Chengdu Campaign

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Chengdu Campaign
Part of the Chinese Civil War, Southwestern China Campaign
DateDecember 11–27, 1949
Location Chengdu, Sichuan Province
Result Communists capture Chengdu
Belligerents
People's Liberation Army Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg
People's Liberation Army
Flag of the Republic of China Army.svg
National Revolutionary Army
Commanders and leaders
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Liu Bocheng
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg Deng Xiaoping
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg He Long
Flag of the Republic of China.svg Hu Zongnan
Strength
180th Division of PLA 60th Army NRA 55th Division

The Chengdu Campaign Chinese :成都战役 was a campaign fought between the communists and the nationalists during the Chinese Civil War in the post World War II era and resulted in communist victory and capture of Chengdu, provincial capital of the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan. The campaign was part of the Southwestern China Campaign.

Chinese language family of languages

Chinese is a group of related, but in many cases not mutually intelligible, language varieties, forming the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Chinese is spoken by the Han majority and many minority ethnic groups in China. About 1.2 billion people speak some form of Chinese as their first language.

Communist Party of China Political party of the Peoples Republic of China

The Communist Party of China (CPC), also referred to as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China. The Communist Party is the sole governing party within mainland China, permitting only eight other, subordinated parties to co-exist, those making up the United Front. It was founded in 1921, chiefly by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao. The party grew quickly, and by 1949 it had driven the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) government from mainland China after the Chinese Civil War, leading to the establishment of the People's Republic of China. It also controls the world's largest armed forces, the People's Liberation Army.

Kuomintang political party in the Republic of China

The Kuomintang of China is a major political party in the Republic of China on Taiwan, based in Taipei and is currently an opposition political party in the Legislative Yuan.

Contents

Battle of Jianmenguan

Jianmen Pass (Jianmen Guan, 剑门关) was one of the key gateways of Sichuan. There are 72 peaks in the range and the only road going through the mountains was 50 metres wide. Whoever controlled this 2 km long stretch of the road controlled the gateway of Sichuan, and the nationalists had built an elaborate system of bunkers in the area to strengthen its defense against the expected communist invasion.

Sichuan Province

Sichuan, is a province in southwest China occupying most of the Sichuan Basin and the easternmost part of the Tibetan Plateau between the Jinsha River on the west, the Daba Mountains in the north, and the Yungui Plateau to the south. Sichuan's capital city is Chengdu. The population of Sichuan stands at 81 million.

After taking the city of Guangyuan on December 14, 1949, the communists decided that Jianmen Pass (Jianmen Guan, 剑门关) must be taken. The 540th Regiment of the 180th Division of 60th Army of the communist 18th Army Group was tasked with this job and after three days of forced march of more than 40 km in the mountain, the communist 540th Regiment reached Jianmen Pass (Jianmen Guan, 剑门关). The communist 540th Regiment immediately launched its assault on the pass by first completely annihilating a company from the retreating nationalist 55th Division tasked to strengthen the defense. Later, one of the battalions of the communist regiment was sent to outflank the defenders by traversing mountain terrain which was considered impossible by the local populace, including the defenders. The other two battalions of the communist regiment crawled forward along the ravine under the cover of darkness, and by 10:00 PM, they were within 50 metres of the pass. The attackers then launched their assault in darkness under the cover of heavy fire, and with the help of the battalion that outflanked the defenders, they were able to cross the last ravine via a log and overwhelmed the defenders. With Jianmen Pass (Jianmen Guan, 剑门关) falling into enemy hands, the Nationalists had no choice but to retreat and abandon the town of Jiange (剑阁) in the afternoon of December 18, 1949.

Guangyuan Prefecture-level city in Sichuan, Peoples Republic of China

Guangyuan is a prefecture-level city in Sichuan Province, China. It has an area of 16313.78 square kilometers and a population of 2,484,123 in 2010

The Communists managed to capture over 300 prisoners-of-war and had all the remaining people killed in the fierce battle, and more importantly, the taking of Jianmen Pass (Jianmen Guan, 剑门关) secure the passage for the communists to invade deeper into the heart of Sichuan.

Order of Battle

Strength

Casualties

See also

National Revolutionary Army Nationalist Army of the Republic of China

The National Revolutionary Army (NRA), sometimes shortened to Revolutionary Army (革命軍) before 1928, and as National Army (國軍) after 1928, was the military arm of the Kuomintang from 1925 until 1947 in the Republic of China. It also became the regular army of the ROC during the KMT's period of party rule beginning in 1928. It was renamed the Republic of China Armed Forces after the 1947 Constitution, which instituted civilian control of the military.

The history of the Chinese People's Liberation Army began in 1927 with the start of the Chinese Civil War and spans to the present, having developed from a peasant guerrilla force into the largest armed force in the world.

Chinese Civil War 1927–1950 civil war in China

The Chinese Civil War was a war fought between the Kuomintang (KMT)-led government of the Republic of China and the Communist Party of China (CPC) lasting intermittently between 1927 and 1949. Although particular attention is paid to the four years of Chinese Communist Revolution from 1945 to 1949, the war actually started in August 1927, with the White Terror at the end of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's Northern Expedition, and essentially ended when major hostilities between the two sides ceased in 1950. The conflict took place in two stages: the first between 1927 and 1937, and the second from 1946 to 1950, with the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937–1945 being an interlude uniting the two sides. The war marked a major turning point in modern Chinese history, with the Communists gaining control of mainland China and establishing the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, forcing the Republic of China (ROC) to retreat to Taiwan. It resulted in a lasting political and military standoff between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, with the ROC in Taiwan and the PRC in mainland China both officially claiming to be the legitimate government of all China.

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References

Beijing Municipality in Peoples Republic of China

Beijing, formerly romanized as Peking, is the capital of the People's Republic of China, the world's third most populous city proper, and most populous capital city. The city, located in northern China, is governed as a municipality under the direct administration of central government with 16 urban, suburban, and rural districts. Beijing Municipality is surrounded by Hebei Province with the exception of neighboring Tianjin Municipality to the southeast; together the three divisions form the Jingjinji metropolitan region and the national capital region of China.

International Standard Book Number Unique numeric book identifier

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier which is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.