Battle of Xiushui River

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The Battle of Xiushui River was fought in March 1939 as part of the Battle of Nanchang, northeast of Nanchang, China.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Japanese artillery forces marched a long distance into the vast area of continental China. They were much troubled by bad roads. To lighten the burden on transport, many regiments replaced their artillery with mountain guns.

Most fights in China were pursuit battles; large artillery battles seldom happened. In the Battle of Nanchang, the Japanese deployed the largest artillery force of the Sino-Japanese War. They bombarded in support of their crossing of the Xiushui River (1939). However, the Chinese offered little resistance and the Japanese bombardment ceased when it reached one third of the planned level.

[edit] Order of battle

The Japanese Army used artillery unit "6th Field Heavy Artillery Brigade" under the command of Major Gen. Sumita.

The artillery sections used were

• 13th Field Heavy Artillery Regiment (Lt. Col. Okoshi, 24 Type 4 15cm Howitzers)
• 14th Field Heavy Artillery Regiment (Lt. Col. Maruyama, 24 Type 4 15cm Howitzers)
• 10th Field Heavy Artillery Regiment (Lt. Col. Nagaya, 24 Type 4 15cm Howitzers)
• 15th Independent Field Heavy Artillery Regiment (Col. Horikawa, 16 Type 14 10cm Cannons)
• 2nd Independent Heavy Artillery Battalion (Lt. Col. Manba, 4 Type 89 15cm Cannons)
• 101st Field Artillery Regiment (Lt. Col. Yamada, 34 Type 38-improved 75mm Field Guns)
• 3rd Independent Mountain Gun Regiment (Lt. Col. Morikawa, 24 Type 41 75 mm Mountain Guns)
• 106th Field Artillery Regiment (Lt. Col. Uga, 32 Type 38-improved 75mm Field Guns)
• 2nd Battalion/2nd Independent Mountain Gun Regiment (Major Matsumoto, 12 Type 41 75 mm Mountain Guns)