The following units and commanders fought in the Defense of the Great Wall of the Second Sino-Japanese War. List as of 20 March 1933.
The Japanese and Manchukuoan order of battle for Operation Nekka was:
The Manchukuo Imperial Army was the ground force of the military of the Manchukuo, a puppet state established by Imperial Japan in Manchuria, a region of northeastern China. The force was primarily used for fighting against Communist and Nationalist guerrillas in Manchukuo but also took part in battle against the Soviet Red Army on several occasions. It initially consisted of former National Revolutionary Army troops of the "Young Marshal" Zhang Xueliang who were recruited after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria en masse, but eventually expanded to include new volunteers and conscripts. The Imperial Army increased in size from about 111,000 troops in 1933 to an estimated strength of between 170,000 and 220,000 soldiers at its peak in 1945, being composed of Han Chinese, Manchus, Mongols, Koreans, Japanese, and White Russians. Throughout its existence the majority of its troops were considered to be mostly unreliable by their Japanese officers and advisers, due to poor training and low morale.
Ma Zhanshan was a Chinese general famous for resisting the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Ma was placed in charge of the Northeastern Army in Heilongjiang Province during the invasion and ignored orders from the central government not to resist the Japanese. He became a national hero in China by fighting the unsuccessful but highly symbolic Jiangqiao campaign against the Kwantung Army's advance into Heilongjiang. After his defeat, he feigned defection to the Japanese and was appointed Minister of War in the new Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. He then joined and took command of the guerrilla campaign against Japanese occupation, taking with him large amounts of supplies, funds, and military intelligence. Ma Zhanshan rejoined the Northeastern Army after the guerilla movement was largely defeated. He continued to oppose Chiang Kai-shek's policy of non-resistance and supported the Xi'an Incident that forced Chiang to form the Second United Front with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He commanded several units in the National Revolutionary Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War while covertly cooperating with the CCP. Ma avoided direct participation in the postwar Chinese Civil War and eventually defected to the Communists, dying a year later in 1950.
The Empire of Japan's Kwantung Army invaded Manchuria on 18 September 1931, immediately following the Mukden Incident. At the war's end in February 1932, the Japanese established the puppet state of Manchukuo. Their occupation lasted until the success of the Soviet Union and Mongolia with the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation in mid-August 1945, towards the end of the Second World War.
The Defense of Harbin occurred during the early Second Sino-Japanese War, as part of the campaign of the Invasion of Manchuria by forces of the Empire of Japan from 25 January to 4 February 1932.
Ding Chao was a military general of the Republic of China, known for his defense of Harbin during the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and 1932.
The Pacification of Manchukuo was a Japanese counterinsurgency campaign to suppress any armed resistance to the newly established puppet state of Manchukuo from various anti-Japanese volunteer armies in occupied Manchuria and later the Communist Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army. The operations were carried out by the Imperial Japanese Kwantung Army and the collaborationist forces of the Manchukuo government from March 1932 until 1942, and resulted in a Japanese victory.
Feng Zhanhai, or Feng Chan-hai, was one of the leaders of the volunteer armies resisting the Japanese and the puppet state of Manchukuo in northeast China. Feng was born on November 6, 1899. At eighteen he joined the Dongbei Army, and later entered a military school graduating in 1921. After he graduated, he was successively a platoon leader, company commander, and battalion commander. At the time of the Mukden Incident and Japanese invasion of northeast China he was a colonel commanding a regiment of the Jilin Guards Division.
Li Du (Chinese: 李杜; pinyin: Lǐ Dù; Wade–Giles: Li3 Tu4; 1880–1956) was a leading general in the Jilin Self-Defence Army (JSDA). The JSDA was one of the Anti-Japanese volunteer armies led by general Ma Zhanshan which resisted the Empire of Japan's invasion of northeast China in 1932.
Wang Delin was a bandit, soldier, and leader of the National Salvation Army resisting the Japanese pacification of Manchukuo.
Zhou Baozhong was a commander of the 88th Separate Rifle Brigade and Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army resisting the pacification of Manchukuo by the Empire of Japan.
The Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army was the main anti-Japanese guerrilla army in Northeast China (Manchuria) after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931. Its predecessors were various anti-Japanese volunteer armies organized by locals and the Manchuria branches of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In February 1936, the CCP, in accordance with the instructions of the Communist International, issued The Declaration of the Unified Organization of Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army and marked the official formation of the organization.
Yang Jingyu, born Ma Shangde, was a Chinese communist, military commander and political commissar who led the First Route Army of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. His troops waged a guerrilla war against Japanese forces in Manchukuo (Manchuria) who were attempting to suppress resistance in the region.
Li Zhaolin 李兆麟 (1910-1946), known earlier as Li Chaolan 李超兰, was the founder and leader of the 3rd Route Army, a division of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army in the Second Sino-Japanese War.
The Inner Mongolian campaign in the period from 1933 to 1936 were part of the ongoing invasion of northern China by the Empire of Japan prior to the official start of hostilities in the Second Sino-Japanese War. In 1931, the invasion of Manchuria secured the creation of the puppet state of Manchukuo and in 1933, Operation Nekka detached the province of Rehe from the Republic of China. Blocked from further advance south by the Tanggu Truce, the Imperial Japanese Army turned its attention west, towards the Inner Mongolian provinces of Chahar and Suiyuan, with the goal of establishing a northern China buffer state. In order to avoid overt violation of the Truce, the Japanese government used proxy armies in these campaigns while Chinese resistance was at first only provided by Anti-Japanese resistance movement forces in Chahar. The former included in the Inner Mongolian Army, the Manchukuo Imperial Army, and the Grand Han Righteous Army. Chinese government forces were overtly hostile to the anti-Japanese resistance and resisted Japanese aggression only in Suiyuan in 1936.
Kong Xianrong, one of Wang Delin's companions who had been with him for many years as a bandit, was made one of Wang's company commanders along with Wu Yicheng, when Wang was taken into the Kirin Provincial army and became a battalion commander. When Wang Delin refused to submit to the Japanese during the invasion of Manchuria and formed the Chinese People's National Salvation Army. Kong became a commander within one of the largest and most successful of the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies.
Following the defeat of the forces of Ding Chao at Harbin in February 1932, Feng Zhanhai withdrew his forces to Shanhetun, a village in the Wuchang District. He then called for volunteers, and the Public Safety Bureaus in the local districts turned over to them their police and militia, and established Feng as the General in command of a force, the Northeastern Loyal and Brave Army, of 15,000 men in the hills with the capital of Jilin City to his south and the metropolis of Harbin to his north. There he was able to wreak havoc on the Japanese rail communications on the Chinese Eastern Railway running through his area of control.
The order of battle Chahar People's Anti-Japanese Allied Army in the Inner Mongolia campaign of 1933.
Aisin-Gioro Xiqia (Aisin-Gioro Hsi-hsia; Chinese: 愛新覺羅·熙洽; pinyin: Àixīnjuéluó Xīqià; Wade–Giles: Ai4-hsin1-chüeh2-lo2 Hsi1-ch'ia4; 1883–1950), commonly known as Xi Qia or Xi Xia (Hsi Hsia; Chinese: 熙洽; pinyin: Xīqià; Wade–Giles: Hsi1-hsia4; Hepburn: Ki Kō), was a general in command of the Jilin Provincial Army of the Republic of China, who defected to the Japanese during the Invasion of Manchuria in 1931, and who subsequently served as a cabinet minister in Manchukuo.
