Quartermasters can also fight the devils

Chapter 516 Objective: Recapture Yichang

At the same time that Commander Chen adjusted the deployment of the Sixth War Zone troops, Lieutenant General Ichiro Sonobe, commander of the 11th Japanese Army, also adjusted the defensive posture of the front-line troops. Commander Ichiro Sonobe divided the entire Zaoyi battlefield into two areas, north and south:

The riverside area between Yichang and Shashi was designated as the Southern Position, which was defended by a portion of the forces of the 13th and 39th Divisions of the Japanese Army.

The area from Zhenjing Mountain, Shuanglian Temple, Dangyang to Jingmen was assigned to the Northern Position and was defended by the Japanese 3rd Division, 114th Division and tank units.

At the same time, the main force was placed on the Hanyi Highway to keep the road open and ready to support the defenders in various places at any time. The commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, Lieutenant General Kazuichiro Sonobe, arranged the troops in this way in order to ensure that the Chinese army would not ambush or harass the retreating Japanese troops during the retreat.

Just after the troops of the Sixth War Zone of the Chinese government entered the attack positions one after another, Commander Chen was ready to implement the counterattack plan that had been formulated long ago. However, Lieutenant General Kazuichiro Sonobe, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, took the initiative against Commander Chen of the Sixth War Zone and actually sent troops to occupy Moji Mountain, the commanding heights west of Yichang City.

This was not because the commander of the Japanese 11th Army, Lieutenant General Sonobe Kazuichiro, had any new operational ideas or discovered any operational plans of the Sixth War Zone. It was purely to ensure that after the upcoming retreat operation began, the Chinese army could not quickly pursue the retreating Japanese army from the west. It was simply an insurance measure for the retreat.

However, Moji Mountain, the commanding height to the west of Yichang City, was indeed the key to General Chen's counterattack on Yichang. In order to recapture Moji Mountain, an important stronghold for the counterattack on Yichang, General Chen had to suspend the plan of counterattack on Yichang and ordered the Second Army and the 94th Army to organize troops to attack the Japanese troops on Moji Mountain. It was imperative to recapture Moji Mountain first.

The 94th Army was also one of Commander Chen's direct troops. Fang Tian, ​​commander of the 185th Division of the 94th Army, stood in the command center and observed the Japanese defensive positions on Moji Mountain with a telescope from the observation port of the command center. Their division would be the main force in the first battle of the mission to recapture Moji Mountain.

The first to launch the attack was the 553rd Regiment of the 553th Division. The regiment was deployed in the northwest of Shuanglian Temple. Its position was a continuous mountainous area, while the Japanese position was a hilly area. The regiment commander Yang Botao led all the officers and soldiers of the rd Regiment into the attack preparation position, launched a vanguard battle with the Japanese army, and was the first to engage the enemy.

After the exchange of fire with the Japanese army, the regiment commander Yang Botao observed with a telescope for a long time and found that the Japanese army had already built a relatively complete defensive position in the area west of Shuanglian Temple. Moreover, the Japanese army's tactics were also very conservative. They only used artillery fire sparsely at the hilltop positions occupied by the 553rd Regiment, while the infantry stayed on standby and did not launch an attack.

Yang Botao, commander of the 553rd Regiment, judged that the Japanese troops here were probably covering the rear traffic of the Japanese troops attacking Yichang, and it was not a forward position preparing to continue the attack.

Therefore, Yang Botao, commander of the 553rd Regiment, decided to first eliminate this enemy force that threatened the Japanese army's transportation lines in Yichang. He first concentrated all the mortars and ordered the mortars to bombard the Japanese positions from a high position. Then he personally led all the officers and soldiers of the regiment to launch a fierce attack on the Japanese defensive positions.

The Japanese army did not have many safe defensive forces here, but the defensive light and heavy firepower they were equipped with was very strong. Relying on a large number of light and heavy weapons, the Japanese defensive forces blocked the full-scale attack of the 553rd Regiment in their defensive positions. After more than four hours of fierce and hard fighting, the Japanese defensive forces suffered heavy losses under the continuous attack of the 553rd Regiment. It was really difficult for them to continue to hold their positions and they could only retreat to the rear.

The victory of the 553rd Regiment in the first battle boosted the morale of all officers and soldiers of the th Division. The next day, the commander of the th Division, Fang Tian, ​​led all the officers and soldiers of the division to attack in the direction of Yaqueling with the aim of cutting off the rear traffic of the Japanese army on the Hanyi Highway.

The commander of the 554th Regiment, Tu Huantao, led his troops to attack and advance to the vicinity of the highway. However, to the surprise of the officers and soldiers, they did not find any Japanese positions or large-scale troops here. Therefore, the commander of the 554th Regiment, Tu Huantao, ordered all the officers and soldiers of the regiment to occupy both ends of the highway and build positions.

However, less than an hour after the 554th Regiment occupied the road, the Japanese army attacked the temporary positions of the 554th Regiment from the east and west. Suddenly, gunfire rang out and the two sides launched a fierce offensive and defensive battle.

When the 554th Regiment was engaged in a fierce battle with the Japanese army on the highway, Yang Botao, commander of the 553rd Regiment, led his troops to advance to the left side of the 554th Regiment as planned. Upon hearing the gunfire from the 554th Regiment in the direction of the highway, Yang Botao, commander of the 553rd Regiment, immediately ordered his troops to extend along the left wing of the 554th Regiment, occupy favorable terrain near the north side of the highway, and flank and besiege the Japanese army that was attacking the 554th Regiment's position.

At the beginning, the sudden attack from the flank of the 553rd Regiment did cause some panic to the attacking Japanese troops. However, after suffering a heavy blow, the Japanese army adjusted its deployment in time. The Japanese commander withdrew part of the troops to deal with the 553rd Regiment. In order to completely eliminate the threat of the 553rd Regiment on the flank, the Japanese commander also dispatched six light tanks to support the infantry's attack on the 553rd Regiment's position.

Facing the attacking Japanese tank troops, the commander of the 553rd Regiment, Yang Botao, was not panicked at all. You know, the 553rd Regiment had a very good terrain advantage.

Therefore, Yang Botao, the commander of the 553rd Regiment who was rich in combat experience, immediately ordered the heavy machine gun company of the second battalion to concentrate all the heavy machine guns and move them from the top of the mountain to the foot of the mountain. When the Japanese tanks approached within about meters, they concentrated their fire on the Japanese tanks.

This move by Yang Botao, the commander of the 553rd Regiment, was indeed sophisticated. The armor of the Japanese light tanks was very weak. After so many years of fighting with the Japanese, the Chinese army had gradually figured out the weaknesses of the Japanese tanks. At the same time, they had also developed various ways to deal with the Japanese tanks.

Just like this time, if Yang Botao, the commander of the 553rd Regiment, deployed the heavy machine guns on the mountain, the bullets fired would be at an acute angle to the tanks, and the bullets would bounce, making it difficult to cause harm to the tanks. But if the heavy machine guns were moved to the foot of the mountain and the bullets fired were at right angles to the tanks, the initial velocity of the heavy machine gun bullets leaving the barrel would be very high, and the penetrating power would be very strong, able to penetrate the weak parts of the tank's lower armor and tracks, thus causing great damage to the Japanese light tanks.