Devil's Army

Chapter 1981 Attacking Hangzhou, Jinhua

As the 12th Brigade recaptured the towns and county seats west of Hangzhou, it also began to participate in the attack on Hangzhou from the west.

The Japanese 70th Division in Hangzhou was even more stretched thin.

Some puppet troops were sent to the front lines as cannon fodder to resist the attack of the devilish troops.

Meanwhile, the Japanese 22nd Division in the south had no way to march north to support Hangzhou.

At this time, the Third Brigade of the Independent Division also captured Changshan County, Quzhou County and other county towns, and was attacking Jinbi, which they were mainly defending.

At that time, Jinhua held an extremely important strategic position. It was the core hub of the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Railway and the middle reaches of the Qiantang River, and a vital military and transportation artery connecting the three provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Anhui.

From a military perspective, Jinhua is located in the eastern section of the Jinqu Basin. To the west, it is protected by the Xianxia Ridge and Qianligang Mountains, which form a natural barrier. To the east, it is adjacent to the Kuaiji Mountain and Dapan Mountain. This makes it convenient to build defensive positions and carry out ambush operations based on the mountains, and also to store troops and supplies in the plains of the basin.

At the same time, the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Railway passes through the city, and with the intersection of multiple highways, if the Japanese army controls Jinhua, they can open up a passage to Jiangxi to the west, threaten the anti-Japanese base area in eastern Zhejiang to the east, and advance into northern Fujian to the south.

If the First Anti-Japanese Army were to control this area, it would effectively restrict the movement of Japanese troops and the transportation of supplies, thus thwarting the Japanese attempt to seize control of Jiangxi and Fujian.

In addition, Jinhua was also a stronghold for anti-Japanese command and guerrilla warfare in central and western Zhejiang.

The Nanjing government army once deployed a large force here to resist the Japanese offensive in the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign.

The New Fourth Army's Zhejiang East Column also frequently used the surrounding mountains as a base to carry out guerrilla operations such as ambushing railways and attacking Japanese transport teams.

Therefore, the battle of Jinhua was extremely fierce from the very beginning.

The Japanese army also deployed a small heavy artillery unit to bombard the 3rd Brigade of the Independent Division, risking bombing by the 1st Army Air Force, which caused considerable casualties to the 1st Regiment of the 3rd Brigade.

However, the Nanchang Air Force of the First Army, which had been attacking Japanese fortifications and strongholds nearby, quickly arrived and carried out low-altitude dive bombing of the Japanese heavy artillery.

The two 100mm howitzers, which were difficult for the Japanese army to move, were quickly destroyed by the bombing of the First Army Air Force.

Upon hearing the roar of the aircraft, the Japanese small mountain guns quickly moved away, but they were still spotted by the First Army's air force, which rushed up and destroyed two of them.

In order to capture Hangzhou and Jinhua as soon as possible, the First Army arranged for the Anhui Air Force and the Nanchang Air Force to launch continuous and fierce bombing of the Japanese positions in Hangzhou and Jinhua, especially the artillery.

Most of the Japanese artillery in Hangzhou and Jinhua was destroyed.

The pressure on the 12th Brigade, the Independent Brigade, and the 3rd Brigade of the Southern Independent Division to attack Hangzhou and Jinhua has been greatly reduced.

Commander Shimomura had been requesting assistance from the Army.

Commander Tahata Toshi also kept urging the Japanese troops in Jiangsu and Shanghai to speed up their support efforts, and proposed military sanctions for any failure to provide adequate support.

However, the 15th Brigade, taking advantage of the terrain, stubbornly resisted wave after wave of Japanese attacks.

Moreover, the First Army's air force continuously bombed Japanese forces in Jiangsu and Shanghai, disrupting their offensive plans.

The New Fourth Army in central Jiangsu and the New Fourth Army Pudong Detachment were also actively seeking opportunities to attack Japanese transport convoys and rear supply bases. This prevented the Japanese forces in Jiangsu and Shanghai from launching a full-scale attack on the 15th Brigade.

In order to launch a full-scale attack on the 15th Brigade's positions, the Japanese army dispatched a large force to encircle and annihilate the New Fourth Army in central Jiangsu and the New Fourth Army's Pudong Detachment.

However, at this moment, the thing they had been worried about happened again.