During the War of Resistance, many people only had a relatively general and vague impression of the combat effectiveness of the Japanese army, especially the main field divisions, and only roughly knew that they were quite strong, but they were not very clear to what extent.
President Chiang has said many times that when the strength of the Kuomintang is five or six times that of the Japanese army, it can only fight a dozen, otherwise it will definitely suffer a big loss. That is to say, in his concept, a wing (more than 3,000 people) of the Japanese field division can fight an ordinary army-level unit of the Kuomintang Army, and a brigade (about 1,200 people) can fight an ordinary division of the Kuomintang Army.
Let's put it this way, the Kuomintang infantry division, which has the strongest combat strength, has the strength to wrestle with a main wing of the Japanese army, while it is difficult for an ordinary infantry division to win against an infantry brigade of the Japanese army.
In order to more intuitively illustrate the combat effectiveness of the Japanese army, we might as well take the 74th Army, which was the forefront of the Kuomintang army during the Anti-Japanese War.
In my impression, the 74th Army basically did not take advantage of the first-class divisions of the Japanese army, and it could still fight a dozen second-rate divisions, and it could only bargain when it encountered third-rate divisions and with the cooperation of friendly forces.
The 74th Army's battle against the 106th and 34th Divisions of the Japanese Army, two third-rate divisions, occurred during the Battle of Wanjialing and the Battle of Shanggao in the Battle of Wuhan, respectively, and the fighting patterns of the two were different.
In the Battle of Wanjialing, the 74th Army, together with the friendly 4th Army, 64th Army, and 66th Army, besieged the Japanese 106th Division in the mountainous area of northern Jiangxi, and finally inflicted heavy losses on it.
However, it should be noted that under the absolute superiority of forces, the Kuomintang army, including the 74th Army, not only did not completely annihilate the 106th Division of the Japanese Army as commonly said, but even failed to annihilate one of its wings as a whole.
As for the number of enemies annihilated in Wanjialing, I have seen at least three versions: 3000+; 5000+；10000+；Based on comprehensive research, I personally believe that the annihilation of five or six thousand people of the 106th Division may be more in line with the facts.
Different from the Wanjialing Campaign's encirclement attack on the 106th Division, the Shanggao Battle in the first half of 1941 was somewhat similar to the "Heavenly Furnace Tactics" when Xue Yue commanded the Third Battle of Changsha: the 57th Division of the 74th Army was the bottom of the Heavenly Furnace, withstanding the frantic onslaught of the 34th Division, and the 49th Army, 70th Army, and 72nd Army in the outer flank position shrank inward and flanked the 34th Division.
Even so, in the Shanggao Battle led by the 74th Army, the Kuomintang Army was still higher than the Japanese army, which also shows in a certain sense that the 74th Army should not have the upper hand if it is one-on-one and the third-rate divisions of the Japanese army.
This is the Battle of Lanfeng in 1938, Yu Jishi's 74th Army, Gui Yongqing's 27th Army, Li Hansoul's 64th Army, Song Xilian's 71st Army and Hu Zongnan's 17th Army Corps, and other elite units of the Kuomintang army at that time, surrounded the Japanese army's second-rate division, the Itagaki 14th Division.
This battle was tackled by the Kuomintang army, and the Japanese 14th Division was defended according to the fortifications, and relatively speaking, the Japanese army's combat strength was increased. But the elite of the more than 100,000 Kuomintang troops did not fail to eat the Itagaki Division in the end, and it was a pity to see it rescued by the 16th Division!
In the specific battle, the direct attack opponents of the 51st and 58th divisions of the two divisions under the jurisdiction of the 74th Army were only half a wing of the Japanese army (two wings of the Japanese army were attacked together with the other two divisions, with an average of half a wing of each division), and although they achieved a certain advantage, they did not have an overwhelming advantage.
Or we can convert it like this, in 1938, the 74th Army (the 57th Division has not yet been transferred), which has not yet reached its peak in combat strength and strength, may be able to fight one wing of the Japanese army when it is in an offensive state, and may be able to fight two wings when it is in a defensive state, and no more will be able to withstand it.
Here we take the second Battle of Changsha in the second half of 1941, when the 74th Army, with the prestige of winning the Battle of Gao, was equipped with new Soviet weapons, and was included in the "Attack Army" The number of troops has also expanded a lot.
However, the 74th Army, which was in its heyday, was raided and divided by the Japanese army's 3rd and 6th first-class divisions after being urgently thrown into the Xiangbei battlefield from Jiangxi, and the three divisions under its jurisdiction suffered relatively light losses except for Li Tianxia's 51st Division, Yu Chengwan's 57th Division and Liao Lingqi's 58th Division lost more than half, and the entire 74th Army basically lost its combat effectiveness.
For example, in the battle of Chunhua Mountain, the 57th Division fought fiercely against the Huagu Brigade of the Third Division of the Japanese Army, and both suffered heavy losses. At this time, the combat strength of the 57th Division may be between a wing and a brigade of the Japanese army, and the 74th Army, which has three divisions, is estimated to be barely able to match a first-class division of the Japanese army.
The combat power of a unit like the 74th Army is already outstanding in the Kuomintang Army, and its peak combat power is basically a first-class division of the Japanese army.
Needless to say, other Kuomintang troops, an ordinary army or even a group army may not be able to match a main division of the Japanese army.