New Fourth Army

The Second Sino-Japanese War began on 7 July 1937 with the Marco Polo Bridge incident. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, there were frequent frictions between Communist and Nationalist troops. From March 1940 to June 1945, the New Fourth Army fought in 3,212 battles in Anti- operations, claiming to have annihilated 143,320 troops and suffered 30,544 casualties. 1946–1947 The Chinese Civil resumed in the summer of 1946. The Nationalist forces attacked the 5th Division first and occupied the division's base area successfully. However, in middle Jiangsu Su Yu's 1st Division won despite having fewer forces and wiped out 56,000 Nationalist soldiers. Later, because of a lack of troops the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 7th Divisions had to withdraw to Shandong in the winter of 1946. In January 1947 the New Fourth Army and Shandong Military Region of the People's Liberation Army were merged into the East China Field Army. == Headquarters ==

, Wuhan. The New Fourth Army Headquarters () was located at No. 332-352, Shengli Street, Jiang'an District, Wuhan. The site was renovated by the Wuhan People's Government in 2005. On March 5, 2013, it was named a Major National Historical and Cultural Sites. == Main leadership ==

Guerrillas Most of the New Fourth Army's military officers were guerrillas of the Chinese Red Army, others being from the 8th Route Army. Experience from China's Civil War led to them rapidly expanding their forces at the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War. During the eight years of the war officers with excellent abilities were usually promoted faster. For example, general Zhang Aiping was only a battalion commander of Chinese Red Army in 1934 but had become a division commander of the New Fourth Army by 1945. Military education With the rapid expansion of the size of the army a large number of junior officers and newly recruited students needed training. Because of a lack of teachers the Eighth Route Army dispatched hundreds of military instructors to the New Fourth Army in two separate occasions. From 1940 to 1942 the New Fourth Army built and established six military training schools in the battlefield. These military training schools were collectively referred to as branches of the Counter-Japanese Military and Political University. == Organization ==

In the first three years of its existence the New Fourth Army operated independently with the regiment as its basic unit. After the New Fourth Army Incident the army was reorganized into seven divisions and nineteen brigades. 1938 In the spring of 1938 the Chinese Red Army's surviving guerrillas in the South were organized into the New Fourth Army's four detachments. 1941 After the New Fourth Army Incident the New Fourth Army was rebuilt in January, 1941. 1945 By the end of World War II the New Fourth Army had grown to 268,000 men. == Media ==

A documentary on the women of the New Fourth Army titled My Mother: The Stories of Three Women Soldiers of the N4A aired in 2010. Created by the children of New Fourth Army Veterans, the documentary explores the experiences of women in the New Fourth Army, focusing on the lives of three of them from childhood to their old age. A book about the three featured women was published in 2011. A televised drama, Women Soldiers of the New Fourth Army, aired in 2011. The drama tells the story of five pairs of lovers in the New Fourth Army, focusing on themes of "red youth" and "red romance". ==See also==