X Force

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For the Marvel comic, see X-Force.

X Force was the name given to the portion of the Kuomintang Chinese Expeditionary Force that retreated from Burma into India in 1942. In order to protect his country's last overland link, the Burma Road, Chiang Kai-shek sent troops into Burma from Yunnan in 1942 to assist the British 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 in Bihar (now in Jharkhand State), brought up to three-Division strength (two of these were the Chinese 22nd and 38th Divisions), and re-equipped and re-trained by American instructors at British expense. They were named X Force and used by General 'Vinegar Joe' Stilwell as the spearhead of his drive to reopen a land route to China (the Ledo Road). The outstanding Chinese commander in X Force was General Sun Li-Jen, who led the Chinese 38th Division and was praised by the British Fourteenth Army Commander General (later Field Marshal) William Slim in his book Defeat into Victory. The Chinese forces which re-entered Burma from Yunnan were correspondingly known as Y Force.

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[edit] References

  • The Burma Road by Donovan Webster
  • Defeat into Victory by F.M. William Slim
  • Stilwell and the American Experience in China by Barbara W. Tuchman