Devil's Army

After the Japanese army captured Gutang, a hole was torn open in the east of Jiujiang. However, the Japanese Hata Detachment did not take the opportunity to attack Jiujiang.

Jiujiang has Li Hanhun's 29th Corps, the 64th Army, the 66th Army, independent heavy artillery units and local security forces. The defense force is relatively strong. After joining forces with the Japanese th Division, Shigekazu Hata temporarily rested in Gutang.

Two days later, the Japanese Hata Detachment and the 106th Division gathered 28 warships and more than 70 aircraft and launched an attack on Jiujiang.

General Okamura Yasuji, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Central China Expeditionary Force, personally commanded this battle from Shizhong Mountain in Hukou.

Japanese warships and aircraft first fired and bombed the defensive fortifications in Jiujiang city.

The Japanese Hata Detachment and the 106th Division attacked the Jiujiang city area in the south of the river while landing at Xiaochikou in the north of the river.

The commander of the 68th Army, Liu Ruming, was stationed at Xiaochikou in Jiangbei. He was originally a subordinate of General Song Zheyuan.

Xiaochikou is a flat plain with no fortifications or defensive fortresses. After resisting four attacks by the Japanese army, the 68th Army suffered heavy casualties in the fierce bombing of Japanese artillery and aircraft and had to retreat.

After defending the Xiaochikou position for half a day, it fell into the hands of the Japanese army, who then attacked along the highway towards Huangmei.

The Japanese army gathered more than 20 landing craft from the area around Simatou, forcibly landed on Binjiang Road near Langjing, and attacked the Jiujiang city area in the south of the Yangtze River.

The officers and soldiers of the 64rd Brigade of the 115th Division of the 463th Army braved the bombing of Japanese aircraft and the shelling of warships and repelled the first wave of Japanese attacks.

The Japanese army immediately retreated and reorganized a second attack.

While the Japanese army was attacking the Jiujiang city area, part of the Japanese 6th Division in Pengze also set out from Pengze County to attack Dehua County.

After receiving the intelligence from the Golden Eagle reconnaissance, the commander of the First Regiment and the commander of the 723rd Regiment, Wang Qiming, each dispatched two battalions to ambush in the Huanglaomen area.

The troops had just arrived at the Huanglaomen area and had not yet built fortifications when the vanguard of the Japanese army arrived.

The commander of the first regiment and the commander of the Wang regiment originally planned to let the vanguard of the Japanese army pass through, and then close the gate to fight the dog. However, the Japanese army was equipped with tanks and advanced at a relatively fast speed. The commander of the Wang regiment was worried that he would not only fail to annihilate the vanguard of the Japanese army, but also let the main force of the Japanese army break through their defense line. So he ordered the soldiers to block them.

The road from Pengze County to Dehua County passes through many hills and valleys in the Huanglaomen area.

Soldiers from the 723st and rd Regiments took advantage of natural hills and valleys to attack Japanese troops on the highway.

After a brief confusion, the Japanese army, with the support of tanks and artillery, counterattacked the soldiers of the 723st and rd Regiments who were ambushed in the hills and valleys on both sides of the road.

At this time, the soldiers of the 723st Regiment and the rd Regiment, who were lacking Type rockets, were retreating step by step under the fierce artillery fire and tank attacks of the Japanese army.

The Japanese vanguard joined the main force and formed a group to continue chasing the soldiers of the 723st and rd Regiments.

Just when the Japanese army thought they could chase the Chinese army into Dehua County, a regiment of four 75mm mountain cannons hidden in the Daiyun Mountains suddenly opened fire.

The two Japanese Type 89 medium tanks that were the vanguard were blown up on the road, and the infantrymen beside the tanks were also blown to pieces.

Soldiers from the 723st and rd Regiments took advantage of the situation and launched a counterattack, driving the Japanese army out of Huanglaomen.

After the Japanese troops were driven out of the Huanglaomen area, the commander of a regiment arranged troops to assist the 723rd Regiment in chasing the retreating Japanese troops, while at the same time arranging troops to dig fortifications in the hills near Huanglaomen to prevent the Japanese troops from counterattacking.

Sure enough, after lunch, reinforcements from the Japanese army in Pengze County arrived, and the Japanese army once again launched an attack on the 723st and rd regiments in the Huanglaomen area.

Five Japanese planes also flew over, strafing and bombing the Chinese defenders at low altitude.

Soldiers from the 723st and rd Regiments withstood the bombing by Japanese aircraft and artillery fire, formed a cross-fire network with light and heavy machine guns, and blocked the Japanese army's way forward.

The Japanese army was temporarily unable to advance and was trapped on the road between the Huanglaomen hills.

Suddenly, an artillery regiment that had moved its position launched a fierce bombardment on the road between the hills.

The soldiers of the 106th Division of the Japanese Army were trapped in a group and fell down in large numbers under the bombardment of four 75mm mountain artillery pieces. They suffered heavy casualties and had to retreat to Pengze County.

After the soldiers of the 723st Regiment and the 723rd Regiment cleaned up the battlefield, the commander of the st Regiment and Commander Wang of the rd Regiment each left a company to garrison Huanglaomen, and the other troops retreated to Dehua County.

After retreating to Pengze County, the Japanese army was unwilling to accept the failure of the attack and sent planes to search for the Chinese army's artillery positions near the Daiyun Mountain Range.

The dense forests of the Daiyun Mountains provided good cover for a regiment of artillery positions. The Japanese planes searched in vain and had to return in disappointment.

The Japanese army's second attack in Jiujiang city was also blocked and retreated.