In March 1942, the Chinese Expeditionary Force entered Burma and launched the Burma Road Operation and failed. Stilwell, who was in charge of the Chinese theater, and Luo Zhuoying, commander of the Expeditionary Force, decided to withdraw the Chinese Expeditionary Force north into India, where they would rest and then wait for the opportunity to fight south. Stilwell was mainly aimed at the situation in Burma, so he wanted to keep the expeditionary force by his side, while Chiang Kai-shek, who was far away in Chongqing, had his own plans.
The Expeditionary Force into Burma was the elite of the Chinese army, which was originally formed to open up the Burma Road, and now that the battle has failed, it should return to Yunnan as soon as possible for mobile standby, because southern China is already in an unfavorable situation, and the Japanese army has begun to attack from the coast.
Old Chiang, however, demanded that the expeditionary force return north to Yunnan for recuperation. On the order of the chairman of the committee, differences arose within the expeditionary force. Du Yuming, commander of the 5th Army, decided to carry out Chairman Chiang's orders and lead his troops back to China through the Savage Mountain, which had no way to find, and asked the 38th Division to prevent the Japanese from pursuing the tail. Sun Liren, the commander of the 38th Division, immediately objected, believing that bypassing the Japanese defense of Myitkyina and then passing through the harsh environment of the Savage Mountain was too dangerous and there was a danger that the entire army would be destroyed. Sun Liren advocated concentrating all forces, taking advantage of the fact that the Japanese army was not yet untenable, first capturing Myitkyina, and then returning home through the Burma Road, so that the troops' journey back to China was relatively safe.
Du Yuming believed that the expeditionary force could no longer fight against the Japanese army, and there was no chance of victory in forcibly attacking Myitkyina, and if the front was blocked, and the Japanese army followed behind, the situation of the expeditionary force would be even more dangerous. Regarding the route back to China, neither of them could convince the other. Sun Liren refused Du Yuming's orders, simply carried out Stilwell's orders, and led the 38th Division to withdraw directly to India.
At this time, the situation in Burma was a mess, the British troops stationed in Burma were frightened by the Japanese army, and they were retreating across the line, and even Stilwell lost confidence and left the troops to take a plane and run first. At this time, the Japanese army killed all four sides in Burma, as if entering no man's land, but they did not expect that Sun Liren dared to counterattack at this time, so they were unprepared, and their positions were broken through one after another.
Sun Liren commanded decisively, led more than 8,000 people of the whole division to rush and fight fiercely, all the way through the layers of Japanese resistance, and on May 27, he came to the small town of Purr, about 40 kilometers away from Imphal, to rest. In this frontal breakthrough, the 38th Division lost only a few hundred people due to its full preparations, which can be described as achieving the effect of a surprise attack. After getting out of the predicament, Sun Liren immediately sent someone to inform the British troops stationed in India to request entry and rest. Who knows, the commander-in-chief in India and Britain, Waver, actually made an unreasonable request that the 38th Division could enter, but all the personnel were to enter as refugees and could not wear weapons on their bodies. He also sent a prospective future to supervise the execution, completely disregarding the feelings of the Chinese soldiers.
It didn't take long to save your British lives, but now you turn your face and don't recognize anyone? The master Sun Liren was very angry when he saw that the British were so ungrateful. When the British were ready to confiscate his gun, he put his hands in his waist and yelled, "You try it." And passed on the order, if the British army forcibly blocked, hard to fight.
On the one hand, it is to talk about international practice, and on the other hand, to safeguard the dignity of military personnel and refuse to hand over guns, the two sides have confronted each other, and the smell of gunpowder has become stronger and stronger. When Alexander, the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces in charge of the Southeast Asian Theater of Operations, learned of this, he immediately telegraphed to the Commander-in-Chief in India, Wavell, that the 38th Division was not simple in its origins, and that it was a benefactor unit that rescued the British troops stationed in Burma from danger, and that they should be treated with courtesy. Moreover, this unit has repeatedly broken through the resistance of the Japanese army, and its combat effectiveness is quite strong, and in terms of the strength of the army stationed in India, forcibly disarming will only suffer a big loss. Knowing that the 38th Division was not simple, the British immediately changed their attitude, and Wavell called Sun Liren: British India welcomed the 38th Division in.
On June 1, 1942, more than 7,000 men of the 38th Division marched into India in high spirits, and the British specially organized an honor guard to play cannons to welcome them. Later, the 38th Division received American training in India and replaced a full set of American armaments, which shined in the second operation into Burma. Because of his outstanding military achievements, Sun Liren was praised by Westerners as the "Eastern Rommel".