Datong-Puzhou Campaign

Datong-Puzhou Campaign is a campaign fought against the during the Chinese Civil War in the post-World War II era in Shanxi, and resulted in communist victory.

Order of battle

Nationalist:
*The 34th Army
Communist:
*4th Column of Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field army

Campaign

In early July, 1946, nationalist commander-in-chief of the 2nd War Zone, Yan Xishan, ordered the nationalist 34th Army under his command to attack communists from Jiexiu to help Hu Zongnan’s attacks on the communists. The planned to annihilate their communist enemy in the regions of Hongdong and Zhao City in southern Shanxi. However, Hu Zongnan, the nationalist commander-in-chief of the 1st War Zone was soundly defeated by the communists in the Wenxi-Xiaxian Campaign by late July, 1946, and was forced to retreated to Yuncheng and Wenxi regions to regroup and thus could not support Yan Xishan's effort. Communists accordingly launched their Northern Shanxi Campaign to further expand their victory.

In order to reinforce nationalists in northern Shanxi, Yan Xishan had to redeploy his troops from southern Shanxi, which provided the excellent opportunity for the enemy to strike in the vast region from Lingshi to Hongdong along the Datong-Puzhou Railway. The communist commanders were quick to seize the opportunity, and struck on August 14, 1946, after marching from Jiang county and Quwo county in secret on August 9 and August 10 respectively. The campaign progressed exactly as communists had planned and ended in their predicated victory. In addition to annihilating more than 10,000 nationalist troops, the victorious communists also succeeded in taking counties / towns including Hongdong on August 16 , Zhao City on August 17 , Huo county on August 24, Lingshi on August 28, and Fenxi on August 29. The communists ended the campaign on September 1, 1946 when they took Wealthy Family's Beach .

As a result of the defeat, over 130 km stretch of area along the southern section of Datong-Puzhou Railway had fallen into the enemy hands, resulting the linkage between Yan Xishan's 2nd War Zone and Hu Zongnan's 1st War Zone was completely severed, thus making future operations more difficult. Five important local cities / towns were lost to the communists, where they would obtain plenty of supplies. Nationalists were also forced to be on the defensive for sometime after Datong-Puzhou Campaign, while communists took the opportunity to consolidate their gains.