Shanghai Sihang Warehouse
In October 1937, after four days of heroic resistance to the Japanese army at the Sihang Warehouse in Shanghai, the "Eight Hundred Heroes" attracted the attention of the international community with a tug-of-war.
This was a special defensive battle in the first major Sino-Japanese battle since the Lugou Bridge Incident, and a Chinese battalion stubbornly resisted Japanese aggression in Shanghai. During the four-day battle, the 1st Battalion of the 524th Regiment of the 88th Division fought to the death with the elite Japanese 3rd Division. What is less known is that this Chinese battalion had only 414 people, so why was it later called the "Eight Hundred Heroes" of the Sihang Warehouse? Why did they stick to this nameless warehouse?
The Sihang warehouse has no obvious value militarily. The warehouse, a 25-metre-high six-storey concrete building, is located on the banks of the Suzhou River, in Zhabei District, on the edge of the Shanghai Concession. It was not a key position for the Nationalist retreat, but it was across the river from the Shanghai concession, which meant that the Sihang warehouse provided Chiang Kai-shek with a unique public relations opportunity to show China's determination to resist the war in front of an international perspective.
Four rows of warehouses in the smoke of war
1937 was the first year of the Japanese army's all-out invasion of China. Although the War of Resistance Against Japan began with the September 18 Incident in 1931, the Western world was always reluctant to support China. Only Germany and the Soviet Union were the great powers that helped China in the War of Resistance with practical actions, and the 88th Division was one of the few German-trained and equipped troops. In the last days of the battle for Shanghai, the 88th Division was the only army specially selected by Chiang Kai-shek to remain, through which Chiang Kai-shek hoped to win foreign military support.
The 88th Division was commanded by General Sun Yuanliang, whose headquarters was located at the Sihang Warehouse. After receiving Chiang Kai-shek's order, Sun Yuanliang protested to his superior, Gu Zhutong, on the grounds that such a suicidal order meant that the 88th Division would be completely annihilated. Sun Yuanliang naturally did not want his troops to be destroyed, and Gu Zhutong, as the old leader of the 88th Division, also had deep feelings for this unit. Finally, after weighing up, Chiang Kai-shek agreed to the retreat of most of the 88th Division, leaving only the 1st Battalion of the 524th Regiment to garrison the Sihang warehouse.
After the other units of the 88th Division retreated, Lieutenant Colonel Xie Jinyuan led the 1st Battalion of the 524th Regiment to hold the Sihang Warehouse. Most of the officers and men of the first battalion were recruits from Hubei, who had been soldiers for less than 3 months, and their only heavy weapons were four Type 24 water-cooled Maxim machine guns. 414 officers and men struggled to strengthen the fortifications, stacked bulletproof walls with sandbags, and burned adjacent buildings to form an open area.
Of course, Xie Jinyuan knew that his troops were seriously insufficient, so he deliberately spread the news, and the 1st Battalion was marked as "524th Regiment" to confuse the Japanese army.
Xie Jinyuan
On October 27, a few hours after most of the Nationalist forces withdrew from Shanghai, the Japanese Third Division reached Zhabei, Shanghai. The Japanese first sent more than 10 scouts into the vicinity of the Sihang warehouse to explore the defensive deployment of the first battalion. These scouts were accurately killed by the sharpshooters deployed by Xie Jinyuan. At noon, Xie Jinyuan sent a team of scouts forward, encountered the Japanese army, and the two sides exchanged fire. After that, a japanese team attacked from the west side of the warehouse, and 70 Japanese soldiers entered the dead corner of the warehouse defenders, who immediately threw grenades and fired mortars on the upper floor of the warehouse, killing 7 Japanese soldiers. By about 9 p.m. that night, only 2 soldiers of the defenders had died.
At that time, almost all the citizens of Shanghai thought that the Nationalist troops in Zhabei had withdrawn, and the girl scout Yang Huimin was surprised to hear gunshots in the early hours of the morning when he passed near Suzhou Creek. She saw nearby British soldiers throwing bags of cigarettes into the warehouse, and the British soldiers told her that the cigarettes were for the Chinese defenders in the warehouse. She immediately asked the British soldiers to attach a note to the throwing of cigarettes asking if the defenders needed ammunition or food. With her help, the Chinese defenders contacted the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce. On October 28, all the media headlines in Shanghai reported the heroic deeds of the defenders of the Sihang Warehouse.
The outer wall of the four-row warehouse, dense bullet holes
The next day, several Japanese attacks were repulsed, and the Chinese defenders remained firmly at the warehouse. Since the warehouse was next to the British Concession, the Japanese did not intend to tear their faces with the Western powers at that time, so the Japanese Third Division did not dare to use mustard gas or air raids. Compared with the Japanese people's impatience, Xie Jinyuan behaved calmly. When he inspected the fortifications on the morning of the 28th, he found a Japanese unit moving 1,000 meters away, and he picked up a gun and killed a Japanese soldier. In the afternoon, the Japanese occupied the Bank of Communications building on the west side of the warehouse, and although they could not make an effective attack on the geographically superior defenders, they cut off the warehouse's hydropower lines.
At this time, the whole of Shanghai was encouraged by the news of the defenders of the Sihang Warehouse, and all the citizens ignited their patriotic passion, and many citizens came to the vicinity of Suzhou Creek to cheer for the warehouse defenders. The Shanghai Chamber of Commerce and citizens sent more than a dozen truckloads of supplies, and Xie Jinyuan also took the opportunity to ask the U.S. army to help transport 10 wounded.
The scene of the four-line warehouse defense war is restored
The heroic legend of the "Eight Hundred Heroes" was born, and 414 soldiers are forever inscribed in history. That morning, different newspapers scrambled to report on the deeds of the defenders of the Sihang warehouse, but the number of troops varied widely, ranging from 150 to 800. Later, in order to boost morale and deter the Japanese army, Xie Jinyuan, when arranging for the wounded to retreat, ordered the wounded to tell the people outside: It must be cut to the point that there are 800 defenders who have sworn to guard the Sihang warehouse to the death!
That evening, the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce sent Girl Scout Yang Huimin to send a national flag to boost the morale of the defenders. Yang Huimin was touched by the defenders' unswerving determination to fight and wanted to record the names of all the soldiers. Xie Jinyuan still insisted that there were 800 defenders declared to the outside world, so he listed 800 names for her from the list of the 524 regiment.
Xie Jinyuan Regimental Commander, Qingtian White Sun Medal
In the 2-day battle, the Japanese did not take a big advantage, and the Japanese 3rd Division went crazy, dispatched more firepower, and launched a more fierce attack. The battle was until noon, and in order to cover the advance of light tanks and infantry, Japanese artillery began to fire shells at the warehouses. Although the heavy artillery fire could not penetrate the thick walls of the warehouse, the Japanese, with the help of artillery cover, quietly attacked the downstairs and began to build a ladder to attack the second floor.
The warriors upstairs fearlessly pushed the Japanese soldiers down the stairs one by one. The Japanese soldiers' fighting convictions began to waver. In the afternoon, a seriously wounded defender resolutely pulled a grenade, jumped from the upper floor, and died with 20 Japanese soldiers, and the Japanese army's determination to fight was seriously hit. Faced with unprecedented and resolute resistance from the Chinese army, the Japanese were forced to stop infantry attacks when night fell, but continued to organize artillery to bombard the warehouses. The survivors of the "800 Heroes" later said, "Almost every second there are shells falling."
Japanese artillery fire threatened the foreigners in the Shanghai Concession, and the Japanese pressured them to persuade the Chinese defenders to surrender. On the 29th, they submitted a petition to Chiang Kai-shek. For Chiang Kai-shek, his goal had been achieved, so he ordered the defenders to evacuate the Sihang warehouse on the 31st.
Then, the supreme commander of the Japanese 3rd Division, Matsui Ishigen (the executioner of the Nanjing Massacre), at first agreed to a ceasefire when the warehouse defenders retreated, but regretted it at the end of the day. Xie Jinyuan saw that the Japanese army was so shameless, and asked his superiors to continue to guard the warehouse and fight the Japanese army to the end, but Shangfeng did not agree. At midnight on November 1, Xie Jinyuan led a battalion of the remaining 376 men to successfully retreat, killing more than 200 Japanese soldiers.
The Sihang warehouse was never breached by the Japanese army, and the warehouse defenders were eventually ordered to retreat into the concession
The battle to defend the Sihang Warehouse surprised the Westerners in the concession, who were amazed at the bravery and determination of the Chinese soldiers. Chiang Kai-shek showed the world that he was capable of leading the Chinese army to win the War of Resistance Against Japan, but his wishful thinking failed and he did not receive the support and assistance of the Western countries. It was not until 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and declared war on the United States and Britain, that China's pressure on the front line was reduced.
In the concession, although the Chinese officers and soldiers were confiscated, they still insisted on training
After Xie Jinyuan led his troops to join the rest of the 88th Division stationed in the British Concession, the British immediately confiscated their weapons and restricted their personal freedom. The reason was that britain was threatened by the Japanese: if the Chinese army went out of the British concession and attacked the Japanese soldiers, the Japanese army would immediately attack the British concession. In fact, the interned soldiers of a battalion maintained their military style without weapons, raising the flag and singing military songs every morning, and the citizens of Shanghai could also visit the heroes.
At Xie Jinyuan's memorial service, Jiang personally wrote the inscription "Haoqi Lasts Forever"
This detention lasted for four years until the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and the Japanese troops stationed in Shanghai immediately occupied the Shanghai Concession and captured the Chinese soldiers. They were sent to various concentration camps, and a small number of soldiers were lucky enough to escape. Xie Jinyuan was assassinated by a killer sent by Wang Fu, and was posthumously awarded the rank of major general. On the day of the funeral, more than 210,000 citizens came to mourn.
On the 60th anniversary of the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in 2005, Yang Yang, a survivor of the defenders of the Sihang Warehouse and a platoon leader, was holding the statue of Xie Jinyuan and crying bitterly