What happened at the Second Battle of Changsha?
In September 1941 the Japanese 11th Army under Anami Korechika attacked the Chinese 9th War Area of Xue Yue in northern Hunan, aiming to destroy its main forces north of Changsha. The Japanese broke the Chinese river lines and on 27 September entered Changsha, the provincial capital, but they soon withdrew, and by early October both sides were back where they had started. China celebrated a victory; Japan counted the city taken.1
By 1941 the war between Japan and China had settled into a long stalemate. In Hunan the Chinese 9th War Area held the line of the Xinqiang River north of Changsha, facing the Japanese 11th Army based on Yueyang and Wuhan. The Japanese had already tried to take Changsha once, in September and October 1939, and had been driven back.2
The 11th Army's new commander, Lieutenant General Anami Korechika, prepared a second attempt. The Yuelu District Archives' historian Gong Junhui quotes the Japanese high command's guidance: keep up the pressure on China without letup and use the international situation to settle the China Incident. Anami concentrated his strength on a narrow front for a deep breakthrough. The Japanese called it the First Changsha Operation, or Operation Ka.3
The forces
The numbers vary by source. The Academy of Chinese Studies in Hong Kong gives about 120,000 Japanese troops against some 300,000 Chinese; Gong Junhui puts the Japanese at about 100,000, with engineers, artillery, tanks, naval craft and aircraft. An account published by the Changsha Anti-Japanese War Culture Research Society lists four divisions and four detachments, a tank regiment, heavy artillery and some 180 aircraft on the Japanese side, and twelve armies on the Chinese. The Chinese commander was Xue Yue, the defender of Changsha in 1939.4
Across the rivers
Chinese accounts date the battle from early September. The Academy of Chinese Studies gives 6 September as its start, and the Research Society's account describes Japanese attacks on the Chinese guerrilla base in the Dayunshan hills from 7 September, which drew Chinese troops away from the main line. The main offensive began on 18 September. The Research Society's account notes that the date was chosen as the tenth anniversary of the Mukden Incident.5
The attack broke through quickly. Gong Junhui writes that by 22 September the Japanese had surrounded the Chinese 37th and 26th Armies and that the whole Miluo River line collapsed. In the Research Society's account the Japanese had broken the Chinese codes and could read Xue Yue's orders, seizing positions before the Chinese reached them, and the 74th Army, one of the best in the war area, had to fight its way out of a trap near Chunhuashan.6
On 27 September the Japanese crossed the Liuyang River and broke into Changsha from the northeast. The Japanese record of the operation, as JACAR presents it, notes the occupation of the city on 27 September. Gong Junhui adds that the citizens of Changsha helped the soldiers resist. The Academy of Chinese Studies describes bitter fighting in the streets, and its photographs show Chinese troops advancing toward the Tianxin Pavilion in the southeast of the city. To relieve the pressure, the Research Society's account says, Chiang Kai-shek ordered other war areas to attack the Japanese in front of them and placed four more armies under Xue Yue's command.7 › Battle of Hong Kong, 1941
The withdrawal
The Japanese did not stay. Their supply lines had been cut by Chinese troops and villagers, and Chinese offensives elsewhere, above all against Yichang on the Yangtze, threatened Japanese garrisons, so Anami ordered his army north on 1 October, according to the Research Society's account. JACAR gives 6 October as the end of the operation; Chinese accounts end the battle on 8 or 9 October, when the last Japanese troops recrossed the Xinqiang River.8
Both sides found reasons for satisfaction and for regret. China claimed a victory: the Academy of Chinese Studies cites the 9th War Area's report of 48,000 Japanese casualties, three aircraft shot down and seven motorboats sunk, and the Research Society's account describes torchlight parades in Chongqing. Gong Junhui writes that Xue Yue felt the fall of the city as a disgrace, while the Japanese were not satisfied either, because the 9th War Area had not been destroyed.9
The two armies met again in December 1941, when the 11th Army attacked to tie down Chinese forces during the Japanese assault on Hong Kong. That third battle of Changsha ended in a heavy Japanese defeat.10
Notes
A number in the text points to a note; each note names the works that paragraph draws on, listed in full under Sources.
- Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, “18 September 1941”; Gong Junhui, “Yuelu shihua”; Academy of Chinese Studies, “(8) The First and Second Battles of Changsha”. ↩
- Gong Junhui, “Yuelu shihua”; Academy of Chinese Studies, “(8) The First and Second Battles of Changsha”; Changsha Anti-Japanese War Culture Research Society, “Erci Changsha huizhan”. ↩
- Gong Junhui, “Yuelu shihua”; Changsha Anti-Japanese War Culture Research Society, “Erci Changsha huizhan”; Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, “18 September 1941”. ↩
- Gong Junhui, “Yuelu shihua”; Academy of Chinese Studies, “(8) The First and Second Battles of Changsha”; Changsha Anti-Japanese War Culture Research Society, “Erci Changsha huizhan”. ↩
- Academy of Chinese Studies, “(8) The First and Second Battles of Changsha”; Changsha Anti-Japanese War Culture Research Society, “Erci Changsha huizhan”; Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, “18 September 1941”; Gong Junhui, “Yuelu shihua”. ↩
- Gong Junhui, “Yuelu shihua”; Changsha Anti-Japanese War Culture Research Society, “Erci Changsha huizhan”. ↩
- Gong Junhui, “Yuelu shihua”; Changsha Anti-Japanese War Culture Research Society, “Erci Changsha huizhan”; Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, “18 September 1941”; Academy of Chinese Studies, “(8) The First and Second Battles of Changsha”. ↩
- Changsha Anti-Japanese War Culture Research Society, “Erci Changsha huizhan”; Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, “18 September 1941”; Gong Junhui, “Yuelu shihua”; Academy of Chinese Studies, “(8) The First and Second Battles of Changsha”. ↩
- Academy of Chinese Studies, “(8) The First and Second Battles of Changsha”; Changsha Anti-Japanese War Culture Research Society, “Erci Changsha huizhan”; Gong Junhui, “Yuelu shihua”. ↩
- Gong Junhui, “Yuelu shihua”; Academy of Chinese Studies, “(8) The First and Second Battles of Changsha”. ↩
Sources
- Japan Center for Asian Historical Records (JACAR), National Archives of Japan, online exhibition on the Japan-US negotiations, “18 September 1941: the First Changsha Operation (Operation Ka) begins”
- Gong Junhui, Yuelu District Archives, Changsha, via The Paper (2021), “Yuelu shihua: Xue Yue, yi cun shanhe yi cun xue, part 2 (Xue Yue: an inch of land, an inch of blood)”
- Academy of Chinese Studies, Hong Kong, “(8) The First and Second Battles of Changsha”
- Changsha Anti-Japanese War Culture Research Society (krzzjn.com), reprinted from NetEase History (2015), “Erci Changsha huizhan: Xue Yue da bai Anami Weiji (The Second Battle of Changsha: Xue Yue defeats Anami)”
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