Battle of Hengyang

Battle of Hengyang
Part of Operation Ichi-Go, the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific Theater of World War II
Date (1944-06-23) (1944-08-08)June 23 – August 8, 1944 (1 month, 2 weeks and 2 days)[1] Location Hengyang, Hunan province Result Japanese Pyrrhic victory Territorial changes Japanese capture of Hengyang
Belligerents
Republic of China  United States (air support only)	Empire of Japan
Commanders and leaders
Fang Xianjue	Isamu Yokoyama
Strength
10th Army, 16,275 men[2]	11th Army, 110,000+ men
Casualties and losses
7,400 killed in action 1000 severely wounded who were killed in hospital 5,000 captured and tortured to death 3,000 captured and escaped[3]	Japanese source: 19,000 dead and wounded[4] Chinese source: 48,000–60,000 dead and wounded[5]
3,174 civilian volunteers killed[6]

The Battle of Hengyang (Chinese: 衡阳保卫战) 23 June – 8 August 1944 was fought between Chinese and Japanese forces in mainland China during World War II. Although the city fell, Japanese casualties far exceeded the total number of Chinese troops defending the city. It has been described as "the most savage battle ever fought in the smallest battlefield with the greatest casualties in the military history of the world".^[7] Japanese military historians equate it to the most arduous battle in the Russo-Japanese War, calling it a "Battle of Ryojun in South China".^[8] A major Chinese newspaper of the day compared it to the Battle of Stalingrad.^[9]