readytorunbook Chapter 507: The Japanese Army's New Strategy
Chapter 507: The Japanese Army's New Strategy
The Chinese army's counterattack on Nanning City and Kunlun Pass on the battlefield in southern Guangxi also made the Japanese military headquarters deeply aware of an important thing, that is, it is necessary to deal a heavy blow to the Chinese army, otherwise it will be difficult to achieve the goal of political inducement to surrender that the Japanese government hopes for.
In order to achieve this goal, the Japanese military headquarters ordered the 11th Army of the Japanese Army to plan a large-scale battle, concentrating the main forces to attack the gateway area into Sichuan Province where the main force of the Chinese government army was concentrated.
Just after the Battle of Southern Guangxi ended, the 11th Army of the Japanese Army formulated a "Battle Guidance Strategy". The 11th Army Command of the Japanese Army planned to first eliminate the main force of the Fifth War Zone of the Chinese Government in the area north of the line connecting Suixian and Xiangyang, and then compress the Chinese army on the right bank of the Han River and annihilate it near Yichang.
Lieutenant General Kazuichiro Sonobe, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, believed that the Chinese government's Fifth War Zone had about 50 divisions of troops surrounding the three towns, and the main force of the Fifth War Zone was deployed on both sides of the Han River in the northwest of Hubei Province. Attacking Yichang could deal a heavy blow to the Fifth War Zone.
Moreover, Yichang is the gateway to Sichuan Province and is only 480 kilometers away from Shancheng, the current wartime military and political leadership center of the Chinese government. It has a very important strategic position. As long as their troops can capture Yichang, it will pose a huge threat to Shancheng and China's southwestern rear area, which is conducive to promoting the so-called political strategy of the base camp.
After receiving the combat plan of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, the Japanese Imperial Headquarters approved the combat plan submitted by the 11th Army after discussion, and appointed Lieutenant General Kazuichiro Sonobe, commander of the 11th Army, as the commander-in-chief of this battle. The Imperial Headquarters gave the greatest possible cooperation to the troops that needed to be mobilized.
In order to win this battle, Lieutenant General Kazuichiro Sonobe, commander of the 11th Army, also drew on the 3rd Division, the 13th Division, the 39th Division and other reinforced units and reorganized them.
The Ikeda Detachment was composed of three infantry battalions and one mountain artillery battalion of the 6th Division, and its commander was Major General Naozo Ikeda, commander of the 11th Infantry Brigade.
The Ishimoto Detachment was formed with five infantry battalions and one mountain artillery battalion of the 40th Division as its backbone, and its commander was Major General Sadanao Ishimoto, commander of the 40th Infantry Brigade.
The Ogawa Detachment was formed with two infantry battalions of the 216th Division as its backbone, and its commander was Colonel Ogawa Gonnosuke, commander of the th Regiment.
The Matsui Detachment was formed with three infantry battalions and one artillery battalion of the 22nd Division as its backbone, and its commander was Major General Kan'ichi Matsui, commander of the 22nd Infantry Brigade.
The Yoshida Detachment was composed of an infantry battalion, heavy artillery, and anti-aircraft artillery regiment, with Colonel Yoshida as its commander.
As well as the Independent 61st, 62nd and 63rd Battalions of the 14th Independent Mixed Brigade.
The 215th and th Tank Regiments directly under the th Army Headquarters, the th Field Heavy Artillery Brigade, and the th Regiment of the rd Division, which was on guard duty near Hankou.
At the same time, in order to cooperate with this battle, the following were also deployed: the 3rd Flying Group, the 1st Navy Expedition to China Fleet, and the 2nd Navy Combined Air Force.
For this battle, Lieutenant General Kazuichiro Sonobe, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, assembled 48 battalions with nearly 110,000 troops. This made the upcoming Zaoyi Battle the largest battle launched by the Japanese Army on the front line of China since the Battle of Three Towns.
Lieutenant General Kazuichiro Sonobe, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, planned to divide the attack on Yichang into two phases: the first phase was to attack the main force of the Fifth War Zone of the Chinese government in the Zaoyang area, and the second phase was to cross the Han River and attack Yichang.
The operational strategy of the first phase of the offensive plan was: to give full play to the mobility advantage of the Imperial Japanese Army, and order the 3rd Division, after temporarily strengthening the 40th Division's three infantry battalions, one mountain artillery battalion, and two infantry battalions of the 34th Division, to detour from Xinyang via Minggang to Tanghe on the left wing, attack the Xinye Nanbaihe area and the vicinity of Fancheng, and meet up with the 13th Division to cut off the retreat route of the main force of the Chinese government's Fifth War Zone to the north.
The 13th Division was ordered to advance northward along the east bank of the Han River west of Dahong Mountain after being temporarily reinforced with four infantry battalions of the 15th Division, three infantry battalions and one mountain artillery battalion of the 22nd Division, in order to encircle the main force of the Fifth War Zone of the Chinese government in the Fancheng area and cooperate with the 3rd Division's flanking operation on the left wing.
The 39th Division was ordered to launch an attack from the front of Sui County after being temporarily reinforced with three infantry battalions and one mountain artillery battalion of the 6th Division. When the flanking troops on both wings surrounded the troops of the Chinese government's Fifth War Zone, it was ordered to launch an attack from the center to the Zaoyang area, cooperate with the 3rd Division and the 13th Division, and annihilate the main force of the Chinese government's Fifth War Zone in the encirclement.
In this way, we can quickly achieve the strategic goal of annihilating the main force of the Chinese government's Fifth War Zone in Suixian and the area north of Xiangyang.
Then, after completing the task of annihilating the main force of the Fifth War Zone of the Chinese government, the second phase of the attack on Yichang can be started. The second phase of the combat plan of Lieutenant General Kazuichiro Sonobe, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, is:
The 3rd Division crossed the Han River between Xiangyang and Yicheng and attacked toward Dangyang, cutting off the Chinese army's retreat. The 39th Division crossed the river near Yicheng and attacked toward Jingmen. The 13th Division crossed the river near Shayang Town, passed Shilipu and went to Herong, then waited for an opportunity to capture Yichang and then compressed the Chinese troops west of the Han River into the Yichang area and annihilated them.
In order to contain and confuse the Chinese army, Lieutenant General Kazuichiro Sonobe, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, ordered several divisions south of the Yangtze River to attack the Chinese troops in front of them before the offensive began. This created the illusion that the 11th Army of the Japanese Army was preparing to launch an offensive south of the Yangtze River. After the offensive in Zaoyang area began, the troops south of the Yangtze River could return to their original bases for garrison.
At the same time, in order to mislead the Chinese government and the Fifth War Zone in terms of intelligence, Lieutenant General Kazuichiro Sonobe, commander of the 11th Army of the Japanese Army, ordered the Japanese intelligence department to forge false combat orders and deliberately lose them so that Chinese intelligence personnel could obtain them, creating more misleading and illusions for the Chinese intelligence department.
However, the battle plan formulated by the Japanese 11th Army Headquarters was obtained by senior intelligence personnel lurking in the three towns by the Chinese government's intelligence department a week later. When this important intelligence was passed to the bigwigs of the Chinese Military Commission, the top government quickly asked Commander Li of the Fifth War Zone to take the lead in making countermeasures based on the direction of the Japanese attack.