Chiang Kai-shek’s decision to challenge the Japanese in Shanghai, along China’s central coast, and not on the North China Plain, reflected the influence of the German military advisers who had trained Chiang’s army since 1934. Northern China was uniquely suited to Japan’s tanks and artillery. Shanghai’s terrain, crisscrossed by creeks and tenements, nullified that advantage. Chiang also picked Shanghai because it was an international city, with settlements run by the British, the Americans, and the French. A great battle in Shanghai would unfold under the noses of Westerners, who would tell
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