Operation Ryuudai: The Ryuma Tsumi Maneuver, Part 1 - November 12th - 30th, 1937
So far in the
Ryuudai campaign the much vaunted Motor Corps had little opportunity to utilize the primary reason for it's excessive pre-conflict costs. In fact, the grand maneuver battle results in the center had used the decidedly less costly troops backed by the artillery the former Minister of War Sugiyama had insisted on including in the new divisions added to 4th and 6th Corps, and of course the yeoman duty of the Cavalry Corps.
In the fighting to the south-east of Beijing, the planned advances of the Motor Corps in conjunction with 2nd and 3rd Corps never really had time to mature, and the Motor Corps found itself occupied in rather conventional advances and stemming one counter-attack after another on a rather static front.
The firebrand armor advocate, Baron Nishi, was not the only officer of the Motor Corps stewing in their juices as they read reports of the great encirclement completed at Shanyin and the subsequent victory at Liangcheng and the stunning number of Chinese taken there. It just would not do for the Motor Corps to not have the decisive part in what they were fearing was looking like an end game to the Shanxi War.
With frequent visits to the Motor Corps, Baron Nishi prompted and guided the development of a planned
coup de main even grander than that at Shanyin. Planned to involve the entirety of the 1st Army, with the Motor Corps taking the starring position, the goal of which was nothing less than bagging the majority of forces then in front of the 1st Army, the best troops of all the Chinese forces...if successful the IJA would have absolute supremacy in North China, and would likely have a commanding position to demand terms from the other Chinese.
Their plan was termed the
Ryuma Tsumi Maneuver and called for the following actions:
4th Corps would make a surprise eastern run around
Xiao Wutaishan, sweeping south from there through Wutai itself to end up at the road and rail nexus at Yangquan and the Pingding coal fields.
3rd Corps will hold the current Baoding front.
1st Corps will continue down the coast and occupy Haixin, then hold the Cangzhou-Haixin line.
2nd Corps will protect the south flank of the Motor Corps, moving behind it at best pace and then holding the line Hungshui-Xingtai, and support the Motor Corps 2nd column moving on Shiajiazhuang.
Motor Corps will breakthrough at Hungshui move to Xingtai, then one column will via the Sonyang and Licheng passes "back door" Yushe and make contact with 4th Corps at Yangquan, while a second column will take the city of Shiajizhuang.
Once the encirclement is complete elements of 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and Motor Corps will contract the main enemy forces thus trapped around Baoding.
Baron Nishi quotes his German friend during his trip to the Olympics, Guderian, from that worthy's new work
Achtung Panzer!; in the operational brief, saying "
Ryuma Tsumi encompasses the three factors which guarantee a great mechanized victory, surprise, concentration, and suitable terrain."
General Kuribayashi wholeheartedly agrees with the plan and immediately orders preparations be made for the 1st Army to organize to implement it.
Motor Corps opened the offensive by breaking through the Chinese around Hungshui and with much dash and
elan moving rapidly south down the plain towards Xingtai, leaving it to 2nd Corps to push the remnants out of the way. At Motor Corps and 1st Army HQ it already seemed as if the hardest part was over.
The Chinese had light forces at Xingtai which were not interested in standing up to the full weight of the Motor Corps barreling down the road on them, however, the Chinese were not blind to the danger posed by this sudden thrust and over the next week they desperately contested Xingtai, and it was not until the morning of the 19th that they conceded the town to the Japanese.
Meanwhile 1st and 2nd Corps were executing their portions of the southern pincer of
Ryuma Tsumi
The north pincer did not have as much territory to show, as 4th Corps surprise move around
Xiao Wutaishan was not as surprising as they would have liked, their advance was contested and they found themselves fighting all around the eastern slope and foothills of the mountain to get into the town of Wutai itself, which was finally accomplished on the 20th.
However, with the fall of Wutai, the Chinese forces in the hills around Fuping decided that their lines of communication were threatened and gave way to the holding pressure of 3rd Corps.
Back at the Motor Corps the other surprise move of the first column through the Songyang pass failed to get organized before the 2nd column was off on more favorable ground to threaten the rear of the enemy forces around Shiajizhuang, this actually filled the roads that the 1st column was supposedly going to use through the Songyang and Licheng passes with hordes of Chinese retreating from Shiajizhuang; troops with the late starting 1st column were reduced to taking pot shots at the retreating enemy passing across their front instead of be trapping and destroying them against 3rd Corps.
The column moving against Shiajizhuang turned back onto the Songyang and Licheng passes in pursuit, leaving the 2nd Corps to physically occupy the city, and combined with the first column the Motor Corps surged into the two passes and occupied the hill town of Yushe. While not technically behind schedule themselves, this misstep prevented a number of Chinese formations from being caught.
By this point the Chinese had learned the lesson that was so costly for them from the Shanyin Gap battle, and they began rushing reinforcements to the chokepoints around Taiyuan to hold open the developing salient, they also began withdrawing their troops trapped in the pocket, allowing Baoding to fall as they began collapsing towards the gap and safety.
In the north pincer, the 4th Corps' single division at Wutai was virtually surrounded by a sea of Chinese troops. The progress of the north pincer halted in the face of the rushed fresh reinforcements from Taiyuan and the less fresh, but exceedingly desperate troops streaming through road and rail arteries of Luanquang. The Chinese made a strong counter-attack against Wutai and virtually besieged the 4th Corps there, a weaker counter-attack was launched against Yushe which was entirely inadequate to dislodge the Motor Corps.
On the 1st and 2nd Corps front they achieved their
Ryuma Tsumi objectives, buffering the Motor Corps by taking Dezhou and putting the enemy forces in Handan to flight.
As November came to a close the concepts of
Achtung Panzer! had shown their worth in the open plains of Heibei. Yet 1st Army had been unable to close the gap, and 4th Corps was actually barely holding their positions at Wutai. As a final denouement, the troops of 3rd Corps after tenaciously holding and advancing in constant combat from the Great Wall on October 1st to keeping pressure on the Lingshan salient, could no longer mount any further attacks, like the 6th Corps in the north, 3rd Corps had simply run out of juice.