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Music Hello everyone and welcome to history of the Second World War, episode 54, the second

Sino-Japanese War Part 5, Failure and Retreat.

This week, a big thank you goes out to Gary for choosing to support the podcast on Patreon,

where they now get access to special ad-free versions of all of the podcast episodes,

plus special patron-only episodes released once a month.

If that sounds interesting to you, head on over to History of the Second World War.com

slash members to find out more information.

Over the last two episodes, we've discussed the growth of the fighting around Shanghai,

as it transitioned from a small skirmish inside the city involving troops that were already

present to the focal point of both Chinese and Japanese efforts in China.

During that transition, the fighting had spilled out of the city when the Japanese landed to the north of the city in a large amphibious operation.

After that landing, their focus shifted to expanding the beachhead while trying to compromise the entire Chinese position in and around the city.

These efforts had been both successful and unsuccessful at kind of the same time.

Sure, they had captured some territory, they had pushed the Chinese back to their last real line of defense on the Sioux's Howe Creek,

but the gains had been far more costly and far more time-consuming than what was originally hoped.

...