own sacrifices and exchange their blood for experience. The experience of these soldiers in exchange for their blood has perfected the tactics of the Chinese army and has been continuously improved in subsequent operations. The 88th Division fought bloody for three months in the Battle of Songhu. The was called the "Hateful Division of Zhabei" by the opposing Japanese.
