Shanghai 1937 Stalingrad on the Yangtze
by Peter Harmsen
The year is 1937, the Nazis have ruled Germany for four years focusing on consolidating their power and oppressing the minorities within Germany. The Soviet Union endures Stalin's rule, as he arrests opponents accusing them of plotting with his arch “rival” Trotsky to undermine the USSR (Note: By arrest, we do of course mean kidnapping them in the night and handing them over to the NKVD who tortured them into giving the names of ‘co-conspirators’, and the either shooting them or shipping them to Siberian gulags. Fucking Stalin.). The Spanish Civil War grinds on with the powers of Europe using it as a testbed for tactics and equipment (and as a proxy war). In the United States, FDR has been re-elected to continued his massive programs to fight back the Great Depression inch by inch. In Asia, the Empire of Japan and the Republic of China are squaring off for another conflict. Ever since Japan emerged from its isolation, it had come into increasing conflict with China and other Asian powers. Whereas China had once been the center of East Asia and viewed itself as having no equal, the failure of its elites to reform and modernize in the face of predatory actions of the Imperial powers had led to it becoming a nation divided and poor in resources and industry. Imperial Japan, on the other hand, had pursued an aggressive campaign of modernization, leading to it being the first Asian power to flat out defeat a European Power in a war, that being the Russo-Japanese War (And a glorious defeat it was. The defeat was so bad it helped spark a failed revolution back in the Russian Empire that came on and ended in peasant blood so suddenly that Lenin himself couldn’t capitalize on it. Also, if you ever get a chance to look up the incompetent buffoonery that was the Baltic and black sea fleet’s trip to the Yellow Sea… do it. I’ll give you some highlights. It involves shooting at British fishing ships in the north sea for fear that they were IJN torpedo boats, shooting at merchantmen along the way thinking they were the Japanese fleet. Some EPIC stupidity on shore leave in South Africa that involved bringing venomous snakes onto a ship and letting them go to bite the CO...). That said, it isn’t like the Chinese were sitting there waiting to become victims, by the time of 1937. the Republic had reformed itself out of the ashes of the Empire of China and pursued its own course of modernization and industrialization. While it had suffered repeated humiliation at the hands of the West and Japan, it's ruling elites had finally accepted the necessity of modernization. Now all China needed was time. Time to educate its people, to build the factories, mines, and farms to create a modern state capable of creating a modern armed force to protect themselves from foreign predators. In 1937, however, time had run out and the Japanese were upon them.
The soldiers of China are numerous and brave but in the era of industry bravery and numbers simply aren't enough. The armies of Japan have more machine guns, more artillery, more tanks, and more planes. So in the plains, Northern China, the soldiers of China are being outmaneuvered, outgunned and frankly outmatched. Chiang Kai-Shek the chairmen and generalissimo of the Republic of China and his high command come up with a new strategy, instead of fighting on the great plains of the North, they will lure the armies of Japan into the great city of Shanghai, where their tanks, artillery, and plans will be of limited use. There they will deploy the best of their army, the crack troops trained by their German advisers and they will mire the Japanese down in the great city and bleed that army to death. They would also deliver a victory for the Chinese people to rally around and to show the Western Powers that supporting China wasn't a lost cause. Mr. Harmsen takes great care to walk us through the logic of the plan and show how it was a logical, rational decision with a chance at working. He also takes some pains to show us just what kind of city was being placed on the altar of war, although no one at the time had any idea how devastating open warfare in a city could be just yet. After all the massive city battles of War World II, where we learned just how terrible deploying modern military technology in an urban environment and how costly it was for a modern army to fight in a city... Hadn't happened yet. Shanghai in 1937 was one of the great cities of the world, it was a city of trade where foreign goods flowed into China and Chinese goods flowed out to the world. The second largest city in Asia and often referred to as the Queen of the Orient. The international section of the city - parts that China was forced to cede to foreign powers - were famous for their sophistication and glamour. Even the Chinese parts of the city were considered wealthy and they drew the populace of China like a magnet with the promise of jobs, education, and advancement. This did lead to great and terrible slums being thrown up as the desperate and the hopeful would flood in with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
Into this Chiang sent General Zhang Zhizhong to command the first assault designed to remove the Japanese garrison from Shanghai (a result of the last time Japan and China went to war) although Chiang would remain deeply involved in the decision making process throughout the campaign. In comparison, the Japanese government would pursue a more hands-off policy allowing the General who would lead the Japanese expeditionary force to dictate most of the tactics and plans. That was General Iwane Matsui, who ironically was a Pan-Asian nationalist, who was known in the Japanese Army for his love of Chinese culture and things. This would not lead to him being soft on the Chinese however, because he believed that the Chinese government had sold out the Asian peoples through their friendship and dependency on the Western powers. Therefore he believed that the Chinese government had to be broken and that the people of China would thank him for doing so someday. By July of 1937, the scene is set and the leading players have assembled. However, the actual battle wouldn't start until August. The battle would rage until November with the Chinese making some early gains but increasingly being pushed back until they were forced to surrender Shanghai to Japanese occupation. A surreal element that Mr. Harmsen uses effectively is the fact that neither side dared moved troops or overt fighting into the so-called International Settlement. The parts of the city that were under the control of various Western Powers. That said that part of the city wasn't free of the war, as bombs and shells could fall within there and on the edges, stray bullets would claim the lives of the slow or unlucky. Additionally, the residents of the International Settlement opened it to noncombatant Chinese citizens who flooded in a bid to escape the fighting and later the Japanese occupation troops. The residents of the International Settlement would end up providing much of the coverage of the battle as neither side wanted to make an enemy (yet) of the Western powers and their journalists were allowed a lot of access to both armies (Similar to Nanjing that way). Mr. Harmsen makes a lot of use of the journalists who were there and able to provide 1st hand accounts of both armies.
Mr. Harmsen also takes us through each step of the battle, from the inciting incidents and building tension in July, to the deployment of troops in August and the beginning assaults to the fall of Shanghai to the Japanese. We see the tactics and planning used by both armies and how they broke down when contact with the enemy was made. Using a vast array of primary sources, including the diaries and journals of troops, officers, politicians, and civilians and those who were trapped there. Because of this we see the peak of Chinese hope and daring to the fall of having to give up the biggest city in China at the time. We also see the Japanese going from being caught off guard at this expansion of the war to slowly building up the men and machines that would ruthlessly cull the Chinese army. Mr. Harmsen makes the problems faced by the soldiers of China fairly clear here. They lost their air support early and therefore could only really move at night. Meanwhile, the Japanese could move as they wished during the day limited only by the defenses that the Chinese built. That said we also see that the Japanese didn't have everything going their way, as they were constantly having to shift more resources and men into Shanghai just to maintain the battle. In a way, this did achieve some of the results the Chinese were looking for but at a cost they couldn't really afford to pay as their best divisions were left hollowed-out wrecks by the demands of fighting against the Japanese army. As an American it's a very different view of the Japanese Army I'm presented here through Chinese eyes. The American experience against the Japanese in World War II was of battling a fanatical opponent who did not have nearly enough weight of metal and machinery to overcome their disadvantages as superior American industry and firepower tore them apart. In China, the Japanese were the people who had the metal and machines and were willing to use them to ground China and others underfoot (Part of this is Japan’s lack of natural resources; part of it is the rivalry between the army and navy. You see, during this period the army was ascendant and their machines and material received funding priority. After they were broken by Zhukov at the battle of Khalkhin Gol, the Navy became ascendant and the army stopped getting the funding to develop and build new tanks and such.)
In the west, we tend to focus more on urban battles that took place in Europe, mostly on the Eastern Front (Eh. I’d argue that the Western Front gets more attention in our popular mythos {Name one large urban battle that gets the same attention Stalingrad gets} If you restrain the analysis to urban combat, I’ll grant that. I was referring to the dominance of the Western Front in our popular mythos more generally. {Sure I’ll agree, that’s why I said urban battles in the sentence}). For various reasons the struggles and sacrifices of the Chinese against the Imperial Japanese Army not receiving that much attention. Given how little attention the European section of the war is given in Asia (having served in Asia and spoken to citizens of different Asian nations I can confidently say that they don't focus on it much) I'm not going to apologize for that. However, if you want to learn about a part of World War II that isn't discussed that much in English, this book is a good place to start and gives you an in-depth view of one of the great early battles of the Asian theater. That said it is very focused on Shanghai and sometimes Mr. Harmsen doesn't provide much in outside context and he doesn't discuss their equipment in any great detail, which honestly isn't' enough to drag the grade of the book down. Shanghai 1937 Stalingrad on the Yangtze by Peter Harmsen gets an A.
Into this Chiang sent General Zhang Zhizhong to command the first assault designed to remove the Japanese garrison from Shanghai (a result of the last time Japan and China went to war) although Chiang would remain deeply involved in the decision making process throughout the campaign. In comparison, the Japanese government would pursue a more hands-off policy allowing the General who would lead the Japanese expeditionary force to dictate most of the tactics and plans. That was General Iwane Matsui, who ironically was a Pan-Asian nationalist, who was known in the Japanese Army for his love of Chinese culture and things. This would not lead to him being soft on the Chinese however, because he believed that the Chinese government had sold out the Asian peoples through their friendship and dependency on the Western powers. Therefore he believed that the Chinese government had to be broken and that the people of China would thank him for doing so someday. By July of 1937, the scene is set and the leading players have assembled. However, the actual battle wouldn't start until August. The battle would rage until November with the Chinese making some early gains but increasingly being pushed back until they were forced to surrender Shanghai to Japanese occupation. A surreal element that Mr. Harmsen uses effectively is the fact that neither side dared moved troops or overt fighting into the so-called International Settlement. The parts of the city that were under the control of various Western Powers. That said that part of the city wasn't free of the war, as bombs and shells could fall within there and on the edges, stray bullets would claim the lives of the slow or unlucky. Additionally, the residents of the International Settlement opened it to noncombatant Chinese citizens who flooded in a bid to escape the fighting and later the Japanese occupation troops. The residents of the International Settlement would end up providing much of the coverage of the battle as neither side wanted to make an enemy (yet) of the Western powers and their journalists were allowed a lot of access to both armies (Similar to Nanjing that way). Mr. Harmsen makes a lot of use of the journalists who were there and able to provide 1st hand accounts of both armies.
Mr. Harmsen also takes us through each step of the battle, from the inciting incidents and building tension in July, to the deployment of troops in August and the beginning assaults to the fall of Shanghai to the Japanese. We see the tactics and planning used by both armies and how they broke down when contact with the enemy was made. Using a vast array of primary sources, including the diaries and journals of troops, officers, politicians, and civilians and those who were trapped there. Because of this we see the peak of Chinese hope and daring to the fall of having to give up the biggest city in China at the time. We also see the Japanese going from being caught off guard at this expansion of the war to slowly building up the men and machines that would ruthlessly cull the Chinese army. Mr. Harmsen makes the problems faced by the soldiers of China fairly clear here. They lost their air support early and therefore could only really move at night. Meanwhile, the Japanese could move as they wished during the day limited only by the defenses that the Chinese built. That said we also see that the Japanese didn't have everything going their way, as they were constantly having to shift more resources and men into Shanghai just to maintain the battle. In a way, this did achieve some of the results the Chinese were looking for but at a cost they couldn't really afford to pay as their best divisions were left hollowed-out wrecks by the demands of fighting against the Japanese army. As an American it's a very different view of the Japanese Army I'm presented here through Chinese eyes. The American experience against the Japanese in World War II was of battling a fanatical opponent who did not have nearly enough weight of metal and machinery to overcome their disadvantages as superior American industry and firepower tore them apart. In China, the Japanese were the people who had the metal and machines and were willing to use them to ground China and others underfoot (Part of this is Japan’s lack of natural resources; part of it is the rivalry between the army and navy. You see, during this period the army was ascendant and their machines and material received funding priority. After they were broken by Zhukov at the battle of Khalkhin Gol, the Navy became ascendant and the army stopped getting the funding to develop and build new tanks and such.)
In the west, we tend to focus more on urban battles that took place in Europe, mostly on the Eastern Front (Eh. I’d argue that the Western Front gets more attention in our popular mythos {Name one large urban battle that gets the same attention Stalingrad gets} If you restrain the analysis to urban combat, I’ll grant that. I was referring to the dominance of the Western Front in our popular mythos more generally. {Sure I’ll agree, that’s why I said urban battles in the sentence}). For various reasons the struggles and sacrifices of the Chinese against the Imperial Japanese Army not receiving that much attention. Given how little attention the European section of the war is given in Asia (having served in Asia and spoken to citizens of different Asian nations I can confidently say that they don't focus on it much) I'm not going to apologize for that. However, if you want to learn about a part of World War II that isn't discussed that much in English, this book is a good place to start and gives you an in-depth view of one of the great early battles of the Asian theater. That said it is very focused on Shanghai and sometimes Mr. Harmsen doesn't provide much in outside context and he doesn't discuss their equipment in any great detail, which honestly isn't' enough to drag the grade of the book down. Shanghai 1937 Stalingrad on the Yangtze by Peter Harmsen gets an A.
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Red text is your editor Dr. Ben Allen
Black text is your reviewer Garvin Anders
Red text is your editor Dr. Ben Allen
Black text is your reviewer Garvin Anders
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