Battle of Nanjing

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Battle of Nanjing

Part of the Second Sino-Japanese War

Image:Approachtonanking.jpg
Map showing the routes of the Japanese army's approach to Nanjing

Date	December 1937
Location	Nanjing and surrounding areas
Result	Fall of Nanjing, Nanjing Massacre

Combatants

China, National Revolutionary Army;Soviet Air Force volunteers[1]

Japan, Central China Theater Army

Commanders

Tang Shengzhi

Matsui Iwane

Strength

100,000 men

8 divisions

Casualties

~50,000 military personnel, ~300,000 civilians

minimal

Second Sino-Japanese War
Major engagements in bold Mukden - Invasion of Manchuria -(Jiangqiao - Nenjiang Bridge - Chinchow - Harbin) - Shanghai (1932) - Operation Nekka - ( Rehe - Great Wall) - Suiyuan - Marco Polo Bridge - Beiping-Tianjin - Chahar - Shanghai (1937) (Sihang Warehouse) - Beiping-Hankou Railway - Tianjin-Pukou Railway - Taiyuan - (Pingxingguan) - Xinkou - Nanjing - Xuzhou- Taierzhuang - N.-E.Henan - (Lanfeng) - (Amoy) - Wuhan - Canton - (Hainan) - (Xiushui River) - Nanchang - Suixian-Zaoyang - (Swatow) - 1st Changsha - S.Guangxi- (Kunlun Pass) - Winter Offensive -(Wuyuan) - Zaoyang-Yichang - Hundred Regiments - Indochina Expedition - C. Hopei - S.Henan - W. Hopei - Shanggao - S.Shanxi - 2nd Changsha - 3rd Changsha - Yunnan-Burma Road-(Yenangyaung)- Zhejiang-Jiangxi - W.Hubei - N.Burma-W.Yunnan - Changde - C.Henan - 4th Changsha - Guilin-Liuzhou - W.Henan-N.Hubei - W.Hunan- 2nd Guangxi edit

The Battle of Nanjing (Traditional Chinese: 南京保衛戰; Simplified Chinese: 南京保卫战; Hanyu Pinyin: Nánjīng Bǎowèi Zhàn; Wade-Giles: Nan-ching Pao-wei Chan) began after the fall of Shanghai in October 9, 1937, and ended with the fall of the capital city of Nanjing in December, 1937 to Japanese troops, a few days after the Republic of China Government had evacuated the city and relocated to Chongqing. The Nanking Massacre followed the fall of the city.

1 Before Battle
2 Battle
3 Aftermath
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Before Battle

General Tang Shengzhi was given the job of defending Nanjing following the retreat of the Chinese Army following the Battle of Shanghai. In a press release to foreign reporters, he announced the city would not surrender and would fight to the death. The defense force blocked roads, ruined boats, and burnt nearby villages, preventing many citizens from evacuating. However, the defense plan was falling apart from the very beginning because the defenders were overwhelmed by the fleeing Chinese troops from previous defeats such as the Battle of Shanghai, and these fleeing troops just wanted to escape to safer grounds and refused to obey any orders. As Chiang Kai-shek and his staff such as Chen Cheng had correctly realized, Chinese elite troops could not risk be annihilated at the hopeless but symbolic defensive battle at the capital, so in order to preserve the future fighting forces, most of the first-class troops were withdrawn and the General Tang Shengzhi gathered about 100,000 soldiers, mostly untrained, including a few defeated troops from the Shanghai battlefield, to defend the capital. He also placed the 35th division as well as 72nd division of his troop at the port to prevent people from fleeing Nanjing, as instructed by Chiang Kai-shek's general headquarter at Wuhan. However, the government left Nanking on December 1, and the president left on December 7. Nanjing was left to an International Committee led by John Rabe.

[edit] Battle

After occupying nearby countryside and unsuccessfully demanding a surrender, the Japanese troops under Lt. Gen. Asaka Yasuhiko (filling in for Gen. Matsui Iwane) launched a massive assault on the city on December 9. In addition to the sheer force of the enemy that caused Chinese commanders to order a retreat across the Yangtze River starting on the evening of December 12, the Chinese defenders' efforts were also seriously hampered by the fleeing troops of their own from previous battles. Many commanders gave orders contradicting the intend of the headquarter, and many more troops simply disobeyed their orders, and furthermore, spontaneous orders in the midst of the chaos gave few Chinese soldiers the ability to escape. This was not helped by the previous boat burning that limited the ability to cross the river.

On December 13, the 6th and 114th Divisions of the Japanese Army first entered the city. Simultaneously, the 9th Division entered nearby Guanghua Gate, and the 16th Division entered Zhongshan and Taiping Gate. That same afternoon, two small Japanese Navy fleets arrived on both sides of the Yangtze River. Nanking fell to the Japanese by nightfall.

In the following six weeks, the Japanese troops committed the grotesque Nanking Massacre.

[edit] Aftermath

Several cities, including Xuzhou and Wuhan soon fell after this battle. The government also tried to slow down the advancing Japanese by causing the 1938 Huang He flood, which covered three provinces.