The Battle of South Guangxi () was one of the 22 major engagements between the
National Revolutionary Army
The National Revolutionary Army (NRA; ), sometimes shortened to Revolutionary Army () before 1928, and as National Army () after 1928, was the military arm of the Kuomintang (KMT, or the Chinese Nationalist Party) from 1925 until 1947 in China ...
and
Imperial Japanese Army
The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...
during the
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...
.
In November 1939, the Japanese landed on the coast of
Guangxi
Guangxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the People's Republic ...
and captured
Nanning
Nanning (; ; za, Namzningz) is the capital and largest city by population of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in Southern China. It is known as the "Green City" because of its abundance of lush subtropical foliage. Located in the South of ...
. In this battle, the Japanese successfully cut off
Chongqing
Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Romanization, alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a Direct-administered municipalities of China, municipality in Southwes ...
from the ocean, effectively severing foreign aid to China's war efforts by the sea, rendering
Indochina
Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...
, the
Burma Road
The Burma Road () was a road linking Burma (now known as Myanmar) with southwest China. Its terminals were Kunming, Yunnan, and Lashio, Burma. It was built while Burma was a British colony to convey supplies to China during the Second Sino-J ...
and
The Hump
The Hump was the name given by Allied pilots in the Second World War to the eastern end of the Himalayan Mountains over which they flew military transport aircraft from India to China to resupply the Chinese war effort of Chiang Kai-shek and t ...
the only ways to send aid to China.
The Chinese launched several major offensives that maximized Japanese casualties. A majority of the conflicts occurred in the
fighting for Kunlun Pass. With the success of the
Vietnam Expedition
The was a short undeclared military confrontation between Japan and France in northern French Indochina. Fighting lasted from 22 to 26 September 1940; the same time as the Battle of South Guangxi in the Sino-Japanese War, which was the mai ...
in September 1940, the Japanese were able to cut China off from Indochina. Now only the Burma Road and The Hump remained, ending the costly necessity of occupying Guangxi. By November 1940, Japanese forces had evacuated from Guangxi except from some coastal enclaves.
Order of battle
See also
*
Air Warfare of WWII from the Sino-Japanese War perspective
Sources
*
*
Map 18 Perry–Castañeda Library Map Collection China 1:250,000, Series L500, U.S. Army Map Service, 1954- . Topographic Maps of China during the Second World War.
** These two maps cover the area where most of the fighting went on in the Guangxi campaign:
*
Lai-Pin nf49-1 has the Kunlun Pass just above where the road from Nanning enters the map:
*
Nanning nf49-5
References
Bibliography
* Cheung, Raymond. ''OSPREY AIRCRAFT OF THE ACES 126: Aces of the Republic of China Air Force''. Oxford: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2015. .
* Xú,Lùméi. ''Fallen: A Decryption of 682 Air Force Heroes of The War of Resistance-WWII and Their Martyrdom''. 东城区, 北京, 中国: 团结出版社, 2016. .
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South Guangxi
South Guangxi
1939 in China
1939 in Japan
1940 in Japan
1940 in China
South Guangxi 1939
Military history of Guangxi