Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) aimed to quickly overrun a large zone adjacent to their empire in “Manchukuo” (Manchuria), by taking an area of northern China that staff officers had mapped and planned to assault since 1932 The invasion was well-prepared, mechanized, and highly mobile, of a stunning new style and speed the world would not see in Europe for another two years and would later call Blitzkrieg On the second day of the offensive Japanese forces ambushed a Chinese column near Beijing A smaller but more powerful mechanized “flying column” cut off Beijing the next day Chinese troops panicked and fled the city, and Japanese columns passed through its walls on August They did not leave Beijing until 1945 From the start, the “China War” was ferocious and fought without mercy A massacre of Japanese civilians by mutinous Chinese troops formerly under Japanese command took place at Tongzhou on July 29 After that, the Japanese evacuated their nationals from all Chinese cities except Shanghai, which they held with marines (Rikusentai) By the end of September the Japanese had over 200,000 men in 16 divisions inside China, most positioned along the interior of the northern border The Guandong Army also achieved an old ambition to capture Inner Mongolia, into which it advanced along two railway axes during August and September But not everything went the way Japanese planners intended or foresaw The first intimation of greater horrors to come was heavy fighting around Shanghai, where a Guomindang threat to the local Japanese community was pressed hard by Jiang to lure the main Japanese forces south Jiang ordered an all-out effort to take the city, which was his main political base dating to the 1920s and the key locale from which he drew much of his personal riches and external finance for his Guomindang regime A small force of Rikusentai held Shanghai with strong support from the big guns of warships of the Imperial Japanese Navy The elite Rikusentai defended against a hard assault by elements of Jiang’s Central Army These elite Guomindang troops had been trained by German instructors and were also wellequipped They hounded Rikusentai through the streets of Shanghai Then they prepared for battle with two divisions of the urgently organized Japanese “Shanghai Expeditionary Force,” which arrived from the north by ship On August 23 the Shanghai Expeditionary Force landed at two sites about 25 miles northwest of Shanghai One landing was bitterly contested but the other was largely unopposed For that failure, several hundred Chinese troops were executed by their officers The Japanese effected linkage of their forces on September 3, then advanced on the city Once the Japanese moved beyond cover of the IJN’s guns the advance slowed The Japanese Army discovered that its tanks were immobilized by wetter terrain than it had designed for, when planning a war it anticipated would be fought in north China Its artillery was also inadequate and hard to move A river-crossing of Suzhou Creek was smashed by Chinese artillery, followed by bayonet sweeps against Japanese stragglers on the near shore The creek was crossed a day later, but with high Japanese casualties The Chinese were proving a much tougher foe than nearly any Japanese Army commander expected Three army divisions were shifted to Central China in late October The IJN landed them in Hangzhou Bay using a hodgepodge of barges, landing craft, and fishing boats They disembarked behind the fixed Guomindang lines encircling 983