The Battle of Wuhan was the largest, longest, and most annihilated campaign in the war of resistance against Japanese aggression in China. At that time, the minimum strategic goal of the Battle of Wuhan was to delay and deplete the Japanese army on the outskirts of Wuhan, and the highest goal was to stabilize the front in the central mountainous area based on the central hilly area and the Yangtze River.
All the strategic actions in the battle were aimed at annihilating or depleting the japanese army, but as a result, even the minimum strategic objectives were only half completed, and they were delayed but not consumed.
After the Battle, the Japanese army was indeed unable to launch similar battles such as Songhu and Wuhan, and the Nationalist government recognized the Second Stage of the War of Resistance after the Battle of Wuhan. Japan also saw that China exchanged space for time to achieve the purpose of dragging down the Japanese army, so that the Japanese army had to stabilize the occupied areas, so as to change its strategy and mainly lure the Nationalist government.
However, no matter how bad the situation was at that time, many people even had the idea of surrendering, And Chiang Kai-shek was still determined to "die instead of yielding and dying, so it is better to die in the War of Resistance", so judging from the results of the Battle of Wuhan, although the city was lost, it was strategically victorious.
Although the Battle of Songhu, which broke out a year ago at the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japan, was not as large as the Battle of Wuhan, in terms of the degree of tragedy, there were almost no battles in the entire War of Resistance Against Japan that could be compared, and the number of casualties of nearly 8 to 1 was frightening.
Battle of Songhu
The Battle of Songhu was the first head-on confrontation between our army and the Japanese army after the July 7 Incident, and the newly formed air force was put into the battlefield. Neither side expected the other to be so determined that the battle would become extremely fierce.
First of all, both sides have the idea of using Shanghai as a decisive battle area, but the reasons are very different. Our army has invested a large number of troops to build a complete fortification, and is determined to fight and retreat the Japanese army at one time, and then sign a peace treaty.
The Japanese army thought the opposite, they threw in the elite troops, and told them that the battle was to save the Japanese expatriates trapped in Shanghai, and that after this battle, they could go home and give chicken blood to the soldiers. The scene of the last encounter between the two armies can be imagined.
Around the middle of August, our army took advantage of the opportunity brought about by the "Dashan Yongfu Incident" to secretly transport the German mechanics into Shanghai. It then launched a full-scale attack on the Japanese Marines and the Overseas Chinese Volunteer Army stationed in downtown Shanghai.
In the end, although the German mechanized division cleared all the Japanese strongholds stationed in the city, and also pushed the front line forward to the Japanese concession, dividing and isolating the remaining strongholds, our army still paid a huge casualty.
Chiang Kai-shek saw that if the war situation continued to develop, he would lose more troops, so he had no choice but to order the attack to be stopped and wait for mediation with the Japanese side. However, the Japanese army was given a chance to breathe, and when the reinforcements arrived, our army finally failed to complete the goal of wiping out all the Japanese troops in Shanghai as planned.
By the end of August, both our army and the Japanese army began to send reinforcements all the time, the two sides competed and consumed, the Japanese army launched a fierce attack with the advantage of weapons and equipment, and our army took advantage of the terrain to dig trenches for defense.
After a long tug-of-war, the Japanese combined marines tried to annihilate our troops who were holding on to the city, but they encountered stubborn resistance from our troops stationed along the coast.
Beginning in mid-October, the Japanese began to cover their attacking forces with the artillery fire they had prepared, suppressing our firepower, and finally launching a fierce offensive and defensive battle on both sides of the Suzhou Creek. Soon after, all the Japanese troops came ashore, and Chiang Kai-shek knew that he really could not stand it, and that further defense would only increase casualties, so he reluctantly ordered a retreat.
Valuable experience
During the three-month-long campaign, the attrition of both our army and the Japanese army was very large. Our army invested more than 800,000 troops, with more than 300,000 casualties, and the Japanese army invested 200,000 troops, with more than 40,000 casualties.
Although this campaign did not accomplish the main goal of making the Japanese army negotiate peace, it also used more than three months to relocate other troops and supplies to the west, making long-term preparations for the future War of Resistance Against Japan.
In this battle, our army and the Japanese army did not have any particularly brilliant decisions, basically you punched me, I gave you a punch, who hid who was a grandson. Because of this, both sides are relatively unsuccessful tactically.
Because of the impact of the closed-door policy, China's industrial production level at that time could not keep up with Japan at all, so after the German mechanics were finished, they could only send out mixed miscellaneous troops.
The reason why the Battle of Songhu was not well fought was because the goal set at the beginning was a bit whimsical and overestimated itself, but if you look at it from the perspective of God now, the Battle of Songhu was quite okay, and there was no way to be tragic.
Moreover, the Battle of Songhu had to be fought at that time, because the Japanese army had the port of Shanghai and the Marine Corps. If our army does not choose to fight this battle in Shanghai, then it will need to deploy a large number of troops on the Beijing-Shanghai line to monitor the movement of the Japanese army.
After the July 7 Incident, the operations in the remaining theaters were in a dilemma, and choosing to go to war in Shanghai was actually a helpless move of "a gentleman abandoning his flaws to pull out his talents, and a strong man breaking his wrist to take full quality."
However, although the Battle of Songhu must be fought, it has been fought for too long. As mentioned earlier, Chiang Kai-shek saw that the elite troops had sacrificed too much, and several times ordered the stop of the attack just to wait for mediation, but they could not wait, but the Japanese army waited for the second reinforcement.
If Chiang Kai-shek had ordered a retreat at that time, he would have retained more strength and prepared for the long-term War of Resistance in the future, but if he missed it, he would have missed it.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, all of our coastline was blocked by the Japanese army, the source of advanced weapons and equipment was lost, and our few industrial bases were occupied by the Japanese army.
It is better to die than to yield
It is worth mentioning that the well-known "Eight Hundred Heroes" took place in the last small battle in the Battle of Songhu. In the early morning of September 30, the Japanese army launched a fierce attack, and the firepower of our army was suppressed, and it fell into a bitter battle, with heavy casualties.
On the night of October 26, Xie Jinyuan, deputy of the 524th Regiment of the 88th Division guarding Dachang, was ordered to lead the remaining 400 or so people of the troops to the Sihang warehouse to cover the retreat of the main force.
Xie Jinyuan and everyone under his subordinates had already made up their minds to die, sealing all doors and windows with sandbags, leaving half of the windows above the second floor as shooting ports, cutting off all wires, and forbidding cooking on fires, for fear that cooking smoke would expose themselves.
Because the Sihang warehouse was relatively close to the British and French concessions, and there were large gas packages, the Japanese army did not dare to use large-scale bombing for fear of uncontrollable consequences. After that, the news was deliberately released that the "Eight Hundred Heroes" were stuck in the Sihang Warehouse, just to confuse the Japanese army to buy time for the main force.
This battle greatly boosted the morale of the entire Shanghai people, and many ordinary people cheered for the soldiers across a street, and from time to time used various methods to provide our army with the whereabouts of the Japanese army.
Because the Cannon of the Japanese Army could not cause particularly large damage to the thick walls of the Sihang Warehouse, in order to cross the Sihang Warehouse as soon as possible, the Japanese Army tried to cut off the water in the Sihang Warehouse, but at night, the people quietly sent food and water to the soldiers at night.
It must be admitted that the Sixing Warehouse was the last fortress of Shanghai and the real frontline of the War of Resistance Against Japan. Fighting alone for four days and four nights, he guarded the dignity of a nation with his life.
brief summary:
In fact, the Nationalist army in the Battle of Songhu not only knew the passive defense, but also launched many short attacks, but just like the first attack on the Japanese stronghold in the urban area, the losses were heavy.
The reason is that the senior commanders of the national army do not have a deep understanding of modern warfare, which is after all the first modern war in Asia and the Pacific Rim, and it is normal to have deficiencies. In the subsequent Battle of Wuhan, it was to learn from the experience of the Battle of Songhu, and finally to reduce the casualty ratio.