Central China Expeditionary Army

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Central China Expeditionary Army

Japanese soldiers and tanks marching towards Sung-pu and Huang-an beyond Ta-pieh Mountains.jpg

Central China Expeditionary Army soldiers as they advance during the Battle of Wuhan , October 1938
active February 14, 1938 to September 23, 1939
Country JapanJapan Japanese Empire
Armed forces JapanJapan (war flag) Japanese armed forces
Armed forces JapanJapan (war flag) Japanese army
Branch of service infantry
Type corps
Strength about 500,000
Insinuation Daihon'ei
Butcher Second Sino-Japanese War
Supreme command
list of Commander in chief

The Central China Expeditionary Army ( Japanese 中 支那 派遣 軍 , Naka-Shina hakengun ) was a major unit of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1938 to 1939 . During its existence, the army participated in many major battles during the Second Sino-Japanese War and conquered large areas of the Republic of China .

The Central China Expeditionary Army is not to be confused with the China Expeditionary Army .

history

After the Chinese capital Nanking fell in the Second Sino-Japanese War , the Central China Expeditionary Army (ZCEA) under the command of General Hata Shunroku was set up from parts of the Shanghai Expeditionary Army and the 10th Army on February 14, 1938 . The ZCEA was responsible for the newly established 2nd Army (three infantry divisions and one cavalry brigade) and the 11th Army (four infantry divisions) as well as seven infantry divisions, which brought them to a strength of around 500,000 men. The main area of ​​operations of the ZCEA was in Hubei Province . During its entire existence, the ZCEA, or parts of it, was involved in heavy fighting with the National Revolutionary Army . From May 1938 eight divisions took part in the victorious battle of Xuzhou , which cost 30,000 men casualties. From June to October the Battle of Wuhan took place , in which 350,000 ZCEA soldiers took part. Wuhan could be taken, but it cost the Japanese 140,000 men in losses. After these high losses, a largely static period of war began, which lasted until mid-March 1939, when the ZCEA went back on the offensive with 120,000 men at the Battle of Nanchang . 24,000 men were lost during the capture. From April to May 1939, the 2nd Army was in distress when it was attacked by 220,000 NRA soldiers in the Battle of Suixian-Zaoyang . With the loss of 21,000 men, the ZCEA had to withdraw from the previously conquered areas. Around 100,000 ZCEA men, mainly units of the 11th Army, took part in the first battle for Changsha in mid-September , which was lost with heavy losses of 40,000 men.

On September 23, 1939, the army was disbanded and its units were divided between the newly formed Main Army China Expeditionary Army and the Northern China Regional Army .

Army command

Commander in chief

Surname From To
General Hata Shunroku February 14, 1938 December 14, 1938
Lieutenant General Yamada Otozo December 15, 1938 September 23, 1939

Chiefs of Staff

Surname From To
General Kawabe Masakazu February 15, 1938 January 30, 1938
Lieutenant General Yoshimoto Teiichi January 31, 1938 September 23, 1939

Subordinate units

On July 4, 1938 the ZCEA was subordinate to the following units:

literature

  • Victor Madej: Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945. Game Publishing, 1981, OCLC 833591372 , OCLC 833591376 (English).
  • Bill Yenne: The Imperial Japanese Army: The Invincible Years 1941-42 Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-1-7820-0932-0 (English).
  • Philip Jowett: The Japanese Army 1931-45 (Part 1) . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2002, ISBN 978-1-84176-353-8 (English).
  • Benjamin Lai: Shanghai and Nanjing 1937 . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2017, ISBN 978-1-47281-749-5 (English).
  • Japanese Monograph No. 70.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Japanese Monograph No. 179, p. 20
  2. ↑ Japanese Monograph No. 179, p. 23
  3. ↑ Japanese Central China Expeditionary Army 2nd & 11th Army 4 July 1938. http://usacac.army.mil , accessed December 19, 2017 .
Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Hata is the family name, Shunroku the first name.