On December 8, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and the U.S. Pacific Fleet was basically incapacitated, and the enraged United States immediately declared war on Japan. This news, for the Nanjing government at that time, was both happy and worried. Happily, once China, the United States and the United Kingdom form an alliance, they will strategically reduce the pressure on china's battlefield;
What worries people is that since the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Japanese army has blocked the coast, and all aid materials to China have to be transported to China through the Burma Road. Therefore, shortly after the outbreak of war, China and Britain signed the Sino-British Agreement on joint defense of the Burma Road, and 100,000 expeditionary troops went to Burma. However, it took only 40 days from the expedition to the fiasco retreat, what was going on?
Strategic inconsistencies between countries have constrained expeditionary force operations.
For the first joint operation between the Chinese and British armies, the Nanjing side still held great sincerity. The 5th, 6th, and 66th Armies, the strongest in the country, were sent to Fight in Burma, which was both necessary to fully protect the "artery of life" and to improve their prestige among the Allies. However, "a good scripture is distorted."
First of all, the grim situation in China's theater, the Nanjing side is very determined to protect the "line of communication." Although the expeditionary force was required to obey both the orders of General Stilwell, the chief of staff of the Chinese theater, and the command of the British, in specific operations, it often skipped the Americans and the British, and directly gave orders to the expeditionary force, and the government orders were not uniform.
Secondly, the American Stilwell came to the Chinese battlefield, although the chief of staff, there was no "one soldier and one pawn", and it was very uncomfortable to be sandwiched in the middle. This time he commanded the expeditionary force, which was a good opportunity to show his tactical level, but it backfired, the British did not buy it, the expeditionary force did not listen, just coordinating the work, it took a lot of energy.
Disappointingly, the British did not seem to trust the Nanjing government. In order to prevent other countries from encroaching on their colonies, the expeditionary force was delayed again and again, until the British army was defeated by the Japanese army and retreated one after another, and only then did the expeditionary force ask for help, and by the time the troops arrived, the important strategic place - Yangon had been lost, and the opportunity to go out was missed.
At this time, the morale of the British army was very low. The Japanese army swept through Southeast Asia, the Far East Fleet was completely destroyed, the main force of the army fell in Singapore without a fight, and the troops suffered from serious "Sunophobia". For example, more than 7,000 people with tanks and artillery were surrounded by the Japanese army, and a regiment of the expeditionary force helped to break the siege. It can be said that the British army has no combat effectiveness.
To put it bluntly, the British had no intention of cooperating against the enemy, but hoped that the expeditionary force would cover its remaining 40,000 troops and retreat to British India. In short, the expeditionary force has not yet gone out, and the 3 batons on the top of their heads, "each reading its own scriptures", makes the troops on the front line very passive, has no right to self-determination on the battlefield, and defeat is doomed.
The expeditionary force itself was ill-prepared, on the one hand.
The Japanese army's attack on Burma not only had the purpose of completely blocking China, but also could force British India, which can be described as "killing two birds with one stone". Therefore, for the Burmese operation, the Japanese army still made full preparations, and conducted targeted training from the Soviet Union for climate, mountain, and dense forest operations. In contrast, the expeditionary force still has many problems.
First, strength is not equipped. Although the three armies were carefully selected by the country, they were far from those of the Japanese army, especially in terms of weapons and equipment. The relatively better, that is, Dai Anlan's 200th Division, was only a draw. Obviously, sending an expeditionary force of 100,000 people was not enough, and the Nanjing side was overconfident;
Second, there was little pre-war training. It was only 3 months from formation to the expedition, and the pre-war training time was small, and it was very uncomfortable with the tropical rainforest climate and terrain. In particular, during the retreat, there was a shortage of food and medicine in terms of logistics and hygiene precautions. Of the 60,000 lost, 50,000 died non-combat, and only 40,000 returned to India.
More importantly, the enemy's situation was misjudged. According to pre-war intelligence, the Japanese army that attacked Burma had 2 divisions, while in fact, there were 4 divisions and more than 100,000 Japanese troops. In other words, on the front, the expeditionary force confused the three Japanese divisions as one division, and the other Japanese division was encircling the rear road, and the strength of the expeditionary force was very different.
What's more, after the loss of Yangon, the meaning of defending the "traffic line" no longer exists. However, the Nanjing side did not change its strategy in time, but demanded that the attack continue to the south. For the Japanese army, this is a "dream" thing, they prefer to fight a decisive battle with the main force of the opponent, and strive to "quickly fight a quick decision".
In other words, the expeditionary force went out and cared more about international influence. After all, in the early days of the Pacific War, the formation of an expeditionary force to fight in Burma was the best embodiment of the Alliance between China, the United States and The United Kingdom, that is, to show the determination of the allies to resist to the end, and to expand the international reputation and obtain more assistance. To a certain extent, the role of "protracted war" is ignored.
"Chaotic command" led to the retreat becoming a disaster.
Unable to salvage the tide of battle, the expeditionary force had to face a retreat. However, on how to retreat? The problem they encountered was the "chaotic command" of their superiors. On Stilwell's orders, the expeditionary force retreated into India; however, at the request of Nanking, the subordinate units moved inward. Two "contradictory" orders led to the rout of the troops.
Du Yuming, commander of the 5th Army, as a student and subordinate of the Whampoa Military Academy, could not disobey the principal's orders, but after the pursuit of the soldiers, and in the front there was a primitive forest that did not know the evil luck, he issued the order to disperse the breakthrough and return to China. As an aside, judging from the overall strength of the 5th Army at that time, if it was "the same as the enemy", there was still a chance.
The order to disperse the return to China resulted in 4 routes to return to China, but what the officers and soldiers did not expect was that the tropical forest was sweltering and muddy, full of diseases, and food and medicine shortages, especially Du Yuming's way was even more tragic, they even got lost after turning into the Savage Mountain, and many people died of hunger and disease, and they could not bear to see it.
Fortunately, the US search plane found them, and in time airdropped radio, food and medicine, because the scheduled route back home was already guarded by a large number of Japanese troops, Du Yuming's troops finally changed course to India. When he walked out of the Savage Mountain, only 2,000 people came out alive in the team of 15,000 people, and even Du Yuming himself was seriously ill and almost died.
Of course, there are also "disobedient". He was Sun Liren, the commander of the new 38th Division, and after learning of the order to disperse and return home, weighing the advantages and disadvantages of moving west or north, he decisively broke away from the large army and went to India alone, becoming the only unit in the retreat of the expeditionary force to maintain the formation. Many years afterwards, Sun Liren's "infidelity" was excluded, which is an afterthought.
The reasons why the Nanjing government insisted on returning the expeditionary force to China were, first, that the 5th Army was a mechanized army, and such a good unit could not be "cheap" to India; second, once the expeditionary force arrived in India, it was equivalent to losing control of this force, and more importantly, it was "face".
The expeditionary force that retreated to India was equipped with all-American equipment, received a new training method, and continuously replenished new recruits from the country, and by the time of the counteroffensive in 1944, on the basis of the original expeditionary force, the more familiar ace army, the "New First Army" and the "New Sixth Army" were formed.
Looking back at this period of history, although the expeditionary force caused such heavy losses in such a short period of time, although there were reasons for haste to enter Burma and did not understand the local terrain and climate, the lack of unified leadership and chaotic command, as well as the choice of the correct retreat route, were the root causes of the fiasco.
What about everyone? Comments and discussions are welcome.
bibliography:
World War II, Pacific War
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