Battle of West Hunan The Battle of West Hunan ( 湘西會戰 ) , also known as the Zhijiang Campaign ( 芷江作戰 ) was the Japanese invasion of west Hunan and the subsequent Chinese counterattack that occurred between 6 April and 7 June 1945 , during the last months of the Second Sino - Japanese War . Japanese strategic aims for this campaign were to seize Chinese airfields and secure railroads in West Hunan , and to achieve a decisive victory that their depleted land forces needed . This campaign , if successful , would also allow Japan to attack Sichuan and eventually the Chinese war time capital Chongqing . Although the Japanese were able to make initial headways , Chinese forces were able to turn the tide and forced the Japanese into a rout , recovering a substantial amount of lost ground . This was the last major Japanese offensive , and the last of 22 major battles during the war to involve more than 100 , 000 troops . Concurrently , the Chinese managed to repel a Japanese offensive in Henan and Hubei and launched a successful attack on Japanese forces in Guangxi , turning the course of the war sharply in China ' s favor even as they prepared to launch a full - scale counterattack across South China . Background . By April 1945 , China had already been at war with Japan for more than seven years . Both nations were exhausted by years of battles , bombings and blockades . From 1941 - 1943 , both sides maintained a " dynamic equilibrium " , where field engagements were often , numerous , involved large numbers of troops and produced high casualty counts , but the results of which were mostly indecisive . Operation " Ichi - Go " in 1944 changed the status quo , as Japanese forces were able to break through the inadequate Chinese defenses and occupy most of Henan , Hunan and Guangxi , connecting Japanese - held areas from north to south in a continuous front . However , the Japanese victory resulted in very little actual benefit for them : the operation drained Japanese manpower and a weakened Japanese army had to defend a longer front with more partisan activity in occupied areas . The opening up of north - south railway connections did little to improve Japanese logistics , for only one train ran from Guangzhou to Wuhan in April 1945 , and due to fuel shortages the primary mode of transportation for Japanese troops was on foot . On the other hand , although the Chinese government in Chongqing had lost land access to their remaining forces in Zhejiang , Anhui and Jiangxi with their defeat in " Ichi - Go " , Chinese fortunes in the war improved with the retaking of north Burma by Allied and Chinese forces and since its reopening on 4 February 1945 the Ledo - Kunming Stilwell Road transported over 50 , 000 tonnes of petroleum into China every month . By April 1945 , enough materiel had become available to the Chinese army to equip 35 divisions with American equipment . And a major counter offensive was planned . Japanese strategic objectives . For this campaign , the Imperial Japanese had three main objectives . The first of which was to neutralize the Chinese airfield at Zhijiang , whose complement of USAAF and ROCAF was ensuring Allied air superiority in the region and a base for U . S . bombers , either by physically reaching the airfield , located only from Chongqing , and securing it , or simply by pressing forward close enough to the airfield to force the Chinese to destroy the installation . Their second objective was to secure their control of the Hunan - Guangxi and Guangzhou - Hankou railways . A third objective was to preemptively disrupt the planned Chinese offensive in the region . Preparations for battle . By this point of the war , Japan were losing the battle in Burma and facing constant attacks from Chinese forces in the country side . Spare troops for this campaign were limited . The Japanese army began preparations for the battle in March 1945 , constructing two highways with forced Chinese labor : the Heng - Shao Highway ran from Hengyang in a northwest direction to Shaoyang , a Japanese controlled city in central Hunan a mere from Zhijiang ; and the Tan - Shao Highway from Xiangtan , southwest to Shaoyang . Supplies and equipment were stockpiled near Shaoyang , to be the headquarters of the Japanese 20th Corps , led by Ichiro Banzai . Under it were the Japanese 34th , 47th , 64th , 68th and 116th Divisions , as well as the 86th Independent Brigade , massing at various locations across Hunan , for a total of 80 , 000 men by early April . In response , the Chinese National Military Council dispatched the 4th Front Army and the 10th and 27th Army Groups with He Yingqin as commander - in - chief . At the same time , it airlifted the entire New 6th Corps , an American - equipped corps and veterans of the Burma Expeditionary Force , from Kunming to Zhijiang . Chinese forces totaled 110 , 000 men in 20 divisions . They were supported by about 400 aircraft from the CAF 1st , 2nd , 3rd , 5th Air Groups and the USAAF 14th Air Force . Battle . Japanese forces took over the outskirts of Hunan with little resistance . However , they didn ' t realize that the Chinese forces were well prepared for the Japanese assault . The mountainous terrain was ideal for ambushes and mortar bombardment on approaching Japanese forces in the lower grounds . The Chinese also had air superiority in this battle . After some defeats Japan decided to retreat . However Chinese forces gave chase and inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese . The local Chinese guerrilla forces then attacked the Japanese positions . Japan ended up losing a large amount of territory that they once occupied . Casualties . After the battle , Japan first announced that they only had 11 , 000 casualties ( 5 , 000 KIA ) . They later revised the figures to include an additional 15 , 000 casualties " due to diseases " . Finally , they admitted to a casualty figure of 27 , 000 . On the other hand , the Chinese claimed to have inflicted on the Japanese 36 , 358 casualties , including 12 , 498 KIA . The Chinese sustained ( Chinese figures ) 20 , 660 casualties with 7 , 817 KIA , of which there were 823 officers .