On June 11 Lin's forces returned to Siping and began to engage and besiege it.
By focusing on defense he effectively adopted a reactionary position and lost the initiative of the campaign. įollowing his forces' defeat in the summer of 1947, Du reorganized his forces into six divisions, and focused on the defense of Changchun, Jilin City, Siping (which was already under siege) and West Liaoning, which was necessary to maintain communication with Beiping and Nanjing. When Du requested reinforcements from Chiang Kai-shek, his request was rejected. When Du sent his forces back south to attack the Communist headquarters at Linjiang, they fell into an ambush and were destroyed. When Du sent forces north, Communist forces in the south advanced and besieged Du's forces at Tonghua. While the Communists did so they looted large quantities of supplies and destroyed the infrastructure of the KMT-held territories that they passed through, including bridges, railroads, fortifications, electrical lines, and boats. When Du led his forces south, Lin Biao ordered 20,000 of his soldiers to cross the Songjiang River, where they staged guerrilla raids, ambushed relief forces, attacked isolated garrisons, and avoided decisive confrontations with strong and well-prepared armies that Du had sent to counterattack them. The ceasefire held in Northeast China until January 1947, when Du led the majority of his forces to attack Communist forces on the Korean border in January 1947. Du's victory in Siping led to a general ceasefire across China brokered by George Marshall, during which Du consolidated his communication and supply lines. His advance was eventually halted at the south bank of the Songhua River due to concerns about overextending his forces. Following the Communist withdrawal he pursued them, capturing Gongzhuling on May 21 and Changchun on May 23. Fighting resumed in April 1946, and in May Du defeated Lin Biao in the Battle of Siping. Later, on November 22, he retook the strategic city of Jinzhou, which forced Communist forces to temporarily abandon any attempts to take major cities in the region and to agree to a temporary ceasefire. In November 1945 he retook strategic positions around Shanhaiguan from Communist forces. After the civil war resumed in 1945, Du was able to win a number of victories.
Du was then transferred to the Northeast Theatre to consolidate Kuomintang control. Because he was acting on the orders of Chiang Kai-shek when he withdrew to China, he was not punished for the outcome of the campaign.Īfter the war, Du helped strengthen the Nationalist position in the Southwest by removing Long Yun, the local warlord of Yunnan, in October 1945. Most of the men who followed Du died in the Burmese jungle of tropical disease and starvation or were killed by Axis forces, while Sun's army retreated in an orderly fashion into India. Du fell back to China despite General Sun Li-Jen's advice that, because the route back to China was hazardous, he should instead retreat with the British to India. When the British Army collapsed and abandoned Burma under Japanese pressure, Du was forced to order a hastily planned withdrawal that resulted in the loss of 50,000 Chinese soldiers. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, he was the creator and first commander of the 200th Division, China's first mechanized division, and later commanded the KMT 5th Corps in the First Changsha Campaign, and Battle of South Guangxi.ĭuring World War II, he commanded the same 5th Corps of the Nationalist Fifth Army of the Chinese Expeditionary Force in Burma in the Battle of Yunnan-Burma Road from mid March to early June 1942, during the Burma Campaign under Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell. He was released in 1959, and given a position in the Communist government.īiography Early Military Career Ī trusted protégé of Chiang Kai-shek, Du was a graduate of the first cadet class at the Whampoa Military Academy. Despite his successes, Chiang relieved him from command in 1947, after which Communist forces quickly took control of the region.ĭu was captured later in the civil war and spent a decade as a prisoner of war. After the Japanese surrendered in 1945, he was an important commander in the Chinese Civil War.įrom 1945-47 Du commanded Nationalist forces in Northeast China and won several important battles against Communist forces there, including defeating the Communist general Lin Biao twice at Siping. He was a graduate of the first class of Whampoa Academy, took part in Chiang's Northern Expedition, and was active in southern China and in the Burma theatre of the Sino-Japanese War. 5th corps, 2nd army, Xuzhou Forward Command Centerĭu Yuming ( Chinese: 杜聿明 pinyin: Dù Yùmíng Wade–Giles: Tu Yü-ming 28 November 1904 – ), was a Kuomintang field commander.