Battle of Changsha (1941–1942)

• 1. Introduction

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  The Third Battle of Changsha began on the 24th of December 1941, seventeen days after Pearl Harbor. Japanese General Korechika Anami believed the city was "inadequately defended." His forces cut through Chinese lines at first. His encircled, starving army retreated three weeks later.

  Changsha had been contested twice in the previous two years, and Chinese defenders had driven the Japanese back both times. This third attempt came with a new strategic rationale and a confident advance plan. It ended the same way. The battle has since been called the only place where the Japanese Army suffered defeat in the weeks immediately following Pearl Harbor.

  What the Japanese commanders underestimated, and what the defenders had spent years building, unfolded over three weeks of brutal fighting in Hunan Province.

• 2. Why Changsha Mattered

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  Changsha, capital of Hunan Province, sat at the center of China's most important rice-producing country. Those fields supplied food for millions of people around Chongqing, China's wartime capital, far to the northwest.

  The offensive was originally designed to prevent Chinese forces from reaching British Commonwealth troops fighting in Hong Kong. It was also meant to support the Twenty-Third Army's assault on the colony. The attack launched after Hong Kong had already surrendered to Japanese forces. The supporting rationale was gone before the offensive began.

  Chinese claims that Anami had been defeated in his September to October 1941 Changsha offensive had infuriated him. He assembled a force of 27 infantry battalions, 10 artillery battalions, and one artillery battery. He designed the operation as a swift thrust by light forces, which required only a slender supply route into Chinese territory. The Chinese would exploit that choice.

• 3. Xue Yue's Method

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  Nicknamed "Tiger of Changsha," Xue Yue built his defense on a consistent principle: let the attacker come deep, then close the trap. In both 1939 and 1941, he had drawn Japanese forces deep into Chinese territory and let them commit to the city. Then he severed their supply lines from the rear, forcing them into costly retreats.

  The 10th corps held Changsha's urban defenses. Its commander, Li Yutang, had been dismissed following the Second Battle of Changsha. When the third attack began and his replacement, Zhong Bin, had not yet arrived, Li was reinstated. His soldiers viewed the battle as a chance to rehabilitate both the corps and their commander.

  Anami, by the 29th of December 1941, ordered his forces further into Chinese territory than Imperial General Headquarters had authorized. He drove some 22 miles beyond the approved limit. He committed the 3rd and 6th Divisions to a direct assault on Changsha.

• 4. The Battle for the Walls

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  On the 1st of January 1942, divisional commander Toyoshima announced that he would celebrate the New Year inside Changsha. His 3rd Division had reached the city's edge. That evening, Captain Kato Soichi led the 2nd battalion of the 6th infantry regiment in a night assault on the Chinese positions.

  Kato's force broke into Baishaling but was quickly surrounded. At dawn on the 2nd of January, Kato was wounded by a bullet to the stomach. A non-commissioned officer fought free and brought word of the crisis back to the main force. The battalion charged repeatedly trying to reach their commander. By the 4th of January, Kato was listed as killed in action.

  Chinese battalion commander Liu Zhengping led a company into Baishaling and reported killing more than 100 Japanese soldiers, including Kato. His force also seized critical documents that revealed the Japanese army's plans. General Xue Yue said of the find: "Even if it's a piece of paper, it weights more than ten thousand machine guns."

  One mound near the city walls, called "Graveyard Hill," changed hands eleven times in less than 72 hours. On the night of the 1st of January, Fang Xianjue, commander of the 10th reserve division, wrote a suicide note pledging to die defending Changsha. The letter was intended for his wife. An official named Yang Zhenghua sent it instead to the Changsha Daily, which published the full text the following day with the headline: "Commander Fang vowed to defend the land to the death and has made his will in advance."

  By the 4th of January, the Japanese Eleventh Army claimed to have occupied "all the important points of the city." It could advance no further. Chinese forces had already begun closing around the Japanese rear.

• 5. The Retreat Decision

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  At 5 p.m. on the 3rd of January, three senior staff officers arrived at General Anami's office. They were chief of staff Kinoshita, deputy chief Futami, and operations officer Shimamura. They urged him to order a withdrawal. Japanese forces had to reach the north bank of the Miluo River before Chinese divisions cut off that route.

  Anami refused. He argued the 6th Division had only joined the battle that morning. To order a retreat now, he said, would be a "premature end of the attack." The staff officers warned that some 30 Chinese divisions were converging on the Japanese positions. Anami finally relented.

  Soldiers in some Japanese regiments were carrying only 10 to 15 bullets each. Some platoons had a single grenade to share. Japanese prisoners later taken by the Chinese reported having gone days without eating. The army had prepared only five days' worth of food for an operation that far outlasted that estimate.

  Divisional commander Toyoshima, upon receiving the retreat order, immediately telegraphed Anami requesting a one-day delay. He wanted to recover Kato Soichi's body and attempt one final push on Changsha. His 3rd Division had suffered more than 700 casualties and was nearly out of ammunition. The request was denied. A Japanese post-war account described the withdrawal as conducted under "considerable hardship," with persistent attacks and a large number of casualties to escort. Near-complete air superiority, the account said, alone prevented the force from being annihilated.

• 6. Last Stand at Yingzhu Mountain

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  Yingzhu Mountain stood across the retreat route of the withdrawing 3rd and 6th Divisions. The Chinese 20th and 58th corps had positioned themselves there to block the withdrawal. To clear a path, the 9th independent mixed brigade assembled a strike force.

  Captain Shigeru Yamazaki of the 40th independent infantry battalion led the assault. His mixed battalion numbered 150 to 160 troops from the 1st company and roughly 60 from the 4th company. It also included an artillery platoon, part of a communications squad, and medics. On the night of the 8th of January, they moved against command posts of the Chinese new 10th division and the 58th corps. They attacked from the mountain's northern side.

  By early on the 9th of January, Yamazaki's force had reached the summit and planted the Japanese flag. By 10 a.m., their ammunition was exhausted. Chinese forces surrounded the position, and the fighting became hand-to-hand. Before he died, Yamazaki ordered Sergeant Saito to escape and carry a report back to their superiors. After Saito left, the remaining Japanese soldiers were killed or took their own lives.

  On the 10th of January, Japanese air reconnaissance flew over the high ground where the flag had stood the day before and found only a large number of corpses. Chinese records credited the fighting at Yingzhu Mountain with killing more than 200 soldiers of the 9th independent mixed brigade. The 9th brigade, after receiving Saito's report, still made preparations in case any of Yamazaki's soldiers had survived.

• 7. The Casualty Reckoning

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  He Chengjun, Director-General of Courts-Martial of China's Military Commission, recorded in his diary on the 25th of February 1942 that everyone in the room laughed. Xue Yue had just reported nearly 57,000 Japanese casualties, with an estimated 33,941 killed and 23,003 wounded. Chiang Kai-Shek himself called the claim too unrealistic.

  The New York Times estimated Japanese losses at around 52,000. One Alaskan newspaper, the Nome Nugget, reported 15,000 Japanese dead on the 2nd of January alone. The Japanese army's own figures gave 1,591 killed and 4,412 wounded. The 3rd and 6th Divisions together accounted for nearly two-thirds of all Japanese losses in the battle.

  The Ninth Military Front recorded 30,346 Chinese soldiers killed, wounded, or missing. One Chinese regiment had only 58 survivors after a few days of fighting. Many units held their positions until the last man, a result of both combat intensity and the discipline of the Chinese Army.

  On the 24th of January 1942, Xue Yue and Li Yutang each received the Order of Blue Sky and White Sun for their roles in the battle. Li Yutang was simultaneously promoted to deputy commander of the 27th army group. The 10th corps earned the title "Mt. Tai Army." By the 8th of September 1942, three of its divisions each received Flying Tiger Flags from the Nationalist Government.

  Changsha remained in Chinese hands until 1944, when Japan's Ichi-Go offensive finally took it. The war's broader tide had by then shifted against Japan across China and the Pacific. Chinese forces retook the city in 1945. Fang Xianjue, who had written what he believed was his final letter on the 1st of January, was promoted to corps commander after the battle.