April 19, 1944 · Central and South China Theater
April 19, 1944
Operation Ichigo was Japan's largest land offensive of the entire war — 500,000 troops launched across Central and South China with the goal of destroying the US airbases from which Chiang Kai-shek had allowed General Claire Chennault's Fourteenth Air Force to bomb Japan. The operation overran all four targeted US airfields, linked Japan's continental holdings from Manchuria to Singapore, and dealt China's already weakened armies crushing defeats. It also destroyed the last illusions that Chiang's government was capable of effective military resistance.
Commanders