World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseThe Lugou Bridge Incident
7 Jul

ww2dbaseBeginning in late Jun 1937, the Japanese Kwangtung Army in the puppet state of Manchukuo located in northeastern China performed a large-scale military exercise near the Chinese border west of the Lugou Bridge (Marco Polo Bridge). While the military exercise in China was allowed per the 15 Jul 1902 supplemental agreement to the Boxer Protocol, the Japanese garrison size in the region was somewhere between 7,000 and 15,000, which was over the limit set by the protocol. In the night of 6 Jul 1937, unlike previous exercises, the Japanese Army failed to inform the local Chinese authorities that a night exercise was underway, leading to the Chinese forces mistakenly regarding the Japanese movement as a raid, and a few of the Chinese soldiers fired a number of ineffective rifle shots at the direction of the Japanese. At about 2300 hours, a small exchange of fire took place between the two sides. Very soon after, Japanese Kwangtung Army Major Kiyonao Ichiki reported that one of his soldiers failed to return. Suspecting that the soldier was captured by the Chinese, regimental commanding officer Colonel Renya Mutaguchi placed a telephone call to Colonel Ji Xingwen of the 219th Regiment, 37th Division, Chinese 29th Route Army, demanding that his troops be allowed to enter Chinese territory to search for the missing soldier; the request was rejected by the Chinese. At 2340, General Qin Dechun of the Chinese 29th Route Army was contacted by Japanese military intelligence with the same demand, and he also denied the request, but offered that he would dispatch his troops in the morning to search for the missing soldier; meanwhile, Qin ordered General Feng Zhian of the 37th Division to enter heightened alert. Before daybreak, the missing Japanese soldier turned up, though none of the senior officers at the regimental level were informed. At 0330 in the morning of 8 Jul 1937, four Japanese mountain guns and a machine gun company arrived in the area in preparation for hostilities. At about 0450, General Qin allowed two Japanese investigators to cross the border into the town of Wanping, where the missing soldier was suspected to be held. At 0500, Japanese machine guns opened fire at Chinese positions, while armored cars and infantrymen attacked the Lugou Bridge and a nearby railroad bridge. Colonel Ji and the 1,000 men under him defended Lugou Bridge, which was taken by the Japanese for a brief period on 8 Jul, but in the morning of 9 Jul, at about 0600, Chinese troops were able to retake it.

ww2dbaseIn Tokyo, Japan, Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe held a cabinet meeting on 8 Jul in order to cool the tension and avert a full scale war. In China, Japanese military intelligence had also reached a verbal agreement for a ceasefire with General Qin, but Japanese China Garrison Infantry Brigade commander General Masakazu Kawabe refused to recognize the verbal agreement, and ordered his men to continue to shell the town of Wanping with artillery, which lasted for another three hours after the verbal agreement was reached. Kawabe's aggressive sentiment mirrored that of Japanese Army leadership in Tokyo, which wished to escalate the situation. The Japanese Army deployed an infantry division from the Japanese Chosen Army in Korea, two brigades from the Kwangtung Army, and an air regiment as reinforcement to the Lugou Bridge region. Political pressure caused the army leadership to rescind the reinforcements order on 11 Jul. On 12 Jul, Lieutenant General Kanichiro Tashiro of the Japanese China Garrison Army died from illness; General Kiyoshi Katsuki was named his successor. Katsuki ordered the shelling of Wanping to start again on 14 Jul.

ww2dbaseThe Lugou Bridge Incident is also referred to by a number of names, including Marco Polo Bridge Incident, and 7 Jul Incident (qi qi shibian). It is the official start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and is wide recognized as the start of WW2 in China.

ww2dbaseThe Battle of Beiping-Tianjin
25 Jul-8 Aug

ww2dbaseOn 25 Jul, Japanese 20th Division arrived at the city of Langfang, which was on the railroad between Beiping and Tianjin, where the first major battle took place. On 26 Jul, a Japanese brigade attacked the Guanghua Gate of the Beiping city wall, supported by aircraft bombardment. On 27 Jul, as the Japanese laid siege to Chinese forces in Tungchow, one Chinese battalion broke out and fell back to Nanyuan.

ww2dbaseOn 28 Jul, the 20th Division and three independent combined brigades, with air support, launched an offensive against Beiping. The main objective was Nanyuan, and the secondary was Beiyuan. In this fighting, General Tong Linge (deputy commander of 29th Route Army) and General Zhao Dengyu (commander of 132nd Division) were both killed as Chinese forces generally suffered one defeat after another, though small tactical victories were achieved which slowed Japanese advances. During the night of 28 Jul, General Song Zheyuan, head of the Hebei-Chahar Political Council and commanding officer of the 29th Route Army, declared defeat and ordered his troops to withdraw southward. The civilian mayor of Tianjin was left in Beiping to take charge of political affairs in Hebei and Chahar Provinces with only General Liu Ruzhen's 29th Brigade in support to maintain public order. On 29 Jul, the city of Tianjin was attacked separately by the Japanese Army 5th Division and Japanese naval forces. Chinese troops in Tianjin held on to the city until 30 Jul before being ordered to retreat. On 4 Aug, General Liu Ruzhen's 29th Brigade withdrew from Beiping. Virtually undefended by this time, the Japanese entered Beiping on 8 Aug. General Masakazu Kawabe entered Beiping on 18 Aug and proclaimed himself the military governor of the city.

ww2dbaseThe Tongzhou Mutiny
29 Jul

ww2dbaseThe Japanese maintained the puppet East Hebei Government in eastern Hebei Province, China, with its capital in the city of Tongzhou. Tongzhou was also known by its official Chinese name of Tong Xian ("Tong County") as of 1914 when the Chinese government placed it under the jurisdiction of the city of Beiping as a subordinate county. Due to its status as the puppet government's capital city, the historical name of Tongzhou ("Tong City") was restored.

ww2dbaseOn 28 Jul, when the 800-strong Chinese detachment was nearly wiped out by the Japanese outside of Tongzhou, 5,000 Japanese-trained East Hebei Army troops mutinied against the Japanese. As they outnumbered Japanese personnel in the city, East Hebei troops soon took control and went into a killing frenzy and soon became out of control. Hundreds of Japanese military personnel, Japanese civilians, and Korean civilians working for the Japanese were massacred, and many Japanese women in the city were raped, and some were murdered. Much of the city was burned down. Only 60 Japanese civilians survived. The Japanese government used this massacre to justify the provocation of war with China.

Lugou Bridge Incident and Second Battle of Hebei Interactive Map

Photographs

Maps

Lugou Bridge Incident and Second Battle of Hebei Timeline

Visitor Submitted Comments

Show older comments