Editing Battle of Nanking (section)

=== 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" />