CHINESE LINES HOLD SOUTH OF KIUKIANG (8/2/38)

Microfiche-New York Times archives | 8/2/38 | No byline

[Homer_J_Simpson]

CHINESE LINES HOLD SOUTH OF KIUKIANG

Japanese Push Three Columns Westward in Fierce Battle on Both Sides of Yangtze

CAVALRY MOVE REPULSED

Spokesman Claims Defense of Hankow Is Weakened but Civilians Are Mobilized

Wireless to THE NEW YORK TIMES. HANKOW, China, Tuesday, Aug. 2.-Japenese attacks are making little headway against Chinese positions southeast of Kiukiang and along the western shores of Poyang Lake, reports received here from the Yangtze front indicate.

The Japanese also have made little progress in clearing out Chinese troops from the Lushan and Kwanglu Mountains southeast of Kiukiang by attacks from the north and west. Kuling is reported still quiet. It is claimed that the Japanese have suffered heavy casualties in the recent Yangtze front operations.

The Japanese air force yesterday bombed Chinese fortifications along the Yangtze.

General Chang Chun, former Foreign Minister, was yesterday appointed director general of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s headquarters for Szechwan, Kweichow and Sikang and simultaneously relieved of the Governorship of Szechwan.

This position is very important as regards consolidation of the Central Government’s position in West China, and its responsibilities include supervision and direction of political affairs, maintenance of peace and order and construction of defense works.

Garrison headquarters here reports that 200,000 Wuhan civilians have been mobilized and assigned to auxiliary military duties in connection with the defense of the Hankow area. Headquarters issues this report as evidence of the concrete measures being taken to mobilize the Wuhan populace for a determined and united defense.

Big Battle Is Raging SHANGHAI, Tuesday, Aug. 2 (AP).-One of the biggest battles of the Chinese-Japanese war in Central China appeared to be under way today on both sides of the Yangtze River in the vicinity of Kiukiang, 135 miles downriver from Hankow.

Despite large-scale fighting in which Japan’s combined land, naval and air forces hammered at the Chinese defenders, the Japanese admitted that a fierce conflict still was continuing south of Kiukiang, with the Chinese line unbroken.

The Japanese said that their forces were pounding forward north of the river in the Kiukiang area, but they admitted that gains were small. They said that the principal struggle in that sector was northwest of Taihu, near the western border of Anhwei Province.

Northeast of Kiukiang Japanese cavalry fought to within a mile of Susung, but was repulsed.

Latest dispatches from the front said that the Japanese immediately threw in two regiments of reinforcements and renewed the assault, while the Chinese attacked all along the line to Taienshan, thirty miles to the north.

A second Japanese column was advancing directly westward from Kiukiang and a third was attempting to break through Chinese lines at Shahochen, just south of Kiukiang.

Warships Aid Drive

The drive was aided by Japanese warships in Lake Poyang, which bombarded Chinese positions along the lake shore.

In Shansi and Honan Provinces and along the Peiping-Hankow and Tientsin-Pukow Railways widespread daily clashes continued.

Sporadic artillery duels and skirmishes also were daily occurrences across the Tsien Tang River from Hangchow, southwest of Shanghai in Chekiang Province.

The Fourth Route Army, cooperating with guerrillas, was increasingly active in the Lake Tai area, west of Shanghai, and along the Shanghai-Nanking and the Shanghai-Hangchow Railways.

Japanese military authorities carried out extensive raids in Pootung, industrial area across the Whangpoo river from Shanghai, arresting twenty men and women suspected as terrorists, and confiscating thirty guns and eight bombs.

Claim Defense WeakenedSpecial Cable to THE NEW YORK TIMES. SHANGHAI, Tuesday, Aug. 2.-The Japanese capture of Kiukiang is already seriously affecting the Chinese plans for the defense of the Hankow-Wuchang region, a Japanese Army spokesman announced last night.

He declared that fresh troops from the Wuhan area are at present being thrown into the area west of Kiukiang, where Japanese troops are engaging a portion of the Fourth Army of the Chinese.

An important break in the main line of Chinese defenses in the Hankow area was claimed also when it was asserted that the Japanese advance had battered in the north gate of the walled town of Susung last night and captured the town.

Japanese aerial observers at dawn this morning reported that the Chinese forces in the surrounding area appeared in full retreat. Susung is an important strategic point.

Japanese also claim control of Hwangmei, north of Kiukiang, and from this point an excellent motor road leads to Hankow. Chinese sources, however, say that already many of its bridges have been dynamited and portions of the highway flooded in order to impede the Japanese advance.

Eighth Army Reported Caught HSINKING, Manchukuo, Tuesday, Aug. 2 (AP).-Officials of the Kwantung Army [Japanese Army of occupation in Manchukuo] said that the Chinese Eighth Army (Communist) which invaded Western Jehol Province in Manchukuo by way of Hopeh and Chahar Provinces in North China was now bottled up and unable to reach outer Mongolia.

The Chinese forces were checked, it was claimed, only after months of depredations during which two Japanese planes were shot down.

Nanking Trains Propagandists SHANGHAI, Aug 1 (AP).-The Japanese-dominated government at Nanking today organized a propaganda bureau which immediately assumed supervision and control over all newspapers published in Japanese-occupied areas of Central China. The bureau also established a training school in which sixty prospective propagandists were enrolled.

[BroJoeK]

Note the Japanese light tanks below:

[CougarGA7]

Whoops. Oh well. It was just the battle map that BroJoeK just posted.