After more than half a year of disputes and bickering, the Chinese Expeditionary Force's second invasion of Burma finally entered the stage of all-out counteroffensive.

As we all know, the expeditionary force's first invasion of Burma was a mess. There are three reasons: first, the British sold their teammates more thoroughly than on the French battlefield; second, Stilwell's incompetence, self-reliance, and lack of overall consideration; Third, Chang Kaishen's micro-manipulation is decisive thousands of miles away.

Each of these three factors was fatal, and when the results were made, one could only feel sad for the officers and men of the expeditionary force.

In fact, Stilwell set the goal of the Burma battlefield counteroffensive a year ago. However, Chang Kaishen did not want to fight very much, and even rejected Roosevelt many times at the Cairo Conference, believing that the United States must send troops to cooperate in order to start a major counteroffensive.

Lao Chiang had his own considerations, such as his distrust of the British army, his disbelief in Stilwell's ability, and his desire to preserve the strength of the expeditionary force.

But the pressure from the U.S. government was too great, coupled with the terrible situation at home, Chang Kaishen finally chose to compromise - the United States threatened to stop the concession bill and cut off aid to China.

This counteroffensive will last for a year, and the Chinese Expeditionary Force suffered 85,000 casualties and annihilated nearly 70,000 Japanese troops, which is a rare victory in the history of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.

However, it directly led to the defeat of Yuxianggui in 1944!

In order to launch a major counteroffensive in Burma, Stilwell consumed enough military supplies for the entire Chinese theater to last four months, drained the logistics of the Chinese army that was resisting the Japanese army's No. 1 operation plan, and deprived China of strategic reserves in the domestic theater.

These are the fundamental reasons why Chang Kaishen is unwilling to agree to enter Burma for a counteroffensive.

We often use the defeat of Yuxianggui to ridicule the incompetence of the old Chiang and the Nationalist army, because in 1944 it was the end of World War II, and the European battlefield was full of successes, but the Chinese battlefield lost 146 cities, more than 200,000 square kilometers of land and 60 million people in eight months.

But the background of this debacle is the complete collapse of China's economy, and the supply of US aid has been transferred to the battlefield in Burma. The Ninth Theater, which had about 30 elite regiments of 11 corps and about 30 divisions, could only piece together 50 old cannons in the face of the Japanese attack. In the Battle of Guilin, there was a reinforcement of 14000000 troops, but there were only 20000 rifles, and the soldiers were hungry.

Let's take a look at the American journalist's report on the Fourth Battle of Changsha: "The Chinese soldiers marched on foot with their rifles and rations on their backs, they were thin, sweaty, struggling with every step. The entire army did not have a single car, and the mules and horses were extremely difficult to see. At the beginning of the attack, 1 division of Chinese troops, under the cover of 1 French mountain artillery and 9 mortars from the First World War, began to climb the mountainous terrain occupied by the Japanese army......"

Imagine a hungry Chinese soldier dragging his tired body, under the cover of World War I-era mountain artillery and mortars, attacking the Japanese with rifled rifles. And their enemies have ample logistics, with artillery, machine guns, aircraft for fire support, as well as strong fortifications, and even inhumane chemical weapons. This extremely difficult offensive lasted three days before the Chinese army finally began to retreat, not because of lack of willpower, but because they ran out of supplies - they ran out of ammunition and food!

Regarding the rout of Yuxianggui, of course, Lao Jiang and the government should be scolded, because they were corrupt and stuffed into their pockets when the country was in the most difficult time. But the soldiers of the Anti-Japanese War should not be scolded, they have done the limit of what they can do, and they are carrying the Japanese artillery fire and bullets with their flesh and blood.

At the same time, Stilwell should be scolded as well.

Taking the Battle of Hengyang as an example, the army commander Fang Xianjue resisted the siege of 110,000 Japanese troops with crude field fortifications under the condition of insufficient troops, incomplete equipment, no reinforcements, and no logistics, which lasted for 48 days and nights, causing more than 60,000 casualties of the Japanese army, and directly leading to the resignation of Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo.

Not only that, Fang Xianjue also planned to cooperate with the reinforcements to launch a counteroffensive. Stilwell not only refused to send 1,000 tons of supplies to the reinforcements, but also said, "Let them go on fire." This made it impossible for reinforcements to be deployed, making the defense of Hengyang even harder.

As we said, Stilwell used "peanuts" to satirize the old Jiang Zhida's talent, and he himself did the same.

Here, and to quote two Americans' comments on Stilwell -

Chennault, captain of the Flying Tigers, said: "If he (Stilwell) is a company commander and battalion commander and he is responsible for the troops under his direct command, this behavior is really commendable." It is shocking ignorance and irresponsibility for him to leave the unit without permission and not hear from him for three weeks, as the commander of the US forces in Asia and the chief of staff of the Chinese theater of operations. This is about Stilwell's escape from Burma with more than 100 people, and the American media used this to describe Stilwell as a legendary hero, while the soldiers of the entire Chinese theater scolded him to the blood.

Davis, First Secretary to the US Ambassador to China, said of Stilwell's staff team: "Pleasantly mediocre to old age and incompetence." -- As the chief of staff of the Allied forces in the China theater, Stilwell's staff team was so chaotic and slack-tidy that even the U.S. Embassy in China could not stand it anymore and repeatedly demanded that it be rectified.

Japan's "Operation Plan No. 1" and its subsequent revisions were the root cause of China's defeat in Henan, Hunan and Gui. Before the Japanese army launched the "No. 1 Operation Plan", Lao Chiang repeatedly warned Japan of a possible attack, hoping that Stilwell would not send troops to the Burma battlefield.

But Stilwell ignored it, believing that Chiang was too cowardly to launch a major counteroffensive in Burma. Until the Japanese were already on the offensive, Stilwell was still undecided and refused to believe the facts. Stilwell wrote in a report that his staff "knew in advance that the strike was coming, and then it was not known how far it had go, and it is still unknown whether it had passed," Stilwell wrote: Really?

To tell the truth, the chief of staff should have been dragged out and shot a long time ago when he did this kind of work.

Not only is the staff officer inadequate, but Stilwell's command ability is also sufficient. He drained the logistics and materials of the Chinese battlefield, and it took three months to conquer Myitchi (Harmony), and finally waited until the Chinese army opened the Hukang River valley to solve the problem, which indirectly led to the humiliating Yuxianggui rout.

At that time, Chennault was so angry that he sent a telegram directly to Roosevelt: "[Stilwell] concentrated all our main forces in Burma, which has now led to the fall of East China." ”

Since then, Stilwell has had a nickname in China: the best four-star battalion commander.

The Chinese theater of World War II was so tragic, the commander-in-chief was Chang Kaishen, the "infantry platoon commander", and the chief of staff was Stilwell, the "best four-star battalion commander". It's just that these two still look at each other and hate each other, spraying each other on various occasions, and feeding each other's loops - is this the so-called rookie pecking each other?

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