The Situation in China
Clean-up Campaign in the Wuyuan Sector
Bureau of Information, War Department
As a sequel to the Japanese mopping-up operations conducted from late in January till early in February this year, the Chinese troops under General Fu Tso-i abandoned Wuyuan, some 250 kilometres northwest of Paotow, western terminus of the Peking-Suiyuan Railway, and fled northwest into Mongolia where they reorganized themselves at Linho, Shanpa and points in the Ordos plain.
In an attempt to recapture Wuyuan, they launched another attack, with four divisions of the 35th Army, upon the town at dawn on March 21, likewise moving against Nanniupa, some 15 kilometres south of Wuyuan, and various points along the north bank of the Wuchiaho River.
The Wuyuan garrison was composed mostly of native troops of the Federated Autonomous Government of Mongolia, with a sprinkling of Japanese.
The defenders being greatly outnumbered, Japanese reinforcements from Paotow, western terminus of the Peking-Suiyuan Railway, were hurriedly dispatched to their relief. Cooperating with the Yamaguchi air detachment, the relief column reached Taineichiao, about 8 kilometres north of Wuyuan, on the evening of March 22, and 3 days later, effected a crossing of the Wuchiaho River some 10 kilometres northeast of Wuyuan. Defeated, the Chinese forces fled to the west and south.
The Chinese lost some 500 dead, and the material captured from them included 2 mountain guns, 30 heavy machine-guns of Czecho-Slovakian make, with large quantities of arms and ammunition. We suffered 10 killed and 80 wounded ; while 33 Japanese residents of Wuyuan lost their lives.