In 1931, the Northeast Railway was deliberately blown up, and the 14-year Sino-Japanese war began.
At that time, China had an obvious status as an agricultural country, while Japan was far ahead as an industrial power. This directly led to Japan's arrogant claim that 'China will be resolved within three months'. ”
When the Japanese army invaded China, it did not expect that the resistance of the Chinese people would be so fierce and they were forced to fall into a long-term war of attrition. Although China was at a disadvantage in the war of attrition, the Japanese army, with its strong industrial base, had huge reserves of **, ammunition and food, and even the allocation of bullets far surpassed China.
Therefore, the Chinese people can only use their lives and blood to make up for the huge gap with the Japanese army. Do you know how many bullets a Japanese soldier will use in battle? When you see these figures, you can understand why the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was so difficult.
After the Meiji Restoration, Japan's national strength increased rapidly, and the level of military manufacturing also improved significantly under the impetus of the Industrial Revolution. As a militarist country, Japan began to expand abroad, and successfully opened up a number of theaters, involving more than a dozen countries in Asia, and even risked a sneak attack on a US military base in the Pacific.
The fact that these operations were able to be carried out so widely shows that they were well prepared before they acted. In fact, facts have also proved this, because they underwent systematic military training in the early stage of the war of aggression, so their military literacy was very high, and their tactics and strategies were also advanced.
During this period, Japan's industrial strength far exceeded that of China, which was still a traditional agricultural country, which made Japan occupy an absolute advantage in equipment. They were well armed, well-equipped, and even well stocked with food.
In the later period, as the war of attrition progressed, they even adopted the method of fighting to feed the war, and they would loot everywhere they went to supplement their supplies. How abundant were the material reserves of the Japanese army in the early stage?
Let's take the example of infantry. During World War II, the most widely used ** in Japanese infantry combat was the 38-type rifle, which is the "38 big cover" that we often see in anti-Japanese war dramas.
The most important feature of this gun is its extremely long body, which is close to 170 centimeters if you add a bayonet. In close combat, the advantage of this length cannot be ignored.
The Type 38 not only has a long range and high accuracy, but it is also easy to operate even for new recruits. Due to its simple manufacturing and few consumables, the 38 style used to be one of the mainstream.
However, without bullets, the Type 38 could only become a bayonet. Therefore, the number of bullets equipped is crucial. So, how many rounds of ammunition would an ordinary Japanese soldier be equipped with?
The Japanese infantry carried quite enough bullets in battle. They carried two ammunition boxes with 30 rounds each hanging from their waists, which made them easy to carry without affecting their combat movements.
Once the bullet is finished, they can simply reach out and change it, which is very easy to operate. In addition, there is one behind them"Reserve box", which can hold 60 rounds, bringing a soldier's total ammunition to 120 rounds, plus the 5 rounds in the gun, for a total of 125 rounds.
This is only the amount of ammunition for individual soldiers, and the Japanese army has about 12 people per squad, and in addition to 8-10 infantrymen, there will be a group of machine gunners.
The machine guns were incredibly powerful and powerful, so the demand for bullets increased accordingly. As a rule, a machine-gun crew consisted of four members, including two machine gunners, an ammunition man, and a commander.
Each Heavy will carry two bullet bags, each of which can hold 60 rounds, plus 30 rounds inside the machine gun, for each person to carry 150 rounds.
The ammo hand will also carry two bullet pouches, and the commander will carry one. Thus, a machine gun crew had a total of 480 rounds. For this reason, Japan is equipped with close to 1,600 rounds of ammunition per squad.
Not only did the Japanese army have a team dedicated to the transportation of luggage, but ordinary soldiers could also carry a certain amount of ammunition. They are also equipped with tanks, shells, fighters and other heavy **, and are well stocked.
And in comparison, how many bullets can each soldier in the squadron carry?
When the all-out Anti-Japanese War broke out in 1937, China's industrial development level was weak, and its self-control ability was low, mainly relying on imports. **Diverse, including Germany, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic and other countries, but due to different **, the equipment models are also different, and the matching is greatly reduced.
In addition, the ** of ammunition is also restricted by other countries, and the stability is worrying. Before the Anti-Japanese War, Chiang Kai-shek had close relations with Germany, and the war materials and munitions of the two countries developed rapidly.
Germany imports a large amount of heavy metal raw materials from China for armaments, and in return, Germany exports firearms and ammunition to China.
In 1936, Germany exported 6.4 million marks to China, a figure that accounted for one-third of Germany's total exports that year. It can be said that most of the ** equipment of the Kuomintang army was supplied by Germany.
After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, Germany began to adopt a neutral attitude in order to protect its interests in China. As the tide of the war changed, Germany began to turn to support Japan, in large part because of Japan's strong dissatisfaction with Germany.
In the end, the German Ministry of Defense issued an order banning the export of arms to China, which led to the interruption of Chinese ammunition ** and an acute shortage of supplies on the front line. And Japan, because of the abundance of ** and ammunition**, has an advantage in firepower.
The Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army were our main forces, although they were not well equipped. The soldiers of the Eighth Route Army fighting on the front line had only more than 10,000 guns, most of which were miscellaneous guns captured from the enemy.
However, we are unique in our use of this tactic, turning the enemy into our equipment convoy and fighting them with captured ** equipment. Although our troops lacked guns, and even the number of bullets was small, our soldiers did not deter from this.
In the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, even the most elite troops were only distributed 30 rounds of ammunition per soldier, and even fewer ordinary soldiers, only 10 rounds. However, they still insisted on fighting with machetes or other cold weapons, showing our bravery and determination.
On the battlefield in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, our army had only one bold action, that is, the Battle of Pingxingguan. At that time, the Eighth Route Army unexpectedly equipped each fighter with 100 rounds of ammunition, which was unique in the entire battlefield.
Nevertheless, this still fell short of the minimum requirements of the Japanese army. However, this battle also allowed the Eighth Route Army to exhaust almost all its resources, and if it had not succeeded in capturing 82 Japanese transports in the end, the combat effectiveness of the Eighth Route Army might have been greatly affected in the days to come.
In order to solve this problem, our army secretly established an arsenal, gathered a group of specialists, and began to produce its own *** At that time, the annual production capacity of the arsenal was enough to equip the strength of 16 regiments, which greatly improved the combat effectiveness of the front-line troops.
In the summer of 1945, our army had grown to 930,000 men, had 370,000 guns, and at the same time successfully relieved the area of 100 million people behind enemy lines. In the 14-year-long War of Resistance Against Japan, our army consumed an astonishingly small number of bullets, less than 40 million rounds, and the number of grenades was only 8 million.
Even with 1 million enemy troops, an average of 40 rounds of ammunition and 8 grenades are needed to eliminate an enemy. At first glance, some people may feel that the shooting efficiency is too low, and they may even be misled by the anti-Japanese drama, thinking that it takes 40 rounds to destroy an enemy, which is rare in the world.
However, in fact, this ratio is very rare. According to statistics, the average elimination of an enemy in World War I required the consumption of more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition, while in the European theater of World War II, the elimination of an enemy required the consumption of about 5,000 rounds of ammunition.
This shows the heroism and efficiency of our army in the War of Resistance Against Japan.
In the book "Anti-Japanese Resistance", Jiang Weiguo counted the consumption of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party during the War of Resistance against Japan. According to statistics, for each Japanese army, 2,000 rounds of ammunition, 12 shells and 30 grenades were consumed, and a large amount of military supplies were consumed.
However, due to the limited allocation of bullets per capita, each bullet needs to be used carefully. In contrast, the Japanese army carried more bullets. Considering the long war of attrition and Japan's aggression against other countries in the early stage, Japan needed a lot of military supplies, but due to the lack of resources, it could not be completely self-sufficient.
So, where do these supplies come from?
Since the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan has been expanding abroad and plundering resources. They first seized control of the sea through naval warfare and then occupied the Korean Peninsula, targeting the rich mineral resources of the mountainous regions to the north.
It is still a major producer of iron ore, which was once a major raw material for the Japanese steel industry**.
Japan's ambitions did not stop with the occupation of the Korean Peninsula, and they turned their attention to the fertile lands of the three northeastern provinces of our country. As a result, they supported Pu Yi to establish the "puppet state of Manchukuo" and plundered it for six years.
Since then, the Tohoku region has become a military base and material support for Japan, and resources such as copper, iron ore, coal mines, grain, and timber have become targets for their plunder.
In order to ensure that they can ** Japan on time and in quantity, they used joint ventures to intervene in the mineral development of Northeast China, firmly grasped the mining rights of Northeast minerals, and only allowed the Japanese to mine and utilize Northeast Iron and Steel.
After the July 7 Incident, in order to further expand its war of aggression, Japan carried out more severe oppression on the three northeastern provinces. Exports of resources such as coal, liquefied coal and volatile oil have increased significantly, especially steel production, from 1.85 million tonnes to 3.16 million tonnes, of which 1.12 million tonnes are destined for Japan.
Similarly, pig iron production increased from 2.53 million tonnes to 4.5 million tonnes, of which 15220,000 tons were shipped to Japan. Among them, Anshan and Benxihu are the two regions with the largest steel exports, and they are also the primary targets of Japan's plunder.
In 1931, Anshan produced less than 280,000 tons of pig iron, a figure that was only lower than that of Japan's largest steel producer at the time. Two years later, Japan expanded its facilities with three original blast furnaces, and in the following years, Anshan's annual pig iron production continued to grow, reaching 700,000 tons by 1937, and the annual output of steel ingots reached 580,000 tons.
The Tohoku region was once an important industrial base for Japan, providing Japan with a large amount of pig iron and steel. Among them, the pig iron production of Benxi Lake increased from more than 50,000 tons in 1931 to 370,000 tons.
However, the steel was not used for construction, but was made into bullets that became expendable in Japan's war of aggression. After the outbreak of the all-out war of resistance against Japan, Japan squeezed the resources of the northeast region to the end, not only robbing the minerals and industrial raw materials, but also transporting the grain and crops that the local people relied on for their survival back to China.
Northeast China has always been an important agricultural production area in China, and 80% of the local people are engaged in agricultural production. However, during the Puppet Manchurian period, a large amount of grain was continuously transported to Japan, leaving little left for the people.
These data show that Japan's aggressive behavior not only seriously undermined China's territorial integrity and national dignity, but also caused great losses to China's economy.
From the moment of the outbreak of the all-out war of resistance, Japan, an island country with few resources, had sufficient military supplies during the war, and their army accumulated a large amount of resources in the six years of plundering in the northeast region, which allowed them to continue their war of aggression.
In order to meet the needs of the war, Japan took"Feed the war with war"In the various regions of China they occupy, while plundering resources, while continuing the war. The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was an extremely painful war, and our country suffered serious losses and injuries.
During this period, our country's economy was extremely backward, and the equipment was the worst, and every battle was built with the flesh and blood of the soldiers. From 1931 to 1945, during the Japanese invasion of China, the entire motherland was trampled, and more than 35 million compatriots and more than 42 million refugees were homeless.
During the 14-year-long War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, we experienced the most difficult and painful period in modern times. We were still able to win victory despite the extreme disparity between the enemy's strength and our own, and this was all thanks to the correct policy of our party, which adopted the tactics of guerrilla warfare and all-out war of resistance, and fought together in the battlefield behind enemy lines and on the frontal battlefield, and the people of the whole country were the firm backing of the Eighth Route Army.
Our victory in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was achieved through tremendous time, energy, and sacrifice.
From the historical data, we can see that during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Japan carried out large-scale plundering of economic resources in the puppet Manchukuo, and the equipment of the squadron was relatively backward in comparison.
Although the squadron has an advantage in numbers, there is a gap in combat qualities. This shows that in the War of Resistance Against Japan, the squadron not only needs to improve its equipment, but also needs to strengthen the improvement of its combat quality.