Defense of Sihang Warehouse

The Battle of Sihang Warehouse (Chinese: 四行倉庫保衛戰) took place from October 26 to November 1, 1937, and marked the beginning of the end of the three-month Battle of Shanghai in the opening phase of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Defenders of the warehouse held out against numerous waves of Japanese soldiers to cover Chinese forces retreating west during the Battle of Shanghai.

The Chinese defenders were composed of a single half-strength battalion from the elite German-trained 88th Division, who had fortified and occupied the large "Four Banks" (Sihang) Warehouse in the downtown Zhabei district. The warehouse's location just across the Suzhou Creek from the foreign concessions in Shanghai meant the battle took place in full view of the western powers. Tens of thousands of Chinese and Western civilians were thus able to witness the battle as it unfolded.

After enduring several days of repeated attacks by the Japanese army, the Chinese defenders were permitted to retreat into the nearby International Settlement, which they managed to do with most of their strength intact.

The defense of the warehouse and media reporting of the event provided a morale-lifting consolation to the Chinese army and people in the demoralizing aftermath of the Japanese invasion of China.

There is a lack of official archival materials and detailed battle reports regarding the battle of Sihang Warehouse from the Chinese side. The "History of the Anti-Japanese War: Battle of Shanghai" which recorded the battle from the Chinese army’s perspective with detailed day-by-day battle progress had only a small passage for the battle of Sihang Warehouse. Most of the battle process thus came from newspapers at the time and the memories of Chinese officers and soldiers of the battalion and the civilians who witnessed the battle.

Japanese sources on the Defense of Sihang Warehouse differ, which record the defense as being a relatively minor skirmish within the entire Battle of Shanghai.