Battle of Pingxingguan
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The Battle of Pingxingguan (), commonly called the Great Victory of Pingxingguan in
Mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...
, was an engagement fought on 25 September 1937, at the beginning of 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 ...
, between the
Eighth Route Army The Eighth Route Army (), officially known as the 18th Group Army of the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China, was a group army under the command of the Chinese Communist Party, nominally within the structure of the Chinese ...
of the
Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...
and 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 ...
. The battle resulted in the loss of 400 to 600 soldiers on both sides, but the Chinese captured 100 trucks full of supplies. The victory gave the Chinese Communists a tremendous boost since it was the only division-size battle that they fought during the entire war.


Background

After the capture of
Beiping "Beijing" is from pinyin ''Běijīng,'' which is romanized from , the Chinese name for this city. The pinyin system of transliteration was approved by the Chinese government in 1958, but little used until 1979. It was gradually adopted by various ...
(present Beijing) at the end of July 1937, Japanese forces advanced along the Beijing–Baotou railway to
Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
. Having anticipated the move,
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 appointed the Shanxi warlord
Yan Xishan Yan Xishan (; 8 October 1883 – 22 July 1960, ) was a Chinese warlord who served in the government of the Republic of China. He effectively controlled the province of Shanxi from the 1911 Xinhai Revolution to the 1949 Communist victory in ...
as Pacification Director of Taiyuan. Theoretically Yan had authority over all the Chinese military forces in his theatre of operations, including
Lin Biao ) , serviceyears = 1925–1971 , branch = People's Liberation Army , rank = Marshal of the People's Republic of China Lieutenant general of the National Revolutionary Army, Republic of China , commands ...
's 115th Division of the Communist 8th Route Army,
Liu Ruming Liu Ruming, Liu Ju-ming, 刘汝明; 12 May 1895 – 28 April 1975) was a ROC Army general during the Warlord Era, Second Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil War. Overview Born in Hebei province, he became an important military officer in Feng ...
's ex-
Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...
troops and various Central Army contingents responsible to Chiang Kai-shek. In reality these forces operated independently from Yan's provincial army. Japanese forces, mainly the 5th Division and 11th Independent Mixed Brigade, moved out from Beiping and advanced on
Huailai County Huailai () is a county in northwestern Hebei province, People's Republic of China, under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Zhangjiakou. Huailai County is a center for grape wine production, with the China Great Wall Wine Compan ...
in Chahar. A Japanese column advanced quickly into Shanxi, making use of the railway which the Chinese did not attempt to destroy. The Chinese abandoned
Datong Datong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province in the People's Republic of China. It is located in the Datong Basin at an elevation of and borders Inner Mongolia to the north and west and Hebei to the east. As of the 2020 cens ...
on 13 September, falling back to a line from
Yanmen Pass Yanmen Pass, also known by its Chinese name Yanmenguan and as Xixingguan, is a mountain pass which includes three fortified gatehouses along the Great Wall of China. The area was a strategic choke point in ancient and medieval China, contro ...
on the
Great Wall The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand Li (unit), ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against Eurasian noma ...
east to the mountain pass of
Pingxingguan Pingxing Pass () is a mountain pass in the Shanxi Province of China. There is a section of the Great Wall of China there. The Battle of Pingxingguan was fought here between the National Revolutionary Army's 8th Route Army of the Republic of Ch ...
. Yan Xishan's troops became more demoralised as the Japanese exerted their air supremacy. The main body of the Japanese 5th Division, under the command of
Itagaki Seishiro is a Japanese surname. People with the name *, Japanese ski jumper *, Japanese manga artist *, one of the Twenty-four Generals of Takeda Shingen during the Sengoku period *, Japanese manga artist *, World War II Imperial Japanese army general *, ...
, advanced from Huaili to invade northeastern
Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...
. Although it had a motorised transport column, its rate of advance was limited by the poor roads. By the time they reached the Shanxi border, Lin Biao's 115th Division, after a forced march from
Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see #Name, § Name) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichu ...
, was in place at Pingxingguan on 24 September to ambush the Japanese army.


Battle

The pass of Pingxingguan was a narrow defile worn through the loess, with no exit for several kilometres except the road itself. Lin's division were able to ambush two columns of mainly transportation and supply units and virtually annihilate the trapped Japanese forces. On 25 September, the 21st brigade of the Japanese 5th Division stationed at Lingqiu received a request from the 21st Regiment that they urgently needed supplies due to falling temperature. The supply troops of the 21st Regiment set out with 70
horse-drawn vehicle A horse-drawn vehicle is a mechanized piece of equipment pulled by one horse or by a team of horses. These vehicles typically had two or four wheels and were used to carry passengers and/or a load. They were once common worldwide, but they have m ...
s with 50 horses, filled with clothes, food, ammunition and proceeded westwards towards Pingxingguan. Around 10:00, the supply column passed into a defile with the two sides rising up more than 10 metres; they were heading towards Caijiayu about 3 km away. At the same time, a motorized column of Japanese supply troops in about 80 trucks left Guangou and headed east. Both of these non-combat formations entered into the ambush set by the 115th division after 10 a.m. on the 25th and were largely wiped out. A relief force consisting of the 3rd Battalion of the 21st Regiment was rebuffed by Chinese troops and suffered almost 100 casualties. Lin Biao's troops eventually withdrew from the battlefield, allowing the Japanese to finally reach the site of the ambush on 28 September. The Nationalist Air Force of China provided some close-air support for the Chinese ground forces in course of the battles at Pingxingguan. Japanese casualties in the battle have been estimated at 400 to 500 and the Chinese at about 400.Yang Kuisong, "On the reconstruction of the facts of the Battle of Pingxingguan" The Chinese forces destroyed about 70 trucks and an equal number of horse-drawn carts and captured 100 rifles, 10 light machine guns, 1 gun and 2,000 shells as well as some clothing and food.


Evaluation

The Kuomintang's official history of 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 ...
deals with it in a sentence, without any credit to the Communists. On the other hand, the Communists' accounts describe Pingxingguan as a typical example of ''Red''
guerrilla tactics Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactics ...
, inspired by
Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
's conceptualization of ''
people's war People's war (Chinese: 人民战争), also called protracted people's war, is a Maoist military strategy. First developed by the Chinese communist revolutionary leader Mao Zedong (1893–1976), the basic concept behind people's war is to mainta ...
''. Japanese losses were greatly exaggerated for propaganda purposes. However, like the victory at the
Battle of Taierzhuang The Battle of Taierzhuang () was a battle of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1938, which was fought between the armies of the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The battle was that war's first major Chinese victory. It humiliated the Jap ...
, Pingxingguan was explained by Japan as Japanese officers succumbing to what they came to call "
victory disease Victory disease occurs in military history when Wiktionary:complacency#English, complacency or hubris, arrogance, brought on by a victory or a series of victories, makes an engagement (military), engagement end List of military disasters, disa ...
."''Mao: The Unknown Story'' by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, p. 279 After a series of easy victories against their opponents, they failed to take elementary precautions. Japanese commanders seldom repeated the operational blunders that had led to Pingxingguan. Nonetheless, the battle gave the Chinese a major boost in morale and credence to the Communists in the eyes of the people. The battle was constantly cited by CPC leaders as an example of their commitment to battling the Japanese occupation, even though Mao had opposed the battle, according to an account written by Lin Biao in Russia (where he was being treated for bullet wounds) and Lin had undertaken it on his own authority.


See also

* Order of battle Battle of Pingxingguan


References


External links

* Description (in Chinese) of the Battle of Pingxingguan in the on line version of the book: 中国抗日战争正面战场作战记 (China's Anti-Japanese War Combat Operations) by 郭汝瑰 (Guo Rugui), Jiangsu People's Publishing House, 2005-7-1, {{ISBN, 7-214-03034-9 *
华北作战平型关大捷 1(North China Battles, the Pingxingguan victory 1)
*

* a more recent study (in Chinese

** ttp://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?p=1066435#1066435 A partial translation of Prof. Yang Kui Songon's article on Axis History Forum: The Battle of Pingxinguan 1937
Pingxingguan Campaign


* ttp://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/china/txu-oclc-10552568-nj49-4.jpg China AMS Topographic Map of Pingxingguan battle area from Perry–Castañeda Library Map Collection (area near GP5,6)
Pingxingguan Pingxing Pass () is a mountain pass in the Shanxi Province of China. There is a section of the Great Wall of China there. The Battle of Pingxingguan was fought here between the National Revolutionary Army's 8th Route Army of the Republic of Ch ...
Pingxingguan Pingxing Pass () is a mountain pass in the Shanxi Province of China. There is a section of the Great Wall of China there. The Battle of Pingxingguan was fought here between the National Revolutionary Army's 8th Route Army of the Republic of Ch ...
Great Wall of China 1937 in China 1937 in Japan Military history of Shanxi September 1937 events