Defense of Sihang Warehouse

The Battle of Sihang Warehouse (Chinese: 四行倉庫保衛戰) took place from October 26 to November 1, 1937, and marked the beginning of the end of the three-month Battle of Shanghai in the opening phase of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Defenders of the warehouse held out against numerous waves of Japanese forces to cover Chinese forces retreating west during the Battle of Shanghai.
The Chinese defenders were composed of a single half-strength battalion from the elite German-trained 88th Division, who had fortified and occupied the large "Four Banks" (Sihang) Warehouse in the downtown Zhabei district. The warehouse's location just across the Suzhou Creek from the foreign concessions in Shanghai meant the battle took place in full view of the western powers. Tens of thousands of Chinese and Western civilians were thus able to witness the battle as it unfolded.
After enduring several days of repeated attacks by the Japanese army, the Chinese defenders were permitted to retreat into the nearby International Settlement, which they managed to do with most of their strength intact.
The defense of the warehouse and media reporting of the event provided a morale-lifting consolation to the Chinese army and people in the demoralizing aftermath of the Japanese invasion of China.
Japanese sources on the Defense of Sihang Warehouse differ, which record the defense as being a relatively minor skirmish within the entire Battle of Shanghai.
By 26 October 1937, Chinese resistance in the district of Zhabei was faltering. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek wanted to withdraw all forces in the area to defend the rural western regions of Shanghai, and ordered Gu Zhutong, acting commander of the 3rd Military Region, to leave the 88th Division behind to buy time and canvass international support by showing the other nations of the Nine Powers (which were to convene on 6 November) China's determination to resist the Japanese during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Neither Gu, Sun nor Zhang were about to disobey Chiang's orders, but Sun (via Zhang) suggested to Gu that the number of troops left to cover the withdrawal would not matter for such a show of determination. In his words, "How many people we sacrifice would not make a difference; it would achieve the same purpose."
At 10 p.m. on 26 October, the 524th Regiment, based at the Shanghai North Railway Station, received orders to withdraw to the divisional headquarters at Sihang Warehouse. 1st Battalion commander Yang Ruifu was distraught at having to abandon a position he had held for more than two months.
Initially containing around 800 men, the 1st was technically an over-strength battalion, but casualties suffered over the course of the Battle of Shanghai reduced its actual strength just prior to the battle to 452 men (some sources give 423), including officers. Because of the confusion of the general retreat, some units may have failed to make it to the warehouse, which caused a further reduction in strength, down to only 414 men present at the beginning of the battle. Two months of intense fighting had also whittled down the original German-trained troops, and after five rounds of reinforcements, the majority of soldiers and officers in the battalion were garrison troops from the surrounding provinces.
Most of the men were from the 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment of the Hubei Provincial Garrison. Hubei did not want to send its best troops to Shanghai, as these had trained over a decade to fight against the Chinese Communists. Thus, many of the soldiers sent as reinforcements to Shanghai were green recruits, with the latest batch recruited after the outbreak of war on 7 July.
The regiment was assigned used equipment from the front-line troops of the 88th, and was well equipped considering the poor equipment that most Chinese forces had. Photos and records show that soldiers were each issued a rifle, likely a Hanyang 88 or Chiang Kai-shek rifle, 300 rounds of 8 mm Mauser, two crates of M24 stick grenades, a German-made M1935 Stahlhelm, a gas mask, and food pouch. There was a total of 27 light machine guns, mostly Czech ZB vz.26, approximately one for each squad. The four water-cooled Type 24 Maxim guns were the only heavy weapons available to the battalion—a mortar platoon assigned to them was never mentioned by participants of the battle, and was therefore unlikely to have joined the battle.
Captain Okochi Denshichi had been assigned command of the Shanghai SNLF on November 16, 1936, and was promoted to Rear Admiral at the beginning of the following month. Prior to the Battle of Shanghai the Shanghai SNLF had a strength of just over 2300 men, but in response to the Oyama Incident on August 9, 1937, the force would be hastily reinforced with Special Naval Landing Forces and ship crews deployed on land. Reinforcements would continue to arrive throughout the course of the battle, eventually bringing the force to just over 10,000 men in strength by October 1937.
On October 27, 1937, the Shanghai SNLF began their advance on Zhabei, organizing their 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 10th, and 12th Battalions into the "Zhabei Force" for the operation. The Shanghai SNLF 10th Battalion would be assigned to the Zhabei Force's Southern Section and serve as the main force opposing the defenders of Sihang Warehouse.
The 10th Battalion had been raised in August 1937 from some 520 reservists at the Sasebo and Kure Naval Districts. Lieutenant Commander Haji Kitaro, an instructor at the Naval Gunnery School in Yokosuka was appointed as to the Shanghai SNLF to serve as the battalion's commander. Since landing in Shanghai on August 19, the battalion had engaged in intense urban combat and suffered a number of casualties.
During the assault on Sihang Warehouse the exact number of participating troops is unclear, however the Shanghai SNLF 10th Battalion numbering over 500 men at the time of its formation was reinforced with approximately 250 sailors of the Yokosuka 2nd Independent SNLF Company and over 200 sailors from the Kure 1st SNLF. The Shanghai SNLF's 8th and 9th Companies, originally attached to the 4th Battalion (Artillery Battalion), would also provide support with howitzers and mountain guns.
A number of Western historians including Eric Niderost and Stephen Robinson have stated the Warehouse was attacked by the Imperial Japanese Army's 3rd Division. However, period Japanese military reports, Senshi Sosho—the official war monographs of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy authored by the Japanese National Institute for Defense Studies, and the IJA 3rd Division's unit history record that the Division was engaged nearby in the Suzhou River Crossing Operation at the time.
In the morning of October 27, the various companies of the 524th Regiment 1st Battalion were trickling in from Zhabei, under orders from Xie Jinyuan. The effort was difficult, as some units in the battalion had begun moving west with the bulk of the Chinese Army. Visibility was compromised by the heavy presence of smoke and fire, as much of the Zhabei district had been set on fire by the retreating Chinese units. Through the efforts of several messengers, most of the men were rallied from the retreating mass of soldiers. By 9 a.m. the last remaining forces in the Battalion had turned up at the warehouse, a force of just over 400 men and officers. That these men had volunteered for the defense was later noted by Chiang Kai-shek as exemplary soldierly conduct.
The Chinese spread out their forces across the warehouse and the outlying perimeter. The 1st Company had taken positions on the right flank of the warehouse along the Tibet Road, the 3rd Company on the left across the Bank of Communications building, and the 2nd Company on the northern and southern sides under the leadership of Major Yang Ruifu. Two Type-24 Maxim heavy machine guns were installed on the roof in an anti-aircraft role, while the other machine guns were distributed to the 1st and 3rd Companies.
In the meantime, the Japanese had already begun advancing into the area. At around 7:30 a.m., a Chinese outpost at the Han Bridge reported that Japanese marines were approaching the North Train Station. Forty-five minutes later at around 8:15 a.m., the Japanese were spotted hoisting their flag over the building. A Chinese platoon positioned in the advance outposts began sniping at Japanese patrols around that time, and over the next two hours, the Chinese platoon began a fighting retreat back to the warehouse perimeter.
As the Japanese approached the warehouse, the Chinese defenders took defensive positions on the different floors of the warehouse and along the outer wall surrounding the building, whilst watching for enemy movement through the slots inside the walls.
At 1 p.m. a column of Japanese soldiers was seen marching towards the warehouse in what appeared to be a victory parade, brandishing a large Rising Sun banner. Once they were close enough, the Chinese defenders ambushed them. Five Japanese soldiers were killed instantly by the gunfire, while the rest of the column scattered for cover.
The Japanese then attacked the Bank of Communications to the immediate west of the warehouse. Hundreds of Japanese marines were seen assaulting the street fortifications surrounding the warehouse, using "trench mortars" on several occasions to clear the area. However, upon attempting to secure some abandoned fortifications, several Japanese soldiers stumbled into a trap: the Chinese defenders, having preemptively rigged a bunker with grenades and a mortar round, "pulled the grenade rope," killing another five Japanese soldiers in the ensuing explosions.
Chinese defenders continued developing defenses by sealing the warehouse's doors, windows and entry points, as well as constructing makeshift dummy positions on the perimeter to draw Japanese fire and waste ammunition.
The Japanese attackers, composed of units from a "Japanese Naval Landing Party" or Japanese marines, received reinforcements and began attempts to break into the warehouse around soon after, targeting the warehouse from North Suzhou Road. They were soon met with intense fire from the Chinese. The Japanese, numbering some fifty men strong, began advancing on the warehouse under the cover of steel shields slotted for rifle fire. A group of Chinese reconnaissance troops, led by platoon leader Yin Qiucheng (尹求成), exchanged fire with the attacking formations near the Wuzhen Bridge, killing four Japanese soldiers according to a journalist watching across the river.
The Japanese increased their firepower on the building, and managed to push the Chinese from their frontline sandbag positions with hand grenades back to their secondary lines. As the battle continued, 3rd Company Captain Shi Meihao was shot in the face but continued to command the defense until he was shot again in the leg. Eventually, the Chinese were forced to abandon the outer wall, and barricaded themselves inside the warehouse itself. When the Japanese followed them to the edge of the warehouse, they were attacked by hand grenades thrown by Chinese soldiers positioned on the upper floors, forcing them to take cover under the ledge in a blind spot at the south-west of the warehouse. Noticing them, a dozen Chinese soldiers quickly climbed onto the roof and hurled mortar rounds and grenades down at the Japanese, killing seven and wounding between twenty and thirty. The survivors were then driven away when a Chinese machine gunner began to shoot at them from from one of the warehouse windows.
Word had been spreading since the early morning that there were still Chinese forces defending Zhabei near the warehouse. As the battle continued, crowds of spectators began to amass on the other side of the 60-yard Suzhou Creek, reportedly cheering every time a Japanese soldier was killed.
At one point during the battle, foreign correspondents witnessed a group of Japanese soldiers slowly approaching the warehouse through the rubble, taking 50 minutes to cover 50 yards. However, the Chinese defenders, who had been watching the Japanese approach from hidden vantage points the entire time, rained hand grenades down on the group the moment they were close enough. After the dust had settled, survivors were finished off with rifles, and several Japanese who rushed forward to rescue their wounded were killed too. A journalist witnessing the combat estimated that sixty Japanese were killed in total during the assault by machine gun fire and grenades. The Chinese had also suffered casualties in the fighting. The Japanese claimed that none of their troops had been killed in the fighting.
Chinese defenders and civilian spectators observed police dogs dragging away Japanese casualties during nighttime, which has been used to explain the absence of visible bodies around the warehouse in footage captured by Chinese and foreign journalists during the battle.
As night fell, the Chinese defenders were tasked with constructing fortifications and repairing any damages sustained during the attacks. Nobody was given any sleep.
By the morning of the 28th, the presence of the Chinese battalion in Zhabei had been made known by radio news and several newspapers including North-China Herald, an English-language newspaper based in Shanghai and regarded as the most influential foreign newspaper of its time. The strength of the battalion was estimated at 500 men from the 88th Division, with around 150 having barricaded themselves in the warehouse itself. Authorities within the International Settlement repeatedly attempted to persuade the defenders to lay down their weapons and surrender in the Settlement, but the defenders stated they were "determined to die for China."
At 7 a.m. a flight of Japanese bombers circled above the warehouse but did not drop any bombs, for fear of hitting the concessions in a repeat of "Bloody Saturday." They were driven away from the warehouse by anti-aircraft fire from two the machine guns on the roof.
An hour later, Major Yang gave a speech to the officers and squad leaders and then inspected the defenses constructed by the soldiers. While on the roof with Colonel Xie Jinyuan and a group of sentries, they spotted a group of Japanese soldiers walking on the Suzhou Road along the Suzhou Creek, which according to Yang Ruifu was about 1 km (1,100 yd) away. Xie ordered a sentry to give him his rifle and then fired on the group; one of them promptly fell dead.
At 3 p.m., the Japanese mounted a second assault on the warehouse, bombarding the building with five artillery pieces and machine gun fire from the Bank of Communications rooftop. The Chinese retaliated with machine gun fire of their own and showered hand grenades onto Japanese soldiers attempting to approach the warehouse, which was reported on by the English newspaper North China Daily News. Japanese troops made repeated efforts to take the warehouse, but were beaten back each time by the Chinese after brief exchanges of fire.
The Japanese, outnumbering the Chinese defenders and repeatedly screaming "Banzai," then deployed trench mortars. Several fires broke out across the battlefield, with Chinese soldiers shooting back with rifles and Mausers. Both sides suffered casualties in the intense firefight.
The combat was witnessed by thousands of Chinese and foreigners who had gathered across the Suzhou Creek, who relayed enemy assembly locations and operations to the defenders using large blackboards. Witnesses described the armament of the attacking Japanese Naval Landing Forces as machine-guns, rifles, hand-grenades, a few captured Chinese broadswords, and steel shields. Another western observer witnessed three Japanese troops make their way along the south wall of the warehouse. As one of the men attempted to smash a window to the warehouse, a Chinese soldier dropped a hand grenade from a third story window, which exploded behind them in the street. The same observer noted while the Japanese had encircled the warehouse and sporadic fighting occurred throughout the day, the Japanese apparently were making no determined effort to take the building by assault, as the warehouse's fortress-like nature would make doing so a costly endeavor.
As the fighting continued, the crowds watching the battle across the Creek were forced to relocate to the rooftops of nearby buildings after machine gun bullets began to land in the Settlement. After two hours, the Japanese gave up the assault, but cut off water and electricity to the warehouse, forcing the Chinese to institute rationing. The defenders also collected their urine in large barrels to extinguish any potential fires.
The defenders inside the warehouse contacted the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce, whose telephone number was provided by Girl Guide Yang Huimin. Yang Huimin had previously delivered a request for food, ammunition and lubricant on behalf of the defenders to the Chamber, but had been unsuccessful. Xie requested that Shanghai Mayor Yui supply his men with 500 lb. salt, 500 lb. sugar, and 50,000 Chinese biscuits.
By the evening of October 28, Chinese civilians inside the Settlement had organized a large collection of food, clothing, medicine and other supplies via the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce. In total, more than ten truckloads of aid were donated by Shanghai's citizens, including fruit, bread, cigarettes, newspapers and mail. The supplies were then ferried across the New Lese Bridge under the cover of darkness and unloaded next to the warehouse.
The defenders were also facing a problem in the growing number of wounded soldiers, who were unable to receive adequate medical treatment whilst stranded in the warehouse. Through an established phone link, the Chinese organized their transfer across the nearby Lese Bridge into the International Settlement, where they would be transported to hospitals in the Chinese part of Shanghai. As medics began to evacuate ten of the most severely wounded soldiers, Major Yang Ruifu ordered that the men not disclose their actual numbers, and give the original battalion strength of 800 soldiers if asked so as to not "embolden the Japanese." British Royal Welsh Fusiliers positioned on the southern bank of the creek provided assistance to the evacuation efforts.
Soon after the evacuation, Shanghai newspapers announced soon after that 800 soldiers were defending the warehouse, including the Central News Agency. As word spread about the fighting near Sihang Warehouse, international newspapers began to report on the battalion's defense, including the New York Times, The Guardian, and the Sydney Morning Herald.
As they had the previous night, no Chinese soldiers were permitted to sleep and were instead ordered to continue repairing the defenses.
As the combat around Sihang Warehouse had been unfolding, Chinese girl guide Yang Huimin had been watching the fighting from a British bunker near the Lese Bridge. She had noticed that Zhabei was covered in Japanese flags, and was troubled by the lack of a Chinese flag. She reported her observations to the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce, whose leaders decided to give her a large Republic of China flag to deliver to the defenders.
Yang Huimin wrapped the flag around her body underneath her scout uniform, before returning to the British bunker around evening. Upon sensing a brief opening, Yang snuck past the British sentries patrolling the bank and rushed across the bridge to the warehouse under cover of darkness.
Regiment-sized Chinese units did not carry army or national flags during the war, so when Yang Huimin delivered the flag to the warehouse, Xie Jinyuan personally accepted the flag as the highest-ranking officer present. When Yang Huimin asked for the soldiers' plans, she was told "defend to the death." Yang Huimin then asked for a list of all the soldiers' names to announce to the entire country.
As doing so would inform the Japanese of their real strength, Xie did not disclose the information. Instead, he asked someone to write down around the eight hundred names from the original roster of the 524th Regiment, imitating Yang Ruifu's earlier decision to conceal their true strength. The defenders also gave Yang Huimin messages written in Chinese calligraphy on handkerchiefs. Taking Xie's advice, Yang Huimin returned to the opposite bank of the Suzhou Creek by swimming underwater to avoid detection.
At 6 a.m. on the morning of October 29, the Chinese defenders raised the flag, measuring four meters (13 ft) wide, on the roof of Sihang Warehouse. Since the defenders did not possess a flagpole, they had improvised a makeshift pole made from two bamboo culms tied together. Only a small group of soldiers attended the flag-raising ceremony, including several buglers and orderlies. Yang Huimin also witnessed the event upon escaping across the Creek, which was reportedly conducted quietly with less than twenty soldiers in attendance.
Upon noticing the flag, a crowd of roughly thirty thousand people, consisting of both Chinese and foreigners, gathered across the river. The flag measured larger than any of the Japanese flags in the area and reportedly flew higher than the Japanese-held buildings in the vicinity. Many of the Chinese civilians began to shout "Long live the Republic of China!" (Chinese: 中華民國萬歲!; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Mínguó wànsuì!.
American reporter Keane Arundel who witnessed the event compared the situation to the Alamo, and described the scene as "a symbol of China's heroic resolution to accept annihilation than Japanese conquest. To Shanghai's Americans it recalled Texas' historic Alamo, where Americans died in 1836 rather than yield to Mexico."
Crowds continued to gather to watch the event unfold and some were observed carrying food for the defenders. One Chinese observer, a 31-year old Shanghai City Government employee, was mistaken for a Japanese spy because of his Manchurian accent and lynched by a mob before authorities could rescue him.
The Japanese, angered by the display, began harassing the defenders by shooting from the nearby Bank of Communications building, and also reportedly sent several aircraft to attack the flag. Because of heavy anti-aircraft fire and fear of hitting the foreign concessions, the planes soon left without destroying the flag.
In the afternoon of October 29, the Chinese defenders received a warning over telephone that Chinese civilians had spotted a force of several hundred Japanese troops converging on the warehouse. Minutes later, British soldiers guarding the New Lese Bridge provided a similar warning of a "final enemy assault loom[ing] ahead."
The Japanese attacked at 2 p.m. with concentrated fire from numerous artillery pieces, and shelled the warehouse for more than an hour. However, the Chinese defenders were protected by the ten-foot-thick walls and only suffered a few wounded soldiers. Historian Eric Niderost wrote that the Japanese then attacked the warehouse from three directions with hundreds of infantry and support from five Type 94 Te-Ke tankettes, which Yang Ruifu observed advancing down the road.
The Japanese intensified their efforts to captured the warehouse, peppering the building with bullets and rifle-grenade fire while reinforcing their machine gun positions on North Suzhou Road. The Japanese continued to shell the warehouse with a barrage of four rounds from their field guns around 3 p.m.
The Japanese assault pushed the 3rd Company out of their defensive line at the base of the warehouse and forced them into the warehouse itself. Groups of Japanese soldiers then tried to scale the warehouse's walls to the second floor with ladders, but Chinese defenders pushed them over and returned fire with rifles and machine guns.
According to Baicheng Shangguan, Xie was positioned at the window where one of the ladders appeared from. He grabbed the first Japanese soldier's rifle, choked him with the other hand, shoved him off, and finally shot another Japanese soldier on the ladder before pushing the ladder off.
Journalist Kean Arundel observed that "Chinese guns blazed defiantly at Japanese who surrounded the building on three sides." Japanese fire from a field gun was met with rifle fire from the warehouse roof. The Japanese were observed by western observers to have assaulted the warehouse again and again with infantry charges, but each time were repelled by showers of hand grenades and machine-gun fire. At one point, the Japanese were reported to have attempted to "dynamite" the warehouse, but failed.
At 4 p.m. one Japanese soldier rushed into the open and fired a number of shots into the corner of the warehouse, causing the defenders to take cover "with lightning speed." Although wounded from the returning Chinese fire, the Japanese attacker escaped. A western observer witnessed how the Chinese defenders had broken holes through the large black characters on the west wall for use as vantage points. Subsequently, several Japanese soldiers were shot before they realized the danger. Japanese machine gunners returned fire, but had difficulty aiming due to the holes being concealed by the black background of the characters.
According to several Chinese sources during the height of the battle a group of Japanese soldiers had attempted to plant explosives at the base of the West Wall to breach it. Upon noticing this, 21-year old Chinese private Chen Shusheng strapped live grenades to himself and dove off the building into the Japanese squad, allegedly killing twenty Japanese soldiers in a suicide attack. Historian Stephen Robinson argues that account's accuracy was plausible, noting that the Chinese had used suicide attacks many times before during the Battle of Shanghai, such as the case of a soldier in the 36th Division destroying a Japanese tank with an explosive belt, killing himself in the process.
The suicide act was first mentioned in a Shanghai newspaper and was not substantiated by reports from regiment commander Xie Jinyuan, battalion commander Yang Ruifu, or executive officer Shangguan Zhibiao. There were not any pictures or footage taken of the explosion or the bodies of the Japanese claimed to have been killed in the suicide attack. Moreover, none of the soldiers of the battalion mentioned the act of martyrdom while they were detained by the British authorities to their visitors. The name of the private only came up in the recollections of some of the veterans of the battalion decades after the battle. Many of the veterans, including platoon commander Yang Yangzheng, did not mention the act in their memoirs.
At around 3 p.m., two Japanese pinnaces carrying some 30 marines attempted to flank the warehouse from the river, but were stopped by a makeshift boom fashioned out of Chinese junks at the Zhejiang(North Chekiang) Road Bridge. The Japanese claimed that they were heading up the creek to assist the Shanghai Fire Brigade, but were suspected by the British to attack on the Sihang Warehouse. British troops in the Settlement refused to move the boom due to the violation of the British Settlement sector, and escorted the Japanese sailors back at 4:30 p.m.
The fighting lasted until dark, with Japanese attacks now supported by armoured fighting vehicles and artillery fire against the fortified Chinese positions, but to no progress and with heavy casualties.
In the evening, according to Yang Ruifu, the Japanese launched a night attack using an excavator, and tried to dig a tunnel towards the warehouse in conjunction with tank assaults. During this day's battle, Chinese citizens across the river helped the soldiers by writing on large posters, warning of the Japanese army's movements.
Like the previous days, the Japanese claimed that they had lost no men in the attacks.
The Japanese launched a new wave of attacks at 7 a.m. on October 30th. There were fewer infantry assaults at the warehouse this time; the Japanese attack was mainly concentrated artillery fire. Because of the sturdy construction and the abundance of sandbags and materials with which to fortify and mend the warehouse, the defenders were able to the repair the warehouse while the Japanese tried to destroy it. Artillery fire was so rapid that Yang Ruifu estimated there was approximately one shell every second.
Japanese shells created holes in the windowless western wall, which enabled Chinese defenders to return fire at Japanese positions. A western journalist witnessed the fighting and noted that a second Chinese flag had been hoisted above the roof alongside the original flag. Japanese machine guns continued to shoot at the walls and windows of the warehouse, whilst the Chinese defenders fired back with rifles.
According to a letter written by Xie Jinyuan to Soong Mei-Ling, the Chinese defenders had been harassed constantly by Japanese snipers, and Chinese casualties were rising after the Japanese began bombarding the warehouse with heavy artillery. Ricocheting shells and shrapnel caused a number of casualties among the defenders, with the warehouse walls inside showing signs of an potential collapse under the Japanese artillery.
Later that day on October 30th, a Japanese naval officer announced at a press conference that the Japanese had made every effort to persuade the Chinese troops to surrender, but "all overtures tendered in a spirit of humanitarianism had been disregarded." Another Japanese military spokesman declared that "They must be destroyed," and another officer similarly stated "We will never let them escape alive." Rear Admiral Tadao Honda, a Japanese naval attaché, declared at a press conference that the Japanese would dislodge the Chinese from the warehouse, citing a "stout, stubborn refusal to surrender," further claiming that everything had been done to "spare the lives of the defenders in the true Samurai spirit, but we must make a final assault now."
By this point in the battle, British and American officers had made multiple attempts to persuade the Chinese to leave the warehouse and accept internment. Major Harrison of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers declared that he had "offered to allow them sanctuary in the settlement provided that they laid down their arms," and stated "they replied that they preferred to die." A similar response was received by Brigadier General John Beaumont of the United States Marines stationed in the settlement, who upon offering the Chinese sanctuary, received the reply "Let the Japanese try to escort us to safety." In a dispatch to Colonel Alexander Telfer-Smollet, commander of the British forces, Xie declared that only Chiang Kai-Shek could order his battalion to leave.
The foreigners in the concessions in Shanghai did not want the site of combat to be so close to them. With that consideration in mind, and faced with pressure from the Japanese, they agreed to try to convince the Chinese to cease resisting. On the 29th they submitted a petition to the Nationalist Government to stop the fighting "for humanitarian concerns."
Chiang Kai-Shek had received hundreds of telegrams urging him to save the battalion, as well as requests from Anglo-American commanders to not sacrifice his troops. By October 30, Chiang had decided that the 1st Battalion was "too valuable to spare," and because he considered the objectives of the defenders fulfilled, formally authorized a withdrawal through the 88th Division chief-of-staff officer Zhang Boting.
A meeting was arranged with the British general Telfer-Smollett through the commandant of Shanghai Auxiliary Police (上海警備), Yang Hu (楊虎), and it was decided the 524th would retreat to the foreign concessions and then rejoin the rest of the 88th Division, which had been fighting in west Shanghai. Yang Hu requested assistance from the British Army, to which Telfer-Smollett agreed.
When informed on his superior's decision over telephone, Xie disagreed, wishing to remain in the warehouse and fight to the last man. Only after an argument did Zhang Boting finally convince Xie to retreat.
In the late night of October 30 at around 10 p.m., the Japanese moved their artillery even closer to the warehouse and intensified their bombardment of the building. Observers across the creek watched the Japanese batteries, four 75-mm guns, fire intense barrages, which were only broken by intermittent pauses during which a Japanese searchlight would move around the wall to inspect the damage. A Chinese soldier attempted to destroy the searchlight by hurling a hand grenade from a window, but it fell short.
The Japanese bombardment became so intense that British soldiers on the Lese Bridge had to abandon their positions for their own safety. The Japanese also began to fire on the warehouse with heavy machine guns and hand grenades, scoring direct hits on the stronghold. Because the Japanese were firing towards the south, several shells missed and landed into the Settlement, one hitting the North-China Daily News building and injuring three Chinese civilians. A number of combat casualties was reported to have been sustained during the fighting in the early dawn, although a precise figure could not be calculated.
As the Japanese barrage continued, the Chinese began their breakout near midnight. To reach the British settlement, the Chinese soldiers had to run across 20 yards over the New Lese Bridge whilst being exposed to Japanese fire. The Chinese planned to send the wounded first, followed by the 1st Company and Machine Gun Company in small groups under Xie Jinyuan, then by the 2nd and 3rd Companies under Yang Ruifu.
To cover the retreat, the Chinese formed a rearguard of a platoon from the 1st company along with some twenty-seven troops too heavily wounded to be moved easily; these men agreed to stay behind to man heavy machine guns and cover the remaining forces. During the retreat, Western journalists observed the Chinese rearguard exchanging gunfire with Japanese soldiers from seven "rifle-ports" in the Warehouse's west wall, occasionally throwing hand grenades at Japanese soldiers trying to approach and enter the building.
To conceal their movements, the Chinese defenders evacuated in a gradual manner, moving every now and then in groups of twos and threes or alone. Each time, a Japanese machine gun posted near the north end of the bridge would open fire. However, the darkness and extreme confusion near the warehouse meant only a few Chinese were hit before they reached the British lines. Among them was Yang Ruifu, who was shot through the left leg while crossing, but managed to limp the remaining distance on his good leg.
Upon reaching the International Settlement, the Chinese escapees were greeted by British soldiers who shook hands with them and congratulated their courage. Major-General Telfer-Smollett, the commander of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers at the bridge, received the Chinese soldiers and remarked that "I have never seen anything greater." Whether or not British soldiers opened fire in support of the Chinese retreat is unknown. British travellers W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood encountered rumors in 1938 of British troops returning fire against the Japanese, putting a machine gun out of action. Similarly, Zhang Boting and Major Shangguan Zhibiao claimed the British had assisted in eliminating one of the four Japanese machine guns near the North Railway Station. Stephen Robinson claims that British soldiers probably did open fire, citing their obvious sympathies with the Chinese defenders and their anger over the deaths of four Royal Ulster Riflemen killed by Japanese shelling two days prior.
As the Chinese escaped, a Japanese column headed by a tank attempted to cut off the retreat by blocking the road. Platoon commander Yang Yangzheng attacked the column with a machine gun, but was wounded when the tank fired a shell at him, destroying his left eye with shrapnel. Yang was then dragged half-conscious across the creek by his comrades.
By 2am, the last troops in Sihang Warehouse had retreated into the settlement safely, with dozens of wounded troops and Yang Huimin's flag being carried out along with 400 rifles, 24 light machine guns, 6 heavy machine guns and ammunition boxes, many of which were still hot from combat. Some 50 wounded Chinese soldiers were taken by British ambulances to various hospitals to be treated for their injuries including Yang Ruifu.
By this point in the battle, the warehouse had caught fire from the bombardment. A Japanese Special Naval Landing Party was subsequently reported to be in possession of the building.
According to Western newspapers, the number of Chinese casualties during the retreat were estimated between two and six killed, and ten to twenty-four wounded. The American Consul General at Shanghai reported some 300 Chinese survivors had crossed to the British lines and laid down their arms and that several buildings in the downtown district were hit by Japanese shells during the fighting. Another western observer that 327 soldiers had escaped unhurt, another 28 wounded, claiming the survivors had stated they had left 100 comrades killed within the building.
However, the vast majority of the Chinese defenders had escaped alive, some 377 men and officers in total including both Xie Jinyuan and Yang Ruifu.
At 0505 hours on October 27, 1937, the Imperial Japanese Navy's Shanghai Special Naval Landing Force (Shanghai SNLF) ordered their forces to launch a general assault on Zhabei. With few of Chiang's defenders left in the Zhabei, the Shanghai SNLF moved through the district and captured former enemy strongholds with relative ease. By around 1800 hours Zhabei had largely fallen to the Japanese, with the exception of the Four Banks' Joint Warehouse (Sihang Warehouse), where the Shanghai SNLF reported approximately 800 enemy troops to still be held up at.
The Japanese initially advised the troops held up in Sihang Warehouse to surrender, but by the early hours of October 31 with their demands still unmet and signs of the defenders making an escape into the British defense sector of the International Settlement, the Japanese decided to attack the warehouse. On October 31 at 0115 hours the Imperial Japanese Navy confirmed sightings of Chinese troops evacuating into the International Settlement and began to bombard the warehouse with artillery fire from the Shanghai SNLF's 8th and 9th Companies thirty minutes later. At 0300 hours, troops from the Shanghai SNLF's 10th Battalion stormed the Sihang Warehouse and within ten minutes had completely cleaned the warehouse of enemy troops and occupied the building.
After securing the warehouse, the Imperial Japanese Navy reported roughly 80 corpses of fallen Chinese troops and a number of weapons to be inside. According to Japanese naval records, the Imperial Japanese Navy's advance on Zhabei from October 27 to 31 resulted in a total of 42 wounded, four of which were directly injured during the assault on Sihang Warehouse on October 31. One of wounded, Warrant Officer Tanaka Shiroku—a platoon leader from the Shanghai SNLF 10th Battalion—later died on November 2, after being shot near the warehouse on October 30.
The Chinese casualties from the battle were disputed. Xie Jinyuan stated in an interview on November 2 that of the 410 defenders, 10 had been killed and 30 wounded, but later revised this figure to 420 defenders present with 10 killed and 37 wounded. Immediate newspapers claimed between 100 and 200 Chinese soldiers had been killed in the fighting.
Stephen Robinson calculated that since 377 defenders had retreated (along with the 10 wounded men evacuated earlier), and some 420 defenders had been present, the Chinese "death toll was likely higher [than 10] though probably fewer than 50 men," with 33 men killed or missing from the battalion roster following the retreat. A similar figure is given by Michael Clodfelter, who claims 34 Chinese soldiers were killed in action defending the Warehouse. According to 88th Division commander Sun Yuanliang's report on October 31, 1937, the battalion had suffered 89 casualties, including 35 killed and 54 wounded.
The Imperial Japanese Navy reported finding around 80 dead Chinese soldiers in the warehouse, but declared finding 100 corpses to the press, which was likely an exaggeration. Japanese officials also publicly claimed some 700 bodies of Chinese soldiers were left in Zhabei and captured another 200, whilst only suffering 10 wounded soldiers themselves in the entire battle. The same report claimed that Japanese forces were forced to execute some twenty Chinese prisoners in self-defense.
Immediately after the retreat, Commander Xie reported to the Chinese newspaper Zhongyang Ribao that over 100 Japanese troops had been killed by his defenders. 88th Division commander Sun Yuanliang, who had subordinate officers present near the battle, stated that "enemy corpses in the vicinity of Sihang Warehouse totaled over two hundred approximately." with Xie Jimin giving the same figure, "more than 200 enemy troops were killed and countless ones were wounded. Two enemy tanks were also destroyed and two more were damaged. The number of enemies was the sum of the daily counts obtained by observation posts."
Report of losses from Western sources vary, the Shanghai-based North China Herald did not report significant Japanese losses, while others such as the November 2 edition of the West Australian newspaper—which used using mail received from employees on leave in Shanghai—reported the Japanese attackers had suffered heavy losses attempting to capture the warehouse, primarily from rifles, machine guns, grenades and mortars. The October 30 edition of the Mercury also reported that "many Japanese" had been killed in failed assaults on the fortified building.. Australian military historian Stephen Robinson mirrored the Chinese claim of over 200 Japanese were killed in the fighting, of which the majority were suffered by the 3rd "Lucky" Division, with a handful of Japanese marines killed in the fighting.
Formerly classified records from Imperial Japanese Navy reported a total of 42 wounded during the advance on Zhabei from October 27 to 31. Within this figure, four of the wounded sustained their injuries during the final assault on Sihang Warehouse on October 31. One officer shot outside of the warehouse on October 30 later died from their injuries on November 2, 1937. Tanks and armored cars from the Special Naval Landing Force's Armored Unit were recorded as participating in the advance on Zhabei but not on the assault on Sihang Warehouse. The commander of the Armored Unit, Lieutenant Yoshino Shozo noted in his memoirs that his unit advanced to Zhenru Station during the Zhabei Offensive and does not mention damage to or losses of any of their tanks and armored vehicles at Sihang Warehouse.
Historian Richard Frank noted that Japanese casualty reports during the Shanghai campaign did not truly reflect the true scale of their losses sustained in combat, with the official Bureau of the Japanese War Ministry claiming only 5,173 troops had been killed in Shanghai when the actual number was over double (or triple) that number.
Chiang Kai-shek promoted every defender by a rank and awarded Xie Jinyuan and Yang Ruifu the Order of Blue Sky and White Sun.
There was a discrepancy between Japanese reports and the records of Chinese troops and Western journalists present during the defense. Both the Chinese and Japanese have made claims which contradict with each other, particularly in regards to losses. American historian Richard B. Frank notes that these irreconcilable differences between Japanese and Chinese accounts were not unique in the Second Sino-Japanese War, further noting that that there was a general pattern of discrepancies between reported and actual Japanese losses.
Cao Juren, a prominent Chinese war correspondent attached to the Chinese 88th Division during the Defense of Sihang Warehouse, would state postwar "the news in the papers at the time, including my reports, were all bravado and exaggerations, and did not reflect the real situation."