Battle for Toungoo
Japanese advance into Burma in April and May 1942 and Allied retreats
| date | March 19, 1942 to March 29, 1942 |
|---|---|
| place | Toungoo , Burma |
| output | Japanese victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| approx. 8,000 soldiers of the 200th division | approx. 10,000 soldiers of the 33rd and 55th divisions |
| losses | |
|
Around 2,000 dead and |
About 900 dead and wounded |
The Battle of Toungoo was a military operation during the Japanese conquest of Burma during the Pacific War in World War II. Units of the National Chinese Army ( Kuomintang ) fought against attacking troops of the 15th Army , Imperial Japanese Army . The Chinese troops , under the command of General Dai Anlan , a personal friend of Chiang Kai-shek , had received orders from British General Harold Alexander to defend the city of Toungoo against the Japanese troops for as long as possible. The aim of the Japanese attack was on the one hand to wipe out the Chinese troops in the city and on the other hand to overrun the right flank of the British army. After a desperate defense, General Anlan's troops, who had suffered enormous losses, had to evacuate the city and hand them over to the Japanese soldiers.
prehistory
Even before the attack on Pearl Harbor and the outbreak of war, plans for the invasion and conquest of Southeast Asia were formulated in the Imperial Army Ministry in Tokyo . Prime Minister and Minister of War Hideki Tojo , Chief of Staff Marshal Hajime Sugiyama , Minister of the Navy Osami Nagano and the entire Imperial General Staff established the final plan of conquest in February 1941. The Philippines , several American bases in the Pacific such as Wake Island and the Mariana Islands , the Dutch East Indies , British Malaya , Singapore , British Borneo and also Burma were to be attacked a few days after the declaration of war. Burma has numerous oil wells around the city of Yenangyaung , which were a vital resource for the Japanese war industry. In addition, linen , rubber and large quantities of rice were produced in Burma . When Burma was invaded in January 1942 together with the conquest of the other Allied bases in the Pacific, three complete Chinese armies, which were combined under the name of the Chinese Expeditionary Force , were sent by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek to Northern Burma to help with the British troops support the defense. The Chinese generals feared that after a British withdrawal from the country, the Japanese troops would attack China with an advance from Burma and thus end the Second Sino-Japanese War , which had been going on since 1937 .
Chinese location
As early as March 8, 1942, the important city of Toungoo, which protected the right flank of the Allies, was occupied by Chinese troops under the leadership of the American military adviser and chief of staff of Chiang Kai-shek, General Joseph Stilwell . In the event of a conquest of the capital, the Chinese troops in Toungoo would protect the retreat of the British. General Dai Anlan's 200th Division was a combat-ready and well-rehearsed unit that other commanders of the Chinese Expeditionary Force saw as an elite force . Before the Battle of Toungoo, it consisted of around 12,000 soldiers, mostly veterans, who had already fought against the Japanese soldiers or the communists of Mao Zedong in northern China. Most of them had a hard training and some combat experience. However, due to the numerous casualties in the ongoing fighting in China, many of the older soldiers had died in combat, and the 200th Division was reinforced with around 3,000 younger recruits, who were grouped into two battalions, before leaving for Burma. They were mostly young farmers who had no combat experience and had received insufficient training. Then there was the poor armament of the Chinese units: most of the soldiers were armed with aging rifles, especially the American Springfield M1903 and Mauser model 98 , received in large quantities from the German Reich as part of the Sino-German cooperation . General Dai Anlan did not learn of the British withdrawal from Rangoon and the Japanese conquest of the Burmese capital until early March . The Chinese 200th Division was then brought to full strength in the shortest possible time by the Allied replenishment of the Hump aircraft and preferably equipped with new American weapon systems, in particular with anti-tank guns, some M3 Stuart tanks and pioneer material. General Anlan and General Stilwell now expected an enemy attack at any moment, which would take the city and thus overrun the right flank of the Allied army.
Behind the up to 30 kilometers deep static defense system that the Chinese troops had built in the meantime, large mobile reserves, mainly from newly established or expanded Chinese units, were created to intercept possible breakthroughs by Japanese troops before the arrival of British troops from Rangoon . Since March 9th, a fortified line of defense has been built near Toungoo with the help of Burmese civilians. Several civilians, Chinese and British pioneers and engineers have since improved the condition of the Second Road to Mandalay, which had been badly damaged by Japanese air raids. By the time the Japanese offensive began, however, very few of the various defensive structures (bunkers, anti-tank trenches, trenches) had been completed. Sometimes the front line was too thin. The six Chinese battalions of the 200th Division defended a 40 km section, each unit only having 600 men in the first line and another 900 in reserve. The Chinese troops were also able to raise two cavalry regiments.
Japanese location
After the successful operation around Rangoon and the withdrawal of the British army from southern Burma, the Japanese troops first tried to rub off the fleeing British with flank attacks. However, this attempt had failed due to tough enemy resistance. The attack against Toungoo was intended to depress the right flank of the retreating British Army, which would encircle the enemy units. The Japanese troops had been reinforced by the arrival of the 56th Infantry Division, as a result of which the 33rd Division returned to Rangoon as a garrison force.
On the morning of March 18, Chinese units opened fire for the first time against Japanese scouts of the 143rd Regiment, 55th Division, near the town of Tachiao . After a few hours, three Chinese armored vehicles intervened and drove away the Japanese soldiers. The Japanese attacked again that evening. The national revolutionary troops withdrew and withdrew to the village of Tachiao that evening. The Japanese troops entered Tachiao the next morning. After capturing the village, the Japanese units, protected by the motorized troops in the lead, were able to march on towards Toungoo. The place Pyu was also taken. The Japanese set up a military hospital and a supply post in Pyu and reinforced the troops that were already on the way to Toungoo with additional units. The troops remaining at the front, the units of the 55th and 56th Divisions, began their attack on the city of Toungoo on March 24th. On the morning of March 24th, the Japanese 112th Infantry Regiment began its artillery preparation. Nineteen guns of various calibers took part in the barrage, which lasted 15 minutes. Meanwhile, Japanese light bombers flew air strikes against identified Chinese positions, and the three Japanese tanks advanced toward the first enemy positions, covered by infantry fire.
battle
Opening operations
A little later the Japanese troops of the 112th regiment started an attack on the Chinese positions in front of the city after the previous massive barrage. The troops of the 143rd Regiment, however, were turned to the west in order to take the station and the runway. These units marched quickly through the dense jungle, led by Burmese collaborators . The Chinese troops of the 1st Engineer Battalion, which controlled the railroad buildings and the airfield area, were forced to flee by a Japanese assault, and suffered heavy losses. This cut off the supply and communication options for the Chinese troops in the city. The units of the 600th regiment tried several times to drive the Japanese soldiers from the airfield and the train station, but concentrated artillery and infantry weapon fire threw them back with heavy losses. The Japanese units also operated offensively in the southern part of the front: the troops of the 112th Infantry Regiment launched an attack on the Chinese defenders of the 599th Regiment. The attack was successful, so that parts of the Chinese regiment could be overrun. The first enemy positions were taken. Counterattacks by some troops from the other regiments, however, stopped the Japanese advance.
General Dai Anlan tried several times to contact his cut-off units of the 600th Regiment, but these attempts were unsuccessful. Chinese defenses were concentrated near the city walls, with Chinese forces erecting several artillery batteries and fortifying some buildings in the center with machine gun nests and rifle positions. A Chinese replacement battalion was deployed to fill the gap between the 599th and 600th regiments and thus protect the only free retreat route for the Chinese units. These troops consisted mostly of reservists and were reinforced by some experienced soldiers from the 599th regiment. General Dai Anlan and his staff moved their divisional headquarters and command center from the city center to the Sittang River to avoid enemy artillery fire and air strikes by Japanese planes. Several Chinese telephone lines in the city were cut by Japanese air strikes, preventing all of the defending units from receiving orders from headquarters.
First Japanese attack
At 8:00 a.m. on March 25, the Japanese attack on Toungoo began with heavy artillery volleys fired from the newly built Japanese batteries in front of the city. Then the first Japanese units attacked: the 143rd regiment attacked the city on the left flank of the Chinese troops, the 112th on the right and a cavalry regiment and an infantry company worked on the Chinese defenses on the bank of the Sittang. The Chinese troops immediately suffered high losses from the Japanese artillery preparation, but were able to repel several waves of Japanese attacks. The Japanese troops of the 112th Regiment suffered heavy losses from Chinese fire, but they were able to gain several hundred meters of ground and drive the Chinese back in their sector. In the north of the city, Japanese troops were able to overrun the Chinese defensive positions at 10:00 p.m., with an entire Japanese reserve battalion breaking through the gap in the Chinese defense. The Chinese units of the 600th regiment were thrown back several hundred meters in the north and occupied a new line of defense. At the same time, they launched some counter-attacks that were repulsed by the Japanese in house-to-house combat. Due to the proximity between the two enemy fronts, however, the Japanese artillery could not intervene, as there was the possibility of firing on their own ranks. The following day, the Japanese troops attacked again but were unable to break through the Chinese defenses. The Chinese had also repelled an attack by the cavalry regiment, which was supported by several reconnaissance tanks. After the Japanese attacks had failed, the Chinese troops of the 600th and 599th regiments counterattacked, but these too failed with high losses of their own. Further attacks by the Japanese or the Chinese also failed.
General Dai Anlan moved his headquarters from the banks of the Sittang to a nearby ravine near the river bridge, which was badly damaged by Japanese air raids, as a result of heavy Japanese artillery fire on March 26, 1942. The troops of the 598th Battalion initially held the entrances to the river bank, including the tactically important buildings in the city center, against heavy Japanese attacks. Heavy firefights broke out between the 112th regiment and the defending Chinese near the main train station, which was already occupied by Japanese soldiers. On the afternoon of the following day, the Japanese troops used tear gas grenades to break through the Chinese front at the train station and penetrate the northern inner city. The aim was to isolate the 200th Chinese division that Toungoo was defending and to encircle them completely by means of a rapid advance towards the river. After that, the cauldron should be increasingly cleared and the bridge captured, whereby the Japanese advance against Yenangyaung could continue. General Dai Anlan's new headquarters was taken under heavy fire by Japanese raiders, while units of the 143rd Japanese regiment were able to work their way up to 100 meters from the bank of the Sittang and the damaged bridge. Several buildings were taken and the bridge came within range of the heavy machine guns of the Japanese troops. In many places the Japanese soldiers had advanced up to 300 meters to the Sittang, but had not had the time to dig in or to create positions for the machine guns.
Second Japanese attack
On March 28, the troops of the 55th Japanese Infantry Division were reached by the first column of trucks from the 56th Division . The 56th Division was a well-rehearsed and battle-tested unit that had just left Rangoon and advanced north towards Toungoo. The motorized reconnaissance column of the 56th Division, which had just arrived, was immediately able to deploy six reconnaissance tanks. In addition, the 3rd heavy field battery of the Japanese 55th Division from Rangoon arrived that day, equipped with Type 96 15 cm field howitzers and also with some German artillery type 15 cm field howitzers 18 . On the same day, this artillery battery initiated heavy bombardment of the still intact Chinese defenses and thus destroyed several positions. The Japanese troops started attacking again a few minutes after the end of this artillery preparation, but the Chinese soldiers held their positions and repelled some attacks. After several attempts, the Japanese units of the 55th Division, supported by the reconnaissance tanks, were able to break through the front in several places and penetrate the gaps. The motorized column of the 56th Division overran the Chinese lines in the north of the Chinese retreat route over the bridge and cut several gaps in the enemy defense through which several battalions of the 55th Division could penetrate. This jeopardized Chinese control of the Sittang Bridge, which for General Dai Anlan's exhausted troops was the only free supply and retreat route, and the 200th Division threatened to be encircled.
General Dai Anlan decided in a briefing together with several high-ranking Chinese officers to delay a withdrawal of his troops in order to hold the position until the British troops, which had now arrived in Prome , could evacuate the city again and retreat north could continue. Nevertheless, the Chinese troops had to evacuate almost the entire city because the Japanese units of the motorized column of the 56th Division had reached the bridge. An exchange of fire between the Chinese troops guarding the bridge and the first Japanese soldiers who tried to blow up the enemy facility with several mortars to prevent the Chinese retreat, however, moved General Dai Anlan to order a complete evacuation of the city command. The Japanese soldiers were driven from the vicinity of the bridge while the Chinese units of the 200th Division crossed the river, under heavy fire from Japanese artillery. The bridge had been so badly damaged by enemy salvos that it could not carry the Chinese trucks and heavy artillery; therefore the heavy equipment and a large part of the artillery ammunition were left behind in Toungoo. The Japanese still tried to cut off the Chinese troops who were just leaving the last town buildings and climbing the bridge, but all Chinese units were able to cross the Sittang and, heavily harassed by Japanese artillery volleys and air strikes, fled north-west to Yenangyaung. The British forces evacuated the city of Prome on the same day and also withdrew to Yenangyaung.
Individual evidence
- ^ William Slim: Defeat Into Victory: Battling Japan in Burma and India, 1942-1945. 1957, p. 20
- ↑ a b c India-Burma: The US Army Campaigns in World War II
- ^ Daniel Marston: Phoenix from the Ashes , 2003, p. 69
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j India-Burma: The US Army Campaigns in World War II, General Stillwell in Burma.
- ^ A b c Alan Warren: Burma 1942: The Road from Rangoon to Mandalay , 2011, p. 170
- ↑ a b c Frank McLynn: The Burma Campaign: Disaster into Triumph, 1942–1945. 1957, p. 56
- ^ A b Frank McLynn: The Burma Campaign: Disaster into Triumph, 1942–1945. 1957, pp. 56-57
- ^ Frank McLynn: The Burma Campaign: Disaster into Triumph, 1942-1945. 1957, p. 57