| Original caption: “The Navy Special Landing Force ‘Temporary Ki Unit,’ on September 16, reconnoitered the situation downstream on the north bank of the Yangtze, locating enemy ships, and proceeded upriver while keeping them under observation. By dawn on September 17, it had already advanced west, heading toward the Tianjiazhen fortress. Meanwhile, on the Army side, the Nakano unit that had moved down to Tianjiazhen split its advance into two directions and attacked, including actions against the enemy fleet. In cooperation with naval landing forces and ground forces, they captured the great fortress of Tianjiazhen on the Yangtze riverbank by September 29. After that, the Central China units reported successes and rejoined their division; another unit continued advancing along the north bank into October, and after further fighting, advanced with naval forces and arrived near the Wuxue port area.” An Imperial Japanese Army unit pauses during its advance on Wuhan as artillery reduces a Chinese position forward. They fly Hinomaru flags to mark their position. After the fall of Nanjing in 1937, Wuhan became the new centre for the war of resistance. Being the most industrialized and populous commercial city on the Central Yangtze, the defence of Wuhan persisted until October 1938, when Chinese troops were forced to abandon the city to the invading Imperial Japanese Army. After the fall of Wuhan, the 2nd Sino-Japanese War entered a stage of strategic stalemate where neither side was able to occupy or reclaim any large area. In the summer, when the water level was at its highest, warships of up to 2,000 tons could reach Wuhan. The Imperial Japanese Navy in the Yangtze had been a strategic threat for the Chinese since the Shanghai Incident of 1932 and had inflicted huge casualties on Chinese troops during the Battle of Shanghai in 1937. To stop or delay the Japanese advance further into China, the Kuomintang had to find ways to prevent the Japanese navy from moving upriver. The Chinese navy could not compare to that of the Japanese. What was worse, the Chinese navy was plagued by cut-throat rivalries among different factions and was held in deep suspicion by the Chinese government. Furthermore, in September 1937, the Japanese Naval Aviation Force wiped out the bulk of Chinese surface vessels. The Kuomintang mobilized tens of thousands of labourers. For the materials of the barriers, the bricks of streets and houses were dumped into the river. The Chinese government and merchant marine sank 79 vessels of various tonnages, accounting for approximately 33 percent of China’s shipping capacity. On top of these obstacles sunk into the river, the navy laid thousands of naval mines in the waterways to damage any vessel that dared to sail in the Central Yangtze. The Japanese navy described the countless mines “like so many grains of salt spilled across a table.” During battles, the barriers halted the advance of Japanese vessels. The batteries ashore, equipped with guns removed from sunken warships or imported from the Soviet Union, shelled the area to protect the barriers from attacks by Japanese gunboats and prevent minesweepers from disarming the naval mines. Madang and Tianjiazhen were the most important “chokepoints” of the Yangtze, where the waterway suddenly narrows and is overlooked by hills and cliffs on the riverbanks. Madang was expected to withstand the Japanese onslaught for months, while Tianjiazhen was renowned for having never been captured by assailants for over a 1,000 years. In late June 1938, the Japanese began to advance on Madang. Initially, the Chinese defence was effective. The Soviet air volunteers and Chinese riverine fortresses were able to suppress Japanese naval gunfire and prevent minesweepers and warships from sailing near the barrier at Madang, forcing the Japanese to change plans. The Imperial Japanese Army exploited the weaknesses in the Chinese defences on the land fronts. On June 24, the Japanese launched a stealth landing of 800 troops beyond the reach of the batteries in Madang. As there were very few artillery pieces prepared for ground attacks, the Riverine Defence Force was quickly overwhelmed by the superior firepower of the better-trained and equipped Japanese ground troops. The fall of Madang within mere days was a shock to the Chinese government. The KMT military leadership had believed they could hold the Japanese army at Madang for months. The fall of Madang made them reflect on the utility of the terrain in their defensive strategy. The decision to breach the dykes was the result of the government’s mentality towards the lives of individuals as expendable. Once the decision regarding the Yellow River had been made, dyke-breaking became a characteristic technique of the KMT for the duration of the war. The water of the Yangtze submerged the airfield and the highway, denying the Japanese forces’ use of the infrastructure and granting more time for the Chinese troops to retreat to safety. However, the same flood blocked the residents of Jiujiang city from fleeing westward. Consequently, approximately 90,000 fell victim to Japanese atrocities. On July 27, the Chinese troops stationed in the north side of the Yangtze started breaching the dykes at Longping and Wuxue. The flood displaced over 500,000 people. An area of approximately 3,000 square kilometers (1,150 square miles), including a 100,000 acres (40,000 hectares) of farmland, became utterly waterlogged. After the fall of Madang, Tianjiazhen became the most important barrier to the Japanese advance. Tianjiazhen was the last chokepoint between the Japanese forces and Wuhan. On September 18, the Japanese forces were surrounded by the Chinese troops on 3 sides. However, the Japanese east flank was protected by the flood zone as the Chinese lacked the capacity to conduct amphibious operations, thwarting the encirclement effort. The ‘drowned earth’ tactics, intended to halt the Japanese advance, in effect accelerated it by providing safe passage for Japanese supplies and reinforcements. On September 23, Imperial Japanese Army Lieutenant General Yasuji Okamura (May 15, 1884 – September 2, 1966), the Commanding Officer of the Japanese 11th Army, who would later become the Commander-in-Chief of the China Expeditionary Army, sent a fleet of iron boats with the help of the Japanese 3rd Fleet carrying food, medicine, and ammunition to the trapped troops who had barely eaten for 4 days.87 The Japanese troops, resupplied and revitalized, resumed their attack on the Chinese positions. Meanwhile, the Chinese reinforcements, moving on foot, failed to reach the front because the flooded terrain hindered their mobility. The Chinese side crumbled in front of Japanese night attacks and surprise attacks, while the mountains and lakes blocked the routes for Chinese flanking manoeuvres. The fall of Tianjiazhen was devastating to the Chinese resistance. Tianjiazhen alone had withstood and delayed the Japanese advance for almost a month. Before the fall of Tianjiazhen, the Japanese were only able to advance a few 100 metres a day. After the fall of Tianjiazhen, the speed of the Japanese movement surged to almost 10 kilometers (6 miles) a day towards Wuhan, during which the Japanese army bypassed Gedian. Wuhan was occupied by the Japanese 6th Division within 4 weeks of the fall of Tianjiazhen. This image appeared in the Shūzen Shinshajitsu Shina Sensō Yon Senryaku-kō Tōkō • Kanbu (“Complete, true-to-life documentary record of the China War, Volume Four, Strategic offensive: Dongguang and Hanwu”) published by The Asahi Shimbun Company. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1538.jpg |
| Image Size | 2.24 MB |
| Image Dimensions | 4653 x 3692 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | Imperial Japanese Army |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | October 1, 1938 |
| Location | |
| City | Wuhan |
| State or Province | Hubei |
| Country | China |
| Archive | |
| Record Number | Shūzen Shinshajitsu Shina Sensō Yon Senryaku-kō Tōkō • Kanbu |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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