The 87th Division was a German-trained and reorganized division in the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeas ...

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 ...

, which was active 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 T ...

. As one of Chiang Kai-shek's elite divisions that received training from German instructors as part of a program of reorganizing the Chinese army, it and its sister 88th Division were regarded as the Chinese Nationalist government's best units. The 87th Division notable for taking part in the

Battle of Shanghai The Battle of Shanghai () was the first of the twenty-two major engagements fought between the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Republic of China (ROC) and the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) of the Empire of Japan at the beginning of the ...

in the summer and fall of 1937. Prior to that it had fought in Shanghai against the Japanese during the January 28 Incident in 1932, and following the second engagement in 1937 the division saw action during the

Battle of Nanjing The Battle of Nanking (or Nanjing) was fought in early December 1937 during the Second Sino-Japanese War between the Chinese National Revolutionary Army and the Imperial Japanese Army for control of Nanking (Nanjing), the capital of the Rep ...

and the Burma Campaign. After Japan's surrender, the 87th Division then fought in the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on main ...

against the Communists and was dissolved after the conflict.

History

The 87th Division came into existence in the early 1930s as part of a plan formulated by the German military advisors working with Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek to restructure the National Revolutionary Army into a small core of elite units, with the rest of its troops being placed into local militia units. The 87th Division was one of the small number of units that received training from German instructors before the German government ordered them to return home as part of their alliance with Japan. Regarded along with its sister 88th Division as one of the best units of the Nationalist Army, the troops of the 87th were equipped entirely with the German M1935 Stahlhelm. Not long after its formation the 87th Division took part in the combat against the Japanese in Shanghai during the January 28 Incident in 1932, as part of the 5th Army, and was later stationed in

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and t ...

. Throughout its existence the 87th Division served as part of the 71st Corps. Lew (2011), pp. 68–71 Later in 1937 the 87th Division took part in the

at the outbreak of the war between the

and the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent form ...

.Ah Xiang
Defense Battle at Nanking
Retrieved 22 October 2017. When Zhang Zhizhong, 71st Corps commander, ordered the 87th and 88th—equipped with their German helmets and

stick grenade A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade genera ...

s—to move into the city the former used trucks to quickly deploy into downtown Shanghai. It was commanded by Lieutenant General Wang Jingjiu during the battle. On August 14, the unit advanced against the Kung-ta Textile Mill, where the Japanese Special Naval Landing Force troops were based. Felton (2013), pp. 115–116 During the battle it also cooperated with the 88th Division. They jointly advanced against 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 Emper ...

forces at the Huishan wharf on August 17, and on the following day the 87th broke through Japanese lines at Yangshupu district, linking up with the 86th Division. It remained engaged in the downtown area before moving out to the west of Shanghai in late October, to the

Suzhou Creek Suzhou Creek (or Soochow Creek), also called the Wusong (Woosung) River, is a river that passes through the Shanghai city center. It is named after the neighboring city of Suzhou (Soochow), Jiangsu, the predominant settlement in this area pri ...

. Being as wide as river, it was an obstacle that the Japanese needed to secure to surround Chinese forces in Shanghai in a massive pocket. Despite Japanese shelling and airstrikes the 87th Division managed to fight off multiple attempts to take the position. Upwards of 16,000 members of the division were killed (including replacements for the losses). Subsequently, the unit took part in the

, by which point it received Major General Shen Fazao as its new commander. By the time the engagement at Nanjing was over, barely 300 soldiers of the division were still alive, but despite having lost many of its original personnel it still had an elite aura in the eyes of many Chinese commanders. Harmsen (2015) In May–June 1944 the unit took part, along with its sister 88th Division, in the Burma Campaign, where it saw action along 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 S ...

as part of Wei Lihuang's Chinese Expeditionary Force. When their offensive against the Japanese-held town of Lungling failed, the 87th Division commander Major General Zhang Shaoxun almost committed suicide. Around this time it was briefly commanded by Major General Huang Yen before Zhang resumed command in 1945. After the surrender of Japan in 1945, the 87th Division took part in the

.The Consul General at Changchun (Clubb) to the Secretary of State – Telegram
From 21 June 1947. Retrieved 22 October 2017. During the civil war it notably fought in northeastern China (

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...

) against the Communists under Lin Biao, in the

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ea ...

and third battles of Siping (1946–47). Reportedly many of the 87th Division troops consisted of new recruits that only had one week's training.The Consul General at Mukden (Ward) to the Secretary of State
From 3 July 1946. Retrieved 22 October 2017. The Communists fought the 87th Division at Nong'an in March 1946, and later it fought in defense of the city of Siping with the 54th Division in June, under the command of

Chen Mingren Chen Mingren (; 7 April 1903 – 21 May 1974) was a prominent military figure from Liling, Hunan Province and one of the founding members of the People's Liberation Army. He was a top level military commander in the Republic of China. He then joi ...

. Despite multiple Communist offensives into the city the Nationalist line held, although the brunt of the casualties were taken by the 87th.

Sources

References

Literature

* * * * * * * {{cite book , last1 = Woo , first1 = X. L. , title = Two Republics in China: How Imperial China Became the PRC , publisher = Algora Publishing , location = , year = 2014 , isbn = 978-1628940978 , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=dflKBAAAQBAJ&q=87th+division+china&pg=PA54 , ref = Woo2014 Divisions of the National Revolutionary Army Military units and formations in Burma in World War II