bigpigeon.us webpage WW Japan > CBI Theater > China, 1941-45, © 2024 by Robert A. Christiansen, updated by RAC 14 Feb 2024.
This webpage ties in to the other three China-Burma-India Theater webpages, namely India, Burma, and Crossing the Hump.
This webpage ties in to the other three China-Burma-India Theater webpages, namely India, Burma, and Crossing the Hump.
Big Pigeon's War with Japan module is an outline of the role of the United States vs Japan. The lengthy and brutal ground war between the Republic of China and the Japanese Empire only marginally involved the United States. Thus, this is a brief webpage.
World War II in China - Overview
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China in 1941 was already the world's most populous nation, but unlike today it had a small economy and was far from unified. Since 1928, Chiang Kai-shek led both the major political party, the Koumintang or Nationalist Party, and the Republic of China government.
WW II in China was a continuation of the Second Sino-Japanese War, which began in 1937 and pitted the Republic of China against the Japanese Empire. By the end of 1938, Chiang Kai-shek's government had fled the central China capital of Nanking and retreated to Chongqing, then known as Chungking, in mountainous southwestern China, where it remained until World War II ended. |
China in 1941
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Throughout WW II, Chinese forces continued to tie up the majority of the IJA (Imperial Japanese Army) without launching a major offensive on their own. From 1941 until April 1944, the area in China controlled by the IJA did not change greatly.
However, from April to December 1944, the IJA mounted a successsful offensive, Operation Ichi-go, which opened a rail route south through China and overran some of the US Fourteenth Air Force bases in southern China.
A final Japan offensive in early 1945 failed.
However, from April to December 1944, the IJA mounted a successsful offensive, Operation Ichi-go, which opened a rail route south through China and overran some of the US Fourteenth Air Force bases in southern China.
A final Japan offensive in early 1945 failed.
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In addition to the Japanese occupation of key portions of his country, Chiang faced a possible resumption of the civil war with Mao Zedong's Communist party. Moreover, traditional Chinese warlords often possessed regional power and military influence.
Even before Pearl Harbor, Russia, Great Britain and the United States supported Chiang's government by providing shipments of supplies. Shipment by sea through Chinese ports was not feasible because of Japanese control of coastal areas. Thus three avenues were used:
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 WW II in China
Of the belligerents in the War With Japan, China bore by far the greatest human costs.
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The American Volunteer Group - aka The Flying Tigers
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By 1941, the Japanese Air Force had increased its ability to interdict traffic on the Burma Road, the sole remaining avenue into China.
The United States government sanctioned and supported the creation of the AVG, the American Volunteer Group, whose core consisted of about 100 American fighter pilots, organized to fly under the Republic of China flag. The AVG was in Burma preparing for combat when the War with Japan began in December 1941. They helped protect the Burma Road area as the Japanese progressed north in Burma in the first half of 1942. Claire Chennault, the AVG commander, taught his pilots a different style of aerial combat. Rather then engaging in dogfights, they would make an initial surprise attack, and then break off combat. |
P-40 Flying Tiger Aircraft on the Flight Line
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Although their numbers were not sufficient to stem the Japanese advance, AVG tactics were overwhelmingly successful. The AVG is credited with 297 Japanese planes destroyed, with only 14 AVG pilots lost in combat.
With the loss of Burma, the AVG withdrew into the Kumning area in southwestern China, where they were transferred to the American flag, forming the nucleus of the 23rd Fighter Group, which in March 1943 then became part of the new Fourteenth Air Force, based in China and also headed by Claire Chennault.
With the loss of Burma, the AVG withdrew into the Kumning area in southwestern China, where they were transferred to the American flag, forming the nucleus of the 23rd Fighter Group, which in March 1943 then became part of the new Fourteenth Air Force, based in China and also headed by Claire Chennault.
Sources for Big Pigeon's CBI Theater > China, 1941-45 webpage:
Pottawattamie Area WWII Dead - CBI Theater > China, 1941-45:
- The China in 1941 map is courtesy of Emerson Kent.
- The WW II in China map is courtesy of The Map Archive.
- The P-40 Flying Tiger Aircraft on the Flight Line photo is courtesy of MilitaryHistoryNow.com.
Pottawattamie Area WWII Dead - CBI Theater > China, 1941-45:
- Taken from the bigpigeon.us WWII Dead module.
- The Japan Overpowered > Strategic Air War - Japan webpage has deaths from the 1944 B-29 raids from China.
- Flight H, 35th Photo Recon. Sqdn., Fourteenth Air Force; Lockheed F-5E Photo Lightning #44-23237 pilot; KIA 21 Nov 1944 over South China Sea; disappeared on triangular flight Suichuan-Nimrod Sound-Batanes Is.-Suichuan; BNR.
- 118 Tactical Recon. Sqdn., Fourteenth Air Force, based at Chengkung, China w/ advance base at Suichwan, China; North American P-51C Mustang #43-24938 pilot; KIA 28 Dec 1944, over Yangtze River, Anking, southern China; BNR.
- 16th Combat Camera Unit, based at Kumning, China; on this mission flying with 11th Bomb. Sqdn., 341st Bomb. Gp., Fourteenth Air Force, based at Yangkai, 33 miles NE of Kumning, China; North American B- 25 Mitchell #_____ with pilot John J. Wise, co-pilot Buster P. Meadows; KIA 18 Jan 1945 Chihkiang, Hunan Province, China; after bombing Puchi railroad bridge NW of Chungking, aircraft overshot runway when landing at staging base at Chihkiang ~ 300 miles SE of Chungking; three dead, four survivors.
- 373rd Bomb Sqdn., 408th Bomb. Gp., Fourteenth Air Force, based at Yangkai, 33 miles NE of Kumning, Yunnan, China; Consolidated B-24J Liberator #42-73252 flight engineer, KIA 15 Jan 1944 east of Kweilin & north of Hong Kong, China; crash after departing Kweilin on a search and rescue mission; all ten crew members died.
- 373rd Bomb. Sqdn., 308th Bomb. Gp., Fourteenth Air Force; group based at Kumning, Yunnan, China w/ squadron based at Yangkai near Kumning; Consolidated B-24 Liberator #42-40786 copilot with pilot Ruie W. Suggs; KIA 15 Sep 1943 near Kumning; five B-24s from the 373rd Bomb. Sqdn. attempted to bomb a cement works at Haiphong near Hanoi in Indo-China and were attacked by a force of around 50 Japanese fighter aircraft; three B-24s were shot down; Mallette's damaged aircraft returned to China and crashed near Kumning; all 11 or 12 on board died.
- 373rd Bomb. Sqdn., 308th Bomb. Gp., Fourteenth Air Force; squadron based apart from rest of group at Luliang Airfield, Yunnan, China; Consolidated B-24L Liberator #44-41448 pilot; KIA 11 Feb 1945; during raid against Japanese shipping in the Tonkin Gulf off French Indo-China, the aircraft developed a fuel tank leak & #3 engine fire (the one survivor reported hit by anti-aircraft fire); aircraft lost altitude & crew bailed out near Kai-Bo Is. east of Hanoi; one survivor from crew of eleven; BNR.