Limit search to available items
Book Cover
E-book
Author Harmsen, Peter

Title Shanghai 1937 : Stalingrad on the Yangtze / Peter Harmsen
Published Havertown, PA : Casemate Publishers, 2015

Copies

Description 1 online resource (300 pages)
Contents Three corpses -- "Black Saturday" -- Flesh against steel -- "Banza! Banza! Banza!" -- Rivers of blood -- Verdun of the east -- The "Lost Battalion" -- Collapse -- Aftermath -- Order of battle
Summary The New York Times-bestselling depiction of the Battle of Shanghai-the beginning of a conflict that would echo throughout World War II and the entire twentieth century. At its height, the Battle of Shanghai involved nearly a million Chinese and Japanese soldiers while sucking in three million civilians as unwilling spectators-and often victims. It turned what had been a Japanese imperialist adventure in China into a general war between the two oldest and proudest civilizations of the Far East. Ultimately, it led to Pearl Harbor and to seven decades of tumultuous history in Asia. The Battle of Shanghai was a pivotal event that helped define and shape the modern world. In its sheer scale, the struggle for China's largest city was a sinister forewarning of what was in store only a few years later in theaters around the world. It demonstrated how technology had given rise to new forms of warfare and had made old forms even more lethal. Amphibious landings, tank assaults, aerial dogfights, and-most important-urban combat all happened in Shanghai in 1937. It was a dress rehearsal for World War II-or, perhaps more correctly, it was the inaugural act in the war, the first major battle in the global conflict. Actors from a variety of nations were present in Shanghai during the three fateful autumn months when the battle raged. The rich cast included China's ascetic Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and his Japanese adversary, General Matsui Iwane, who wanted Asia to rise from disunity, but ultimately pushed the continent toward its deadliest conflict ever. Claire Chennault, later of "Flying Tiger" fame, was among the figures emerging in the course of the campaign, as was First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. In an ironic twist, Alexander von Falkenhausen, a stern German veteran of the Great War, abandoned his role as a mere advisor to the Chinese army and led it into battle against the Japanese invaders. Shanghai 1937 fills a gaping chasm in our understanding of the War of Resistance and the Second World War
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945 -- Campaigns -- China -- Shanghai
HISTORY -- Asia -- China.
Military campaigns
China -- Shanghai
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781504026239
1504026233
9781504025096
1504025091