The fiasco here refers to the expeditionary force's first entry into Burma.
At the beginning of 1942, with the smooth development of its southward operation, the Japanese army aimed directly at Burma, the British retreated, the Malay Peninsula fell, and tens of thousands ----of British troops became prisoners.
China will also lose the only route for international aid---- the Yunnan-Burma Highway.
It was in this context that the British put aside the arrogance of the old colonists and agreed to the Chinese expeditionary force to fight in Burma, and in order to protect this artery, China must also enter Burma and cooperate with the British army to hold Burma.
The interests of the two sides are different, but the goal is the same: to keep Myanmar.
Scenery near Lashio
From March 1, 1942, when the vanguard of the Chinese Expeditionary Force arrived in Lashio, Burma, the first expeditionary force entered Burma. At that time, China sent out the three main forces of the country's elite, the 5th, 6th, and 66th, with a total of more than 100,000 people.
The major battles include the Battle of Tonggu, the rescue of the British army by Ringanqiang (eliminating hundreds of devils and rescuing more than 7,000 British troops), the Battle of Pyongmanna, the battle of Recovering Taunggyi on the Eastern Front, and the others are basically small-scale operations.
At the end of April, the Chinese Expeditionary Force withdrew on all fronts, and finally by August it had basically completely withdrawn from Burma.
Final summary: The expeditionary force entered Burma for the first time, dispatching 103,000 men and suffering 56,480 casualties (most of them in the Hukang River Valley, Savage Mountains and other hot areas with jungles), and 6 generals below Dai Anlan, the commander of the 200th Division, were killed. The Japanese suffered about 4,500 casualties and the British suffered more than 13,000 casualties.
During the two months of fighting, the Japanese occupation of Lashio was a key juncture.
Lashio is currently the central city of northern Shan State and is an important transportation hub for the China-Myanmar Highway. It is not an ancient city, in the Ming and Qing dynasties before the British came in, the political center of northern Myanmar was Mubang, Mengmi, Tin Foil, Kyaukmei, Bamo, Mengyang and other big toasts.
Lashio and Myitkyina were supposed to be new cities that developed as railway terminals during the British colonial period.
Lashio is a Dai language, which has similar meanings to Lameng, Lamao, Lapa, etc.
Chinese Expeditionary Force
It is the terminus of the Northeast Line of Myanmar Railway, where China's famous Anti-Japanese War Highway Yunnan-Burma Highway is docked. During the most difficult stage of the Anti-Japanese War, Western supplies to China were first transported by sea to Yangon, then by rail to Lashio, then by car to Kunming, and then distributed to various battlefields. Therefore, when the coast of China has been blocked by the Japanese army, the Yunnan-Burma Highway has become an important lifeline!
The failure of the expeditionary force in the first battle was of course due to many reasons, such as the selfishness of the British, who only wanted to withdraw to India, and the cooperation between China and Britain was not tacit; The Japanese army was in full swing and had the cooperation of the Burmese army, so it was going well.
The general course of the battle is as follows:
The 6th Army was in the area of King Tung in eastern Shan State, the 66th Army was in northern Shan State, and the 5th Army was in central Burma.
The famous battle Tonggu Battle (Donghu) was fought from March 19 to 29, 1942, by the 200th Division of the 5th Army; It dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese army, but the British army on the right flank retreated too quickly, and the Japanese army on the left flank also attacked directly from the Thai-Burmese border, and the 200th Division had to retreat.
This was followed by the abortion of the battle of Pyin Manna (where the new capital of Myanmar is now Naypyidaw). The Japanese army on the eastern route made rapid progress and occupied Tangji (Taunggyi), and the 200th Division successfully counterattacked, but the 6th Army of Lerem (Lei Lian) in the northeast could not withstand it, so the 200th Division had to abandon Taunggyi.
On 25 April, Stilwell decided on a complete retreat of the expeditionary force.
On April 29, the Japanese occupied Lashio, the 66th Army was defeated, and most of it withdrew to China along the Yunnan-Burma Highway.
Chinese Expeditionary Force
A few of the main retreat routes are summarized as follows:
The first line, the Jingdong area in eastern Shan State, Myanmar, was withdrawn to the area around Xishuangbanna; The 6th Army was the mainstay, and there were many wounds and deaths during the battle and retreat.
The second line, the 66th Army in the northern Shan State, except for the new 38th Division, a bit like a reserve, was quickly defeated by the Japanese army, passing along the Yunnan-Burma Highway, the small roads on the Sino-Burmese border withdrew to the vicinity of Tengchong, and after blowing up the Huitong Bridge, the devils were blocked on the west bank of the Nu River. The losses were also significant.
On the third line, the Yunnan-Burma Highway was cut off by the Japanese army, and the 200th Division of the 5th Army could not withdraw from the main road, so it bypassed north of Myitkyina from the northern part of Shan State and climbed the Gaoligong Mountain, reached Lushui on the edge of the Nu River through Pianma, and went south to the north of Tengchong, but found that the Japanese army had occupied Tengchong, so it had to march northward again, then cross the Nu River to reach Yunlong, and then go east through Dali, and arrived at Kunming at the end of June, which took two months. There are only more than 2,600 officers and men left in the division plus the Fifth Army's supplementary training office. Division Commander Dai Anlan died. The 200th Division was the unit that suffered the greatest casualties in the battle and wiped out the most Japanese troops in Burma in this war.
On the fourth line, under the leadership of Sun Liren, the 38th Division of the 66th Army, first relieved the siege of the British army at Ringanqiang, and then withdrew directly to India with the British army, without even losing equipment.
On the fifth line, Du Yuming, the commander of the 5th Army, led the main force to move north, and before Stilwell and Luo Zhuoying led the headquarters of the expeditionary force westward to India, in view of the fact that Wan Town and Bamo had fallen, they decided to retreat the whole army to India, and telegraphed Du Yuming, asking the 5th Army to also withdraw to India.
After Du Yuming consulted Chiang Kai-shek, he decided to lead his troops to retreat to Pianma and Tengchong through Myitkyina.
But soon Myitkyina was also occupied by the Japanese army, Du Yuming led 15,000 people to drop heavy equipment and wounded, into the primeval forest of the Hukang River Valley, because there was no food, and it was bad weather and natural environment, a large number of people died, and the loss was discovered by US planes, and the headquarters was notified. The Allied headquarters in India then airdropped radios, food, and medicine to the force.
After several negotiations, on May 31, they set off north for India, where US planes airdropped food and medicine along the way. After about two more months of marching, the troops reached the Indian border town of Lido on 25 July, leaving just over 2,000 men.
The First Expeditionary Force entered Burma to fight, and the 5th Army suffered the greatest losses.
In the whole process, the occupation of Lashio was a very critical node, the Japanese army pursued along the Yunnan-Burma road all the way to Tengchong, and quickly occupied Bhamo and Myitkyina, blocking all the doors for the main Chinese forces fighting in central Burma to return home.
That's what led to the rout.
Before the pandemic, Ruili was the largest import and export port in Yunnan Province, opposite Myanmar's Mujie, and its connection point was the commercial center of Lashio.
Lincang is also strengthening transportation construction, and it is also through the Kokang region and Lashio to develop Sino-Myanmar trade. That is, one city in Lashio faces two prefectures in Yunnan Province, China.
At present, Lashio has inexplicably come up with a measure to dig up and cut off the road, and I don't know who did it, it is all the rhythm of preparing for war.
I don't know if I want to fight or make peace, but it seems that the land trade between China and Myanmar will basically be yellow this year.
It remains to be seen what all parties in Myanmar have in mind and when they will have to toss.