Battle of West Hunan

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Battle of West Hunan
Part of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific Theater of World War II
Date (1945-04-06) (1945-06-07)April 6 – June 7, 1945 (2 months and 1 day) Location West Hunan, near Zhijiang Result Allied victory
Belligerents
Republic of China  United States (air support only)	Japan
Commanders and leaders
He Yingqin Wang Yaowu Tang Enbo Liao Yaoxiang Zhang Lingfu	Yasuji Okamura Kazuyoshi Sakanishi
Strength
110,000 in Hunan 200,000 in total 400 aircraft	80,000
Casualties and losses
Chinese figures: 20,660 7,817 killed 11 American pilots	Japanese figures:[1] 20th army from April until June : According to Senshi Sōsho : 695 killed 1,181 wounded (including 322 who died of wounds) 24,640 fallen ill (including 2,362 who died of illness) According to the medical department of the 20th army : 1,718 killed 2,691 wounded (including 275 who died of wounds) 27,372 fallen ill (including 1,992 who died of illness) According to Japanese Army record: About 15,000 killed in action About 50,000 wounded in action[2] According to 109th Infantry Regiment report: Most members of 109th infantry regiment were killed in action[3] Chinese figures: 35,805 12,498 killed
8,563 civilians

The Battle of West Hunan (Chinese: 湘西會戰), also known as the Battle of Xuefeng Mountains (Chinese: 雪峰山戰役) and the Zhijiang Campaign (Chinese: 芷江戰役), was the Japanese invasion of west Hunan and the subsequent Allied counterattack that occurred between 6 April and 7 June 1945, during the last months of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Japanese strategic aims for this campaign were to seize Chinese airfields and secure railroads in West Hunan, and to achieve a decisive victory that their depleted land forces needed.

This campaign, if successful, would also have allowed Japan to attack Sichuan and eventually the Chinese wartime capital Chongqing. Although Japan was able to make initial headways, Chinese forces with air support from the Americans were able to turn the tide and forced the Japanese into a rout, recovering a substantial amount of lost ground.

This was the last major Japanese offensive, and the last of 22 major battles during the war to involve more than 100,000 troops. Concurrently, the Chinese managed to repel a Japanese offensive in Henan and Hubei and launched a successful attack on Japanese forces in Guangxi, turning the course of the war sharply in China's favor even as they prepared to launch a full-scale counterattack across South China.