Defense of Hengyang The Battle of Hengyang was the longest defense of a single city of the entire Second Sino - Japanese War . When Changsha fell to the Imperial Japanese Army on June 19 , 1944 , Hengyang became their next target . The reorganized 11th Army , consisting of 10 divisions , 4 brigades , and over 100 , 000 men , assumed the task of attacking Hengyang . The city was an important railroad junction and Hengyang Airport was used by USAAC General Claire Lee Chennault ' s Flying Tigers which were engaged in bombing operations of the Japanese homeland . Therefore , Field Marshal Hajime Sugiyama ( 杉山 元 ) , chief of imperial staff and war minister , ordered the city must be taken at all costs . On June 22 , Japanese 68th and 116th divisions received their orders to attack the city , which started the 48 days of siege and defense . Background . After Changsha fell on the 18th of June 1944 , Japanese general Isamu Yokoyama ' s 11th army continued its drive southwards . Yokoyama ' s plans were to capture Hengyang and Guilin to launch an attack on Liuzhou , thus completing Operation Ichi - go . However , he did not expect his approach on Hengyang to turn out to be such a humiliation to the Japanese empire . The attack on Hengyang would turn out to be the costliest encounter for the Japanese army in the whole course of Operation Ichi - go . On the 6th of June 1944 , the allied forces launched the greatest amphibious offensive of World War 2 . The battle of Normandy was won . As the allied armies fought their way towards Berlin , the world turned to watch the war in Europe with excitement as they waited for the victory in Europe to come . Nobody was concerned about what was going on in China , just as a huge , bloody battle in Hunan broke out . However , for the Chinese people , this was a very important battle . This was because , since Changsha was lost , Hengyang had to be held at all costs , because if it was lost , then the Japanese army could cross into Guilin , drive west towards Guizhou , and from there directly attack Chongqing , thus threatening the Chinese wartime capital and military headquarters . On the 15th of June , Chinese supreme commander Chiang Kai - shek relocated 15 elite divisions to support General Stilwell ' s forces in Burma . As a result , the forces in Hunan and Guangxi were very thin . On the other hand , the Japanese operation involved more troops than any other battle since the war ' s start . General Yokoyama deployed 400 , 000 soldiers in 150 units for this offensive , making it clear that he wanted more than just Changsha . In mid - 1944 , the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression was approaching its 8th year . Although the Chinese army did have access to American lend - lease weapons , this was severely restricted . Most of this equipment was still in India , held up by General Stilwell for his forces in Burma . During the siege of Hengyang , the only thing Stilwell did inside China was the destruction of Guilin ' s airfield and removal of its outer bridge on the 21st of June , ignoring the spirit and morale of the Chinese people and giving up Guilin early on . However , during this time , the Chinese army staged a tenacious resistance against the invading Japanese army . Completely outnumbered and outgunned and with supplies almost used up , the Chinese soldiers were at the brink of complete disaster . But in spite of these extremely grim conditions , they continued to carry on the fight . This was the Defense of Hengyang . Events leading up to the battle . When the Japanese army captured Changsha and pressed southwards , the Chinese units seemed powerless , because during the defense of Changsha , they dispersed in the face of completely superior Japanese power . Logistics and communication were thus very difficult to maintain . Although Yang Sen ' s 27th army group and Wang Lingji ' s 30th army group did fiercely engage the Japanese army at Liling and Chaling respectively , they were unable to stop the advance of the overwhelming Japanese force . As a result , Hengyang was surrounded and unable to receive outside support . Changsha was lost too quickly , and this was a shock to the Chinese military headquarters . In a hurry , Chiang Kai - shek contacted KMT general Fang Xianjue , commander of the 10th army . He ordered Fang to hold the city for two weeks , in a desperate attempt to buy time for the HQ to fully analyse the critical situation . General Fang had previously participated in the Battle of Changde , where his army suffered heavy casualties . After Changde was liberated from the siege , his army was relocated to Mount Heng for replacements and resupplies . Only on the 2nd of June was it deployed to protect Hengyang . The 10th army consisted of 3 divisions . In particular , the 10th and 190th division were reserve divisions , and the latter had yet to receive actual troops . As a result , it had an en cadre , but no soldiers . Later , the 54th division , which was originally stationed at Hengyang , was brought over , but this division only had the strength of a single regiment . On paper , the Chinese army had 4 divisions , but in reality , they only had 7 regiments . Even with the addition of its mountain artillery company , field artillery company and anti - tank artillery company , its total strength did not exceed 17 , 000 men . The battle . After Changsha was lost to the Japanese , the Chinese army had a difficult time to reestablish their line of defense due to overwhelming Japanese advantages in manpower and materiel . The two - star Lieutenant General Fang Xianjue ( ) had one single understrength Tenth Corps , although it had four divisions of 3rd , Reserved 10th , 190th , and Temporary 54th , the entire unit was made up of seven understaffed regiments of 17 , 000 men . The Chinese commander ordered a mandatory evacuation for 300 , 000 inhabitants of the city , abandoned some defensive positions south of the city , and began to construct earthworks , trenches , pillboxes and bunkers . The city was protected by two rivers to the north and east and marshlands to the west . As a result , the Japanese armored and mechanized units could only advance from the south . The Chinese created man - made cliffs of 6 meters high , and covered the place with well - placed mortar and light artillery . In addition , they positioned their machine gun nests in a way that they complemented each other , creating wide , overlapping fields of fire . This meant that the Japanese only had two ways to advance . The first way was to scale the cliffs with ladders . The second way was to brave the machine gun fire and run across the open fields . The 10th army had done all that they could to prepare themselves in their limited timeframe . At the very last moment , the NRA HQ was able to spare some American artillery for the defense of Hengyang . But the condition was that the 10th army had to send its artillery battalion to Kunming to collect it . The battalion traveled to Jincheng Jiang via train , and marched to Kunming from there . En route back to Jincheng Jiang after collecting the equipment , the road was flooded with civilians . The battalion could only abandon some of the equipment and hurry back to Hengyang . By the time they arrived , the battle had already started . The battalion managed to bring back 9 37mm anti - tank guns , 6 75mm field guns , 26 mortars , and 2 bazookas . These weapons would play a major role in the Chinese defense . If the Japanese army wanted to take the city , they would sustain large casualties . On June 22 , 1944 , the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service began dropping incendiary bombs on the city , and a 30 , 000 strong force made up of the Japanese 68th and 116th divisions of the 11th army attacked the city at eight o ' clock that night , with the 68th attacking from the west and the 116th attacking from the south . General Yokoyama planned to take the city within 2 days . Although faced with concentrated heavy artillery fire , the Chinese continued to hold the line . Only when the Japanese troops began assaulting the positions did their commanders realize something was not right as their troops rapidly fell to small arms fire from the Chinese . Unable to make any progress , a Japanese division commander personally inspected the battlefield from a hill on the 28th . At that time , an explosive shell fell onto his position . The Japanese commander and a few of his staff were crippled . The shell had come from the Chinese 28th regiment ' s mortar battery . Because the Chinese had a shortage of ammunition , they adopted a ' Three Don ' t ' s Policy ' : ' Don ' t shoot at what you can ' t see ' , ' Don ' t shoot at what you can ' t aim at , ' and ' Don ' t shoot at what you can ' t kill ' . As a result , they could still cope in the early stages of the battle . But for a target to be able to be seen , aimed at and killed , it had to be in close quarters , making the combat very intense . During the 7 days and nights of continuous assault , the Japanese suffered heavy casualties . As a result , General Yokoyama called a halt to the attack on the 2nd of July . Since the beginning of the battle , the Japanese air force had continuously bombed the city , which was almost completely turned into rubble . However , the Chinese air force also strafed the Japanese positions , and this helped in maintaining the ground troops ' morale . On the morning of July 11 , the Japanese launched their second try , and did not score any major success despite some small gains . On the other hand , the Chinese army originally only had 10 days ' worth of ammunition , but they had been defending the city for half a month already . The situation was becoming increasingly bleak . The NRA troops could only engage the Japanese in close quarters . Faced with hand grenades and rocket launchers , the IJA took heavy casualties . In the middle of July , the Japanese troops no longer used ladders to climb up the cliffs . Instead , they used the piles of their corpses as ramps to scale the cliffs . According to an NRA veteran , the bodies had piled up so much that he couldn ' t even see through the firing port of his bunker . He had to shoot the corpses to pieces in order to see through . On the 18th of July , the IJA were still unable to break through the Chinese southern defensive lines . Pressured with increasingly high casualties , Lieutenant General Isamu Yokoyama ( 橫山 勇 ) once again halted the offensive . On August 4 , he ordered three divisions to reinforce the 68th and 116th divisions , increasing the total manpower to 110 , 000 troops . The 40th division attacked from the northwest , while the 58th attacked from the north and the 13th attacked from the east . After four days of intense bombing and artillery shelling , the Chinese garrison was reduced to 2 , 000 wounded men , less than a regiment ( 3 , 000 ) . On the 6th of August , the Japanese 57th brigade killed around 1 , 000 wounded Chinese in the Hengyang hospital before engaging in negotiations . As the NRA continued to fight back after more than 40 days of siege , they nearly completely ran out of ammunition . Hengyang was now almost entirely made up of rubble and corpses . On the 7th , General Fang sent a telegram to Chongqing headquarters . In this message , he said " The enemy is breaking in from the north . We are out of ammunition and replacements . I have devoted my life to my country . Goodbye . " After sending the message , Fang ordered his staff to destroy all communications equipment . The next day , the Japanese army broke into the city and captured General Fang . Fang actually tried to commit suicide , but his officers stopped him and tried to negotiate a truce with the Japanese . After the Japanese agreed not to harm the civilian population and to treat the Chinese wounded humanely , General Fang ordered the remaining Chinese soldiers to lay down their arms . The day was August 8 , 1944 . The aftermath . Although the Japanese army suffered huge losses , they held the Chinese commanders in high regard . Japanese Emperor Hirohito personally appointed General Fang Xianjue as commander of a puppet unit , made up of his remaining garrison and some Chinese turncoats . But the local Japanese commanders never trusted him or his officers ; they were eventually placed under house arrest . Later studies showed that on the 7th of August 1944 , the day before the Japanese army broke into the city , Chiang Kai - shek had sent a telegram to General Fang , saying : " Reinforcements are on the way . They will arrive at your position tomorrow with no delay . " However , Fang never received the message . Chinese special forces under General Dai Li ( ) , head of China ' s wartime intelligence service " Military - Statistics Bureau " of National Military Council , carried out a daring rescue mission and freed General Fang and his officers in December 1944 . They returned to Chungking to a hero ' s welcome and were decorated with the order of blue sky and white cloud , the highest honor for a Chinese commander . The delay at Hengyang cost the Imperial Japanese Army considerable time and the Tojo cabinet collapsed as the war was not in Japan ' s favor anymore . Lieutenant General Yokoyama was later relieved of his command due to his refusal to obey orders from General Yasuji Okamura ( ) , commander - in - chief of the Japanese China Expeditionary Forces . The Japanese operation in Hunan did manage to push Chinese troops out of the area , but they could not secure the territory around the railroad or safely transfer war materials to different regions . Because of increased activity of Chinese troops and nationalist guerrillas , they could take no more Chinese land . Gallery . = References =