Du Yuming

Who was Du Yuming?

Du Yuming was a Kuomintang field commander active in the Sino-Japanese War theatre of World War II and in the Chinese Civil War from 1945 to 1949.

A trusted protégé of Chiang Kai-shek, Du was a graduate of the first cadet class at the Whampoa Military Academy. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, he commanded the KMT 5th Corps in the First Changsha Campaign, and Battle of South Guangxi.

During World War II, he commanded the same 5th Corps or Nationalist Fifth Army in the Battle of Yunnan-Burma Road from mid March to early June 1942, during the Burma Campaign under Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell. When the British Army collapsed and abandoned their Chinese saviours to their fate, Du was forced to order a hastily planned withdrawal that resulted in the loss of 50,000 Chinese soldiers. Yet, Du was also criticized for dismissing General Sun Li-Jen's advice that the route back to China is hazardous and should instead retreat with the British to India. Most men that followed Du Died in the Burmese jungle of tropical disease and starvation or were killed by the Axis forces. On the other hand, Sun's army retreated in an orderly fashion into India.