Chinese armies in the Second Sino-Japanese War

The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Chinese and Japanese armies, mostly on Chinese soil, during the late 1930s and early 1940s. Western historians generally view the Second Sino-Japanese War as a theater of World War II. During this war, the Chinese Army had two severe handicaps. First, the Chinese army was ill-equipped, with significantly less advanced military technology than the Japanese and its allies. Second, the Chinese army lacked political unity. Because the Guomindang and the Chinese Communist Party had not reconciled before 1937, when Japanese troops invaded Chinese territory, these two groups were forced to paper over important differences for the duration of the war, occasionally leading them to destructively hinder each other's efforts to defeat the Japanese.

Degree of success

After the outbreak of World War II

General Chung Yee

On May 9, 1940, several Chinese units under the command of Chinese General Chung Yee fought to the death against a well-equipped Japanese armored division. All the Chinese soldiers who entered battle were killed, but Chung Yee, with two members of his personal escort, retreated to the forest and searched for reinforcements. To his misfortune, a second Japanese force outside the village of Tsuan Tai Chen had killed potential reinforcements.

The ensuing battle lasted eight hours causing terrible losses to the defenders; Chung Yee was wounded in the right arm. Chinese officers petitioned for a strategic retreat, but Commander Yee overruled them, ordering a last stand to defend the land. He saw this as a debt owed to his country, and a dishonour if left unpaid before his death. The enemy advanced with reinforcements. During the battle, a round of machine gun fire reached the party of General Chang and wounded one of his officers.

Only a few hours later, General Fang Chih-an encountered the same Japanese force, and his army defeated it. Among the corpses, he found the enemy commander. Subsequent Japanese radio broadcasts glorified the late Japanese commander and stated his remains would be sent to Shantung.

The funerals continued even as these attacks occurred, and Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek conferred high honours upon the dead chiefs. Honours were bestowed upon the General Chung Yee for his role as Chinese supreme commander.

Other Chinese engagements

Chinese General Chang Yun-ee, chief of the Fourth Detachment, was killed in combat during the spring of 1942. There were approximately 500,000 soldiers left in the Chinese army.

In the Second Changsha battle, Chinese forces destroyed advancing Japanese forces. During the ensuing Japanese retreat, the Chinese pursued and destroyed the remaining Japanese groups who fled the battle.

A Chinese expeditionary force annihilated the entire Japanese 33rd Division in the Battle of Yenangyaung, of the first Burma campaign. They liberated around 7,000 British prisoners, took roughly 1,000 horses, and freed 500 other prisoners, which included American journalists and missionaries captured by the Japanese forces.

After the Battle of Kweshan, Chinese forces captured 10 soldiers of the Manchukuo Imperial Forces, two 9.3 cm pieces of heavy artillery, and a plaque which read "Manufactured in Tokyo, 1940". In Juikwotan, Chinese forces confiscated two American trucks from the Japanese, one of which was full of packages of hand grenades. The Chinese general headquarters was filled by Japanese flags, parts for trucks and cars, tools, rifles, pistols, revolvers, munitions, mortars with munitions, covers, and raincoats. One secret peasant society, "Hwang Shih Hwei", helped capture Japanese troops and the aforementioned equipment during combat.

The Chinese mourned the loss of the young officer Loh Hun-ping, in the battle near the enemy position of Miaoerpu, who had led one offensive unit against the enemy.

After these skirmishes, Chinese forces engaged in guerrilla combat, impeding Japan's first attempt to organize the large number of Japanese units needed for a pincer attack, which the Japanese planned to use during their invasion of Sichuan province. The Chinese were aided by the U.S. Navy, which defeated the Japanese Navy in the Midway, and by the U.S. Army, which defeated the Japanese Army in the Solomon Islands campaigns; these defeats prevented the Japanese forces from sending adequate reinforcements to the Chinese mainland for their previously planned invasion of Sichuan, and also deprived the Japanese of control over important sea routes. Finally, Chinese forces joining the Anglo-American "Flying Tigers" destroyed the new Japanese divisions slated to invade Sichuan during the Battle of Hubei.

End of the war

During the last offensive, Japanese forces were again defeated in North Hupei, West Hunan, Hsihsiaoko, Laohoku, Ninhsiang, Yiyang, Wuyang, Liuchow-Kweilin, Nanning, Kwangsi, and Yuehcheng Shan.

Chinese forces launched a fierce counter-offensive against the last Japanese positions in Canton and Kwangsi. They also took part in other counter-offensives with the Allied Forces in the South China area against the remaining Japanese forces in the area.

See also

• Development of Chinese Nationalist Armour and Air force in World War II
• Sino-German cooperation
• Second Sino-Japanese War

External links

• History of the first Mitsubishi A6M Zero captured by the Chinese