The Battle of Wuhan (traditional Chinese: 武漢會戰; simplified Chinese: 武汉会战; Japanese: 武漢作戦 (ぶかんさくせん)), popularly known to the Chinese as the Defense of Wuhan (traditional Chinese: 武漢保衛戰; simplified Chinese: 武汉保卫战), and to the Japanese as the Capture of Wuhan, was the largest, longest, and bloodiest battle of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Engagements took place across vast areas of Anhui, Henan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Hubei provinces over four and a half months. More than one million National Revolutionary Army troops from the Fifth and Ninth War Zones were put under the direct command of Chiang Kai-shek, defending Wuhan from the Central China Area Army of the Imperial Japanese Army led by Shunroku Hata. Chinese forces were supported by the Soviet Volunteer Group, volunteer pilots from the Soviet Air Forces.
The battle ended with the capture of Wuhan by Japanese forces. China took up to one million casualties, military and civilian. Japan, which suffered its heaviest losses of the war, diverted its attention north, prolonging the war until the attack on Pearl Harbor. The end of the battle began a strategic stalemate in the war, shifting from pitched to local battles.
Background
After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident on 7 July 1937, the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) launched a full-scale invasion of China. Both Beijing and Tianjin had fallen to the Japanese by 30 July, which exposed the rest of the North China Plain. To disrupt the Japanese invasion plans, the Chinese Nationalists decided to engage the Japanese in Shanghai, which opened a second front. The fighting lasted from 13 August to 12 November, with the Chinese suffering major casualties including "70 percent of Chiang Kai-shek's young officers." After the fall of Shanghai, Nanjing, which was the capital of China, was threatened directly by the Japanese forces. The Nationalists were thus forced to declare the capital an open city while they began the process of moving the capital to Chongqing.
With the fall of three major Chinese cities (Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai), there was a large number of refugees fleeing the fighting in addition to the government facilities and war supplies that needed to be transferred to Chongqing. Inadequacies in the transport systems prevented the government from being able to complete the transfer. Wuhan thus became the "de facto wartime capital" of the Republic of China for its strong industrial, economic, and cultural foundations. Assistance from the Soviet Union provided additional military and technical resources, including the Soviet Volunteer Group.
On the Japanese side, the IJA forces were drained by the large number and the extent of military operations since the beginning of the invasion. Reinforcements were thus dispatched to boost forces in the area, which placed a strain on the Japanese peacetime economy, leading Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe to reassemble his Cabinet in 1938 and to introduce the National Mobilization Law on 5 May that year, which moved Japan into a wartime economic state.
Importance of Wuhan
Wuhan, located halfway upstream of the Yangtze River, was the second-largest city in China, with a population of 1.5 million in late 1938. The Yangtze River and the Hanshui River divide the city into three regions, which include Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang. Wuchang was the political center, Hankou was the commercial district, and Hanyang was the industrial area. After the completion of the Yuehan Railway, the importance of Wuhan as a major transportation hub in the interior of China was further established. The city also served as an important transit point for foreign aid moving inland from the southern ports.
After the Japanese capture of Nanjing, the bulk of the Nationalist government agencies and the military command headquarters were in Wuhan although the capital had been moved to Chongqing. Wuhan thus became the de facto wartime capital at the onset of the engagements in Wuhan. The Chinese war effort was thus focused on protecting Wuhan from being occupied by the Japanese. The Japanese government and the headquarters of the China Expeditionary Army expected Wuhan to fall, along with the Chinese resistance, "within a month or two."
Preparations for battle
In December 1937, the Military Affairs Commission was created to determine the battle plan for the defense of Wuhan. After the loss of Xuzhou, approximately 1.1 million men or 120 divisions of the National Revolutionary Army were redeployed. The commission decided to organize the defense around the Dabie Mountains, Poyang Lake, and the Yangtze River against the 200,000 Japanese in 20 divisions of the Imperial Japanese Army. Generals Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi of the Fifth War Zone were assigned to defend the north of the Yangtze, and Chen Cheng of the Ninth War Zone was tasked with defending the south. The First War Zone, located in the west of the Zhengzhou-Xinyang section of the Pinghan Railway, was given the task of stopping the Japanese forces coming from the North China Plain. Finally, Chinese troops in the Third War Zone, located between Wuhu, Anqing and Nanchang, were given the task to protect the Yuehan Railway.
After the Japanese occupied Xuzhou in May 1938, they sought actively to expand the scale of the invasion. The IJA decided to send a vanguard to occupy Anqing for use as a forward base for an attack on Wuhan, for its main force then to attack the area north of the Dabie Mountains moving along the Huai River, and to occupy Wuhan eventually by the way of the Wusheng Pass. Later, another detachment would move west along the Yangtze. However, the Yellow River flood forced the IJA to abandon its plan of attacking along the Huai, and it decided to attack along both banks of the Yangtze instead. On 4 May, the commander of the IJA forces, Shunroku Hata, organized approximately 350,000 men of the Second and Eleventh Armies to fight in and around Wuhan. Under him, Yasuji Okamura commanded five-and-a-half divisions of the Eleventh Army along both banks of the Yangtze in the main assault on Wuhan, and Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni commanded four-and-a-half divisions of the Second Army along the northern foot of the Dabie Mountains to assist the assault. The forces were augmented by 120 ships of the Third Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy under Koshirō Oikawa, more than 500 planes of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service, and five divisions of Japanese forces from the Central China Area Army to guard the areas in and around Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, and other important cities, which would protect the back of the Japanese forces and complete the preparation for the battle.
Prelude
The Battle of Wuhan was preceded by a Japanese air strike on 18 February 1938 that was known as the "2.18 Air Battle" and ended by Chinese forces repelling the attack. On 24 March, the Diet of Japan passed the National Mobilization Law, which authorized unlimited war funding. As part of the law, the National Service Draft Ordinance also allowed the conscription of civilians. On 29 April, the Japanese air force launched major air strikes on Wuhan to celebrate Emperor Shōwa's birthday. The Chinese, with prior intelligence, were well prepared. The battle was known as the "4.29 Air Battle" and was one of the most intense air battles of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
After the Battle of Xuzhou in May 1938, the Japanese planned an extensive invasion of Hankou and the takeover of Wuhan, and intended to destroy the main force of the National Revolutionary Army. The Chinese, on the other hand, were building up their defensive efforts by massing troops in the Wuhan area. They also set up a defensive line in Henan to delay the Japanese forces coming from Xuzhou. However, the disparity in Chinese and Japanese troop strength caused that line of defense to collapse quickly.
In an attempt to win more time for the preparation of the defense of Wuhan, the Chinese opened up the dikes of the Yellow River in Huayuankou, Zhengzhou on 9 June. The flood, now known as the 1938 Yellow River flood, forced the Japanese to delay their attack on Wuhan. However, it also caused around 500,000 to 900,000 civilian deaths by flooding many cities in northern China.
Major engagements
Air war and preemptive strikes
On 18 February 1938, an Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service (IJNAS) strike-force composed of at least 11 A5M fighters of the 12th and 13th Kōkūtais, led by Lieutenant Takashi Kaneko, and 15 G3M bombers of the Kanoya Kokutai, led by Lieutenant Commander Sugahisa Tuneru, on a raid against Wuhan engaged in battle with 19 Chinese Air Force I-15 fighters of the 22nd and 23rd Pursuit Squadrons and 10 I-16 fighters of the 21st PS, all under the overall command of the 4th Pursuit Group CO Captain Li Guidan, as well as several more mix of Polikarpov fighters of the Soviet Volunteer Group. The 4th Group fighters would claim at least 4 of the A5Ms, and the Soviet group claimed no less than 3 of the A5Ms shot down. Both the Japanese fighter group commander, Lieutenant Kaneko, and the Chinese fighter group commander, Captain Li, were killed in action in the battle. A largely-intact A5M fighter plane that was downed in the battle was recovered with a damaged engine, and it was the second intact A5M to be recovered, repaired, and flight-tested in the war, the first recovered-intact A5M having been one downed by Colonel Gao Zhihang during an air battle over Nanjing on 12 October 1937.
On 3 August 1938, 52 Chinese fighters, with 20 I-15s, 13 I-16s, 11 Gloster Gladiators, and 7 Hawk IIIs intercepted at least 29 A5M fighters and 18 G3M bombers over Hankou. The former Guangxi warlord air force pilot Zhu Jiaxun and his squadron-mate, He Jermin, along with the Chinese-American fighter pilots Arthur Chin and Louie Yim-qun, all flying the Gladiators, would claim at least four of the A5Ms to be shot down that day.
Battles of Madang and Jiujiang
On 15 June, the Japanese made a naval landing and captured Anqing, which signaled the onset of the Battle of Wuhan. The capture Anqing's airbase enabled Japanese aircraft to assault Jiujiang, a major riverine port and railroad junction one hundred miles upstream.
On the southern bank of the Yangtze River, the Chinese Ninth War Zone had one regiment stationed west of Poyang Lake and another stationed in Jiujiang. To prevent a Japanese assault on Jiujiang, the Chinese had built defensive fortifications at Madang, including artillery emplacements, naval mines and bamboo river booms.
On 24 June, the Japanese forces made a surprise landing in Madang, while the main force of the Japanese Eleventh Army attacked along the southern shore of the Yangtze River. The Chinese garrison of the Madang river fortress repelled four Japanese assaults, but suffered casualties due to intense bombardment from Japanese ships on the Yangtze, as well as poison gas attacks. Due to a ceremony at a local military school by Li Yunheng (李韞珩), the overseeing general for the Madang defense, most of the Chinese officers responsible for Madang's defense were absent. Thus, only three battalions from the second and third marine corps and the 313th regiment of the 53rd division took part in its defense, totaling no more than 5 battalions. Moreover, when the 167th division stationed in Pengze was ordered by War Zone commander Bai Chongxi to march swiftly along the highway to reinforce the defenders, divisional commander Xue Weiying (薛蔚英) instead asked his direct superior commander Li Yunheng for instructions. Li Yunheng ordered Xue Weiying to take a harder-to-navigate path to avoid Japanese bombers. Reinforcements thus arrived too late, and Madang fell after a three-day battle. Chiang Kai-Shek immediately ordered a counterattack, offering a 50,000 yuan reward for the units responsible for the recapture of the fortress. On June 28, the 60th division of the 18th Corps and the 105th division of the 49th Corps successfully retook Xiangshan and were awarded 20,000 yuan, but could not make any further progress. Once the Japanese army attacked Pengze, the Chinese units turned to defense. Chiang Kai-Shek had Madang's overseeing general Li Yunheng court-martialed and divisional commander Xue Weiying executed.
The defeat at Madang opened up the route to Jiujiang. It took almost three weeks for the Japanese to clear the waterway around Madang of mines, costing them five minesweepers, two warships and a landing craft full of marines. After the fall of Madang, there were some two hundred thousand Chinese troops under the dual command of Xue Yue and Zhang Fakui in the Jiujiang-Ruichang area. The Japanese first captured the city of Pengze, but were met with resistance at Hukou, for which they deployed poison gas again in a five-day battle. During the break-out, there were not enough boats to evacuate the auxiliary soldiers of the defending 26th division from Hukou, and only more than 1,800 out of the more than 3,100 non-combat soldiers were taken in by the division. Most of the more than 1,300 missing soldiers drowned trying to cross the Poyang Lake.