Quartermasters can also fight the devils

The 116th Division of the Japanese Army could only use the same old trick of concentrating the artillery firepower of the entire division and covering the attack of the offensive forces in sections before it was able to occupy the Red Temple.

The 116th Division of the Japanese Army had its attack speed slowed down by the six rivers in the combat area and the swamp terrain artificially created by the Chinese army. After a week of hard fighting, it arrived near Tsu City on the evening of November 9.

The 133th Division of the Japanese Army suffered a lot from rivers and swamps along the way. On November , the commander of the rd Regiment of the th Division, Colonel Kurose Heiichi, experienced a scene that made him shudder.

On the afternoon of November 133, when the 133rd Regiment of the th Division of the Army was crossing the river near Yujiatai, the flag guard squad of the rd Regiment was crossing the river in a rubber boat when they were suddenly attacked by the Chinese Air Force. During the air raid, the rubber boat the flag guard squad was riding in was overturned in the river by a bomb dropped by an Air Force plane.

The second lieutenant flag guard officer and twenty flag guards of the regiment's flag guard squad were blown to pieces by aerial bombs, but what made the commander of the 133rd Regiment of the 133th Division of the Army, Colonel Heiichi Kurose, feel fortunate was that after a while, the regiment flag of the 133rd Regiment floated up from the river by itself. You know, if the regiment flag was captured or lost by the enemy during the war, then the rd Regiment would have to be disbanded on the spot and the number would have been cancelled.

After all the hardships and shocks along the way, Colonel Heiichi Kurose, commander of the 133rd Regiment of the th Division of the Army, had a premonition that this operation would not be particularly smooth.

The 44th Army of the 29th Group was responsible for the defense of Jinshi in the Sixth War Zone of the Chinese government. The Chinese army had built strong defensive fortifications here many years ago. During the Battle of Western Hubei, the feint attack force of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army had approached Jinshi. At that time, the 44th Army confronted the feint attack force of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army in Jinshi. At that time, the 44th Army built a number of temporary fortifications.

Facing the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army's southern route, the 44th Army of the 29th Army of the Chinese government relied on fortifications to tenaciously resist the fierce attack of the Japanese attacking forces. Although the 44th Army was insufficiently equipped and had a large shortage of manpower, it still fought fiercely with the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army in Jinshi for two days, which allowed the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army to completely occupy Jinshi in the afternoon of the 11th.

After occupying Jinshi, the 116th Division of the Japanese Army began to gather in the direction of Li County, but the troops of the 116th Division of the Japanese Army did not launch an attack on Li County, but waited for Japanese troops from other routes to catch up.

Because, according to the battle plan of the Changde Campaign formulated by Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, the 116th Division of the Japanese Army was the main force attacking Changde, so the 116th Division of the Japanese Army did not attack the peninsula where Anxiang, Nanxian was located, but instead attacked along the land route to Jinshi.

However, the situation was different for the 68th Division, another unit of the Japanese 11th Army responsible for the southern attack. The 68th Division was not far from the 116th Division, located in the Huarong area 30 kilometers away.

According to the battle plan for the Battle of Changde formulated by Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, the 68th Division of the Japanese Army was to land in the rear of Changde by water transport from Dongting Lake, and then form an encirclement of Changde City from the south. In addition, the 68th Division of the Japanese Army also needed to block the reinforcements sent by the Ninth War Zone of the Chinese Government. Therefore, the goal of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army was to occupy Nanxian and Anxiang, thereby obtaining a ferry on Dongting Lake and creating favorable conditions for the troops' water transportation.

However, among the Japanese 11th Army's troops participating in the Changde Battle, the weakest was the Japanese 68th Division.

The 68th Division of the Japanese Army is a Type C division of the Japanese Army. It was formed on February 2, 1942 with the 14th Independent Mixed Brigade of the Japanese Army originally stationed in central China as its core. The entire division has a size of 12,000 people. Moreover, in terms of weapons and equipment alone, the 68th Division of the Japanese Army is not bad. It is equipped with light and heavy machine guns, flat-fire cannons, mountain cannons and other heavy weapons.

In addition, because the 68th Division was reorganized from an independent mixed brigade, it was also equipped with 32 mortars to facilitate the sweep of Chinese guerrillas and small forces.

Although the 68th Division's weapons and equipment were not bad, as a Type C division of the Japanese Army, its most critical shortcoming was the poor quality of its soldiers, especially the poor quality of its officers.

This is also because the Japanese Army's independent mixed brigade does not belong to the field force. Their previous task was to maintain public order in the Japanese-occupied areas, so the 68th Division did not have much field combat experience.

In the more than one year before the Battle of Changde, the main task of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army was to garrison in Jiujiang. Precisely because the overall combat effectiveness of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army was relatively weak, the commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, was very wise and did not allow the 68th Division to participate in the offensive on the front line.

On the night of November 2, the 68th Division of the Japanese Army crossed the Jiudu River west of Huarong and attacked towards Anxiang.

Since the 116th Division of the Japanese Army has launched an attack in the north of the Nanxian Peninsula in Anxiang, it is expected to occupy Jinshi soon. Once Jinshi is occupied by the 116th Division of the Japanese Army, the only retreat route of Nanxian and Anxiang will be completely cut off by the troops of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army. In this case, the Chinese army in Anxiang and Nanxian will be completely surrounded by the offensive forces of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army. Therefore, the Chinese army here has no intention of defending to the death. Of course, there is no need to defend here to the death.

The 53rd Brigade of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army crossed the Jiudu River from Jiangbadu, and the 57th Brigade from the Yinyuxu area.

Although the Chinese army did not have many troops here, they built numerous small fortifications relying on the water network. In addition, there were many swamps and small rivers here, which made it difficult for the 68th Division of the Japanese Army to advance. However, the 68th Division of the Japanese Army carried a lot of infantry artillery and flat-fire artillery.

Therefore, the attacking forces of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army used these artillery pieces to destroy the bunkers of the Chinese Army one by one, and the Chinese Army could only fight back against the attack of the 68th Division of the Japanese Army with machine guns and mortars.

Since Nanxian and Anxiang were surrounded by Japanese offensive forces on all sides, the Chinese troops here would be surrounded by the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army if they were not careful. Therefore, the Sixth War Zone Command of the Chinese government ordered the troops to fight and retreat at the same time in order to preserve their own strength.

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