Armor Clash 1938

Commissar

Banned
OOB of the Chinese 200th Division (From what I could piece together)


  • 1149th Regiment (Tank Regiment)
  • 1150th Regiment (Tank Regiment)
  • 1151st Regiment (Armoured Car Regiment)
  • 1152nd Regiment (Mechanized Infantry)
  • 52nd Artillery Regiment
70 T-26, BT-5, 92 CV-33, 50 BA armored cars, 18 Sd Kfz 221, Over 400 Ford Trucks.

OOB of the IJA 14th Division


  • 27th Infantry Brigade
    • 2nd Infantry Regiment
    • 59th Infantry Regiment
  • 28th Infantry Brigade
    • 15th Infantry Regiment
    • 50th Infantry Regiment
  • 20th Field Artillery Regiment
  • 18th Cavalry Regiment (to September 1940)
  • 14th Reconnaissance Regiment (from September 1940)
  • 14th Engineer Regiment
  • 14th Transport Regiment
  • 1st Tank Battalion (ATL)
  • 2nd Tank Battalion (ATL)
40 Type 89B, 22 Type-94 Te-Ke, 16 Type 95 Ha-Go, 200 Trucks

On May 1st, at Langfeng in Henan Province, the IJA would win its first Armor Clash in a battle that would mostly remain unknown outside of China and Japan.

A bit of an overview. The IJA was prosecuting a massive coordinated Front against the NRA with the Aim of wiping it out.
The Battle of Northern and Eastern Henan as it would be called was actually several battles.

The Battle of Taierzhuang where 400,000 Chinese Soldiers had encircled the IJA 2nd Army and sent it into retreat a month earlier.

Now the Battle of Xuzhou where 600,000 Chinese Soldiers were fighting to break out of an encirclement was being waged.

The fighting had been going on for months and the Japanese had finally managed to pin the Chinese in and Langfeng was the key to closing the trap.

May 1st would see the Chinese 200th Division attempt to open an escape route for the Chinese Military Region 1 and 5 to escape. Opposing them was the IJA 14th Division which had been reinforced by two Tank Battalions to augment its light tank company.

The stage was set for an epic clash.
......................................

AN: I'm going to be looking over maps for the narrative of this Timeline before going with the fight.

But admit it, you were thinking of something else when you read the title.
 
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Commissar

Banned
Armored warfare in the 2SJW? Consider me sold.

It occurred a few times OTL and the Chinese won most of them. OTL Langfeng was a Chinese Armor Victory that enabled the Chinese Army to escape a massive pocket.

Pretty interesting story too.
 

Commissar

Banned
As with many engagements of the 2nd Sino Japanese War, the clash at Langfeng began with a Cavalry Skirmish.

Chinese Muslim Cavalry in a meeting engagement smashed into the IJA 18th Cavalry Regiment at 0400 in the Rice Paddies.

In a swirling engagement of pistols, carbines, swords, and lances and twelve light tanks, the Japanese were getting the upper hand when the Chinese 1151st Regiment joined the fray. Equipped with Armored Cars, they easily smashed the 18th Cavalry Regiment by 0545 and sent it from the field.

At this point the Chinese Commander of the 200th Division, General Cheng Chien, and the Japanese Commander, Kenji Doihara, both realized the other was trying to gain control of the stretch of the Tientsin-Pukow rail lines that ran through Langfeng and began turning their troops to the area.

For the Japanese, control of Langfeng would close the trap on on 600,000 Chinese troops and avenge the loss at Taierzhuang the month before.

For the Chinese, victory would save 600,000 Chinese Soldiers from the pocket.

The stage was set. The Ground was open rice paddies that had already been flooded.

As 1200 rolled by both sides were moving their entire Division along the roads and summoning available reinforcements to wrest control of the rail line.

At 1230, the 59th Infantry Regiment of the IJA 27th Infantry Brigade arrived to reinforce the smashed 18th Cavalry Regiment in time to help it repel the Chinese 1151st Regiment as it tried to finish off the 18th.

In a swirling battle the 59th would lose a third of its men as causalities, but they succeeded in destroying the 1151st Regiment using molotov cocktails, grenades, pole mines, satchel charges, mortars, and concentrated fire of machine guns. At 1500 the Chinese had fled the field in 3 Armored Cars they had left.

More importantly the 59th gained a position overlooking the rail road and began digging in with the 18th.

1700, the 14th Engineer Regiment, 14th Transport Regiment bringing along the 20th Field Artillery Regiment, and the entire 28th Infantry Brigade arrived on the field. The rest of the Division would arrive by 0500 tomorrow including the two new Tank Battalions.

At the same time, the 200th Division had finished Massing and was prepared to launch its counter-offensive, spearhead by nearly 200 Tanks and nearly 800 American and Soviet Trucks brimming with Infantry.

The offensive was set to begin at 0600 tomorrow. It would see the largest clash of Armor in China yet to date and would decide the fate of 600,000 Chinese Soldiers.
 
The battle you're describing involve the OOB for the Battle of Kunlun Pass in late 1939. Pre-war Chinese amror consisted of only three battalions British/Italian/German vehicles. By the Battle of Taierzhuang only a few armored vehicles had survived and the 200th Division was not yet formed, neither was their Soviet equipment delivered.

If China were to build a full armored division by 1938 it would have to be non-Soviet equipment since it was only that year that the Soviets started to get friendly with China.

I suppose you could go Swedish. Landsverk L-60 light tank and L-180 armored cars are a good combo. They even offered the L-62 40mm self propelled anti-aircraft gun.
 
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Commissar

Banned
The battle you're describing involve the OOB for the Battle of Kunlun Pass in late 1939. Pre-war Chinese amror consisted of only three battalions British/Italian/German vehicles. By the Battle of Taierzhuang only a few armored vehicles had survived and the 200th Division was not yet formed, neither was their Soviet equipment delivered.

No, this was the Chinese OOB as of January 1938 till it was reorganized in September 1938 as a motorized rifle division with the armor units stripped out.

At Kunlun, the 200th was a Motorized Division.

Don't know where you're getting your information from.

Anycase Google Translate if you can't read the Chinese. But its a good ideal to learn the language anyway as Google Translate isn't always the best.

You can also visit the archives for more information.
 
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