Battle of Tang'erli

The Battle of Tang'erli (堂二里战斗) was a series of armed conflicts fought between the nationalists and the communists during Chinese Civil War in the post World War II era, and resulted in the communist victory.

Battle of Tang'erli
Part of the Chinese Civil War
Date April 27, 1947 – April 28, 1947 Location Hebei, China Result Communist victory
Belligerents
National Revolutionary Army	People's Liberation Army
Commanders and leaders
unknown	Xiao Xinhuai
Strength
950+	2,200
Casualties and losses
270+ killed 670+ captured	~100

On 27 April 1947, the Communist Central Hebei Independent 7th Brigade secretly approached Tang'erli (堂二里) region from the western part of Ba (霸) county for a sneak attack. The 19th Regiment of the 7th Brigade was assigned to the south of Tang'erli (堂二里) to stop Nationalist reinforcements from Tianjin and Shengfang (胜芳), deployed in the regions including Wang Family's Bunker (Wang Jia Bao, 王家堡), Southern Willow (Nan Liu, 南柳), He Family's Bunker (He Jia Bao, 何家堡), Chu River Harbor (Chu He Gang, 褚河港), and Donggu Gang (东沽港). Meanwhile, the 20th Regiment of the valiant 7th Brigade was deployed to the north of Tang'erli (堂二里), and the 21st Regiment of the 7th Brigade was deployed to the east and west of Tang'erli (堂二里).

As the Communist siege was complete, the inevitable assault begun. The undetected sudden attack took the defenders completely by surprise, and by 11:00 AM in the next morning, the commanding height Rong Family's Tower (Rong Jia Lou, 荣家楼) had fallen into the enemy's hand. As a result, the Nationalist headquarters was completely exposed under enemy fire, and the defenders held out as long as they could but eventually were forced to surrender when reinforcements failed to arrive and breakout was impossible.

The Communists succeeded in taking over 670 prisoners and killing over 270, including most of the nationalist officers. The communists also succeeded in capturing 22 light machineguns, 4 submachine guns, over 30 handguns, over 450 rifles, over 20,000 rounds of ammunitions, and other supplies. The nationalist loss of Tang'erli (堂二里), one of their strongholds near the major city Tianjin meant that the enemy would have another base from which they would launch attacks to harass the nationalists guarding the major city.

See also

• List of battles of the Chinese Civil War
• National Revolutionary Army
• History of the People's Liberation Army
• Chinese Civil War

References

• Zhu, Zongzhen and Wang, Chaoguang, Liberation War History, 1st Edition, Social Scientific Literary Publishing House in Beijing, 2000, ISBN 7-80149-207-2 (set)
• Zhang, Ping, History of the Liberation War, 1st Edition, Chinese Youth Publishing House in Beijing, 1987, ISBN 7-5006-0081-X (pbk.)
• Jie, Lifu, Records of the Libration War: The Decisive Battle of Two Kinds of Fates, 1st Edition, Hebei People's Publishing House in Shijiazhuang, 1990, ISBN 7-202-00733-9 (set)
• Literary and Historical Research Committee of the Anhui Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Liberation War, 1st Edition, Anhui People's Publishing House in Hefei, 1987, ISBN 7-212-00007-8
• Li, Zuomin, Heroic Division and Iron Horse: Records of the Liberation War, 1st Edition, Chinese Communist Party History Publishing House in Beijing, 2004, ISBN 7-80199-029-3
• Wang, Xingsheng, and Zhang, Jingshan, Chinese Liberation War, 1st Edition, People's Liberation Army Literature and Art Publishing House in Beijing, 2001, ISBN 7-5033-1351-X (set)
• Huang, Youlan, History of the Chinese People's Liberation War, 1st Edition, Archives Publishing House in Beijing, 1992, ISBN 7-80019-338-1
• Liu Wusheng, From Yan'an to Beijing: A Collection of Military Records and Research Publications of Important Campaigns in the Liberation War, 1st Edition, Central Literary Publishing House in Beijing, 1993, ISBN 7-5073-0074-9
• Tang, Yilu and Bi, Jianzhong, History of Chinese People's Liberation Army in Chinese Liberation War, 1st Edition, Military Scientific Publishing House in Beijing, 1993 – 1997, ISBN 7-80021-719-1 (Volum 1), 7800219615 (Volum 2), 7800219631 (Volum 3), 7801370937 (Volum 4), and 7801370953 (Volum 5)