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←Created page with '{{User sandbox}} <!-- EDIT BELOW THIS LINE --> {{Short description|1937 Second Sino-Japanese War battle}} {{About|the 1937 battle|other battles|Battles of Nanking}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2017}} {{Good article}} {{Infobox military conflict | conflict = Battle of Nanking | partof = the Second Sino-Japanese War | image = Zhongshan Gate.png | image_size = 290px | caption = Japanese soldiers stand atop t...'
 
←Replaced content with '{{User sandbox}} <!-- EDIT BELOW THIS LINE --> {{Short description|1937 Second Sino-Japanese War battle}} {{About|the 1937 battle|other battles|Battles of Nanking}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2017}} {{Good article}} {{Infobox military conflict | conflict = Battle of Messina | partof = the Extermination of Sicilians and the Exiled Sicilian War | image = Messina10.jpg | image_size = 290px | caption = Messi...'
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{{Good article}}
{{Good article}}
{{Infobox military conflict
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict = Battle of Nanking
| conflict = Battle of Messina
| partof = the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]]
| partof = the Extermination of Sicilians and the Exiled Sicilian War
| image = Zhongshan Gate.png
| image = Messina10.jpg
| image_size = 290px
| image_size = 290px
| caption = Messina, the citta' di merda
| caption = Japanese soldiers stand atop the ruins of Nanking's Zhongshan Gate on December 13 with [[Purple Mountain (Nanjing)|Zijinshan]] in the background.
| date = December 1–13, 1937
| date = December 1–13, 2020
| place = [[Nanjing|Nanking]] and surrounding areas
| place = [[Messina]] and surrounding areas
| result = Japanese victory
| result = Italian victory
*Murdering of [[merda|Orazio Sottile]] and complete elimination of his image
*Fall of Nanking
*Death of most of the [[Messina|Messinese]] population
*[[Nanking Massacre]]
| combatants_header =
| combatants_header =
| combatant1 = {{flagcountry|Kingdom of Italy|name=European Empire}}
| combatant1 = {{flagcountry|Republic of China (1912–1949)|23px}}<br/>'''Supported by:'''<br/>{{flagcountry|Soviet Union}}<ref name="doomed">{{cite book|last=Hamsen|first=Peter|title=Nanjing 1937: Battle for a Doomed City |year=2015|publisher=[[Casemate Publishers]]}}</ref>
| combatant2 = {{flagcountry|Empire of Japan|23px}}
| combatant2 = {{flag|Sicily|23px|name=Exiled State of Sicily}}
| commander1 = {{flagicon|Republic of China (1912–1949)|army}} [[Tang Shengzhi]]
| commander1 = {{flagicon|ITA|army}} [[lol|King Ranieri di Campello della Spina]]
| commander2 = {{flagicon|Empire of Japan|army}} [[Prince Yasuhiko Asaka|Prince Asaka]]<br>{{flagicon|Empire of Japan|army}} [[Iwane Matsui]]
| commander2 = {{flagicon|Sicily|army}} [[merda|Nello Musumeci]]<br>{{flagicon|Sicily|army}} [[merda|Cateno de Luca]]
| units1 = [[lol|Ottava Compagnia di Marina Militare 'Re Ranieri I']]<br/>[[lol|Terza Compagnia di Aereonautica 'Orazio Merda]]<br/>[[lol|Quinta Compagnia di Cavalleria 'Coletta']]
| units1 = Nanking Garrison Force<br/>[[Soviet Volunteer Group]]<ref name="doomed"/>
| units2 = [[Japanese Central China Area Army|Central China Area Army]]
| units2 = [[merda|Prima Armata di Messina]]<br/>[[merda|Prima Armata di Palermo]]
| strength1 = 100,000<ref name="echo">Ikuhiko Hata, "The Nanking Atrocities: Fact and Fable," ''Japan Echo'', August 1998, 51.</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Chen|first1=C. Peter|title=Battle of Nanjing and the Rape of Nanjing|url=https://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=38|website=World War II Database|access-date=August 17, 2017}}</ref>
| strength1 = 150,000<ref name="echo">Ikuhiko Hata, "The Nanking Atrocities: Fact and Fable," ''Japan Echo'', August 1998, 51.</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Chen|first1=C. Peter|title=Battle of Nanjing and the Rape of Nanjing|url=https://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=38|website=World War II Database|access-date=August 17, 2017}}</ref>
| strength2 = 200,000<ref>Kasahara "Nanking Incident" 1997, p 115</ref>
| strength2 = 60,000<ref>Kasahara "Nanking Incident" 1997, p 115</ref>
| casualties1 = 6,000–10,000 killed and wounded
| casualties1 = 10 killed and 7 wounded

36,500—40,000 killed after capture<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://jds.cass.cn/UploadFiles/zyqk/2010/12/201012101114478943.pdf|author=Zhaiwei Sun |script-title=zh:南京大屠杀遇难同胞中究竟有多少军人|year=1997|script-journal=zh:抗日战争研究 |issue=4 |language=zh |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150709222256/http://jds.cass.cn/UploadFiles/zyqk/2010/12/201012101114478943.pdf |archive-date=July 9, 2015 |access-date=April 14, 2017}}</ref>
| casualties2 = {{Plainlist|
| casualties2 = {{Plainlist|
*1,953 killed
*312,000 killed
*4,994 wounded<ref name="Masahiro Yamamoto 2000">Masahiro Yamamoto, ''Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity'' (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 118. Yamamoto cites Masao Terada, planning chief of Japan's 10th Army.</ref>}}
*4,994 wounded<ref name="Masahiro Yamamoto 2000">Masahiro Yamamoto, ''Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity'' (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 118. Yamamoto cites Masao Terada, planning chief of Japan's 10th Army.</ref>}}
| campaignbox = {{Campaignbox Second Sino-Japanese War}}
}}
}}
{{Infobox Chinese
|t = 南京保衛戰
|s = 南京保卫战
|p = Nánjīng Bǎowèi Zhàn
|w = Nan<sup>2</sup>-ching<sup>1</sup> Pao<sup>3</sup>-wei<sup>4</sup> Chan<sup>4</sup>
|l = Battle to Defend Nanking
|kanji = 南京戦
|kana = なんきんせん
|romaji = Nankin-sen
}}

The '''Battle of Nanking''' (or '''Nanjing''') was fought in early December 1937 during the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]] between the Chinese [[National Revolutionary Army]] and the [[Imperial Japanese Army]] for control of [[Nanking]] (Nanjing), the capital of the [[Republic of China (1912–49)|Republic of China]].

Following the outbreak of war between [[Empire of Japan|Japan]] and China in July 1937, the Japanese government at first attempted to contain the fighting and sought a negotiated settlement to the war. However, after victory in the [[Battle of Shanghai]] expansionists prevailed within the Japanese military and on December 1 a campaign to capture Nanking was officially authorized. The task of occupying Nanking was given to General [[Iwane Matsui]], the commander of Japan's Central China Area Army, who believed that the capture of Nanking would force China to surrender and thus end the war. Chinese leader [[Chiang Kai-shek]] ultimately decided to defend the city and appointed [[Tang Shengzhi]] to command the Nanking Garrison Force, a hastily assembled army of local conscripts and the remnants of the Chinese units who had fought in [[Shanghai]].

Japanese soldiers marched from Shanghai to Nanking at a breakneck pace, rapidly defeating pockets of Chinese resistance. By December 9 they had reached the last line of defense, the Fukuo Line, behind which lay [[City Wall of Nanjing|Nanking's fortified walls]]. On December 10 Matsui ordered an all-out attack on Nanking, and after less than two days of intense fighting Chiang decided to abandon the city. Before fleeing, Tang ordered his men to launch a concerted breakout of the Japanese siege, but by this time Nanking was largely surrounded and its defenses were at the breaking point. Most of Tang's units simply collapsed, their soldiers often casting off their weapons and uniforms in the streets in the hopes of hiding among the city's civilian population.

Following the capture of the city Japanese soldiers massacred Chinese prisoners of war, murdered civilians, and committed acts of looting and rape in an event known as the [[Nanjing Massacre|Nanking Massacre]]. Though Japan's military victory excited and emboldened them, the subsequent massacre tarnished their reputation in the eyes of the world. Contrary to Matsui's expectations, China did not surrender and the Second Sino-Japanese War continued for another eight years.

==Prelude to the battle==

===Japan's decision to capture Nanking===
The conflict which would become known as the Second Sino-Japanese War started on July 7, 1937, with a [[Marco Polo Bridge Incident|skirmish at Marco Polo Bridge]] which escalated rapidly into a full-scale war in northern China between the armies of China and Japan.<ref name="war">Jay Taylor, ''The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China'' (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press, 2009), 145–147. Taylor's major primary source for this information is the diary of Chiang Kai-shek, as well as papers written by scholars Zhang Baijia and Donald Sutton.</ref> China, however, wanted to avoid a decisive confrontation in the north and so instead opened a [[Battle of Shanghai|second front]] by attacking Japanese units in Shanghai in central China.<ref name="war"/> The Japanese responded by dispatching the [[Shanghai Expeditionary Army]] (SEA), commanded by General [[Iwane Matsui]], to drive the Chinese Army from Shanghai.<ref name="battle"/> Intense fighting in Shanghai forced Japan's [[Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office|Army General Staff]], which was in charge of military operations, to repeatedly reinforce the SEA, and finally on November 9 an entirely new army, the [[Tenth Army (Japan)|10th Army]] commanded by Lieutenant General [[Heisuke Yanagawa]], was also landed at [[Hangzhou Bay]] just south of Shanghai.<ref name="battle"/>

Although the arrival of the 10th Army succeeded at forcing the Chinese Army to retreat from Shanghai, the Japanese Army General Staff had decided to adopt a policy of non-expansion of hostilities with the aim of ending the war.<ref>{{cite book|author=Tokushi Kasahara|language=ja |script-title=ja:南京事件 |location=Tokyo |publisher=Iwanami Shoten |year=1997 |pages=23–24, 52, 55, 62}}</ref> On November 7 its ''de facto'' leader Deputy Chief of Staff [[Hayao Tada]] laid down an "operation restriction line" preventing its forces from leaving the vicinity of Shanghai, or more specifically from going west of the Chinese cities of [[Suzhou]] and [[Jiaxing]].<ref name="nanking">{{cite book|author=Tokushi Kasahara|language=ja |script-title=ja:南京事件 |location=Tokyo |publisher=Iwanami Shoten |year=1997 |pages=33, 60, 72}}</ref> The city of Nanking is 300 kilometers (186 miles) west of Shanghai.<ref name="nanking"/>

[[File:Iwane Matsui.jpg|thumb|Japanese General [[Iwane Matsui]]]]
However, a major rift of opinion existed between the Japanese government and its two field armies, the SEA and 10th Army, which as of November were both nominally under the control of the [[Japanese Central China Area Army|Central China Area Army]] led by SEA commander Matsui.<ref name="anatomy">Masahiro Yamamoto, ''Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity'' (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 43, 49–50. The primary sources Yamamoto cites for this information include a wide variety of documents and official communications drawn up by the Army General Staff, as well as the diaries of General Iwane Matsui and Lieutenant General Iinuma Mamoru.</ref> Matsui made clear to his superiors even before he left for Shanghai that he wanted to march on Nanking.<ref name="kasa">{{cite book|author=Tokushi Kasahara|language=ja |script-title=ja:南京事件 |location=Tokyo |publisher=Iwanami Shoten |year=1997 |pages=50–52}}</ref> He was convinced that the conquest of the Chinese capital city of Nanking would provoke the fall of the entire Nationalist Government of China and thus hand Japan a quick and complete victory in its war on China.<ref name="kasa"/> Yanagawa was likewise eager to conquer Nanking and both men chafed under the operation restriction line that had been imposed on them by the Army General Staff.<ref name="anatomy"/>

On November 19 Yanagawa ordered his 10th Army to pursue retreating Chinese forces across the operation restriction line to Nanking, a flagrant act of insubordination.<ref name="toku">{{cite book|author=Tokushi Kasahara|language=ja |script-title=ja:南京事件 |location=Tokyo |publisher=Iwanami Shoten |year=1997 |pages=59, 65–69}}</ref> When Tada discovered this the next day he ordered Yanagawa to stop immediately, but was ignored. Matsui made some effort to restrain Yanagawa, but also told him that he could send some advance units beyond the line.<ref name="battle">Hattori Satoshi and Edward J. Drea, "Japanese operations from July to December 1937," in ''The Battle for China: Essays on the Military History of the Sino-Japanese War of 1937–1945'', eds. Mark Peattie et al. (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2011), 169, 171–172, 175–177. The main primary sources cited for this information are official documents compiled by Japan's National Institute for Defense Studies as well as a discussion by Japanese historians and veterans published in the academic journal ''Rekishi to jinbutsu''.</ref> In fact, Matsui was highly sympathetic with Yanagawa's actions<ref>{{cite book |author=Kazutoshi Hando|display-authors=et al|language=ja |script-title=ja:歴代陸軍大将全覧: 昭和篇(1) |location=Tokyo |publisher=Chuo Koron Shinsha |year=2010 |page=137}}</ref> and a few days later on November 22 Matsui issued an urgent telegram to the Army General Staff insisting that "To resolve this crisis in a prompt manner we need to take advantage of the enemy's present declining fortunes and conquer Nanking ... By staying behind the operation restriction line at this point we are not only letting our chance to advance slip by, but it is also having the effect of encouraging the enemy to replenish their fighting strength and recover their fighting spirit and there is a risk that it will become harder to completely break their will to make war."<ref>{{cite book |author=Toshio Morimatsu|language=ja |script-title=ja:戦史叢書: 支那事変陸軍作戦(1) |location=Tokyo |publisher=Asagumo Shinbunsha |year=1975 |pages=418–419}}; This work was compiled by Japan's National Institute for Defense Studies based on official documents of the Imperial Japanese Army.</ref>

Meanwhile, as more and more Japanese units continued to slip past the operation restriction line, Tada was also coming under pressure from within the Army General Staff.<ref name="anatomy"/> Many of Tada's colleagues and subordinates, including the powerful Chief of the General Staff Operations Division [[Sadamu Shimomura]], had come around to Matsui's viewpoint and wanted Tada to approve an attack on Nanking.<ref name="toku"/> On November 24 Tada finally relented and abolished the operation restriction line "owing to circumstances beyond our control", and then several days later he reluctantly approved the operation to capture Nanking.<ref name="anatomy"/> Tada flew to Shanghai in person on December 1 to deliver the order,<ref>{{cite book |author=Toshio Morimatsu|language=ja |script-title=ja:戦史叢書: 支那事変陸軍作戦(1) |location=Tokyo |publisher=Asagumo Shinbunsha |year=1975 |page=422}}; This work was compiled by Japan's National Institute for Defense Studies based on official documents of the Imperial Japanese Army.</ref> though by then his own armies in the field were already well on their way to Nanking.<ref name="anatomy"/>

===China's decision to defend Nanking===
On November 15, near the end of the Battle of Shanghai, Chiang Kai-shek convened a meeting of the [[Military Affairs Commission]]'s Supreme National Defense Council to undertake strategic planning, including a decision on what to do in case of a Japanese attack on Nanking.<ref name="decision">{{cite book|author=Tokushi Kasahara|language=ja |script-title=ja:南京事件 |location=Tokyo |publisher=Iwanami Shoten |year=1997 |pages=109–111}}</ref> Here Chiang insisted fervently on mounting a sustained defense of Nanking. Chiang argued, just as he had during the Battle of Shanghai, that China would be more likely to receive aid from the great powers, possibly at the ongoing [[Nine Power Treaty Conference]], if it could prove on the battlefield its will and capacity to resist the Japanese.<ref name="decision"/> He also noted that holding onto Nanking would strengthen China's hand in peace talks which he wanted the German ambassador [[Trautmann mediation|Oskar Trautmann]] to mediate.<ref name="decision"/>

Chiang ran into stiff opposition from his officers, including the powerful Chief of Staff of the Military Affairs Commission [[He Yingqin]], the Deputy Chief of Staff [[Bai Chongxi]], the head of the Fifth War Zone [[Li Zongren]], and his German advisor [[Alexander von Falkenhausen]].<ref name="decision"/><ref name="yamamoto">Masahiro Yamamoto, ''Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity'' (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 44–46, 72. For this information Yamamoto cites a wide variety of primary sources including the memoirs of Li Zongren and Tang Shengzhi.</ref><ref name="jay">Jay Taylor, ''The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China'' (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press, 2009), 150–152. Most of the sources Taylor cites here come ultimately from Chiang's diaries, but he also utilizes the scholarship of historian Yang Tienshi and the journalist Iris Chang.</ref> They argued that the Chinese Army needed more time to recover from its losses at Shanghai, and pointed out that Nanking was highly indefensible topographically.<ref name="decision"/> The mostly gently sloping terrain in front of Nanking would make it easy for the attackers to advance on the city, while the [[Yangtze River]] behind Nanking would cut off the defenders' retreat.<ref name="yamamoto"/>

[[File:Tang Shengzhi.jpg|thumb|upright|Chinese General [[Tang Shengzhi]]]]
Chiang, however, had become increasingly agitated over the course of the Battle of Shanghai, even angrily declaring that he would stay behind in Nanking alone and command its defense personally.<ref name="yamamoto"/> But just when Chiang believed himself completely isolated, General Tang Shengzhi, an ambitious senior member of the Military Affairs Commission, spoke out in defense of Chiang's position, although accounts vary on whether Tang vociferously jumped to Chiang's aid or only reluctantly did so.<ref name="decision"/><ref name="yamamoto"/> Seizing the opportunity Tang had given him, Chiang responded by organizing the Nanking Garrison Force on November 20 and officially making Tang its commander on November 25.<ref name="yamamoto"/> The orders Tang received from Chiang on November 30 were to "defend the established defense lines at any cost and destroy the enemy’s besieging force".<ref name="yamamoto"/>

Though both men publicly declared that they would defend Nanking "to the last man",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thenankingmassacre.org/2015/07/03/from-shanghai-to-nanking|title=Introduction – From Marco Polo Bridge to Nanking|author=Masato Kajimoto|publisher=The Nanking Massacre|year=2000|access-date=July 19, 2015}} Kajimoto cites news reports in the Chicago Daily News and the American military officer Frank Dorn for this information.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://thenankingmassacre.org/2015/07/04/what-western-journalists-witnessed/|title=Fall of Nanking – What Foreign Journalists Witnessed|author=Masato Kajimoto|publisher=The Nanking Massacre|year=2000|access-date=July 19, 2015}} Kajimoto cites news reports in the Chicago Daily News and the American military officer Frank Dorn for this information.</ref> they were aware of their precarious situation.<ref name="yamamoto"/> On the same day that the Garrison Force was established Chiang officially moved the capital of China from Nanking to [[Chongqing]] deep in China's interior.<ref name="jiken">{{cite book|author=Tokushi Kasahara|language=ja |script-title=ja:南京事件 |location=Tokyo |publisher=Iwanami Shoten |year=1997 |pages=113–115, 120–121}}</ref> Further, both Chiang and Tang would at times give contradictory instructions to their subordinates on whether their mission was to defend Nanking to the death or merely delay the Japanese advance.<ref name="yamamoto"/>

==Road to Nanking==

===China's defense preparations===
Following the [[Mukden Incident|Manchurian Incident of 1931]], the Chinese government began a fast track national defense program with massive construction of primary and auxiliary air force bases around the [[Nanjing decade|capital of Nanking]] including [[Jurong airfield|Jurong Airbase]], completed in 1934, from which to facilitate aerial defense as well as launching counter-strikes against enemy incursions; on 15 August 1937 the [[Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service|IJN]] launched the first of many heavy ''schnellbomber'' (fast bomber) raids against Jurong Airbase using the advanced [[Mitsubishi G3M|G3M]]s based upon [[Giulio Douhet]]'s blitz-attack concept in an attempt to neutralize the Chinese Air Force fighters guarding the capital city, but was severely repulsed by the unexpected heavy resistance and performance of the Chinese fighter pilots stationed at Jurong, and suffering almost 50% loss rate.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://3g.163.com/news/article_cambrian/FO6AVPJJ0521PJRE.html|title = 88年前，镇江有一座"句容飞机场"，它的前世今生很传奇……_手机网易网|date = October 5, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.warbirdforum.com/cafhist.htm|title = Chinese Air Force vs. The Empire of Japan}}</ref>

On November 20 the Chinese Army and teams of conscripted laborers began to hurriedly bolster Nanking's defenses both inside and outside the city.<ref name="jiken"/><ref>{{cite journal |author=Tokushi Kasahara|language=ja |script-title=ja:南京防衛戦と中国軍 |journal=南京大虐殺の研究|editor=Tomio Hora|display-editors=et al |location=Tokyo |publisher=Banseisha |year=1992 |pages=250–251}}. This source cites secret telegrams sent by General Tang Shengzhi.</ref> Nanking itself was surrounded by formidable stone walls stretching almost fifty kilometers (31 miles) around the entire city.<ref>Hallett Abend, "Japanese Reach Nanking," ''The New York Times'', December 7, 1937, 1, 13.</ref> The walls, which had been constructed hundreds of years earlier during the [[Ming Dynasty]], rose up to twenty meters (65 feet) in height, were nine meters (30 feet) thick, and had been studded with machine gun emplacements.<ref>F. Tillman Durdin, "Invaders Checked by Many Defenses in Nanking's Walls," ''The New York Times'', December 12, 1937, 1, 48.</ref> By December 6 all the gates into the city had been closed and then barricaded with an additional layer of sandbags and concrete six meters (20 feet) thick.<ref name="laststand">F. Tillman Durdin, "Chinese Fight Foe Outside Nanking," ''The New York Times'', December 8, 1937, 1, 5.</ref><ref name="integer">{{cite book |author=Noboru Kojima|language=ja |script-title=ja:日中戦争(3) |location=Tokyo |publisher=Bungei Shunju |year=1984 |pages=165–167}}; Kojima relied heavily on field diaries for his research.</ref>

Outside the walls a series of semicircular defense lines were constructed in the path of the Japanese advance, most notably an outer one about sixteen kilometers (10 miles) from the city and an inner one directly outside the city known as the Fukuo Line, or multiple positions line.<ref name="dorn">Frank Dorn, ''The Sino-Japanese War, 1937–41: From Marco Polo Bridge to Pearl Harbor'' (New York: Macmillan, 1974), 88–90.</ref><ref name="garrison">David Askew, "Defending Nanking: An Examination of the Capital Garrison Forces," ''Sino-Japanese Studies'', April 15, 2003, 153–154. Here Askew cites American military officer Frank Dorn, journalist F. Tillman Durdin, and the research of the Japanese veterans' association Kaikosha.</ref><ref>"Nanking Prepares to Resist Attack," ''The New York Times'', December 1, 1937, 4.</ref> The Fukuo Line, a sprawling network of trenches, moats, barbed wire, mine fields, gun emplacements, and pillboxes, was to be the final defense line outside Nanking's city walls. There were also two key high points of land on the Fukuo Line, the peaks of Zijinshan to the northeast and the plateau of Yuhuatai to the south, where fortification was especially dense.<ref name="jiken"/><ref>{{cite book |author=Noboru Kojima|language=ja |script-title=ja:日中戦争(3) |location=Tokyo |publisher=Bungei Shunju |year=1984 |page=175}}; Kojima relied heavily on field diaries for his research.</ref><ref name="zijinshan">{{cite book |author=Yoshiaki Itakura|language=ja |script-title=ja:本当はこうだった南京事件 |location=Tokyo |publisher=Nihon Tosho Kankokai |year=1999 |pages=77–78}}</ref> In order to deny the Japanese invaders any shelter or supplies in this area, Tang adopted a strategy of [[scorched earth]] on December 7, ordering all homes and structures in the path of the Japanese within one to two kilometers (1.2 miles) of the city to be incinerated, as well as all homes and structures near roadways within sixteen kilometers (10 miles) of the city.<ref name="jiken"/>

The defending army, the Nanking Garrison Force, was on paper a formidable army of thirteen divisions, including three elite [[Sino-German cooperation until 1941|German-trained]] divisions plus the super-elite [[Training Division (National Revolutionary Army)|Training Brigade]], but in reality most of these units had trickled back to Nanking severely mauled from the fighting in Shanghai.<ref>David Askew, "Defending Nanking: An Examination of the Capital Garrison Forces," ''Sino-Japanese Studies'', April 15, 2003, 151–152.</ref><ref name="itakura">{{cite book |author=Yoshiaki Itakura|language=ja |script-title=ja:本当はこうだった南京事件 |location=Tokyo |publisher=Nihon Tosho Kankokai |year=1999 |pages=78–80}}</ref> By the time they reached Nanking they were physically exhausted, low on equipment, and badly depleted in total troop strength. In order to replenish some of these units, 16,000 young men and teenagers from Nanking and the rural villages surrounding it were speedily pressed into service as new recruits.<ref name="jiken"/><ref name="force">David Askew, "Defending Nanking: An Examination of the Capital Garrison Forces," ''Sino-Japanese Studies'', April 15, 2003, 163.</ref> An additional 14,000 fresh soldiers were brought in from [[Hankou]] to fill the ranks of the 2nd Army.<ref>{{cite book |language=zh-hant |author=Li Junshan |script-title=zh:為政略殉: 論抗戰初期京滬地區作戰 |location=Taipei |publisher= Guoli Taiwan Daxue Zhuban Weiyuanhui |year=1992 |pages=241–243}}</ref> However, due to the unexpected rapidity of the Japanese advance, most of the new conscripts received only rudimentary training on how to fire their guns on their way to or upon their arrival at the frontlines.<ref name="jiken"/><ref name="itakura"/> No definitive statistics exist on how many soldiers the Nanking Garrison Force had managed to cobble together by the time of the battle, but among leading estimates are those of David Askew who says 73,790 to 81,500,<ref>David Askew, "Defending Nanking: An Examination of the Capital Garrison Forces," ''Sino-Japanese Studies'', April 15, 2003, 173.</ref> those of [[Ikuhiko Hata]] who estimates 100,000,<ref name="echo">Ikuhiko Hata, "The Nanking Atrocities: Fact and Fable," ''Japan Echo'', August 1998, 51.</ref> and those of [[Tokushi Kasahara]] who argues in favor of about 150,000.<ref name="jiken"/>

[[File:Nankinginfant2.jpg|thumb|right|A Chinese civilian carries his dying son wounded in a Japanese air raid on Nanking.]]
But during this period Japan's [[Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service|Navy Air Service]] was launching frequent air raids on the city, eventually totaling 50 raids according to the Navy's own records.<ref name="bombing">{{cite book|author=Tokushi Kasahara|language=ja |script-title=ja:南京事件 |location=Tokyo |publisher=Iwanami Shoten |year=1997 |pages=17–18, 34, 40–41}}</ref> The [[Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service]] had struck Nanking for the first time on August 15 with [[Mitsubishi G3M]] medium-heavy bombers, but suffered heavy losses in face of the aerial defense from [[Republic of China Air Force|Chinese Air Force]] Boeing P-26/281 Peashooter and [[Curtiss F11C|Hawk II]]/[[Curtiss BF2C Goshawk|Hawk III]] fighters based primarily at Jurong Airbase for the defense of Nanking.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=947|title = Wong Sun-sui}}</ref> It wasn't until after the introduction of the advanced [[Mitsubishi A5M]] fighter did the Japanese begin to turn the tide in air-to-air combat, and proceed with bombing both military and civilian targets day and night with increasing impunity as the Chinese Air Force losses mounted through continuous attrition; the Chinese did not have the aircraft industry nor comprehensive training regimen to replace men and machines to contend against the ever-growing and ever-improving Japanese war machine.<ref name="bombing"/> However, experienced veteran fighter pilots of the Chinese Air Force still proved a most dangerous adversary against Japanese air power; [[Flying ace|combat aces]] [[Gao Zhihang|Col. Gao Zhihang]], [[John Wong Pan-yang|Maj. John Wong Pan-yang]] and [[cmn:刘粹刚|Capt. Liu Cuigang]] whom were outnumbered by the superior A5Ms entering Nanking on October 12, famously shot down four A5M fighters that day including a double-kill by Col. Gao that included Shotai leader W.O. Torakuma.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/china_kao.htm|title = Chinese biplane fighter aces - Kao Chi-Hang}}</ref> Tragically both Col. Gao and Capt. Liu were lost due to non-aerial combat incidents by the following month as they were preparing to receive improved fighter aircraft design in the [[Polikarpov I-16]]s.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=865|title = Gao Zhihang}}</ref> In the face of Japanese terror bombing and the ongoing advance of the Imperial Japanese Army, the large majority of Nanking's citizens fled the city, which by early December Nanking's population had dropped from its former total of more than one million to less than 500,000, a figure which included Chinese refugees from rural villages burned down by their own government's scorched earth policies.<ref name="evacuation">{{cite book|author=Tokushi Kasahara|language=ja |script-title=ja:南京事件 |location=Tokyo |publisher=Iwanami Shoten |year=1997 |pages=31–32, 41}}</ref><ref>Masahiro Yamamoto, ''Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity'' (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 61–62.</ref> Most of those still in the city were very poor and had nowhere else to go.<ref name="evacuation"/> Foreign residents of Nanking were also repeatedly asked to leave the city which was becoming more and more chaotic under the strain of bombings, fires, looting by criminals, and electrical outages,<ref name="integer"/><ref>[[Lily Abegg]], "Wie wir aus Nanking flüchteten: Die letzten Tage in der Haupstadt Chinas," ''Frankfurter Zeitung'', December 19, 1937, 9.</ref> but those few foreigners brave enough to stay behind strived to find a way to help the Chinese civilians who had been unable to leave.<ref name="askew">David Askew, "Westerners in Occupied Nanking," in ''The Nanking Atrocity, 1937–38: Complicating the Picture'', ed. Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi (New York: Berghahn Books, 2008), 227–229.</ref> In late-November [[International Committee|a group]] of them led by German citizen [[John Rabe]] established the [[Nanking Safety Zone]] in the center of the city, a self-proclaimed demilitarized zone where civilian refugees could congregate in order to hopefully escape the fighting.<ref name="askew"/> The safety zone was recognized by the Chinese government,<ref>Rana Mitter, ''Forgotten Ally: China's World War II'' (Boston: Hughton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013), 127–128. Mitter cites the diary of German civilian John Rabe.</ref> and on December 8 Tang Shengzhi demanded that all civilians evacuate there.<ref name="laststand"/>

Among those Chinese who did manage to escape Nanking were Chiang Kai-shek and his wife [[Soong Mei-ling]], who had flown out of Nanking on a private plane just before the crack of dawn on December 7.<ref name="TK">{{cite book|author=Tokushi Kasahara|language=ja |script-title=ja:南京事件 |location=Tokyo |publisher=Iwanami Shoten |year=1997 |pages=115–116}}</ref> The mayor of Nanking and most of the municipal government left the same day, entrusting management of the city to the Nanking Garrison Force.<ref name="TK"/>

===Japan's march on Nanking===
By the start of December, Japan's Central China Area Army had swollen in strength to over 160,000 men,<ref>Akira Fujiwara, "The Nanking Atrocity: An Interpretive Overview," in ''The Nanking Atrocity, 1937–38: Complicating the Picture'', ed. Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi (New York: Berghahn Books, 2008), 31.</ref> though only about 50,000 of these would ultimately participate in the fighting.<ref>David Askew, "Defending Nanking: An Examination of the Capital Garrison Forces," ''Sino-Japanese Studies'', April 15, 2003, 158. Askew cites the diary of General Iwane Matsui and the research of historian Ikuhiko Hata.</ref> The plan of attack against Nanking was a [[pincer movement]] which the Japanese called "encirclement and annihilation".<ref name="TK"/><ref>Masahiro Yamamoto, ''The History and Historiography of the Rape of Nanking'' (Tuscaloosa: unpublished Ph.D. thesis, 1998), 505.</ref> The two prongs of the Central China Area Army's pincer were the Shanghai Expeditionary Army (SEA) advancing on Nanking from its eastern side and the 10th Army advancing from its southern side. To the north and west of Nanking lay the Yangtze River, but the Japanese planned to plug this possible escape route as well both by dispatching a squadron of ships up the river and by deploying two special detachments to circle around behind the city.<ref name="pincer">Masahiro Yamamoto, ''Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity'' (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 51–52.</ref> The Kunisaki Detachment was to cross the Yangtze in the south with the ultimate aim of occupying [[Pukou]] on the river bank west of Nanking while the Yamada Detachment was to be sent on the far north route with the ultimate aim of taking Mufushan just north of Nanking.<ref name="pincer"/>

General Matsui, along with the Army General Staff, envisaged making a slow and steady march on Nanking, but his subordinates refused to play along and instead raced eagerly with each other to be the first to get to the city.<ref name="fujiwara">Akira Fujiwara, "The Nanking Atrocity: An Interpretive Overview," in ''The Nanking Atrocity, 1937–38: Complicating the Picture'', ed. Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi (New York: Berghahn Books, 2008), 33, 36.</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Tokushi Kasahara|language=ja |script-title=ja:南京事件 |location=Tokyo |publisher=Iwanami Shoten |year=1997 |page=69}}</ref><ref>Masahiro Yamamoto, ''Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity'' (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 57–58. For this information Yamamoto cites a wide variety of primary sources including the diaries of Japanese officers Iwane Matsui and [[Tōichi Sasaki]], and documents drawn up by the 10th Army.</ref> Soon all units were roaring to Nanking at the breakneck pace of up to forty kilometers (25 miles) per day.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Satoshi Hattori |script-title=ja:日中戦争における短期決戦方針の挫折 |script-journal=ja:日中戦争再論 |editor=Gunjishi Gakkai |location=Tokyo |publisher=Kinseisha |year=2008 |page=92}}. Hattori cites official documents compiled by Japan's National Institute for Defense Studies.</ref> For instance, the 10th Army captured the key town of [[Guangde County|Guangde]] on November 30 three days before it was even supposed to start its planned advance, and the SEA captured [[Danyang, Jiangsu|Danyang]] on December 2 more than five days ahead of schedule.<ref name="fujiwara"/> In order to achieve such speeds, the Japanese soldiers carried little with them except weaponry and ammunition.<ref name="supplies">Masahiro Yamamoto, ''Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity'' (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 52–54.</ref> Because they were marching well ahead of most of their supply lines they had to purchase or loot their food from Chinese civilians along the way.<ref name="supplies"/>

[[File:Carrying guns and wheels01.jpg|thumb|right|Japanese soldiers marching on Nanking]]
During their advance the Japanese overcame initially light resistance from the already battered Chinese forces who were being pursued by the Japanese from Shanghai in a "running battle".<ref name="dorn"/><ref name="force"/> Here the Japanese were aided by their complete air supremacy, their abundance of tanks, the improvised and hastily constructed nature of the Chinese defenses, and also by the Chinese strategy of concentrating their defending forces on small patches of relatively high ground which made them easy to outflank and surround.<ref name="battle"/><ref>Edward J. Drea and Hans van de Ven, "An Overview of Major Military Campaigns During the Sino-Japanese War, 1937–1945," in ''The Battle for China: Essays on the Military History of the Sino-Japanese War of 1937–1945'', eds. Mark Peattie et al. (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2011), 31.</ref><ref name="durdin2">F. Tillman Durdin, "Japanese Atrocities Marked Fall of Nanking," ''The New York Times'', January 9, 1938, 38.</ref>

On December 5, Chiang Kai-shek paid a visit to a defensive encampment near [[Jurong, Jiangsu|Jurong]] to boost the morale of his men but was forced to retreat when the Imperial Japanese Army began their attack on the battlefield.<ref name="kojima">{{cite book |author=Noboru Kojima|language=ja |script-title=ja:日中戦争(3) |location=Tokyo |publisher=Bungei Shunju |year=1984 |pages=164, 166, 170–171, 173}}; Kojima relied heavily on field diaries for his research.</ref> On that day the rapidly moving forward contingents of the SEA occupied Jurong and then arrived at Chunhuazhen, a key point of Nanking's outer line of defense which would put Japanese artillery in range of the city.<ref name="garrison"/><ref name="TK"/><ref name="kojima"/> Here China's 51st Division flung its main force into the fighting and repeatedly repulsed Japanese attacks before cracking on December 8 when the main force of the SEA arrived.<ref name="kojima"/> The SEA also took the fortress at [[Zhenjiang]] and the spa town of Tangshuizhen on that day.<ref>{{cite book |author=Yoshiaki Itakura|language=ja |script-title=ja:本当はこうだった南京事件 |location=Tokyo |publisher=Nihon Tosho Kankokai |year=1999 |pages=75, 79}}</ref> Meanwhile, on the south side of the same defense line, armored vehicles of Japan's 10th Army charged the Chinese position at [[Jiangjun Mountain|Jiangjunshan]] and Niushoushan defended by China's 58th Division.<ref name="kojima"/> Valiant Chinese soldiers armed with hammers jumped onto the vehicles and banged repeatedly on their roofs shouting "Get out of there!", but after darkness fell on the battlefield the 58th Division was finally overwhelmed on December 9 after suffering, according to its own records, 800 casualties.<ref name="kojima"/>

By December 9 Japan's forces had reached Nanking's last line of defense, the daunting Fukuo Line.<ref name="fuk">{{cite book|author=Tokushi Kasahara|language=ja |script-title=ja:南京事件 |location=Tokyo |publisher=Iwanami Shoten |year=1997 |page=121}}</ref> At this point General Matsui had a "summons to surrender" drawn up which implored the Chinese to send military envoys to Nanking's Zhongshan Gate to discuss terms for the peaceful occupation of the city, and he then had a [[Mitsubishi Ki-21]] scatter thousands of copies of the message over the city.<ref>{{cite book |author=Noboru Kojima|language=ja |script-title=ja:日中戦争(3) |location=Tokyo |publisher=Bungei Shunju |year=1984 |pages=172–173}}; Kojima relied heavily on field diaries for his research.</ref><ref name="hayase">{{cite book |author=Toshiyuki Hayase |language=ja |script-title=ja:将軍の真実 : 松井石根人物伝 |location=Tokyo |publisher=Kojinsha |year=1999 |pages=125–130}}; For this information Hayase cites the diary of Iwane Matsui and the memoirs of the Japanese interpreter Hisashi Okada.</ref> On December 10 a group of Matsui's senior staff officers waited to see if the gate would be opened, but Tang Shengzhi had no intention of responding.<ref name="hayase"/>

Later that day Tang proclaimed to his men that, "Our army has entered into the final battle to defend Nanking on the Fukuo Line. Each unit shall firmly defend its post with the resolve to either live or die with it. You're not allowed to retreat on your own, causing defense to collapse."<ref name="fuk"/><ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.njrd.gov.cn/jlzg/201502/t20150202_3183654.html | script-title=zh:南京保衛戰 | trans-title=Defensive War of Nanking | author=朱月琴 | quote={{lang|zh-hant|下達「衛參作字第36號命令」作為回應，聲稱「本軍目下佔領復廓陣地為固守南京之最後戰鬥，各部隊應以與陣地共存亡之決心盡力固守，決不許輕棄寸土、動搖全軍。若不遵命令擅自後移，定遵委座命令，按連坐法從嚴辦理}}」 | language=zh | publisher=[[Standing Committee of the National People's Congress]], Nanking | access-date=July 16, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150721163202/http://www.njrd.gov.cn/jlzg/201502/t20150202_3183654.html | archive-date=July 21, 2015 | url-status=dead }}</ref> The American journalist [[F. Tillman Durdin]], who was reporting on site during the battle, saw one small group of Chinese soldiers set up a barricade, assemble in a solemn semicircle, and promise each other that they would die together where they stood.<ref name="durdin2"/>

==Final battle for Nanking==
[[File:Battle of China Nanking.webm|thumb|right|The battle of Nanking from [[Frank Capra]]'s ''[[The Battle of China]]'']]
At 1:00 pm on December 10, General Matsui ordered all units to launch a full-scale attack on Nanking.<ref name="hayase"/> That day the SEA assaulted China's super-elite Training Brigade on the peaks of Zijinshan, which dominate Nanking's northeast horizon.<ref name="zijinshan"/> Clambering up the ridges of the mountain, the men of the SEA had to painstakingly wrest control of each Chinese encampment one by one in bloody infantry charges. Advancing along the south side of Zijinshan was no easier as General Matsui had forbidden his men from using artillery there due to his deep conviction that no damage should come to its two famous historical sites, [[Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum]] and [[Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Toshiyuki Hayase |language=ja |script-title=ja:将軍の真実 : 松井石根人物伝 |location=Tokyo |publisher=Kojinsha |year=1999 |page=124}}; As primary sources Hayase cites the diary of Iwane Matsui and testimony by Japanese eyewitnesses delivered at the Tokyo War Crimes Trials.</ref>

Also on Nanking's eastern side but further south, other units of the SEA faced the difficult task of fording the large moat standing between them and three of the city gates, Zhongshan Gate, Guanghua Gate, and Tongji Gate, though the speed of Japan's earlier advance played in their favor as key Chinese units slated to be deployed here were not yet in position.<ref name="zijinshan"/><ref name="hayase"/><ref name="guanghua1">{{cite book |author=Noboru Kojima|language=ja |script-title=ja:日中戦争(3) |location=Tokyo |publisher=Bungei Shunju |year=1984 |pages=174–175}}; Kojima relied heavily on field diaries for his research.</ref> That evening, Japanese engineers and artillerymen closing in on Guanghua Gate managed to blow a hole in the wall. A Japanese battalion launched a daring attack through the gap and planted a Japanese flag on a portion of the gate, but was immediately pinned down by a series of determined Chinese counterattacks.<ref name="guanghua1"/> The Chinese brought up reinforcements, including tanks, and they poured down grenades and even flaming, gasoline-soaked lumber onto the Japanese battalion, which was only saved from annihilation by timely bursts of concentrated artillery fire from the rest of their division. The battalion succeeded in holding its position for the rest of the battle despite losing eighty of its eighty-eight men.<ref name="guanghua1"/><ref>Nankin Senshi Henshu Iinkai, {{Nihongo2|南京戦史}} (Tokyo: Kaikosha, 1989), 175–184.</ref>

At the same time Japan's 10th Army was storming Yuhuatai, a rugged plateau situated directly in front of [[Gate of China, Nanjing|Zhonghua Gate]] on Nanking's southern side. The 10th Army's progress was slow and casualties were heavy as Yuhuatai was built like a fortress of interlocking pillboxes and trenches manned by three Chinese divisions, including the German-trained 88th Division, though the Chinese were also apt to counterattack and some Japanese units were forced to spend more time defending than attacking.<ref>{{cite book |author=Noboru Kojima|language=ja |script-title=ja:日中戦争(3) |location=Tokyo |publisher=Bungei Shunju |year=1984 |pages=175–176, 180}}; Kojima relied heavily on field diaries for his research.</ref> Close to every single man that the 88th Division had deployed on Yuhuatai was killed in action, including three of its four regimental commanders and both of its brigade commanders, but in the process the Japanese were made to suffer 2,240 casualties including 566 dead.<ref name="yuhuatai">David Askew, "Defending Nanking: An Examination of the Capital Garrison Forces," ''Sino-Japanese Studies'', April 15, 2003, 168. Askew cites the memoirs of the commander of China's 78th Corps Song Xilian for information on the 88th Division and cites the battle reports of the 6th Division for its combat casualties.</ref> Yuhuatai was finally overrun at noon on December 12.<ref name="defenders">{{cite book|author=Tokushi Kasahara|language=ja |script-title=ja:南京事件 |location=Tokyo |publisher=Iwanami Shoten |year=1997 |pages=122–123, 126–127}}</ref>

[[File:Crossing river by Gate of China01.jpg|thumb|right|Japanese soldiers crossing the moat close to Zhonghua Gate]]
Behind Yuhuatai the 88th Division had stationed its barely trained new recruits atop Nanking's Zhonghua Gate.<ref name="yuhuatai"/> The Japanese had already tried the previous night to infiltrate a "suicide squadron" bearing explosive [[picric acid]] up to this gate to blow a hole in it, but it got lost in the morning fog and failed to reach the wall.<ref>{{cite book |author=Noboru Kojima|language=ja |script-title=ja:日中戦争(3) |location=Tokyo |publisher=Bungei Shunju |year=1984 |pages=178–179}}; Kojima relied heavily on field diaries for his research.</ref> At noon on December 12 a team of just six Japanese soldiers made it across the moat in a small boat and succeeded in scaling the wall at Zhonghua Gate on a shaky bamboo ladder and raising the Japanese flag there.<ref name="zhonghua">{{cite book |author=Noboru Kojima|language=ja |script-title=ja:日中戦争(3) |location=Tokyo |publisher=Bungei Shunju |year=1984 |pages=183–185}}; Kojima relied heavily on field diaries for his research.</ref> Five of them were killed by gunfire but the last man grabbed a Chinese machine gun and held the position singlehandedly. Soon after another Japanese team set a fire in front of the gate to create a smokescreen.<ref name="zhonghua"/> By 5:00 pm more and more Japanese troops were crossing the moat and swarming Zhonghua Gate by fording makeshift bridges so rickety their engineers had to hold them aloft with their own bodies, and with the help of some well aimed Japanese artillery fire from atop Yuhuatai parts of the wall finally crumbled.<ref name="defenders"/> Meanwhile, just west of Zhonghua Gate, other soldiers also of Japan's 10th Army had punched a hole through Chinese lines in the wetlands south of Shuixi Gate and were launching a violent drive on that gate with the support of a fleet of tanks.<ref name="defenders"/>

At the height of the battle Tang Shengzhi complained to Chiang that, "Our casualties are naturally heavy and we are fighting against metal with merely flesh and blood",<ref name="fenby">Jonathan Fenby, ''Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the China He Lost'' (London: Free Press, 2003), 306.</ref> but what the Chinese lacked in equipment they made up for in the sheer ferocity with which they fought, though this was partially due to strict orders that no man or unit was to retreat one step without permission.<ref name="fuk"/><ref>Hallett Abend, "Nanking Invested," ''The New York Times'', December 13, 1937, 1, 15.</ref> Over the course of the battle roughly 1,000 Chinese soldiers were shot dead by other members of their own army for attempting to retreat,<ref>Masahiro Yamamoto, ''Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity'' (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 84. Yamamoto cites the research of the Japanese veterans' association Kaikosha.</ref> and on Yuhuatai Japanese soldiers noticed that many Chinese pillboxes were chained from the outside to prevent their occupants from fleeing.<ref>Masahiro Yamamoto, ''Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity'' (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 66. For this information Yamamoto cites a wide variety of primary sources including Japanese army documents, Chinese army documents, and the testimony of Japanese officer Tokutaro Sakai, and he also cites the work of researcher Noboru Kojima.</ref>

Nonetheless, the Japanese were gaining the upper hand over the hard-pressed and surrounded Chinese defenders.<ref name="defenders"/> On December 12 the SEA captured Peak #2 of Zijinshan and from this vantage point unleashed a torrent of artillery fire at Zhongshan Gate where a large portion of the wall suddenly gave way.<ref name="defenders"/> After sunset the fires that blazed out of control on Zijinshan were visible even from Zhonghua Gate in the south which was completely occupied by Japan's 10th Army on the night of December 12 to 13.<ref name="integer1">{{cite book |author=Noboru Kojima|language=ja |script-title=ja:日中戦争(3) |location=Tokyo |publisher=Bungei Shunju |year=1984 |page=186}}; Kojima relied heavily on field diaries for his research.</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Tokushi Kasahara|language=ja |script-title=ja:南京事件 |location=Tokyo |publisher=Iwanami Shoten |year=1997 |page=134}}</ref>

===Collapse of the Nanking Garrison Force===
Unbeknownst to the Japanese however, Chiang had already ordered Tang to abandon the defense.<ref name="integer1"/> In spite of his earlier talk about holding out in Nanking to the bitter end, Chiang telegraphed an order to Tang on December 11 to abandon the city.<ref name="collapse">{{cite book|author=Tokushi Kasahara|language=ja |script-title=ja:南京事件 |location=Tokyo |publisher=Iwanami Shoten |year=1997 |pages=128–133}}</ref> Tang prepared to do so the next day on December 12, but startled by Japan's intensified onslaught he made a frantic last-minute bid to conclude a temporary ceasefire with the Japanese through German citizens John Rabe and Eduard Sperling.<ref name="collapse"/> Only when it became clear that the negotiations could not be completed in time did Tang finally finish drawing up a plan calling for all his units to launch a coordinated breakout of the Japanese encirclement.<ref name="collapse"/> They were to commence the breakout under cover of darkness at 11:00 pm that night and then muster in [[Anhui]]. Just after 5:00 pm on December 12 Tang arranged for this plan to be transmitted to all units, and then he crossed the Yangtze River, escaping through the city of Pukou on the opposite bank of the river less than twenty-four hours before it was occupied by Japan's Kunisaki Detachment.<ref name="collapse"/>

By the time Tang slipped out of the city, however, the entire Nanking Garrison Force was rapidly disintegrating with some units in open flight.<ref name="collapse"/><ref>{{cite book |author=Toshiyuki Hayase |language=ja |script-title=ja:将軍の真実 : 松井石根人物伝 |location=Tokyo |publisher=Kojinsha |year=1999 |page=133}}; Hayase's primary sources include news reports in the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun and the records of the German embassy in Nanking.</ref> Furthermore, contact had already been lost with many units who thus never received Tang's message and continued to hold their positions as ordered,<ref name="durdin1">F. Tillman Durdin, "All Captives Slain," ''The New York Times'', December 18, 1937, 1, 10.</ref> though even those that did receive it had little luck at slipping through the Japanese lines.<ref name="retreat">{{cite book |author=Noboru Kojima|language=ja |script-title=ja:日中戦争(3) |location=Tokyo |publisher=Bungei Shunju |year=1984 |pages=187–190}}; Kojima relied heavily on field diaries for his research.</ref> China's 66th and 83rd Corps made a bid to evade the Japanese as planned through a gap to the east but immediately ran into their own minefield.<ref name="retreat"/> After that they were attacked in flight by Japanese units and lost two divisional chiefs of staff in combat.<ref name="retreat"/> Though the two corps had started the battle at least 11,000 men strong, only 600 of them escaped Nanking.<ref name="retreat"/><ref>David Askew, "Defending Nanking: An Examination of the Capital Garrison Forces," ''Sino-Japanese Studies'', April 15, 2003, 164–166. Askew tabulates the minimum strength of the two corps using primary sources such as the battle reports of the 160th Division and 66th Corps and the news reports of journalist F. Tillman Durdin, as well as secondary source research by historians Masahiro Yamamoto, Yoshiaki Itakura, and Tokushi Kasahara.</ref> Near dawn on December 13 a portion of China's 74th Corps was also annihilated in a bid to break through Japanese lines along the Yangtze River south of Nanking.<ref name="retreat"/>

One of the few units that did manage to get out of Nanking was China's 2nd Army led by [[Xu Yuanquan]] situated just north of Nanking.<ref name="retreat"/> Though Xu never received Tang's order to abandon the defense, on the night of December 12 he had heard that Nanking had been captured and so decided to withdraw on his own accord. During the night he managed to evacuate most of his unit across the Yangtze River just before Japanese naval units blockaded the river.<ref name="retreat"/>

[[File:Zhongshan Road.jpg|thumb|right|Debris scattered on Nanking's Zhongshan Road]]
By contrast, a massive crowd of thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians from the south side of Nanking, who were fleeing in panic and disarray from the advance of Japan's 10th Army on the same night, were prevented from reaching the harbor at [[Xiaguan District|Xiaguan]] by Chinese [[barrier troops]] who fired on the crowd for retreating without permission and managed to hold it back.<ref name="xiaguan">{{cite book|author=Tokushi Kasahara|language=ja |script-title=ja:南京事件 |location=Tokyo |publisher=Iwanami Shoten |year=1997 |pages=130–131, 133–138}}</ref><ref>Archibald T. Steele, "Panic of Chinese in Capture of Nanking," ''Chicago Daily News'', February 3, 1938, 2.</ref> At 9:00 pm a fleeing Chinese tank unit, which had also not received Tang's parting message, charged the barrier troops and burst through their blockade, only for the crowd to then find that there were hardly any boats remaining in the harbor.<ref name="xiaguan"/> The crowd fought to clamber aboard what few craft were available, but these soon became so overloaded that they sank midway.<ref name="retreat"/> The rest of the Chinese soldiers took to the Yangtze's rough and frigid waters en masse while clinging to logs and pieces of scrap lumber, though most were quickly swallowed up by the river.<ref name="xiaguan"/> Furthermore, by this point the Japanese encirclement of Nanking was virtually complete and many who were attempting to brave the Yangtze soon found themselves being fired upon from both sides of the river.<ref>Masahiro Yamamoto, ''Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity'' (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 87. Yamamoto cites the battle report of Japan's 38th Regiment and a variety of eyewitness account of both Chinese and Japanese soldiers.</ref> Others who saw this turned back to the city in despair.<ref name="xiaguan"/>
[[File:Memorial Ceremony Hasegawa Matsui Asaka Yanagawa Nanking 18-Dec-1937.png|thumb|left|Japanese military leaders [[Kiyoshi Hasegawa (admiral)]], [[Iwane Matsui]], [[Prince Yasuhiko Asaka]], and [[Heisuke Yanagawa]] at the Memorial Ceremony for War Dead at Nanking Airfield on December 13, 1937]]
Many of these tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers who could not escape the city responded by casting off their uniforms and weaponry, switching to civilian clothes often by stealing them from passersby, and then desperately seeking sanctuary in the Nanking Safety Zone by mingling with civilians.<ref name="retreat"/> The American journalist F. Tillman Durdin "witnessed the wholesale undressing of an army that was almost comic".<ref name="durdin1"/> "Arms were discarded along with uniforms, and the streets became covered with guns, grenades, swords, knapsacks, coats, shoes and helmets ... In front of the Ministry of Communications and for two blocks further on, trucks, artillery, busses, staff cars, wagons, machine-guns, and small arms became piled up as in a junk yard."<ref name="durdin2"/>

==Mopping-up operations and the Nanking Massacre==
{{Main|Nanking Massacre}}
[[File:Check of Chinese soldiers in Nanking01.jpg|thumb|right|Japanese soldiers searching Chinese men for weapons]]

The fighting in Nanking did not end entirely on the night of December 12–13 when the Japanese Army took the remaining gates and entered the city. During their mopping-up operations in the city the Japanese continued for several more days to beat back sporadic resistance from Chinese stragglers.<ref name="noboru">{{cite book |author=Noboru Kojima|language=ja |script-title=ja:日中戦争(3) |location=Tokyo |publisher=Bungei Shunju |year=1984 |pages=191, 194–195, 197–200}}; Kojima relied heavily on field diaries for his research.</ref><ref name="mopping">Masahiro Yamamoto, ''Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity'' (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 85–91. For this information, Yamamoto cites a dozen different Japanese combat diaries.</ref><ref>"March of Victory into Nanking Set," ''The New York Times'', December 16, 1937, 15.</ref> Though Mufushan, just north of Nanking, was taken by Japan's Yamada Detachment without much bloodshed on the morning of December 14,<ref>{{cite book |author=Noboru Kojima|language=ja |script-title=ja:日中戦争(3) |location=Tokyo |publisher=Bungei Shunju |year=1984 |page=196}}; Kojima relied heavily on field diaries for his research.</ref> pockets of resistance outside Nanking persisted for several more days.<ref>Senshi Hensan Iinkai, {{Nihongo2|騎兵・搜索第二聯隊戦史}} (Sendai: Kihei Sosaku Daini Rentai Senyukai, 1987), 155–158.</ref>

Meanwhile, the Japanese units on mopping-up duty in Nanking had decided that the former Chinese soldiers hiding in the city were a possible security risk and therefore carried out a thorough search of every building in Nanking and made frequent incursions into the Nanking Safety Zone in search of them.<ref name="noboru"/><ref name="mopping"/> Japanese units attempted to distinguish former soldiers from civilians by checking if they had marks on their shoulders from wearing a backpack or carrying a rifle.<ref name="noboru"/> However, the criteria used were often arbitrary as was the case with one Japanese company which apprehended all men with "shoe sores, callouses on the face, extremely good posture, and/or sharp-looking eyes" and for this reason many civilians were taken at the same time.<ref>Masahiro Yamamoto, ''Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity'' (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 100. Yamamoto's interpretation is based on the diaries of soldiers Mataichi Inoie and So Mizutani.</ref> What happened to the Chinese soldiers and civilians who were captured varied greatly from unit to unit, though many were summarily executed in an event that came to be known as the [[Nanking Massacre]], which the foreign residents and journalists in Nanking made known internationally within days of the city's fall.<ref>Masahiro Yamamoto, ''Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity'' (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 81, 93, 99.</ref> The Japanese also committed random acts of murder, rape, looting, and arson during their occupation of Nanking. According to the [[International Military Tribunal for the Far East]], indicate that the total number of civilians and prisoners of war murdered in Nanking and its vicinity during the first six weeks of the Japanese occupation was over 200,000 while 20,000 women were raped, including infants and the elderly.<ref name="IMTftFE">{{cite web | url = http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/PTO/IMTFE/IMTFE-8.html | title = HyperWar: International Military Tribunal for the Far East (Chapter 8) (Paragraph 2, p. 1015, Judgment International Military Tribunal for the Far East) | access-date=October 27, 2016}}</ref> Estimates for the total death toll of the Nanking Massacre vary widely.<ref name="wakabayashi">Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi, "Leftover Problems," in ''The Nanking Atrocity, 1937–38: Complicating the Picture'', ed. Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi (New York: Berghahn Books, 2008), 377–384.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/reviews/2008/Leibold.html|title=Picking at the Wound: Nanjing, 1937–38|author=James Leibold|publisher=Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies|date=November 2008|access-date=October 27, 2016}}</ref>

[[File:Nanking victory parade.webm|thumb|right|December 17 victory parade as seen in the Japanese propaganda film ''[[Nanking (1938 film)|Nanking]]'' (1938)]]
The Japanese Army's mopping-up operations and the large-scale massacres that accompanied them were over by the afternoon of December 17 when General Matsui entered Nanking for the victory parade.<ref>Masahiro Yamamoto, ''Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity'' (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 92.</ref> By the end of December most Japanese soldiers had left Nanking, though units of the Shanghai Expeditionary Army stayed on to occupy the city.<ref>{{cite book |author=Toshio Morimatsu|language=ja |script-title=ja:戦史叢書: 支那事変陸軍作戦(1) |location=Tokyo |publisher=Asagumo Shinbunsha |year=1975 |pages=429, 432}}; This work was compiled by Japan's National Institute for Defense Studies based on official documents of the Imperial Japanese Army.</ref> The Nanking Self-Government Committee, a new municipal authority formed from local Chinese citizens, was inaugurated on January 1, 1938,<ref>David Askew, "Westerners in Occupied Nanking," in ''The Nanking Atrocity, 1937–38: Complicating the Picture'', ed. Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi (New York: Berghahn Books, 2008), 241. Askew cites the diary of German civilian John Rabe.</ref> but it was not until February 25 that all restrictions on the free movement of civilians into and out of the city were lifted.<ref>David Askew, "The Scale of Japanese Atrocities in Nanjing: An Examination of the Burial Records," ''Ritsumeikan Journal of Asia Pacific Studies'', June 2004, 12. Askew cites a report from one of Japan's Special Service Organizations.</ref>

==Aftermath and assessment==
{{Hatnote|See also [[:Commons:Battle of Nanking#Aftermath of the battle|Aftermath of Nanking]]}}
[[File:Nanking celebrations.png|thumb|left|Celebrations in Japan following the fall of Nanking]]
News of the massacre was tightly censored in Japan,<ref>Takashi Yoshida, ''The Making of the "Rape of Nanking"'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 20.</ref> where Nanking's capture provoked a frenzy of excitement among the citizenry.<ref name="rejoice">{{cite book|author=Tokushi Kasahara|language=ja |script-title=ja:南京事件 |location=Tokyo |publisher=Iwanami Shoten |year=1997 |pages=123–125}}</ref> Mass celebrations of every sort, either spontaneous or government-sponsored, took place throughout the country, including a number of resplendent lantern parades which were still vividly remembered by onlookers several decades later.<ref name="rejoice"/><ref name="boyle">John Hunter Boyle, ''China and Japan at War, 1937–1945: The Politics of Collaboration'' (Stanford, California, Stanford University Press, 1972), 55.</ref> F. Tillman Durdin noted even before Nanking had fallen that "Events in the field have renewed the belief of the Japanese people in the invincibility of their arms."<ref name="laststand"/>

The conquest of Nanking had been quicker and easier than the Japanese had foreseen;<ref name="battle"/><ref>David Askew, "Defending Nanking: An Examination of the Capital Garrison Forces," ''Sino-Japanese Studies'', April 15, 2003, 162.</ref> they lost only 1,953 soldiers in battle, plus 4,994 wounded.<ref name="Masahiro Yamamoto 2000">Masahiro Yamamoto, ''Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity'' (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 118. Yamamoto cites Masao Terada, planning chief of Japan's 10th Army.</ref> Japan's casualties were undoubtedly dwarfed by those of China, though no precise figures exist on how many Chinese were killed in action. The Japanese claimed to have killed up to 84,000 enemies during the Nanking campaign whereas a contemporary Chinese source claimed that their army suffered 20,000 casualties. Masahiro Yamamoto noted that the Japanese usually inflated their opponent's body counts while the Chinese had reason to downplay the scale of their loss.<ref name="casualties">Masahiro Yamamoto, ''Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity'' (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 87–88.</ref> Ikuhiko Hata estimates that 50,000 Chinese soldiers were killed in combat during the entire battle<ref name="echo"/> whereas Jay Taylor puts the number at 70,000 and states that proportionate to the size of the force committed, such losses were greater than those suffered in the devastating [[Battle of Shanghai]].<ref name="Michael Richard Gibson 1985">Michael Richard Gibson, ''Chiang Kai-shek’s Central Army, 1924–1938'' (Washington DC: George Washington University, 1985), 388.</ref> On the other hand, Chinese scholar Sun Zhaiwei estimates Chinese combat losses at 6,000 to 10,000 men.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://jds.cass.cn/UploadFiles/zyqk/2010/12/201012101114478943.pdf|author=Zhaiwei Sun |script-title=zh:南京大屠杀遇难同胞中究竟有多少军人|year=1997|script-journal=zh:抗日战争研究 |issue=4 |language=zh}}</ref>

An official report of the Nationalist Government argued that an excess of untrained and inexperienced troops was a major cause of the defeat, but at the time Tang Shengzhi was made to bear much of the blame and later historians have also criticized him.<ref name="fenby"/><ref>Masahiro Yamamoto, ''Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity'' (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 49.</ref> Japanese historian Tokushi Kasahara, for instance, has characterized his battlefield leadership as incompetent, arguing that an orderly withdrawal from Nanking may have been possible if Tang had carried it out on December 11 or if he had not fled his post well in advance of most of his beleaguered units.<ref>{{cite book|author=Tokushi Kasahara|language=ja |script-title=ja:南京事件 |location=Tokyo |publisher=Iwanami Shoten |year=1997 |pages=112, 132–133}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|language=ja |script-title=ja:永久保存版 – 三派合同 大アンケート |magazine=[[Shokun!]] |date=February 2001 |page=184}}</ref> However, Chiang's very decision to defend Nanking is also controversial. Masahiro Yamamoto believes that Chiang chose "almost entirely out of emotion" to fight a battle he knew he could only lose,<ref>Masahiro Yamamoto, ''Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity'' (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 140.</ref> and fellow historian Frederick Fu Liu concurs that the decision is often regarded as one of "the greatest strategical mistakes of the Sino-Japanese war".<ref>Frederick Fu Liu, ''A Military History of Modern China 1924–1949'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1956), 199.</ref> Still, the historian Jay Taylor notes that Chiang was convinced that to run from his capital city "without a serious fight ... would forever be regarded as a cowardly decision".<ref name="jay"/>

In spite of its military accomplishment, Japan's international reputation was blackened by the Nanking Massacre, as well as by a series of international incidents that occurred during and after the battle.<ref>Takashi Yoshida, ''The Making of the "Rape of Nanking"'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 37.</ref> Most notable among them were the shelling by Japanese artillery of the British steamship ''Ladybird'' on the Yangtze River on December 12, and the sinking by Japanese aircraft of the American gunboat ''[[Panay Incident|Panay]]'' not far downstream on the same day.<ref name="incident">{{cite book|author=Tokushi Kasahara|language=ja |script-title=ja:南京事件 |location=Tokyo |publisher=Iwanami Shoten |year=1997 |pages=170–172}}</ref> The [[John Moore Allison|Allison Incident]], the slapping of an American consul by a Japanese soldier, further increased tensions with the United States.<ref name="incident"/>


The '''Battle and Genocide of Messina''' (or '''Citta' di Merda''') was fought in early December (Inserisco data) during the [[LOL|Extermination of the Sicilians]].
Furthermore, the loss of Nanking did not force China to capitulate as Japan's leaders had predicted.<ref name="boyle"/> Even so, buoyed by their victory, the Japanese government replaced the lenient terms for peace which they had relayed to the mediator Ambassador Trautmann prior to the battle with an extremely harsh set of demands that were ultimately rejected by China.<ref>{{cite book |author=Noboru Kojima|language=ja |script-title=ja:日中戦争(3) |location=Tokyo |publisher=Bungei Shunju |year=1984 |pages=168–169}}; Kojima relied heavily on field diaries for his research.</ref><ref>Ikuhiko Hata, "The Marco Polo Bridge Incident 1937," in ''The China Quagmire: Japan's Expansion on the Asian Continent 1933–1941'', ed. James William Morley (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983), 280–282. For this information Hata cites a variety of German and Japanese diplomatic cables as well as the diary of Tatsuhiko Takashima and the memoirs of Akira Kazami.</ref><ref>Herbert Bix, ''Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan'' (New York : HarperCollins Publishers, 2000), 343–344. For this information Bix cites research by the scholars Akira Fujiwara, Youli Sun, and Akira Yamada.</ref> On December 17 in a fiery speech entitled, "A Message to the People Upon Our Withdrawal from Nanking", Chiang Kai-shek defiantly declared that,<ref name="jay"/><ref>Long-hsuen Hsu, ''History of the Sino-Japanese war (1937–1945)'' (Taipei, Chung Wu, 1972), 213–214.</ref>
<blockquote>The outcome of this war will not be decided at Nanking or in any other big city; it will be decided in the countryside of our vast country and by the inflexible will of our people ... In the end we will wear the enemy down. In time the enemy's military might will count for nothing. I can assure you that the final victory will be ours.<ref>Keiji Furuya, ''Chiang Kai-shek: His Life and Times'' (New York: St. John's University, 1981), 557.</ref></blockquote>


Following the [[Sicilian Defence|Exiliation of Sicily]], a war started between [[Keke Palmer|Ranieri Campello]]'s newly founded [[First French Empire|European Empire]] and the [[Sicily|Exiled State of Sicily]]. The war was started by the invasion of [[Palermo]], followed by the [[Catania|Nuclear attack]] on [[Catania]], that caused more than 200 thousand casualties. Messina was invaded by a naval aggressive attacked, done by the [[Lombardy|Ottava Compagnia di Marina Militare 'Re Ranieri I']] and the [[Terza Posizione|Terza Compagnia di Aereonautica 'Orazio Merda']]. Italian soldiers marched from Piazza Cairoli to Piazza Duomo and shot most of the people they found a long the way, raping all women. Cannons were brought into the city to demolish most buildings. All citizens found were put on the execution until the position of Orazio Sottile was revealed. Furthermore, Alessandro Leone was quickly evacuated while the likes of [[Kek|Peditto Qualcosa]], [[Lel|Karol Sturinolo]] and [[Kol|Fabio Qualcosaltro]] were found and put to hang, together with their families. Reportedly, Peditto's mother was too fat to fit through the door of her how house, causing delay in the executions. Furthermore, Peditto was only killed after being thoroughly dipped in Nitric and Hydrochloric acid by the King himself.
The Second Sino-Japanese War was to drag on for another eight years and ultimately end with Japan's surrender in 1945.<ref>Jay Taylor, ''The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China'' (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press, 2009), 313–317.</ref>


[[Merdan Ghappar|Orazio Sottile]] was quickly found by the [[LOL|Colletta Cavalry]] troops and was beaten with a metal baton by the [[LOL|King]]. All Messinese soldiers surrendered and were sent to labor camps in [[Lol|France]], [[Lol|Italy]] and [[Lol|Spain]] as prisoners of wars. The entirety of the [[Lol|Palermitan]] army was defeated and the Sicilians still consider it their biggest defeat. [[Merda|Orazio Sottile]] and his family are still in an unbenownst place but sources close to the Minister of Sicilian Extermination claim that the [[Sicily|Sicilian]] prisoners are forced to beat him with spiked bats.
==See also==
* [[Air warfare of World War II#Second Sino-Japanese War|Air Warfare of WWII from the Sino-Japanese War perspective]]
* [[Battle of Wuhan]]; the war over the new wartime capital of China following the Fall of Nanjing
* [[Bombing of Chongqing|Battle of Chongqing]]; the war over the wartime capital of China following the Fall of Wuhan


==References==
{{Commons category|Battle of Nanking}}
{{Clear}}
{{Reflist|30em}}


{{Authority control}}


{{Coord|32.0500|N|118.7670|E|type:event_source:wikidata-and-enwiki-cat-tree_region:CN-32|display=title}}
{{Coord|32.0500|N|118.7670|E|type:event_source:wikidata-and-enwiki-cat-tree_region:CN-32|display=title}}

Revision as of 16:49, 13 January 2022

This page is about the 1937 battle. For other battles, see Battles of Nanking.

Template:Good article is only for Wikipedia:Good articles.

Battle of Messina
Part of the Extermination of Sicilians and the Exiled Sicilian War

Messina, the citta' di merda
DateDecember 1–13, 2020
Location
Messina and surrounding areas
Result

Italian victory

Belligerents
 European Empire  Exiled State of Sicily
Commanders and leaders
Italy King Ranieri di Campello della Spina Sicily Nello Musumeci
Sicily Cateno de Luca
Units involved
Ottava Compagnia di Marina Militare 'Re Ranieri I'
Terza Compagnia di Aereonautica 'Orazio Merda
Quinta Compagnia di Cavalleria 'Coletta'		 Prima Armata di Messina
Prima Armata di Palermo
Strength
150,000[1][2] 60,000[3]
Casualties and losses
10 killed and 7 wounded
  • 312,000 killed
  • 4,994 wounded[4]

The Battle and Genocide of Messina (or Citta' di Merda) was fought in early December (Inserisco data) during the Extermination of the Sicilians.

Following the Exiliation of Sicily, a war started between Ranieri Campello's newly founded European Empire and the Exiled State of Sicily. The war was started by the invasion of Palermo, followed by the Nuclear attack on Catania, that caused more than 200 thousand casualties. Messina was invaded by a naval aggressive attacked, done by the Ottava Compagnia di Marina Militare 'Re Ranieri I' and the Terza Compagnia di Aereonautica 'Orazio Merda'. Italian soldiers marched from Piazza Cairoli to Piazza Duomo and shot most of the people they found a long the way, raping all women. Cannons were brought into the city to demolish most buildings. All citizens found were put on the execution until the position of Orazio Sottile was revealed. Furthermore, Alessandro Leone was quickly evacuated while the likes of Peditto Qualcosa, Karol Sturinolo and Fabio Qualcosaltro were found and put to hang, together with their families. Reportedly, Peditto's mother was too fat to fit through the door of her how house, causing delay in the executions. Furthermore, Peditto was only killed after being thoroughly dipped in Nitric and Hydrochloric acid by the King himself.

Orazio Sottile was quickly found by the Colletta Cavalry troops and was beaten with a metal baton by the King. All Messinese soldiers surrendered and were sent to labor camps in France, Italy and Spain as prisoners of wars. The entirety of the Palermitan army was defeated and the Sicilians still consider it their biggest defeat. Orazio Sottile and his family are still in an unbenownst place but sources close to the Minister of Sicilian Extermination claim that the Sicilian prisoners are forced to beat him with spiked bats.


32°03′00″N 118°46′01″E / 32.0500°N 118.7670°E / 32.0500; 118.7670

  1. ^ Ikuhiko Hata, "The Nanking Atrocities: Fact and Fable," Japan Echo, August 1998, 51.
  2. ^ Chen, C. Peter. "Battle of Nanjing and the Rape of Nanjing". World War II Database. Retrieved August 17, 2017.
  3. ^ Kasahara "Nanking Incident" 1997, p 115
  4. ^ Masahiro Yamamoto, Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 118. Yamamoto cites Masao Terada, planning chief of Japan's 10th Army.
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