ON THIS DAY ·
Battle of Hengyang
23 Jun–8 Aug 1944 — Hengyang lay in the path of Ichigo. For 47 days, 17,000 men of the Tenth Army defended the rail city against 100,000 attackers, in the longest defense of the war. The city fell and the corridor was cut through, but the political shock in Chungking and Washington lasted beyond the campaign.
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The moment in context
For six years after 1938, Japan occupied a network rather than the whole of China. Its garrisons held cities, railways and river valleys, but the countryside between these points and lines was much harder to govern. Communist base areas spread across the north, and government guerrillas held mountain districts. Even with about a million troops in China, Japan could guard the routes more securely than it could control the land around them.
From Sino-Japanese War stalemate, chapter 9 of China in Revolution, 1911–1949 (1944).
The place: Battle of Hengyang — map and full story →
Teach this in 5 minutes
- Why it happened — Why the front froze. By late 1938, each Japanese advance created another stretch of railway to protect. Guerrillas could cut the line between garrisons, while Chinese…
- The turn — Hengyang, June–August 1944. Hengyang held for 47 days in June–August 1944. Its defenders’ courage could not prevent the city’s fall, after which Ichigo advanced essentially…
- What it changed — The starting positions of the next war. The armies Ichigo wrecked and displaced would be needed again after Japan surrendered. Some of the Nationalists’ best remaining forces were far away…
Then ask the room: How did the Nationalists and Communists fight Japan, and why did their different roles matter afterward? The argued answer is on the chapter page →
The atlas that shows it
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