Chinchow Operation

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Date	December 21st 1931 to January 3rd, 1932
Location	Heilongjiang province
Result	Japanese Victory

Combatants

National Revolutionary Army, Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies, Republic of China

Imperial Japanese Army, Empire of Japan

Commanders

Marshal Zhang Xueliang

Lt. Gen. Jiro Tamon

Strength

84,000 men

Casualties

3,000 (Japanese estimate)

300

Second Sino-Japanese War
Major engagements in bold Mukden - Invasion of Manchuria -(Jiangqiao - Nenjiang Bridge - Chinchow - Harbin) - Shanghai (1932) - Operation Nekka - ( Rehe - Great Wall) - Suiyuan - Marco Polo Bridge - Beiping-Tianjin - Chahar - Shanghai (1937) (Sihang Warehouse) - Beiping-Hankou Railway - Tianjin-Pukou Railway - Taiyuan - (Pingxingguan) - Xinkou - Nanjing - Xuzhou- Taierzhuang - N.-E.Henan - (Lanfeng) - (Amoy) - Wuhan - Canton - (Hainan) - (Xiushui River) - Nanchang - Suixian-Zaoyang - (Swatow) - 1st Changsha - S.Guangxi- (Kunlun Pass) - Winter Offensive -(Wuyuan) -S.Henan - Zaoyang-Yichang - Hundred Regiments - Indochina Expedition - Shanggao - S.Shanxi - 2nd Changsha - 3rd Changsha - Yunnan-Burma Road-(Yenangyaung)- Zhejiang-Jiangxi - W.Hubei - N.Burma-W.Yunnan - Changde - C.Henan - 4th Changsha - Guilin-Liuzhou - W.Henan-N.Hubei - W.Hunan- 2nd Guangxi edit

In late November General Honjo had despatched 10,000 soldiers in 13 armored trains escorted by a squadron of bombing planes in an advance on Chinchow from Mukden. This force, had advanced to within 30 kilometers of Chinchow, when it received the order to retreat. It had been recalled by General Jiro Minanmi the Japanese War Minister because of a modified form of the League of Nations proposal for a "neutral zone" to be established as a sort of buffer between China proper and Manchuria pending a future China-Japanese peace conference. When the government of Prime Minister Reijiro Wakatsuki in Tokyo.

However the two sides failed to get an agreement. The Wakatsuki government soon fell and was replaced by a new cabinet led by Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai. Negogiations with the Kuomintang failing the government approved an increase to the force in Manchuria. In December, and the rest of 20th Division along with 38th Mixed Brigade from 19th Division were sent from Korea while the 8th Mixed Brigade from the 10th Division was sent from Japan.

Following the defeat of General Ma in Heilongjiang province and anticipating obtaining new reinforcements, a new Japanese offensive was launched in Manchuria on December 21st, under control of the General Shigeru Honjo. General Honjo insisted his troops were moving out "to clear the country of bandits," but added that Chinese evacuation of Chinchow "is now absolutely imperative." Most of the "bandits" were actually the organizing Chinese volunteer forces and some real bandits exploiting the chaos following the collapse of the Chinese government and army of the Northeast following the Mukden Incident.

While the other Japanese forces and puppet Manchurian forces spread out from their base along the rail lines to clear the countryside, from Mukden, the Japanese base in Manchuria, brigades of the 12th Division advanced southward in the night, supported by squadrons of Japanese bombers. The Japanese objective was to force the Chinese Army to evacuate Chinchow.

The Japanese estimated the Chinese at Chinchow had 84,000 defenders, with 58 pieces of artillery placed to support the two separate systems of Chinese entrenchments defending Chinchow. The Chinese first line 20 miles north of Chinchow, was a series of trenches aimed to stop the Japanese advance at the Taling River Bridge on the Peiping-Mukden Railway. The Chinese had a second line of earthworks and entrenchments completely encircling Chinchow to fall back on if the Japanese broke thru the first line.

Lieutenant General Jiro Tamon's forces cautiously advanced south from Mukden. The temperature was 30 below zero. Japanese scouting planes reported a force of at least 3.000 Chinese "bandits" (Chinese volunteer forces) waiting to defend Panshanhsien. Brushing aside these Chinese skirmishers in a series of minor clashes, Tamon prepared to meet and crush the first serious Chinese resistance, expected at Kowpangtze, 50 kilometers north of Chinchow. Japanese troops camouflaged in long white gowns advanced fighting Chinese skirmishers.

By the evening of December 31, 1932, the Japanese advance guard were fifteen kilometers from Chinchow on the banks ot the Taling river. Gen. Jiro Tamon halted, and brought up the rest of his 12th Division, for the final drive on Chinchow. The Japanese War Office announced a radio broadcast of "The Battle of the Taling River", setting up microphones behind the Japanese lines, arranging an elaborate hookup to broadcast the sound of firing to Tokyo, but then had to call off the broadcast when the Chinese retreated.

On the Chinese side confusion reigned. The old government of Chang Kai-shek at Nanking had resigned and a new one under Premier Sun Fo had been formed. Additionally, Marshal Zhang Xueliang's Chinese defenders were in disorderly retreat, toward the Great Wall, leaving only a small garrison to protect the government functionaries who remained behind. At Nanking Eugene Chen, the new foreign minister, asserted that the government never had ordered evacuation of Chinchow, but, on the contrary, had told Marshal Chang repeatedly to stand his ground. Nine Chinese Generals in various parts of China denounced the new Chinese Government at Nanking formed fortnight before by Premier Sun Fo, blaming it for failure to prevent the Japanese capture of Chinchow and threatening the new Government.

Tamon's Japanese columns occupied Chinchow on January 3rd, 1932, with the Chinese populace said to be waving Japanese flags homemade during the night to appease their Japanese conquerors. The next day the Japanese occupied Shanhaiguan completing their military control over South Manchuria.

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