After the outbreak of the Lugou Bridge Incident in 1937, the Japanese army has always wanted to engage in a large-scale decisive battle with the Chinese army in north China to use its mobile advantage to surround the main force of the Chinese army. In order to offset this superiority of the Japanese army and prevent the Japanese army from gradually invading China from north to south, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the Nationalist army to take the initiative to launch an offensive in the Shanghai area, hoping to use the dense water network in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions to block the mechanized troops of the Japanese army.
On August 13, 1937, General Zhang Zhizhong, commander-in-chief of the Ninth Army of the Kuomintang Army, led the 87th Division, the 88th Division and other units, with the assistance of the Air Force, launched an attack on the Japanese Marines stationed in Shanghai in an attempt to drive the Japanese army into the sea. The 87th Division, 88th Division, and 36th Division, which went up first, were the guards of the Nationalist government and the model divisions trained by German advisers, fully equipped with German weapons and equipment, and were the elite units of the Nationalist Army. At first, the Chinese army could drive the Japanese army into the sea, but because Chiang Kai-shek blindly pinned his hopes on the League of Nations, the Japanese army continued to increase its troops and became anxious.
At the Battle of Songhu, the Japanese army mobilized 8 divisions and two brigades with a total of 200,000 people. Chiang Kai-shek mobilized 148 divisions and 62 brigades with a total strength of 800,000 troops, of which Chiang Kai-shek's troops, such as the 87th Division, the 88th Division, the 36th Division, Hu Zongnan's First Army, Luo Zhuoying's 18th Army, the newly formed Yu Jishi 74th Army, and the Taxation Police Corps under the Ministry of Finance, and other elite units all went to the Songhu battlefield, and the sichuan army, the Northeast Army, the Gui army and other local warlords also went to Shanghai. At that time, although the total strength of the Chinese army was 1.9 million, which was several times that of the japanese army, some of the troops who did not even have guns were removed, and there were only about 1 million people in total.
Although the Chinese army had the numerical superiority in this campaign, it was far inferior to the Japanese army in terms of firepower, and the Chinese Air Force had more than 200 fighters at that time, not even a fraction of Japan's, and during the Battle of Songhu alone, the Japanese army dispatched 390 aircraft, including 210 land aviation and 180 hainan airlines. In terms of navy, the Republic of China Navy was completely destroyed at the beginning of the battle, and the Japanese army dispatched two fleets, the Third Fleet and the Fourth Fleet, with more than 30 ships, including four aircraft carriers. In terms of army weapons, the firepower of one division of the Japanese army is stronger than that of the two or three corps of the Central Army combined. An ordinary soldier in the Japanese army carried 125 rounds of ammunition during the battle, and at that time, even if the Chinese army was a relatively wealthy central army, each person had only a dozen rounds of ammunition, and other local troops even carried large knives and spears to participate in the battle. In terms of food, the Japanese army had strict food standards at that time, while the officers and men of the Kuomintang army were generally malnourished.
The fierceness of the Battle of Songhu was, in Feng Yuxiang's words, a flesh and blood mill, and even the Central Army could beat out one division a day, let alone other local troops. Hu Zongnan's First Army was an elite unit all armed with Whampoa Sheng, but in this battle, almost all the middle and low-level Whampoa officers were killed. The 18th Army led by Luo Zhuoying was an elite unit of the Huangpu department, and this unit fought very fiercely against the Japanese army in Luodian, and many senior generals were killed in succession, and the officers and men of the four regiments of the 67th Division of the 18th Army led by Huang Wei finally survived less than one regiment and completely lost their combat effectiveness. During the Battle of Songhu, many generals of the Nationalist army resisted very tenaciously, not because they did not want to defend Shanghai, but because they had the intention of killing thieves and were unable to return to heaven, and the disparity in strength between the two sides was too great.
The Gui Army was the most capable of fighting among the local troops, and this unit was not afraid of the day during the civil war, and its combat effectiveness was very fierce, whether it was the Red Army or the Central Army, they had fought. After the Battle of Songhu, Bai Chongxi ordered Liao Lei to lead the 21st Group Army composed of the Gui Army to launch the largest counteroffensive against the Japanese army during the Battle of Songhu, resulting in more than 60,000 Guangxi disciples almost completely annihilated, they thought that this was still the kind of low-intensity war during the civil war, as long as they rushed up and fought with the Japanese army, they could repel the Japanese army, but they were hit by the Japanese army's powerful ground and air firepower network, and Bai Chongxi almost fainted in the war room.
The Battle of Songhu lasted three months and ended in the defeat of the Chinese army, and the blood of 300,000 Chinese soldiers stained the Huangpu River red. Although this battle was not won, the Chinese army told the people of the world with its own actions that even if China fought to the point of one soldier and one shot, it would fight the aggressor to the end, and the Chinese nation would face the challenge of this historical crisis with the sacrifice of the whole nation.