Word: hengyang
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...first question would be answered when the resurgent Chinese forces neared Hengyang. If the Japanese made a determined stand there, it would mean that they meant to hold the Yangtze basin with its great cities, river ports and seaports...
Meanwhile T.V.'s appointment had given China and China's friends a new burst of hope. In a full summer and autumn of battle, the Chinese had been defeated at Hengyang. They had been defeated at Kweilin. The first break in their successive defeats was last week's victory in Kweichow. The road to victory was still up the sharp sides of mountains. But with T.V. at work again, there was a new faith that China would one day get over the hump...
Kweilin's defenses were the best the Chinese had mustered since Hengyang (which withstood siege for 41 days). The city had miles of barbed wire entanglements; pillboxes fashioned from torndown buildings. It had the best fed, best armed, best uniformed soldiers remaining among China's tattered legions. For commander it had bald, white-gloved General Pai Chung-hsi, one of Kwangsi Province's best, fresh from talks with Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek. To aid Pai, General "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell sent every ounce of U.S. small arms, mortars and ammunition that could be spared from the tonnage flown over...
Even in the main corridor, from Yochow and Hankow, through Changsha and Hengyang, down which the enemy was funneling his attack groups and supplies, he was subject to harassment by Chinese guerrilla bands. But these attacks were pinpricks against the flank of an armored monster...
...Chinese had been fighting south of Hengyang for a fortnight when the big break came. The weather had been cloudy and locked in all the way up the valley; never could we pour in all the air support in our power till the day we said goodbye to Kweilin. Then the sun shone clear and unchallenged and then it was too late...