Hearts of Iron: The Empire of Japan
Sino-Japanese War - Part 1
The First Strikes
With the Marco Polo Bridge incident several days old the first of the major land battles erupted east of Beijing itself in the critical province of Tianjin. After the initial incident several frantic hours were spent on both sides making hurried preparations for initial advances or defenses. The Japanese under Field Marshall Hata struck first, three days after the war started. Hata in command of all eight motorized infantry divisions in Manchuria advanced along the coast line at nearly 30 kilometers per day, meeting only pockets of significant resistance and little or no heavier weapons. With less than 200 casualties he arrived upon the first hastily set up Nationalist line which covered roughly twelve kilometers of ground in front of the advancing Imperial troops. Facing Hata was General Chu Shao-liang in the three days since the wars outbreak he had made efforts to make defensive positions to oppose the forward racing Japanese but three days had not been enough. He commanded only six divisions in face of the eight that attacked him early on the morning of May 6th. His six divisions more over were a mostly a hodgepodge of ill-fed and equipped militia hardly fit to be called army units and he had less than 10,000 men that could be called 'regulars' in any sense of the word. Adding to this he still commanded cavalry units who's best days were behind them. While General Shao-liang's men moved around on either foot or horse his enemy was able to cover ground quickly and without trouble. It was to be a fight that the Nationalists could not win.
While heavy fighting was developing over a hundred kilometers away near the coast inland Beijing was assaulted by elements of the III Korps led by Field Marshall Terauchi six divisions faced off against four Nationalist ones a few kilometers around the city. Terauchi's counterpart in the battle was Nationalist Field Marshall Ho Ying-Chin, his command was even worse off then the forces that Shao-liang could muster on the coast lacking any regular infantry units at all. Outnumbered and without any support the Chinese were fighting a losing battle.
Within five hours of the start of the attack on Beijing things had turned sour on the coastline. Field Marshall Hata's forces had once again used there superior maneuvering skills to sneak large amounts of men through the Chinese line - still not properly manned three days into the war and mounted a large attack into the rear of the center of the Chinese line taking out the best of General Shao-liangs forces and trapping his right flank between the ocean and Japanese troops, within an hour he ordered a full retreat of all remaining Chinese forces across the Hwang Ho river. Nationalist forces in Beijing followed suit on the 8th of May. Japanese forces continued the push and split up with numerous axis of advance.
The next stab came in Datong on May 10th led by Lt. General Honda commanding three infantry divisions of the III Korps against five Nationalist divisions. While outnumbered by over 50,000 men, Honda faced General Sung Che-Yuan an inept commander who had only risen to his rank because of close and personal contacts with several high ranking Nationalist leaders. Given the time that he had to set up a defensive of the critical Datong province history judges that he could have made critical and necessary decisions that may have resulted in the first Chinese victory of the war. His forces, while mainly consisting of militia had good morale and were wanting to give out vengeance for the battles around Beijing and Tiajiang days earlier. The precious time that had been afforded to him was not spent fortifying his position in any way and his army was ripe for the picking by advancing Japanese infantry. Before the battle Sung Che-Yuan boasted to his sub-commanders - "the Japanese will lose a generation trying to defeat us here". His words were to be eaten soon as the roar of several hundred G3M tactical bombers soon roared over the horizon.
Advancing infantry rolled over the outermost Chinese defenses and attacked the main body of defenders on the 11th of May with the support of tactical air units. Further stabs at the Chinese were soon felt in Jinan, Shijiazhuang and Hohhot. Lt. General Ayabe in Hohhot outnumbered his opponents by a three to one advantage and secured the battle quickly as it was only a matter of time before the defenders broke having only militia forces to defend. The same was true in Jinan as General Koiso's motorized divisions crossed the Hwang Ho river near the coast and smashed into the next three divisions that met him in a defensive line. However a ditch defense of Shijiazhuang seemed to be feasable as Field Marshall Hata's personal four divisions of motorized infantry ran straight into ten divisions of Chinese regular. The tactical bombers helping in the assault upon Datong now shifting their attention to helping Hata's divisions while eight more infantry divisions rushed to the aid of him.
The Chinese now brought in more divisions to the aid of the Shijiazhuang defenders and now outnumbered the assaulting Japanese nearly four to one, facing a dire situation Field Marshall Hata ordered all motorized divisions to disengage as well General Koiso retreated from his assault over the Hwang Ho river after supply lines were almost cut in a Chinese counter attack. The lighting assault into China seemed to be falling apart after the fight few days of rapid gains and only in the north did the Japanese advance remain on schedule.
Sino-Japanese War - Part 2
A Pocket Formeth
With the defeats of the Japanese motorized forces to ill-equipped and led Chinese forces shocks were felt throughout the Imperial Army itself. General Togo upon hearing the news had Field Marshall Hata dismissed as the supreme Manchurian commander and gave command over to Field Marshall Terauchi who ordered a halt to all offenses currently on going in northern China so that all units could fully organize and consolidate there gains, only the forces in northern Manchuria would advance and the assault into Datong was called off after both sides took heavier than expected casualties in the battle. Terauchi now waited for the deployed marine divisions to be ready for their landing into China before the next major push was to be made. The regular cavalry and infantry had however taken the province of Xinxiang two days after the retreat of Hata and Koiso's forces and fended off two Nationalist counter attacks while they dug in.
However the assault that was planned on Tayuan was not called off as Field Marshall Terauchi deemed its success as a 'sure thing'. On May 21st six infantry divisions entered the mountainous region and attacked the six defending militia divisions that had fled from Beijing over two weeks ago, still reeling from the battle it took only four days for the assault to end victoriously and the six Chinese divisions retreated towards Shijiazhuang. The Terauchi now saw his chance, with more than twelve Chinese divisinos in the province or retreating towards it he saw the opportunity to take lightly defended Handan and cut off more than 200,000 Chinese men in a large pocket, it would be a major blow to the chances of any Chinese counter offense and almost insure the success of Operation Mighty Wind.
Daylight bombing runs upon the Chinese positions in Handan were conducted for three days before the main assault by General Yamashita's ground forces. The infantry mopped up all the defenders in half a day and the pocket around Shijiazhuang was completed. Over 15 Chinese divisions were trapped.
Within a week Field Marshall Terauchi had turned what looked like the early defeat of Operation Mighty Wind into a stunning victory as a significant portion of the Chinese army over 300,000 men now was trapped in a large pocket behind Japanese lines, it would now only be a matter of time before they were eliminated an the advance could begin again.
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