Dingtao Campaign - Outcome

Outcome

The nationalists suffered over seventeen thousand losses, including five thousand fatalities and another twelve thousand being captured by the enemy. In addition, communists also captured six tanks and large amount of supplies from the nationalists. Another benefit for the communists brought by their victory of the campaign was that it relieved the pressure of communists elsewhere as the campaign had forced the nationalist to withdraw some of their units deployed in the Campaign of the North China Plain Pocket originally planned to encircle communists force under the command of Li Xiannian, who eventually led his force to escape successfully from the nationalists.

The reason for the nationalist defeat was due to their overconfidence for that they enjoyed both the numerical and technical advantages. However, as the nationalists pushed deep inside the enemy territory, their force were split and thus they no longer enjoyed local numerical superiority despite having overall absolute superiority in the entire front. This opportunity was exploited by the enemy who concentrated their force to achieve local numerical superiority and successfully annihilated the attacking nationalist division that was relatively isolated for venturing too far away from other nationalist units. According to Chinese communists, along with the Campaign of the North China Plain Pocket and the Central Jiangsu Campaign, Dingtao Campaign was one of these three critical campaigns that helped to stabilize the southern front for the communist in the initial stage of the Chinese Civil War in the post World War II era.