Defense of the Great Wall
Defense of the Great Wall | |||||||
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Part of the Inner Mongolian Campaign | |||||||
Great Wall, 1933 | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
China | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Strength | |||||||
Northeastern Army: 50,000+ |
Japan: 50,000 Manchukuo: 42,000 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Unknown | Unknown |
The defense of the Great Wall (simplified Chinese: 长城抗战; traditional Chinese: 長城抗戰; pinyin: Chángchéng Kàngzhàn) (January 1 – May 31, 1933) was a campaign between the armies of Republic of China and Empire of Japan, which took place before the Second Sino-Japanese War officially commenced in 1937 and after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931. It is known in Japanese as Operation Nekka (熱河作戰, Nekka Sakusen) and in many English sources as the First Battle of Hopei.
During this campaign, Japan successfully captured the
Battle of Shanhai Pass
When the Chinese garrison refused, the
Battle of Rehe
The province of
Falling back from Rehe, Wan Fulin's 32nd Army retreated to Lengkou Pass, while the 29th Army of General Song Zheyuan also fell back, Zhang Zuoxiang's 37th Division retreated to Xifengkou Pass, General Guan Linzheng's 25th Division to the Gubeikou Pass.
On March 4, the 139th Division of the KMT 32nd Army managed to hold
On March 9,
On March 11, Japanese troops pushed up to the Great Wall itself. On March 12, Zhang Xueliang resigned his post to He Yingqin who, as the new leader of the Northeastern Army, was assigned the duty of securing defensive positions along the Great Wall.
Over twenty close assaults were launched, with sword-armed Northwestern Army soldiers repelling them. However, on March 21, the Japanese took Yiyuankou Pass. The KMT 29th Army evacuated from Xifengkou Pass on April 8. On April 11, Japanese troops retook Lengkou Pass after dozens of seesaw fights over the pass defenses and Chinese forces at Jielingkou abandoned that pass.[3] The Chinese army was significantly underarmed in comparison to the Japanese and many units were predominantly equipped with handguns, hand grenades, and traditional Chinese swords, with limited supplies of trench mortars, heavy machine guns, light machine guns and rifles. Beaten back by overwhelming Japanese firepower, on May 20, the Chinese army retreated from their remaining positions on the Great Wall.
Although the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) suffered defeat in the end, several individual NRA units like the He Zhuguo platoon managed to hold off the better equipped Japanese army for up to three days before being overrun. Some NRA Divisions also managed to win minor victories in passes like Xifengkou and Gubeikou by using the ramparts to move soldiers from one sector to another in the Great Wall, just like the Ming dynasty soldiers before them.[4]
Aftermath
On May 22, 1933, Chinese and Japanese representatives met at
See also
- Events preceding World War II in Asia
- Jinan incident (May 1928)
- Huanggutun incident (Japanese assassination of the Chinese head of state Generalissimo Zhang Zuolin on 4 June 1928)
- Japanese invasion of Manchuria
- Mukden Incident(18 September 1931)
- January 28 Incident(Shanghai, 1932)
- Marco Polo Bridge Incident(7 July 1937)
- List of military engagements of the Second Sino-Japanese War
- Order of battle Operation Jehol
- Order of battle Defense of the Great Wall
- Baimaguan Fort
- Suiyuan campaign
- Chahar People's Anti-Japanese Army
References
Citations
- ^ a b c "Battles of the Great Wall". Retrieved 13 August 2016.
- ^ Guo Rugui, 第二部分:从"九一八"事变到西安事变 榆关 热河失守 1
- ^ 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. Pg. 159–161.
- ISBN 978-1-84603-004-8
Sources
- Guo, Rugui (2005). 《中国抗日战争正面战场作战记》 [China's Anti-Japanese War Combat Operations] (in Chinese (China)). Jiangsu People's Publishing House. ISBN 7-214-03034-9.
- Young, Louise (1999). Japan's Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-21934-1.
External links
- Battles of the Great Wall Archived 2022-10-17 at the Wayback Machine
- The History of Battles of Imperial Japanese Tanks
- Jehol 1933 Japanese photos from Operation Nekka.
- "On Bended Knee". Time. January 23, 1933.
- "Bumps & Blood". Time. February 27, 1933.
- "War of Jehol". Time. March 6, 1933.
- "Two-Gun Tang". Time. March 6, 1933.
- "Glorious 16th". Time. March 13, 1933.
Topographic maps
- Cheng-te nk50-11 SW Jehol Province, SE Chahar Province, NW Hebei Province (north of Beijing, Gubeikou Pass)
- Lin-yu nk50-12 S Jehol Province, NE Hebei Province, Great Wall to Shanhaikuan upper Luan River area
- Ch'ang-Li nj50-4 NE Hebei Luan River area