Battle of Changsha (1941)

• 1. Introduction

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  The Battle of Changsha in 1941 produced one of the stranger military calculations of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Japan threw forty-one infantry battalions at the capital of Hunan Province, seized the city, and then walked away. It had never intended to stay. Why would Japan stage such an enormous offensive for a city it planned to leave? How did a Chinese army carefully prepared to destroy the Japanese at a river crossing end up losing Changsha itself? And what became of the commanders who bore the blame when the dust settled on the 6th of October?

• 2. Loans, Pacts, and Preparations

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  On the 2nd of December 1940, the United States Congress passed a bill for a hundred-million-dollar loan to China. Eight days later, Britain approved a ten-million-pound loan of its own. Both moves came in direct response to Japan's signing of the Tripartite Pact and its decision to recognize Wang Jingwei's puppet government. For the Japanese high command, the message was clear: the Western powers would not let China collapse. Japan adopted the "Long-term Operational Guidance Plan for China" on the 16th of January 1941. The plan called for aggressive operations throughout that summer and autumn.

  In April 1941, Lieutenant General Korechika Anami took command of the 11th Army and began planning the Changsha operation. Then, on the 22nd of June, Germany launched Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union. The disruption was immediate. China Expeditionary Army commanders began considering whether to redeploy 11th Army units for a possible war with the Soviets. Anami pushed forward regardless. Two days after Barbarossa began, on the 24th of June, he approved the operation outline. He set the offensive for September 15.

  Japan's stated objective was to "deal a major blow to the Ninth Military Front in order to thwart the enemy's plan for resistance." At every opportunity, Japanese commanders stressed that the goal was not to occupy Changsha or obtain supplies. The operation was conceived as a punishing strike, not a conquest. Forty-one infantry battalions in four divisions and three task forces, along with twenty-nine artillery battalions, were committed to achieving it.

  On the Chinese side, military intelligence had detected Anami gathering four divisions totalling 120,000 troops. The Ninth Military Front, headquartered in Changsha, assembled 378,307 troops in 35 divisions across 13 armies and three army groups throughout Hunan. Xue Yue had spent months preparing to meet them.

• 3. The Trap at Miluo River

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  Since the battle of Shanggao in March 1941, the Ninth Military Front had been directing its troops to cooperate with guerillas in the Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi border region. The preparation was deliberate: harass the advancing Japanese, draw them deep into Hunan, and destroy them at a chosen killing ground. Xue Yue picked the Miluo River as that ground.

  The first significant fighting began on the 7th of September. The Japanese 6th Division launched a mopping-up operation at Dayun Mountain with air support from east, west, and north. The 6th Division mistakenly reported Dayun Mountain clear of enemy troops when handing off to the Shigematsu task force of the 40th Division. The task force was entirely unprepared when the 59th, 60th, and New 10th Divisions counterattacked. Chinese forces recaptured the peak. By September 17, with Japanese reinforcements building north of the Xinqiang River, the Ninth Military Front ordered the 27th Army Group to withdraw. The Chinese had suffered more than 3,000 casualties at Dayun Mountain alone.

  The main offensive opened on September 18. The 6th Division forced a crossing of the Xinqiang River and broke through the 4th Corps' position on the south bank. The entire 11th Army followed across. By September 19, the 3rd, 4th, and 6th Divisions had already reached the north bank of the Miluo River. The two Chinese corps assigned to stop them on the south bank had not finished deploying. From the 19th until the 24th of September, the Japanese broke through Chinese positions one after another. Both corps had to retreat by the 25th.

  The 26th Corps was encircled on the 23rd of September. Two days later, it was ordered to break out. The 10th Corps was besieged on the 24th by the 3rd, 4th, and 6th Divisions and the Hayabuchi task force. It suffered devastating losses in the retreat. Deputy Divisional Commander Lai Chuanxiang was killed. Divisional Commander Zhu Yue was wounded. The remnants of the 10th Corps moved to Langli City for reorganization. The plan to destroy the Japanese army at Miluo River had failed completely. Changsha lay open ahead.

• 4. Battle at Laodao River

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  Wang Yaowu's 74th Corps was the unit the Japanese 11th Army feared most. The corps had fought the 11th Army in multiple battles, including the 1939-1940 Winter Offensive. Japanese commanders regarded it as an elite assault force directly under the Nationalist Government. On the 21st of September, 11th Army headquarters intercepted a telegraph revealing the 74th Corps had begun moving toward the battlefield. The news shook the entire command.

  General Anami called a combat meeting on September 24 specifically to address how to handle the corps. He hoped to deal it a heavy blow. He ultimately decided to keep the 3rd and 4th Divisions moving toward Changsha. The 6th Division was ordered to block the 74th Corps at the Laodao River. The following day, Anami's headquarters intercepted another Chinese telegraph. This one came from Xue Yue himself, detailing the plan for a decisive engagement north of the Laodao River.

  On the early morning of September 26, the 3rd Battalion of the 18th Infantry Regiment was advancing toward a river crossing. Near Chunhua Mountain, the battalion suddenly took fire. The battalion commander judged the enemy were defeated stragglers and ordered an attack. A single company fought until the afternoon before making any progress. It had run into the forward units of the 74th Corps. The corps had moved faster than the Japanese believed possible, marching at night to avoid aircraft. The 3rd Division had no idea who it was fighting.

  The battle at Chunhua Mountain and Yong'an city over September 26 and 27 was among the bloodiest of the campaign. Anami's diary entry for October 15 records that the 29th Infantry Brigade of the 3rd Division suffered more than 800 casualties. The 18th Infantry Regiment alone lost eight company commanders. Most of those losses occurred in these two locations. On the Chinese side, the 57th Division suffered nearly 3,000 casualties in a single day. In the 173rd Regiment of the 58th Division, every battalion commander and every company commander was killed or wounded. Li Hanqing, the infantry commander sent to lead a flanking counterattack, was killed. Yu Guanying, commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 172nd Regiment, was also killed.

  On the morning of September 27, Chiang Kai-Shek sent a telegraph to the front. He told his commanders: "The Laodao River Operation is crucial to defending Changsha and the very survival of our nation. Anyone who fail to obey orders, hesitate to advance, or retreat without authorization will be summarily executed on the spot." By noon, the 74th Corps was pinned down along the river by three Japanese divisions. By 17:00, Xue Yue had ordered Wang Yaowu to pull the corps back under cover of night. The 58th Division was the last to withdraw, covering the retreat of the other divisions. It fought on, taking the heaviest casualties of any division in the entire battle.

• 5. A City Taken and Left

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  On the 27th of September, the Japanese 4th Division crossed the Liuyang River and entered the northeast corner of Changsha at 17:00. The Hayabuchi task force entered the city five hours later at 22:00. Some units of the 3rd Division pressed south without orders, capturing Zhuzhou on September 29 after two days of fighting. Their opponent was the 8th Provisional Division. General Anami eventually approved the unsanctioned move.

  On October 1, the 11th Army began withdrawing from Changsha. The operation from the Xinqiang River crossing to the occupation of the provincial capital had taken thirteen days. Xue Yue pushed his troops to pursue and flank the retreating Japanese aggressively. During the retreat, the Hayabuchi task force was ambushed at the north bank of the Laodao River by the 98th Division. Both the 1st and 2nd Battalion commanders were killed. A company of the 61st Infantry Regiment was surrounded east of Changsha on the 2nd of October. The 1st Air Group dispatched 16 aircraft to extract them. By October 6, the withdrawal was complete.

  While the battle around Changsha played out, Chiang Kai-Shek had ordered a parallel operation. After Japan crossed the Xinqiang River on September 18, he directed the Sixth Military Front to attack Yichang. The various army groups began their offensives on September 28. The operation reached its climax on October 10, the Double Tenth Day, when the Chinese launched a general offensive across all fronts. At 2:30 a.m., the 2nd Corps bombarded the Japanese position at Dongshan Temple with what Chinese records described as unprecedented firepower. At 5:00 a.m., four assault battalions broke through the defensive perimeter three times and entered street fighting inside the city.

  At Dongshan Temple, the Japanese garrison released a large amount of poison gas and used the resulting chaos to counterattack. By the end of October 10, Chinese records reported more than 500 soldiers had died from the gas. Under the assault's pressure, Lieutenant General Uchiyama Eitaro ordered his chief of staff Akinaga to burn confidential documents. He also directed that a place be prepared for the divisional commander and staff to commit suicide if necessary. General Anami dispatched the 39th Division and the Hayabuchi task force to relieve the 13th Division. By October 11, heavy rains had turned all fronts to mud. Reports of approaching Japanese reinforcements had reached Chen Cheng since October 9. He ordered the withdrawal. Chiang Kai-Shek formally ended the offensive after learning of the poison gas casualties.

• 6. Blame, Execution, and Rehabilitation

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  The third Nanyue military conference ran from the 16th until the 21st of October 1941. There, Chiang Kai-Shek delivered some of the sharpest criticism of the war. He told his generals that the enemy could announce its timetable in advance and still execute without deviation. "Generals, what a disgrace this is!" He blamed an outdated defensive mindset: too many troops concentrated around key cities, the center left barely fortified. General Zhang Fakui is recorded as having held the same view for the duration of the war.

  Chiang directed specific blame at Xue Yue for the fall of Changsha itself. He said the city fell "because Xue Boling withdrew his headquarters to Lukou without authorization, allowing the enemy to sneak into the city." He pressed his generals on the question of captured prisoners. Even ten prisoners, he argued, would have been an acceptable result. The conference produced none. The Ninth Military Front had suffered 70,672 killed, wounded, or missing in the battle.

  Liao Lingqi, commander of the 58th Division, was sentenced to death for deserting in battle. Xue Yue had singled him out at the conference as arrogant and disobedient. During a recess, Liao sought out Chiang personally, continuing to shout "Report!" even after being told to leave. He was detained, tried, and shot on the 22nd of October. Before his execution, he wrote three final notes for his family. When news reached the 58th Division, three regimental commanders resigned in protest. They were Wang Boxiong of the 172nd Regiment, Deng Zhuxiu of the 174th Regiment, and He Lan of the supplementary regiment.

  Zhang Lingfu, the division's deputy commander, was promoted to replace Liao. The 58th Division was excluded from the Third Battle of Changsha and underwent three months of reorganization. After reading Liao Lingqi's final letters and hearing his men's protests, Chiang Kai-Shek rehabilitated him posthumously. He ordered an annual pension for Liao's family and had his body enshrined in the Nanyue Martyrs Shrine. The 10th Corps commander Li Yutang was dismissed, with Zhong Bin assigned as his replacement. Zhong Bin had not yet taken post when the Third Battle of Changsha began. Li Yutang was reinstated, and he played a central role in defending the urban city in that next battle.