From September 1948 to January 1949, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) fought a decisive battle with the Kuomintang army, and the five main forces of the Kuomintang, including the New First Army, the New Sixth Army, the Fifth Army, the 18th Army, and the 74th Army, were all wiped out. Comparing the great exploits of these five main forces during the Anti-Japanese War and their subsequent decline, there are always some people who are haunted and think that they should not be defeated so badly.
But have they seriously considered the question of whether the five main forces in 1948 were the same thing as the five main forces in 1945? Today, the author will take stock of the five main forces, and when they reach the Armageddon, there are still a few points left at the end of the Anti-Japanese War. The 74th Army, which was completely empty shells.
The most tragic and tragic of the five main forces is probably the 74th Army, because it was annihilated once in the Battle of Menglianggu in 1947, and the Huaihai Battle was completely annihilated again. Because the 74th Army once garrisoned Nanjing, some people think that it is the first main force, but in fact, this is just a coincidence, and its equipment level is slightly lower than that of the army stationed in India.
At the end of the Anti-Japanese War, the three divisions under the 74th Army of the 74th Army were of equal status, and the soldiers were one of the best in the world; That is to say, the greatest wealth of the 74th Army is the officers and soldiers who have experienced a hundred battles, and once they are lost, they cannot be recovered at all. The 74th Division, which was reorganized from the 74th Army, was completely wiped out at MengliangguNone of the division headquarters and the three brigade headquarters escaped from the reorganized brigade headquarters, and only one deputy regiment commander of the six regimental headquarters escaped from the encirclement, which was annihilation in the complete sense of the word.
Meng Lianggu later re-established the 74th Army, which was formed by Qiu Weida, the deputy division commander who trained recruits at that time, on the basis of the three recruit regiments that did not participate in the war. The battle of Menglianggu caused the 74th Army to lose more than ninety percent of the essence left over from the Anti-Japanese War, if the other troops replenished the new recruits with new wine in old bottles, then the 74th Army was completely pouring water into the wine bottles.
Zhang Lingfu. Although Chairman Chiang did not hesitate to provide American-style equipment for the newly formed 74th Army, he could never find those grassroots officers and men with rich experience. More importantly, the military spirit of the 74th Army has been defeated, and it will no longer be able to fight a "Long live the tiger." The new army that was pitted by Chen Cheng.
If the 74th Army during the Armageddon period was not strong, it was because Zhang Lingfu went to Meng Lianggu to find a dead end; Then the sluggish combat strength of the New First Army at the time of the decisive battle was completely a man-made disaster of the Kuomintang itself. The core unit of the New First Army is the New 38th Division, which is also the starting unit of Sun Liren. The new 38th Division, the new 30th Division and the 50th Division formed the strongest lineup of the army at the end of the Anti-Japanese War.
** during the Anti-Japanese War.
After the outbreak of the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, the New First Army suffered repeated defeats in the face of the ** command of the Northeast Democratic Alliance Army. Three divisions, no more, no less, were all annihilated by the PLA with two regiments. Although the equipment of the New First Army itself is in a state of overstaffing, it can replenish the equipment of these six regiments without applying to the superiors; However, like the 74th Army, those grassroots officers and men with rich combat experience and high morale could no longer be replenished, so that the entire unit became more and more watery.
However, at that time, there was still room for the New First Army to recover, but the personnel struggle within the Kuomintang dealt the heaviest blow. First of all, Sun Liren, the soul of the New First Army, was transferred to Taiwan by Chiang Kai-shek because of his discord with Du Yuming and Liao Yaoxiang. Immediately, Chen Cheng, who was in charge of the northeast, began his very magical expansion operation. He actually forcibly withdrew the New 38th Division from the New First Army, and formed the New Seventh Army with the Provisional 56th Division and the Temporary 61st Division, which were reorganized from the puppet Manchurian troops; The new First Army was supplemented by the Provisional 53rd Division, which was also adapted from the puppet Manchurian troops.
Liao Yaoxiang. In this way, everyone can clearly calculate that only two of the nine regiments of the New First Army were well-equipped and had strong combat effectiveness. And coupled with frequent defeats in battles with the PLA, morale is low. The rapid collapse of the Liaoshen campaign in the end is completely understandable. The new 38th Division was finally trapped in the lonely city and came to an end in a very disgraceful way. The Fifth Army, which has long been unworthy of its name.
* Of the five main forces, the Fifth Army is the only one to be called a mechanized army. So much so that now as long as you check the **Fifth Army on the Internet, the online articles will show this golden signboard in the same way. But few people care how mechanical it is.
When the 200th Division, the core of the Fifth Army, was formed in 1938, it was indeed the first divisional mechanized unit in Asia to be equipped with a large number of tanks, armored vehicles, and trucks. However, the performance in the Battle of Lanfeng was disappointing, so the national ** decided to expand the 200 division into the Fifth Army, but in this way, all the heavy ** in the 200 division became the armored regiment and the automobile regiment attached to the army, and the division became an infantry division in the full sense of the word, like the new 22nd Division and the Honor 1st Division that joined the Fifth Army.
After the failure of the first invasion of Burma, all the surviving armor** of the Fifth Army was also withdrawn to form new units. That is, at the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1945,The Fifth Army has been transformed into an infantry army in the full sense of the word, which is more than other units in the country, and the title of mechanized army has long been meaningless.
Fifth officers and soldiers.
What has seriously reduced the combat strength of the Fifth Army is that the many infantry divisions that originally cooperated with the 200 divisions can also be regarded as the most elite. However, in addition to the 200th Division of the Fifth Army during the Huaihai Campaign, the 45th Division was not well known, and the 46th Division was actually adapted from Wang's puppet army. In the later stage of the Huaihai Campaign, the three divisions had no obvious advantage in firepower and mobility, and they could not break through the encirclement of the People's Liberation Army at all; Maybe at that time, the officers of the army will miss the mechanized equipment of the year. The New Sixth Army and the 18th Army were exchanged for one division.
Among the five main forces, I am afraid that by September 1948, only the New Sixth Army and the 18th Army could still have the same appearance. The New 22nd Division, the core unit of the New Sixth Army, is Liao Yaoxiang's starting force, and because Liao Xiang has been holding important positions in the Northeast Battlefield, he has not let the New Sixth Army suffer a big loss; This is also an important reason why the contradictions between Sun Liren and other generals in Northeast China intensified later.
Flag of the New Sixth Army.
However, the New Sixth Army also changed, its 207th Division became the direct subordinate team of the General Suppression, and the 14th Division was drawn out to form the New 3rd Army; The replenished 169 Division is a new unit with a deviation in combat effectiveness. On the whole, the New Sixth Army basically preserved the backbone of the year in the Armageddon, but it was difficult to support it alone in the northeast battlefield.
In addition to the above four armies, I am afraid that the 18th Army is the last face. The 11th Division, the core unit of episode 18, was Chen Cheng's starting unit, so the 18th Army swelled very much during the Anti-Japanese War. The level of its equipment is not necessarily particularly good, but its combat power is obvious to all at home and abroad at that time.
** before the Battle of Huaihai.
Before participating in the Huaihai Campaign, he did not suffer a big loss in the Central Plains battlefield. However, the 18th Division, the second main force, was withdrawn to rebuild the 10th Army, which was annihilated by the PLA for the second time; It was supplemented by the 49th Division of the former Northeast Army system. In this way, from the perspective of the 18th Army, the combat strength has been weakened, but considering that the 18th Army and the 10th Army are fighting in groups, the overall impact is not great.
The biggest problem of the Eighteenth Army was at the top. When the 12th Corps was formed on the basis of the 18th Army, Hu Lian, the commander of the 18th Army, unexpectedly lost the election and ran away. Huang Wei, a nerd who has not led troops for a long time, became the commander of the corps in the eyes of the officers. At the same time, the 85th Army, which was forcibly stuffed into the corps, belonged to the He Yingqin series, and Huang Wei was not mobilized at all.
However, when the units of the 18th Army and the 18th Division were attacked by the People's Liberation Army, most of them fought until the end of the casualties before collapsing. The collapse or surrender of the other four armies before they lost their combat effectiveness is still worthy of the name of the main force. Although the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was meritorious, it was bound to fail against the people.
There are always some military fans who think that it is not good to be the five main forces of the five great forces during the Anti-Japanese War, and they are finally eliminated by the People's Liberation Army. But in fact, as long as we look at the significance of the War of Liberation, we will understand that this is a very normal historical law at all.
From the day they participated in the civil war, their morale was being worn out day by day, and the fighting enthusiasm of the officers and men was rapidly weakening; Corruption spread rapidly among officers at all levels, and all the malaise of the warlord forces germinated and intensified. At the same time, they no longer had the ability to recruit enthusiastic young people into the army as they did during the Anti-Japanese War, and Lazhuang Ding also became the daily behavior of the five main forces. Even if there is no high-level blind operation, the final destruction is inevitable.