Battle of Hengyang
Hengyang in Hunan Province lies in an oval basin surrounded by mountains and hills, with Guangdong and Guangxi to the south, Guizhou and Yunnan to the west, and Jiangxi and Shanghai to the east. The city proper sits where two rivers merge into the Xiang River, a major tributary of the Yangtze. Such a unique geographical position destined Hengyang to be a strategic crossroads throughout China's history, a must for industrial and commercial enterprises to use as a home base and for military forces to control. In the 1930s, the Japanese occupation of major East Coast cities such as Shanghai, Nanjing, and Wuhan forced China's industries to relocate inland. The Chiang Kai-shek government chose Hengyang to be a light industry center. By the beginning of 1944, both banks of the Xiang River for ten miles had been built up with mills and factories. The bustling commercial activities brought the city the nickname "Little Shanghai". That same decade, two major railway lines, Wuhan-Guangzhou and Hunan-Guangxi, were built that met in Hengyang, further elevating the strategic importance of the city as a gateway to Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan and Sichuan. A Chinese failure to hold the city could result in the Japanese crossing into Guilin and driving west towards Guizhou, from where they could directly attack Chongqing, thus placing the Chinese wartime capital and military headquarters in imminent danger.
By the summer of 1943, American military forces on the Pacific front had won a great victory against Japan in the Guadalcanal campaign and continued to advance into the western Pacific. On November 25, the US Air Force, from a base in eastern China, bombed a Japanese naval base in Taiwan. All this caused great anxiety in the upper echelon of the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces. They realized that Japan must now set up an overland transport route through central China and destroy the American air bases there. In January 1944, the Japanese military plan "Ichigo" was drawn up and approved by the emperor. Two phases were projected: Henan Campaign aiming at the control of Beijing-Wuhan Railway, and Hunan-Guangxi Campaign to take over Wuhan-Guangzhou and Hunan-Guangxi Railways. Ichigo was formally put into action on the 17th of April. Japanese troops met with hardly any effective Chinese resistance during the subsequent six weeks, and on the 26th of May Japan launched the offensive on Hunan with forces growing to "80,000 to 90,000". Changsha fell on June 18, and two days later, when the order came to take Hengyang, Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama (橫山 勇) expected the battle to last no more than a day.
As Japan was launching its daring Ichigo Operation in China, Chinese supreme commander Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek was mired in struggles on almost every front. A memorandum by the Office of Strategic Services on the 4th of April 1944 describes Chiang as being "under great strain", and even "half crazy". Even before Pearl Harbor, the US government had started quietly helping China by sending the American Volunteer Group (AVG) of aviators and technicians, led by Claire Chennault and popularly known as the Flying Tigers. Once the U.S. had entered the war, American General Joseph Stilwell became chief of staff to Chiang Kai-shek and U.S. Commander of the China-Burma-India Theater (CBI). Tensions soon began to rise. A defeat of the Allied troops in Burma, including the Chinese 5th and 6th Armies, said by Chiang to be China's crack troops, made Stilwell obsessed with avenging his failure. In most of his tenure in the CBI, only Burma was his priority. In the months leading up to the epic Battle of Hengyang, Americans stepped up their pressure on the Chiang government for two things: sending his Yunnan forces to Burma and allowing American observers to go to Yanan to make contact with Chinese Communist leaders. Roosevelt's April 3 letter was quickly followed by General Marshall's instruction to Stilwell that air supplies over "The Hump" from British India would cease if Chiang did not order his Yunnan forces to move into Burma. The pressure finally became unbearable, and on the 15th of April 1944, two days before Ichigo began, the Yunnan forces, one of Chiang's best-equipped and best-trained armies, left China.
Ordered to defend Hengyang was the 10th Army of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army, formally established in 1940. (The Chinese word "军" is usually translated as "army", although it is only the size of an army corps in the military of other countries. The Kuomintang Order of Battle entry in the Pacific War Online Encyclopedia has a discussion of this.) The Army was built on the foundation of the 190th Division that had won the title "Division of Bravery and Loyalty" in the Battle of Wuhan in 1938. Having played a decisive role in the victory at the Third Battle of Changsha at the end of 1941, the 10th Army was awarded the honorary title "Mt. Tai Army". Mt. Tai, one of the Five Sacred Mountains in China, symbolizes reverence and respect. Lieutenant General Fang Xianjue, commander of the 10th Army, was also well known to Hunan people. In the fiercest life-and-death moment during the Third Battle of Changsha, Fang, then a major general commanding the 10th Reserve Division, wrote his "last" letter to his wife after promising the Supreme Commander of the Ninth War Area, General Xue, to hold his battle lines for a week. The letter was published under the heading "Determined to Defend Changsha to his Death, Commander Fang Made his Will" on the first page of Changsha Daily on the 2nd of January 1942.
On the 18th of June, Changsha fell. War was now imminent for Hengyang. General Fang decided to evacuate all Hengyang residents. This would avoid civilian casualties, allowing military forces to completely focus on combat fighting, and prevent traitors and spies from hiding amongst the civilian population. The 10th Army requested the railways to provide free rides, and staff members and companies directly under the Headquarters were sent to the railway stations to help the old and young to board. Within four days and nights, the 300,000 Hengyang population was evacuated. Reuters journalist Graham Barrow witnessed the evacuation of Hengyang in person: "I was lying asleep by the railway station one night in the rain, then I woke up because there was a train going by. They were stuffed on roofs and in boxcars. They had lashed themselves to couplings between cars. There were refugees on the cowcatcher in front; underneath the trains they had laid some boards across the rods between the wheels. They stretched their mattresses on the boards and there they were, lying one on top of the other between the rods and trains." Before the mass evacuation, the mayor of Hengyang called for volunteers to assist the 10th Army in their fighting. 32,000 Hengyang citizens signed up and stayed behind. The mayor organized them into six teams: transporting munitions, fixing damaged defense works, extinguishing fires, carrying stretchers, attending to wounded soldiers, and collecting corpses.
On the 20th of June 1944, the Japanese commander, Lieutenant General Yokoyama of the 11th Imperial Army, issued the operational deployment for Hengyang: his troops should take the city rapidly, annihilating any Chinese reinforcements on their way. The 116th Division was to attack the city from the southwest, and the 68th Division from the east to take Wuhan-Guangzhou railway and Hengyang Airfield. The 218th Regiment was to occupy the east end of the railway bridge to assist the 68th Division with crossing the Xiang River. According to Japanese military historians, a Japanese regiment had the fighting strength equivalent to a Chinese division. Therefore, the Japanese forces initially deployed to attack Hengyang already outgunned the Chinese defenders by a ratio of almost two and a half to one. Knowing that his 116th and 68th divisions were among his strongest forces, Lieutenant General Yokoyama believed that Hengyang would be taken within one day. On the 22nd of June, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service dropped incendiary bombs on the city, burning many houses to the ground. At eight that evening, the advance troops of the Japanese 68th Division arrived at the eastern outskirts of the city. Early next morning, on the 23rd of June, 68th Division was trying to cross the Lei River when a Chinese battalion from the 190th Division fired at them and their boats. The Battle of Hengyang had begun.
Before the Battle of Hengyang began, Chiang Kai-shek promised help to General Fang of the 10th Army from both the air force and army. Chiang had a bold vision of his other armies surrounding the besieging Japanese troops, and they would be finally annihilated by his forces from inside and outside the city. On the 12th of July, a day after the Japanese second offensive started in Hengyang, Chiang Kai-shek ordered two armies to rapidly relieve Hengyang. The 62nd Army should attack the rear of the enemy from the southwest of Hengyang, while the 79th should push vigorously towards the northwest to assist the 62nd. The next day, the 151st Division of the 62nd took Baihepu (), about 20 miles from Hengyang. On the 14th of July, the 194th Division of the 79th Army fought their way to Xinqiao (), ten miles from Hengyang. On the 16th of July, the 10th Army sent another urgent request for reinforcements, and the Military Council ordered the 62nd Army to press more forcefully and swiftly to Hengyang without getting hung up battling Japanese troops on the way.
On the 8th of August, Major Takeuchi (竹内), an envoy sent by the headquarters of the 11th Japanese Imperial Army, visited General Fang at the church. After reaffirming that the 10th Army did not surrender without conditions, Fang made three requests: guarantee the safety of all surviving soldiers and officers and allow them to rest, provide the wounded with medical treatment and bury the dead in Chinese tradition, and not break up the structure of the 10th Army by sending any men away from Hengyang. On behalf of Lieutenant General Yokoyama, Takeuchi expressed a high respect for the 10th Army: "Your bravery was not only admired by the Japanese troops here, but also known to our base and even the emperor back in Japan." He then readily accepted all of Fang's requests. In reality, there was neither food nor medicine. It happened to be the time of the year for the rice crop to mature in Hengyang, and so all captives, fit or wounded, so long as able to walk, were forced to go to the rice fields in the outskirts of the city to harvest. Only a small amount of what was brought in was allocated to Chinese prisoners, who threshed those few stalks of rice and cooked the grains into some kind of gruel to feed themselves.
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Common questions
What was the strategic importance of Hengyang in 1944?
Hengyang served as a critical strategic crossroads where two major railway lines met and connected to industrial centers. The city controlled access to Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, and Sichuan while protecting the wartime capital Chongqing from Japanese invasion.
When did the Battle of Hengyang officially begin on June 23 1944?
The battle began early on the 23rd of June 1944 when Chinese forces from the 190th Division fired upon Japanese troops attempting to cross the Lei River. This engagement followed incendiary bombing raids that started on the 22nd of June 1944.
Who commanded the 10th Army during the defense of Hengyang?
Lieutenant General Fang Xianjue led the 10th Army which held the title Mt. Tai Army after victories at the Third Battle of Changsha. He negotiated surrender terms with Major Takeuchi on the 8th of August 1944 before his forces were captured.
How many civilians remained in Hengyang to support the military effort?
Thirty-two thousand citizens signed up to assist the 10th Army after 300,000 residents evacuated over four days and nights starting on the 18th of June 1944. These volunteers organized into six teams to transport munitions fix defenses extinguish fires carry stretchers attend wounded soldiers and collect corpses.
What was the outcome of the Ichigo Operation regarding Hengyang?
The Japanese launched the Ichigo Operation on the 17th of April 1944 with a goal to control railway lines through central China. Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama expected to take Hengyang within one day but faced prolonged resistance from the Chinese 10th Army until August 1944.