Marco Polo Bridge incident

The Battle is well known among Chinese as Incident of July 7 (七七事變) or July 7 Lugouqiao (七七蘆溝&#27211). (note: All Chinese and Japanese personal names here are preceded by family names.)

Overview
On July 7 1937, Japanese Imperial Army attacked the bridge. Despite determined resistance by KMT forces, Japanese army managed to take the bridge and eventually Beijing which is abandoned by KMT.

Historical significance

The battle officially marked Japanese large scale invasion of China. With the Japanese victory the Imperial Army can move on to the plain of Northern China (north of Huang he) without much resistance since their tanks are pretty formidable against the low-tech Chinese army.

Prelude to Battle

After the Incident of September 18 in 1931, Japan had occupied Manchuria and had created an nominally independent state of Manchukuo with Ai-xin-jue-luo Pu-yi (the last emperor of China) as its sovereign. That state is widely regarded to have been a puppet government with real power concentrated in the hands of the Japanese, which constituted the only significant military forces in Manchuria. Although the Kuomintang and the international community refused to recognize the legality of the Japanese occupation, a truce had been negotiated in 1931.

At the end of 1932, Japanese Guandong Army invaded Chahaer Province. (KMT's XXIX Corps, lead by General Song Zhe Yuan and armed only with spears and obsolete rifles, resisted the aggression, resulting in the War of Resistance at the Great Wall. The province fell to the Japanese after the predictable victory therefore areas to the west of Beijing fell to the Japanese.

In 1933, Japan annexed Rehe Province using the security of Manzhouguo as a pretext. Consequently all areas north of the Great wall and hence north of Beijing fell to Japan. In 1935, Japan annexed eastern portion of Hebei Province, established yet another puppet government, Eastern Ji Anticommunist Automated Government (冀東防共自治政府 abrreviated as Eastern Ji Automated Government 冀東自治政府). Later that year, Ho Ying Qin (何應欽) and Umemura mi?rou (梅村美治/自郎) signed an agreement, known as the Ho-Umemura Agreement by which Japanese could deploy and pratise troops around Beijing at will. As a result at the start of 1937, Beijing was surrounded at north, west and east by areas occupied by Japanese.

Japanese installations of various puppet governments were deliberate attempts to annex whole country of China by nibbling. Nanjing puppet government with Wang Jingwei as head was another obvious example.

Geography around the bridge and Beijing

Lugou Bridge ( 蘆溝橋 lugouqiao) locates in Fengtai (豐台 feng1 tai2), a suburb area south of Beijing. It is also known as the Marco Polo Bridge because the bridge was believed to be described in the works of Marco Polo.

4 strategic posts secured Beijing from outside the city.

East of the city: Tongzhou Town (通州鎮)
Northwest: Nankou Town (南口鎮) at Changping Prefecture (昌平縣xian)
South: Fengtai Town (豐台鎮)
Southwest: Lugou Bridge at Wanping Prefecture (宛平縣) where Wanping Town(宛平鎮) was located. The bridge was the choke-point of Pinghan Railway and guarded the only passage leading Beijing to KMT-controlled area from the south. Nanwan Town (南宛鎮) located north of Wanping town.

Pinghan Railway (Beijing-Wuhan Railway), the only rail linking the city to south of Huang he, passed the bridge, then entered Wanping Town, Nanwan Town and finally to the terminal station in Beijing.

Before the start of the battle, all the first 3 posts were under Japanese control except the southwest. The west end of the bridge was controlled by the Japanese as the east by KMT. If the bridge fell, the city will be completely cut off from KMT who thus defended it at all costs.

Troops information and Notable Figures from both sides

Figures

The XXIX Corps, composed mostly of Feng yu xiang's forces and infantry, secured the cities of Beijing and Tianjin and the Hebei Province.

*KMT forces*
Personal Names [abbreviations hereafter]	Military Post(s)	Non-Military Post(s)
General Song Zhe Yuan [Song]	commander of XXIX Corps	Charmain of the Hebei Legislative Committee (same as a provincial parliamnet), Head of the Beijing Securities (similar to police)
General Qin De Chun (秦德淳 qin2 de2 chun2) [Qin]	vice-commander of XXIX Corps	Mayor of Beijing
General Liu Ru Ming (劉汝明 liu2 ru3 ming2) [Liu]	commander of 143th Division	Chairman of Chahaer Province
General Feng Zhi An (馮治安 feng2 zhi4 an1) [Feng]	commander of 37th Division	Chairman of Hebei Province
General Zhao Deng Ru (趙登汝 zhao4 deng1 ru3) [Zhao]	commander of 132th Division	N/A
General Zhang Zi Zhong (張自忠 zhang1 zi4 zhong1) [Zhang]	commander of 38th Division	Mayor of Tianjin
Colonel Ji Xing Wen (吉星文 ji2 xing1 wen2) [Ji]	commander of 219th regiment, under 110th brigade of 37th Division	N/A

The Japanese Guandong Army at the region was a combination of infantry, tanks, mechanized forces, artilleries and cavalries.

*Japanese Forces*
Personal Names [abbreviations hereafter]	Military Post(s)	Composition of the corresponding units
Matsui Taisa = Colonel Matsui (松(matsu) 井(i) 大(tai) 佐(sa)) [Matsui]	commander of 117th? Battalion of Guandong Army and troops around Beijing and Tianjin	Infantry
? Taii = Captain ? [?]	commander of 221th? Mechanized Squadron	some tanks and mostly armoured vehicles
? Taii [?]	commander of 3(7?)th Battery	Artillery with few infantries
? Taii [?]	commander of 6(8?)th Squadron	Cavalry

Deployment

Phase I

*KMT forces*
Units	Locations of headquaters	Strength in number of soldiers	Depoyments or Duties
XXIX Corps	Beijing	around 50000	Hebei Province
143th Division	Beijing	just below 10000	Beijing
37th Division	Beijing	just below 10000	south of Beijing
132th Division	Beijing	several thousands	between Beijing and Tianjin
38th Division	Tianjin	several thousands	Tianjin
219th regiment, under 110th brigade of 37th Division	Wanping Town	around 1000 of the 10000	deployed right in front of the Japanese for security of the bridge

*Japanese Forces*
Units	Locations of headquaters	Strength in number of soldiers	Deployments or Duties
117th? Battalion	?	around 400	west of Lugou bridge
221th? Mechanized Squadron	same as 117th	around 200	west of Lugou bridge
3(7?)th Battery	Nankou Town	around 200	Nankou Town
6(8?)th Squadron	Tongzhou Town	around 400	Tongzhou Town

Phase II

KMT forces
same as Phase I except 132th was moved to garrison Nanwan Town which is between Wanping Town and Beijing.

Japanese Forces
3(2?)th Division of Guandong Army from Chahaer Province and 15(9?)th Division from Manchuria and troops from Phase I were all commanded by General Hashimoto (橋本大将). Strength of Japanese Army sharply increased from around 1000 to around 15000. XXXIV(?) Corps of Guandong army was on its way from Manchuria and Korea.

Course of the Battle

Phase I

Beginning late June 1937, the Japanese army (several hundreds) deployed at the west end of the bridge was practising while Kuomintang forces, garrisoned in Wanping Town, watched closely. At dawn of July 7, the Japanese army telegraphed the KMT forces saying that a soldier was missing and believed to be hiding inside the town. The Japanese demanded that its army should enter the town to search for the missing soldier, who was later found unharmed. There are some disputes among historians over the incident with some historians believing that this was an unintentional accident while others believing that the entire incident was fabricated by the Kwantung Army in order to provide a pretext for the invasion of central China.

Colonel Ji denied the request backed by his superior, General Song. In the evening of July 7, Matsui gave Ji an ultimatum that KMT troops must let Japanese troops enter the town within the next hour or the town will be fired. Nevertheless Japanese artillery had already aimed at the town when the ultimatum was sent. At midnight July 8, Japanese artillery units started bombarding the town while the infantry with tanks matched across the bridge at dawn. With order from Song, Ji led the KMT forces of about 1000 to defend at all cost. The Japanese army partially overran the bridge in the afternoon but KMT force, outnumbered the Japanese, retook it completely next day. Japanese army then halted the attack and offered negotiation, marking the end of Phase I. Nevertheless Japanese army still concentrated at the west end of the bridge.

Phase II

During the meeting of all senior (KMT officers in Beijing on July 12, Qin insisted that KMT forces must remain defending and resisted any temptation of negotiating with the Japanese whom he did not trust. Zhang in turn argued the incident on July 7 could still be settled by negotiation. Song then sent Zhang as KMT representative to Tianjin to meet General Hashimoto, the commander of all Japanese forces around the cities of Beijing and Tianjin and in Chahaer and Rehe Provinces.

At the beginning Hashimoto told Zhang that the Japanese hoped the incident on July 7 to be settled peacefully. Zhang was encouraged by his friendly gesture and telegraphed Song that any (KMT forces concentration around Beijing would be viewed as an escalation and anger the Japanese. However Song thought Hashimoto was only buying time since he received various reconnaissance reports indicating increasing accumulation of Japanese forces from Manchuria and Korea around Beijing. As a precaution he transferred Zhao's 132th accompanied with Qin to station at Nanwan Town which was between the bridge and Beijing.

On July 31(?) (end of the month), Japanese promised not to invade Beijing and Tianjin upon agreement of all following terms:

1) (KMT must wipe out all anti-japan organaizations and halt all anti-japan activities inside the cities. 2) KMT must take all responsiblities of the incident on July 7. 3) Song, not any other inferior personnel of XXIX Corps, must apologize.

Zhang accepted the first term and the commander of the battalion under Ji's command will be relieved as an agreement to the second. However Zhang told Hashimoto that he could not decide on behalf of Song, thus cannot agree on the third term at the time. He then returned to Beijing. Hashimoto also hinted that the Japanese would prefer Zhang as the commander of KMT troops around the city. As soon as Zhang's departure, the Japanese lauched full scale attack on Beijing.

On August 8(?), three days after Zhang heading for the city, the bridge and Wanping Town fell to the Japanese. Nanwan Town fell on next day with both divisions (37th and 132th) shattered. Zhao was mortally wounded on battlefield and Qin retreated with the remnants back to the city. In the evening after the fall of Nanwan Town, Zhang finally arrived (He had to pass through enemy lines to reach the city.). Several days after, Song relieved himself of all non-military posts and appointed Zhang to take his posts and Mayor of Beijing. Qin and Song then led XXIX Corps out of the city which was going to be encircled within hours and left Zhang with virually no troops. Japanese armies enter the city on August 15 without much resistance and installed Zhang as major. However Zhang thought he was betrayed and left the city secretly a week later.

Aftermath

With the fall of Beijing on August 15 and Tianjin on 17th, the plain of Northern China was helpless against Japanese machanized divisions who occupied it by the end of the year. Chinese armies (KMT and CCP) were on constant retreat until the hard fought Chinese victory at Tai er zhuang.

There are some disputes among historians over KMT handling of Japanese troops approaching Beijing with some historians believing that Zhang and Song intentionally cooperate secretly with Zhang appointment of non-military posts in Beijing. Song and Qin can then safely retreat from the city to keep the fighting ability of XXIX Corps. Others believed that the Japanese completely sold Zhang as the Japanese still invaded the cities even though KMG agreed all terms. Zhang was vilified relentlessly by the Chinese media, some of which (like the Shanghai Daily) reviled him as the traitor of the country. Upon arrival at Nanjing he apologized publicly. Since he was later killed on battlefield in fighting against the Japanese, Zhang's activities in Beijing was pardoned by KMT.