The Sino-Japanese War(Campaigns in detail)

[Windward]

related images

http://images.google.com/images?hl=zh-C ... a=N&tab=wi

[asiaticus]

Great photos from the battle for the city Note the one of the dare to die soldier

http://www.chinamil.com.cn/site1/jnkrzz ... e_6994.htm

[asiaticus]

Here is the best map I've seen of the whole battle of Taierzhang:

http://www.xinjunshi.com/ziliao/junshid ... /1257.html


Note the battle to the northwest at Tengxian and northeast at Linyi

Indicates the activity if the various divisions and armies.

[asiaticus]

The map at http://www.xinjunshi.com/ziliao/junshid ... /1257.html

shows 22nd Army Group (from Sichuan I beleive) with these divisions:

- 22nd Army Group - Teng His-hou, (Sun Cheng - acting)
-- 41st Corps - Sun Cheng
--- 122nd Division - Wang Min-chang
--- 124th Division - Wang Shih-chun
-- 45th Corps - Chen Ting-hsun
--- 125th Division - Chen Ting-hsun (concurrent)
--- 127th Division - Chen Li

plus these two my source had no record of:

--366 Division
--372 Division

Where these regular divisions or perhaps reseve regiments or local militia units organized into divisions?

[asiaticus]

Made an inquiry about the Japanese units in the battle of Taierzhang on the Pacific War forum:

http://www.f16.parsimony.net/forum27947 ... s/7596.htm

Taki, Akira Takizawa, in his replies mentioned this about other units that may be the one shown on the map:

"The infantry units which participated in the battle of Taierzhang were Seya Detachment (33rd Infantry Brigade/10th Division) and later reinforced 21st Infantry Regiment of 5th Division."

Also:

"When the 5th Division was attacking Linyi, they were ordered to reinforce the Seya Detachment at Taierzhang. The division sent Sakamoto Detachment (21th Brigade) to Taierzhang and Kunisaki Detachment (9th Brigade) to the east of Taierzhang. 21st Infantry Regiment had arrived before the retreat of the Seya Detachment on April 6th."

So it may be that 50th Division shown on the map is in reality 21st Regiment/5th Division.

[tigre]

Hello asiaticus, great effort and research; well done. Cheers. Tigre.

[asiaticus]

Tigre

Dont thank me, thank Taki. He is my guru on the Japanese forces. He has published some and has his own website:

http://www3.plala.or.jp/takihome/

He often answers questions on the Pacific War forum which is a very informative one in general.

[tigre]

Hello to all, another fact published at that time.

THE CAPTURE OF AMOY.

On 10 May the Japanese captured the Island of Amoy after a day long assault by sea, air and land. The operation may
be the prelude to a major invasion of South China or merely a strategic foothold.
Amoy City is 140 miles west of Formosa, 300 miles northeast of Canton and 450 miles southeast of Hankow. The occupation of Amoy under the guns of the Japanese Navy was a comparatively easy matter.
The outcome of the war may depend on munitions. The Chinese can fight only as long as they have guns and powder.
At the moment, the great Chinese channel for munitions is the Hong-Kong — Canton — Hankow route. The Japanese bomb
this railway line almost every day, but they haven’t succeeded in putting it out of action.
It seems more likely that the Japanese are merely seeking a base for intensified air attacks on the Canton railway in an
effort to cut off military supplies.

Source: Military news around the world. Military Review - jun 1938. Cheers. Tigre.

[asiaticus]

Japan [1] [2]

Amoy Operation May 10-12, 1938 [1]
3rd Fleet - Rear. Admiral Ichiro Ouno ?
- 11 Ships [destroyers and Gunboats]
- 18 planes
- 14th Fleet Battalion of Marines
- 3 Battalions/ ? Regt. / Formosa Infantry Brigade - Gen. Shigeto?[2]

* 5/10 11 Ships and 18 planes bombard Ho-to and Ao-tou. 20 motor boats landed infantry at Wu-tung. 5/11 More landings at Huang-tso and Ta-tao. 3 destroyers and 2 Gunboats attacked the fortress there to cover the landings. [1]


China

Amoy Defense Operation May 10-12, 1938

Amoy Area - Director, Fukien Pacification HQ. - Chen Yi [1]
- 75th Division - Han Wen-ying
- Amoy fortress Command - Kao Hsien-shen
-- Pai-shih Fortress
-- Yu-tse-wei Fortress (naval garrison)
- 2 Batteries of Fortress Garrison Forces
-- Hui-li-shan battery
-- Pan-shih battery


Sources:
[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.

[2] IJA in China orbat, 1937 to 1945
http://www.china-defense.com/forum/inde ... topic=2726

[Akira Takizawa]

asiaticus,

The Japanese OOB of Amoy Operation is as follows

9th Sentai (Myoko, Tama)
10th Sentai (Tenryu, Tatsuta, 1st Gunboat Unit)
1st Air Sentai (Kaga)
3rd Air Sentai (Kamoi)
2nd Combined SNLF (Yokosuka 2nd SNLF, Kure 3rd SNLF, Sasebo 7th SNLF)
Jinmen Garrision
1st Garrison Unit

It was a navy operation and conducted by the 5th Fleet.

Taki

[asiaticus]

Akira

Thank you very much. Looks like the nealy all the Japanese forces id was way off base and different than what the Chinese history mentiions.

I had asked some of the people interested in the Japanese Navy and they couldnt tell me anything about this operations participants. I had not realized the 5th fleet was operating at this time, only knew about the 2nd and 3rd being involved in China at the time til now.

Commander of 5th Fleet at the time seems to have been VADM Shiozawa, Koichi if the list on:
http://homepage2.nifty.com/nishidah/e/ja03.htm#5F, is correct.


Seems there were more than destroyers and gunboats involved.

-9th Sentai - ?
--Myoko [heavy cruiser][2]
--- Armament: 10-20cm/50cal gun (2x5), 8-12.7cm/40cal AA gun (2x4),
4-13.2mm AA, 8-61cm TT (4x2), 2 aircraft
-- Tama [Light cruiser][2]
--- Armament 7-14cm/50cal gun, 2-8cm/40cal AA gun, 8-53cm TT, 48 mines

-10th Sentai - ?
-- Tenryu [Light cruiser][2]
--- Armament: 4-14cm/50cal gun, 3-8cm/40cal AA gun, 6-53cm TT (3x2)
-- Tatsuta [Light cruiser][2]
--- Armament: 4-14cm/50cal gun, 3-8cm/40cal AA gun, 6-53cm TT (3x2)
-- 1st Gunboat Unit
--- 4 gunboats?

-1st Air Sentai -? *
-- Kaga [aircraft carrier]
--- 90 aircraft
---- Fighter daitai - ? Nakajima A2N , ? Type 95 Mitsubishi A5M [3]
---- Bomber Daitai - ? (Aichi D1A1s, A2's) carrier bombers [3]
---- Attack daitai - ? Mitsubishi B2M, ? Type 96 Yokosuka B4Y1 Torpedo bomber [3]

--3rd Air Sentai -? *
---(Kamoi) seaplane tender
---- 12 aircraft [probably NAKAJIMA TYPE 95 RECON SEAPLANE (E8N1-DAVE)][3]

* Earlier in the Shanghai campaign the 1st Air Sentai had an escort of a 30th Tai of 4 destroyers. Formerly Kamoi had an escort of 28th Tai of 4 destroyers also. I would imagine they had similar if not the same escorts here.

Nice to know the SNLF units invoved.

I take it the Formosa Brigade was not involved. So these Jinmen Garrision and 1st Garrison Units were naval units too or army?

Was the strength of these units the same as or similar to the dokuritsu shubitai units?


[2] http://homepage2.nifty.com/nishidah/e/index.htm
[3] Sino-Japanese Air War 1937-45 http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/sino-japanese.htm

[Akira Takizawa]

asiaticus,

> Commander of 5th Fleet at the time seems to have been VADM Shiozawa, Koichi if the list on:
http://homepage2.nifty.com/nishidah/e/ja03.htm#5F, is correct.

Yes

> So these Jinmen Garrision and 1st Garrison Units were naval units too or army?

They are naval units.

> Was the strength of these units the same as or similar to the dokuritsu shubitai units?

I don't know their strengths. But, I suppose that they were similar size to guard unit or SNLF.


Taki

[asiaticus]

Ok thanks for the clarifications

[tigre]

Thanks asiaticus and Taki. Great posts. Cheers. Tigre.

[tigre]

Hello gents, a little more about this interesting war.

THE BATTLE OF SUCHOW.

The Taierchwang reverse was not only a stinging blow to Japanese prestige, but it showed the high command that they could not take the Lung-Hai line with the forces available in Shantung. Stalled in their desperate and costly efforts to reach Suchow, Japan concentrated the biggest, most powerful and best equipped force, estimated at over 200,000 men, backed by a heavy complement of artillery, planes and tanks, in a desperate effort to recover the Japanese Army’s lost “face.”

On 18 May four armies* (*The Japanese Army has no corps organization) began their final assault on the key city to China’s fortified Lunghai railway line, after their advance guards had encircled the city of Suchow. These four armies, split into 16 columns, participated in the final drive, culminating a campaign which had been under way intermittently for over three months.

First Army.-The first army under Major General Kenji Doihara, advanced northward along the Tientsin-Pukow railway from its base at Nanking in two main columns. The left wing
moved forward in a fan-like formation along a line from Suhsien on the Tientsin-Pukow line, northeastward through Yungchen and Tangshan. One column of this wing bombarded the Chinese defenses from positions west of Suchow.
The right wing of this army broke through the Lunghai line east of Suchow and joined the left wing of the second army, which was driving toward Suchow from South Shantung Province.
The Lunghai line was cut by a “dare-to-die” engineer detachment, which blew up a small bridge west of Skum-Cheng, 60 miles east of Suchow.

Second Army.—The second army under Major General Rensuke Isogai, was advancing south in several qolumns along an arc northeast of Suchow. The left end of this arc rested on the Lunghai line south of Tancheng, its center was in Taierchwang and its right on the Tientsin-Pukow line, just north of Suchow. The Chinese unit at Taierchwang was completely surrounded. The Chinese. defenses between the Yi-River and the Grand Canal were pierced west of Pi-Hsien.

Third Army.-The third army, under Lieutenant General Shunroku Hata, advancing to the south, outflanked Kweiten, Chinese divisional headquarters on the Lunghai line west of Suchow, and its advance was bltterIy contested by Chinese units north of the railway.

Fourth Army.—This army fanned into the Suchow area from bases north of the Yellow River, engaging Chinese divisions that were withdrawing to the west from Suchow. One’ column of this army crossed the Yellow River at Pu-Yang and occupied Tsao-Chow. Part of this force then drove along the highway to Kao-Chen and veered south, cutting the Lunghai line at Nichang, 35 miles east of Kaifeng. Its primary mission was to cut off the retreat of the Chinese forces that were defending Suchow.

The Chinese losses in this campaign have been heavy, but neutral observers believe that despite the swift Japanese advance General Li succeeded in evacuating most of his best troops and equipment to the west, to new bases at Kweiteh, Kaifeng and Chengchow. German advisers of the Chinese Army, headed by General Alexander von Falkenhausen, were said to have planned and supervised the retreat, leaving to some 100,000 provincial troops the task of covering the retreat of the “main Chinese Army”, selling their lives as dearly as possible. Rear guard troops were instructed to discard their uniforms and retreat in small groups to villages on Lake Hungtze, southeast of Suchow, to be outfitted as plain clothes guerrillas.

As their next move, the invaders intend soon to advance west from Suchow, and capture Chengchow, the important junction city where the Peiping-Hankow railroad crosses the Lunghai. From Chengchow a drive would then be started south toward Hankow, which is both the Chinese government headquarters, since the fall of Nanking, and the training center for China’s new armies. Simultaneously with the thrust from Chengehow other forces would move from Wuhu to attack Hankow.

Seven armies estimated to total more than 600,000 men have been organized for this great drive against China’s provisional capital (Figure 4), by the capture of which Japan expects to “bring China to its knees. ”
The capture of Suchow gives the Japanese control over the whole of the Tientsin-Pukow railway running roughly from north to south for a length of 600 miles. It has a real potential value because the Japanese have now secured a new line of communication that may allow them to make a sustained military effort for the capture of Chengchow, important military
railway center and Hankow, provisional capital of China, which seems now to be the goal of Japan’s armies. They are now in position to consolidate their gains in China and unite their forces operating from the north and the south on the Tientsin-Pukow railroad.

Source: The Sino-Japanese war . Military Review , jun 1938.

Hasta la vista. Cheers. Tigre