Defense of Sihang Warehouse Part 4: October 29th (Day 3)

this video is part 4 of the series on sahon warehouse if you haven't watched the previous parts i highly recommend you watch those videos first i have included the links in the

description around 3 a.m on the 29th major youngreef went to inspect the troops who were working on the fortifications in the warehouse

he noted in his memoirs that while some troops continued working hard others had fallen asleep due to exhaustion as they had already gone for three days without rest

major young warned the soldiers against doing so and reminded them of the importance of finishing the fortifications in the warehouse at 6am a group of soldiers performed a

flag raising ceremony and raised the flag that had been delivered by the girl scouts the previous evening there were in fact two flags that were raised above the warehouse

on the previous day the girl scout yanweimin had initially delivered a smaller flag to the defenders this was before she returned with her fellow scout members on the evening of the 28th and

presenting the defenders with the larger flag looking at historical photographs taken that day it is evident that the larger flag was raised above the western warehouse while the

smaller one was raised above the eastern building however overshadowed by the larger flag the story behind the small flag had mostly been forgotten

as a result there is a lot of contradictory information regarding the smaller flag and many questions remain including whether young whitman was really the one who delivered it when

exactly was it delivered on the 28th and when was it raised above the warehouse due to this i would like to point out the information i provided in the previous video which suggested that the smaller flag

was raised on the 28th may not be accurate unless more information emerges about the smaller flag the true events surrounding this flag may remain a mystery

the raising of the flags above the warehouse greatly boosted the morale of both soldiers in the warehouse and civilians in the international settlement with both soldiers and civilians alike

cheering and celebrating however this seems to have agitated the japanese in around 7am their machine guns stationed on the roofs of buildings west of the warehouse

opened fire japanese planes once again circled the warehouse but for the same reasons as the previous day were unable to attack these planes made a total of four or five attempts to get closer to the

warehouse but each time they were driven back by chinese machine gun fire around noon four to five armored vehicles were spotted along

north suzhou creek road and north of the warehouse along cuatene road it was feared that these vehicles were getting ready to support an infantry attack on the warehouse and as a result chinese machine gunners

in the warehouse started firing at the vehicles the japanese fired back and this time they also managed to get their mounting guns in position west of the warehouse and began pounding

the warehouse with 75 millimeter shells in addition to machine gun fire in the meantime japanese infantry also gathered for an attack on the warehouse

major young later estimated that there were hundreds of japanese soldiers around them all of this was visible to those watching the action in the international settlement and using the phone connections people

from the international settlement repeatedly called the defenders in the warehouse to pass along information one of the more crucial pieces of information was the fact that the japanese assault

was to commence at 2pm that afternoon the british also warned the first battalion of the impending assault and tried to persuade them to leave the warehouse

however the defenders refused as their orders were to defend the warehouse and at 2pm the japanese began their assault supported by machine guns in artillery japanese troops attempted to take the

warehouse after an hour of heavy fighting and taking many casualties the japanese once again decided to call off the attack as suhan warehouse was next to suzhou

creek the japanese navy then decided to try an attack from the water at 3 30 pm a pair of japanese motor boats filled with marines left the

japanese fleet on the huanpu river and advanced westward of suzhou creek although the western powers controlled the land in the international settlement they couldn't control the vessels that

passed through the waterways as such the japanese tried to approach the warehouse from the east which is from the direction of the international settlement

however soon after the boats passed under lodja bridge also known as fujin road bridge they became stuck in the river traffic now is a good point to

deviate a bit from the battle and talk about the naming of the bridges i had initially decided not to go in depth on this out of fear of causing unnecessary confusion but after receiving multiple comments about this

on a previous video i will try my best to explain the unofficial names of these bridges here the most important bridge to the events around sahan warehouse is the tibet road

bridge or in chinese sita a concrete bridge located just east of the warehouse it was unofficially known as the sin la detail by the locals

when translated to english this means the new garbage bridge some people have replaced the term lazy with luazu which means the same thing essentially garbage

or trash at this point some of you may be thinking that if there is a new garbage bridge there must be an old garbage ridge and in fact there is the original old garbage bridge or

la la detail in chinese is the jeutyan road bridge also known as the jotan luto this steel truss bridge was the next bridge downstream from tibet road bridge and predates the concrete to that road

bridge that we see during the fighting in 1937. the names that were given by the locals in fact had nothing to do with the quality of the bridges to understand the origins of the names

we must go back to the 1800s due to the rapid growth of shanghai in the late 1800s a major problem presented itself it became harder and harder for those in

the city to dispose of the ever increasing amounts of waste thus in the 1880s a special garbage collection agency was created the location of this agency was at or around

933 south soto creek road a garbage collection pier was also set up here at this location the trash from the city could be gathered and loaded onto boats in the creek

which would transport them out of shanghai through the rivers however the inconvenience of having a major garbage collecting pier in the middle of the bustling international settlement soon necessitated the need for it to be

moved elsewhere after only a few years the original garbage pier was replaced with a jail that housed exclusively foreigners this jail faced south towards siamen

road also known as the amoy road in english and as a result was known as the salmon road jail or the amoy road jail which is marked on this map an

interesting point to note is that on this map the old british spelling of the word jail is used the joseon road bridge was first built around 1885 and was made of wood

it was built just east of the garbage pier and as a result of its proximity to the site the jotan road bridge became known to the locals as the

garbage bridge or la zito around 1899 another wooden bridge was built close to the current location of tibet road although this bridge in actuality predated the road and went by a

different name this new york bridge was located west of the garbage collection pier and as a result was known as the new garbage bridge or sin lazy till the wooden joseon road bridge was

replaced in 1906 with a steel truss bridge which is the one that is seen in 1937.

the tibet road bridge was replaced with a concrete one around 1922 and by now served as a crossing point over the suzhou creek for the newly built tibet road

although the site of the garbage collection pier was now the emoy road jail locals at that time still commonly referred to the area as the garbage pier as a result

the two newer bridges maintain their unofficial names of old and new garbage bridge the last bridge we are going to talk about in this series is the fujian road bridge

also known as logiation the japanese navy motorboats got stuck in the sujo creek soon after passing under this bridge when translated to english la jatil means

old sluice bridge the origins of this name dates much further back than the previously mentioned garbage bridges throughout history sluice gates have

been built on suzhou creek in order to control the influence of the tide on the creek with the earliest ones dating as far back as the song dynasty

between the years 960 and 1279 at this time sudra creek was still known as the song river or wusong river over the course of history

the sluice was repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt around 1672 during the reign of the khan sea emperor the sluice was once again rebuilt and

again destroyed soon after by the powerful tides from the huangpu river eventually a new sluice was built in the early 1700s during the reign of the yongzhou emperor

this new sluice was built further upstream away from the old sluice gate in 1864 a bridge was constructed at the location of the old sluice gate

it was built in the form of a drawbridge in order to allow for the passage of river traffic since it was built at the location of the old sluice it became known to the

locals as the old sluice bridge or logiation after being damaged the old drawbridge was replaced in 1885 by a higher wooden bridge the height meant that most

vessels traveling along sutro creek could pass under it so there was no longer a need for a drawbridge this will be the same bridge that is present in the international settlement

during the battle of shanghai in 1937.

i don't want to get too carried away talking about ancient chinese history as the series is about the battle of sahon warehouse however if you enjoyed learning about this type of history i would recommend a channel called

bygone china the channel has some really nice videos on chinese history and culture and is definitely worth a visit if you enjoyed learning about these topics i have included the link in the description

for now let's go back to 1937 back to the battle of sahan warehouse authorities in the international settlement were already growing increasingly concerned

about the possibility that stray shells or bullets from the fighting would cause casualties within the international settlement the british and americans had already begun to pressure the nationalist

government to withdraw the troops from sahan warehouse the news of japanese naval vessels in suzhou creek only served to heighten their fears if the japanese vessels managed to continue up suzhou creek

there was a real chance that they would eventually engage the chinese troops in the warehouse if the chinese fired back not only would they be shooting into a sutro creek that was heavy with river traffic

they would also be firing towards the international settlement towards the spectators that had gathered to watch the fighting and worst of all towards the natural gas storage tanks just across the river

although chang had intended to use the first battalion to demonstrate to the western powers china's determination in the fight against the japanese the first battalion was starting to be a major headache for those in the western

nations and later that day they would formally request the chinese government to pull back the troops from the warehouse british soldiers under general alexander telfer smallett

the commander of british troops in shanghai were quickly sent to seal off the area around la [ __ ] ridge to civilian traffic in an attempt to minimize civilian casualties if

fighting did break out authorities in the international settlement then began negotiations trying to persuade the japanese boats to leave the area at the same time civilians in the

international settlement kept the officers of the 1st battalion informed of the situation developing around lodge at bridge they even managed to send them a map of the area

and pointed out the location of the bridge morale among the chinese troops at this time was high especially since they had just managed to successfully repel another japanese

assault major young noted that some soldiers even managed to find their own form of entertainment they created decoys by tying helmets to bamboo poles which they would stick out of windows or

openings in the wall whenever a japanese machine gunner fell for the decoy and opened fire the helmet laughter would erupt among the defenders after a lengthy negotiation that spanned

from the afternoon into the evening the japanese finally agreed to pull their boats back and disaster was narrowly avoided around 6 pm the firing had died down

however soon after under the cover of darkness the japanese attempted to use an excavator to dig a trench or tunnel towards the warehouse at the same time

the defenders also spotted more armored vehicles which were getting ready to storm their positions lieutenant carnosia as well as major young quickly devised a plan on how to

repel a nighttime japanese attack firstly if the japanese troops began advancing towards their positions a flare would be launched in their direction and machine gunners would fire

at those who had been illuminated next if the enemy managed to get close to the walls flashlights would be tied to bamboo poles and extended out the windows others will then throw grenades towards

the japanese troops that had been caught in the light lastly cotton found within the warehouse was to be soaked in kerosene lit on fire and thrown outside the

warehouse to create a barrier japanese fire continued intermittently throughout the night as midnight approached

the soldiers once again had to endure another sleepless night