Among the military advisers sent by the United States, Stilwell was a very special one.
In 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the Pacific War broke out. Stilwell became the commander of the Chinese theater and the chief of staff of Chiang Kai-shek, and in addition to directing the operation, he was directly responsible for equipment supply. The real power is in his hands, and the US military assistance project to China is decided by him.
The expeditionary force suffered heavy losses and tied the beams
At that time, in order to cooperate with the Allied forces, at the request of the British, China and Britain formed an expeditionary force to fight against Japan in Burma, with Du Yuming as the deputy commander in charge of command. Four months later, Luo Zhuoying was appointed commander to Burma.
Who knows, the expeditionary force was used by the British to block the knife, causing serious losses, for which the old Chiang was angry with Stilwell, but did not show it. In the eyes of old Jiang, Stilwell did not fulfill his role in communicating with the British, which led to this failure.
In fact, this is not to blame Stilwell, he was in the capacity of the chief of staff of the CHINESE Theater, Luo Zhuoying went to Burma, and he could not intervene with the British at all. At that time, the expeditionary force was surrounded on three sides, and Stilwell believed that there was only one way to go, which was to follow the British army back into India.
Luo Zhuoying agreed with Stilwell's advice and ordered Du Yuming to also directly order the division to immediately retreat to Hindu Var. This was the right decision at the time, but Du Yuming did not carry out the order, but wanted to take a detour back to China. As a result, the expeditionary force fell into the ground of death, starving and drowning more than half of them, to the point of desperation.
At that time, Du Yuming also ordered Sun Liren to detour back to China according to his route, and Sun Liren found that the situation was not right, and immediately returned to India according to the orders of Luo Zhuoying and Stilwell, without causing any losses.
At that time, Luo Zhuoying and Stilwell's headquarters were just an empty shell, and there were no guards. The Japanese were getting closer and closer to them, and Stilwell himself took a submachine gun on his back, threw away all the weight, and ran on foot for three weeks before retreating into India.
The Chinese general did not listen to orders, and Stilwell was very angry, and the person he hated most was Du Yuming. Later, at chiang's request, he ordered the U.S. Air Force to conduct a search, only to find that Du Yuming's troops were in the North Luo area. And Du Yuming didn't even have a radio station.
The Air Force had to airdrop orders when airdropping food, demanding an immediate retreat from India, which avoided the total annihilation of the army. Speaking of which, it's really no wonder that Stilwell.
However, because of this incident, Stilwell demanded the removal of all senior Chinese officers, under his direct command, and there was a fierce conflict with the Chinese general, which further led to Stilwell's dissatisfaction in the heart of the old Chiang.
The offer to equip the 18th Group Army to anger Chiang Kai-shek
After returning to China, Stilwell proposed to equip all Chinese troops with American weapons in order to mobilize all Chinese troops into the war against Japan. Previously, the troops aided and equipped by the United States were all the troops of the old Chiang Kai-shek.
Stilwell heard from several American journalists and some Americans that the 18th Army was particularly capable of fighting, but its equipment was seriously backward and its guns and ammunition were seriously insufficient, so he specially asked for the 18th Army to be equipped to fight the Japanese. At the same time, it was also proposed to equip the troops of the old Chiang Kai-shek lineage, such as Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, Lu Han, and so on.
What is Army Group 18? It is the Eighth Route Army, which is equipped with the Eighth Route Army, which is even more uncomfortable than killing old Chiang Kai-shek. Similarly, equipping the army of Li Zongren and others is also a matter of his life, which is absolutely impossible.
Stilwell's attitude was very resolute, and old Jiang was even more rigid, and the two were on the bar. Originally, Stilwell did not like Old Jiang, because he did not like tout it, but always pointed out that Old Jiang was not. In this way, Old Jiang naturally saw that Stilwell also had a nose and eyes.
U.S. President Roosevelt also knew that the contradiction between Stilwell and the old Chiang kai-shek had intensified, so he sent Hurley to China to mediate. Stilwell and Hurley went to meet Chiang Kai-shek, and Stilwell said a few kind words with a strained face, and then handed a letter from Roosevelt to Chiang.
The letter was in English and the following was Chinese, and when Old Jiang saw that there was a Chinese, he snatched the letter from the staff officer's hand, and after taking a look at it, he put it on the table, looked at the ceiling, and did not say a word.
Hurley and Stilwell saw this and got up to say goodbye. According to Hurley, he had previously disagreed with Stilwell's delivery of the letter, because in that letter, Roosevelt asked Chiang Sr. to hand over military command to Stilwell.
In this way, Old Jiang and Stilwell completely broke up. As soon as Stilwell left, Chiang called Stilwell "imperialist" and immediately drafted a telegram to send to Roosevelt, asking for Stilwell to be transferred back.
After Stilwell returned, he also felt a little reckless, so he wrote a letter to Old Chiang, saying that he would not be equipped with the 189 Group Army. However, the telegram had already been sent, and the order of the President of the United States soon arrived, and Stilwell was transferred back to the United States.
Stilwell was called out of his evil spirit but already regretted it
Stilwell was gone, and old Jiang was angry, but when he heard about Stilwell's new position after returning to China, he really didn't know what it was like.
Old Chiang thought that Stilwell's transfer back to the United States must be very faceless, but Roosevelt did not see it that way. Stilwell commanded three Chinese divisions to fight back to northern Burma, which became the beginning of the reconquest of all of Burma. In the eyes of the Americans, this is a hero, just like MacArthur's return to the Philippines, and it is rumored to be a beautiful talk. The newspapers are full of their heroic deeds.
Upon his return to China, Stilwell was appointed commander of the U.S. Tenth Army, tasked with attacking the Ryukyu Islands, much to Chiang Kai-shek's surprise. Therefore, he said to Sun Liren and Liao Yaoxiang several times: "You should always correspond with Stilwell and maintain good relations, his current position and the theater of operations are very important, and it is likely that he will land on the coast of China in the future!" ”
In Old Jiang's words, there was already a certain degree of concern and regret.