The Enlightenment from the Transportation Struggle on the Anti-Japanese War Battlefield

During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the struggle surrounding the transportation line permeated the entire process of the war and affected and restricted the process and outcome of the war. Looking back at history has a very important enlightening role for us today to strengthen the construction of military transportation and to prepare for military struggle.

Transportation has a lifeline role and a complete battlefield transportation facility must be established to ensure the effective use of combat forces. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Japanese invading army attached great importance to the occupation and control of our communications lines, and the resistance and counterattacks of the Chinese military also relied mainly on the communication lines. The Battle of Taierzhuang in March 1938 was a major battle for traffic. Taierzhuang is the gateway to Xuzhou, and Xuzhou is the hub of the Jinpu Railway and the Longhai Railway. The strategic location is very important. The Japanese military launched the Battle of Taierzhuang in order to realize that the North and South forces would converge in Xuzhou and attack the Wuhan West’s attempt to attack the west of the Bohai Sea line. The Chinese military fought bravely against the traffic portal Taierzhuang and fought bravely against the Japanese army for nearly a month. It defeated more than 10,000 people and achieved a major military victory since the War of Resistance. At the same time, the National Government also attaches great importance to the construction of important transportation lines behind the strategy, and on the basis of the construction of the pre-war Guangdong-Han River, Zhejiang-Jiangxi, Shanghai-Hangzhou, Bohai, and Tongpu Railways, the construction of Yonggui, Xiangxi, and Chuanxi was started in accordance with the needs of the war. The Yunnan-Burma Railway has played an important role in safeguarding the war.

In the future of information-based warfare, transportation will have greater impact on force and force aggregation. Therefore, it is necessary to speed up the construction of battlefield transportation facilities in peacetime, vigorously build a complete, accessible, three-dimensional, and highly efficient transportation network system, and play the role of the lifeline in the wartime. It is necessary to combine national economic development and construction planning with the establishment of a strategic trunk line network of national defense and defense highways to form a strategic battle channel for national defense transportation that runs through the north and the south and across the east and west, and constantly improve the battlefield transportation capacity.

The strategic channel is crucial to winning the war. It is necessary to develop strategic delivery capabilities to adapt to the needs of combat space expansion. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, China was an economically backward agricultural country. The urgently needed materials for the war, especially aircraft, warships, tanks, and heavy weapons, all needed to be imported. It is precisely to see China’s deadly weaknesses that the Japanese military has made cutting off China’s international channels one of the strategic focuses, and has sought to obstinate the Chinese government’s submission through the economic blockade. At the beginning of the war in the Pacific, the Yunnan-Burma Highway from Yangon to Kunming was called "China's last land-based blood transfusion line." It was once the only channel for China to obtain foreign aid. The Japanese military repeatedly dispatched aircraft to bomb important facilities such as roads and bridges, but none of them could cut off Chinese transportation. In January 1942, Japanese troops attacking Southeast Asia attacked Myanmar from Thailand to the north and attempted to cut off the Burma-Burma Highway completely. 100,000 Chinese Expeditionary Forces fought in Burma, but in the end they lost control of the Burma road route because of a loss in combat. After the Yunnan-Burmese highway was cut off, the hump-transport line opened by China and the United States became the only channel for China to obtain international assistance. In order to cut this passage, the Japanese military specially dispatched fighter planes to intercept and forced the route to move north. Despite this, the “Hump Route” is still the longest-running, largest-scale, and flight-threatening air transport channel during World War II. In 3 years and 3 months, it transported 800,000 tons of strategic materials to China. Supporting China’s resistance to the war has played an important role.

Under the current background of economic globalization, trade and economic exchanges between China and other countries in the world have become more frequent and the degree of dependence between them has increased, making national interests break through the limitations of traditional borders. To effectively respond to various emergencies, it is necessary to have the ability to aggregate military power in a short period of time. It is necessary to place strategic delivery forces on the priority of development, rely on comprehensive national strength, and accelerate the construction of railways, highways, and waterways. The comprehensive delivery system, which is linked to aviation, provides strong support for the rapid movement of the military.

Competition in the communications line affects the progress of the war. It must have effective battlefield security capabilities in order to grasp the initiative in combat operations. On the battlefield behind the Chinese War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the Communist-led anti-Japanese military and civilians evaded enemies and carried out extensive attacks to destroy and block the enemy's transportation lines, opening up the enemy's post-enemy traffic battlefield. In particular, the "Hundred Regiments Offensive" focused on sabotaging the Japanese military's transportation and launched a large-scale devastation war on the Zhengtai Railway, the Pinghan and Tongpu Railways. A total of 1824 battles were conducted under the call of “not leaving a railroad track, leaving a sleeper, and not leaving a bridge”, destroying 474 kilometers of railways, more than 1,500 kilometers of roads, more than 260 bridges and tunnels, and seizing a batch of Cars, trains, planes, humbugs, and other spoils have dealt a heavy blow to the "cage" policy of the Japanese military, both militarily and politically.

In the future war, high-strength precision strikes have become an important means of combat, transportation facilities will face great threats, and the struggle around the traffic line will become more intense. To grasp the initiative in the battlefield, it is necessary to improve the control and utilization of the traffic lines and ensure the smooth flow of the traffic lines. To this end, while enhancing the protection capabilities of transportation facilities, we must vigorously strengthen the power of repairing traffic and strive to establish a contingent of transportation repair teams that are rational in structure, complete in professional, and capable. At the same time, it is necessary to actively develop high-tech repair and maintenance means, and develop mobile repair equipment that is highly mobile and easy to disassemble, and creates conditions for ensuring the smooth flow of wartime traffic lines.