**The title of the five main forces was first proposed at the military reorganization conference in 1946, referring to the five units with the strongest combat strength and the most well-equipped in the National Revolutionary Army after the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
They are the 18th Army, the 74th Army, the 5th Army, the New 1st Army, and the New 6th Army of the National Revolutionary Army. Although they all had a glorious history of repeatedly defeating strong enemies in the War of Resistance Against Foreign Invasion, the way in which the army developed was different.
At that time, some people in the army summed up that the new 1st Army was equipped, the New 6th Army was twins, the 74th Army was fought, the 5th Army was trained, and the 18th Army was petted. Today we will talk about how the 5 main forces are generated? How strong are their combat power, and what are their achievements in history?
The 18th Army is the earliest, most militarily strongest, and most powerful trump card unit among the five main forces of the Kuomintang. After the Central Plains War in 1930, Chen Cheng was promoted to commander of the 18th Army. At that time, there was only one 18th division of the 11th Army, and Chen Cheng was both the army commander and the division commander.
Coincidentally, the troop number eighteen together is the wood of the Chinese character, and the eleven together is the soil of the Chinese character, from which the civil engineering title is derived. Chen Cheng followed Chiang Kai-shek all his life and was good at figuring out the deep meaning behind Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang Kai-shek also regarded Chen Cheng as an absolute confidant, and the 18th Army followed suit. At first, the 18th Army had only one division, but after continuous expansion, it had a maximum of 8 divisions, which was equivalent to 3 armies.
Whether it is personnel or equipment, the 18th Army is the strongest in the **, so it is known as the king of the five main forces. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, in August 1937, the army commander Luo Zhuoying led the 18th Army to Shanghai to participate in the Battle of Songhu. In the face of the national crisis, Chen Cheng could only endure the pain for a while, and strictly ordered the troops to complete the task, and the 18th Army would not hesitate to fight all the time. During the Battle of Songhu, the 18th Army fought Luodian 4 times, and Luodian was also famous all over the world for this battle.
In 1943, the 18th Army participated in the Battle of Western Hubei, in which the geographical location of Shipai Fortress was very important, and it was compared to China's Stalingrad by the Chongqing Command. At that time, the first important place was the 18th Division of Hu Lian of the 11th Army, and when the battle was fierce, Chen Cheng asked him if he was sure about holding the fortress.
Hu Lian replied that although success is uncertain, Chengren is determined. After that, the officers and men of the 11th Division fought bravely, defended the fortress to the death, and made great contributions to the great victory in western Hubei. Soon after the war, Hu Lian was promoted to military commander for his merits. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the 18th Army was reorganized into the 11th Division, and then incorporated into the 12th Army Corps, which was completely lost in the Huaihai Campaign.
After the war, the 12th Corps was rebuilt, and Hu Lian said in the corps precept that we are like a Dapeng bird, and now we are resurrected and need a time to recuperate. Once the injury is healed, we will have to travel thousands of miles away again, so to speak, but the strength of the army is not as good as before, and the turtle retreats to Taiwan, and finally does not fly.
In addition to the 18th Army, what other ace troops are there? The reorganization of the 74th Division, formerly known as the 74th Army, was formed by the National ** in Hankou at the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, and Yu Jishi was the first commander.
At that time, the national ** invested too many division-level units in the Songhu battlefield, in order to facilitate leadership, so two or three divisions were organized into an army, the 74th Army, which was established at that time, and the name of the First World War shocked Songhu.
After that, the 74th Army participated in the Battle of Nanjing. In 1938, in the Battle of Wanjialing, the 74th Army as the main force inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese army.
In June 1939, Wang Yaowu was promoted to army commander, and in order to thank Chiang Kai-shek for his promotion, he was determined to reorganize and train the 74th Army to make it a well-disciplined unit that could fight and obey the command without fear of death. In March 1941, in the Battle of Shanggao, which lasted nearly a month, the 74th Army killed and wounded more than 15,000 Japanese soldiers, and the Japanese 33rd Division, 34th Division and the 20th Independent Mixed Brigade suffered heavy losses, killing thousands of Japanese soldiers under Major General Iwanaga Wang, Osa Wing Captain Hamada, and shooting down a plane.
He Yingqin, minister of military affairs, said that this operation was the most wonderful battle since the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. The 74th Army was awarded the highest award flag in the army, a flying tiger flag, and was known as the "Anti-Japanese Iron Army". At the end of 1943, the 74th Army participated in the Battle of Changde, and the troops fought a desperate decisive battle, killing more than 10,000 devils, and once again played the prestige of the anti-Japanese iron army. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the 74th Army was airlifted to Nanjing, accepted the surrender of Japan and garrisoned Nanjing.
After that, the 74th Army was reorganized into the 74th Division, and when the reorganization was completed, the proportion of veterans was as high as 85%, known as the division of a hundred battles, and Zhang Lingfu served as the commander of the lieutenant general. At that time, during his visit, General Marshall of the US Army praised the reorganized 74th Division as Chiang's Imperial Forest Army. Chiang Kai-shek also ordered all education and training of all units to be subject to the reorganization of the 74th Division.
In 1947, in the Battle of Menglianggu, the main force of the People's Liberation Army pretended to retreat to lure the first to advance, and the 74th Division was reorganized to break through, and finally was surrounded by heavy troops of the People's Liberation Army, and finally, the 74th Division was buried on Menglianggu. But then the 74th Division was reorganized and retrained, but it was wiped out in the Huaihai Campaign, which was the Kuomintang "ace army" that our army eliminated twice.
With the defeat of Zhang Lingfu's 74th Division, what other combat power does it have? 5th Army;
The 5th Army is the first modern armored force since China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, with Huangpu officers, British, American, German equipment, Soviet advisers, is the only mechanized squadron that China has fought with the strength of the whole country, with the proud name of "Iron Horse Division", he was founded in January 1939, Huangpu was born in the first phase, Du Yuming served as the first commander.
Soon after the formation of the army, the 5th Army participated in the Battle of Kunlun Pass in November 1939, against the Japanese 12th Brigade known as the Steel Army, and the battle lasted for 18 days, and the battle was unprecedentedly fierce. In this battle, Major General Nakamura Masao, the commander of the 12th Brigade of the Japanese Army, was killed, more than 8 5% of the officers of the 12th Brigade were killed, and more than 4,000 soldiers died, and the Battle of Kunlun Pass won great honor for the 5th Army.
In March 1942, the 5th Army, the 6th Army, and the 66th Army formed the Chinese Expeditionary Force and went to Burma to fight in Japan. In early March, the 200th Division won a great victory in the first battle of Tonggu, destroying more than 5,000 enemies. A glorious page was written in the Chinese expeditionary military, but in the end, due to the strategic contradictions and confusion in command between China, the United States and the United Kingdom, the Chinese expeditionary force lost its first invasion of Burma and began to retreat at the end of April.
Dai Anlan, commander of the 200th Division, was unfortunately shot while commanding the retreat of his troops and died a heroic martyr. When the bad news came, the whole country mourned, Chiang Kai-shek personally held a funeral for him, and the 5th Army suffered heavy losses. Before going abroad, 42,000 men fought and 7,300 were killed or wounded, and 14,700 were killed or wounded during the retreat, the vast majority of whom died in the savage mountains of northern Burma.
Subsequently, after domestic training, the 5th Army launched the first against the Burmese Japanese army in Yunnan again in 1944, making great contributions to the final opening of the Yunnan-Burma Highway. After that, in the 1948 Huaihai Campaign, it was surrounded and annihilated by our army near Chenguanzhuang.
After the defeat of the Chinese Expeditionary Force in the first invasion of Burma, part of the troops withdrew to India. Under the planning of General Stilwell, chief of staff of the Chinese theater, the new 38th and 22nd divisions withdrawn to India were ordered to go to the Ramgarh barracks to rest and recuperate, and in early 1943, the new 1st Army was established here, and Zheng Dongguo served as the commander.
The New 1st Army is the first army in China's modern history to build an army abroad, and it is also the first fully American-style armed unit in the Kuomintang Army, and the number happens to be the 1st Army, so the New 1st Army is also known as the "First Army in the World". This unit is fully equipped according to the standards of the United States Army, and the vast majority of its soldiers are the best elite who survived through the savage mountains of northern Burma.
After domestic training, the New 1st Army launched against the Japanese army in Burma in 1944. After rigorous military training by the Americans, coupled with the command of Sun Liren, who graduated from the West Point Military Academy, the New 1st Army won a great victory in Ringanqiang during the Burma operation, and rescued more than 7,000 British troops, including General Alexander, commander-in-chief of the British Allied Forces, and caused a sensation in the British Isles in World War I.
Sun Liren was awarded the "Imperial Medal" by the British Army, and was awarded the "Meritorious Service" Medal by the United States Army. Internationally known as the Rommel of the East.
At the end of October 1943, the New 1st Army made a big attack on the Japanese army in northern Burma, and successively won major victories in the Hukang River Valley Campaign, the Mong Gong River Valley Campaign and the Myitkyina Campaign, and wiped out most of the Japanese 18th Division, known as the king of the jungle.
The combat strength of the New 1st Army was beyond the expectations of the Japanese army. By the spring of 1945, the Japanese army was defeated and retreated in Burma, and the New First Army was ordered to return home. Finally, in the Liaoshen Campaign, part of the uprising; The remaining remnants of the New 1st Army were annihilated in the Liaoshen Campaign.
The relationship between the New 6th Army and the New 1st Army is extremely close, and it can be said that the New 1st Army is the twin brother. Initially, when the New 1st Army was established in India, it only had Sun Liren's new 38th Division and Liao Yaoxiang's new 22nd Division under its jurisdiction.
After 1944, the Chinese side airlifted a large number of young students from China to India for training, and the total number of troops stationed in India surged to 100,000. Therefore, on the basis of the original new 1st Army, it was expanded into two armies and Sun Liren's new 1st Army and Liao Yaoxiang's new 6th Army. The new 22nd Division, the main force of the army, and the new 38th Division, the main force of the New 1st Army, fought side by side in the Indo-Burmese battlefield, and the two armies came from the original New 1st Army at the same time.
Liao Yaoxiang, the first commander of the New 6th Army, was in middle school, he followed the example of Ban Chao in the Han Dynasty and followed Rong, and later studied hard and diligently during his stay in France, and was deeply influenced by the military theorist Jiang Baili; After graduating from the French Army University in 1936, he returned to China and served as the deputy commander of the new 22nd Division under the 5th Mechanized Army. In the Battle of Kunlun Pass, he succeeded the wounded Qiu Qingquan as the division commander. During the battle, Liao Yaoxiang personally led the troops to the front line to command, and when the Japanese artillery attacked, half of his body was buried in the soil, but he was still calm and calm, and finally defeated the Japanese army and broke the Kunlun Pass.
It was the night of Shangyuan in 1940, and in history, the night of Shangyuan in 1052 was the time when the Northern Song Dynasty general Di Qing attacked Kunlun Pass at night and defeated the enemy. Therefore, at that time, he was compared with Di Qing and Yuan Ye to win Kunlun. At that time, the Nanjing Military Commission once evaluated the 5th Army, ranking first among the armies in the southwest, and the new 22nd Division was the first of the 5th Army.
After the establishment of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, the new 22nd Division, as the backbone, participated in many major battles. In March 1942, the Chinese Expeditionary Force attacked Burma, the first battle was Tonggu, and after the fierce battle, Dai Anlan's 200th Division was surrounded by Japanese troops on four sides. Liao Yaoxiang was ordered to lead the new 22nd Division to successfully break the siege, and the British and American newspapers and periodicals highly praised these two as the two most elite troops in the world.
In August 1944, the New 6th Army was established, Liao Yaoxiang became the commander, and in February 1946, the New 6th Army and the New 1st Army came to the Northeast Battlefield together, and were annihilated by our army in the Liaoshen Campaign.
Although these were finally destroyed because of the civil war launched by Chiang Kai-shek, it is undeniable that the struggle of the whole nation during the Anti-Japanese War, the five main forces, made great contributions in the War of Resistance against Japan, and behind these achievements, it symbolizes the shadow of thousands of Chinese sons and daughters fighting to the death.
Their heroic spirit has boosted the national spirit, greatly boosted the ambition of the Chinese nation, and promoted the unity and progress of the people of the whole country. On the frontal battlefield of resisting the Japanese invaders, they built an impenetrable Great Wall of flesh and blood.