Quartermasters can also fight the devils

On November 18, 1943, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, saw that the first two phases of the operations had been completed, and he formally issued a general attack order to the offensive forces of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army on Changde City.

On the first day of the formal general offensive by the Japanese 11th Army's offensive force, a platoon of soldiers from the 9th Company of the 1st Battalion of the 169th Regiment of the 57th Division engaged in a firefight with the vanguard of the Japanese 11th Army's offensive force in the outpost defense position set up in Tujia Lake Village on the eastern outskirts of Changde.

The platoon of the 57th Division found a squadron of Japanese soldiers on a motorboat preparing to cross the river. So, the platoon waited until the Japanese motorboat approached the shore and then suddenly opened fire, sinking one Japanese motorboat on the spot and damaging six other Japanese motorboats.

The vanguard of this Japanese squadron was attacked on the open river bank, and more than 20 people were killed on the spot. The remaining Japanese soldiers could only rush to the river bank desperately and exchange fire with the platoon of officers and soldiers of the 57th Division.

Soon, with the continuous increase of Japanese attacking forces, the number of Japanese troops rushing up the river bank increased to the size of two squadrons, and a platoon of officers and soldiers of the 57th Division in Tujia Lake Village suffered more than half of their casualties in the fierce fighting, and even the platoon leader was injured. Finally, this platoon of officers and soldiers retreated to the Chonghe position in the rear to continue defense with the support of another platoon.

Before the Battle of Changde, Commander Yu of the 57th Division had decided that, except for important key positions such as Deshan, Heboshan and Shuixing Tower, he did not require his troops to defend other positions to the death, because Commander Yu knew that his 57th Division had only more than 8,000 troops. If he had to fight against the more than 20,000 offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army, his 57th Division would certainly not be able to afford it.

Therefore, the battle plan formulated by Commander Yu of the 57th Division was to take advantage of the numerous defensive positions on the front line of Changde to gradually resist and absorb the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army, give full play to the advantages of the numerous defensive positions and fortifications, reduce the firepower advantage of the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army, kill as many Japanese troops as possible, and at the same time preserve as many manpower of the 57th Division as possible, and gradually retreat to Changde City.

The vanguard reconnaissance unit of the Japanese 11th Army's offensive force also reached Niubican Town on the eastern outskirts of Changde City on the second day after the official start of the attack. The defensive position of Tujia Lake Village was nothing to the 57th Division, it was just an outer guard fortification of Changde City. However, Niubican Town was different.

Niubican Town is about 20 kilometers away from the center of Changde City. It is a small port town backed by the Yuanjiang River and a small transit point on the Yuanjiang transportation line. More than 500 ships pass through here every day. If the offensive force of the Japanese 11th Army wants to break into Changde City from the eastern suburbs, it must occupy Niubican Town.

Li Zongyi, a veteran who participated in the war and the platoon leader of the 3th Company of the 9rd Battalion, recalled: I had just graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy and was only 20 years old when I was ordered to take on the important task of defending Niubi Beach. My platoon was responsible for guarding the front-line positions. Because the positions were too wide, the regiment specially assigned two heavy machine guns to our platoon. Before the war, I carefully surveyed the terrain and fortifications, and personally placed the positions of each light and heavy machine gun to form a complete crossfire network. In order to prevent the Japanese army from raiding by boat along the Yuan River, I also led the entire platoon of soldiers, with the help of the local people, to build some simple fortifications relying on the embankment on the river bank, which could effectively deal with Japanese ships.

The officers and soldiers of the 9th Company, 3rd Battalion, 169th Regiment of the 57th Division were responsible for guarding Niubican Town. Facing the attack of the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army, the officers and soldiers of the 9th Company relied on strong fortifications and firepower networks to defeat a squadron of the Japanese 11th Army responsible for the attack, killing more than 30 Japanese soldiers and injuring even more. As a result, the attack force of this squadron of the Japanese 11th Army did not dare to launch another attack for the whole day and could only defend on the spot and wait for the arrival of the large forces of the Japanese 11th Army.

On the second day, a battalion of the Japanese 11th Army's attacking force arrived at Niubitan. After learning about the previous battle situation, they immediately organized the entire battalion and launched a full-scale offensive against Niubitan Town.

The officers and soldiers of the 9th Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 169th Regiment fought with the attacking force of the newly reinforced battalion of the Japanese 11th Army for an entire morning. The officers and soldiers of the 9th Company used solid fortifications to fight hard and bloody battles under the siege of the Japanese 11th Army's attacking force, which had several times the number of troops. Half of the officers and soldiers of the company were killed or wounded, and they managed to hold on for half a day.

As the battle continued, the situation in Niubitan Town had become extremely critical. The 9th Company was almost surrounded by the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army. Fortunately, the commander of the first battalion of the 169th Regiment personally led the officers and soldiers of the 7th Company to reinforce, which slightly stabilized the defensive position. In this way, the officers and soldiers of the two companies persisted until dusk, and only after receiving the order did they abandon the defensive position of Niubitan, and then retreated to the defensive position of Zhiwan Village three kilometers away to continue the defense.

When Niubitan Town was attacked by the offensive force of the Japanese 11th Army, the defensive forces in the northwest of Changde City also began to exchange fire with the offensive force of the Japanese 11th Army.

The Huashan position northwest of Changde City, which was defended by the 170th Regiment of the 57th Division, was first attacked by the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army. A company of officers and soldiers of the 170th Regiment defending this position did not show any weakness in the face of the fierce attack of the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army.

The officers and soldiers of this company of the 170th Regiment fought with the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army for a whole day. It was not until the evening that the officers and soldiers of this company retreated to the Huashan defensive position in the rear for defense as ordered. The Huashan defensive position was only about five kilometers away from Changde City, which meant that the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army were very close to Changde City.

On November 21, the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army's east route once again launched a fierce attack on the defensive positions of the 57th Division in Zhiwan Village, east of Changde City. The officers and soldiers of the 7th and 9th Companies of the 169th Regiment relied on field fortifications to fight hard against the attacks of the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army.

Although the attacking forces of the 11th Japanese Army repeatedly attacked the defense formation of Zhiwan Village with their absolute superiority in strength, they had no good way to deal with the bunkers built by the 57th Division because their heavy weapons had not yet arrived at the battlefield.