This was the first battle in which China forced the Japanese army back to its original strategic posture by force, and China invested 1.2 million troops in this battle, dealing a heavy blow to the Japanese invading army and crushing Japan's wolf ambitions to occupy China.
This is the "Battle of Changsha" that affected the world situation, what is so special about this battle, and how did the Chinese army win?
What impact did the Battle of Changsha have on China and the world?
In Europe in 1939, Germany blitzed Poland, and the European battlefield opened in an instant.
The Japanese Kwantung Army suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of Nomonkan and was severely taught a lesson by the Red Army of the Soviet Union, and never dared to use a tough policy against it, let alone participate in the battle against the Soviet Union.
After the Japanese army returned to the occupied areas of China, the more they thought about it, the more angry they became, they could not defeat the Soviet Union, could they still not defeat China?
In order to gain more benefits to make up for the losses and boost morale, they turned their goals to China, which was relatively backward in all aspects.
The Japanese army will focus on attacking Changsha, and the Japanese army has two purposes for invading Changsha:
The first was to pass through Changsha and go south to join the Vietnamese and Burmese forces.
Second, because of the outbreak of the European battlefield and the defeat of Poland by Germany, the Japanese army believed that it should also stand on the international stage as a victor.
Battle scene of the Battle of Pingjiang at the Battle of Changsha
At this time, in order to eliminate Nazism on the European battlefield, the United States and Britain also joined the fight against the Nazis.
However, the Japanese army took advantage of their confrontation with Germany to provoke contradictions with the United States and Britain, and sent troops south in an attempt to invade the territory of the United States.
In desperation, the United States had no choice but to put the hope of containing the Japanese army on the Chinese battlefield, hoping that China could contain the Japanese army.
In order to enable China to consume more Japanese troops, the United States also provided material and weapons assistance to China, which made a certain contribution to the Chinese army's resistance to japanese aggression.
After the First Battle of Changsha, after the Japanese army successively occupied Guangzhou and Wuhan, it had an extremely undesirable consequence.
That is to say, the battle line was pulled too long, the phenomenon of insufficient troops and difficult transportation of materials, coupled with the persistence of the Chinese people to resist the war, made the Japanese army's strategy of dominating the world be greatly affected.
Under these circumstances, the Japanese army was forced to change its aggressive policy and prepare to change the quick battle to a long-term battle.
However, with the preparation of the Pacific Campaign, the Japanese army once again adjusted its strategy toward China, and militarily, Japan vainly wanted to make China the general base of the "Great East Asian War" and continued to exert military pressure on China to weaken its anti-war strength.
Politically, Japan gave up not taking the Nationalist government as an opponent and began to adopt political inducements, but more to support the Wang-style clique.
Economically, Hunan is China's famous granary and an important supply base for industrial sources, and capturing Changsha, Hunan, can strengthen China's economic plunder and "feed the war with war."
At that time, Changsha, Hunan was the ninth theater of Operations of China, and the Chinese commander stationed in Changsha was Xue Yue.
Xue Yue
Relying on its superior geographical location, the Chinese army deployed troops on the northeast bank of Dongting Lake and on both sides of the Anjin River in the North of the New Wall, and took guerrilla and counterattack operations against the Japanese army, constantly harassing.
The Japanese decided to send Okamura Ninji, commander of the 11th Army, to lead more than 100,000 Japanese troops to launch the Battle of Changsha, with the intention of annihilating the main force of the 9th Theater of Operations in Changsha.
In the Japanese army's plan, they planned to divide their troops into three routes, starting from the three locations of northern Gan, southern Hubei, and northern Hunan, and attacking Changsha, Hunan.
In the face of the menacing Japanese army, what kind of battle will the 9th Theater of Operations usher in?
The "Heavenly Furnace Tactics" created the Japanese army
This was an unprecedented tactical victory in the history of China's anti-Japanese resistance, and Xue Yue, commander of the 9th Theater of Operations, used the "Heavenly Furnace Tactics" to surround the Japanese army layer by layer, gradually deplete the enemy's troops, and cut off the Transportation and Supply Lines of the Japanese Army, waiting for the "furnace fire" to burn more and more vigorously, and the formation method was time to close the net.
The first Battle of Changsha was in September 1939. The Japanese army gathered the strength of 7 divisions, as well as 300 ships, more than 100 aircraft, and chemical units, a total of more than 100,000 people, land, sea and air combined, divided into 6 routes, using the tactic of "separate attack and joint attack, long drive straight in", planning to occupy Changsha before the end of September.
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The enemy's main fronts were in northern Jiangsu, southern Hubei, and northern Hunan respectively, but looking at the entire battlefield, the purpose of the Japanese army's attack on northern Jiangxi and southern Hunan was to cooperate with northern Hunan Province
After seeing through this, Xue Yue placed 15 defensive armies in northern Xiang. Because the soldiers of our army are familiar with the terrain of northern Hunan Province, they are more flexible in advancing and retreating in battle.
On the 18th, the Japanese army, led by Okamura Ningji, attacked the first line of the Xinqiang River in northern Hunan Province.
Xue Yue personally commanded the 60th Army and the Kuomintang 52nd Army to take turns to confront the Japanese army, leading the Chinese army to resist one after another, depleting the enemy's living strength.
Okamura Ninji (left) Xue Yue (right)
Seeing that the Japanese army could not attack for a long time, they ordered their biochemical departments to release poison gas, gas, and aircraft to our army to drop bombs, and in that battle, floating corpses filled the river and the water flow was blocked.
However, Xue Yue's defensive organization was not a dead end, and after reaching the point of depleting the enemy's strength, Xue Yue asked the armies to withdraw to the new wall, the Miluo River, and between the two rivers, and continue to organize their teams to resist the next wave of attacks.
The 52nd Army, which resisted the Japanese army, immediately retreated, leading the Japanese army to the inside of the position, and the Japanese army saw the retreat of the 52nd Army, and thought that the Chinese army was under pressure and tried to escape, so it killed all the way.
The pursuit of the Japanese army just entered the tactical circle of Xue Yue, whose purpose was not to resist the enemy outside Changsha, they wanted to bring in the Japanese army, lengthen the front, and then let the outside troops attack it and destroy the already fragile supply line of the Japanese army.
After penetrating deep into the outskirts of Changsha, the Japanese army found that it was already fighting alone, not only did not annihilate the main force of the Chinese army, but also almost ran out of food.
The First Battle of Changsha
At this time, the japanese army's war situation in northern Jiangxi and southern Hubei was not optimistic, so the main force of the Japanese army in northern Hunan was forced to retreat to the pre-war position!
The First Battle of Changsha lasted 24 days, although our army lost some troops, but annihilated more than 20,000 Japanese troops, destroyed more than 70 Japanese fighters, more than 100 yachts, and achieved a small victory!
In October 1941, Germany raided the Soviet Union and the Soviet-German War broke out.
In order to strengthen the war against the Soviet Union and speed up its pace of going south to the Pacific, the Japanese army seized the opportunity to launch the Second Battle of Changsha against China.
But this time, the Chinese army frequently lost its defense, and the Japanese army crossed the New Wall River and the Miluo River, broke through the Chinese army's defenses, and approached Changsha!
In this critical situation, how should the Chinese military turn around? What role does china's battlefield play in the world?
China's Changsha battlefield was victorious, and the world's allies celebrated it
This is a battle to lay the foundation for China's international influence, the victory of the Battle of Changsha, for the European battlefield to share a lot of pressure, after the victory of Changsha, attracted the world's attention to China, even the U.S. president praised: "The victory of the Allies, thanks to the Great Victory of the Chinese Army in Changsha"
When the Japanese army attacked Changsha for the second time, it successively broke through the defense of the 9th theater and went deep into the theater, after which the Japanese army once again appeared the phenomenon of excessively long front and poor supply.
The shortage of grain and grass is a major taboo for the army, and the Japanese army has not been able to continue to launch the campaign, the main reason is that China's territory is too large, Japan's troops are insufficient, every time it goes deep into the Chinese mainland, the front line is pulled very long, the supply line defense is weak, and it is easy to be destroyed.
This time was no exception, and the 9th Theater of Operations took the opportunity to mobilize troops to attack the Japanese army from north to south, while destroying the railway transportation and water transportation in the rear of the Japanese army.
Under the interference of many parties, 120,000 Japanese troops could only break out to the north in early October, and the Chinese army pursued them, successively crossing the Miluo River and the Xinqiang River, annihilating 17,000 enemy troops. The Chinese army lost first and then won, pulling the situation back.
Battle of Changsha
In December 1941, the Japanese fleet attacked Pearl Harbor, and World War II continued to expand.
At the same time, the Japanese army also launched an attack on the colonies of Britain, the United States and other countries in the Pacific region, and Xue Yue was ordered to mobilize troops to support the British troops stationed in Hong Kong.
This news was learned by the Japanese commander-in-chief "Anan Weiji", who immediately mobilized the strength of 5 divisions to launch a third offensive to Changsha and prevent the 9th Theater from supporting Hong Kong
Changsha under the lens of the Japanese army
As the commander-in-chief of the 9th Theater, Xue Yue summed up the lessons of the previous defeats and reformulated the "Heavenly Furnace Tactics."
It is still the New Wall River and the Miluo River as the first and second lines of defense, and the "Heavenly Furnace Combat Method" is officially implemented.
Beginning on the night of December 23, the Japanese army relied on its superiority in weapons to beat the Chinese army to "defeat and retreat one after another, and the army collapsed", and along the way the railways were damaged and the empty rooms were cleared.
The Japanese army broke through the Chinese army's defensive line in succession, and although the Chinese army lost its position, it annihilated many Japanese troops.
On the night of the 25th, the British troops stationed in Hong Kong surrendered to the Japanese army, and the purpose of the Japanese army to block the 9th Theater of Operations was achieved.
In order to prevent the Japanese army from retreating, Xue Yue successfully dragged the Japanese army into the "heavenly furnace" and ordered the Chinese army to create a phenomenon of being "defeated and fled".
However, the Chinese troops who had fled turned back and pursued and intercepted the Japanese army.
Only then did Anan react at this time, stepping into Xue Yue's trap and quickly ordering the Japanese army to retreat.
These days coincided with heavy snowfall, the Japanese 6th Division and the 3rd Division were besieged by five Chinese troops, and the Japanese 44th Division that came to support was also intercepted by the Chinese 37th Army.
The Japanese troops who came to the rescue were also besieged one after another, and the war was fought until January 12, when the Japanese army fled to the south bank of the Miluo River under the cover of warplanes, and even before they could collect the bodies of their comrades, they withdrew from the New Wall River.
The Third Battle of Changsha ended here, the Chinese army killed and wounded 56,900 Japanese troops, and the Battle of Changsha won three battles and three victories, achieving major victories and having a huge impact on both at home and abroad.
Celebrate the victory at the Battle of Changsha
Not only did the Japanese army fail to capture Changsha as planned and vacate the troops to support the Pacific, but it was also damaged in the Chinese battlefield and was unable to mobilize troops to support the European battlefield.
The Japanese army was ashamed of its defeat in the war, and specially said in the Japanese newspaper: "The purpose of this operation is not to fight, but to annihilate the enemy's main force, and now that the purpose has been achieved, it will return."
But looking at the three Battles of Changsha, both sides lost a total of 93,000 Casualties, while the Japanese lost 110,000 troops.
Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and other countries announced this good news with grand ink and ink, high-level people called He Xi, and Britain and the United States even announced the abrogation of some unequal treaties against China.
The victory in this battle not only brought out the might of the Chinese army, enhanced China's enthusiasm for resisting Japan and its determination to win, but also encouraged the confidence of the world in the war of resistance with actions, and made the eastern and Western countries re-understand the importance of China's battlefield.