Rise From Eight Hundred

The major staff officer of the 114th Division, the highest commander of the forward reconnaissance squadron.

He became the first major officer to die in the 10th Army of the Japanese Army.

Just two minutes after the battle began, the senior staff officer who had just obtained the command power for the first time in his life died.

Died from the grenade launcher, one of the best light firearms of this era developed by Japan.

Four consecutive grenades, under the order of the highest commander of the Chinese side, Lieutenant Colonel Tang Dao, accurately hit the hiding place of Hideyuki Koyama, and the poor major's body was torn into three parts by the grenade.

As a result, he did not even have time to issue even one military order for the entire battle, if the previous order to order the entire army to land on the boat was not counted.

This is definitely the most aggrieved battle since the establishment of the 10th Army of Japan, no one else.

It is nothing that the highest commander died in the second minute of the battle. The Japanese army's relatively good command system allowed Captain Yamamoto of the 3rd Infantry Squadron to take over the command naturally, and the Japanese army did not enter a situation of panic without a leader.

On the contrary, they showed amazing courage and fighting spirit with no way forward and no way back. Without shelter, they built shelters with the bodies of their companions killed by bullets and grenade blasts.

If it weren't for the fact that the body of Major Hideyuki Koyama was blown into several pieces and could no longer be reused, it is very likely that a major would have engraved his name in the history of Japanese wars, and that would be the first human sandbag of the Japanese Army in history.

Whether in terms of manpower, geographical location or firepower advantage, the Japanese army was not as good as the five infantry companies of the 67th Army that were besieging them, but their counterattack firepower was still fierce, and even suppressed the Chinese firepower at a certain time.

The reason is very simple. The side in an advantageous position obviously did not want to die, and the current situation did not require them to fight to the death.

The cavalry were also experienced veterans, and basically they buried their heads and fired, that is, while not being hit by bullets, they fired more bullets to increase the probability of hitting the Japanese army.

Including those light machine gun shooters who were sweating, even though they were shooting happily, they were also shooting bullets as fast as possible to increase the probability of hitting the Japanese devils.

The Japanese hiding in the bushes more than 300 meters away were pitifully small. Who dared to guarantee that they could hit them after aiming for a long time? If they had that time, they might as well shoot more bullets.

This is the probability of killing. Once you enter this mode, the data after the Second World War that one soldier was killed for every 2,300 bullets is not so abrupt.

More than 500 Chinese soldiers fired a total of about 25,000 bullets in the fierce shooting mode of more than ten minutes, but in fact, the number of Japanese soldiers who died from bullets would never exceed 20. What really hurt the Japanese army was the grenade launcher. Fifteen grenade launchers threw a total of 160 grenades, killing and injuring more than 30 Japanese soldiers, including their top commander Hideyuki Koyama.

More than 50 casualties, for two infantry squadrons, can be said to be heavy casualties, but it is not enough to cause serious damage.

In fact, it is not a shame to be suppressed by the Chinese who have the advantage of position and firepower because of the stupidity of the navy's millipede to land on the desperate sandbar.

After all, there was both defense and attack, and the battle was not one-sided. They risked their lives to hide behind the bunkers made of the remains of their colleagues, and used crazy and accurate grenades to completely silence at least four light machine gun fire points of the Chinese side.

But, what the hell is it that the twelve Taisho 11 light machine guns were completely destroyed one by one five minutes after the battle began?

They were not killed by the Chinese grenade launcher, but they broke down.

After the war, according to the description of Sergeant Shingo Katori, who jumped into the river in time and became the only survivor of the 114th Division reconnaissance squadron with his good swimming ability, the Taisho 11 machine guns they carried had jams and other accidents one after another shortly after the battle began, which made it impossible for them to carry out continuous fire suppression on the Chinese on the other side.

For a long period of time, the two infantry squadrons could only rely on the Type 38 rifles that pulled the bolt once after firing a round and the Chinese with more than 30 light machine guns.

You can imagine the frustration of that situation with your feet.

Otherwise, how could the strong sergeant who swam 30 kilometers downstream in the Huangpu River and was finally rescued shed tears of pain when talking about this?

In the end, the weapon design experts in Japan gave an explanation based on the characteristics of the Taisho 11 machine guns and the geographical environment at that time: the combat environment chosen by the 114th Division was wrong.

Shameless

Faced with the explanation given by the experts affiliated with the Army Headquarters, the senior generals of the Tenth Army could only respond with these four words.

But in fact, the Japanese experts were right, and they said it in one sentence.

Because, in order to adapt to the needs of the Japanese Army in terms of combat ammunition support, the short-legged experts have opened their minds and developed a large number of new technologies, making the machine guns of the 11th year of the Taisho period universal for machine rifles, which means that the five-round magazines of the infantry can be used directly on light machine guns.

This is actually a very avant-garde idea. When a box of bullets is opened, the five-round magazines that have been loaded can be used directly by the infantry and the light machine guns, which saves a lot of time for loading bullets and can provide continuous fire support to the infantry in the shortest time.

But this undoubtedly makes mechanical manufacturing extremely complicated.

And actual combat has proved that the simpler the structure of a firearm, the higher its reliability is relatively, and vice versa, the worse its reliability is.

If we use the machine guns of this period as a human analogy, the DP series light machine guns of the fighting nation are like a rough man in the northwest, who can eat well and sleep well in any environment, rarely complain, and never neglect his work;

The mg series light machine guns of the Germans are like a well-trained soldier, who can basically complete the task as long as the military order is delivered;

The Taisho 11-year machine gun, the main equipment of the Japanese Army, is like a delicate lady who never goes out of the door, and will get angry when it is cold or hot, windy or rainy.

In other words, the Taisho 11-year light machine gun will only have a relatively low failure rate in the ideal conditions of neither cold nor hot, neither dry nor wet, and under careful wiping and maintenance and mild combat intensity.

And in this Jiangxin Island, the fog is heavy in the early morning, and the sand stirred up by the explosion of grenades is blown by the wind. The harsh combat environment makes the delicate lady of the Taisho 11-year machine gun go on strike one by one.

Having lost the most precious continuous firepower, the Chinese side, seizing the opportunity, naturally aimed their light machine guns and grenade launchers at the only grenade launcher with some counterattack ability.

No matter how brave you are, two fists can't beat four hands, right? Just like a brave boy, facing the evil gangsters, bravely raised his fists, but often the final outcome is that when Batman doesn't appear, he can only squat down and hold his head, letting the big stick beat him wildly.

Reality is so cruel, and it doesn't change because of bravery.

The Japanese infantry who lost their commanders, machine guns, grenade launchers, colleagues, and many others did not wait for Batman, but waited for the dragon instead.

After spending enough effort, the Chinese artillery, which had completely extinguished the three gunboats, turned the muzzle.

Ten 150-caliber mortars hiding behind the hills showed their hideous faces to a group of "warriors" who were crawling on the sand and unwilling to surrender.

That was simply the end of the infantry.