Taierzhuang.

This is coolbert:

From the Military Thoughts blog we have from quite a long time ago now an entry regarding the Battle of Wuhan. An epic struggle from the Second Sino-Japanese War.

"A battle of the most momentous proportions. An epic fight on the scale of a Stalingrad?? NOW, forgotten?"

"The Battle of Wuhan . . . was a large-scale battle of the Second Sino-Japanese War. More than one million National Revolutionary Army [the Nationalists] troops were gathered, with Chiang Kai-shek himself in command, to defend Wuhan from the Imperial Japanese Army . . . It lasted four and half months, and was the longest, largest and one of the most significant battles of the entire Second Sino-Japanese War."

Wuhan - - those superlatives of "longest, largest and one of the most significant" all applying and characterized by myself as forgotten to history. Stalingrad in the east, not even as a footnote  now!

Better characterized perhaps as a figurative and not a literal Stalingrad? Enormous masses of troops, protracted fighting of the most intense and decisive nature, apocalyptic in nature, brutal cave-man like warfare the use of poison gas by the Japanese being commonplace, Wuhan best seen only as a Pyrrhic victory for the Japanese.

[release from the highest echelons of the Japanese command [from the Emperor himself] being required over and over before the gas used. To that extent the Emperor guilty of war crimes as understood during the war and even now!!]

Wuhan again better understood as a figurative Stalingrad and not literal.

"FIGURATIVE - - 2. metaphorical b : characterized by figures of speech"

More correctly so, read Page 1, Page 2 and an Interview from the Numistamp web site descriptions of a literal Stalingrad from that same Second Sino-Japanese War.

The Battle of Taierzhuang. A resounding defeat for the Imperial Japanese Army [IJA], until just recently the likes of which I had no knowledge of!

Taierzhuang seemingly the archetype upon which the Soviet in a purposeful and successful manner based the entire Stalingrad campaign?

"archetype - - classic exemplar, form, ideal, model, original, paradigm, pattern, perfect specimen, prime example, prototype, standard"

"ar·che·type - - noun 1. the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or first form; prototype."

That Taierzhuang is the archetype upon which the entire Stalingrad campaign was based is NOT wishful thinking. Both Zhukov and Chuikov would have more than familiar with the battle, the possibilities of forestalling an enemy attack with urban combat combined with the operational art of the double envelopment as exemplified by Taierzhuang! What occurred at Stalingrad did not develop in an organic manner but was part of an overall strategy planned?

Again, the Nationalist Chinese have been portrayed in the history books and are generally thought of as being less than spirited, lackadaisical, half-hearted, and not pursuing the war against the Japanese with vigor? The Nationalists are seen as having been corrupt, inefficient, NOT worthy of American support, more interested in fighting the communists under Mao rather than the Japanese. Far from true, the Nationalists hardly lacking in fighting spirit but rather inspired and formidable both on offense and defense!

coolbert.