ushernet Chapter 643 There is no worst, there is always worse
Chapter 643 There is no worst, there is always worse
The combat plan formulated by Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, was that before October 31, all units of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army participating in the operation would gradually complete their assembly in designated areas north of the Yangtze River, and the combat plan would be implemented in three phases.
In the battle plan for the Changde Campaign of Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, the first phase was for the offensive forces of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army to advance as a whole to the line of the Hanyang River and the Lishui River, and set up a food and ammunition supply station north of the Lishui River as the starting position for the second phase.
The purpose of doing this by Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, Commander of the 11th Japanese Army, was not only to shorten the attack distance, but more importantly, he needed to confuse the Chinese army and make it impossible for the Chinese army to determine the target of the 11th Japanese Army's attack this time, whether it was to go south to attack Changde, or to go west to encircle Shipai and open up a passage into Sichuan Province.
In the second stage, the participating detachments of the Japanese 11th Army switched to defensive operations to cover the main division of the Japanese 11th Army to launch a surprise attack. The eastern line cut in from Dongting Lake, and the western line advanced along the edge of the eye, encircling Changde from the south through Taoyuan.
This time, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, learned from the previous battles that the 11th Army of the Japanese Army advanced smoothly in the early stages of the offensive, but blindly divided its troops in the later stages, resulting in a dilemma of being unable to advance or retreat.
This time, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama, commander of the 11th Japanese Army, decided not to send troops to seize urban strongholds in a divided manner, but to emphasize the strategy of dividing and attacking together, concentrating troops in Changde, and destroying the effective forces of the Chinese army that came to relieve Changde.
The third stage was the so-called reversal operation of the offensive forces of the Japanese 11th Army, which was to ensure that all forces withdrew to their starting positions in an orderly manner and to avoid so many casualties during the retreat as in the previous Battle of Western Hubei.
Compared with the Japanese army's insufficient manpower for multi-line operations, the dilemma now faced by the Chinese army can be said to be even more troublesome. The terrain in the Changde area is not very suitable for defense. Most areas are low hills and there is no strategic location to defend at all.
Although there are two rivers, Lishui and Yuanshui, outside Changde, these two rivers are not natural barriers and are only a few hundred meters wide. In addition, the Japanese army chose to attack during the dry season in the cold winter, so the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army could successfully cross the river with a little preparation.
Moreover, the Lishui River is very long, stretching from Cili in the west to Dongting Lake in the east, for more than 100 kilometers. The Chinese army was unable to build defenses along the entire line, so the Lishui River basically could not stop the advance of the Japanese 11th Army's offensive forces.
In fact, compared with the terrain near Changde that is not conducive to defense, the main problem lies in the Sixth War Zone of the Chinese government itself.
The Sixth War Zone of the Chinese government suffered more than 40,000 casualties in the Battle of Western Hubei half a year ago. Although the attacking forces of the Japanese 11th Army also suffered about 20,000 casualties, the Japanese army had a complete and good reserve system and could replenish a large number of new soldiers from the rear. Shiploads of new soldiers were transported to the Chinese battlefield. In just half a year, all the troops of the Japanese 11th Army completely recovered from their previous losses and replenished all the missing troops. However, the Sixth War Zone of the Chinese government could not achieve the same replenishment speed as the Japanese army.
Before the Battle of Western Hubei, the Sixth War Zone of the Huaxia government had 14 armies and attached troops under its jurisdiction, and theoretically should have a combat force of 300,000. However, due to difficulties in replenishing troops, the troop shortage in the entire war zone was as high as 100,000. A Huaxia infantry division should have a full staff of more than 8,000 people, but in reality, due to the problem of replenishing troops, except for a few regular troops, each Huaxia infantry division generally had a strength of only 4,000 to 5,000 people.
In addition, the Chinese government's Sixth War Zone suffered more than 40,000 casualties in the Battle of Western Hubei. If calculated in this way, the Chinese government's Sixth War Zone has a troop shortage of nearly 150,000, which means that the Chinese government's Sixth War Zone only has about half of its strength on paper.
At this time, it was already difficult to replenish troops. Taking Sichuan and Guangxi provinces, which had a larger population in the rear area, as an example, by the second half of 1943, almost all male young men of military age had been conscripted by the government, either as soldiers or as laborers.
As Sichuan Province is located in the rear area, it is very rare to see young men of marriageable age there. Occasionally you see one on the street, and he is either the only child in the family or has some chronic disease, or he is the one who has to rely on him for his family's support.
The province of Guangxi, with a population of only 20 million, actually provided nearly one million able-bodied men, which means that one in twenty people joined the army. Among these twenty people, half were women, and about half were elderly and children. In other words, one in five adult males joined the army.
Adult males include those aged between 18 and 50. If converted into young men between 18 and 30 years old, basically one out of every two people will join the army.
China is an agricultural country, and basically 95% of young men are farmers. Most families need strong male laborers to engage in hard agricultural work. It is the most basic guarantee for every household to have a strong male laborer, otherwise the family will not be able to farm.
In other words, except for one or two male farmers in each family, almost all other young men in Guangxi Province have joined the army and fought on the battlefield. Under the current circumstances, even the conscription of able-bodied men has almost reached the point where there is no one to recruit.
Faced with such a huge gap of 150,000 troops, according to the current actual replenishment capacity of the Chinese army, the various troops in the Sixth War Zone of the Chinese government will definitely not be able to recover their combat effectiveness in more than a year.
Therefore, until the Japanese army began to assemble on a large scale, except for the most elite 18th Army, 74th Army and the new 22nd Army that was ready to be transferred to Yunnan Province, which received timely replenishment of all losses, the rest of the troops in the Sixth War Zone of the Chinese government only replenished part of the vacancies, and each unit had only 50% to 60% of its actual combat power.
The worst hit were the 73rd and 44th Armies of the 29th Army of the Chinese government, which suffered heavy casualties in the Battle of Western Hubei.
Take the 73rd Army, a ragtag army, for example. In the Battle of western Hubei, one of its three divisions suffered two-thirds casualties, another suffered one-half casualties, and nearly half of the entire army suffered casualties. During the retreat, another 3,000-man unit of the 73rd Army was dispersed by the Japanese army, and later in the melee with the Japanese army in Nanxian County, it lost a lot of troops again.
(Thanks to Gong Yan who loves to eat blood glutinous rice, and eats dumplings without vinegar for the gift support! Thank you all for your support and encouragement!)