The Battle of Zaoyang–Yichang, also known as the Battle of Zaoyi (), was one of the 22 major engagements between the
National Revolutionary Army 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 ...
.
Background
The Japanese were seeking a quicker solution to achieve a Chinese surrender. The Japanese contemplated moving directly down the Yangtze to the relocated Chinese capital,
Chongqing. To do so, they would need to capture a critical town in western Hubei province,
Yichang
Yichang (), alternatively romanized as Ichang, is a prefecture-level city located in western Hubei province, China. It is the third largest city in the province after the capital, Wuhan and the prefecture-level city Xiangyang, by urban populati ...
.
The Japanese attack did not commit many troops or material, which enabled the main Chinese commander,
Li Zongren
Li Zongren or Li Tsung-jen (; 13 August 1890 – 30 January 1969), courtesy name Telin (Te-lin; ), was a prominent Guangxi warlord and Kuomintang (KMT) military commander during the Northern Expedition, Second Sino-Japanese War and Chinese C ...
, who had frustrated the Japanese before, to repel the Japanese.
Battle
On 1 May 1940, three divisions of the
IJA 11th Army under command of General
Waichiro Sonobe began a drive towards
Zaoyang. They pushed towards the 5th warzone's strongholds in the Tongbaishan and Dahongshan mountains, attempting to encircle and destroy the Chinese 31st Army Group under General
Tang Enbo
Tang Enbo (, birth name was ,(1898–1954) was a Kuomintang, Nationalist general in the Republic of China.
Life
Early life and war with Japan
Born in 1898 in Wuyi, Zhejiang, Tang Enbo was a graduate of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy, an ...
in a
pincer movement
The pincer movement, or double envelopment, is a military maneuver in which forces simultaneously attack both flanks (sides) of an enemy formation. This classic maneuver holds an important foothold throughout the history of warfare.
The pin ...
. The Chinese strategy aimed to let the Japanese forces run low on supplies, and then counterattack, as had been successfully employed at the
Battle of Changsha. When the Japanese managed to outmaneuver Tang's forces, General
Zhang Zizhong marched to his aid with the Chinese 33rd Army Group. The Japanese forces rallied and pushed back the Chinese, and General Zhang Zizhong was cut down in a burst of machine gun fire when he refused to retreat from the front lines. He was the most senior Chinese commander to be killed in combat during the war.
The Japanese used chemical weapons against Chinese forces who lacked chemical weapons in order to compensate for when they were numerically inferior, whenever Chinese were defeating the Japanese in hand to hand combat. The Japanese did not dare to use gas against the Americans because the Americans had their own chemical weapons stockpile and the Japanese feared retaliation.
The Japanese launched gas attacks against Chinese when the Chinese were defeating and overwhelming the Japanese in hand to hand combat, like at the battle of Yichang in 1941, where Japanese ground forces in the city were routed by Chinese soldiers but the Japanese deployed mustard gas to win the battle.
Aftermath
According to Japanese records, the Japanese casualties were 2,700 troops killed and 7,800 wounded. Chinese records show that 11,000 Japanese troops were killed. While the Chinese 5th War Area arguably made tactically sound decisions in its battle plans, it was ultimately overwhelmed by the sheer firepower of the Japanese combined arms offensive, relying primarily on small arms to face the onslaught of Japanese air, naval, artillery, and armoured striking power. As the Chinese commanders had surmised, the Japanese forces were overextended, and were not in a position to pursue their victory. However, the
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrend ...
pushed strongly for the occupation of Yichang, located at the edge of
Sichuan Province
Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...
and connecting the 5th and 9th war zones. The Navy felt that it was critically needed as a forward base for air attacks against
Chongqing. After considerable argument, the Japanese Army agreed to occupy Yichang.
This dealt a considerable blow to the morale and fighting capacity of the Chinese as no large-scale offensive was mounted after this operation.
See also
*
Order of Battle: Battle of Zaoyang-Yichang
References
Sources
* Hsu Long-hsuen and Chang Ming-kai, History of The Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) 2nd Ed., 1971. Translated by Wen Ha-hsiung, Chung Wu Publishing; 33, 140th Lane, Tung-hwa Street, Taipei, Taiwan Republic of China. Page 334-339, Map 20, 21
* van de Ven, Hans.
War and Nationalism in China: 1925-1945''
External links
"Occupation of Shashi" ''Nippon News'', No. 3. in the official website of
NHK
, also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee.
NHK operates two terrestr ...
.
"Occupation of Yichang" ''Nippon News'', No. 4. in the official website of NHK.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zaoyang-Yichang
Conflicts in 1940
Zaoyang-Yichang 1939
1940 in China
1940 in Japan
Military history of Hubei
May 1940 events
June 1940 events