Editing Battle of Nanking (section)

==Final Battle for Nanjing City (December 9–13)==
=== Opening shots ===
[[File:Shell_explosion_in_Nanking.jpg|thumb|Japanese artillery shelling Guanghua gate]]
In the dawn of December 9, Japanese soldiers from the 36th Infantry Regiment engaged a battalion of the elite Training Division outside the Nanjing city wall near the Guanghua gate (Gate of Enlightenment). The Chinese withdrew into the wall after half had become casualties. When the Japanese attempted to follow, the Chinese exposed their positions with electrical lights and attacked with small-arms fire, forcing the Japanese back.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harmsen |first=Peter |title=Nanjing 1937, Battle for a Doomed City |date=2015 |publisher=Casemate |pages=178–179}}</ref>

The Japanese then wheeled up two mountain guns and began shelling the gate, while Japanese aircraft launched several raids in the area, resulting in over 100 Chinese casualties. The Chinese reinforced the gate with troops from the Nanjing [[Gendarmerie]] Military Police and a battalion from the elite 88th Division, the latter of which suffered some 300 casualties in further fighting. The Japanese sent engineers to blow holes in the gate, but after three attempts failed to inflict significant damage. Additional Japanese soldiers rushed the gate in support, but most were cut down by Chinese gunfire. At one point, several Chinese defenders launched a raid to burn down a flour mill outside the wall to deny the Japanese an observation point, which they succeeded in accomplishing. Chinese stragglers outside the city wall also attacked the Japanese in the rear, targeting and killing several messengers in the Japanese communication network. By nightfall, the first battle had ended with a stalemate between both sides.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harmsen |first=Peter |title=Nanjing 1937: Battle for a Doomed City |date=2015 |publisher=Casemate |pages=178–182}}</ref>

=== Japanese requests for a Chinese surrender ===
At this point General Matsui had a "summons to surrender" drawn up which requested the Chinese to send military envoys to Nanjing's Zhongshan Gate to discuss terms for the peaceful occupation of the city, and he then had a [[Mitsubishi Ki-21]] scatter thousands of copies of the message over the city.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Noboru Kojima |publisher=Bungei Shunju |year=1984 |location=Tokyo |pages=172–173 |language=ja |script-title=ja:日中戦争(3)}}; Kojima relied heavily on field diaries for his research.</ref><ref name="hayase22">{{Cite book |last=Toshiyuki Hayase |publisher=Kojinsha |year=1999 |location=Tokyo |pages=125–130 |language=ja |script-title=ja:将軍の真実 : 松井石根人物伝}}; For this information Hayase cites the diary of Iwane Matsui and the memoirs of the Japanese interpreter Hisashi Okada.</ref> On December 10 a group of Matsui's senior staff officers waited to see if the gate would be opened, but Tang Shengzhi had no intention of responding.<ref name="hayase22" />

Later that day Tang proclaimed to his men that, "Our army has entered into the final battle to defend Nanjing on the Fukuo Line. Each unit shall firmly defend its post with the resolve to either live or die with it. You're not allowed to retreat on your own, causing defense to collapse."<ref name="fuk22" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=朱月琴 |script-title=zh:南京保衛戰 |trans-title=Defensive War of Nanjing |url=http://www.njrd.gov.cn/jlzg/201502/t20150202_3183654.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150721163202/http://www.njrd.gov.cn/jlzg/201502/t20150202_3183654.html |archive-date=July 21, 2015 |access-date=July 16, 2015 |publisher=[[Standing Committee of the National People's Congress]], Nanjing |language=zh |quote={{lang|zh-hant|下達「衛參作字第36號命令」作為回應，聲稱「本軍目下佔領復廓陣地為固守南京之最後戰鬥，各部隊應以與陣地共存亡之決心盡力固守，決不許輕棄寸土、動搖全軍。若不遵命令擅自後移，定遵委座命令，按連坐法從嚴辦理}}」}}</ref> To enforce his orders, Tang deployed the elite 36th division near the Xiaguan docks to ward off any retreat attempts across the Yangtze River, and sent many of the larger vessels away to [[Hankou]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harmsen |first=Peter |title=Nanjing 1937, Battle for a Doomed City |date=2015 |publisher=Casemate |pages=187}}</ref> The American journalist [[F. Tillman Durdin]], who was reporting on site during the battle, saw one small group of Chinese soldiers set up a barricade, assemble in a solemn semicircle, and promise each other that they would die together where they stood.<ref name="durdin222" />
[[File:Battle_of_China_Nanking.webm|right|thumb|The battle of Nanjing from [[Frank Capra]]'s ''[[The Battle of China]]'']]

=== Assault on Nanjing ===
At 1:00 pm on December 10, General Matsui ordered all units to launch a full-scale attack on Nanjing.<ref name="hayase22" /> The 16th division immediately assaulted China's super-elite Training Brigade on the peaks of Purple Mountain, (Zijinshan), which dominate Nanjing's northeast horizon.<ref name="zijinshan22" /> Clambering up the ridges of the mountain, the men of the SEA had to painstakingly wrest control of each Chinese encampment one by one in bloody infantry charges. Advancing along the south side of Zijinshan was no easier as General Matsui had forbidden his men from using artillery there due to his deep conviction that no damage should come to its two famous historical sites, [[Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum]] and [[Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Toshiyuki Hayase |publisher=Kojinsha |year=1999 |location=Tokyo |page=124 |language=ja |script-title=ja:将軍の真実 : 松井石根人物伝}}; As primary sources Hayase cites the diary of Iwane Matsui and testimony by Japanese eyewitnesses delivered at the Tokyo War Crimes Trials.</ref>
[[File:Destroyed_bridge_of_Nanking01.jpg|thumb|A bridge across the Nanjing city moat destroyed by artillery fire]]
Also on Nanjing's eastern side but further south, other units of the SEA faced the difficult task of fording the large moat standing between them and three of the city gates, Zhongshan Gate, Guanghua Gate, and Tongji Gate, though the speed of Japan's earlier advance played in their favor as key Chinese units slated to be deployed here were not yet in position.<ref name="zijinshan22" /><ref name="hayase22" /><ref name="guanghua122">{{Cite book |last=Noboru Kojima |publisher=Bungei Shunju |year=1984 |location=Tokyo |pages=174–175 |language=ja |script-title=ja:日中戦争(3)}}; Kojima relied heavily on field diaries for his research.</ref>

=== Attacking the Gate of Enlightenment ===
That evening, Japanese engineers and artillerymen closing in on Guanghua Gate managed to blow a hole in the wall. Two Japanese companies of the 36th Regiment immediately launched a daring attack through the gap and planted a Japanese flag on a portion of the gate, but were immediately pinned down by a series of determined Chinese counterattacks.<ref name="guanghua122" />

The Chinese brought up reinforcements from the 83rd Corps and the elite 87th Division, including artillery, tanks and armored cars. The Chinese attacked the Japanese foothold with a pincer movement, inflicting serious losses on the Japanese, who deployed a third company to reinforce their bridgehead. Chinese soldiers atop the city wall attacked the Japanese from above, hurling down hand grenades and even flaming, gasoline-soaked lumber onto the Japanese defenders, which was only saved from annihilation by timely bursts of concentrated artillery fire from the rest of their division. One of the companies had lost eighty of its eighty-eight men as well as its leader, battalion commander Major Ito.<ref name="guanghua122" /><ref>Nankin Senshi Henshu Iinkai, {{Nihongo2|南京戦史}} (Tokyo: Kaikosha, 1989), 175–184.</ref> The Chinese for their part had lost several officers and over 30 men killed in its counterattacks.

=== The 88th Division at Yuhuatai Plateau and Zhonghua Gate ===
[[File:Shanghai1937KMT_street88th.jpg|thumb|Troops of the 88th Division, who were tasked with defending Yuhuatai and Zhonghua Gate. Most would be killed in the battle.]]
At the same time, the Japanese 6th Division was storming Yuhuatai, a rugged plateau situated directly in front of [[Gate of China, Nanjing|Zhonghua Gate]] on Nanjing's southern side. The 6th division's progress was slow and casualties were heavy, as Yuhuatai was built like a fortress of interlocking fortifications and trenches, fortified with dense tangles of barbed wire, antitank ditches and concrete pillboxes. Making matters worse was the presence of the German-trained 88th Division, who were apt to counterattack, forcing some Japanese units to spend more time defending than attacking.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Noboru Kojima |publisher=Bungei Shunju |year=1984 |location=Tokyo |pages=175–176, 180 |language=ja |script-title=ja:日中戦争(3)}}; Kojima relied heavily on field diaries for his research.</ref> The Chinese defenders, recognizing the importance of Yuhaitai, had deployed the 527th and 528th Regiment, providing tactical artillery support with two artillery companies. Behind Yuhuatai was Nanjing's Zhonghua Gate, which the 88th Division had stationed its barely trained new recruits atop.<ref name="yuhuatai22">David Askew, "Defending Nanking: An Examination of the Capital Garrison Forces," ''Sino-Japanese Studies'', April 15, 2003, 168. Askew cites the memoirs of the commander of China's 78th Corps Song Xilian for information on the 88th Division and cites the battle reports of the 6th Division for its combat casualties.</ref>

The Japanese attacked the 88th division on December 10, but suffered heavy casualties, as they had to fight through hilly terrain covered in barbed wire barricades and tactically placed machine gun nests. Chinese defenders often fought to the last man, with Japanese soldiers noticing that many Chinese pillboxes had been chained from the outside to prevent their occupants from fleeing.<ref>Masahiro Yamamoto, ''Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity'' (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 66. For this information Yamamoto cites a wide variety of primary sources including Japanese army documents, Chinese army documents, and the testimony of Japanese officer Tokutaro Sakai, and he also cites the work of researcher Noboru Kojima.</ref> The Japanese also encountered problems with advancing too fast at times and bypassing surviving Chinese soldiers, who would then open fire into their flanks and rear. The 88th division also encountered many difficulties for their part, as half of those fighting in the division's ranks were raw recruits, and nearly all of its trained officer corps had been wiped out from the fighting in Shanghai. Furthermore, Chinese artillery crews were reluctant to provide effective artillery support, citing a fear of exposing their positions to return fire.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harmsen |first=Peter |title=Nanjing 1937, Battle for a Doomed City |date=2015 |publisher=Casemate |pages=189–192}}</ref>

On December 11, the Japanese, frustrated by the lack of progress near the Gate of Enlightenment, attacked the Zhonghua Gate. Japanese aircraft routed Chinese forces in front of the gate, forcing them inside with the Japanese on their heels. When some 300 Japanese soldiers managed to breach the wall, the Chinese mobilized all available forces and forced them out. By the end of the night, the 88th Division had been forced to fall back in front of the city wall, with many of its surviving troops suffering from severe fatigue.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Daoping |first=Tan |title=Nanjing weishuzhan |pages=24}}</ref> The Japanese made an attempt to infiltrate a "suicide squadron" bearing explosive [[picric acid]] up to the Zhonghua Gate to blow a hole in it, but it got lost in the morning fog and failed to reach the wall.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Noboru Kojima |publisher=Bungei Shunju |year=1984 |location=Tokyo |pages=178–179 |language=ja |script-title=ja:日中戦争(3)}}; Kojima relied heavily on field diaries for his research.</ref>

On the morning of December 12, the Japanese began to bombard Zhonghua Gate with field artillery and tank fire. Chinese troops who remained posted outside the gate attempted to retreat back inside the city wall, but almost all were killed before they could make it.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harmsen |first=Peter |title=Nanjing 1937, Battle for a Doomed City |date=2015 |publisher=Casemate |pages=208}}</ref> By noon, Yuhuatai had been overrun and virtually every man of the 88th division defending it had been killed, including three of their four regimental commanders and both of their brigade commanders, but in the process the Japanese had suffered heavy casualties of their own, some 2,240 losses including 566 dead according to their own records.<ref name="yuhuatai22" />
[[File:Crossing_river_by_Gate_of_China01.jpg|right|thumb|Japanese soldiers crossing the moat close to Zhonghua Gate]]
At noon on December 12 a squad of six Japanese soldiers made it across the moat in a small boat, and attempted to scale the wall at Zhonghua Gate with a  bamboo ladder, but were killed by machine gun fire before they reached the wall.<ref name="zhonghua22">{{Cite book |last=Noboru Kojima |publisher=Bungei Shunju |year=1984 |location=Tokyo |pages=183–185 |language=ja |script-title=ja:日中戦争(3)}}; Kojima relied heavily on field diaries for his research.</ref>

=== Breaching the Nanjing city wall ===
Back at Guanghua Gate, the Japanese attempted to relieve their beleaguered comrades trapped inside, and after two attempts managed to link up with their forces inside. What followed was an artillery duel between both sides, which lasted the entirety of December 12. During the duel, a stray shell severed the telephone line of the Chinese 87th Division, severing their communications to the rear.<ref name=":23">{{Cite book |last=Harmsen |first=Peter |title=Nanjing 1937, Battle for a Doomed City |date=2015 |publisher=Casemate |pages=210–212}}</ref>

Burdened with the fog of war, commanders of the 87th Division were alarmed upon noticing their comrades in the [[New Guangxi clique|Guangdong]] 83rd Corps abandoning their positions, but did not immediately retreat due to their prior orders and because Nanjing had become considered a home amongst many soldiers in the division.<ref name=":23" /> After some deliberation through the night, the 87th Division, having already suffered 3,000 casualties, abandoned their positions on the Gate of Enlightenment at 2am on December 13 to retreat to the Xiaguan wharfs, leaving some 400 of the most severely wounded who could not walk behind in the city.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Askew |first=David |title=Defending Nanking: An Examination of the Capital Garrison Forces |journal=Sino-Japanese Studies |pages=167–168}}</ref>

The Japanese, having noticed the diminishing Chinese resistance, scaled the city gate at around 4am and found it almost deserted. They killed whatever few Chinese soldiers remained in the area and raised the Rising Sun flag to cheers of "Banzai!" Per its own records, the 36th Regiment had suffered some 257 or 275 killed and 546 wounded in the battle of Nanjing, with most of the casualties being from the battle of Chunhua Town and the battle of Guanghua Gate.<ref>{{cite web|title=中支方面に於ける行動概要　自昭和１２年９月９日至昭和１４年７月１１日　歩兵第３６連隊 |url=https://www.jacar.archives.go.jp/aj/meta/listPhoto?LANG=default&BID=F2011112915495110133&ID=M2011112915495110135&REFCODE=C11111793100 |website=Japan Center for Asian Historical Records| access-date=2025-03-16}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Zhang |title=History of Sabae 36th Regiment |edition=56 |pages=142–143}}</ref>
[[File:Nanjingbattlemoat.jpg|thumb|Japanese soldiers cross a moat beneath the Nanjing City Wall]]
Back near Zhonghua Gate, two Japanese regiments had become pinned down by Chinese gunfire and mortars atop the gate. To conceal their movements, a Japanese team set a fire in front of the gate to create a smokescreen,<ref name="zhonghua22" /> and by 5:00 pm more and more Japanese troops were crossing the moat and swarming Zhonghua Gate by fording makeshift bridges so rickety their engineers had to hold them aloft with their own bodies. Japanese artillery suppressed the Chinese defenders from atop the Yuhaitai heights, and fired so many rounds into the city wall that part of it finally crumbled.<ref name="defenders22">{{Cite book |last=Tokushi Kasahara |publisher=Iwanami Shoten |year=1997 |location=Tokyo |pages=122–123, 126–127 |language=ja |script-title=ja:南京事件}}</ref> The Japanese seized the gate through this opening, and with artillery support beat back all Chinese counterattacks, securing the Zhonghua Gate by nightfall. Meanwhile, just west of Zhonghua Gate, other soldiers also of Japan's 10th Army had punched a hole through Chinese lines in the wetlands south of Shuixi Gate and were launching a violent drive on that gate with the support of a fleet of tanks.<ref name="defenders22" />

At the height of the battle, Tang Shengzhi complained to Chiang that, "Our casualties are naturally heavy and we are fighting against metal with merely flesh and blood",<ref name="fenby22">Jonathan Fenby, ''Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the China He Lost'' (London: Free Press, 2003), 306.</ref> but what the Chinese lacked in equipment they made up for in the sheer ferocity with which they fought, partially due to strict orders that no man or unit was to retreat one step without permission.<ref name="fuk22" /><ref>Hallett Abend, "Nanking Invested," ''The New York Times'', December 13, 1937, 1, 15.</ref> Over the course of the battle, roughly 1,000 Chinese soldiers were shot dead by other members of their own army for attempting to retreat.<ref name=":13">Masahiro Yamamoto, ''Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity'' (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 84. Yamamoto cites the research of the Japanese veterans' association Kaikosha.</ref>

=== Attacks on the USS Panay and British vessels ===
{{Main|USS Panay incident}}

In the morning of December 12, the American gunboat ''[[USS Panay (PR-5)|USS Panay]]'' was escorting three [[Standard Oil]] river tankers on the Yangtze River away from the battle zone. The ship was clearly marked by two large American flags painted on canvas awnings, as well as another cloth flag flying from the bow.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Frank |first=Richard |title=Tower of Skulls: A History of the Asia-Pacific War: July 1937-May 1942 |date=2020 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |pages=101}}</ref> 
[[File:Japanese plane attacking USS Panay (PR-5), 12 December 1937 (NH 50830).jpg|thumb|Japanese aircraft attack the Panay, filmed by cameramen Norman Alley and Eric Mayell]]
The ''Panay'' was about twenty-eight miles upstream from Nanjing when Japanese naval aircraft led by Lt. [[Shigeharu Murata]] (who would later lead torpedo bomber squadrons against Pearl Harbor) attacked and bombed the gunboat.<ref name=":0" /> The first bomb hit disabled the ''Panay's'' forward gun and snapped its foremast. Several [[Nakajima A4N|A4Ns]] also machine-gunned the ship. After twenty minutes of continuous bombing and strafing, the ''Panay'' had caught fire and was listing to starboard, having been crippled by two bomb hits. The three other river tankers had been beached on the riverbanks.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Harmsen |first=Peter |title=Nanjing 1937, Battle for a Doomed City |date=2015 |publisher=Casemate |pages=215-216}}</ref> 

The crew and civilians aboard the ''Panay'', the vast majority of them injured in the attack, evacuated the sinking ship in two boats. Two newsreel cameramen on board the ''Panay'' were able to film parts of the attack, at one point capturing footage of Japanese aircraft passing so close to the ship that the pilots' faces were visible.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Frank |first=Richard |title=Tower of Skulls: A History of the Asia-Pacific War: July 1937-May 1942 |date=2020 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |pages=102}}</ref> 
[[File:USS Panay (PR-5) sinking in the Yangtze River, 12 December 1937 (NH 50802).jpg|thumb|The USS Panay sinking beneath the Yangtze]]
The crew and passengers hid in the reeds of a nearby island, and witnessed a passing Japanese motorboat machine-gun the sinking ship and board it briefly before departing; the American flag had still been flying from the bow at that time. At 3:54pm, the Panay rolled over to starboard and sank. The survivors then made their way to a nearby village, where some of the injured succumbed to their wounds. Two crewmen and a civilian had been killed in the attack, and another forty-three crew and five civilians wounded.<ref name=":1" /> 

In addition'','' the ''Panay's'' three consorts, the Standard Oil Company river tankers ''Mei Ping, Mei Hsia,'' and ''Mei An,'' had also been struck and severely damaged. The trio of ships had been evacuating about eight hundred Chinese employees of Standard Oil and their families on board, and presumably suffered high losses during the Japanese raid.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Standard-Vacuum Oil Company and United States East Asian Policy, 1933-1941 |date=1975 |publisher=Princeton University Press |pages=107-108}}</ref> 

The pilots responsible for the Panay attack would also bomb the British vessel ''SS'' ''Wantung'' later that same day.<ref name=":1" /> 
[[File:Kingoro Hashimoto.jpg|thumb|Japanese officer Kingoro Hashimoto, who ordered troops under his command to fire on the Panay and several British vessels]]
An Imperial Army officer in the vicinity, Col. [[Kingoro Hashimoto]], a founder of one of the right-wing secret societies in Japan, also ordered firing on the ''Panay'' as it was sinking, in additional to several British vessels whose identities he knew, including the ''SS Scarab'' and ''HMS Cricket''.<ref name=":2" /> 

Upon receiving complaints that the vessels had clearly displayed the [[Union Jack|British flag]], Hashimoto replied "I do not recognize any flag but my own." Hashimoto also issued orders for his troops and artillery to fire on all ships on the Yangtze "[[War crime|regardless of nationality]]."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harmsen |first=Peter |title=Nanjing 1937, Battle for a Doomed City |date=2015 |publisher=Casemate |pages=232}}</ref> 

=== Collapse of the Nanjing Garrison Force ===
[[File:Rushing_to_Zhongshan_Gate01.jpg|thumb|Japanese troops rushing the newly blasted hole in the Nanjing wall near Zhongshan Gate]]Backin in Nanjing, the Japanese had gained the upper hand over the hard-pressed and surrounded Chinese defenders.<ref name="defenders22" /> On December 12 the 16th division captured the second peak of Zijinshan, and from this vantage point unleashed a torrent of artillery fire at Zhongshan Gate where a large portion of the wall suddenly gave way.<ref name="defenders22" /> After sunset, the fires that blazed out of control on Zijinshan were visible even from Zhonghua Gate in the south, which had been completely occupied by Japan's 6th and 114th division on the night of December 12 to 13.<ref name="integer122">{{Cite book |last=Noboru Kojima |publisher=Bungei Shunju |year=1984 |location=Tokyo |page=186 |language=ja |script-title=ja:日中戦争(3)}}; Kojima relied heavily on field diaries for his research.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Tokushi Kasahara |publisher=Iwanami Shoten |year=1997 |location=Tokyo |page=134 |language=ja |script-title=ja:南京事件}}</ref>
[[File:Nanjinggatebattle.jpg|thumb|Japanese Type 94 tankettes and soldiers attack the Zhongshan gate on the Nanjing city wall]]
Unbeknownst to the Japanese, Chiang had already ordered Tang to abandon the defense.<ref name="integer122" /> In spite of his earlier promise about holding out in Nanjing to the bitter end, Chiang telegraphed an order to Tang on December 11 to abandon the city.<ref name="collapse22">{{Cite book |last=Tokushi Kasahara |publisher=Iwanami Shoten |year=1997 |location=Tokyo |pages=128–133 |language=ja |script-title=ja:南京事件}}</ref> Tang prepared to do so the next day on December 12, but startled by Japan's intensified onslaught he made a frantic last-minute bid to conclude a temporary ceasefire with the Japanese through German citizens John Rabe and Eduard Sperling.<ref name="collapse22" /> Only when it became clear that the negotiations could not be completed in time did Tang finally finish drawing up a plan calling for all his units to launch a coordinated breakout of the Japanese encirclement.<ref name="collapse22" /> They were to commence the breakout under cover of darkness at 11:00 pm that night and then muster in [[Anhui]]. Just after 5:00 pm on December 12, Tang arranged for this plan to be transmitted to all units, and then he crossed the Yangtze River, escaping through the city of Pukou on the opposite bank of the river less than twenty-four hours before it was occupied by Japan's Kunisaki Detachment.<ref name="collapse22" />

By the time Tang slipped out of the city, however, the entire Nanjing Garrison Force was rapidly disintegrating with some units in open retreat.<ref name="collapse22" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Toshiyuki Hayase |publisher=Kojinsha |year=1999 |location=Tokyo |page=133 |language=ja |script-title=ja:将軍の真実 : 松井石根人物伝}}; Hayase's primary sources include news reports in the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun and the records of the German embassy in Nanjing.</ref> Furthermore, contact had already been lost with many units (such as the 87th division) who never received Tang's message, and thus continued to hold their positions as ordered.<ref name="durdin122">F. Tillman Durdin, "All Captives Slain," ''The New York Times'', December 18, 1937, 1, 10.</ref> However even those that did receive Tang's orders faced tremendous difficulties at slipping through the Japanese lines.<ref name="retreat22">{{Cite book |last=Noboru Kojima |publisher=Bungei Shunju |year=1984 |location=Tokyo |pages=187–190 |language=ja |script-title=ja:日中戦争(3)}}; Kojima relied heavily on field diaries for his research.</ref>

=== Unit-by-unit breakout attempts ===
In accordance with Tang's orders, the [[New Guangxi clique|Guangdong]] 66th Corps under [[Ye Zhao]] and elements of the 83rd Corps under [[Deng Longguang]] gathered their remaining forces to break through the Japanese lines using a gap in the east, an extremely difficult task given the circumstances. Upon exiting the Taiping Gate, the troops of the Guangdong Army had to navigate both Chinese and Japanese minefields, then move through the countryside using pre-planned escape routes.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harmsen |first=Peter |title=Nanjing 1937: Battle for a Doomed City |date=2015 |publisher=Casemate |pages=230–231}}</ref> Despite avoiding roads and Japanese armored patrols, the Guangdong troops were forced to fight through multiple attacks by Japanese units, and suffered many casualties including two divisional chiefs of staff in combat.<ref name="retreat22" /> After a three-day trek through the devastated countryside, the survivors of the two corps regrouped in [[Ningguo]] south of Nanjing, before being sent further south.<ref name=":32">{{Cite book |last=Harmsen |first=Peter |title=Nanjing 1937: Battle for a Doomed City |date=2015 |publisher=Casemate |pages=238–240}}</ref> Of the 12,500 men in the two corps at the start of the battle, only some 3,000 or 4,000 of them made it out of Nanjing.<ref name="南京保衛戰史">{{cite book |title=南京保衛戰史 | last=Zhaiwei| first=Sun| publisher=中華發展基金管理委員會| date=1997}}</ref>{{rp|203}}<ref>David Askew, "Defending Nanking: An Examination of the Capital Garrison Forces," ''Sino-Japanese Studies'', April 15, 2003, 164–166. Askew tabulates the minimum strength of the two corps using primary sources such as the battle reports of the 160th Division and 66th Corps and the news reports of journalist F. Tillman Durdin, as well as secondary source research by historians Masahiro Yamamoto, Yoshiaki Itakura, and Tokushi Kasahara.</ref><ref name=":42">{{Cite book |last=Xiawen |first=Zhang |title=A History of the Nanjing Massacre |date=2018 |publisher=Gale |edition=1st}}</ref> According to Ye Zhao, the 159th and 160th divisions of his 66th Corps still had more than 7,800 officers and soldiers after breaking out of the capital.<ref>國史館檔案史料文物查詢系統，葉肇電蔣中正陳報返抵攸縣防次檢視整理所部及武器通訊器材補充情形等文電日報表，典藏號：002-080200-00495-132 [https://ahonline.drnh.gov.tw/index.php?act=Display/image/541438970cwVsI#61l]</ref>

One of the units that did manage to escape Nanjing intact was China's 2nd Army led by [[Xu Yuanquan]], situated just north of Nanjing.<ref name="retreat22" /> Though Xu never received Tang's order to abandon the defense, on the night of December 12 he had heard that Nanjing had been captured, and so decided to withdraw on his own accord. Having obtained some 20 private vessels ahead of time, the 2nd Army managed to evacuate 11,851 officers and soldiers, save for the 5,078 casualties already lost in battle, across the Yangtze River just before Japanese naval units blockaded the way.<ref name="retreat22" /><ref name=":42" /><ref name="南京保卫战"/>{{rp|61}}<ref name="南京保衛戰史"/>{{rp|240}} In addition, some 5,000 men and officers of the 74th Corps were also successfully evacuated across the river, as they had secured a boat for themselves in time.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Askew |first=David |date=April 15, 2003 |title=Defending Nanking: An Examination of the Capital Garrison Forces |journal=Sino-Japanese Studies |pages=167}}</ref> 

Other units were less fortunate. Near dawn on December 13, a different part of the 74th Corps was destroyed in its attempt to break through Japanese lines along the Yangtze River south of Nanjing.<ref name="retreat22" /> According to the battle report of the 51st Division, the unit had suffered 4,070 killed and 3,785 wounded in the fighting for Nanjing.<ref name="南京保卫战" />{{rp|181}}

Of the 1,000-2,000 troops of the 103rd Division from the former Guizhou Army, only 500 troops managed to break out.<ref>{{cite book |title=武汉大会战内幕全解密 |page=196| last=Daokuo| first=Chen| publisher=军事科学出版社| date=2005}}</ref> The 112th Division of the Northeastern Army was in a worse condition, with only 60 soldiers from the unit managing to cross the Yangtze River.<ref>《陆军第112师抗战八年中重要战役经过概要》,中国第二历史档案馆藏 :七八七/6557</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=万毅将军回忆录 |page=54| last=Yi| first=Wan| publisher=中共党史出版社| date=1998}}</ref> The regular police, which participated in the battle with more than 6,000 men, had only 840 who broke out of the city, with the remaining 5,160 presumed dead.<ref name=大东亚战争的总结/>{{rp|174}}

Due to the chaotic nature of the evacuation in the city, only between 3,000 and 4,000 men of the 36th Division and 2,400 men from the [[Gendarmerie]] MP units managed to cross the Yangtze as planned, roughly half their strength. According to its own battle report, the 78th Corps (consisting of the 36th division and a supplementary brigade) participated in the battle with 11,967 troops and suffered 228 killed, 285 wounded, and 6,673 missing. By the end of December, the 78th Corps had taken in 4,937 officers and soldiers. Some of its soldiers would gradually return in early 1938 after slipping through the Japanese lines, as the number of missing in the statistics of casualties of the 78th Corps for the Shanghai-Nanjing Campaign was at 5,964 missing.<ref>陸軍第七十八軍第三十六師京滬抗日戰鬥詳報</ref><ref name="大东亚战争的总结"/>{{rp|174}} The Nanjing Gendarmerie Military Police participated in the battle with 5,452 officers and soldiers, and suffered 794 killed, 56 wounded, and 2,184 missing.<ref name="南京保卫战"/>{{rp|220}} According to the casualty survey compiled by the Gendarmerie Headquarters on 1 July 1939, 3,097 of its men were killed and 14 badly wounded in the battle of Nanjing.<ref>國史館檔案史料文物查詢系統，憲兵司令部將士傷亡調查表，典藏號：121-020100-0734 [https://ahonline.drnh.gov.tw/index.php?act=Display/image/5400139bgBE7Xp#Os61]</ref> 

Due to their heavy losses from combat and proximity to the frontline, only between one and two thousand troops from the 88th Division escaped over the river,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Xiang |first=Ah |title=Defense Battle at Nanking |url=https://www.republicanchina.org/DEFENSE-BATTLE-AT-NANKING-v0.pdf |journal=Republican China |pages=6}}</ref><ref>國史館檔案史料文物查詢系統，俞濟時電蔣中正奉命於開封收容五十一師官兵槍械各情並擬早日從事整訓，典藏號：002-090105-00002-384 [https://ahonline.drnh.gov.tw/index.php?act=Display/image/5400161FfQrtY=#9eJ]</ref> as did another thousand troops from the Training Division.<ref name="俞濟時">國史館檔案史料文物查詢系統，俞濟時電錢大鈞七十四軍衛戍首都陣地未動突得撤退命令兵力武器損失慘重在蚌埠僅收容一萬七千名並集於開封等情請轉陳蔣中正速調至川東等地補給訓練方可再戰，典藏號：002-090200-00034-130 [https://ahonline.drnh.gov.tw/index.php?act=Display/image/5400169X=F=ank#49L]</ref> [[Sun Yuanliang]], commander of the 72nd Corps and 88th Division, claimed in his memoir to have led 600 of his men to reach Wuhan in late March 1938.<ref>{{cite book |last=Yuanliang |first=Sun |title=億萬光年中的一瞬: 孫元良回憶錄 |date=1974 |publisher=景昌文具印刷公司 |page=238}}</ref> Deputy commander Zhou Zhenqiang recalled the Training Division taking in 4,000 officers and soldiers after crossing the river.<ref name="南京保衛戰史" />{{rp|240}} The 87th Division, which arrived at the Xiaguan wharves far too late with some 3,000 men, only had 300 survivors.<ref name=":022">{{Cite book |last=Harmsen |first=Peter |title=Nanjing 1937: Battle for a Doomed City |publisher=Casemate |year=2015 |pages=240}}</ref> [[Yu Jishi]] reported taking in 500 survivors and 400 rifles from the 87th Division.<ref name="俞濟時" />

During the battle of Nanjing, the Zhenjiang and Jiangning Fortresses exchanged fire with the Imperial Japanese Navy until December 12, breaking out on December 13 after suffering heavy losses from combined assaults of infantry, aircraft, and naval guns. All of the artillery guns and most of their equipment were destroyed or abandoned, and more than 1,000 of the defenders were killed, wounded, or went missing.<ref name="南京保卫战"/>{{rp|225-229}}

[[File:Zhongshan_Road.jpg|right|thumb|Debris scattered on Nanjing's Zhongshan Road]]
Perhaps the worst moments of the rout were in the city's northwest suburbs and the [[Xiaguan District|Xiaguan harbor]] itself. Near the [[City Wall of Nanjing|Yijiang Gate]], a massive crowd of fleeing Chinese soldiers and civilians from the south side of Nanjing, who were fleeing in panicked disarray from the advance of the Japanese, were funneled violently through the exit. However, only half of the gate was open, and combined with the crowd's density and disorganized movements, a deadly bottleneck formed that resulted in hundreds of people [[Crowd collapses and crushes|being crushed or trampled]] to death, including Colonel Xie Chengrui of the Training Division.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lai |first=Benjamin |title=Shanghai and Nanjing 1937: Massacre on the Yangtze |date=2017 |publisher=Osprey Publishing |page=77}}</ref> Adding to the mayhem were [[barrier troops]] of the 36th Division posted atop the gate, who had not received word of Tang's orders and mistaken members of the crowd for deserters. Errors in communication resulted in those soldiers opening fire on parts of the crowd.<ref name="xiaguan22">{{Cite book |last=Tokushi Kasahara |publisher=Iwanami Shoten |year=1997 |location=Tokyo |pages=130–131, 133–138 |language=ja |script-title=ja:南京事件}}</ref><ref>Archibald T. Steele, "Panic of Chinese in Capture of Nanking," ''Chicago Daily News'', February 3, 1938, 2.</ref><ref name=":222" /> So violent was the clash that a tank charged the barrier troops at around 9:00 pm, crushing many people until it was destroyed by a grenade.<ref name="xiaguan22" />

Those who made it to Xiaguan were faced with "unimaginable chaos", because there was a severe shortage of boats as a consequence of Tang's earlier orders, and much of the harbor had been set aflame by Japanese bombardment. As a result, the crowd would frequently fight to clamber aboard what few craft were available, resulting in some becoming so overloaded that they sank midway across the 2&nbsp;km stretch.<ref name="retreat22" /> Those who rigged improvised rafts rarely made it across the river, as their makeshift vessels frequently broke apart in the water. Many Chinese soldiers who couldn't get on a boat took to the Yangtze's rough and frigid waters while clinging to logs, furniture and pieces of scrap lumber, though most were quickly swallowed up by the river, or froze to death beforehand due to the icy waters from the winter cold.<ref name="xiaguan22" /><ref name=":122" /> By the afternoon of December 13, the Japanese had virtually completed their encirclement of Nanjing, and patrols and sailors on naval vessels began shooting at soldiers and civilians crossing the Yangtze from both sides of the river.<ref>Masahiro Yamamoto, ''Nanking: Anatomy of an Atrocity'' (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2000), 87. Yamamoto cites the battle report of Japan's 38th Regiment and a variety of eyewitness account of both Chinese and Japanese soldiers.</ref> Others who saw this turned back to the city in despair.<ref name="xiaguan22" />

Many of these tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers who could not escape the city responded by casting off their uniforms and weaponry, switching to civilian clothes often by stealing them from passersby, and then desperately seeking sanctuary in the Nanking Safety Zone by mingling with civilians.<ref name="retreat22" />

The American journalist F. Tillman Durdin "witnessed the wholesale undressing of an army that was almost comic".<ref name="durdin122" /> "Arms were discarded along with uniforms, and the streets became covered with guns, grenades, swords, knapsacks, coats, shoes and helmets ... In front of the Ministry of Communications and for two blocks further on, trucks, artillery, busses, staff cars, wagons, machine-guns, and small arms became piled up as in a junk yard."<ref name="durdin222" />