Battle of Northern Burma and Western Yunnan
| Battle of Northern Burma and Western Yunnan | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Burma campaign, the South-East Asian theatre of World War II, the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific Theater of World War II | |||||||
Chinese soldiers fight along the Salween River in Burma | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
|
China United Kingdom United States |
Japan Thailand | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Long Yun Wei Li-huang Song Xilian Sun Li-jen |
Masakazu Kawabe Heitarō Kimura | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
Western Claim : 400,000 Chinese Claim : X Force (Chinese army in India) : 60,266 troops Y Force (Second Chinese Expeditionary Force) : 153,441 troops |
Western Claim : 150,000 Chinese Claim : In Northern Burma : 60,408 troops In Western Yunnan : 33,822 troops | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
Western Claim : 107,000 Chinese Claim : Chinese army in India : 12,729 or 18,609 killed, wounded, or missing Second Chinese Expeditionary Force : 31,443 killed and 35,948 wounded |
Western Claim : 108,000 (at least 30,000 Japanese soldiers dead)
Counterattack against the Second Chinese Expeditionary Force (29 April until 5 July 1944):
First phase of the 'Disrupt' operation (6 July until 5 October 1944) :
2nd division :
Second phase of the 'Disrupt' operation (5 October 1944 until 26 January 1945):
Total :
| ||||||
Battle of Northern Burma and Western Yunnan (Chinese: 滇西緬北戰役 October 1943 – March 1945) was the name of the Chinese campaign with their allies in the 1943–45 Burma Campaign. The campaign ended in an Allied victory.
It is one of the large-scale battles of the Second Sino-Japanese War, located in the border area between Yunnan Province, China and northern Myanmar, starting at the beginning of December 1943. The purpose of the battle is to open up the China-India Highway. At the end of March 1945, the Chinese Expeditionary Force, the British Army, and Merrill's Marauders joined forces in Muse, Burma (Myanmar), while the Japanese Army lost the North Burma Stronghold.
The Allied Forces were jointly formed by the troops of China, the United States and the United Kingdom. Among them, the Chinese participating forces included the Chinese Army in India and the Chinese Expeditionary Force. The commander-in-chief of the campaign was General Wei Lihuang of the Chinese National Army, and the deputy commander of the campaign was General Joseph Stilwell of the US Army. The main force of the Japanese army was the Japanese Burmese front. The commander of the battle was Masakazu Kawabe, then Heitaro Kimura, later Shinichi Tanaka and others. The total strength was 200,000-400,000 for Allied and 90,000-150,000 for Japan.
The Battle of Northern Myanmar and Western Yunnan lasted one and a half years. At the cost of more than 80,000 casualties, the Allies claimed to have killed more than 30,000 Japanese soldiers, reopened southwest China to the Burma Road, and recovered all the lost land on the west bank of the Salween River in western Yunnan.