Chapter 70: The Japanese General’s Concerns
The 19th Infantry Regiment commander Hitomi Shuzo major general, inspecting the trenches, looked expressionlessly at the Type 92 heavy machine gun destroyed in front of him. The machine gun’s barrel cooling jacket and body had three bullet holes, and the most fatal one was on the heavy machine gun’s receiver.
“Major general sir, this machine gun is scrapped! Bullets destroyed several important precision parts. This is the sixth heavy machine gun destroyed in three days, hit by the Chinese’s large-caliber bullets!”
After carefully inspecting the destroyed Type 92 heavy machine gun, First Battalion commander Nishino Miyosuke captain shook his head helplessly, and handed the expressionless Hitomi Shuzo a deformed steel bullet core as thick as a finger that he extracted from the receiver with pliers.
Nishino Miyosuke was not unfamiliar with this kind of bullet core. Many of their heavy machine guns had been destroyed by this kind of bullet these days, and sometimes those Chinese soldiers would even use this kind of bullet to shoot people, even causing panic among the soldiers.
“It’s this large-caliber bullet again!”
Taking this deformed and shattered bullet core as thick as a thumb from Nishino Miyosuke’s hand, Hitomi Shuzo knew this weapon was the devil’s gun that had been passed around by word of mouth among the 19th Regiment’s soldiers these days.
The reason was that several Japanese soldiers’ bodies had been torn in half by this kind of bullet one after another, with extremely brutal death states, and it was just one shot. This must be the bullet from that devil’s gun!
As a veteran soldier with more than ten years of service, Hitomi Shuzo’s knowledge was extensive, and he had studied various tactics from countries around the world, but this was the first time he had seen a tactic using large-caliber rifles to target infantry.
In theory, whether 6.5 caliber, 7.62, or 7.92 caliber bullets, hitting the human body was enough to cause death.
From a cost perspective, using this 14.5 caliber steel-core bullet on people was undoubtedly a huge waste, but these Chinese soldiers, who had been completely surrounded by their regiment, actually used anti-tank bullets to shoot people. This really made him unable to understand.
“Move all the remaining Type 92 heavy machine guns into the bunkers. Don’t set up the machine guns when there is no fighting between both sides.”
After wrapping this bullet in a handkerchief and putting it in his pocket, Hitomi Shuzo instructed First Battalion commander Nishino Miyosuke captain beside him. The 19th Regiment now only had thirteen Type 92 heavy machine guns left.
This also led to a serious shortage of supporting firepower for the 19th Regiment commander. Before replenishment supplies arrived, the remaining heavy machine guns must be protected well.
If someone was familiar with Nanjing, this ancient capital, they would surely be stunned by its current scene of devastation. The originally beautiful St. Paul’s Church had collapsed more than half, except for a few pillars that still retained their previous appearance, the urban area was full of buildings bombed into rubble everywhere.
Continuous days of fighting and bombing had almost turned this area’s blocks into ruins. Soldiers from both Chinese and Japanese sides were suffering huge casualties.
Even the 9th Division, renowned for its tenacious, heroic, and fearless combat, felt fatigue and fear.
Those Chinese soldiers were like indestructible cockroaches, everywhere. Once the Japanese army launched an attack, they would emerge from all places to counterattack the Japanese army.
Sewers, wells, cellars, ruins—there were traces of them everywhere, simply omnipresent.
To capture St. Paul’s Church, Prince Asaka Yasuhiko dispatched the 9th Division to surround it tightly, and mobilized the 7th and 19th Infantry Regiments and an field artillery battalion to launch successive attacks on it, even turning the entire area into ruins, but three days had passed, and this land was still firmly controlled by the Chinese.
This was not all. In these short three days, the casualties of the two infantry regiments had reached a shocking more than two thousand.
Such casualties not only left the entire 9th Division collectively silent, but also shocked the foreign embassies in Nanjing as well as foreign military attaches and journalists stationed in Nanjing. For a time, this small place attracted the attention of both Chinese and Japanese sides as well as the West.
“Pa!”
Prince Asaka Yasuhiko’s saber split the oak conference table in Purple Mountain Villa, with the blade edge only half an inch from 9th Division commander Yoshizumi Ryosuke lieutenant general’s Adam’s apple.
In the conference room, the breathing of twenty generals and staff officers condensed into white mist in the office. The Nanjing map on the wall was pierced with holes by red and blue arrows.
“Two thousand six hundred casualties in exchange for a mere four or five square kilometers of ruins?”
The prince’s voice was like steel wire soaked in ice water. “Yoshizumi-kun, your 9th Division’s chrysanthemum crest should be changed to cherry blossoms—weak to the point of not being able to smash even some broken bricks and tiles!”
Yoshizumi Ryosuke’s pupils reflected deep shame.
The offensive scenes of the 7th Regiment and 19th Regiment over the past three days flashed in his mind.
The Japanese army’s offensives were not lacking in intensity, and the methods were not few: tank coordination, artillery coordination, even bombers were deployed, but those Chinese soldiers survived tenaciously like indestructible cockroaches.
Although from airplanes and reconnaissance balloons, the area around St. Paul’s Church had long been bombed into a pile of ruins, as soon as Japanese soldiers approached, those Chinese soldiers emerged like ghosts from all places, pouring fire with various weapons at the Japanese soldiers.
Especially the fierce firepower of the individual weapons used by those Chinese soldiers, which made all Japanese soldiers feel chills.
Whether it was those semi-automatic rifles or submachine guns with amazingly fast rates of fire, or various light and heavy machine guns, they made the Japanese army suffer terribly with heavy casualties.
An average of one thousand casualties per day made everyone feel chills. At this rate, in less than half a month, the 9th Division would be in a state of no troops available.
“Perhaps we should consider special ammunition.” 6th Division commander Tani Hisao suddenly spoke, his fingertip tracing the ice crack pattern on the table. “The Harbin Epidemic Prevention Research Institute recently sent twenty tons of improved mustard gas…”
“No!” Chief of Staff Iinuma Mamoru suddenly stood up, his white glove slapping on the North China Daily News front page.
The headline “St. Paul’s Church Becomes Verdun Meat Grinder” was clearly visible, and the photo above was the one taken by the Associated Press journalist of Japanese troops incinerating corpses.
Iinuma Mamoru said loudly: “The international observation group is already gathering north of the river. Using chemical weapons will definitely not escape their eyes, and this will make us lose all European allies!”
North China Daily News, also known as North China Herald, formerly North China Herald, was once the most influential English newspaper published in China.
The battle at St. Paul’s Church actually made the front-page headline of this newspaper, which was enough to prove that this battle had attracted international attention.
Facing Iinuma Mamoru’s concerns, the Japanese senior generals present all showed thoughtful expressions. Japan’s current strength was not enough to take on the Western world alone.
