nucmednet Chapter 522: Nightly Attack on Yenangyaung
Chapter 522: Nightly Attack on Yenangyaung
522 Night Raid on Yenangyaung
"I'll just say it.
Why are the Japanese soldiers from the 33rd Division heading south acting like crazy?
It turned out that they were going to Yenangyaung to pick up the Japanese's new supply troops.
I will never let you get what you want."
At night, Sun Liren also learned from their military headquarters the real reason why the Japanese were frantically moving south.
This made Sun Liren immediately realize that the Japanese troops heading south must not be allowed to succeed.
We must never allow the main force of the Japanese 15th Army trapped in Mandalay to obtain new supplies.
Therefore, Sun Liren mobilized all his new 38th Division to go south and do their best to stop the rd Division from trying to go to Yenangyaung.
The two sides fought bloody battles all night long, and the Japanese were unable to move south.
It was at the time when Sun Liren led the new 38th Division to strongly block the Japanese invaders of the rd Division from advancing southward.
That night, the special operations regiment led by Black Bear and the armored regiment of the Fifth Army also arrived in Moneva.
Here they replenished ammunition and fuel.
They set out at nine o'clock that evening, preparing to attack Yenangyaung overnight.
Ye Qingshan gave them urgent orders, telling them not to waste even a moment and to march to Yenangyaung.
Soldiers are very fast!
The Japanese had stockpiled a new batch of ammunition and supplies in Yenangyaung, as well as the newly built transit airport.
Ye Qingshan didn't want them to exist any longer.
It must be destroyed as soon as possible.
So, Ye Qingshan's most elite special operations regiment joined forces with the only armored regiment in the entire expeditionary force, forming the two most capable forces.
To achieve the same goal, they traveled more than 200 kilometers overnight.
We crossed jungles, rice fields, mountain roads, waded across the Irrawaddy River, and finally arrived in Yenangyaung at dawn.
"Captain Hu, we will split into two groups.
Our special operations regiment will destroy the enemy's airport, and your armored regiment will destroy the enemy's supply base."
After arriving in Yenangyaung, Black Bear met with Captain Hu of the Armored Regiment and held a brief meeting.
For this battle, both sides divided the work.
"it is good."
Captain Hu agreed.
“Our regiment will give you three tanks and ten armored vehicles.
How about you pick a fire support company to support our regiment?
This way, we can better leverage the strengths of both our forces.”
Captain Hu suggested to Black Bear.
Their armored regiment has strong mobility, but its firepower is actually inferior to that of Black Bear's special operations battalion.
Captain Hu has been coveting the fire support battalion of the special operations regiment for a long time.
The so-called fire support battalion is actually a small artillery company equipped with a large number of rocket launchers, 60mm mortars and 81mm mortars.
During the battle, it can provide sufficient firepower support to the charging assault teams at any time.
Inheriting Ye Qingshan's habit, all the commanders of the 42nd Army Group suffered from a fear of insufficient firepower.
Therefore, the 86th Army that entered Burma to fight at this time not only had an independent artillery brigade, but each main regiment also had its own fire support battalion.
"No problem, that's it."
Black Bear nodded and agreed to Captain Hu's proposal.
The two regiment commanders quickly reached a consensus, and then each led their troops to attack their respective targets.
The Japanese's transit airport and base for storing ammunition and supplies are both in Yenangyaung.
However, they were not in the same position, and the two sides were still more than ten miles apart.
At this time, a Japanese infantry battalion was defending Yenangyaung.
This was an elite infantry battalion of the Japanese army that was originally stationed in Yenangyaung.
In the previous two months, during the battles between the Japanese, the Expeditionary Force and the British Army, the Japanese captured Yenangyaung from the British Army.
And, leave heavy troops to guard it.
Just because Yenangyaung is not only important in terms of location.
Also, there are a large number of oil fields discovered by the British here, making it the largest oil producing area in Myanmar.
Before Ye Qingshan, he asked Byron to lead an exploration team to discover the locations of the two large oil fields in later generations.
It is also around Yenangyaung.
Not only the British, but also the oil-producing areas in Yenangyaung were highly valued.
As the new occupiers, the Japanese also attached great importance to the oil wells scattered around Yenangyaung.
After all, one of the main reasons why the Japanese invaded Southeast Asia in advance was this.
It is to seize these oil fields and solve their energy problems.
The Japanese army stationed in Yenangyaung has been forcibly recruiting local indigenous people to restore the oil fields.
We hope to restore the production capacity of these oil wells in Yenangyaung as soon as possible.
Before retreating, the British destroyed the Yenangyaung oil fields and many oil wells.
This forces the Japanese to repair it themselves.
Except for this elite Japanese infantry battalion that was left behind to guard the oil fields.
After the Battle of Mandalay broke out, in order to open up a second supply line, the Japanese commander Shojiro Iida, in Rangoon, racked his brains to gather 3,000 Japanese baggage troops and 4,200 Japanese puppet troops.
Fifteen thousand local indigenous laborers were forcibly conscripted to transport this batch of ammunition and supplies.
Therefore, at this time, there were still a large number of Japanese defenders in Yenangyaung.
Let’s not talk about those civilians.
The Japs and the Inter-Japanese Devils together numbered more than 8,000, much more than the number of the attacking special operations and armored regiments.
However, the only one with real combat effectiveness was the elite infantry battalion of the Japanese devils.
The captain of the Japanese infantry battalion, Keita Sakai, had also received orders from the Japanese headquarters in advance.
Ask him to ensure the protection of the supply base and airport in Yenangyaung.
As for the oil fields around Yenangyaung, they were temporarily abandoned by the Japanese.
No matter how important those oil fields are, they are not as important as rescuing the Japanese 15th Army.
Because at this time, the Japanese commander Shojiro Iida had already received the report from the Japanese 33rd Division.
The 38rd Division learned that the troops sent to Yenangyaung were blocked by Sun Liren's new th Division.
Through this, Shojiro Iida began to worry that Ye Qingshan already knew their intentions.
"The Chinese have probably already noticed our actions in Yenangyaung."
That night, the Japanese commander Shojiro Iida couldn't sleep in his headquarters in Rangoon and was very anxious.
However, the 38rd Division soon reported that Sun Liren's new th Division was only blocking them.
No signs of the new 38th Division heading south to Yenangyaung were found.
This news made Shojiro Iida feel relieved again.
He was made to believe that Sun Liren's new 38th Division mistakenly thought that the rd Division troops heading south were trying to break out.
That's why we blocked it.
Otherwise, if the expeditionary force knew about the incident in Yenangyaung, the New 38th Division, which was closest to the area, should have already sent troops south to attack Yenangyaung.
Now the new 38th Division is silent, which means that Yenangyaung should not have been exposed yet.
But the old devil Shojiro Iida couldn't have imagined it.
This time, in order to ensure the success of the attack on Yenangyaung, Ye Qingshan made sure that the Japanese would not notice in advance that he was going to attack Yenangyaung.