The 74th Division, the ace army led by Chiang Kai-shek, chairman of the Kuomintang, showed extraordinary combat effectiveness in the War of Liberation, especially in the Battle of Lianshui in the Shandong Battlefield, defeating General Wang Bicheng, who later became the founding lieutenant general.
In order to encircle and annihilate this ace army, our army mobilized the first column led by Ye Fei, the fourth column where Tao Yong was located, the sixth column led by Wang Bicheng and the ninth column led by Xu Shiyou, as well as the heavy artillery in the Huaye special forces column.
The battle resulted in heavy losses to the enemy, capturing more than 20,000 prisoners of war, but ultimately ended in defeat. 1. The predecessor of the **74th Division was the 74th Army of the National Revolutionary Army, which was established in 1937 during the outbreak of the Battle of Songhu.
The first army commander was Chiang Kai-shek's nephew Yu Jishi, and the 51st Division was led by Wang Yaowu, the 58th Division was led by Feng Shengfa, and later the 57th Division was supplemented, and the first division commander was Yu Chengwan.
The unit grew rapidly, especially during the period of the second commander Wang Yaowu, and its combat effectiveness and discipline reached a first-class level. Wang Yaowu also set up a factory during the Anti-Japanese War, and used the income to fund the army, so that the whole army could fight the enemy together.
During the Anti-Japanese War, the 74th Army participated in many large-scale battles, such as the Battle of Songhu, the Battle of Nanjing, the Battle of Lanfeng, the Battle of Xuzhou, etc., and played a key role in determining the direction of the battle.
By 1940, the 74th Army had become an experienced ace army, and together with the Tenth Army of the Taishan Army, it was hailed as the two ace armies of the Ninth Theater of Operations. Due to its strong combat effectiveness and excellent quality of officers and men, the unit became the first batch of units to be converted into Soviet-style units and reequipped with the most advanced equipment of the US military.
Among the prestigious honors in ** is the Order of the Blue Sky and White Sun, and the more rare honor is the Flying Tiger Banner. Not many Chinese troops have won the Flying Tiger Banner, an honor that only 24 units received between 1927 and 1949.
Among them, the 74th Army received the largest number of Flying Tiger Flags, and they received a total of four Flying Tiger Flags, which fully demonstrated their outstanding performance during the Anti-Japanese War. During the Anti-Japanese War, the Japanese army attached great importance to the 74th Army and regarded it as an ace army.
Although the equipment of the Japanese army was significantly lagging behind, the 74th Army was still able to fight inextricably with the Japanese army, which made the Japanese army have concerns about the 74th Army. Until the Battle of Xiangxi in the later stage of the Anti-Japanese War, the 74th Army received advanced equipment provided by the United States, and was in an absolute advantage compared with the Japanese army.
With rich combat experience, in the Battle of Wugang in the Battle of Xiangxi in 1945, the 58th Division of the 74th Army stubbornly resisted half of the Japanese army for seven days and seven nights with only hundreds of soldiers and newly equipped American **.
With the cooperation of reinforcements, they successfully defeated the Japanese army, which was hailed as a miracle in the history of the Anti-Japanese War. Even the US military advisory group sighed after watching the battle: "Only the Chinese **74th Division can achieve such a result."
The 74th Army made a deep impression on the Japanese army and was known as the "35th Army", while Chiang Kai-shek also regarded it as the "Tiger Army". After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the 74th Army was airlifted to Nanjing to perform the guard mission and became Chiang Kai-shek's "Imperial Forest Army".
In addition, the Battle of Menglianggu was also their glorious battle. In May 1946, the 74th Army was reorganized into the 74th Division, with 30,000 troops, which was more than the strength of the Huaye Army and the Zhongye Army at that time.
The 74th Division performed very well in Nanjing, and was selected as the first of the five main armies during the Anti-Japanese War. Although the 74th Division did not participate in combat missions in the early stage of the Liberation War, division commander Zhang Lingfu made an oath to "be promoted to general in five years", demonstrating their loyalty to the country and its mission.
Chiang Kai-shek was very happy to hear the news, so he sent the reorganized 74th Division to the East China Battlefield. Although this unit did its duty to defend its country during the war, it became the vanguard of the civil war after the war.
They created white terror in Shandong, Jiangsu and other places, wantonly ** the base residents of the Huaye Army, and carried out cruelty.
In 1947, ** launched the Shandong Campaign, General Su Yu decided to annihilate the 74th Division, and the Huaye Army dispatched 270,000 troops, and hundreds of thousands of people worked as logistics support troops.
In the face of the main force of the 74th Division, our army sent the backbone, including General Ye Fei's first column, General Tao Yong's fourth column, General Wang Bicheng's sixth column, and General Xu Shiyou's ninth column. These four teams are strong, experienced and determined.
Although the commander of the 74th Division, Zhang Lingfu, tried to lure the enemy's main forces and then let the peripheral troops surround our army, he was recognized by our army. Even in the case of the loss of heavy equipment and insufficient logistical supplies, Zhang Lingfu still led his troops to resist stubbornly.
It was surprising that individual units under his command actually counterattacked the Huaye army, but it was difficult to sustain it in the face of our army's unwavering will. In the case of the heavy situation of the Huaye Army, our army fought bravely and finally won the victory in the Battle of Menglianggu. 20,000 men of the 74th Division were captured.
In this battle, the **74th Division lost 20,000 elite soldiers, not all of whom were killed, but captured.
This raises a serious problem, most of these people are the elite of the country, who have been reused and received a profound ideological education, and it is more difficult for our army to educate them than the local armed forces.
Although these prisoners were treated according to the high standards of our army, especially the officers, they were treated as generals, but they had difficulty receiving the education of our army, and even almost rioted.
Our army has always adhered to the policy of preferential treatment of prisoners of war, and despite the relative barrenness of the liberated areas of Shandong at that time, these prisoners were still given the highest level of treatment. During the War of Liberation, the People's Liberation Army captured soldiers of the **74 Division.
In order to maintain the combat effectiveness of the captured soldiers, the PLA not only cared for them in their daily lives, but also strengthened the ideological education of some officers. At the same time, the Political Department of the East China Field Army talked to these officers in an attempt to change their thinking.
For the young prisoners of war, the PLA gave them some money and food so that they could return home. And those prisoners of war who are educated and familiar with light operations have become the objects of contention among various columns of the People's Liberation Army.
In the Battle of Menglianggu, several columns were in dire need of reinforcements, so these prisoners of war became their targets. However, most of these prisoners of war were later brought into the First and Fourth Columns, a move that laid the groundwork for the subsequent war.
After the reorganization of the troops, the PLA almost lost all subsequent wars. In the process of Ye Tao and Chen Tang attacking Lunan and Chen Su attacking Luzhong, the **11th Division was strongly attacked by the People's Liberation Army, resulting in ** heavy losses.
In this battle, the prisoners of war of the 74th Division fled from the ranks, and even some PLA soldiers were ** to the enemy camp, causing a crushing defeat for the PLA. The battle taught the PLA a hard lesson, but the preferential treatment of prisoners of war was still correct.
*The soldiers of the 74th Division showed an unyielding spirit of preferring to die. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) also summed up valuable experience from this campaign and laid the foundation for the final victory in the War of Liberation.