US equipped Chinese Army in India marching

X Force was the name given to the portion of the National Revolutionary Army's

Chinese Expeditionary Force The Chinese Expeditionary Force () was an expeditionary unit of China's National Revolutionary Army that was dispatched to Burma and India in support of the Allied efforts against the Imperial Japanese Army during the Japanese invasion and occu ...

that retreated from Burma into

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

in 1942. Chiang Kai-shek sent troops into Burma from

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...

in 1942 to assist the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

in holding back the Japanese. These Chinese forces became broken up, and in the retreat out of Burma part of these forces entered India. These were cantoned at

Ramgarh Cantonment Ramgarh Cantonment, usually referred to as Ramgarh Cantt or just Ramgarh is a cantonment town, belonging to the Ramgarh district of the Indian state of Jharkhand. Historically, a subdivision of the larger Hazaribag district, Ramgarh wa ...

in the

Bihar Province Bihar Province was a province of British India, created in 1936 by the partition of the Bihar and Orissa Province. History In 1756, Bihar was part of Bengal. On 14 October 1803, Orissa was occupied by the British Raj. On 22 March 1912, both Biha ...

(now in

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . I ...

State), brought up to five-Division strength (Chinese New 30th, New 22nd, New 38th, 14th and 50th Divisions), and re-equipped and re-trained by American instructors at British expense. Each of the five divisions had about 15,000 troops, for a total of 75,000 for the whole force. The New 30th and New 38th Divisions formed the

New 1st Army The New 1st Army () was reputed to be the most elite military unit of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army. Nicknamed the "First Army Under Heaven" during the Chinese Civil War, it caused the most Japanese Army casualties during the Sino-Japane ...

which was commanded by

Sun Li-Jen Sun Li-jen (; December 8, 1900November 19, 1990) was a Chinese Nationalist (KMT) general, a graduate of Virginia Military Institute, best known for his leadership in the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War. His military achiev ...

. The New 22nd, 14th and 50th Divisions formed the

New 6th Army New 6th Army was a Chinese combat command involved in the Burma Campaign of World War II, and later, the Chinese Civil War. They operated in the Shan States and the Karen State of eastern Burma. The New 6th Army's General and Supreme Commander ...

which was commanded by

Liao Yaoxiang Liao Yiaoxiang (; 16 May 1906 – 2 December 1968), was a high-ranking Kuomintang commander who successful fought against both the Imperial Japanese Army and Chinese Communist forces. Apart from General Sun Liren, he was one of the few Nationalis ...

. They were named X Force and used by General Joseph Stilwell as the spearhead of his drive to open a land route to China (the

Ledo Road The Ledo Road (from Ledo, Assam, India to Kunming, Yunnan, China) was an overland connection between India and China, built during World War II to enable the Western Allies to deliver supplies to China and aid the war effort against Japan ...

). The outstanding Chinese commander in X Force was General

, who led the Chinese 38th Division and was praised by the British Fourteenth Army Commander General (later Field Marshal)

William Slim William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

in his book ''Defeat into Victory''. The Chinese forces which re-entered Burma from

were correspondingly known as

Y Force Y Force was the South East Asia Command designation given to Chinese National Revolutionary Army forces that re-entered Burma from Yunnan in 1944 as one of the Allies fighting in Burma Campaign of World War II. It consisted of 175,000 troops divid ...

China Defensive 1942-1945

China Defensive 1942-1945 was an essay prepared for the

United States Army Center of Military History The United States Army Center of Military History (CMH) is a directorate within the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command. The Institute of Heraldry remains within the Office of the Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Ar ...

by Mark D. Sherry.

Notes

References

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External links

* {{commons, Chinese Army in India Units and formations of the National Revolutionary Army Second Sino-Japanese War Military units and formations of the Republic of China in World War II South-East Asian theatre of World War II C

China Defensive 1942-1945

See also

Notes

References

External links