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Battle of Northern Burma and Western Yunnan | |||||||
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Part of the Burma campaign, the South-East Asian theatre of World War II, the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific Theater of World War II | |||||||
![]() Chinese soldiers fight along the Salween River in Burma | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Strength | |||||||
400,000 | 150,000 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
107,000 | 108,000 (at least 30,000 Japanese soldiers dead) |
Battle of Northern Burma and Western Yunnan (Chinese: 滇西緬北戰役 October 1943 – March 1945) was the name of the Chinese campaign with their allies in the 1943–45 Burma Campaign. The campaign ended in an Allied victory.
It is one of the large-scale battles of the Second Sino-Japanese War, located in the border area between Yunnan Province, China and northern Myanmar, starting at the beginning of December 1943. The purpose of the battle is to open up the China-India Highway. At the end of March 1945, the Chinese Expeditionary Force, the British Army, and the Merrill's Marauders joined forces in Muse, Burma (Myanmar), while the Japanese Army lost the North Burma Stronghold.
The Allied Forces were jointly formed by the troops of China, the United States and the United Kingdom. Among them, the Chinese participating forces included the Chinese Army in India and the Chinese Expeditionary Force. The commander-in-chief of the campaign was General Wei Lihuang of the Chinese National Army, and the deputy commander of the campaign was General Joseph Stilwell of the US Army. The main force of the Japanese army was the Japanese Burmese front. The commander of the battle was Masakazu Kawabe, then Heitaro Kimura, later Shinichi Tanaka and others. The total strength was more than 400,000 for Allied and 150,000 for Japan.
The Battle of Northern Myanmar and Western Yunnan lasted one and a half years. At the cost of 31,443 people killed and 35,948 wounded, the Allies killed more than 30,000 Japanese soldiers,[1] reopened southwest China to the Burma Road, and recovered all the lost land on the west bank of the Salween River in western Yunnan.