In mid-June 1940, the National Military Commission

The central idea was to base ourselves on the outer line, maintain a high degree of mobility of the troops, make use of the terrain and fortifications, resist and consume the Japanese army one by one, exchange space for time, and finally change the war situation in which the enemy attacks and defends. According to this plan, Chiang Kai-shek assumed the post of commander-in-chief, mobilized all the troops of the Fifth and Ninth Theaters, and one navy and air force to organize defense along the Dabie Mountains, Poyang Lake, and both sides of the Yangtze River, and prepare for a protracted war. The main purpose is to exchange space for time, combine internal and external fronts, and consume and defeat the enemy; The second is to move factories as soon as possible, transport materials internally, prepare the army, step up production, and make preparations for the long-term war of resistance; The third is to win international sympathy and support, and look forward to the opening up of the international battlefield in order to completely defeat the Japanese army.

At this time, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party further strengthened cooperation in order to resist the great national enemy. On July 6, the first session of the National Council for Political Participation was held in Wuhan. The congress declared: "The Chinese nation will mobilize all its material and human resources with a strong and unyielding will. In self-defense and for humanity, this ferocious aggressor fought for a long time. Until the day of the final victory, "the military and the people of the whole country are required to consolidate Wuhan as the center and achieve victory in the Central Battle" The Chinese people must defend Wuhan and persist in the War of Resistance, and the Japanese invaders must seize Wuhan. The end of the war constituted a decisive strategic battle between China and Japan at that time.

Wuhan is located in the Jianghan Plain and is the intersection point of the Pinghan and Guangdong-Hanzhou railways. In November 1937, after some of the Nationalist institutions were moved from Nanjing to Wuhan, the place actually became the military, political and economic center of China, and its strategic position was very important. After the Japanese army occupied Nanjing, the War Department of the Japanese army began to study the operation to capture Hankou, but due to the constraints of various conditions, it was temporarily shelved. At the beginning of April 1940, when the Japanese army base decided to carry out the Battle of Xuzhou, it also decided to carry out the Wuhan Operation, and when formulating the plan for the Battle of Xuzhou, it "anticipated the situation after the Battle and took into account the future Wuhan Operation." At the end of May, the War Department, the headquarters of the Japanese army, decided to conduct the Hankou operation in the autumn of that year, and on June 15, the Japanese Imperial Council formally decided to carry out the operation to capture Wuhan.

In order to enhance the command structure and combat capability, the National Military Commission decided to adjust the operational sequence, and in mid-June 1940, the 9th Theater was newly reorganized. At the same time, it was decided to defend Wuhan with the troops belonging to the 5th and 9th theaters. The troops, air force, and navy participating in the defense of Wuhan totaled 14 group armies, 50 armies, about 200 combat aircraft, more than 30 warships, and a total strength of nearly 1.1 million troops. Since June, the troops of the various corps have used natural barriers such as Poyang Lake and the Dabie Mountains to organize defenses and defend Wuhan. The Soviet Volunteer Air Force for China participated in the battle.

Chen Cheng, commander of the Ninth Theater of Operations, commanded 27 armies to be responsible for operations on the south bank of the Yangtze River, and Xue Yue's headquarters of the First Corps defended the Nanxun line, and deployed troops along Poyang Lake, using Nanchang as a base to break through the westward advancing Japanese army on the outside line and prevent the Japanese army from attacking Nanchang and detouring to Changsha; Zhang Fakui's headquarters of the Second Corps ensured the front of the line from Jiujiang to Ruichang and formed a position belt along the river to prevent the Japanese army from advancing westward from Ruichang and approaching Yueyang, Puqi, and Xianning; Townenburg's regiment was kept between important strongholds so that it could be ready to fight on the front lines. Li Zongren, commander of the Fifth Theater (acting by Bai Chongxi in mid-July ~ mid-September), commanded 23 armies to be responsible for the Jiangbei operation, and ordered Li Pinxian's headquarters of the Fourth Corps to be the right-wing corps, and to take advantage of the favorable terrain of the hills, lakes and marshes at the southern foot of Dabie Mountain on the north bank of the Yangtze River to deter the enemy from taking a shortcut to attack Wuhan; With Liao Lei's headquarters of the 21st Group Army as the central corps, it was deployed in the northwest mountains of Taihu Lake and Qianshan, and the camera went south to flank the enemy advancing westward; With the headquarters of Sun Lianzhong of the Third Corps as the left wing corps, it was controlled between the northern foot of Dabie Mountain and the Huai River, using geographical barriers to prevent the enemy from detouring to the north of Wuhan; ordered the 24th Group Army Han Deqin's headquarters to serve as a guerrilla behind enemy lines; With the headquarters of Wang Zhangxu of the 29th Group Army as the second-line corps, it responded to the front-line operations. In addition, the first theater was in the area west of the Zhengzhou-Xinyang section of the Pinghan Railway (now Beijing-Hankou) to prevent the Japanese army in North China from moving south; The Third Theater was located on the south bank of the Yangtze River between Wuhu and Anqing in Anhui Province and the area east of Nanchang in Jiangxi Province, to prevent the Japanese army from making a detour to the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway (Guangzhou-Wuchang) via the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Railway (Hangzhou-Zhuzhou). This kind of strategic deployment embodies the strategic defense pattern of focusing on offensive on the outer front, supplemented by positional defense and guerrilla warfare.

In mid-June 1940, the National ** Military Committee compiled the operational command sequence of the Chinese army in the Battle of Wuhan: Commander-in-Chief: Li Ming

9th Theater: Commander Chen Cheng (south bank of the Yangtze River)

1st Corps: Commander-in-Chief Xue Yue

20th Army: Commander-in-Chief Shang Zhen (under the jurisdiction of the 32nd and 18th armies)

9th Army: Commander-in-Chief Wu Qiwei

29th Army Corps: Commander Li Hansoul (under the jurisdiction of the 64th and 70th Armies)

37th Army Corps: Commander Wang Jingjiu (25th Army)

4th, 8th, 66th armies

74th, 29th Army

Poyang Lake Garrison Command

2nd Corps: Commander-in-Chief Zhang Fakui

30th Group Army: Commander-in-Chief Wang Lingji (under the jurisdiction of the 72nd and 78th armies)

3rd Army: Commander-in-Chief Sun Tongxuan (12th Army)

31st Army: Commander-in-Chief Tang Enbo (13th and 98th Armies)

32nd Army Corps: Commander Guan Linzheng (under the jurisdiction of the 52nd and 92nd Armies)

11th Army Corps: Commander of the Legion Tianbei Fortress Li Yannian (under the jurisdiction of the 2nd Army)

Tiannan Fortress Commander Huo Yuzhang (54th Army)

Wuhan Garrison: Commander-in-Chief Luo Zhuoying

Commander of Jiangnan District: Zhou Zhen (jurisdiction of the 75th Army)

Commander of Jiangbei District: Wan Yaohuang (jurisdiction over the 6th and 16th armies)

Wuhan Garrison Commander: Guo Xin (under the jurisdiction of the 94th Army)

37th Army

Hubei Provincial Air Defense Forces

30th Army Corps: Commander Lu Han (under the jurisdiction of the 60th Army)

26th Army Corps: Commander Wan Fulin (under the jurisdiction of the 53rd Army)

5th Theater: Commanders Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi (acting) (north bank of the Yangtze River)

3rd Corps: Commander-in-Chief Sun Lianzhong

2nd Army: Commander-in-Chief Sun Lianzhong (concurrently) (under the jurisdiction of the 30th and 42nd armies)

26th, 55th, 87th armies

4th Corps: Commander-in-Chief Li Pinxian

29th Group Army: Commander-in-Chief Wang Zhangxu (under the jurisdiction of the 44th and 67th armies)

11th Group Army: Commander-in-Chief Li Pinxian (concurrently) (under the jurisdiction of the 84th and 48th armies)

28th Army Corps: Commander Liu Ruming (under the jurisdiction of the 68th Army)

26th Army: Commander-in-Chief Xu Yuanquan (under the jurisdiction of the 10th Army)

21st Group Army: Commander-in-Chief Liao Lei (jurisdiction over the 31st and 7th armies)

19th Army Corps: Commander Feng Zhi'an (77th Army)

27th Army Corps: Commander Zhang Zizhong (under the jurisdiction of the 59th Army)

24th Army: Commander-in-Chief Han Deqin (under the jurisdiction of the 57th and 89th Armies)

27th Army: Commander-in-Chief Yang Sen (under the jurisdiction of the 20th Army)

51st, 71st, 45th armies

17th Army: Commander-in-Chief Hu Zongnan (under the jurisdiction of the 1st Army)

On the Japanese side

In May (1940), after the defeat of the Japanese army in Xuzhou, it actively prepared to expand the war of aggression. It was decided to first capture Anqing with one part of the army as an advance base for attacking Wuhan, and then attack the area north of the Dabie Mountains along the Huai River with the main force, capture Wuhan from Wusheng Pass, and advance west along the Yangtze River with the other part. Later, due to the breach of the Yellow River, he was forced to suspend the plan to attack Wuhan along the Huai River and attack along both sides of the Yangtze River with the main force. On the 4th, the Japanese Central China Dispatch Army adjusted the battle sequence, and its commander Shunroku Hata commanded the 2nd and 11th armies, with a total of about 140 brigades and 250,000 troops, responsible for the operation against Wuhan. With Okamura Ninji commanding the 5 and a half divisions of the 11th Army of the Japanese invasion of China, the main attack on Wuhan along both sides of the Yangtze River; King Minoru of the Higashikure Palace commanded four and a half divisions of the 2nd Army to assist Wuhan along the northern foot of Dabie Mountain. As well as more than 120 ships of the Navy and Kawakoshiro's 3rd Fleet, more than 500 planes of the Tokugawa Yoshitoshi Air Regiment, Japan's first pilot to fly into the sky, and five divisions directly under the Central China Dispatch Army were assigned to guard Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, and other areas, so as to consolidate the rear and ensure the operation.

In accordance with the decision of the Japanese Imperial Council and the established policy of the Japanese **, on June 18, the Japanese army headquarters issued an order to prepare for the Hankow operation with Continental Order No. 119. According to the instructions of the base camp, the Japanese army transferred the 10th, 16th, 9th, 13th, and 6th divisions that were in eastern Henan and northern Anhui after the Battle of Xuzhou to the south and assembled in the Hefei area. It also transferred troops from North China and Japan to strengthen the 11th Army under the command of Okamura Ninji in Central China and to strengthen the strength of the anti-river combat force.

In order to carry out the Wuhan operation, the Japanese army base camp concentrated the strength of 14 divisions and regiments in Central China. Directly participating in the Wuhan operation were about 250,000 troops from nine divisions of the 2nd Army and the 11th Army, as well as the 3rd Fleet and the Air Regiment, with a total of about 120 ships of various types and about 300 aircraft of various types.

In early July 1940, the Japanese army headquarters promulgated a new operational sequence for the Central China Dispatch Army:

Central China Dispatch Force: Commander Shunroku Hatata

2nd Army: Commander Minoru Higashikuremiya

3rd Division: Division Commander Susumu Fujita

10th Division: Division Commander Yoshio Shinohata

13th Division: Division Commander Ogisu Libing

16th Division: Division Commander Keisuke Fujie

11th Army: Commander Ninji Okamura

9th Division: Division Commander Ryosuke Yoshizumi

27th Division: Division Commander Masaaki Honma

101st Division: Division Commander Masaki Ito

106th Division: Division Commander Junrokuro Matsuura

6th Division: Division Commander Shiro Inaba

Directly under the Central Government

116th Division: Division Commander Kishige Shimizu

18th Division: Division Commander Sadao Ushijima

Aviation Regiment [10]

Hata detachment

On the night of June 11, 1940, the Botian detachment took advantage of the rainy night to raid Anqing, and the Yang Sen Department of the 27th Group Army of the Sichuan Army was ineffective in fighting and was expelled from the city overnight. asked him to counterattack Anqing, Yang Sen called back, Xu Yuanquan's 26th Group Army could not withstand the attack of the Japanese Sixth Division, exposing his flank, and he had to withdraw from Anqing as a last resort, and the matter was over.

After capturing Anqing, the Botian detachment continued to advance west along the Yangtze River with naval vessels, and in late June arrived outside the blockade line of the Jiangfang fortress Madang. Designed by German military advisers, the Nationalist army operated for several months, at great expense, and was exceptionally strong, a fortified fortress against the Japanese navy, and Chiang Kai-shek had high hopes that it would stop the Japanese offensive for at least a month or so. The Japanese Navy first tried to open the passage from the river, but there were too many shipwrecks and artificial reefs, and the minesweepers could not clear the mines under the artillery fire of the defenders. Seeing that the river could not be carried out, the Japanese army changed to a roundabout attack by land, and the defenders near Madang Fortress were Li Yunheng's 16th Army. On 24 June, Li Yunheng also lavishly held a grand graduation ceremony, which was attended by officers at all levels of the 16th Army and local gentry. The Japanese army must have received this information in advance, so in the early morning of June 24, they successfully landed in the eastward direction of the 16th Army, and then successfully captured Xiangshan, Xiangkou and other places that were neither prepared nor commanded by the commander. Fortunately, the 2nd Marine Brigade defending the core position of Changshan in Madang Fortress did not send anyone to attend the graduation ceremony. Under the command of the general captain Bao Changyi, the 2nd Brigade put up stubborn resistance and repelled three large-scale group charges of the Potian detachment.

Bao Changyi's side fought in the dark, and Li Yunheng's graduation ceremony was very grand, and after speaking, there was a meal, and he drank a mess. Seeing that the 16th Army could not be counted on for the time being, Bao Changyi hurriedly sent a report to his old boss Xie Zhegang in Wuhan. As soon as Xie Zhe saw the telegram, he was very surprised, and immediately reported to Chiang Kai-shek, and at the same time urgently asked the air force to dispatch. Chiang Kai-shek was even more surprised when he read the telegram sent by Xie Zhegang, and immediately called Bai Chongxi, who was inspecting Tianjia Town, and asked him to think of a way. Bai Chongxi reacted quickly, looked at the map and immediately called Peng Ze's 167th Division, asking the division commander Xue Weiying to immediately lead his troops to reinforce Changshan. Here, Li Yunheng and Bao Changyi also reacted after talking on the phone, and it was so coincidental that they also made a phone call to the 167th Division. Xue Weiying received two different orders at once, Bai Chongxi ordered him to rush from the road, and Li Yunheng told him to take the path. Faced with two different orders, Xue Weiying thought for a long time, and finally chose to listen to Li Yunheng's path out of contempt for the old miscellaneous deputy chief Bai. After holding out for two days, Bao Changyi's 2nd Brigade suffered more than half of the casualties and ran out of shells. In order to avoid total annihilation, the 2 Brigade had to withdraw from its positions. After the Japanese occupied the Changshan position, the 16th Army counterattacked for a time, but it soon failed, and even the Madang battery was lost.

Chiang Kai-shek saw that Madang, which he hoped to hold for a month, had lost it before he could even hold it for a week, so he called Chen Cheng, commander of the Ninth Theater, over overnight and scolded him. Chen Cheng immediately ordered the 16th Army and the 49th Army to counterattack Madang. The Japanese army relied on Madang's strong first-class national defense fortifications to resist stubbornly, causing repeated setbacks and heavy casualties in the offensive of the national army, and Chen Cheng had to order to stop the offensive and retreat to Pengze. Chiang Kai-shek was so dissatisfied with this result that Li Yunheng was removed from his post and investigated, and Xue Weiying was shot.

After repelling the counterattack of the national army, the Botian detachment and the 106th Division came to reinforce Peng Ze, and Peng Ze was lost. Seeing that the situation was serious, Chen Cheng strictly ordered Li Hansoul's 64th Army, which was stationed at Hukou, to counterattack Pengze. After a battle of strength, the Japanese army not only repelled Li Hansoul's attack, but also took advantage of the situation to pounce on Hukou, Hukou fell, and the 64th Army retreated to Jiujiang. After occupying Hukou, the exhausted Japanese army rested for more than ten days, and on the 22nd, they continued to set off to advance to Jiujiang, an important town of Jiangfang. In the early morning of the 23rd, the Japanese army repeated its old trick, diving into Poyang Lake in the rain, and finally successfully landed the 11th Pre-11th Division south of Gutang. For some reason, the defenders had landed at 12 o'clock, and it was not until four o'clock that they reported that they were calling for reinforcements, and the 128th Division of Gujiaqi that came to help was adapted from the natives of Xiangxi. After stabilizing the landing field, the 106th Division advanced in depth under the cover of naval guns, and cooperated with the frontal attacking Botian detachment to encircle Jiujiang. Seeing that the overall situation was unfavorable, Zhang Fakui ordered the 2nd Corps to move forward, abandon Jiujiang, and retreat to the area of Jinguanqiao, a second-line position, to defend.