Marco Polo Bridge Incident





The Marco Polo Bridge Incident was a battle between the Japan's Imperial
Army and China's National Revolutionary Army, marking the beginning of the
Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).

Names

   * "The Marco Polo Bridge Incident" and Battle of Lugou Bridge are the
     battle's Western name.
   * Well known among the Chinese as:
        o Incident of July 7
        o Lugouqiao Incident
        o July 7 Lugouqiao
   * In Japanese:
        o Roko Bridge Matter
        o Roko Bridge Incident

Background

Japan had occupied Manchuria in 1931 and had created an nominally
independent state of Manchukuo with Henry Puyi, the last monarch of the Qing
Dynasty, as its sovereign. That state is widely regarded to have been a
puppet government with real power concentrated in the hands of the Japanese,
which constituted the only significant military forces in Manchuria.
Although the Kuomintang and the international community refused to recognize
the legality of the Japanese occupation, a truce had been negotiated in 1931.

At the end of 1932, Japanese Guandong Army invaded Chahar Province. (The
Kuomintang's 29th Army, lead by General Song Zheyuan and armed only with
spears and obsolete rifles, resisted the attack, resulting in the War of
Resistance at the Great Wall. The province fell to the Japanese after the
predictable victory therefore areas to the west of Beijing fell to the Japanese.

In 1933, Japan annexed Rehe using the security of Manzhouguo as a pretext.
Consequently all areas north of the Great Wall and hence north of Beijing
fell to Japan. Ho Yinqin and Umezu Yoshijiro (1888-1949)
signed an agreement on June 9, 1935, known as the Ho-Umezu Agreement
recognizing Japanese occupations in Hebei and Chahar. Later that year, Japan
established yet another puppet government, East Ji Anti-Communist Autonomous
Administration. Later that year, As a result at the start of 1937, areas occupied
by Japanese surrounded Beijing at north, west and east.

Japanese installations of various puppet governments were deliberate
attempts to annex whole country of China by nibbling. The puppet government
at Nanjing with Wang Jingwei as head was another obvious example.

Geography around the bridge and Beijing

Lugou Bridge (??? lugouqiao) locates in Fengtai (?? feng1 tai2), a suburb
area south of Beijing. It is also known as the Marco Polo Bridge because the
bridge was believed to be described in the works of Marco Polo.) "Lugouqiao"
(??? lu2 gou1 qiao2) literally means "Reed-gutter Bridge".

4 strategic posts secured Beijing from outside the city.

East of the city: Tongzhou Town
Northwest: Nankou Town at Changping Prefecture
South: Fengtai Town
Southwest: Lugou Bridge at Wanping Prefecture where Wanping Town
was located. The bridge was the choke point of Pinghan Railway
(Beijing-Wuhan Railway) and guarded the only passage leading Beijing to
KMT-controlled area from the south. Nanwan Town located between
Wanping town and Beijing.

Before the start of the battle, all the first 3 posts were under Japanese
control except the southwest. The west end of the bridge was controlled by
the Japanese as the east by KMT. If the bridge fell, the city will be
completely cut off and easily captured.

Strategic Appraisal

China: At this time of the war, the Chinese armies (KMT and CCP) were mostly
infantry equipped with rifles, spears and sabers. Some soldiers were
recruited from peasants and local gangsters, thus well under trained and
equipped compared to the Japanese Imperial Army. Outnumbering the enemy and
exploiting the battlefield landscape to their advantages had been their only
ways to defeat the enemy.

Japan: Subduing the cities guaranteed the fall of the north of Huang He
portion of the North China Plain since the Japanese mechanized divisions
were formidable against the Chinese armies which had virtually no aircrafts
and any anti-tank weaponry.

People and divisions involved

The 29th Army, composed mostly of Feng Yuxiang's forces and infantry,
secured the cities of Beijing and Tianjin and the Hebei Province.

                                 KMT forces

     Personal Names
     [abbreviations       Military Post(s)        Non-Military Post(s)
       hereafter]
                                            Chairman of the Hebei
 General Song Zheyuan   Commander of 29th   Legislative Committee (same as
 [Song]                 Army                a provincial parliament), Head
                                            of the Beijing Securities
                                            (similar to police)
 General Qin Dechun
 (??? qin2 de2 chun2)   Vice Commander of   Mayor of Beijing
 [Qin]                  29th Army
 General Liu Ruming
 (??? liu2 ru3 ming2)   Commander of 143th  Chairman of Chahar Province
 [Liu]                  Division
 General Feng Zhian
 (??? feng2 zhi4 an1)   Commander of 37th   Chairman of Hebei Province
 [Feng]                 Division
 General Zhao Dengru
 (??? zhao4 deng1 ru3)  Commander of 132th  N/A
 [Zhao]                 Division
 General Zhang Zizhong
 (??? zhang1 zi4        commander of 38th   Mayor of Tianjin
 zhong1) [Zhang]        Division

 Colonel Ji Xingwen     commander of 219th
 (??? ji2 xing1 wen2)   regiment, under     N/A
 [Ji]                   110th brigade of
                        37th Division

The Japanese Guandong Army at the region was a combination of infantry,
tanks, mechanized forces, artilleries and cavalries.

                               Japanese Forces

       Personal Names                                   Composition of the
 [abbreviations hereafter]       Military Post(s)      corresponding units

 Matsui Taisa = Colonel     commander of 117th?
 Matsui (?(matsu) ?(i)      Battalion of Guandong     Infantry
 ?(tai) ?(sa)) [Matsui]     Army and troops around
                            Beijing and Tianjin

 ? Taii = Captain ? [?]     commander of 221th?       some tanks and mostly
                            Mechanized Squadron       armoured vehicles

 ? Taii [?]                 commander of 3(7?)th      Artillery with few
                            Battery                   infantry

 ? Taii [?]                 commander of 6(8?)th      Cavalry
                            Squadron

Deployment

Phase I

                                 KMT forces

                                        Strength in
       Units          Locations of       number of    Deployments or Duties
                      headquarters
                                         soldiers
 29th Army          Beijing           around 10000   Hebei Province

 143th Division     Beijing           just below     Beijing
                                      3000

 37th Division      Beijing           just below     south of Beijing
                                      3000

 132th Division     Beijing           several        between Beijing and
                                      thousands      Tianjin

 38th Division      Tianjin           several        Tianjin
                                      thousands
 219th regiment,                                     deployed right in
 under 110th                          around 400 of  front of the Japanese
 brigade of 37th    Wanping Town      the 3000       for security of the
 Division                                            bridge

                               Japanese Forces

                                           Strength in
       Units           Locations of         number of       Deployments or
                       headquarters                             Duties
                                             soldiers

 117th? Battalion   ?                   around 400        west of Lugou
                                                          bridge
 221th? Mechanized                                        West of Lugou
 Squadron           same as 117th       around 400        bridge
 3(7?)th Battery    Nankou Town         around 400        Nankou Town
 6(8?)th Squadron   Tongzhou Town       around 400        Tongzhou Town

Phase II

KMT forces
same as Phase I except 132th was moved to garrison Nanwan Town that is
between Wanping Town and Beijing.

Japanese Forces
3(2?)th Division of Guandong Army from Chahar Province and 15(9?)th Division
from Manchuria and troops from Phase I were all commanded by General
Hashimoto. Strength of Japanese Army sharply increased from around
1000 to around 3000. 34th Army of Guandong army was on its way from
Manchuria and Korea.

The Battle

Phase I

Beginning late June 1937, the Japanese army (several hundreds) deployed at
the west end of the bridge was practising while Kuomintang forces,
garrisoned in Wanping Town, watched closely. At dawn of July 7, the Japanese
army telegraphed the KMT forces saying that a soldier was missing and
believed to be hiding inside the town. The Japanese demanded that its army
should enter the town to search for the missing soldier, who was later found
unharmed. There are some disputes among historians over the incident with
some historians believing that this was an unintentional accident while
others believing that the entire incident was fabricated by the Kwantung
Army in order to provide a pretext for the invasion of central China.

Colonel Ji denied the request backed by his superior, General Song. In the
evening of July 7, Matsui gave Ji an ultimatum that KMT troops must let
Japanese troops enter the town within the next hour or the town will be
fired. THe Japanese artillery had already aimed at the town when the
ultimatum was sent. At midnight July 8, Japanese artillery units started
bombarding the town while the infantry with tanks matched across the bridge
at dawn. With order from Song, Ji led the KMT forces of about 1000 to defend
at all cost. The Japanese army partially overran the bridge and vicinity in
the afternoon. KMT forces, after reinforcement from nearby units,
outnumbered the Japanese and retook it completely next day. Japanese army
then halted the attack and offered negotiation, marking the end of Phase I.
Nevertheless Japanese army still concentrated at the west end of the bridge.

Phase II

During the meeting of all senior KMT officers of the 24th Army in Beijing on
July 12, Qin insisted that KMT forces must remain defending and resisted any
temptation of negotiating with the Japanese whom he did not trust. Zhang in
turn argued the incident on July 7 could still be settled by negotiation.
Song then sent Zhang as KMT representative to Tianjin to meet General
Hashimoto, the commander of all Japanese forces around the cities of Beijing
and Tianjin and in Chahar and Rehe Provinces.

At the beginning Hashimoto told Zhang that the Japanese hoped the incident
on July 7 to be settled peacefully. Zhang was encouraged by his friendly
gesture and telegraphed Song that any increased Kuomintang (KMT) forces
concentration around Beijing would be viewed as an escalation and angered
the Japanese. However Song thought Hashimoto was only buying time since he
received various reconnaissance reports indicating increasing accumulation
of Japanese forces from Manchuria and Korea around Beijing. As the recent
Chinese victory relied on outnumbering the opponent, he transferred Zhao's
132th accompanied by Qin to station at Nanwan Town which was between the
bridge and Beijing to keep up the pressure from concentration of Japanese
forces. Similar to most KMT and Communist Party of China (CPC), 29th Army
was under equipped with only rifles and just enough mortars and heavy
machine guns with respect to better armed, trained and commanded Japanese
troops whose tanks the Chinese armies still did not have any weapon capable
of destroying them.

On July 31(?) (end of the month), Japanese promised not to invade Beijing
and Tianjin upon agreement of all following terms:

1) KMT must wipe out all anti-Japanese organizations and halt all
anti-Japanese activities inside the cities.
2) KMT must take all responsibilities of the incident on July 7.
3) Song, not any other inferior personnel of 29th Army, must apologize.

Zhang accepted the first term and the commander of the battalion under Ji's
command will be relieved as an agreement to the second. However Zhang told
Hashimoto that he could not decide on behalf of Song, thus cannot agree on
the third term at the time. He then returned to Beijing. Hashimoto also
hinted that the Japanese would prefer Zhang as the commander of KMT troops
around the city. As soon as Zhang's departure, the Japanese launched
full-scale attack on Beijing.

On August 10(?), three days after Zhang heading for the city, the bridge and
Wanping Town fell to the Japanese. Nanwan Town fell on next day with both
divisions (37th and 132th) shattered. Zhao was mortally wounded on
battlefield and Qin retreated with the remnants back to the city. In the
evening after the fall of Nanwan Town, Zhang finally arrived (As he had to
pass through enemy lines to reach the city.). Several days after, Song
relieved himself of all non-military posts and appointed Zhang to take his
posts and Mayor of Beijing. Qin and Song then led 29th Army out of the city,
which was going to be encircled within hours and left Zhang with virtually
no troops. Japanese armies enter the city on August 18 without much
resistance and installed Zhang as mayor. However Zhang felt he was betrayed
and left the city secretly a week later.

Aftermath

With the fall of Beijing on August 18 and Tianjin on 21st, the North China
Plain was helpless against Japanese mechanized divisions who occupied it by
the end of the year. Chinese armies (KMT and CPC) were on constant retreat
until the hard fought Chinese victory at Tai er zhuang.

There are some disputes among historians over KMT handling of Japanese
troops approaching Beijing with some historians believing that Zhang and
Song intentionally cooperate secretly with Zhang appointment of non-military
posts in Beijing. Song and Qin can then safely retreat from the city to
retain the fighting ability of 29th Army. Others believed that the Japanese
completely sold Zhang out as the Japanese still invaded the cities even
though KMG agreed all terms. Zhang was vilified relentlessly by the Chinese
media, some of which (like the Shanghai media) reviled him as the traitor of
the country. Upon arrival at Nanjing he apologized publicly. Since he later
died fighting against the Japanese, KMT pardoned Zhang's activities in Beijing.