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Battles of the Second Sino-Japanese War

  • Battle of Northern Burma and Western YunnanIn May 1942, Japan cut the Burma Road, the only overland supply route into China.
  • Battle of ShanggaoA Chinese air strike in March 1941 destroyed Japanese food and ammunition supplies at Shanggao.
  • Battle of Changsha (1944)After losing Hengyang in 1944, General Fang Xianjue was decorated, not punished. The siege had lasted forty-seven days.
  • Battle of YenangyaungAt Yenangyaung in April 1942, a Chinese regiment set out to rescue almost 7,000 encircled British soldiers.
  • Battle of TaiyuanThe 1937 Battle of Taiyuan began with a private letter from a Japanese general.
  • Battle of Guilin–LiuzhouOnly 20,000 Chinese troops defended Guilin when Japan attacked on the 1st of November. The city fell after ten days.
  • Battle of XuzhouIn May 1938, Chinese soldiers escaped a Japanese trap at Xuzhou by walking at night. They hid in wheat fields by day.
  • Battle of NankingChiang Kai-shek chose to defend Nanjing in 1937 though his senior officers opposed it.
  • Battle of Changsha (1941)Japan seized Changsha in 1941 and then walked away on purpose. It only wanted to punish the Chinese army there.
  • Battle of TaierzhuangIn the Battle of Taierzhuang, soldiers beat holes through walls to shoot each other.
  • Defense of the Great WallEmperor Hirohito told his generals the army was not to go beyond the Great Wall. The 1933 campaign tested that.
  • Battle of XinkouAt the 1937 Battle of Xinkou, soldiers faced tanks with Molotov cocktails. Three distrustful armies fought together.
  • Battle of ShanghaiChina's plan to drive Japan's garrison into the river in 1937 failed against concrete bunkers.
  • Battle of ChangdeIn 1943, about 8,000 Chinese soldiers held Changde against two Japanese divisions.
  • Battle of West HunanIn April 1945, Japan sent 80,000 men into west Hunan to seize one Chinese airfield. They were pushed back by June 7.
  • Battle of Changsha (1941–1942)Some Japanese soldiers at Changsha carried only 10 to 15 bullets each. Their army had prepared food for only five days.
  • Battle of WuhanJapan expected Wuhan to fall in a month or two, but the Battle of Wuhan lasted four and a half months.
  • Marco Polo Bridge incidentA missing Japanese soldier led to gunfire at the Marco Polo Bridge in 1937. The clash near Beijing grew into a war.
  • Battle of HengyangChinese troops held the city of Hengyang for 47 days in 1944. Japanese losses topped the defenders' whole force.
  • Battle of PingxingguanThe Battle of Pingxingguan turned on one road through a narrow defile worn into the loess, with no exit for several kilometres. Chinese and Japanese forces met there in late September, in northwestern Shanxi. It was the first significant…
  • Hundred Regiments OffensiveAt midnight on August 20, 1940, the Eighth Route Army struck Japanese railways across North China.

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