Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze (41 page)

The Chinese made one of their last stands in full view of spectators inside the French Concession. It was an unequal encounter. The Japanese rolled their tanks up and fired at the Chinese positions over a distance of no more than 60 yards. The Chinese were also exposed to intensive air raids and eventually they were pushed back. Once the situation appeared completely hopeless, a Chinese soldier carried a wounded comrade north across the Siccawei Creek into the French Concession, evading the hail of bullets that the Japanese sent after him. The French guards, who did not conceal that their sympathies were with the Chinese, helped the two soldiers up the bank. This incident encouraged the other Chinese to follow suit, and soon dozens of soldiers poured across the border into the French sector, handing over their weapons. They had become internees, a French sop to the now-powerful Japanese, but they had avoided almost certain death at the hands of their enemy.
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Not all the Chinese soldiers escaped that way. Some moved further east to a position that was also close to the southern edge of the French Concession, near a water tower which served as a landmark for that part of town. It was a doomed position. It offered even less protection than the one the Chinese defenders had left, while enabling the Japanese to jump from building to building during their advance. The encounter was short and deadly. After a few minutes the Chinese knew they had lost, and in full view of the Japanese, they abruptly turned around and dashed for the French Concession, scrambling over the barbed wire at the border.
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Before entering they abandoned their weapons and equipment in big piles, leaving souvenir hunters among the foreign observers to have a field day. The French commander arrived at the scene and praised the Chinese soldiers for their bravery while giving them his personal assurance that they would not be handed back to the Japanese.
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Casualties during the final skirmish could have been much worse, but one last tragedy was still waiting to happen. Edgar Snow looked around and noticed a small red pool on the ground in front of him. “Is this paint or blood?” he asked. It was just below the water tower, which had served as a good vantage point for watching the battle. Curious, Snow started ascending the winding staircase to the top. On the way up, he met a group of people walking down carrying a lifeless body. It was Pembroke Stevens, a British journalist. He has been shot through the head and the groin. It was his blood Snow had seen. He was already dead. In his buttonhole, he wore a red poppy, in remembrance of Armistice Day.
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The battle across Siccawei Creek was drawing to an end. The victorious troops moved through the last unoccupied streets of Chinese Shanghai, weeding out the few remaining pockets of resistance. As in Zhabei, the defenders attempted to set fire to buildings in a bid to leave as little as possible for the army of occupation. Thick smoke rose over the district, reducing visibility dramatically, and spectators inside the French Concession had to judge the progress of the battle from the sound. As the machine gun fire gradually died out, it was replaced by triumphant shouts of “Banzai!” At 3:34 p.m., the Rising Sun flag was hoisted over the last Chinese stronghold in Nanshi. The battle of Shanghai was over.
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A Japanese poses next to a Chinese gun after the fall of the fortress of Wusong. The Wusong artillery constituted severe challenges for the Japanese north of Shanghai in the initial stages of the battle.
Author’s collection

“You can figure how close we were to the fighting,” wrote the American sailor who took this photo. The snapshot is through a porthole in the heavy cruiser USS
Augusta,
which was anchored in the port of Shanghai almost throughout the entire battle. An American sailor was killed when a Chinese shell exploded near the vessel.
Author’s collection

As the fighting intensified and threatened to spill over into the International Settlement, the foreign powers sent reinforcements to their garrisons. Here US troops are lined up on the bank of the Huangpu River. A swastika flag is flying over German property in the background.
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Japanese soldiers search a Chinese civilian in the countryside near Shanghai. Men of fighting age such as this person ran a severe risk of being executed.
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The French Concession was guarded by both conscripts from the homeland and troops from the colonies, including Indochina. They were especially active towards the end of the battle, when large numbers of refugees sought safety in the foreign zones.
Author’s collection

Civilians became casualties from the first day of the battle. Here a Chinese woman is receiving medical treatment from a US Navy doctor.
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The Japanese army waged the war in China with extreme brutality. Its soldiers rarely took any prisoners. Like their German counterparts, they often documented their own misdeeds with the camera. In this photo, not from Shanghai, a platoon poses in front of a just-decapitated person. It is not possible to determine from the clothes that the corpse is wearing if he was a soldier or a civilian.
Private collection

A group of Chinese civilians have been detained and are now awaiting questioning by the Japanese. Some of the captives seem to be mere boys.
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