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The Battle of Wanjialing , also known as the Battle of De'an , took place in 1938 during the Battle of Wuhan . In the Wanjialing area , the Ninth War Zone of the National Revolutionary Army, under the command of Xue Yue , concentrated its superior forces and severely damaged the Japanese 101st and 106th Divisions in the mountainous battlefield west of the Nanxun Railway .
On July 26, 1938, after the Japanese 11th Army (commanded by Okamura Yasuji ) occupied Jiujiang , the main force of the Japanese army advanced westward along the Yangtze River, while a separate force crossed southern Hubei to attack Yueyang, cut off the Yuehan Railway, and encircle Wuhan. The 9th, 101st, 106th, and 27th Divisions, among other powerful units, launched an offensive in northern Jiangxi to expand their gains, protect the flanks of their main force, and seize Nanchang when the opportunity arose.
After the fall of Jiujiang, the Ninth War Zone readjusted its operational deployment. The 2nd Army Corps, commanded by Zhang Fakui , was tasked with the frontal defense along the Yangtze River in southern Hubei, while the 1st Army Corps, commanded by Xue Yue, directed operations in northern Jiangxi. Based on his assessment of Japanese movements, Xue Yue deployed his main force to hold the Nanchang-Xunyi Railway front, reinforce the defenses of Poyang Lake, and deploy mobile forces west of De'an, awaiting an opportunity to attack the enemy's flanks and rear. The basic principle was "defend to the north, attack to the west," meaning that along the Nanchang-Xunyi Railway, they would defend from the south to the north to contain the Japanese and protect Nanchang; against the Japanese advancing westward along the Ruichang-Wuning and Ruichang-Tongshan Railways, they would launch an offensive from the east to the west, coordinating with operations along the Yangtze River and seizing opportunities to annihilate the enemy.
On the Chinese side, Xue Yue, acting commander-in-chief of the Ninth War Zone and commander-in-chief of the 1st Army Group, was in command.
The total number of troops exceeded 100,000. The overall commander of the front was Wu Qiwu, commander of the Ninth Army Group .
The Japanese 106th Division consisted of the 111th Infantry Brigade ( 113th Infantry Regiment and 147th Infantry Regiment ) and the 136th Infantry Brigade ( 123rd Infantry Regiment and 145th Infantry Regiment ), as well as one regiment each of cavalry , artillery , engineer , and supply.
Division Commander Lieutenant General Junroku Matsuura
Total number of troops remaining: 6,427
Total number of flanking attack troops: 12,664
As of September 25, the 106th Division had 19,091 personnel (including 1,321 patients currently hospitalized).
The number of troops had increased to over 28,200 by the day the war began.
In July 1938, the Japanese army's Hata Detachment advanced westward along the Yangtze River , landing at a port northeast of Ruichang both sides of the Nanchang- Jiujiang Railway towards De'an. In the Shahe Town area , they engaged in seven days and seven nights of repeated fighting with Xue Yue's 8th and 64th Armies, suffering heavy losses; more than half of their attacking forces were killed or wounded. Okamura Yasuji was forced to order the 106th Division to temporarily halt its offensive and rest near Shahe Town. On August 20th, the Japanese 101st Division crossed Poyang Lake from Hukou County to reinforce the area. On August 21st, they broke through the defenses of Wang Jingjiu's 25th Army , capturing Xingzi , and, in conjunction with the 106th Division, attempted to capture De'an and seize Nanchang to secure the southern flank of the westward-advancing Japanese 9th Division . On August 24, the Japanese 9th Division captured Ruichang and advanced southwest from there. To support the 9th Division's operations, the 106th Division launched its own offensive. From midnight on August 27, with air and artillery support, the 106th Division launched a fierce attack on the front lines of the 70th, 64th, and 4th Armies. On September 4, it captured Mahuiling . Due to heavy casualties, it was forced to halt its offensive and rest and regroup in the Mahuiling area. To strengthen its combat effectiveness, Okamura Yasuji also assigned the 52nd Mountain Artillery Regiment of the 22nd Division of the 11th Army , transferred from the Hangzhou area , to the 106th Division. Xue Yue, commander of the First Army Group, along with the 4th Army under Ou Zhen, the 66th Army under Ye Zhao, the 74th Army under Yu Jishi, and the 29th Army under Li Hanhun, fought fiercely against the 106th Division in the Aikou (now Wenquan Town, Xingzi County ) and Mahuiling areas north of De'an, resulting in a stalemate.
During the Nanxun Campaign on September 3 , the 160th Division of the 66th Army, under the command of Song Shitai, the deputy commander of the division , inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese army along the Niumaojian, Boyushan, and Lushan lines, killing more than 500 people, including Iizuka Kunigoro, the commander of the 101st Infantry Regiment under the 101st Division of the Japanese Army , and capturing light and heavy weapons.
On June 20, the 106th Division had a staff of 23,440 . After a long and fierce battle, even though it had received 1,818 additional personnel , by September 30, on the eve of the Battle of Wanjialing, the 106th Division still had only 15,889 personnel. Among them, the 113th Infantry Regiment under the 106th Division had decreased from 3,527 to only 1,029, which can be said to have suffered a devastating blow. It can be seen that before the Battle of Wanjialing, 9,369 people of the 106th Division had been removed from the staff. Most of these 9,369 people removed from the 106th Division were likely removed because they died in battle or were sent back to their home countries after being seriously wounded (those who were hospitalized on the spot with minor injuries and those who returned to the unit after recovering from injuries should not be included) .
On September 25, the Japanese 106th Division, leading the 123rd, 145th, and 147th Regiments and the 149th Regiment of the 101st Division, departed from Huanglaoyan Station north of Mahuiling, advancing deep into enemy territory. On the 26th, they reached Xiaoyangpu (now Xiaoyang Village, Minshan Township ) and Shanjiaoxia Chen (now Chenshanxia , Hongqiao Village, Wushan Town). After passing through Yangliu Village and Baishu Village, they split into two columns at Taiping Pass ( between Baishu Village, Aimin Township and Fushan Village, Zouqiao Township): the left column consisted of the main force, the 136th Brigade and the 123rd Regiment, while the right column consisted of the 145th Regiment, advancing south in parallel. The left column advanced south along the river, passing through Wangjiafan and Xiongjiafan in Jianshan Village, and on October 5, they reached Leiminggu Liu (now Liumenggu Natural Village, Nantian Village Committee, Moxi Township), west of Wanjialing area west of De'an , where they joined the right column. The Japanese 106th Division, under orders from Okamura Yasuji , attempted to break through the Nationalist army's lines from the Wanjialing area near Lushan , but was discovered by Wu Qiwu's reconnaissance team.
Chiang Kai-shek agreed to dispatch troops to support Xue Yue. He ordered Xue Yue to draw troops from the 66th Army, 74th Army, 187th Division, one brigade of the 139th Division, 91st Division, the newly formed 13th Division, one brigade of the newly formed 15th Division, 142nd Division, 60th Division, 6th Reserve Division, and 19th Division from the Dexing Road, Nanxun Road, and Ruiwu Road, to join forces with the 4th Army responsible for blocking the 106th Division from the front, forming a four-sided encirclement and launching a full-scale attack. The 58th Division of the 4th Army launched continuous attacks on the Japanese troops who had occupied the Wanjialing and Bijijie areas. The Japanese, under air cover, fought back desperately, resulting in heavy casualties on both sides. Until the 4th, fierce fighting continued in the Xiaojinshan, Wanjialing, Zhanggushan, and Jianlusu (now Jianlousujia Natural Village of Shuguang Village), with positions changing hands several times. The various troops dispatched by Xue Yue gradually converged, forming an encirclement of the 106th Division. Okamura Yasuji, who was in Jiujiang, discovered through air force reconnaissance that the 106th Division was surrounded. He ordered the 106th Division to turn north and move closer to the 27th Division . At the same time, he ordered a brigade of the 27th Division to guard the right flank of the 106th Division, attempting to rescue the 106th Division from the encirclement. However, the 106th Division was stubbornly resisted by Shang Zhen and other troops of the 32nd Army of the 10th Army Group in the Baishui Street area (now Baishui Village, Cheqiao Town) west of Wanjialing .
Lieutenant General Junroku Matsuura, commander of the Japanese 106th Division, received orders from Okamura to begin operations. He commanded the 4th Army under Yu Hanmou, the 66th Army under Ye Zhao, and the 74th Army under Yu Jishi to outflank and encircle the 106th Division. On October 5th and 6th, the 74th Army and other units engaged the 106th Division in fierce battles at Changling, Beixijie, Zhanggushan, and Shiziyan. On October 6th, Xue Yue believed the time was ripe to annihilate the Japanese forces facing them and issued the order for a general attack on the 106th Division. The general attack began on the afternoon of October 6th, with the 195th and 160th Divisions of the 66th Army advancing towards Shibaoshan. The 51st Division of the 74th Army launched a night attack on the Japanese-occupied positions at the northern end of Changling and the Zhanggushan North Mountain (the county border between De'an and Yongxiu, south of Leimingguliu ) held by the Onizuka Battalion of the Japanese 127th Regiment. The 305th Regiment, after clearing a path with grenades and engaging in hand-to-hand combat, captured the main position on Zhanggushan. At dawn, the Japanese launched a fierce counterattack and recaptured the positions. On October 7th, the National Revolutionary Army (5 armies) launched a general offensive against the besieged Japanese 101st and 106th Divisions. After three days and nights of fierce fighting, they repelled several Japanese counterattacks. By October 9th, under the onslaught of the Chinese army, the Japanese 106th Division had suffered heavy losses, especially among its junior officers. Chiang Kai-shek ordered Xue Yue to annihilate the enemy completely by midnight on October 9th, ending the battle as a gift for the " Double Ten Day " (National Day). At 3 PM on the 9th, Xue Yue ordered each unit to select 200 to 500 brave soldiers to form a valiant squad to launch a full-scale attack on Jianlusu, Wanjialing, Tianbusu (now called Tianpusu), Leimingguliao, Yangjiashan, and other places. After a night of bloody fighting, by the morning of the 10th, the 66th Army had recaptured Wanjialing and Tianbusu, the 4th Army had recaptured the high ground southwest of Dajinshan and the high ground east of Jianlusu, the 91st Division had recaptured the unnamed village northeast of Yangjiashan, and the 142nd Division had recaptured the high ground at the northern end of Yangjiashan.
The 74th Army launched a fierce attack on Zhanggushan. According to the National Revolutionary Army's "Detailed Report on the Battles of the 36th Army Corps on the Nanchang-Jiujiang Line," specifically the "Battle Near Wanjialing (September 30th to October 12th)" ( File No. 8203 of the Second Historical Archives of China ): On October 5th, the Japanese army seized the Changling and Zhanggushan lines from the 139th Division of the 32nd Army. On October 7th, the 51st Division attacked Zhanggushan and captured it before dawn on the 8th. However, just as dawn broke on the 8th, all the soldiers of the 58th Division defending the northern high ground were killed in action. Although reinforcements were sent, the enemy continued their advance under cover of air power, and after several hours of fierce fighting, Zhanggushan fell back into enemy hands. At 8 PM on October 9th, the 51st Division organized a special force to attack Zhanggushan again. At 9 PM, they began fighting the enemy, and by 11 PM, they had recaptured Zhanggushan and Changling. However, a few hours later, on the morning of the 10th, they fell again and were retaken by the Japanese army. After the 51st Division's valiant detachment captured Zhanggushan for the second time, the defending enemy "resisted stubbornly and launched an attack from the village with their reserves." Despite several fierce battles, the valiant detachment was ultimately surrounded by the enemy due to "being deep in enemy territory and outnumbered." All of them died heroically in the early morning of the 10th, with no survivors. Zhanggushan fell into enemy hands again.
On October 9, 1938, Wang Yaowu, commander of the 51st Division, sent a telegram to Yu Jishi, commander of the 74th Army, which was then forwarded to Chiang Kai-shek. The telegram did not mention Zhang Lingfu 's name, but stated that Tang Shenghai , commander of the 305th Regiment, was seriously wounded in the Battle of Zhanggushan , and subsequently, Yu Qingxiang , the deputy commander and acting commander of the 305th Regiment, died a heroic death. Among the 51st Division's casualties were Tang Shenghai (305th Regiment), Chang Xiaode (306th Regiment), Zhang Handuo (301st Regiment), and Lin Xiufeng (302nd Regiment), all seriously wounded. Yu Qingxiang, acting commander of the 305th Regiment, was killed in action. 107 officers, including Battalion Commander Wang Zhigan, were killed in action. The 58th Division suffered 8 casualties of battalion commanders and above. Later, on December 20, 1938, Yu Jishi telegraphed Chiang Kai-shek, recommending a group of outstanding generals with remarkable military achievements for promotion to more important command positions, including Li Tianxia , commander of the 51st Division; Zhou Zhidao , brigade commander of the 51st Division ; Liao Lingqi , brigade commander of the 58th Division ; Zhang Handuo , regimental commander of the 51st Division; Chen Dongfu , regimental commander of the 58th Division ; and Li Song , but not Zhang Lingfu .
On October 10, due to isolation and lack of supplies, the Japanese 106th Division (with some troops stationed in Jiujiang, the actual number of combat participants was about 13,000) and the 101st and 27th Divisions that came to its aid, along with the four regiments of Aoki, Ikeda, Kijima, and Tsuda that were committed to the Battle of Wuhan, were completely annihilated within the encirclement. Only about 1,500 remnants of the 106th Division (an understrength regiment) managed to break through the encirclement with the support of air power.
On October 11, the remnants of the 106th Division retreated to a small area of less than 5 square kilometers, including Leiminggu Liu, Shimaceng Liu, Tonghanfu, and Songshuxiong, and held out for reinforcements. Okamura Yasuji ordered all units to reinforce Wanjialing at all costs. Given that the main objective of essentially annihilating the 106th Division had been achieved, and that casualties among all units were extremely heavy, Xue Yue ordered all units to withdraw from the battle, with the entire army retreating to the Yongfengqiao, Guobeishan, and Zhelin line. On October 12, Xue Yue telegraphed the National Government Military Commission and Chiang Kai-shek in Wuhan: “Although the enemy’s attempt at a flanking maneuver was thwarted, our concentrated encirclement and attack failed to annihilate the entire enemy force, which is extremely regrettable… The opportune moment for us has passed; all units fought bitterly, suffered heavy casualties, and have little remaining fighting strength.”
After the war, the National Army cleaned up the battlefield and captured brigade flags, but the division flags were not found. This battle is known in Chinese history as the "Great Victory of Wanjialing". The Fourth Army, the Thirty-Second Army, and the Sixty-Sixth Army, together with the Seventy-Fourth Army, broke through the defense line of the Japanese 106th Division on the left and right flanks, pursued the enemy in victory, and recovered all the lost territory south of Jiujiang, thus blocking the Japanese army's southward advance. This was known as the "Great Victory of De'an".
According to the personnel list submitted by the 106th Division of the Japanese Army on October 20, the 106th Division's personnel count decreased from 15,889 on September 30 to 12,890 on the 20th, and the attached troops decreased from 3,148 on September 30 to 2,806 on October 20, a total decrease of 3,341 personnel . The 2,700 supplementary personnel of the 106th Division arrived in Jiujiang in late September before the Battle of Wanjialing , and set off on October 2 with the 106th Field Artillery Regiment. They arrived at Ruoxi on October 7 to catch up with the main force of the division. The 106th Division received this batch of 2,700 supplementary personnel from October 20 to 31 after the Battle of Wanjialing However, the 106th Division's personnel roster on October 31 showed that the division had 12,425 men. This was not an increase but a decrease of 465 men compared to October 20. This means that from October 20 to 31, approximately 3,100-3,200 men were removed from the roster. Considering that the 106th Division's cavalry battalion of about 435 men were attached to the 101st Division and removed from the roster during this period, as well as the number of men removed from the roster of the attached units that participated in this battle, it is estimated that approximately 6,500-6,600 men from the 106th Division and its attached units were removed from the roster due to being killed in action, captured, or sent back to China after being seriously wounded, or due to starvation and disease caused by supply shortages during the Battle of Wanjialing (those who were hospitalized on the spot due to minor injuries and those who recovered and returned to the unit should not be included) . This shows that the 106th Division suffered a devastating blow in this battle, and the Nationalist army's claim that it almost completely annihilated the division in this battle was not an exaggeration.
Following the Battle of Wuhan , Junroku Matsuura, commander of the 106th Division, reported that his division had suffered 3,321 killed in action and 4,085 wounded (hospitalized). In the year between June 1938 and June 1939, the division suffered a total of 4,921 combat casualties. However, according to the data of the division, on June 20, 1938, the 106th Division had a staff of 23,440 . After a long and fierce battle, even though it had received 1,818 additional personnel , by September 30, on the eve of the Battle of Wanjialing, the 106th Division still had only 15,889 personnel left . It can be seen that before the Battle of Wanjialing, 9,369 people of the 106th Division had been removed from the staff. It is very likely that most of these 9,369 people removed from the 106th Division were removed because they died in battle or were sent back to their home countries after being seriously wounded (those who were hospitalized on the spot with minor injuries and those who recovered from injuries and returned to the unit should not be included). In addition to the number of casualties in the Battle of Wanjialing, the actual number of casualties of the 106th Division was definitely much higher than the report of the division commander, Junroku Matsuura.
In the post-war period, in 2000, Japanese war history acknowledged that the 101st, 106th, 27th, and 9th Divisions suffered heavy losses, along with their subordinate brigades, regiments, and detachments, incurring immense casualties and losses. The number of war dead enshrined at shrines increased exponentially; at the time, this was something they dared not admit, done to maintain social stability and public confidence. [Citation needed]
In this battle, the Japanese army used aircraft to drop mustard gas bombs, which polluted the water sources and vegetation of Wanjialing, causing local residents to be poisoned. Japanese scholars are skeptical about whether the Japanese army used chemical weapons.