si-mexico Chapter 296: The Japanese retreated and Thailand joined the war
Chapter 296: The Japanese retreated and Thailand joined the war
The Irrawaddy River is the largest river in Myanmar. It is high in the north and low in the south, and its source has two branches, east and west.
The eastern source is called the N'Mai Kha River, which originates from the southern foot of the Boshula Mountain in Chayu County within the Tang Dynasty; the western source is called the Mailika River, which originates from the mountainous area in northern Myanmar.
The two rivers converge 50 kilometers north of Myitkyina to form the Irrawaddy River.
Myitkyina is the only way to northern Myanmar. It is impossible to bypass it, whether by land or water!
This is one of the reasons why Xu Le divided his troops into two groups to raid Myitkyina. After occupying Myitkyina, the Japanese in northern Myanmar were like a turtle in a jar. There was no need to attack them; they could be killed by blocking them.
The most important point is that the Irrawaddy River from Myitkyina to the south is navigable all year round. Even in the low water season, the width of the river near Myitkyina is between 400 meters and 800 meters, and the average depth of the main river channel is 9 meters, which can allow ships with a displacement of less than tons to sail safely.
Although Xu Le rented Yangon from England, Yangon was at the southernmost tip of Myanmar, and it would be difficult for the troops to travel there by land.
It is much easier to travel by land and water. You can go directly to the Andaman Sea along the river. This is the only route for the navy!
Therefore, controlling Myitkyina is equivalent to drawing the starting point of the navy. The navy can set out from here to conquer the river area of Myanmar, and the Marines can also land midway to cooperate with the army to encircle the Japanese!
It is not easy to completely wipe out an army. The necessary condition is to surround the enemy and leave them with no way to retreat.
Since Xu Le led the troops into battle, the only event he achieved was the recent Lancang River Campaign, in which he surrounded the Japanese 33rd Division near Hewan Village, achieving the first real annihilation of an entire Japanese division.
In all other battles, there was not a single one in which a fully-strength division was completely annihilated.
The same goes for the Japanese. Since the 31st year, it has been almost 12 years, and there are almost no troops equivalent to a Japanese division that have been able to completely wipe out the Tang Dynasty in a single battle!
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Although the 4th Mechanized Infantry Division had no actual combat experience, it had trained in Shanxi Province for more than half a year. In addition, with the support of powerful equipment, although its combat effectiveness was not as good as that of the 101st Motorized Infantry Division, it had no problem dealing with the three divisions of the Japanese enemy.
Moreover, the 4th Mechanized Infantry Division was fully mechanized, and after setting foot on the road south of Myitkyina, its marching speed was much faster than that of the Motorized Infantry Division.
Although the Japanese took away almost all the trucks when they retreated, the number of trucks was small, and more than half of the Japanese soldiers could only run on foot. How could they outrun the 4th Mechanized Infantry Division?
So, the 38th Division ran in the front, and the 4th Mechanized Infantry Division chased and fought behind. Every rearguard unit left behind by the Japanese would be wiped out within half an hour.
After such a cycle, when the 38th Division arrived at "Laiza" kilometers away in the afternoon, the remaining troops were less than .
The remaining troops of "Laza" were only one battalion, and it was impossible for them to resist the steel torrent of the 4th Mechanized Infantry Division. In less than half an hour, the 8st Tank Battalion of the th Armored Regiment broke through the defense line.
Sano Tadayoshi had no choice but to continue fleeing south with the remaining soldiers of that battalion.
After running another 50 kilometers and arriving at "?di", Myanmar at dusk, the 38th Division had only about 6500 troops left. The colonel division chief of staff, a colonel infantry regiment commander and a major commander of the supply regiment who fell behind were killed.
After running for a whole day, the Japanese were exhausted and out of breath, but the 4th Mechanized Infantry Division was not tired. All members were riding in vehicles, and most of the soldiers never got off the vehicles from beginning to end. They even ate while driving the armored vehicles.
There are two types of food for Xu's army. One is for normal times, when the kitchen team of each company prepares hot meals and dishes, with a combination of meat and vegetables; the other is for wartime, when there are specially made canned food, dried meat and drinking water, and a few seasonal fruits are placed in the tanks and armored vehicles, which does not affect the march at all.
This is one of the advantages of mechanized troops!
At 7 o'clock in the evening, the division commander Ge Yuecheng ordered to take advantage of the night and the fatigue of the Japanese to attack "? Di".
Neither in Myitkyina nor in ?di they had sufficient ammunition to cover the area with artillery fire for a period of time like Hingwei.
Therefore, the 4th Mechanized Infantry Division could only carry out precise strikes over a small area. Fortunately, the Japanese morale was low and their combat effectiveness was almost gone, so the 4th Mechanized Infantry Division did not spend much time to capture ?Di before dawn.
As for Sano Tadayoshi, he fled to the last Bhamo before dawn with more than 3000 people he had gathered from all over.
A day passed, and Hebian Zhengsan naturally formulated a support plan. The Japanese finally realized the purpose of Xu's army and knew that it was probably to cut off the Indian troops.
However, Imphal's 10-strong army had already entered the city and was in a melee with the British-Indian forces in the city. Neither side could withdraw. If they retreated by force, the losses would be huge!
Moreover, we had finally managed to break into the city. If we withdraw, it would not be so easy to fight again next time.
The situation in Datang was already very unfavorable for the Japs. Due to terrain restrictions, they had almost no way to advance in central and southern China. In North China, the 88th Army was tying down a million troops, and in the northeast, the Soviet Union was tying down a million troops.
Although the Japanese won the Battle of Midway in the Pacific, the United States was fully restoring its industry and had dispatched its main naval forces to the Pearl Harbor base, making it extremely difficult for the Japanese to break through the Hawaiian Islands.
What about Southeast Asia and Australia? Although there are basically no difficulties, we can't just defend them forever, otherwise what's the point of launching this war?
Therefore, the Japanese placed the focus of external breakthroughs on the Middle East, and this road cannot be cut off!
Two months ago, Kawabe Masamitsu thought that if the Tang army attacked Myanmar, in case of many accidents, all troops except those in India would be withdrawn to Mandalay, and a decisive battle would be launched here!
But it is no longer possible now. The crisis in the north is coming. If it is not stopped immediately, the more than 10 troops in India and western Myanmar will be caught in a desperate situation of being attacked from both sides.
So after reporting to Terauchi Juichi, he obtained Terauchi Juichi's approval and still chose Mandalay as the place for the decisive battle in inland Myanmar, but as it was urgent at the moment, he had to divide the Mandalay troops into three parts.
One part stayed in Mandalay; one part moved eastward to strengthen the defense of Lashio; and the last part was transferred to Indo to maintain the transportation line with India!
All the reserve troops of Mawlamyine rushed to Mandalay to strengthen the defense!
The most important point is that Thailand, as an ally of Japan, had never sent troops to participate in the front-line war before, but only played a logistical role such as transporting supplies.
Perhaps due to the attitude of the Japanese headquarters, the most powerful Prafa Army in the Royal Thai Army, which has 5 divisions, actually began to move closer to Myanmar!
However, whether it was Kawabe Masamitsu, Terauchi Hisaichi, or even Tojo Hideki and others in the Japanese headquarters, they missed two things, or it could not be possible for them to calculate these two things!
First: The 1st Aviation Brigade will soon appear with more advanced J-7s, and by then it will be useless even if they use cluster suicide attacks.
Second: Xu’s army has a navy!
It was only because the Japanese did not know this that Kawabe Masamitsu ordered Sano Tadayoshi to lead all the surrounding troops to retreat to Yingduo and hand over "Bamao" to Xu's army.