The Battle of Hengyang () was the longest defense of a single city of the entire
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 ...
. When
Changsha
Changsha (; ; ; Changshanese pronunciation: (), Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is the capital and the largest city of Hunan Province of China. Changsha is the 17th most populous city in China with a population of over 10 million, an ...
fell to the
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 ...
on June 19, 1944,
Hengyang
Hengyang (; ) is the second largest city of Hunan Province, China. It straddles the Xiang River about south of the provincial capital of Changsha. As of the 2020 Chinese census, Its total population was 6,645,243 inhabitants, whom 1,290,715 ...
became their next target. The reorganized 11th Army, consisting of 10 divisions, 4 brigades, and over 110,000 men, assumed the task of attacking Hengyang.
The city was an important railroad junction
and
Hengyang Airport
Hengyang Nanyue Airport is an airport serving the city of Hengyang in Hunan province, China. Located in Yunji Town, Hengnan County, the airport is named after Mount Heng (Hunan), Mount Heng, also known as Nanyue. It replaced the old Bajialing A ...
was used by
USAAC
The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical r ...
General
Claire Lee Chennault
Claire Lee Chennault (September 6, 1893 – July 27, 1958) was an American military aviator best known for his leadership of the "Flying Tigers" and the Chinese Air Force in World War II.
Chennault was a fierce advocate of "pursuit" or fighter ...
's
Flying Tigers
The First American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Republic of China Air Force, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, was formed to help oppose the Japanese invasion of China. Operating in 1941–1942, it was composed of pilots from the United States Ar ...
which were engaged in bombing operations of the Japanese homeland. Therefore, Field Marshal
Hajime Sugiyama
was a Japanese field marshal and one of the leaders of Japan's military throughout most of World War II. As Army Minister in 1937, Sugiyama was a driving force behind the launch of hostilities against China in retaliation for the Marco Polo B ...
, chief of imperial staff and war minister, ordered the city must be taken at all costs.
On June 22, Japanese 68th and 116th divisions received their orders to attack the city and to take it within 2 days, which started the 48 days of siege and defense.
Background
After
successfully capturing Changsha on 18 June 1944, the Japanese 11th army, led by Lieutenant General
Isamu Yokoyama
was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, commanding Japanese ground forces in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War and Pacific War.
Biography
Yokoyama was born in Chiba Prefecture as the son of a colonel in the Imperial Japanese Army; h ...
(橫山 勇) continued its drive southwards. Yokoyama's plans were to capture
Hengyang
Hengyang (; ) is the second largest city of Hunan Province, China. It straddles the Xiang River about south of the provincial capital of Changsha. As of the 2020 Chinese census, Its total population was 6,645,243 inhabitants, whom 1,290,715 ...
and
Guilin
Guilin ( Standard Zhuang: ''Gveilinz''; alternatively romanized as Kweilin) is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is situated on the west bank of the Li River and borders Hunan to the nort ...
to launch an attack on
Liuzhou
Liuzhou (; , IPA Pronunciation:) is a prefecture-level city in north-central Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China. The prefecture's population was 3,758,700 in 2010, including 1,436,599 in the built-up area made of 4 urban ...
, thus concluding
Operation Ichi-Go
Operation Ichi-Go ( ja, 一号作戦, Ichi-gō Sakusen, lit=Operation Number One) was a campaign of a series of major battles between the Imperial Japanese Army forces and the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China, fought from Apri ...
.
The Allies' successful execution of
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allies of World War II, Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Front (World War II), Western Europe during World War II. The operat ...
in Normandy in 1944 drew attention toward Europe as victory against
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
was anticipated. On the other hand, however, China was nearing a breaking point: following the loss of Changsha, failure to hold Hengyang could result in the Japanese crossing into
Guilin
Guilin ( Standard Zhuang: ''Gveilinz''; alternatively romanized as Kweilin) is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is situated on the west bank of the Li River and borders Hunan to the nort ...
and driving west towards
Guizhou
Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to t ...
, from where they could directly attack
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 ...
, thus placing the Chinese wartime capital and military headquarters in imminent danger.
Chinese supreme commander Generalissimo
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...
's relocation of 15 elite divisions to support American general
Joseph Stilwell
Joseph Warren "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell (March 19, 1883 – October 12, 1946) was a United States Army general who served in the China Burma India Theater during World War II. An early American popular hero of the war for leading a column walking ...
's forces in Burma on 15 June resulted in Chinese forces in
Hunan
Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...
and
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 ...
being spread out very thinly. On the other hand, the Japanese offensive involved more troops than any other battle since the war's start, with General Yokoyama deploying 400,000 troops in 150 battalions.
American involvement
Although the Chinese army did gain access to American lend-lease weapons by mid-1944, this was severely restricted, as most of this equipment was still in India, held up by General Stilwell for his forces in Burma. During the siege of Hengyang, Stilwell ordered the destruction of Guilin's airfield and removal of its outer bridge on 21 June.
Changsha campaign
When the Japanese army captured Changsha and pressed southwards, the Chinese units seemed powerless, because during the defense of Changsha, they dispersed in the face of completely superior Japanese power. Logistics and communication were thus very difficult to maintain. Although
Yang Sen
Yang Sen (; 20 February 1884 – 15 May 1977) was a warlord and general of the Sichuan clique who had a long military career in China. Although he was a provincial warlord, he loyally served Chiang Kai-shek and his Kuomintang (KMT) government, ...
's 27th army group and Wang Lingji's 30th army group did fiercely engage the Japanese army at
Liling
Liling () is a county-level city and the 12th most populous county-level division in Hunan Province, China; it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Zhuzhou. Located on the middle eastern margin of the province, the city i ...
and
Chaling respectively, they were unable to stop the advance of the overwhelming Japanese force. As a result, Hengyang was surrounded and unable to receive outside support.
The rapid loss of Changsha came as a shock to the Chinese military headquarters, and also resulted in the Chinese having a difficult time to reestablish their line of defense due to overwhelming Japanese advantages in manpower and material. Chiang Kai-shek hurriedly contacted two-star Lieutenant General
Fang Xianjue
Fang Xianjue () was a Republic of China general who fought in the Second Sino-Japanese War. He was born in a small Jiangsu (now in Suzhou, Anhui) village gentry family in 1903. After studying with the village tutor, he went to Xuzhou Provincial H ...
(
:zh:方先覺), commander of the 10th Corps, ordering him to hold the city for two weeks, in a desperate attempt to buy time for the HQ to fully analyse the situation.
The Chinese forces
The Chinese 10th Corps
Led by General Fang, the 10th Corps had previously participated in the
Battle of Changde
The Battle of Changde (Battle of Changteh; ) was a major engagement in the Second Sino-Japanese War in and around the Republic of China (1912–49), Chinese city of Changde (Changteh) in the province of Hunan. During the battle, the Imperial Ja ...
in November–December 1943, during which it suffered heavy casualties. After the siege of Changde was successfully lifted, the Corps was relocated to
Mount Heng for replacements and resupplies. Only on 2 June was it deployed to protect Hengyang.
The 10th Corps consisted of 3 divisions: the 3rd, 10th, and 190th. In particular, the 10th and 190th division were reserve divisions, and the latter had yet to receive actual troops: it had an en cadre, but no soldiers. Later, the corps gained the temporary 54th division, which was originally stationed at Hengyang, but this division only had the strength of a single regiment. On paper, the Chinese army had 4 divisions, but in reality, they only had 7 regiments. Even with the addition of its mountain artillery company, field artillery company and anti-tank company, its total strength did not exceed approximately 17,000 men.
The city of Hengyang and its importance
Hengyang was a small rectangular city situated in the south-eastern plains of
Hunan
Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...
province, south of the foothills of
Mount Heng (Hunan)
Hengshan (), also known as Mount Heng, is a mountain in southcentral China's Hunan Province known as the southern mountain () of the Five Great Mountains of China. Heng Shan is a mountain range long with 72 peaks and lies at . The Huiyan Pe ...
.
It spanned 500 metres from east to west, and up to 1600 metres from north to south. The
Beijing-Guangzhou and
Hunan-Guangxi Railways intersected at Hengyang, making it the transportation hub linking the provinces of
Hunan
Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...
,
Jiangxi
Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...
,
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
Guizhou
Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to t ...
. The city was also the gateway to south-western China. Additionally, the
Hengyang Airport
Hengyang Nanyue Airport is an airport serving the city of Hengyang in Hunan province, China. Located in Yunji Town, Hengnan County, the airport is named after Mount Heng (Hunan), Mount Heng, also known as Nanyue. It replaced the old Bajialing A ...
was used by
USAAC
The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical r ...
General
Claire Lee Chennault
Claire Lee Chennault (September 6, 1893 – July 27, 1958) was an American military aviator best known for his leadership of the "Flying Tigers" and the Chinese Air Force in World War II.
Chennault was a fierce advocate of "pursuit" or fighter ...
's
Flying Tigers
The First American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Republic of China Air Force, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, was formed to help oppose the Japanese invasion of China. Operating in 1941–1942, it was composed of pilots from the United States Ar ...
, which were engaged in bombing operations of the Japanese homeland. Thus, its military and economic importance made it an inevitable place of contention. A Chinese failure to hold the city could result in the Japanese crossing into
Guilin
Guilin ( Standard Zhuang: ''Gveilinz''; alternatively romanized as Kweilin) is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is situated on the west bank of the Li River and borders Hunan to the nort ...
and driving west towards
Guizhou
Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to t ...
, from where they could directly attack
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 ...
, thus placing the Chinese wartime capital and military headquarters in imminent danger.
Along Hengyang's eastern border, the
Xiang River
The Xiang River is the chief river of the Lake Dongting drainage system of the middle Yangtze, the largest river in Hunan Province, China. It is the 2nd largest tributary (after Min River) in terms of surface runoff, the 5th largest tributar ...
ran from north to south. North of the city, the
Zheng River
Zheng River () is a river of China. It flows into the Xiang River, which is part of the East China Sea basin.Google Maps
See also
*List of rivers in China
This incomplete list of rivers that flow through China is organized according to the bod ...
ran from west to east. West of the city was marshlands. Thus, the only terrain favourable for the Japanese armoured and mechanized units lay in the south, where hills ran westward along the
Hunan-Guangxi Railway starting from the
Jiangxi Hall(
:zh:江西會館), including
Fengshushan(
:zh:楓樹山),
Zhangjiashan(
:zh:張家山), and
Huxingchao(
:zh:虎形巢). By advancing westwards and crossing the Xiang River, the Japanese could directly attack the city from the south. Hence, the outer southern gate of the city became a critical location of contention from the outset.
Chinese defensive disposition
General Fang deployed his most elite unit, the reserve 10th division, led by General
Ge Xiancai(
:zh:葛先才) to protect the vitally important southern gate, while the reserve 190th division was deployed on the eastern flank, responsible for protecting the area outside the city east of the Xiang River, bounded by
Quanxi(
:zh:泉溪) in the east, and
Wumaguicao(
:zh:五馬歸槽) and the
Hengyang Airport
Hengyang Nanyue Airport is an airport serving the city of Hengyang in Hunan province, China. Located in Yunji Town, Hengnan County, the airport is named after Mount Heng (Hunan), Mount Heng, also known as Nanyue. It replaced the old Bajialing A ...
in the west. The temporary 54th division was deployed just north of the 190th, at
Fengjiachong(
:zh:馮家冲), on the west bank of the Leishui River. The 3rd division was deployed west of the city, its area of responsibility spanning from
Gaojiatang(
:zh:高家塘) in the north to the western bus station in the south. The corps command post was originally situated at Fengshushan, in the south of the city, but was later relocated to the central bank, in the centre of the city.
Given that the Japanese captured Changsha on 18 June, just 16 days after the Chinese 10th Corps entered Hengyang, the Chinese had very limited time to prepare their defenses. In spite of this, the Chinese commander General Fang ordered a mandatory evacuation for 300,000 inhabitants of the city, and, recognising his force's inferiority in manpower and material, abandoned some pre-existing defensive positions south of the Hunan-Guangxi Railway in order to minimise the area which his force had to defend, and began to construct earthworks, trenches, pillboxes and bunkers. The Chinese created man-made cliffs of 6 meters high, and covered the place with well-placed mortar and light artillery. In the hills to the south, General Fang deployed machine guns on the summits flanking
saddles, creating tight killzones over the open ground, where abatises were also deployed. This meant that the Japanese only had two ways to advance: to scale the cliffs with ladders, or to brave the machine gun fire and run across the open fields.
Just before the Japanese launched their attack, the Chinese Army HQ was able to spare some American artillery for the defense of the city. However, the 10th Corps had to send its artillery battalion to
Kunming
Kunming (; ), also known as Yunnan-Fu, is the capital and largest city of Yunnan province, China. It is the political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province as well as the seat of the provincial government. The headquar ...
to collect it. The battalion traveled to
Jinchengjiang(
:zh:金城江) via train, and marched to Kunming from there. En route back to Jinchengjiang after collecting the equipment, however, it found the Hunan-Guangxi Railway to be flooded with refugees. The battalion could only abandon some of the equipment and hurry back to Hengyang. By the time they arrived, the battle had already begun. The battalion managed to bring back 9 anti-tank guns, 6 field guns, 26 mortars, and 2 bazookas, weapons which would play a major role in the Chinese defense.
Battle
Japanese commander Lieutenant General Yokoyama planned to take the city within two days. On 22 June, the
Imperial Japanese Army Air Service
The Imperial Japanese Army Air Service (IJAAS) or Imperial Japanese Army Air Force (IJAAF; ja, 大日本帝國陸軍航空部隊, Dainippon Teikoku Rikugun Kōkūbutai, lit=Greater Japan Empire Army Air Corps) was the aviation force of the Im ...
began dropping
incendiary bomb
Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices, incendiary munitions, or incendiary bombs are weapons designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using fire (and sometimes used as anti-personnel weaponry), that use materials such as napalm, th ...
s on the city, and a 30,000 strong force made up of the Japanese
68th and
116th Divisions of the 11th Army attacked the city at eight o'clock that night, with the
68th attacking from the south and the
116th attacking from the west.
Although faced with concentrated heavy artillery fire, the Chinese held fast. Only when the Japanese troops began assaulting the Chinese defensive positions did their commanders realize something was not right as their troops rapidly fell to small arms fire from the Chinese.
Japanese 68th division veteran Yamauchi Iwao (山内 巖) recalled in an interview in 1995:
During the attack, Japanese soldiers fell one by one, making the sound of 'pa-da, pa-da'. Later, our platoon commander was the first to reach the frontmost pillbox. Later, I reached it as well. Soldiers as near as five metres behind me all fell - 'pa-da, pa-da'. After withdrawing, almost our entire company had been killed: there were only about 30 survivors.
The Japanese forces failing to make any progress for two days straight, Lieutenant General Sakuma Tamehito (佐久間為人), commander of the Japanese
68th Division, took it upon himself to personally inspect the battlefield from a hill. Shortly afterwards, a barrage of mortar rounds fell on his position, critically wounding the General and a number of his staff. These rounds had come from the mortar battery of the Chinese 28th regiment, reserve 10th division, stationed at Fengshushan.
Battery commander Bai Tianlin (
:zh:白天霖) recalled in an interview in 1995:
00 to 900metres in front f our positionwas a place called Oujiating(歐家町). There were at least 7 to 8 nemy troops even 30 of them. As soon as I saw it, thought "this is a good target. How could there be so many nemy troopsgathered in one location to reconnoitre our position? This shows that it could not be a regiment commander." After I saw it, I immediately made the decision. Each mortar was to fire one round - concentrated fire. In an instant, eight rounds were fired and simultaneously landed on that group of nemy troops It was enjoyable to watch.
A severe shortage of ammunition resulted in the Chinese adopting a "Three Don't's Policy"(三不主義): Don't shoot at what you can't see (看不見不打); Don't shoot at what you can't aim at (瞄不准不打); and Don't shoot at what you can't kill (打不死不打). While such policy allowed them to hold fast in the early stages of the battle, it also necessitated fierce close quarters combat.
Company commander in the 10th Corps' reconnaissance battalion Zang Xiaoxia (
:zh:臧肖侠) recalled in an interview in 1995:
I requested mortar fire. I waited for a very long time, until dusk, before a mortar platoon commander came. He fired seven or eight rounds and stopped. I asked him, "Why did you fire the mortar like that?".
He replied, "Sir, we are out of mortar rounds."
I said, "What is going on?"
He replied, "What rounds do you need? My mortar is an mortar. We had used up all our mortar rounds ages ago. We still have some mortar rounds remaining aptured from the Japanese Our staff are using rocks to grind them down by , before loading them up to fire. How many rounds do you think they can grind down in a day? The staff's hands are already worn out from all the grinding."
Despite incurring heavy casualties through seven days and nights of continuous assault, the Japanese 68th and 116th divisions, which had a combined strength of 30,000 men, failed to take any ground from the 17,000-strong Chinese 10th Corps. As a result, General Yokoyama called a halt to the attack on 2 July.
During this time, the Chinese 190th division withdrew from their original positions east of the Xiang River, falling back to the city to make their last stand.
By this time, the small city of Hengyang had already been reduced to rubble by continuous Japanese air strikes.
Chinese medic Wang Nutao (
:zh:汪怒濤) from the reserve 10th division recalled in an interview in 1995:
Every evening, the Japanese planes would fly bombing runs with incendiary bombs. Afterwards, all patients would no longer be sent to field hospitals. No patients were sent any more. There were no more patients. How could it be that there are no patients in a battle? The patients no longer went to the rear, since they knew that they were going to die either way, and chose to die fighting the Japanese.
However, the Chinese Air Force, stationed at
Zhijiang, also launched numerous air attacks against the invading Japanese forces throughout this battle. These attacks had a positive effect on the morale of the Chinese troops on the ground.
On the morning of 11 July, the Japanese launched their second try, and did not score any major success despite some small gains. On the other hand, while the Chinese were still able to hold the line, their ammunition shortages had become an increasingly severe problem by now: their original supply of 10 days' worth of ammunition having been substantially depleted by half a month of intense fighting. Hence, they resorted to engaging the enemy in close quarters with hand grenades.
By mid-July, the Japanese troops no longer used ladders to climb up the cliffs. Instead, they used the piles of their corpses as ramps to scale the cliffs.
Zang Xiaoxia (
:zh:臧肖侠), a company commander in the 10th Corps' reconnaissance battalion, recalled in an interview in 1995:
At that time I saw that we only had one pillbox left. With no way to resupply, I, as the company commander, could do nothing else but stay in the pillbox and defend it with my life. I jumped inside with a machine gun. The soldier who was already there, said to me while firing at the enemy, "Sir, what are you doing? You shouldn't be here. You should be at the company command post directing the entire company."
I said, "the rest of the company has been wiped out. This pillbox here is all we have left. I'll fight alongside you until death."
The pillbox had two firing ports. We each fired out of one of them. It was only until I entered the pillbox that I saw the enemies' corpses piling up like mountains, blocking the firing port, making it impossible to shoot through. It was only after shooting the corpses to pieces that I could see through.
On 18 July, the Japanese were still unable to break through the Chinese southern defensive lines. Pressured with increasingly high casualties, General Yokoyama once again halted the offensive. On 4 August, Japanese Field Marshal
Shunroku Hata
was a field marshal ('' gensui'') in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. He was the last surviving Japanese military officer with a marshal's rank. Hata was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1948, but was ...
(畑 俊六) ordered three divisions to reinforce the 68th and 116th Divisions, increasing the total manpower to 110,000 troops. The 40th Division attacked from the northwest, while the 58th attacked from the north and the 13th attacked from the east. After four days of intense bombing and artillery shelling, the Chinese garrison was reduced to 2,000 wounded men, less than a regiment (3,000).
On 6 August, the Japanese 57th Brigade launched a fierce assault on the Hengyang hospital. The Chinese reserve 10th division's 8th regiment's mortar battery fired its last eight mortar rounds. The Japanese killed around 1,000 wounded Chinese in the Hengyang hospital before engaging in negotiations. On 7 August, General Fang sent a telegram to Chongqing headquarters. In this message, he said: "The enemy broke in from the north this morning. We are out of ammunition and replacements. I have devoted my life to my country. Goodbye." After sending the message, Fang ordered his staff to destroy all communications equipment. The next day, the Japanese army broke into the city and captured General Fang. Fang actually tried to commit suicide, but his officers stopped him and tried to negotiate a truce with the Japanese. After the Japanese agreed not to harm the civilian population and to treat the Chinese wounded humanely, General Fang ordered the remaining Chinese soldiers to lay down their arms. The day was 8 August 1944.
Aftermath
Although the Japanese army suffered huge losses, they held the Chinese commanders in high regard. Japanese Emperor
Hirohito
Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...
personally appointed General
Fang Xianjue
Fang Xianjue () was a Republic of China general who fought in the Second Sino-Japanese War. He was born in a small Jiangsu (now in Suzhou, Anhui) village gentry family in 1903. After studying with the village tutor, he went to Xuzhou Provincial H ...
as commander of a puppet unit, made up of his remaining garrison and some Chinese turncoats. But the local Japanese commanders never trusted him or his officers; they were eventually placed under house arrest. Later studies showed that on 7 August 1944, the day before the Japanese army broke into the city,
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...
had sent a telegram to General Fang, saying: "Reinforcements are on the way. They will arrive at your position tomorrow with no delay." However, Fang never received the message. Chinese special forces under General
Dai Li
Lieutenant General Dai Li (Tai Li; ; May 28, 1897 – March 17, 1946) was a Chinese spymaster. His courtesy name was Yunong (雨農). Born Dai Chunfeng (Tai Chun-feng; 戴春風) in Bao'an, Jiangshan, Zhejiang province, he studied at the Whamp ...
(
:zh:戴笠), head of China's wartime intelligence service "Military-Statistics Bureau" of
National Military Council
The Military Affairs Commission (MAC) of the National Government, chaired by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II, directed the command of the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China.
...
, carried out a daring rescue mission and freed General Fang and his officers in December 1944. They returned to Chongqing to a hero's welcome and were decorated with the Order of Blue Sky and White Sun, the highest honor for a Chinese commander.
The delay at
Hengyang
Hengyang (; ) is the second largest city of Hunan Province, China. It straddles the Xiang River about south of the provincial capital of Changsha. As of the 2020 Chinese census, Its total population was 6,645,243 inhabitants, whom 1,290,715 ...
cost the
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 ...
considerable time and the Tojo cabinet collapsed as the war was not in Japan's favor anymore. Lieutenant General Yokoyama was later relieved of his command due to his refusal to obey orders from General
Yasuji Okamura
was a general of the Imperial Japanese Army, and commander-in-chief of the China Expeditionary Army from November 1944 to the end of World War II. He was tried but found not guilty of any war crimes by the Shanghai War Crimes Tribunal after the ...
(
:zh:岡村寧次), commander-in-chief of the Japanese China Expeditionary Forces. The Japanese operation in
Hunan
Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...
did manage to push Chinese troops out of the area, but they could not secure the territory around the railroad or safely transfer war materials to different regions. Because of increased activity of Chinese troops and nationalist guerrillas, they could take no more Chinese land.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Defense Of Hengyang
Hengyang
Hengyang (; ) is the second largest city of Hunan Province, China. It straddles the Xiang River about south of the provincial capital of Changsha. As of the 2020 Chinese census, Its total population was 6,645,243 inhabitants, whom 1,290,715 ...
1944 in China
1944 in Japan