CHINESE ATTACKING JAPANESE IN FLOOD (Real Time + 70 Years)

The main stream of the flood waters was said to have swept across the Lung-Hai Railway toward Chungmow, rolling on to the south-east down the bed of the Kailu River into Anhwei Province.

Chinese reports say many hundreds of Japanese were drowned, while the main forces, in their haste to fall back to Kaifeng, have abandoned much heavy equipment, mired in mud. A vast band of flood waters is said to separate the Japanese from Chengchow, where Chinese troops remain in control and are cleaning up small Japanese forces cut off to the west of the main body of invaders by the floods.

The Yellow River flood is expected to reach the Hwai River, in which case the tendency of this major stream to flood the Northern Kiangsu Province plains is likely to be accentuated.

Meanwhile Japanese cavalry units which occupied Sincheng on the Peiping-Hankow Railway south of Chengchow were said to have been cleared out, permitting resumption of traffic.

Chinese press reports lay the opening of the Yellow River dikes to Japanese bombing and shelling. The flood has been a boon to the Chinese armies, allowing ample time for orderly consolidation along the main defenses in the mountains of Southern and western Honan.

Fifty to sixty Japanese warships are reported to be concentrated in the Yangtze River at Kweichih, not far from Nanking, while transports carrying a brigade are said to have left Nanking. Warships are reported to be shelling Chinese forts at Kweichih. Five hundred Japanese troops who landed on each side of the Yangtze near Kweichih were said to have been repulsed.

The Japanese warning to foreign ships to leave the river between Kiukiang and Hankow is believed to indicate there will be a concerted effort of Japanese river and land forces to push up toward Hankow along the Yangtze valley. The Chinese are said to have strengthened the Matang boom and to have planted additional mine fields between Kiukiang and Hankow.

American and British gunboats and British merchant vessels are not heeding the Japanese warning. The United States gunboat Monocacy is remaining at Kiukiang, where there also is a British gunboat.

Foreigners in Kiukiang and Kuling are prepared to evacuate but will not do so immediately.

Here is a contemporary retelling of the Yellow River flood episode CougarGA7 added to the 6/9/38 article.

Having just lost Kaifeng, the Chinese were desperate to slow the Japanese advance. The Japanese now threatened Zhengzhou, an important rail junction linking major cities of Wuhan and Xi'an. Chiang Kaishek and his advisors decided to use the force of nature to stop the Japanese. In the morning of 9 Jun 1938, dikes at Huayuankou were opened. Water of the Yellow River flooded out rapidly, creating a natural barrier between the Japanese and the Chinese, but it also gave residents no time to evacuate the area at all, if they knew to evacuate at all, that is. To ensure no intelligence leaked to the Japanese side to prepare to deal with the flooding, it was decided that the Chinese civilians were not to be warned. Somewhere between 500,000 and 900,000 lives were lost as a result of the flooding, and 54,000 km² of land destroyed, containing millions of homes. The flood waters eventually flowed into the Chia-lu and Huai Rivers, forever changing the course of the Yellow River. What the flood achieved was mediocre at best, slowing Japanese military and logistical movements, but the obstacles were overcome rather quickly.

Contrasted to the story above it gives a good idea about the fog of war and the power of propaganda.

Chinese reports say many hundreds of Japanese were drowned

Chinese press reports lay the opening of the Yellow River dikes to Japanese bombing and shelling.

So, did F. Tillman Durdin not notice any of the 500,000 to 900,000 dead Chinese or did his editors back in New York decide it wasn’t “fit to print?” Same with the “Chinese press reports” that claimed the Japanese opened the dikes. Were any other possibilities investigated or did the official line suit the Times’ purpose?

Here is Tainan’s comment on a 5/17/38 article:

Almost all of the 'news reporting' from this era is complete manufactured horse muffins. The 'reporters' were given an assignment to make Peanut Head look as good as possible to justify US support form his 'efforts' - actually his lack of efforts was more correct.

I see what he means.

I’ve seen estimates that more Chinese died as a direct result of the war with Japan than Soviets died as a result of war with Germany. However, there is no way anyone could know with any certainty. Rural China had so few records at that time.

As for the effectiveness of the Chinese military, well...they weren’t. Not at all. The Chinese strategy was to get America into the war, and let the American foreign devils beat the Japanese foreign devils.

The United States gunboat Monocacy is remaining at Kiukiang, where there also is a British gunboat.

"Monocacy was at Kiukiang protecting American neutrality during the Japanese invasion of China, when on 29 August 1938 several mines exploded within 50 yards of the ship, showering the gunboat with fragments. She was then held at the port until the Japanese completed sweeping operations some days later. She decommissioned at Shanghai 31 January 1939. The veteran gunboat, one of the last "Old China Hands," who had never seen the land which she served so well, was towed to sea and sunk 10 February, in deep water off the China coast." (From DANFS)

I guess it only makes sense that the reporter on scene would report that the Japanese bombing is what opened the dikes. I would assume that his stories would be vetted first by the officials that he is embedded with and then second by the paper itself.

I took a little bit of time to research related articles on this flood and all of them state that the dikes were blown on the orders of Chiang Kaishek.

The real tragedy of this was that it did not slow the Japanese very much at all. On June 11th they had completely conquered the Henan province and began the advance to Wuhan in the Hubei province. That was only two days after the floods and the first city in Hubei, Anqing, fell on the 13th.

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