On the same day that the Japanese army captured Luoyang, Qi, the commander-in-chief of the Japanese Chinese dispatch army, pushed Nanjing's forward command post to Hankou, and began the Hunan-Guangxi campaign in the main stage of the campaign.
1 In May, 944, Japanese CommanderNo. 1 1 Yokoyama Yong commanded eight divisions,1flying regiment and a navy, with more than 200,000 men, and attacked Changsha and Hengyang with the goal of seizing the Hunan-Guangxi Railway (Hengyang-Laibin). Xue Yue, commander of China's Ninth Theater, commands four army groups (*** 15) and two other armies * * with about 400,000 men. With the support of the air force (18 1) and neighboring war zones, one of them relies on the existing positions in the southeast of Tongcheng, Hubei, the south bank of Xinqianghe, Yuanjiang and Yiyang in Hunan.
Kill each other, consume and delay the Japanese army; The main force was controlled in Liuyang, Changsha, Hengyang and Ningxiang, and the camera wiped out the enemy.
On the 27th, the Japanese army launched an attack with five divisions from Huarong, Yueyang and Chongyang, Hunan, along the banks of Xiangjiang River and the mountainous areas along the Hunan-Jiangxi border, and assembled three divisions in Jianli and Puyin, Hubei for standby. In addition, 1 regiment 5 battalion headed for Songzi River south of Jiangling, containing them to cover our right wing. The 20th Army, defending the New Wall River, continued to fight with the 68th and 1 16 divisions of Japanese Middle Road, and then moved to Dongshan District, Pingjiang, Hunan Province for standby.
The 72nd Army and the Forward Column, defending the southeast mountainous area of Chongyang, successively blocked the 3rd Division of the Japanese Left Wing and13rd Division, thus delaying the operation. The 73rd Army defending Yiyang fought against the 40th Division of the Japanese right wing. 65438+ 1 In June, 0944, the Japanese army crossed the Miluo River in the middle and left, and after breaking through the defensive positions, they attacked the Laodao River and Liuyang River in two ways. The 37 th Army of the garrison retreated while resisting and retreated to the mountainous area near Liuyang for standby.
By 14, the Japanese army had successively captured Yuanjiang, Yiyang and Liuyang. 16, the Japanese 34th, 58th and 68th divisions attacked Changsha city. The 4th Army held out until the afternoon of 18, and all the casualties were exhausted, and Changsha fell. In order to prevent the enemy from going deep into Hengyang and defend Hengyang, the ninth war zone launched a counterattack against the Japanese army from the 20th, and by the 27th, it blocked the left and right roads of the Japanese army in Liling and Xiangxiang respectively. Although the Japanese middle road hit between Lukou and Hengshan, it failed to stop it from advancing southward.
On 28th, the 68th and 1 16 divisions of the Japanese army attacked Hengyang. 10 defenders (four divisions, actually only four regiments) relied on fortifications and fought back with front and side fire cover until July 2 1944, which dealt a heavy blow to the enemy and forced him to stop attacking. 1 1 On the same day, after the Japanese 68th and 1 16 divisions were supplemented, they attacked Hengyang for the second time with 15 infantry battalion and 12 artillery battalion.
The defenders combined defensive positions with mobile defense, strengthened mutual support between positions, carried out short-term melee and counterattack, and fought until the 20th, forcing the enemy to stop attacking again.
In the meantime, the 3rd Division of the Japanese Army, which was blocked in Dongshan, Hunan, suffered heavy losses in Liling, Chaling, Anren and other places. Later, with the support of the 27th Division, 34th Division and 1 3rd Division1Division, the encirclement was not broken until the end of the month. On August 4th, the Japanese army attacked Hengyang for the third time in the 4th 1 1 army group. The defenders fought until the 8th and suffered heavy casualties. No one helped them and they were forced to lay down their weapons. Hengyang fell and the battle of Heng Chang ended.