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In December 1941, the Chinese Expeditionary Force was formed by the 5th Army, the 6th Army, and the 66th Army, with a total of 100,000 people in 3 armies, 9 divisions, and 100,000 people. The Chinese Expeditionary Force was a unit that entered Burma from Yunnan to assist the British army during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and it was also the first time that the Chinese army fought abroad since the First Sino-Japanese War.
Sequence of Participation:
Commander: Luo Zhuoying, Deputy Commander: Du Yuming,
5th Army: Commander: Du Yuming,
Jurisdiction: 200th Division (Division Commander: Dai Anlan), New 22nd Division (Division Commander: Liao Yaoxiang), 96th Division (Division Commander: Yu Shao)
6th Army: Commander: Gan Lichu
Jurisdiction: 49th Division (Division Commander: Peng Bisheng), 93rd Division (Division Commander: Lu Guoquan), Provisional 55th Division (Division Commander: Chen Mianwu)
66th Army: Commander: Zhang Zhen
Jurisdiction: New 38th Division (Division Commander: Sun Liren), New 28th Division (Division Commander: Liu Bolong), New 29th Division (Division Commander: Ma Weiji)
Reasons for fighting:
At that time, the southeast coast of China had been occupied by the Japanese army, and the Kuomintang introduced anti-Japanese war materials mainly through the southwest Yunnan-Burma highway for transportation, at that time Burma was a British colony, and the Japanese army's attack on Burma would inevitably cut off China's logistics lifeline, so China must send an expeditionary force to defend the world's import line of strategic materials to aid China.
Failure reason:
Burma is a British colony, and the Chinese side has long judged the intention of the Japanese army to attack Burma based on intelligence, and at the same time has prepared the most elite Fifth Army in the country to prepare to fight in Burma, but the British are worried that China will come to their colonies to get a piece of the pie, so the expeditionary force has been delayed to enter Burma, and only when Japan attacks Burma and the British army as a whole collapses, can they ask for Chinese support.
Personnel issues of the expeditionary force:
The Chinese Expeditionary Force went out a total of 3 armies, the 5th Army, the 6th Army, and the 66th Army, of which the 5th Army was He Yingqin's troops, the 6th Army was Chen Cheng's troops, and the 66th Army was a newly formed army. Because He Yingqin and Chen Cheng have always been at odds, Luo Zhuoying of Chen Cheng's department served as the commander, and Du Yuming of He Yingqin's department served as the deputy commander, forming a factional balance on the surface, but the two main forces of the 5th Army and the 6th Army have been in a state of independent action.
Battle of the Ancient Past:
The Chinese Expeditionary Force entered Burma and advanced with the 5th Army as the central core, with the 6th Army protecting the left flank and the 66th Army protecting the right flank. On March 8, 1942, the 200th Division of the 5th Army took over the defense of the British and Burmese troops at the key pass of Tonggu, covering the retreat of the British troops and defending Tonggu. The expeditionary force fought fiercely with the Japanese army in Tonggu, and the two sides held each other in attack and defense in the Tonggu area for more than one month. By April 16, the British had decided to abandon Burma and retreat to India, and the troops had withdrawn from the battlefield, and the Chinese expeditionary force was surrounded by the Japanese army.
Sun Liren's new 38th Division:
Sun Liren's new 38th Division was adapted from the Tax Police Corps of the Ministry of Finance, and was requisitioned into the 66th Army because it was to form an expeditionary force, because the new 38th Division was not originally a regular army sequence, and Sun Liren did not graduate from Whampoa, so the new 38th Division was in a relatively isolated state in the expeditionary force. Because 7,000 people of the 1st Division of the British and Burmese Army were besieged in Ringanqiang, the expeditionary force sent Sun Liren to lead the new 38th Division to rescue them, and finally succeeded in getting the British army out of danger in Ringanqiang, which is known as the "Ringanqiang Victory" in history
The dispute between Sun Liren and Du Yuming:
Because the 5th Army was the main force in the Battle of Tonggu, and the new 38th Division went to Ringanqiang to rescue the British army, the 5th Army and the new 38th Division were cut off by the Japanese army. Du Yuming, commander of the 5th Army, advocated that the whole army retreat north to the Yunnan border at all costs, while Sun Liren, commander of the newly formed 38th Division, advocated that in order to preserve the strength of the troops, the troops would retreat into India with the British army.
The fate of the Expeditionary Force:
Sun Liren led the new 38th Division to retreat into India with the British army, and later the troops formed a new army in India
The 200th and 96th divisions of the 5th Army retreated to Yunnan, and finally the commander of the 200th Division, Dai Anlan, was killed in the retreat, and then the troops entered the Savage Mountain, and finally nearly 90% of the troops lost and retreated to Yunnan.
The military headquarters of the 5th Army and Liao Yaoxiang's new 22nd Division entered Savage Mountain by another route, because the troops got lost, and later retreated into India under the guidance of American aircraft, and finally formed a new 1st Army with Sun Liren's new 38th Division.