Shanghai 1932

[tigre]

Hello to all ; a little more....................

THE SINO- JAPANESE CLASH AT SHANGHAI, 1932.

Chain of incidents that led to the clash.

On 22nd February no further progress was made by the Japanese. In the evening, the Chinese attacked in the Chapei sector and claimed a success. The heaviest artillery engagement yet heard continued in this sector up to midnight. Japanese aerial bombing in the Chapei-Hongkew area continued intermittently between 1300 and 1630. During the night, several shells fell in the Whangpoo, four hitting the Italian flagship Libia, but failing to explode.

23rd February may be said to mark the conclusion of the offensive of the Japanese troops under Lieutenant-General Uyeda. An attack at the north of the line secured the village of Manuang, but Kiangwan still defied all efforts. Woosung was bombarded intermittently throughout the day. The conclusion of this phase of the operations saw the Japanese 9th Division and one mixed brigade strung out on a line 10,000 yards long from Manuang-east of Kiangwan-North Railway station, with little or no reserve in hand. The Chinese, now reinforced by two divisions of Chiang Kai Shek's troops to an approximate strength of 40,000, in occupation of a defended zone extending in depth almost to Tazang, showing few signs of retirement, though equally none of attack.

The first rumours of the approach of additional Japanese formations were heard on 24th February. On 25th February Harigchow aerodrome was bombed, the Japanese claiming to have destroyed the hangars and five out of fifteen aircraft on the aerodrome. A minor Japanese attack on 26th February carried the line beyond Manuang village, and Kiangwang was evacuated by the Chinese.

The next day information was received that Japanese reinforcements of two divisions (11th and 14th) were believed to have left Japan. Japanese warships bombarded the Tze-Tze forts in the Yangtse (northwest of Paoschan city) during the day.

On 27th February the Commander-in-Chief invited Lieutenant-General Gaston Wang, who was acting as chief of the staff to the 19th Route Army, to lunch. The same evening Admiral Nomura, the Japanese naval commander-in-chief, came by invitation to see the Commander-in-Chief, who explained to him the gist of the Chinese views.

At noon the following day the Commander-in-Chief received a letter from Admiral Nomura, saying they would like to meet the Chinese on board Kent to hear more details from them. The meeting took place the same evening in the Commander-in-Chief's cabin on board Kent. At the end of a 2 1/2 hours discussion it was agreed that the proposal would be discussed by bothy parts (especially the distance of 20 kilometres to be evacuated) and for the Japanese should be referred to Tokyo for approval.

On Monday, 29th February, the Commander-in-Chief received in writing, for transmission to the Japanese, the conditions on which an armistice could be arrange. The Commander-in-Chief saw Admiral Nomura that evening and handed him the Chinese conditions.

On 1st March information was received from Idzumo that Japanese reinforcements (11th Division) were landing at Chiliaoukou, five miles above Liuho, from cruisers and destroyers. General Shirakawa arrived during the day, and assumed command of the Japanese military forces. At about 1300, two underwater explosions took place in the Whangpoo, abreast the Japanese cruisers Idzumo and Oi. No damage was done. It was subsequently ascertained that these were mines. By the evening of this day the greater part of the Japanese 11th Division had got ashore at Liuho or Chiliaoukou. A better progress had also been made near Kiangwan.

There was no reply from Tokyo on the Tuesday, and on Wednesday, 2nd March, Admiral Nomura sent an officer to say the answer when received had not been quite clear and had been referred back to Tokyo. Mr. Matsuoka and Admiral Nomura duly visited the Commander-in-Chief at 2100 and handed him the Japanese conditions, which in truth bore no resemblance to any of the principles agreed to on board Kent.


Source: THE NAVAL REVIEW. February 1933.
http://s41.photobucket.com/user/hagridm ... %20PORPORA

Any info about the guns? Cheers. Raúl M .

[tigre]

Hello to all ; a little more....................

THE SINO- JAPANESE CLASH AT SHANGHAI, 1932.

Chain of incidents that led to the clash.

2nd March saw the first signs of a general Chinese withdrawal, and by noon this impression was confirmed. During the forenoon, the 9th Division's attack was continued and extended, reaching the western outskirts of Tazang about 1300. At mid-day the 11th Division was reported as attacking Liuho Town. Advanced army headquarters moved to Kiangwan. During the afternoon the Chinese withdrawal became general all along the 9th Japanese Division's front, and the 19th Route Army was reported as intending to fall back to a north and south line through Nanziang. The Japanese 9th Division appeared to have halted for the night some distance west of the Tazang-Liuho Road.

The retreat of the 19th Route Army may, or may not, have been due to increasing pressure on the part of the 9th Division, but it would seem more likely that it was undertaken voluntarily as a result of the appearance of the 11th Division at Liuho.

At 0630 on 3rd March Yubari and five destroyers commenced a heavy bombardment of Woosung from the Yangtse. Land artillery also joined in, and two other destroyers bombarded Paoshan City. Shortly afterwards a Japanese transport proceeded up the Whangpoo and landed troops at 0730, probably one regiment of the 11th Division, at Woosung. Only slight machine-gun opposition was encountered, and by 0805 the Japanese ensign was flying over the Woosung Forts.

It took the Japanese 28 days to capture Woosung, during each of which it was subjected to bombardment by ships, artillery and aerial bombing. The Chinese defenders were reported to have withdrawn in the direction of Liuhang (eight miles north-west of Kiangwan).

During the morning the 9th Division continued its advance. At 1400, the 19th Route Army having withdrawn outside the zone laid down by Lieutenant-General Uyeda on 18th February, the Japanese troops were ordered to halt and suspend hostilities unless attacked.

On 4th March a certain amount of alarm was caused in the Settlement in the evening. Shortly after dark, what seemed to be a fusillade of rifle fire turned out to be the firing of crackers by Chinese. It transpired that rumours of the wildest nature had been circulated, among them that the Chinese Army had gained a great victory. The situation was kept in hand by the police, and by 10 PM, the time of curfew, the streets were clear, and except for a few minor incidents, principally in the French Concession, the Settlement had resumed its normal aspect.

On 5th March the gun emplacements of Woosung forts were destroyed by the Japanese. Every gun remaining in the fort was destroyed, and those of smaller calibre removed to Japan.

On 7th March, the 14th Japanese division commenced landing at Woosung. On the 12th it commenced relieving the 9th Division in the Nanziang area. On relief, the 9th Division, with the 24th Mixed Brigade, moved back into rest billets in Japanese mills in Hongkew.

Between 19th and 25th March, the 11th Division, having been relieved in the Northern Sector by the 9th Division, re-embarked for Japan in company with the 24th Mixed Brigade.

About 22nd March, the Japanese commenced the construction of a defensive position covering a small bridgehead over the Lyung Phu creek, immediately west of Kiangwan village ; this position extends to the N.N.E. in the direction of Woosung railway depot and to the S.S.E. towards Hongkew Park.

Throughout April, with the exception of isolated cases of minor clashes when the opposing outposts came into contact, there were no further active developments.

Source: THE NAVAL REVIEW. February 1933.
http://s41.photobucket.com/user/hagridm ... %20PORPORA

It's all folks. Cheers. Raúl M .

[tigre]

Hello to all ; a little story............................

Japanese first aerial victory.

On February 22, 1932 Robert Short was again airborne in an experimental fighter plane Boeing XP925A (later modified to Boeing P218), numbered X66W and painted green, when while above the sky of Suzhou he encountered three B1Ms escorted by three more A1Ns. During a 10 minute battle, Short made numerous attacks on the bombers; the bomber unit commander Lt. Susumu Kotani, was killed and his radio-operator/gunner, A1c Sasaki, was badly injured. However, the pilot ACPO Yoshiro Sakinaga flew the aircraft back to its base at Shanghai. In turn Short was himself shot down and killed by fighter pilot Lt. Ikuta Nogiji – the first aerial victory by the Japanese Naval Air Service.

Sources: http://pacificeagles.net/shanghai-incident-1932/
http://japanese-aviation.forumeiros.com ... ust-6-1937
Air-Battle-over-Shanghai-Suzhou-Hangzhou-1932.

Cheers. Raúl M .

[michael mills]

Why was Robert Short fighting the Japanese?

[Jerry Asher]

He was in China as a sales agent for American aircraft. At that particular time he had a Boeing airplane to demonstrate and chose to engage. If you use his name as a search term--it will yield many choices to follow through on. Oddly, because of US policy at the time it would be years before Boeing itself made sales. Song Ziwen, a very important figure was very, very impressed--staged what amounted to a state funeral for him, which included his mother coming over from Seattle. Song went on a buying spree of whatever American air products he could win US government approval for and set up an off the books American air mission, later active in start up of "Flying Tigers."

[michael mills]

He was in China as a sales agent for American aircraft. At that particular time he had a Boeing airplane to demonstrate and chose to engage.

Was he a legal member of any Chinese military force?

If he was not, then he was acting illegally in attacking the Japanese aircraft. Under international law he was acting as a pirate.

As I understand it, the "Flying Tigers", although US citizens, were legally employed by the Chinese Government as mercenaries, and hence were legal combatants.

[Jerry Asher]

Hi michael": His action was not sanctioned, and he didn't ask anybody for permission to the best of my knowledge. I have no idea what an attorney would do with it; from a Japanese perspective he might even be considered a murderer. Not sure of your nuance re "Flying Tigers," but let me offer, the first air missions of the American Volunteer Group, occurred almost three weeks after Japan attacked Shanghai, Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore, Bangkok and Pearl Harbor-wan't many people around they weren't at war with.

[michael mills]

Jerry Asher, thanks for that information. I was under the impression that the "Flying Tigers" were in action in China before Japan and the United States were officially at war.

[michael mills]

I have now a bit of quick research on the Flying Tigers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Tigers

I see that although they first engaged in combat on 20 December 1941, when the US was already at war with Japan, they were organised well before that date, and quite possibly would have gone into action even if the war had not started.

The American Volunteer Group was largely the creation of Claire L. Chennault, a retired U.S. Army Air Corps officer who had worked in China since August 1937, first as military aviation advisor to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in the early months of the Sino-Japanese War, then as director of a Chinese Air Force flight school centered in Kunming. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union supplied fighter and bomber squadrons to China, but these units were mostly withdrawn by the summer of 1940. Chiang then asked for American combat aircraft and pilots, sending Chennault to Washington as adviser to China's ambassador and Chiang's brother-in-law, T. V. Soong.

Since the U.S. was not at war, the "Special Air Unit" could not be organized overtly, but the request was approved by President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself. The resulting clandestine operation was organized in large part by Lauchlin Currie, a young economist in the White House, and by Roosevelt intimate Thomas G. Corcoran. (Currie's assistant was John King Fairbank, who later became America's preeminent Asian scholar.) Financing was handled by China Defense Supplies – primarily Tommy Corcoran's creation – with money loaned by the U.S. government. Purchases were then made by the Chinese under the "Cash and Carry" provision of the Neutrality Act of 1939.[1] Previously in the 1930s, a number of American pilots including Annapolis graduate Frank Tinker had flown combat during the Spanish Civil War, engaging Nazis and fascist Italians. Members were organized into the Yankee Squadron.

Chennault spent the winter of 1940–1941 in Washington, supervising the purchase of 100 Curtiss P-40 fighters (diverted from a Royal Air Force order; the Royal Air Force at that time deemed the P-40 obsolete[citation needed] ) and the recruiting of 100 pilots and some 200 ground crew and administrative personnel that would constitute the 1st AVG. He also laid the groundwork for a follow-on bomber group and a second fighter group, though these would be aborted after the Pearl Harbor attack.

Of the pilots, 60 came from the Navy and Marine Corps and 40 from the Army Air Corps. (One army pilot was refused a passport because he had earlier flown as a mercenary in Spain, so only 99 actually sailed for Asia. Ten more army flight instructors were hired as check pilots for Chinese cadets, and several of these would ultimately join the AVG’s combat squadrons.) The volunteers were discharged from the armed services, to be employed for "training and instruction" by a private military contractor, the Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company (CAMCO), which paid them $600 a month for pilot officer, $675 a month for flight leader, $750 for squadron leader (no pilot was recruited at this level), and about $250 for a skilled ground crewman.[2]

Some of the pilots were also orally promised a bounty of $500 for each enemy aircraft shot down, however no one knew if that would actually happen until they returned home and found the funds deposited in their bank.

Although sometimes considered a mercenary unit, the AVG was closely associated with the U.S. military. Most histories of the Flying Tigers say that on 15 April 1941, President Roosevelt signed a "secret executive order" authorizing servicemen on active duty to resign in order to join the AVG. However, Flying Tigers historian Daniel Ford could find no evidence that such an order ever existed, and he argued that "a wink and a nod" was more the president's style.[3] In any event, the AVG was organized and in part directed out of the White House, and by the spring of 1942 had effectively been brought into the U.S. Army chain of command.

During the summer and fall 1941, some 300 men carrying civilian passports boarded ships destined for Burma. They were initially based at a British airfield in Toungoo for training while their aircraft were assembled and test flown by CAMCO personnel at Mingaladon Airport outside Rangoon.

Presumably President Roosevelt was willing in April 1941 to approve the creation of the "Flying Tigers", whether officially or unofficially, because he realised that the economic measures he was preparing to undertake against Japan would eventually result in a war situation with that country.

[tigre]

Hello to all ; more............................

Air war over Shanghai.

On February 3, 1932 Japanese aircrafts began to bomb the guns at the Woosong Forts on the Whangpu River about eight miles north of Shanghai. On February 7, the forts were again bombarded by some 20 Japanese planes, while troops of the Japanese Special Naval Landing Force disembarked to confront the Chinese infantry and warships bombed the forts. The Chinese entrenched themselves along the Woosung Creek, which was then crossed by the Japanese under the cover of smoke screens. On February 23, about nine Japanese planes attacked Soochow about 50 miles west of Shanghai and dropped 30 bombs. On this same day a report was received indicating that the American aviator Robert Short was shot down and killed in a battle with Japanese planes over Soochow.

Sources: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/1932-ILLUSTRATE ... 2ee9fb876c

Cheers. Raúl M .