Quartermasters can also fight the devils

Under the command of Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, the 11th Army of the Japanese Army gradually occupied Shishou, Huarong and the areas across the river from Shashi on the south bank of the Yangtze River, and successfully gained beachhead positions on the south bank of the Yangtze River.

Although the troops of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army occupied the Honghu area and the beachhead positions on the south bank of the Yangtze River, the commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, discovered that there was still a section of the Yangtze River waterway under the control of the Chinese army, and that this section of the Yangtze River waterway controlled by the Chinese army was defended by the forces of two army groups of the Sixth War Zone of the Chinese government. As a result, the Yangtze River shipping route of his 11th Army was still not unobstructed.

Therefore, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, decided to concentrate his forces to launch the Battle of Western Hubei. The real purpose of this operation of Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama was to annihilate the field troops of the Chinese government in the area on the south bank of the Yangtze River. This was also the combat idea he had studied on his way to take up the post of commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army.

Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, knew that if he wanted to make achievements as the commander of the 11th Army, he must push the front line westward. Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama felt that his predecessors in the 11th Army of the Japanese Army had fallen into a common sense misunderstanding.

That is, the hope is to wipe out all the Chinese troops on the north and south sides of the three towns, and then, after having no worries, concentrate the forces to attack westwards and occupy the mountain city, the seat of the Chinese government, in one fell swoop.

However, after several years of repeated attacks to the north and south, the Japanese 11th Army did not obtain the desired safe area. Instead, it lost a large number of combat troops and supplies. The only effective operation was the attack to the west, which successfully occupied the important town of Yichang.

Therefore, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, believed that the combat direction of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army must be changed. The goal should be to capture the mountain city where the Chinese government is located. All operations must be based on this ultimate goal.

However, since the Japanese military headquarters now has strict restrictions on launching large-scale offensive operations, the commander of the Japanese 11th Army, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, also knows that if he reports the Japanese 11th Army's combat plan to the Japanese military headquarters with the sole purpose of annihilating the Chinese Army's Sixth Theater Field Forces, then it will be difficult for the Japanese military headquarters and the Chinese Expeditionary Force to approve his combat plan.

Therefore, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Japanese Army, came up with a plan. In the battle plan reported to the Japanese Army Headquarters and the Chinese Expeditionary Army, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama said that the purpose of the Battle of Western Hubei launched by the 11th Japanese Army was to obtain the ships of the Chinese government along the Yangtze River and increase the Japanese Army's now scarce water transportation capacity, and at the same time annihilate the field troops of the Chinese government's Sixth War Zone at the right time.

The Japanese military headquarters considered that if the Japanese 11th Army could open up the Yangtze River route to strengthen the water transportation capacity of the Yangtze River section, and could use the Chinese government ships seized near Yichang for transportation in the Yangtze River section, it could greatly make up for the shortage of Japanese transport ships in the Yangtze River waterway.

Since the Japanese army was fighting the United States in the Pacific battlefield, a large number of ships were used in the battlefields of the Pacific and Southeast Asia. If the Chinese Expeditionary Force could obtain a large amount of water transport capacity on its own, it would greatly reduce the burden on the Japanese headquarters.

Therefore, the Japanese military headquarters quickly approved the Hubei-West combat plan proposed by Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the Japanese 11th Army.

It can be said that Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Japanese Army, accurately grasped the point that the Japanese Army Headquarters and the Chinese Expeditionary Army valued most, and used this point to successfully obtain the combat approval from the Japanese Army Headquarters and the Chinese Expeditionary Army.

In addition, before this, the troops of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, under the command of Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, had successfully carried out the "Jiangbei Annihilation Campaign" in Jianli and Huarong areas, which had created very favorable conditions for the troops of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army in Yueyang, Shashi and Jingzhou to launch an attack on the areas north and west of Dongting Lake.

After receiving telegrams approving the operation from the Japanese Imperial Headquarters and the China Expeditionary Force, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the Japanese 11th Army, held a pre-war operational plan briefing in Sanzhen. The chief officers of all the planned participating units all attended the meeting.

During the meeting, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, personally introduced the combat plan he had formulated. In this Battle of Western Hubei, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, set three combat objectives.

The first is to find an opportunity to completely annihilate the main force of the Chinese government’s Sixth War Zone and solve the problem of the Chinese government’s defense forces to the west of the mountain city once and for all.

The second was to control the Yangtze River section from Yichang to Yueyang, and to sail nearly 50 large ships of various types with a tonnage of nearly 20,000 tons looted from the Chinese government in the Pingshanba area from Yichang into the Yangtze River waterway to make up for the shortage of Japanese transport ships in the Yangtze River waterway.

The third one started from Nanxian and Anxiang north of Dongting Lake, and then attacked Gong'an, Songzi, Nuanshui Street, Yuyangguan, Zhicheng, Changyang, and Duzhenwan to the west between the south bank of the Yangtze River and the Lishui River, and even to Pingshanba and Shipai along the river upstream of Yichang.

With this introduction, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, defined the entire combat area of ​​the Battle of Western Hubei as an area with a straight-line length of about 200 kilometers and a width of about 60 kilometers.

The commander of the 11th Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, also anticipated that the Battle of Western Hubei would encounter stubborn resistance from the Chinese government's army, so he deliberately strengthened the troop deployment of the 11th Japanese Army's attack.

In addition to the 39th Japanese Division in Dangyang near the war zone, the 13th Japanese Division stationed in Shashi, the two regiments of the 40th Japanese Division in Jianli, Shishou and Huarong, and the 17th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army stationed in Yueyang, the 34th Japanese Division stationed in Hongcheng, the 68th Japanese Division stationed in Jiujiang, the 3rd Japanese Division stationed in Yingshan, the 58th Japanese Division stationed in Yingcheng and the artillery, engineers, and army aviation directly under the 11th Japanese Army were also mobilized.

In fact, the commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, also tried his best to mobilize troops. However, the garrison area of ​​the 11th Army of the Japanese Army was too large. In addition, the Japanese headquarters had previously dispatched two divisions to reinforce the Pacific battlefield. Now the 11th Army of the Japanese Army is even more stretched.