; after a while here goes an interesting article (at least for me..) dealing with the actions of one Chinese Army Group to the end of the war....................................Operating With A Chinese Army Group
Colonel F. W. Boye, Cavalry
Former Commanding General, Central Sector, Chinese Combat Command
FOR years our people struggled in the China-Burma-India Theater in the accomplishment of the American mission which was to keep China intact as an offensively fighting ally; to limit the Japanese gains; and, from advanced airbases, to operate our Air Force offensively against the enemy. The 14th Air Force was undoubtedly the savior of China in the early years and, since everything they did was a gratuity to China, they experienced little friction. Initially the ground forces were organized into a Chinese Training and Combat Command which exercised a restraining control on the issuance of American equipment to the Chinese Armies. In the fall of 1944, after the departure of General Stilwell, a nominal reorganization was undertaken.
This decision was influenced by the imminence of the Jap advance which had overrun airfields and which threatened the very existence of unoccupied China. Under the reorganization, the Chinese Combat Command was organized with General Ho Ying-Chin as Supreme Commander. Shoulder to shoulder with him sat General Robert B. McClure and his staff in Kunming. They organized various sectors of the combat zones into Eastern, Central, Kwangsi, Southern and Reserve Sectors. Actual command was retained by the Chinese and agreement was made that the United States would equip and train a total of thirty-six divisions together with army troops for four army groups. This article describes only the activities in the Central Sector with the Third Army Group which has its headquarters at Kweiyang, capital of Kweichow Province.
From the high Tibetan plane to the west, rugged mountains roll their fingers to the east dividing China into a North, Central and South China. The Japs controlled the main arteries of the country by seizing the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers and by later edging up the West River from Canton. The Chinese Goverment, backed up into the western approaches of its own land, established its headquarters in Chungking. The opposition party, known as the Communists, was pushed into Yunnan. Kunming became the official back door of China. South of the, Yangtze the country is rough, cut by rivers and deep gorges and traversed by dangerous roads.
From the air China resemble a huge stained glass window, the panes of which are the evrr present rice paddies alternated with grave mounds. It is a land of small villages. On the ground the points of civilization appear to be overflowing with hurrying people a great number of whom are in uniform. At one time when we were counting noses for rice distribution we found 575,000 military people to be fed and of this number not more than 160,000 were combat soldiers.
It would be well to describe briefly the enemy situation found at that time. In 1944 numerous Chinese armies had been defeated in Hunan and Kwangsi Provinces and the Jap columns had bored in, taking control of the railroad (although the retreating chinese tore up the rails and hid them in the rice paddies), and of all other practical lines of communication.
The enemy had reached Tuhshan, in Kweichow Province, when General T’ang En-po took over command with troops which had been rushed from the north. Happily the Japanese advance stopped at that time and for many months contact was maintained by two “country soldier” armies under T’ang’s command. The Jap progress had been no bed of roses, because American OSS teams, operating with Chinese delaying columns, had blown bridges ant roads sky high with American explosives.
Source: Military Review. Vol XXVII, Nº 02 - May 1947.
More follows. Regards. Raúl M
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