Battle of Xuzhou

The Battle of Xuzhou was fought between Japanese and forces in May of 1938 during Second Sino-Japanese War.

In 1937, the North China Area Army had chased Song Zheyuan's 29th Army to the south along the Jinpu Railway after his defeat in the Battle of Lugou Bridge. After Japan won the Battle of Nanjing, the North China Area Army advanced southward to establish a Japanese connection between Beijing and Nanjing, ignoring the non-expansionist policy of the Imperial General Headquarters in Tokyo. Most mechanized and air forces in Eastern China were wiped out in the Battle of Shanghai in 1937. Although new equipment was purchased, it had yet to be shipped.

Han Fuqu, the chairman of the Shandong province, rejected orders from Chiang Kai-shek and kept retreating to preserve his force. After Qingdao was occupied in January 1938, his policy was denounced and he was executed on January 24. In March 1938, the Japanese forces occupied the north of Shandong, including the capital city Jinan. The defence line along the Yellow River was torn apart.

By the pressure of the Japanese forces, 64 Chinese divisions were gathering around Xuzhou in Jiangsu, the headquarters of 5th Military region of the National Revolutionary Army. Without surrounding it, Itagaki Seishiro moved south first to attack Tai'erzhuang, where he was defeated by Li Zongren in a regional .

Following this defeat Japan intended an encirclement against Xuzhou and deployed the North China Area Army to the north and the Central China Expeditionary Army to the south. The North China Area Army had four and two Infantry Brigades drawn from the Kwangtung Army. Central China Expeditionary Army had three divisions and the 1st and 2nd Tank Battalions with motorized support units formed into the Iwanaka and Imada Detachments which were ordered to advance to the west of Xuzhou to cut off and prevent the Chinese forces from withdrawing towards west. The 5th Tank Battalion was used to support the 3rd Infantry Division advancing north along the railway to Xuzhou. Additional troops were deployed in the Battle of Northern and Eastern Henan by the North China Area Army to stop Chinese reinforcements from the west. A Chinese counterattack here resulted in the Battle of Lanfeng.

However, with the approach of the Central China Expeditionary Army from the south, the overall situation was grim, and Chiang Kai-shek ordered the withdrawal of the armies. The demolition of the dykes holding back the Yellow River allowed him more time for the preparation of the , but the resulting 1938 Yellow River flood also destroyed much of the area around the new course of the river.

Japan won the fierce battle of Xuzhou, but the Japanese forces were too small to contain the large number of encircled Chinese forces. Most of the Chinese soldiers escaped from the encirclement through gaps in the Japanese lines to the west or dispersed into the countryside as so the Chinese forces were not annihilated.