vstars Chapter 436
Chapter 436
14th Army
It was ordered to be formed in early August 1937. The first commander-in-chief of the army group was Wei Lihuang. Its basic unit, the 14th Army, was the direct line of the Central Army, under which were the 10th, 83rd and 85th Divisions. The army group was the first direct line unit of the Kuomintang Central Committee to enter North China to fight after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan. It fought against Japan in the Pingxi area and was under the jurisdiction of the First War Zone.
Combat situation
In September 1937, to bolster Shanxi's capabilities against the Japanese, the group army entered Shanxi via the Shijiazhuang-Taiyuan Railway and was transferred to the Second War Zone. Shortly thereafter, the 9th Army joined the group army's battle order. The group army participated in the famous Battle of Xinkou, serving as the main force of the Central Group. Ninth Army Commander Hao Mengling, 54th Division Commander Liu Jiaqi, and 5th Independent Brigade Commander Zheng Tingzhen were all killed in the fierce fighting. After this battle, the group army retreated to southeastern Shanxi. The 93rd and 98th Armies also served in its battle order.
In October 1939, Liu Maoen was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the 14th Group Army, commanding its core units, the 15th Army, Gao Guizi's 17th Army, Pei Changhui's 9th Army, and Fan Hanjie's 27th Army. These units remained stationed in the Zhongtiao Mountain area of southern Shanxi, under the command of the Second War Zone. In early 1941, all troops in the Zhongtiao Mountain War Zone were transferred to the First War Zone. Following the Zhongtiao Mountain Campaign in late spring 1941, the group army retreated across the Yellow River and stationed in Henan. By the summer of 1944, Liu Maoen remained Commander-in-Chief of the group army, commanding only the 15th Army and Xie Fusan's Provisional 4th Army.
In the spring of 1944, the Japanese launched the Henan-Hunan-Guangxi Campaign. The 14th Army Group fought tenaciously against the Japanese offensive in the Battle of Luoyang. By the end of 1944, the 14th Army Group was disbanded, and its subordinate units came under the command of the Shangnan Command Post of the First War Zone.
Fifth Army of the National Revolutionary Army
It was ordered to be formed in mid-August 1937. The first commander-in-chief of the army group was Gu Zhutong and the deputy commander-in-chief was Shangguan Yunxiang. It was under the command of the Eighth Army, the First Army, the 26th Army, the 57th Army and other units, and was under the command of the Fifth War Zone. After the outbreak of the Battle of Shanghai, the Eighth Army, the First Army and others were incorporated into the combat sequence of other army groups, and Gu Zhutong was also transferred to the deputy commander-in-chief of the Third War Zone to directly command the Battle of Shanghai.
In the summer of 1938, Yu Xuezhong was appointed commander-in-chief of the Fifth Army, commanding its core 51st Army and Song Xilian's 71st Army. At the end of 1938, Yu Xuezhong was ordered to lead his troops to form the Lu-Jiangsu War Zone. The Fifth Army was later transferred to the Second War Zone and formed from Chinese troops stationed in the Zhongtiao Mountains of southern Shanxi. Zeng Wanzhong was the commander-in-chief, and Liu Maoen was the deputy commander-in-chief. Under its command were the Third Yunnan Army, a unit of Zhu Peide's system that had existed since the Northern Expedition; Liu Maoen's 15th Henan indigenous army; and Gao Guizi's 17th Shaanxi indigenous army. Its core unit was the Third Army.
In early 1941, the Fifth Army and its Zhongtiaoshan Theater Command were transferred to the First Theater Command. At this point, the Fifth Army commanded only the Third and 98th Armies. In the summer of 1941, during the Battle of Zhongtiaoshan, the Fifth Army's headquarters and its main force, the Third Army, suffered a crushing defeat. The Third Army's commander, Tang Huaiyuan, and the commander of the 12th Division, the army's main force, Cun Xingqi, along with numerous officers and non-commissioned officers, were killed. In late summer 1941, the 98th Army suffered defeat in combat with the Japanese, with its commander, Wu Shimin, killed on September 29. The army's designation was subsequently revoked.
After April 1943, the Fifth Army's designation was restored at its Kunming headquarters, with Du Yuming as its commander-in-chief. It comprised the Fifth and Eighth Armies, among other units. Its core unit was the Fifth Army, the first mechanized unit of the Chinese Army and a mobile, primary combat force directly under the Military Commission. At the end of 1939, it used Soviet-style equipment to completely annihilate the 21st Brigade of the Japanese Fifth Division at Kunlun Pass in Guangxi, killing its commander, Masao Nakamura. Later, it participated in the First Burma Expedition. Dai Anlan, a renowned general who died in the war against the Japanese, commanded the 200th Division of the Fifth Army.