1939–1940 Winter Offensive

1939-1940 Winter Offensive
	Part of Second Sino-Japanese War
Date	Late November, 1939, to Late March 1940
Location	Vicinities of Anhui, Guangdong, Hubei, Henan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Shanxi, Shandong, Suiyuan
Result	Chinese operational failure (due to failure to meet primary goals); Defeat of Japanese forces in Suiyuan and Henan; Limited Chinese success; The United Kingdom and the United States began loaning greater amounts of money to the Chinese war effort;
Belligerents
Republic of China	Empire of Japan Mengjiang;
Commanders and leaders
Wei Lihuang; Gu Zhutong; Li Zongren; Xue Yue; Bai Chongxi; Zhang Fakui; Fu Zuoyi; Ma Hongkui	Toshizō Nishio; Hayao Tada; Yasuji Okamura; Rikichi Andō; Naozaburo Okabe
Strength
550,000 including Chinese Muslim Cavalry in 71 divisions	850,000 including Mengjiang Cavalry
Casualties and losses
Unknown	more than 20,000 killed, 9 transport ships damaged or sunk, 11 pieces of assorted artillery captured, ~400 captured,

The 1939–1940 Winter Offensive (Chinese: 冬季攻勢) was one of the major engagements between the National Revolutionary Army and Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War, in which Chinese forces launched their first major counter-offensive on multiple fronts. Although this offensive failed to achieve its original objectives, some studies have shown that it came as a heavy blow to the Japanese forces, as well as a massive shock to the Japanese military command, which did not expect the Chinese forces to be able to launch an offensive operation on such a large scale.

By April 1940, the Japanese army had successfully fought the operation to a halt. However, a Japanese counteroffensive in the northern theater failed to seize Ningxia and was defeated in Suiyuan by Chinese Muslim forces.

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