Word: rails
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...opponent is the Japanese army engineer. He tries to checkmate every move we make in wrecking his trains, but thus far we have kept one jump ahead." The erstwhile professors admitted they had copied Lawrence's method of train wrecking-setting off an explosive charge under the rails as a train passed over-until they ran out of explosives. Then they used a cheaper method-pulling out the inner rail spikes, especially at spots where the tracks curved. This usually caused the tracks to spread when heavily loaded Japanese trains ran over them...
...repair their one night's damage the Japanese engineers send out 3,100 Ibs. of steel rails, 240 spikes and 28 poles. Total cost: 4,780 yen. Thus, if the Paoting farmers keep up their twice-a-week raids, they will cost the Japanese half a million yen a year. If 1,000 villages do the same, Japan will have to increase her army budget half a billion yen a year, reason the guerrillas. Therefore, 2,000 organizers have recently been sent out to carry on concerted rail-raiding parties...
When the Japanese discovered that the guerrillas were pulling out the inner rail spikes, they temporarily stopped derailments by having a light train run over the line in the morning to spot missing spikes...
...Japanese have tried various unsuccessful methods to stamp out destruction of their rail lines. Chinese farmers were forced to inspect the tracks and report loose or missing rails-which they did, but often only after helping the guerrillas tear up and hide the rails. A $5 reward was offered by the Japanese for returned rails-those Chinese who took advantage of the deal were executed when they returned home. Japanese troops tried burning the nearest Chinese village when the rails were cut. Chinese destruction only increased...
Japanese troops continued to press out from Hankow, where some 5,300 captured Chinese soldiers are soon to erect a memorial to commemorate the Japanese conquest. At week's end Japanese forces, driving southward along the Canton-Hankow rail line, had captured the strategic city of Yochow, 122 miles southwest of Hankow, and the northeastern gateway to Hunan Province where Chiang Kai-shek has established new military headquarters...