JAPANESE DEFEAT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20659, 9 January 1942, Page 4

JAPANESE DEFEAT

BATTLE FOR CHANGSHA INVADERS OUTWITTED CORPSES LITTER PLAINS (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.; (Reed. Jan. 9,2 p.m.) CHUNGKING, Jan. 8. General Hsueh Yueh, at a victory celebration, said that 30,000 Japanese were still encircled 30 miles northeast of Changsha, facing certain annihilation. General Hsueh Yueh said that the Japanese counted originally 120,000 against 80,000 Chinese. “The victory was merely one of our manoeuvres carried out in complete accordance with a premeditated plan,” he said. “The Japanese were defeated because they were completely outwitted.” He declared that the Japanese used gas bombs. The Chungking newspaper, Ta Kung Pao, commenting on the Japanese declaration that they are withdrawing from Changsha after accomplishing their objectives, said this was familiar terminology. The Japanese are retiring to bases, in much-thinned columns as the corpses literally littering the plains between the Liuygng and Laotao Rivers grimly tesitify. The army spokesman declared that the Chinese forces intercepted and engaged several thousand Japanese troops north of the Milo River. Th’ese troops were rushed south from Yochow in an attempt to relieve the encircled forces near Changsha, which are being attacked from all sides on the battlefield between the Milo and Laotao Rivers, east of the CantonHankow railway. A full Chinese air squadron joined the battle'in the northern'Hunan Province, heavily bombing the Japanese troops. The Japanese had withdrawn all their troops from northern Indo-China, near the Chinese frontier, and are substituting French and native troops.