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{{Short description|Battle during the Second Sino-Japanese War}}
{{More citations needed|date=May 2010}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict = Battle of Changde
| partof = the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]] and the [[Pacific War|Pacific Theater]] of [[World War II]]
| image = Changde battle.jpg
| image_size = 250px
| caption = Chinese troops in combat at Changde
| date = {{Date range and age in years, months, weeks and days|df=y|1943|11|2|1944|1|5}}
| place = [[Changde]] and vicinity, [[Hunan]], [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|China]]
| territory = Japanese capture the city, but later withdraw in January 1944
| result = Chinese defensive victory
| combatant1 = {{flagicon|Republic of China (1912–49)}} [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|Republic of China]]
| combatant2 = {{flagicon|Empire of Japan}} [[Empire of Japan]]
| commander1 = {{flagicon| Republic of China (1912–1949)|army}} [[Sun Lianzhong]] {{flagicon| Republic of China (1912–1949)|army}} [[Xue Yue]] {{flagicon| Republic of China (1912–1949)|army}} [[Feng Zhi'an]] {{flagicon| Republic of China (1912–1949)|army}} [[Li Yutang]] {{flagicon|Republic of China (1912–49)|army}} [[Wang Yaowu]] {{flagicon| Republic of China (1912–1949)|army}} [[Liu Chen-san]]
| commander2 = {{flagicon|Empire of Japan|army}} [[Isamu Yokoyama]]
| strength1 = Sixth and Ninth Military Fronts in the main battlefield : 194,594 Fifth, Sixth, and Ninth Military Fronts in supporting operations : 155,793<ref name ="抗日戰史">{{cite book |title= 抗日戰史: 常德會戰 |date=1968| publisher=史政局}}</ref>{{rp|p=162-163}}
| strength2 = 60,000+
| casualties1 = '''Chinese Claim :''' Main battlefield :<ref name ="抗日戰史"/>{{rp|p=162-163}} 23,485 killed 17,310 wounded 3,170 missing Supporting operations :<ref name ="抗日戰史"/>{{rp|p=190-191}}{{efn| The statistics of losses for the Fifth Military Front are mostly missing}} 1,740 killed 2,109 wounded 360 missing Fifth Military Front supporting the Sixth Military Front :<ref>國史館檔案史料文物查詢系統，李宗仁電蔣中正常德會戰策應第六戰區作戰傷亡數目，典藏號： 002-090200-00083-010 [https://ahonline.drnh.gov.tw/index.php?act=Display/image/5544400=RY61tl#1cJ]</ref> 1,159 killed 1,703 wounded 317 missing 378 unspecified casualties '''Japanese Claim :''' Until 8 December 1943 :<ref name="Dec 8">{{cite web|title=第１１軍（附第６方面軍）発電綴　巻１　自昭和１８年５月至昭和１９年６月（２）|url=https://www.jacar.archives.go.jp/aj/meta/listPhoto?LANG=default&BID=F2012122712171724806&ID=M2012122712171724810&REFCODE=C12122311000 |website=Japan Center for Asian Historical Records| access-date=2025-03-12}}</ref> 29,503 killed 14,025 captured Until 29 December 1943 :<ref name="Dec 29">{{cite web|title=常徳作戦（３）|url=https://www.jacar.archives.go.jp/aj/meta/listPhoto?LANG=default&BID=F2013032114202850658&ID=M2013032114202950666&REFCODE=C13032323300 |website=Japan Center for Asian Historical Records| access-date=2025-03-12}}</ref> 32,747 killed 14,325 captured
| casualties2 = Japanese claim : Until 8 December 1943 :<ref name="Dec 8"/> 1,274 dead 2,977 wounded Until 29 December 1943 :<ref name="Dec 29"/> 1,666 killed Chinese Claim : Main battlefield :<ref name ="抗日戰史"/>{{rp|p=162-163}} 46,470 casualties American and British claims: 40,000+ killed and wounded<ref name="Critical Past">{{cite web|url=http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675040787_Chinese-troops_Japanese-troops_captured-equipment_ruined-city|title=HD Stock Video Footage – Newsreel 'Chinese troops drive Japs from Changteh'|access-date=5 June 2016}}</ref>
Thousands of guns, ammunitions, shells, and prisoners taken and captured.
| notes = {{notelist}}
}}
{{Campaignbox Second Sino-Japanese War}}
{{Campaignbox Pacific War}}
{{Japanese colonial campaigns}}
{{Campaignbox World War II}}

The '''Battle of Changde''' ('''Battle of Changteh'''; {{zh|t=常德會戰|s=常德会战|p=Chángdé Huìzhàn}}) was a major engagement in the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]] in and around the [[Republic of China (1912–49)|Chinese]] city of [[Changde]] (Changteh) in the province of [[Hunan]].

The purpose of the Japanese offensive was to maintain pressure on the Chinese [[National Revolutionary Army]] to reduce its combat ability in the region and its ability to reinforce the [[Burma Campaign]].<ref name=H161>{{cite book |editor1-last=Hsiung |editor1-first=James C. |editor2-first=Steven I. |editor2-last=Levine |title=China's Bitter Victory: The War with Japan 1937–1945 |publisher=M. E. Sharp |location=Armonk, N.Y. |date=1991 |page=161 |isbn= 9780873327084}}</ref><ref>[http://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/Japan/Monos/pdfs/JM-71/JM-71.PDF Japanese Monograph No. 71, "Army Operations in China"], pp. 170</ref>

The Japanese were initially successful in their offensive operation by bacteria-infected bombs and captured parts of the city of Changde, which forced civilians to evacuate. The Japanese were pinned down in the city by a Chinese division long enough for other Chinese units to surround them with a counterencirclement. Heavy casualties and the loss of their supply lines then forced the Japanese to withdraw, which returned territorial control to the original status quo.

Some contemporary Western newspapers depicted the battle as a Chinese victory.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9YscAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA94 |title=The American Year Book: Volume 29|first1=Simon Newton Dexter |last1=North |first2=Francis Graham |last2=Wickware |first3=Albert Bushnell |last3=Hart |year=1944|publisher=T. Nelson & Sons|page=94|access-date=2010-06-28}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Russia's Race for Asia |first=George |last=Creel |year=1949 |publisher=Bobbs-Merrill Co. |page=214}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Free World, Volume 8|year=1944|publisher=Free World, Inc.|page=309}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RgQVAAAAMAAJ |title=Amerasia, Volume 7|first=Philip J. |last=Jaffe|author-link=Philip J. Jaffe|year=1943|publisher=Amerasia |access-date=2010-06-28}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VFQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA45 |title=Chinese Victory |magazine=Life |date=21 February 1944 |publisher=Time Inc.|access-date=5 June 2016|via=Google Books |page=45}}</ref> American government film footage showed victorious Chinese troops with Japanese prisoners and captured Japanese flags and equipment on display after the battle. In addition, an American newsreel titled ''Chinese troops drive Japs from Changteh'' showed Chinese troops firing, with dead and captured Japanese on display. A British newsreel titled ''Japs Loose Changteh Aka Japs Lose Changte'' showed similar footage.

==Japanese offensive==
[[File:Location of Changde Prefecture within Hunan (China).png|thumb|Location of [[Changde]] within [[Hunan|Hunan Province]] of [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|China]]]]
On 2 November 1943 [[Isamu Yokoyama]], commander of the [[Imperial Japanese Army|Imperial Japanese]] [[Eleventh Army (Japan)|11th Army]], deployed the [[39th Division (Imperial Japanese Army)|39th]], [[58th Division (Imperial Japanese Army)|58th]], [[13th Division (Imperial Japanese Army)|13th]], [[3rd Division (Imperial Japanese Army)|3rd]], [[116th Division (Imperial Japanese Army)|116th]] and [[68th Division (Imperial Japanese Army)|68th divisions]]—a total of around 60,000 troops—to attack Changde from the north and the east. The Changde region was defended by the Chinese 6th War Zone's 10th, 26th, 29th and 33rd Army Groups, as well as a river defense force and two other corps, for a total of 14 corps.

On 14 November the Japanese 13th Division, with aid from [[Collaborationist Chinese Army|collaborators]], drove south and broke through the defensive lines of the Chinese 10th and the 29th Group Armies. On 16 November, Japanese airborne forces landed in [[Taoyuan County]] to support the assault on the city proper. At the same time, the Japanese 3rd and 116th Divisions also joined the combined assault. The city was guarded by one Chinese division - the 74th Corps' 57th Division commander Yu Chengwan led 8,000 men to fight against the two invading Japanese divisions. Despite being outnumbered by more than three to one, the Chinese stubbornly held onto the city. Eleven days and nights of fierce fighting saw heavy casualties on both sides. When the Chinese reinforcements finally arrived in the city, they managed to evacuate the remaining 100 survivors in the 57th Division, all of whom were wounded, from the city. On 6 December the city of Changde fell to the Japanese control.

While the Chinese 57th Division pinned down the Japanese in the city, the rest of the 74th Corps, as well as the 18th, 73rd, 79th and 100th Corps and the 9th War Zone's 10th Corps, 99th Corps and [[Jiangxi]]'s 58th Corps, arrived at the battlefield, forming a counter-encirclement on the Japanese forces.

==Chinese counteroffensive==
[[Fang Xianjue]]'s 10th Corps was first to strike, successfully retaking Deshan on 29 November before attacking the Japanese positions at Changde from the south. Unable to withstand the fierce Chinese assault, the Japanese utilized chemical weapons.<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite book |last=Agar |first=Jon |title=Science in the 20th Century and Beyond |publisher=Polity |date=2012 |isbn=9780745634692 |page=281}}</ref> The battle lasted for six days and nights, during which the Chinese Reserve 10th Division's commander Lieutenant General [[Sun Mingjin]] received 5 gunshot wounds to the body and was killed in action.

At this time other Chinese units were also pressing onto the Japanese positions. On 11 December Chinese reinforcements broke through the Japanese lines and into the city, which resulted in intense [[urban warfare|house-to-house fighting]]. The Chinese then proceeded to cut the Japanese supply lines. Depleted of food and ammunition, the Japanese retreated on 13 December. The Chinese pursued them for more than 20 days. By 5 January 1944 Japanese forces had withdrawn to their original positions before the offensive. Following the battle, the Chinese displayed an array of captured Japanese weapons and equipment, as well as numerous Japanese troops taken as prisoners, for inspection by allied military observers.

During this campaign, apart from the Reserve 10th Division's Sun Mingjin, two other Chinese division commanders were killed: the 44th Corps' 150th Division's Lieutenant General [[Xu Guozhang]] was killed at Taifushan in Changde's northwest, aged 37, while the 73rd corps' 5th Division's Lieutenant General [[Peng Shiliang]]([[:zh:彭士量]]) was killed at the Taoyuan-Shimen line, aged 38.

The Changde campaign saw the largest participation of the Chinese air force since the [[Battle of Wuhan]].{{fact|date=January 2025}}

Reporter [[Israel Epstein]] witnessed and reported on the battle. [[Witold Urbanowicz]], a [[Poland|Polish]] fighter ace engaged in air combat over China in 1943, saw the city just after the battle.<ref name=H161 />

[[File:Changde prisoners.jpg|thumb|right|Japanese prisoners taken at Changde.]]

==Aftermath==
From 10 November 1943 until 17 January 1944, the Japanese 116th Division had a reduction of 7,547 personnel.<ref>{{cite web|title=第１１６師団 |url=https://www.jacar.archives.go.jp/aj/meta/listPhoto?LANG=default&BID=F2012122711442811743&ID=M2012122711442811749&REFCODE=C12121004900 |website=Japan Center for Asian Historical Records| access-date=2025-03-12}}</ref> The 65th Infantry Regiment of the Japanese 13th Division also received 1,047 supplementary soldiers after the battle.<ref>星半三郎編，《若松聯隊回想錄》，1977年，會津若松市：若松聯隊記念事業實行委員會，p186。</ref>

After Yu Chengwan broke out and led his remaining men to counterattack Changde, the divisional commander was detained and held in trial for abandoning the city. The military court believed that his circumstance was forgivable as he had lead his troops to defend Changde for twelve days, and sentenced him to five years in prison. However, Chiang Kai-Shek initially did not approve it as he wanted the divisional commander executed. Eventually, with the pleas of Sun Lianzhong and others, Yu Chengwan was spared from execution. Fang Xianjue, the commander of the 10th corps, and Zhu Yue (朱岳), the commander of the 190th division, were both dismissed for the crime of 'preserving strength'. This accusation stemmed from the delaying of the 190th division from assisting the 3rd division in breaking through Changde due to resentments between the divisional commander and corps commander. However, similar to the case with the [[Second Battle of Changsha]], the newly-appointed commander of the 10th corps failed to take up post before the [[battle of Hengyang]], resulting in Fang Xianjue continuing his post as corps commander.<ref>{{cite book |title= 三湘鎮神泰山軍：國民革命軍第十軍 |date=2019 |last=Ming |first=Zhou |publisher=金剛出版 |pages=156-158}}</ref>

After the battle, Sun Lianzhong ordered the burial of the 6,747 soldiers killed in action in the Changde city.<ref>國史館檔案史料文物查詢系統，孫連仲電蔣中正稱據傅仲芳報稱清掃戰場掩埋將士遺骸六千餘具為表忠烈請撥專款在常德建公墓並員派慰藉，典藏號：002-090200-00025-143 [https://ahonline.drnh.gov.tw/index.php?act=Display/image/5641860IQWon7e#a7l]</ref> The 74th corps "undertook the most arduous tasks. The officers and soldiers at all levels fought tenaciously with loyalty, bravery, and sacrifices. Their tragic and magnificent conduct, outstanding combat record, excellent training, and strict discipline made them exemplary models for the Nationalist army." The 57th division "defended Changde for fifteen bloody days and nights. The enemy employed aircraft, heavy artillery, poison gas, and incendiary attacks, yet our officers and soldiers held on with their flesh and blood. Especially on the 1st and 2nd of December, when all of our fortifications were completely destroyed, our remaining more than 100 officers and soldiers still used the corpses on the battlefield as obstacles, engaging the enemy in hand-to-hand combat with knifes and throwing rocks with unprecedented brutality and heroism. The division was able to pin down the enemy’s 3rd, 68th, and 116th divisions, and a portion of the 40th division, causing more than 10,000 losses and contributing to the success of encircling the enemy." The artillery regiment of the 74th corps "was assigned to the 57th division for the defense of Changde. The infantry and artillery coordinated well, allowing the artillery to unleash its full potential, completely annihilating the enemy. When they run out of shells, the artillerymen joined the infantry in combat, throwing grenades and charging the enemy, sacrificing down to the last man and bringing honor to the soldiers of the special forces."<ref>國史館檔案史料文物查詢系統，行政院院長蔣中正呈國民政府為請頒給孫連仲等勛獎章及第七十四軍等榮譽旗，典藏號：001-035100-00074-048 [https://ahonline.drnh.gov.tw/index.php?act=Display/image/5642181XXYPIQ8#2ad5]</ref> On August 3, 1944, the Nationalist Government awarded the Flying Tiger Flag for each of the three units.<ref>國史館檔案史料文物查詢系統，國民政府令陸軍第七十四軍等給予榮譽旗並授予孫連仲等六十七員各等勛章，典藏號：001-035100-00074-050 [https://ahonline.drnh.gov.tw/index.php?act=Display/image/5642309tK=bigi#c0F]</ref>

==In pop culture==
The 2010 Chinese war film ''[[Death and Glory in Changde]]'' is based on the events in this battle.{{fact|date=January 2025}}

==See also==
[[Order of Battle: Battle of Changde]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book |first1=Hsu |last1=Long-hsuen |first2=Chang |last2=Ming-kai |title=History of The Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) |edition=2nd |date=1971 |translator-first=Wen |translator-last=Ha-hsiung |publisher=Chung Wu Publishing |location=Taipei |pages=412–416 Map 38}}
* {{cite book |first=Daniel |last=Barenblatt |title=A Plague Upon Humanity |publisher=Harper Collins |date=2004 |pages=220–221}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Battle of Changde}}
*[http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?p=1000861#1000861 Axis History Forum Index; WW2 in the Pacific & Asia; Battle of Changde] Order of Battle and Map, Photos from Changde ({{lang|zh|常德}}) War Memorial
*[http://www.republicanchina.org/war.html RESISTANCE WARS; Campaign of E-Xi, Battle Of Changde]
*[http://ww2db.com/image.php?image_id=9035 Captured Japanese soldier]

{{World War II}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Changde, Battle Of}}
[[Category:Conflicts in 1943]]
[[Category:1943 in China]]
[[Category:Battles of the Second Sino-Japanese War|Changde 1943]]
[[Category:Military operations involving chemical weapons]]
[[Category:Military history of Hunan]]
[[Category:November 1943 in Asia]]
[[Category:December 1943 in Asia]]

Battle of Changde - Revision history

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