On 23rd Mar of 1938, Taierzhuang battle started. This picture shows the machine gunners of the Chinese army are checking the invading Japanese troops.


This is the tank of Japanese troops captured in the Taierzhuang battle.


On 7th Apr of 1938, Taierzhuang battle ended. People paraded for success in Hankou. The contingents of paraders stretched to the horizon.

　　In the wake of seizing Nanjing City and Jinan City on December 13 and 27 consecutively, Xuzhou City remained one of the major hurdles standing in the way of the Japanese aggressors in their attempt of linking up the battle fields in the north with that in the south in order to wind up its aggressive plan of wiping out China on the world map as quick as possible. To do that, the Japanese aggressors decided to make Nanjing and Jinan as their bases to pincer-attack Xuzhou City from both the north and the south along the Tianjin-Pukou railway line.

　　Tai'erzhang sits on the north bank of the Grand Canal about 30 km away to the northeast of Xuzhou City, making it the gateway of the latter, hence bearing the brunt of the Japanese attack in its attempt of placing Xuzhou City under a pincer attack.

　　The Japanese aggressors launched the attack against Taierzhuang on March 24, 1938 and immediately engaged the 31st division of the Chinese Second Group Army defending the city in a fierce fight. On March 28, the 31st division besieged the Japanese aggressors who broke into Tai'erzhuang, inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy troops. On March 31, all the Japanese invaders including the reinforcing units were besieged by the Chinese troops. The Chinese troops launched an attack against the Japanese aggressors on April 3. On the evening of April 6, the Chinese troops launched an attack on all fronts against the Japanese aggressors. The fierce fighting came to an end in the small hours of April 7 when all the Japanese troops in Tai'erzhuang were wiped out with the exception of a part of the Japanese troops which got through and escaped to Fengxian County to put up a strong defense to wait for its reenforcement.

　　The half-a-month long fierce fighting saw the participation of 46,000 Chinese troops, of which 7,500 were either killed or wounded, or missing. On the part of the Japanese aggressors, 10,000 odd troops were wiped out. The significance of this victorious operation lies in that the swollen arrogance of the Japanese aggressors was dealt a heavy blow and the fighting will of the Chinese military and the civilians in fighting against Japanese aggression was energetically boosted.