Quartermasters can also fight the devils

After resting for a while, the attacking force of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army came back again and continued to attack along the street. This time, the attacking force of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army used the firepower of heavy machine guns and grenade launchers to suppress the firepower points of the 57th Division in the civilian houses on the left side of the street, while organizing a vanguard team to attack the front of the street.

At this time, only a few officers and soldiers of the Third Battalion who were defending the street front could operate machine guns and shoot. Even the machine gun team of the Czech-style light machine gun that originally required two people to operate now only had one machine gunner left, and the ammunition operator who was responsible for the ammunition had already died in battle.

The machine gunner could only operate the light machine gun alone to shoot at the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army, while the seriously wounded soldiers who were still alive in the bunker were responsible for loading bullets into the magazines of the light machine guns. Most of these seriously wounded soldiers were shot in the chest and head or hit by shrapnel. Their injuries were very serious and extremely painful.

If it were any ordinary people, they would have cried and screamed in pain or even fainted. However, these seriously injured soldiers sitting in the bunkers did not cry or scream. They gritted their teeth and endured the huge pain, silently loading the magazines for the machine gunners. They knew that if they did not load the magazines, the machine gun fire in the bunkers would be interrupted. Once that happened, the offensive forces of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army would rush over to occupy these bunkers and attack the headquarters of the 57th Division: the Central Bank.

Some seriously wounded soldiers had bullets pressed into the magazines, and then they dropped their heads, fell down and died, while other seriously wounded soldiers next to them took the bloody magazines from the dead soldiers and continued to press bullets into the magazines. In this way, these officers and soldiers held out for almost the entire day under the attack of the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army. The offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army could not occupy these bunkers in the streets.

By the evening, the attacking forces of the 11th Japanese Army finally relied on their powerful firepower and manpower advantages to rush to a distance of 20 meters near the Wenchang Temple bunker. The attacking forces of the 11th Japanese Army threw a large number of grenades at the bunker where the officers and soldiers of the 57th Division were defending. Amid the flying shrapnel, several machine gunners of the 57th Division in the bunker were knocked down one after another. However, the wounded nearby took over the machine guns and continued to shoot at the attacking forces of the 11th Japanese Army.

At this critical moment, Commander Yu of the 57th Division rushed here with a reserve force consisting of more than 30 adjutants and secretaries from the division headquarters and more than 30 officers and soldiers from the peace-fire artillery platoon. This reinforcement force outflanked the houses on the right side of the street and suddenly launched a fierce attack on the offensive force of the Japanese 11th Army that was attacking in the middle of the street.

This reinforcement force fired at the attacking force of the Japanese 11th Army in the street with guns, and threw a large number of grenades from civilian houses onto the street. The attacking force of the Japanese 11th Army was caught off guard by the sudden firepower from the right. The officers and soldiers of the attacking force of the Japanese 11th Army were knocked down one after another like dominoes under the attack of the officers and soldiers of the 57th Division.

The offensive force of the Japanese 11th Army was once again severely damaged by the officers and soldiers of the 57th Division. After leaving behind more than one hundred corpses, the offensive force of the Japanese 11th Army was completely defeated.

When the attacking force of the 40th Army of the Japanese Army was retreating, five P fighter jets of the joint air force of China and the United States flew over and strafed the attacking force of the th Army of the Japanese Army which was retreating along the street, causing more than casualties on the spot. At this moment, the officers and soldiers of the attacking force of the th Army of the Japanese Army had no fighting spirit and retreated hastily to the west gate.

When the Japanese 11th Army's attacking force retreated, the number of bodies of officers and soldiers left behind on the streets was so large that it blocked the streets and hindered the continued attack of the Japanese 11th Army. The Japanese 11th Army's attacking force could only send follow-up troops to enter the streets at night to collect the bodies of officers and soldiers and clear the roads to facilitate the continued attack after dawn.

By now, fierce street fighting was going on in various parts of Changde City. The telephone lines of the 57th Division and various positions had long been cut off by Japanese artillery fire and attacking forces. The 57th Division Commander Yu was simply unable to command the troops in the city to fight. So, Commander Yu could only send out a messenger to issue an order, requiring all officers and soldiers of the 57th Division to defend every wall, every trench, and every pit, and to resist to the death.

Under the desperate fighting of the officers and soldiers of the 57th Division, the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army made extremely slow progress in the street fighting in Changde City, and the officers and soldiers of the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army suffered heavy casualties in the attack. In this kind of street fighting, the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army could not fully bring into play their advantage in firepower, and there were even frequent situations where the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army were just beaten but could not see where the officers and soldiers of the 57th Division were.

In the evening, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, also received a battle report from Lieutenant General Wang Iwanaga, commander of the 116th Division of the Japanese Army. Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama believed that there were only a few hundred people left in the 57th Division of the Chinese government in Changde City, but it was so difficult to eliminate. It seemed that these officers and soldiers of the 57th Division of the Chinese government were determined to fight to the end.

Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Japanese Army, looked at the critical situation and knew that the attacking forces of the 11th Japanese Army could not waste too much time in the street fighting in Changde City. The Chinese troops on the periphery were fiercely attacking the blocking defense line of the 11th Japanese Army.

Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, looked at the battle map and made up his mind. Anyway, he had no plan to occupy Changde City for a long time. In this case, it would be better to wipe out Changde City completely. Moreover, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, knew that most of the buildings in Changde City were wooden structures, and the buildings in Changde City were very close to each other, so it was easy to be burned.

Therefore, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, ordered to "burn down the streets of Changde and quickly achieve results". He also ordered the Japanese Air Force to drop a large number of incendiary bombs on the city of Changde to speed up the occupation of Changde.

In fact, Changde City had been a sea of ​​fire since the 30th. Such a fire caused certain casualties to the officers and soldiers of the defending 57th Division. However, the commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, was also confused by panic. The fire could certainly bring trouble to the officers and soldiers of the defending 57th Division, but the fire did not recognize people. The attacking forces of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army also suffered heavy casualties in the fire.