Shanghai 1937

More war!  More battle! And more China!   In particular, Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze, by Peter Harmsen.   First off, it’s a good book in terms of identifying the parties involved, describing their backgrounds, and succinctly telling us what happened in terms of battles, units, casualties, etc.  Bravo.   I can recommend the book to anyone. 

However, I do have to take major issue with the author’s comparison with the battle of Stalingrad.

First, here’s what happened in Shanghai. In July 1937, the Japanese military presence in China was up in Manchuria, the northeastern part they really wanted.  Plus they were worried that Stalin would come down into Manchuria: 30 years after the Russo-Japanese War, and these two countries were still at it.  Anyhow.  The Chinese Generalissimo (Supreme Political and Military Leader) Chiang Kai Shek got the great idea to throw his best German-trained divisions into a street fighting meat grinder to take out the Japanese in downtown Shanghai.  In other words, a war of attrition in a city area which would hopefully destroy the Japanese presence in China.   This sounds more like the Germans’ plans for Verdun in World War I.

            Unfortunately for CKS, things didn’t work out as he planned.  The street fighting ate up his elite divisions like snow in July.  Fighting from heavily fortified positions, the Japanese were able to defend their urban sectors fairly easily.  Plus they had more aircraft, AND the Chinese Air Force was afraid of any anti-aircraft, so as soon as the flak went off, the Chinese pilots turned away and dropped their bombs nowhere close to the Japanese.   For their part, the Japanese also had several heavy cruisers on the river which provided artillery support to the Japanese forces in the city. 

            To make matters worse, the Chinese troops wasted fighting in downtown Shanghai were CKS’s elite, German trained forces, complete with M35 helmets, Mauser rifles, AND German advisors; miraculously, none of the advisors were killed in the battle. 

Second, the Japanese pulled some troops from Taiwan, some from Manchuria, some from home, landed them northeast and south of Shanghai, out in the countryside, sent them off to link up with each other, and proceeded to encircle Shanghai anyway.  Aside from one unit holding one building for propaganda purposes – which eventually ran into the International Settlement – the rest of the Chinese forces caught inside Shanghai had to run west to avoid being caught in the city. 

So the whole thing A) wiped out CKS’s best forces in street battles and B) essentially gave the Japanese Shanghai.   The most that could be said is that the Japanese did suffer heavy casualties in some specific engagements, but not enough to make a big difference. 

Let’s compare that with Stalingrad.   The Germans invaded Russia in June 1941.  They hoped to take Moscow by December, but were thrown back by elite Siberian units.  A temporary setback, but the Germans weren’t out of the equation yet.  In 1942 they resumed the offensive again.  By August, they reached Stalingrad, which is in southeast European Russia (west of the Urals) on the Volga river.  They bombed and shelled the city, and conquered all but the last sliver of territory on the west bank of the Volga.  Because of this, the Russians were able to resupply their forces on the west bank…from the east bank, although the Stukas tried to stop them.

            By November, the situation had changed.  Outside Stalingrad, the Red Army attacked the German flanks – mainly unhappy Italians and Romanians with no heavy weapons – and succeeded at surrounding the city.  The German pocket of the Sixth Army, containing roughly 250,000 men, was a large oval with Stalingrad proper on its eastern edge; the rest was open space.   Hitler forbade the Sixth Army from trying to break out.  Relief armies which tried to break the Soviet ring were smashed aside, and threatened with encirclement themselves.   Goering claimed the Luftwaffe could supply the Sixth Army by air, but couldn’t come close to getting the job done. 

            Finally, in February 1943, von Paulus, the commander of the Sixth Army, had to surrender.   Game over for the Sixth Army.   Oddly, even THAT didn’t end the Germans’ chances of winning the Eastern Front war.  It was a final battle in August 1943, Kursk – the largest tank battle in history – which finally blunted the Germans and forced them on the defensive.   But even then, it took until May 1945 – almost two years later – for the Nazis to fall.  Even in January 1945, the Red Army was still only in Poland. 

            So, how was Shanghai like Stalingrad?   The Japanese were the invaders.   Chiang Kai Shek allowed his men to escape the Japanese encirclement – with what forces were left, except for one division kept in one building as a symbolic gesture of resistance.  Moreover, Shanghai had a huge international settlement: the eyes of the world, through Western and American journalists, could observe the battle taking place blocks away.  Nothing like that occurred in Stalingrad, deep within a totalitarian dictatorship.  Street fighting + encirclement does not make a strong comparison.  Each battle needs to be viewed and considered on its own merits.