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Chinese Army Captures Myitkyina
The Battle of Myitkyina has long been considered as an urban offensive operation during the Sino-Japanese War in the Chinese Expeditionary Force stationed in India to counter-attack Burma. So why did the Chinese army attack Myitkyina? What was the process of attacking Myitkyina?
On August 5, 1944, Myitkyina, Myanmar was finally overcome after more than 80 days of arduous attack by the Chinese army. Since the Chinese army invaded Myitkyina in May, due to the improper command of the American general Merrill and the dispersion of the troops, the Japanese army was able to breathe and counterattack again. The Chinese and Japanese armies formed a tug-of-war.
Merrill should bear the main responsibility for the failure of the attack, but he put the responsibility on Huang Chuncheng, the head of the 150th Regiment, and asked Shi Bingwei to send the head back to China, which caused strong dissatisfaction and firm resistance from the Chinese officers and soldiers.
The Chinese army broke through the Japanese positions and attacked Myitkyina.
In order to quell public anger, Shi Bingwei announced on the 23rd that Brigadier General Merrill would be revoked as the commander of the Sino-US Joint Commando Corps, and each division would be commanded by the division commander.
The troop commanders then adopted tunnel tactics, and used small troops to drill through gaps and detours to break the enemy’s fire net system.
At the same time, the aircraft carried out “carpet” bombing, and the artillery carried out intensive area shooting, completely destroying the enemy’s defense facilities. The infantry made use of tunnels or gaps to approach the enemy formation and suddenly attacked to clear out the remaining enemies. Myitkyina was gradually conquered piece by piece like this.
In short, the victory of the Battle of Myitkyina not only meant that the strategic form of Southwest China was fundamentally changed, and the anti-Japanese rear had become stable, but also made the initial connection between the troops stationed in India and the expeditionary force.
