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.