Battle of West Suiyuan

Battle of West Suiyuan
Part of the 1939–1940 Winter Offensive in the Second Sino-Japanese War

Chinese 35th Army
DateJanuary 1940 – February 1940
Location
Suiyuan, Republic of China
Result Chinese victory
Belligerents
Republic of China

Empire of Japan

Commanders and leaders
Ma Hongkui
Ma Hongbin		 Shigenori Kuroda
Strength
28,763 Chinese Muslim and Han Chinese troops[a][1]
  • In the thousands
  • Armoured cars
  • Tanks
  • Air support by fighter bombers
Casualties and losses
Contemporary report:
2,129 killed
1,767 wounded
1,895 missing

1962 history:
2,872 killed or wounded
2,126 missing

Japanese Army claim:[2]
160 killed
461 wounded
534 afflicted with frostbite

(Japanese Army only)[b]
  1. ^ All of them infantry and horse cavalry.
  2. ^ Mengjiang Army unknown

The Battle of West Suiyuan (simplified Chinese: 绥西战役; traditional Chinese: 綏西戰役; pinyin: Suíxī zhànyì) was part of the Second Sino-Japanese War. It was fought from January – February 1940 during the Chinese 1939 Winter Offensive.

The Japanese fielded tanks, armoured cars, tear gas and fighter bombers while the Chinese warlord armies involved had no airforce or even equivalent armour.

Battle

In 1937, the Chinese government picked up intelligence that the Japanese planned a puppet Hui Muslim regime around Suiyuan and Ningxia, and had sent agents to the region.[3]

The Middlesboro Daily News ran an article by Owen Lattimore which reported on Japan's planned offensive in 1938, predicting that the Japanese would suffer a massive defeat at the hands of the Muslims.[4]

The Japanese planned to invade Ningxia from Suiyuan in 1939 and create a Hui Muslim puppet state. The following year in 1940, the Japanese were defeated militarily by the Kuomintang Muslim General Ma Hongbin. Ma Hongbin's Hui Muslim troops launched further attacks against Japan in the Battle of West Suiyuan.[5][6] Japanese plans to invade Ningxia and Gansu collapsed, and with it a capture of China's only operational oil field in Yumen. Perhaps more importantly, the Chinese remained in control of the vital Hexi Corridor through which war material supplies entered from Soviet-occupied Xinjiang and Soviet Central Asia.[5][6][7]

In Suiyuan 300 Mongol collaborators serving the Japanese were fought off by a single Muslim who held the rank of Major at the Battle of Wulan Obo in 1939 April.[8]

Muslim Generals Ma Hongkui and Ma Hongbin defended west Suiyuan, particularly Wuyuan in 1940 against the Japanese. Ma Hongbin commanded the 81st corps and sustained heavy casualties, but eventually repulsed the Japanese and defeated them.[7] However, the Chinese had to withdraw from many cities in western Suiyuan due to heavy casualties.[1]

Japan used poison gas against Chinese Muslim armies at the Battle of Wuyuan and Battle of West Suiyuan.[9][10]

Casualties

Chinese casualties were compiled in a report[11] by commander Fu Zuoyi from 24 April 1940 as well as in a 1962 history[1] of the ROC Ministry of National Defense.

Chinese casualties KIA WIA MIA
Contemporary 2,129 1,767 1,895
1962
2,872
 2,126

References

  1. ^ a b c History and Political Compilation Department (1962). 抗日戰史: 二十八年冬季攻勢 (七) [History of the Anti-Japanese War: 1939 Winter Offensive (Part 7)]. Ministry of National Defense (Republic of China). p. 455.
  2. ^ "後套進攻作戦に関する参考書類送付の件（３）". Japan Center for Asian Historical Records. Retrieved 2025-04-06.
  3. ^ Hsiao-ting Lin (2010). Modern China's Ethnic Frontiers: A Journey to the West. Vol. 67 of Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia (illustrated ed.). Taylor & Francis. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-415-58264-3. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  4. ^ Lattimore, Owen (May 16, 1938). "Japanese Stalled In Drive Through Mongolian Area". Middlesboro Daily News (original article published by United Press).
  5. ^ a b Xiaoyuan Liu (2004). Frontier passages: ethnopolitics and the rise of Chinese communism, 1921-1945 (illustrated ed.). Stanford University Press. p. 131. ISBN 0-8047-4960-4. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  6. ^ a b The China monthly review, Volumes 80-81. J.W. Powell. 1937. p. 320. Retrieved 2011-06-06.
  7. ^ a b George Barry O'Toole, Jên-yü Tsʻai, ed. (1941). The China monthly, Volumes 3-5. The China monthly incorporated. Retrieved 2010-06-28.(Original from the University of Michigan)
  8. ^ China Magazine. 1940. p. 18.
  9. ^ "民国宁夏风云实录　第五卷杨少青　胡迅雷　著目录上篇下篇".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  10. ^ "国民革命军马鸿宾部队81军的绥西抗战！一段不该湮没的宁夏抗战史！". December 7, 1984.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  11. ^ 國史館檔案史料文物查詢系統，傅作義電蔣中正綏西及五原戰役三十五軍八十一軍等各部傷亡失蹤官兵數目，典藏號：002-090200-00063-119 [1]>
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