After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the Yunnan-Myanmar Highway was built in early 1938 due to the weak domestic industrial base and the urgent need for a lot of materials and foreign aid. Encouraged by the belief of resisting Japan and saving the nation, 200,000 people in 28 counties in western Yunnan brought their own rations and tools, and slept in the wind, chopping stones and drilling rocks. It took them 10 months to build the Yunnan-Myanmar Highway with their own hands and blood and sweat on the rapids in the alpine valleys and along Shan Ye, 990 kilometers west of Yunnan and north of Myanmar. During this period, countless people died because of blasting, falling rocks, falling rivers, heavy earth and stone, and malignant dysentery. /kloc-opened to traffic at the end of 0/938. From then on, the Burma Road became the blood vessel of China's war of resistance.
After the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, Japan tried to interrupt its aid activities to the "third country" by force. /kloc-in the winter of 0/939, the Japanese army occupied Nanning and cut off the international traffic line between China and Vietnam.
1In the spring of 940, Japan bombed the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway. In June, France was forced to accept the request to stop the transportation between China and Vietnam. Nevertheless, the Japanese invaders did not stop. In September, Japan invaded Vietnam and signed a friendship treaty with Thailand, and the Yunnan-Vietnam line was completely interrupted. The Yunnan-Myanmar Highway has become the only aid channel in China.
Myanmar is a strategic country on the Southeast Asian Peninsula. Xiping is British India, bordering China, Tibet and Yunnan in the north and northeast. The Burma Road is an important international traffic line in China, and the Japanese army can also threaten the southwest rear of China. Myanmar is of great strategic significance to both China and Britain among the allies. After the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Japanese army swept across Southeast Asia in a short time, and then directed at Myanmar.
In order to defend Myanmar, China and Britain planned to establish a military alliance as early as the beginning of 194 1. China actively prepared to put forward that China troops should enter Myanmar as soon as possible. After the outbreak of the Pacific War, 194 1 12 On February 23rd, China and Britain signed the Sino-British Agreement on Joint Defence of the Burma Road in Chongqing, and the Sino-British military alliance was formed.
However, because the British army despised the strength of China's army and overestimated itself, and did not want foreign troops to go deep into their own colonies, it repeatedly delayed and obstructed the Chinese expeditionary force from entering Myanmar, so the Chinese expeditionary force scheduled to enter Myanmar had to stay at the border between China and Myanmar. However, after the Japanese attack on 1942+65438 10 in early October, the British-Burmese army was defeated all the way, and the China army was hastily invited to join the Burmese war. China set up the headquarters of the Expeditionary Force 1 Road Commander (originally the second road was in Vietnam, but it was cancelled due to changes in the situation) and went to the battlefield in Myanmar. However, due to the loss of combat opportunities, Myanmar's defense was defeated. This is mainly due to Britain's insistence on the established strategy of Europe before Asia. Once the war situation was unfavorable, it completely lost its interest in defending Myanmar, but retreated again and again, making the Chinese expeditionary force defend Myanmar a battle to cover the British retreat.
However, the Chinese Expeditionary Force has made achievements that the British and American allies admire and achieved certain strategic goals. From/kloc-0 to March 1942, the Chinese expeditionary force began to fight against the Japanese army, and at the beginning of August, the British Coalition forces withdrew from Myanmar, which lasted for half a year and fought for more than 500 kilometers. They fought bloody battles and suffered repeated defeats, which made the Japanese army suffer a heavy blow rarely seen since the Pacific War, and gave strong support to the British and Burmese troops many times, and won the battles of defending the ancient times, blocking the war in Xiwa, clearing the battle of yenangyaung and recovering the East Branch.
In yenangyaung's aid to Britain, Sun Liren, the new commander of the 38th Division of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, bravely fought against his enemies several times, winning more with less, and rescued the British-Burmese army 1 Division that had been besieged for several days and was on the verge of despair, causing a sensation in the British Isles. Dai Anlan, the new commander of the 200 th Division, made many brilliant achievements and covered the safe retreat of the British army. Later, when he crossed savage mountain to fight the enemy, he was unfortunately injured and died heroically. After the battle, the British and American governments highly praised and posthumously awarded the Meritorious Medal of General Sun Liren and General Dai Anlan.
The loss of Myanmar has brought extremely negative effects on future operations, which enabled the Japanese army to directly threaten India, and also made China completely lose the only land transportation line-the Yunnan-Myanmar Highway, and later had to open an air route from India to fly over the hump (in the Himalayas). However, it also has great strategic significance, covering the retreat of the British army, saving the troops and consuming some Japanese troops, thus preventing the Japanese army from attacking the southwest rear area of China, thus gaining time and cooperating with domestic troops to stop the enemy from the natural barrier of Nujiang River in Yunnan, and finally forming a long-term confrontation, which shattered the Japanese attempt to attack the southwest rear area of China from northern Myanmar. This expedition was also the first time that China went abroad to fight since the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. They carried forward the spirit of internationalism and national sacrifice of the people of China and raised China's international status.
During the first Burma War, there were about 4,500 Japanese casualties, 65,438+3,000 British casualties, and 50,000 Chinese expeditionary forces casualties (mostly in savage mountain and Hu Kang River valley).
After the defeat of Myanmar, some Chinese expeditionary forces retreated to British India. Under the guidance of Stilwell, chief of staff of China Theater, he was trained and reorganized in Ramga Training Camp, and was reorganized into Indian troops in August of 1943, with American equipment provided by American aid to India, and his combat effectiveness was greatly improved.
At the same time, in view of the importance of Myanmar, China actively planned to counterattack Myanmar, reorganized and trained the second batch of expeditionary forces in western Yunnan, and established the General Command of Chinese Expeditionary Force on February 1943, ready to cooperate with British and American troops to counterattack Myanmar.
1943 10 in response to the war situation in China and the Pacific region, the Indian troops stationed in China formulated the plan of "Anna Jim" to counterattack North, so as to ensure the opening of the Sino-Indian highway (Kunming, China-Lido, India) and the laying of oil pipelines. It is planned to start from Lido, a small town on the India-Myanmar border, cross the India-Myanmar border, first occupy the area east of the Tanai River, such as New Pingyang, and establish an offensive starting position and logistics supply base; Then it crossed savage mountain, broke through Kang Hu Valley and Meng Gong Valley with powerful firepower and circuitous tactics, seized Myitkyina, an important town in northern Myanmar, and finally connected the Yunnan-Myanmar Highway.
1in March, 944, the newly-made 22nd Division and the newly-made 38th Division of the Indian Army occupied Mengguan, annihilated the main force of the most elite18th Division of the Japanese Army, and seized its flag, customs clearance, a large number of documents and various weapons. Then, the two divisions marched again, assembled and captured Meng Gong, an important town in northern Myanmar, and won again.
Previously, the new 30th Division, 14 Division and 50th Division, which were airlifted from China to India in the spring of 1944 to receive American-made equipment and training, were successively transported to Myitkyina, Myanmar, and then attacked them. After the Battle of Meng Gong, the new 38th Division also marched into Myitkyina. After more than a month of fierce fighting, Myitkyina was finally conquered in early August. Since our troops stationed in India have opened Ram one after another, they have fought continuously and repeatedly created strong enemies, and their combat effectiveness has been greatly improved compared with before, which the Japanese army never dreamed of. They can't figure out why this China army, which was defeated by themselves two years ago, became a formidable and invincible army in less than a year.
After resting in Myitkyina for about two months, the Japanese army launched a final attack on the Japanese invaders. There is a sentence in the captured Japanese documents that says, "The zhina Army is eager to return to China and is unstoppable." . After the break of Myitkyina, the New 1 Army and the New 6 Army attacked Ba Maw in two directions. All the way through, invincible. Subsequently, the new 1 Army successively conquered bhamo and Nankang, and Mangyou near Wan Ding joined forces with the Expeditionary Force in western Yunnan, and the China-India Highway was completely opened. Indian troops stationed in China immediately went south, conquered Lasso on March 8 1945, and joined forces with British troops in Qiao Mei on March 30, ending the counterattack in northern. At this time, due to the failure in the Philippines, the Japanese army shrank its front and all withdrew from Myanmar. At this point, the war in Myanmar has all ended.
The battle lasted for one and a half years, and the Japanese army killed more than 48,000 people, the Indian troops stationed in China killed more than10.8 million people, and the Chinese Expeditionary Force killed more than 40,000 people.
The counter-offensive victory of the Indian troops stationed in China and the Chinese Expeditionary Force reopened international communication lines, and international aid materials were continuously transported into China. The Japanese army was driven out of the southwest gate of China, which opened the prelude to the frontal battlefield counterattack against Japan; The Japanese troops in northern Myanmar and western Yunnan were clamped down and hit hard, which created favorable conditions for the allied forces to recover the whole territory of Myanmar.
Since China's army entered Myanmar, the China-Myanmar-India War lasted for three years in March, and China invested 400,000 troops with nearly 200,000 casualties. The Chinese Expeditionary Force wrote a very tragic stroke in the history of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression with its blood and life.