The Strategic Context of Japan’s 1944 Campaign

By mid-1944, Imperial Japan faced escalating pressures across the Pacific Theater. With American forces advancing steadily through island-hopping campaigns, Japanese military planners grew increasingly desperate to secure their continental holdings in China. This urgency birthed Operation Ichigo (一号作战), the largest Japanese offensive of the Sino-Japanese War, with two primary objectives:

First, to establish an uninterrupted land corridor stretching from Manchuria to French Indochina, compensating for lost sea routes. Second, to neutralize American airbases in southern China that threatened Japan’s home islands. The campaign unfolded across three interconnected fronts – Henan, Hunan, and Guangxi – collectively known as the Ichigo Offensive.

Meanwhile, China’s Communist New Fourth Army and Nationalist forces prepared for both resistance and strategic expansion. As Japan diverted troops southward, Communist leaders like Su Yu seized opportunities to strengthen their positions in Zhejiang and Jiangsu, setting the stage for dramatic clashes that would shape China’s postwar political landscape.

The Eastern Zhejiang Campaign: Opening Moves

In August 1944, Japanese forces launched their eastern Zhejiang operations to secure the critical Shanghai-Hangzhou-Ningbo triangle. By October, they occupied Lishui, Wenzhou, and Fuzhou, aiming to prevent potential Allied landings along China’s central coast.

The Communist response was swift and strategic. Following Central Committee directives, the New Fourth Army’s elite 1st Division under Su Yu crossed the Yangtze in December with 8,000 troops. By January 1945, they established the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Military District near Changxing, organizing into three mobile columns:

– 1st Column (Wang Bicheng) operating near Moganshan
– 2nd Column (He Kexi) consolidating Siming Mountains
– 3rd Column (Tao Yong) covering Guangde-Sian corridor

This deployment positioned Communist forces advantageously against both Japanese occupiers and Nationalist rivals, foreshadowing postwar power struggles.

The Henan Catastrophe: Collapse of the Yellow River Line

Japan’s northern thrust began catastrophically for Nationalist forces in April 1944. After secretly reconstructing the Yellow River railroad bridge (destroyed in 1938), 150,000 Japanese troops under General Uchiyama smashed through Tang Enbo’s defenses near Zhengzhou.

Key disasters unfolded:
– May 1: Fall of Xuchang after General Lü Gongliang’s heroic last stand
– May 25: Siege of Luoyang where 15,000 defenders held for 16 days before collapsing
– May 21: Death of General Li Jiaju during rear-guard actions

The Henan debacle saw 380,000 Nationalist casualties and exposed critical weaknesses in Chiang Kai-shek’s chain of command. Japanese tank divisions raced southward, linking up with Wuhan forces by June – achieving their railroad corridor at devastating human cost.

The Battle of Hengyang: China’s Stalingrad

From June to August 1944, the 47-day siege of Hengyang became the war’s most grueling urban battle. General Fang Xianjue’s 10th Army (18,000 men) resisted five Japanese divisions through three brutal assaults:

– First Attack (June 28-July 2): Japanese 68th Division command decapitated by artillery
– Second Phase (July 11-20): Fierce close-quarters combat at Yueping Mountain
– Final Onslaught (August 4-8): 100+ artillery pieces firing point-blank into city blocks

Despite starvation, disease, and 90% casualty rates, Hengyang’s defenders inflicted 48,000 Japanese losses. Their eventual surrender on August 8 marked both tactical defeat and moral victory – proving Chinese troops could match Japan’s best in positional warfare.

The Fall of Guilin and Liuzhou: Southern Collapse

As autumn arrived, Japan’s 6th Area Army (General Okamura) turned southwest. The battles for Guangxi’s twin cities revealed new dimensions of the conflict:

– Guilin’s Defense (October-November 1944): 17,000 troops under Wei Yun used karst caves as natural fortresses until poisoned gas attacks broke resistance at Seven Star Cave.
– Liuzhou’s Abandonment (November 11): Nationalist forces conducted strategic withdrawal after failed counterattacks at Guiping.

Japan’s temporary success in linking with Indochina forces (December 1944) came too late to alter the war’s outcome, exhausting their last operational reserves.

Legacy and Historical Significance

The 1944 campaigns represented both Japan’s final strategic offensive and a turning point for Chinese forces:

1. Military Consequences
– Japan gained territory but lost 100,000 veterans it couldn’t replace
– Communist New Fourth Army expanded from 200,000 to 300,000 during the crisis

2. Political Ramifications
– Nationalist prestige never recovered from Henan and Hunan disasters
– Communist guerrilla successes boosted postwar legitimacy

3. Operational Innovations
– Su Yu’s mobile warfare tactics presaged PLA methods in the Civil War
– Urban defense techniques at Hengyang influenced later siege doctrines

Though tactically victorious, Japan’s 1944 offensives strategically accelerated its collapse – diverting resources from Pacific defenses while strengthening Chinese Communist positions. The battles demonstrated that while Japan could still win battles, it had irrevocably lost the capacity to win the war.