Comrade | Guevara
In the first and mid-1930s, on the eve of the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese all-out war, there was a "honeymoon period" between China and Germany, and not only maintained close economic and cultural exchanges between the two countries, but also a large number of talented senior German officers served as military advisers in China, which was of great benefit to enhance the overall combat effectiveness of the Chinese army. Among these people, the most well-known and contributed was General Alexander von Falkenhausen, the second head of the German Military Advisory Group.
Falkenhausen, born in 1878 in Ordenburg, northern Germany, to a Junker aristocratic family, graduated from the officer school at the age of 19 and was assigned to the German 91st Army as a second lieutenant. In 1900, Falkenhausen, who had been promoted to lieutenant, followed Marshal Wadesi in the Eight-Power Alliance's war of aggression against China, and it was this trip to China that gave him a strong interest in the mysterious East. After returning to China, Falkenhausen entered the Oriental College in Berlin to study, immersing himself in the national conditions and national character of China and Japan, and thus laying the foundation for his future career direction.
"Father of the Wehrmacht" General Seckert
In 1907, Falkenhausen was appointed German military attaché in Japan, and while he was in office, he observed all aspects of Japan closely and made a comprehensive and objective analysis of its advantages and disadvantages, thus laying a solid foundation for him to help China plan an anti-Japanese strategy in the future. During World War I, Falkenhausen was sent to Germany's ally, the Ottoman Empire, as a military adviser, and the leader of this advisory group was General Seckert, known as the "father of the Wehrmacht". It was during his service in the Ottoman Empire that Falkenhausen's strategy was deeply appreciated by Seckert, and the two formed a deep friendship.
After the end of World War I, Falkenhausen continued to serve in the army and in 1927 became principal of the Dresden Infantry School until his retirement in 1930. Falkenhausen retired and fell silent for five years until he accepted a gracious invitation from China. In 1935, Seckert, the head of chiang kai-shek's German military advisory group, returned to China for treatment due to illness, and before leaving, he recommended Falkenhausen to replace him, and was approved by Chiang Kai-shek. Since then, Falkenhausen has actively participated in China's top secret planning and various war preparations for four years.
Falkenhausen
After Falkenhausen took office, based on his many years of experience in Japan and his in-depth study of the Japanese Army, he soon drew up a master plan for operations against Japan called "Proposal on Countermeasures to Deal with the Current Situation." This proposal has a fairly accurate judgment on the general direction of the Sino-Japanese all-out war that broke out two years later, and accordingly puts forward strategic ideas such as the rapid organization of mobile troops that can fight, the preservation of the area south of the Yangtze River as much as possible, and the development of a self-sufficient arms industry, and the overall strategic framework for future operations against Japan.
In this proposal, Falkenhausen repeatedly stressed the importance of the Yellow River defense line, and suggested to Chiang Kai-shek that once the Japanese army reached Kaifeng and Zhengzhou, "the last front line is the Yellow River, and it is advisable to make a planned artificial flood to increase its defensive power." That is to say, if Kaifeng and Zhengzhou are in danger of falling, China should strengthen its defenses by blowing up the yellow river levees and other means, so that the flood will become a magic weapon to deter the Japanese invasion. However, once the Yellow River breaks its banks, how to ensure the safety of the lives and property of the people along the river is not within the scope of Falkenhausen's consideration.
Falkenhausen conducts strategic deductions
With regard to Falkenhausen's proposal, Chiang Kai-shek, after careful consideration, deliberately wrote the five words "final line of resistance" next to it, indicating that he fully agreed with the German adviser's proposition. From late May to early June 1938, after occupying Xuzhou, the Japanese army marched west along the Longhai Road, preparing to capture Zhengzhou and then attack Wuhan, which was extremely unfavorable to China. In order to stop the Japanese advance, on June 9, Chiang Kai-shek, in accordance with the advice originally provided by Falkenhausen, brazenly ordered the explosion of the Yellow River embankment at the mouth of the Garden in the northeast of Zhengzhou.
Objectively speaking, the huayuankou breach did disrupt the Japanese army's battle plan to a large extent, slowing down its marching speed, and gaining valuable time for the Chinese army to organize the Defense Of Wuhan. However, the Huayuankou Dam has also flooded a large area of land in more than 40 counties in southern Henan, northern Anhui and northern Jiangsu, resulting in the tragic drowning of more than 800,000 people, the displacement of millions of people, and the formation of a yellow pan area of continuous famine, and the hidden pain has not been eliminated. From this point of view, Falkenhausen can be called the initiator of the garden mouth breach, and should be hated by the Chinese people.
After the garden mouth broke the embankment
In fact, in addition to proposing to blow up the stain of the Yellow River levee, Falkenhausen played a more active and positive role in China's anti-Japanese cause, and can be called a good friend of the Chinese people. It was precisely under the active efforts of Falkenhausen that Sino-German economic and military cooperation reached its climax, and Germany gave China a credit loan of 10 million marks every year to purchase advanced German weapons and equipment, thus rapidly enhancing the combat effectiveness of the Central Army. Not only that, Falkenhausen also presided over the deployment of the Jiangyin Fortress on the Yangtze River and the construction of the Weihu, Wufu and Chengyin lines, which were of great benefit to China's anti-Japanese cause.
In addition, Falkenhausen ignored Hitler's order to ban German advisers from working on the front line, and personally went to Shanghai to assist in the defense of his subordinates during the "August 13 War of Resistance". It was under the guidance of Falkenhausen and other German advisers that the 87th and 88th Divisions, two German model divisions from the Central Army, severely damaged the Japanese army in the Battle of Miaoxing, annihilating more than 3,000 enemy troops, and causing the Japanese invading army to suffer a disastrous defeat that had never been seen since the Sino-Japanese War. Afterwards, when the Japanese learned that they had encountered a model division trained and guided by German advisers, they even called the Defense of Shanghai the "German War."
The German-style Central Army rushing to the battlefield
In addition to the defense of Shanghai, Falkenhausen also appeared in battles such as the Battle of Xuzhou. However, due to the signing of the alliance between Japan and Germany, after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, Hitler's attitude toward China became increasingly cold under the repeated protests of Japan. On May 21, 1938, on Hitler's orders, the German ambassador to China, Todmann, formally informed the Chinese government that he hoped to immediately terminate the contract of German advisers in China and allow them all to return to China. Although Chiang Kai-shek repeatedly made representations, in the end it did not help.
However, the German advisory board was reluctant to leave when China needed them, and Falkenhausen even wanted to give up German citizenship and remain in China. However, under the threat of the Nazi regime, German advisers such as Falkenhausen had to leave in Tears in July of that year, thus ending their four-year military career in China. Before Falkenhausen left China, he promised Chiang Kai-shek that he would never disclose any military secrets about China to Japan, and after returning to China, he served as a free propagandist for China's War of Resistance until Hitler ordered the German reservists to resume their duties.
Falkenhausen during his tenure as Governor-General of the Netherlands
In 1940, after Nazi Germany occupied Belgium, Hitler appointed Falkenhausen as governor and ordered him to suppress rebels, force laborers, and impose extermination of Jews there. However, Falkenhausen did not fully carry out Hitler's orders, and even secretly protected the victims, which made the Nazi tyrant very dissatisfied. After the failed assassination of Hitler on 20 July 1944, Falkenhausen was implicated and imprisoned until after Germany surrendered.
Falkenhausen was extradited to Belgium for trial as a war criminal in 1948 and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in March 1951 on charges of deporting 25,000 Jews and executing Belgian captives. After the news broke, many people defended Falkenhausen, including the prototype character of "The Chinese Woman under the Gun of the Gestapo" and Qian Xiuling, a Belgian Chinese woman who rescued nearly 100 anti-Nazis. Eventually, the court retried Falkenhausen's case and commuted his acquittal 3 weeks later.
Falkenhausen in his later years
After regaining his freedom, Falkenhausen returned to West Germany to settle down, and then served as honorary president of the Sino-German Cultural and Economic Association, and continued to work hard to enhance Sino-German friendly relations. On 31 July 1966, Falkenhausen died in Nassau, Rhineland-Palatinate, at the age of 88. In 2002, the TV series Chinese Woman at gunpoint of the Gestapo premiered in Beijing, and a key positive character in the play, General von Hoffmann, the German military governor in Belgium, was based on Falkenhausen.
bibliography
Fu Baozhen, "Falkenhausen and the Climax of Sino-German Military Cooperation," Biographical Literature, Vol. 33, No. 6.
Fu Baozhen: Biography of German Military Advisers in China, Biographical Literature.
Sindam, "Chairman Chiang Kai-shek and China in Falkenhausen's Memories," Biographical Literature, Vol. 21, No. 1.
Ke Weilin (United States): Germany and the Republic of China, Jiangsu People's Publishing House, 2006.