WW2 CHINA AGAINST JAPAN

CHINA ON THE OFFENSIVE





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On March 15 the Chinese High Command announced a great victory on the Yangtse River front to the west of Hankow. A few days earlier more than 20,000 Japanese troops crossed the river in eight columns ready to launch an offensive towards Hankow. On March 13, however, a general Chinese counter-offensive was begun, and after less than two days fighting the enemy was flung back in disorder and full retreat. Several places of strategic importance were recaptured in the province of Hupeh. This splendid victory showed that even after six years of brutal warfare the spirit of China's fighting forces was still high despite their isolation from the Allies, their serious lack of equipment and widespread famine among the civilian population. Nevertheless, in the spring of 1943 Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek had some 5,000,000 fighting men under his command and another 15,000,000 men standing in reserve, trained and awaiting equipment. Nearly another 20,000,000 had received preliminary militia training. The great bulk of these Chinese armies was recruited from the peasant classes. This, in fact, was a source of their strength. For, being bred in the countryside, every man was well acquainted with the terrain in which he had to fight and was tough enough to cover the distances involved in the campaigns against the enemy. Since the Japanese began what they called the China "incident" the Chinese had made rapid strides with the development of their own war industries. As the "incident" approached its seventh year there were nearly 2,000 arms factories in parts of the country remote from enemy attack with thousands of trained women to work in them. Picture shows supply barges on the Yangtse.