Shanghai Campaign - Second Stage

Second Stage

To secure the escape route via sea, the nationalist 75th Army was redeployed from the city to reinforce High Bridge (Go Qiao, 高桥) region, but after two armies and a division were withdrawn from the city to reinforce the positions of outer defensive perimeters, there was not enough force within the city to suppress the civilians who vehemently opposed the destruction of the city and organized themselves to protect infrastructure facilities within the city. As a result, the nationalist plan of destroying the city and transferring the wealth was not carried out fully as it had planned. The defenders’ naval assets also faced great difficulties in that it was forced to fight at the enemy’s turf: the inland riverine navigational channels were simply too narrow for the naval vessels to maneuver and they become sitting ducks for the enemy’s long range shore batteries. After many extraordinarily brave but completely futile engagements by the outgunned nationalist naval assets which resulted in seven nationalist naval vessels damaged, it was painfully obvious that the naval asset must withdraw in the hopeless fights. When the nationalist naval fleet was forced to withdraw on May 23, 1949, the enemy’s attempt to cut off the defenders’ maritime escape route succeeded, and the sea to the east of High Bridge (Go Qiao, 高桥) region was blockaded by the enemy.

After ten days of fierce fighting, the defenders suffered more than 20,000 casualties and lost all of the positions in the outer defensive perimeters. However, this might not be a bad thing because the defenders were able to concentrate their force in the city. The attacking enemy was well aware of this situation and adjusted their tactic once again: the 23rd Army of the communist VII Corps and the 25th Army of the communist VIII Corps were assigned to help the communist IX Corps and X Corps to take the city.