Battle of Changsha (1939)

Battle of Changsha (1939)
Part of the Second Sino-Japanese War
Japanese soldiers during the battle of Changsha
Date (1939-09-14) (1939-10-13)September 14 – October 13, 1939 (4 weeks and 1 day)[1] or (1939-09-17) (1939-10-06)September 17 – October 6, 1939 (2 weeks and 5 days) Location Changsha and proximity, China Result Chinese victory
Belligerents
Republic of China	Empire of Japan
Commanders and leaders
Xue Yue Chen Cheng Guan Linzheng Yang Sen[2]	Yasuji Okamura Masatoshi Saito Ryotaro Nakai Shinichi Fujita Shiro Inaba Shizuichi Tanaka Shigetaro Amakasu
Units involved
Republic of China Army Military Region 9	Imperial Japanese Army 101st Division 106th Division
Strength
~240,000 troops in 5 Army Groups, 1 Army, and 7 Corps divided between 30 Divisions in total.[3]	~120,000 troops in the 11th Army split between 6 Divisions 12 naval ships 100+ aircraft 100+ motor boats[4]
Casualties and losses
Western claim: 20,000 killed and wounded[5] Chinese claim: 40,193 killed, wounded, or missing[6] Japanese claim: 44,000 killed 4,000 captured[7]	Western estimates: 30,000[8]–50,000 killed, wounded and missing[9] Japanese claim: 850 killed 2,700 wounded[10]

The First Battle of Changsha (17 September 1939 – 6 October 1939; Chinese: 第一次長沙會戰) was the first of four attempts by Japan to take the city of Changsha, Hunan, during the second Sino-Japanese War. Coming two weeks after Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1, it was the first major battle of the war to fall within the time frame of what is widely considered World War II.