Battle of Changsha

The First Battle of Changsha (17 September 1939 – 6 October 1939; ) was the first of four attempts by Japan to take the city of Changsha, Hunan, during the second Sino-Japanese War. Coming two weeks after Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1st, it was the first major battle of the war to fall within the time frame of what is widely considered World War II. Background and strategy The war had reached a stalemate after two years of fighting. Professor Fu Sinian noted in July 1939 that while the Chinese army had become stronger, the Japanese army had weakened. On 15 August, the 11th Army came up with the general plans for a campaign south of the Yangtze, ranging from the Xinjiang River to the Gan River. In early September, Japanese General Toshizō Nishio of the "Japanese Expeditionary Forces to China" and Lieutenant-General Seishirō Itagaki set out to capture Changsha, the provincial capital of Hunan. The Japanese 101st and 106th Divisions were deployed on the western bank of the Gan River in northern Jiangxi, and the 6th, 3rd, 13th, and 33rd Divisions marched southward from southern Hubei to northern Hunan. Two of the primary motivating factors for the Japanese in launching the attack were the signing of a non-aggression pact by their German ally with their Soviet enemy, and their defeat by Soviet forces at Nomonhan. A large attack on the Chinese would therefore restore morale. In addition, Germany's invasion of Poland starting on 1 September 1939 gave the Japanese further motivation to crush China's will to fight in order to pave the way for the establishment of Wang Jingwei's puppet government in Central China.