Feature: Hero's family recalls battle of Yenangyaung saving 7,000 Britons in WW2

Xinhua writers Wang Chenxi and Ming Xing

BEIJING, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) - As China marks the 70th anniversary of the Second World War victory over Japan, Yang Yumei is still learning about her grandfather, a hero who died in one of the most desperate battles in Burma (now Myanmar).

Yang's grandfather, Zhang Qi, was the most senior Chinese officer to die in the Battle of Yenangyaung, a bitterly fought campaign to save almost 7,000 British troops from encirclement by the advancing Japanese army in April 1942.

The battle took on the legend of an epic retreat on the scale of Dunkirk, and Zhang Qi, Commander of the 3rd Battalion, 113th Regiment, New 38th Division of the Chinese Expeditionary Army, played a key role in smashing through the Japanese line.

Altogether 202 Chinese soldiers, under the command of General Sun Liren, died rescuing General William Slim's British First Burma Division.

Yang Yumei, who lives in Qiyang, central China's Hunan Province, never met Zhang Qi, who joined the Expeditionary Army and left his daughter Zhang Jinlan, Yang's mother, when she was still an infant.

"My mother often cried when she thought about my grandfather. She always felt deep sorrow that she never saw him again," Yang recalls.

Yenangyaung, which translates as "stream of oil", was a major oil production base and strategically prized by both sides. Japan's 33d Division attacked from the south and cut General Slim's two divisions apart, encircling the First Burma Division and civilian personnel on the south bank of the Pin Chaung river on April 16, 1942.

U.S. correspondent Jack Belden was among those encircled in Yenangyaung. He recorded the desperate escape in his article, How British in Burma Escaped Jap Trap, in Life magazine in May 1942.

"A British soldier jumped onto the car from the bushes saying 'For God's sake, get me out of here Guvnor, the Japs are all around us.' He had hardly finished these words when the steady clatter of machine guns was heard from the north, then a duller boom like that of a mortar," wrote Belden.

British General Harold Alexander asked U.S. Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell in China for reinforcements. The New 38th Division 113th Regiment arrived on April 17 with Division Commander Sun Liren and Regiment Commander Liu Fangwu. As the Chinese rushed in without heavy armored vehicles, Slim asked the British 7th Armored Brigade in Yenangyaung to support them.

Sun Liren and Liu Fangwu launched the assault at the Pin Chaung river before daybreak on April 18. The Chinese troops pushed south across the river under heavy enemy fire and bombardment. The Japanese line was squeezed thin, but still held the British.

Yang Yumei says a junior officer under Sun Liren later told her mother how Zhang Qi died. On April 19, Zhang's 3rd Battalion was pressing home its attack and pursuing the retreated Japanese line when he was hit by several bullets. With no medical aid, Zhang Qi bled to death, issuing orders to the end.

With 113th Regiment's fearless assault, the British forces were freed from the trap on April 20. About 500 journalists and missionaries were also saved.

"A tide of overpowering joy flooded through me as I recognized the insignia of the Chinese Army and I stood up shouting 'Chung Kuo Wan Wan Sui' - which means 'China for ten thousand years'," Jack Belden reported.

The battle of Yenangyaung left more than 700 Japanese troops dead, while 318 Chinese troops were wounded and 202 killed. Sun Liren ordered his men to convey Zhang's body back home, but under the remorseless hear, they were forced to bury him by the Irrawaddy River.

The battle failed to stop Japanese taking Yenangyaung, but it saved 7,000 British troops and facilitated an allied counterattack in 1943.

New 38th Division Commander Sun Liren was honored as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and a member of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath; and decorated with the U.S. Legion of Merit for Officers. Liu Fangwu of 113th Regiment was also honored by the British.

U.S. President Roosevelt awarded Zhang Qi the Silver Star. Sun Liren kept the medal for Zhang's family and gave it to his daughter Zhang Jinlan in 1989.

On January 13, 2013, a monument was erected at Yenangyaung to commemorate the battle and the Chinese troops who fought here. Families of the Chinese Expeditionary Army troops, including Liu Weimin, son of Liu Fangwu, attended the ceremony.

On January 19, 2013, the memorial tablet for the 202 killed was moved from Yenangyaung to China, and on July 7 back to Hunan, the province most members of the 113th Regiment came from.

His daughter, Zhang Jinlan, passed away in 2012. Now the memorial tablet is one of the few links between Zhang Qi and Yang Yumei, along with some faded photos, the Silver Star and stories of the battle. Enditem

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