The 3rd Corps () was a military formation of the Chinese
People's Liberation Army
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four Military branch, services—People's Liberation Army Ground Force, Ground Force, People's ...
that existed from 1949 to 1952.
The 3rd Corps was activated on February 1, 1949, from 3rd Column,
Northwest Field Army. Its history could be traced to 3rd Column of
Jinsui Military Region formed on November 10, 1947.
The corps took part in the
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government, government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Armed conflict continued intermitt ...
under the command of
Northwest Field Army, including the
Qinghai Campaign and
Gansu Campaign. By mid 1949 the corps was composed of
7th,
8th
Eighth is ordinal form of the number eight.
Eighth may refer to:
* One eighth, , a fraction, one of eight equal parts of a whole
* Eighth note (quaver), a musical note played for half the value of a quarter note (crotchet)
* Octave, an interval b ...
and
9th Divisions.
[William W. Whitson, with Chen-hsia Huang. (1973) The Chinese high command; a history of Communist military politics, 1927-71. Foreword by Lucian W. Pye.]
From September 1949 the corps was stationed in
Zhangye
Zhangye ( zh, s=张掖, t=張掖, p=Zhāngyè), Postal Map Romanization, formerly romanization of Chinese, romanized as Changyeh and also formerly known as Kanchow, is a prefecture-level city in central Gansu provinces of China, Province in the ...
-
Wuwei-
Jiuquan
Jiuquan, formerly known as Suzhou is a prefecture-level city in the northwesternmost part of Gansu Province in the People's Republic of China. It is more than wide from east to west, occupying , although its built-up area is mostly located in it ...
area for
Bandit Suppressing missions, during which the Corps absorbed a defected
Republic of China Army
The Republic of China Army ( Chinese, 中華民國陸軍) also known as the ROC Army (ROCA); colloquially the Taiwanese Army ( Chinese, 台湾陆军) by western or mainland Chinese media, or commonly referred as the National Military Army ( Chi ...
cavalry regiment, an independent regiment and a camel cavalry regiment.
In June 1952, the 3rd Corps was merged with the
1st Corps:
*Headquarters, 3rd Corps was converted to Military and Political Officer Academy of
Northwestern Military Region;
*
7th Division absorbed
9th Division, and was transferred to
1st Corps' control;
*
8th Division was absorbed by
2nd Division, 1st Corps.
References
3
Military units and formations established in 1949
Military units and formations disestablished in 1952
{{China-mil-stub