Need Help ID'ing Chinese General at Mamyo, 1942

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Goldfish
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Need Help ID'ing Chinese General at Mamyo, 1942

#1

Post by Goldfish » 23 Jun 2005, 14:33

I was reading Field Marshal William Slim's memoir Defeat into Victory (p. 18) and came across an interesting passage:
In Maymyo, I had talks with many staff officers...including one with a Chinese general who had played a great part in the only real victory the Chinese had won against the Japanese up to that time-Changsha. I drew him on one side and listened very carefully, through an interpreter, to his account of the tactics of that battle. His experience was that the Japanese, confident in their own prowess, frequently attacked on a very small administrative margin of safety. He estimated that a Japanese force would usually not have more than nine days' supplies available. If you could hold the Japanese for that time, prevent them from capturing your supplies, and then counter-attack them, you would destroy them. I listened to him with interest-after all he was the only Allied commander I had heard of who had defeated the Japanese in even one battle. There were, of course, certain snags in the application of this theory, but I thought its main principles sound. I remembered it and, later, acted on it.
This was at a conference in Maymyo after the fall of Rangoon and before Slim's appointement to the command of Burcorps. The only Chinese in the area would probably have been officers of the Chinese Expeditionary Force HQ, V Army HQ and 200th Division HQ. Slim doesn't name the general or his command and there are no endnotes. Could anyone help me ID this general?

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Steen Ammentorp
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#2

Post by Steen Ammentorp » 24 Jun 2005, 01:05

I don't think that there can be much doubt that the officer in question is Li Tsung-Jen ( Li Zongren) who is generally acclaimed to be the sole Chinese general to have won a battle against the Japanese unaided (at Changsha, 1938). I am pretty confident that I have read about the meeting between Slim and Li Tsung-Jen I just can't find it. Perhaps it was in Li Tsung-Jen's memoirs which I don't have at hand.

Don't sue me if I am wrong.

Kind Regards
Steen Ammentorp
The Generals of World War II


Goldfish
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#3

Post by Goldfish » 25 Jun 2005, 01:18

Thanks!

Edward Chen
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Re: Need Help ID'ing Chinese General at Mamyo, 1942

#4

Post by Edward Chen » 21 Aug 2013, 07:34

Don't worry, we won't sue you ...

General Li Tsung-jen [李宗仁; Li Zongren, 1890-1969] commanded Fifth War Area in early 1938 during the defense of the Hsuchow [徐州; Xuzhou] region including the famous victory at T'ai-er-chuang [台兒莊; Taierzhuang]. The battles for Changsha were all outside his area of operations.

The Chinese commander who was present at the April 19, 1942 Maymyo meeting along with Lt-General Slim, and fits Slim's description perfectly, is Lt-General Lo Cho-ying [羅卓英; Luo Zhuoying, 1896-1961], who commanded the "First Echelon" [中國遠征軍第一路] of the Chinese Expeditionary Army (i.e., the 5th and 6th Armies, as the 66th Army constituted the "Second Echelon") during the 1942 Burma Campaign. See "Stilwell's Mission To China" (page 132).

One of Chiang Kai-shek's loyal and reasonably-competent subordinates (and a member of the "Civil Engineering Clique" [土木系; tumuxi] of commanders headed by General Ch'en Ch'eng, as Lo had commanded 18th Army (the "mu" in "tumuxi", from Chinese traditional divination methods of playing around with the character writing for "18" [十八]) from 1933 to 1938), Lo commanded Nineteenth Group Army and was also Ninth War Area deputy commander (under the famous General Hsueh Yueh) during the First, Second and Third Battles for Changsha.
The Third Battle of Changsha (24 December 1941–15 January 1942) was already concluded by the time of the Burma Campaign.

Hope this helps,

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