| Battle of Hengyang | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Operation Ichi-Go, the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific Theater of World War II | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Republic of China United States (air support only) |
 Empire of Japan | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
 Fang Xianjue |
 Isamu Yokoyama | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 10th Army, 16,275 men[2] | 11th Army, 110,000+ men | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
|
Japanese source: 19,000 dead and wounded[4] Chinese source: 48,000–60,000 dead and wounded[5] | ||||||||
| 3,174 civilian volunteers killed[6] | |||||||||
The Battle of Hengyang (Chinese: 衡陽保衛戰) 23 June – 8 August 1944 was fought between Chinese and Japanese forces in mainland China during World War II. Although the city fell, Japanese casualties far exceeded the total number of Chinese troops defending the city. It has been described as "the most savage battle ever fought in the smallest battlefield with the greatest casualties in the military history of the world".[7] Japanese military historians equate it to the most arduous battle in the Russo-Japanese War, calling it a "Battle of Ryojun in South China".[8] A major Chinese newspaper of the day compared it to the Battle of Stalingrad.[9]