Editing Battle of Nanking (section)

===China's forces===
The defending army, the Nanjing Garrison Force, was on paper a formidable army of thirteen divisions, including three elite [[Sino-German cooperation until 1941|German-trained]] divisions plus the super-elite [[Training Division (National Revolutionary Army)|Training Brigade]]. The reality was that nearly all of these units, save for the 2nd Army Group, had been severely mauled from the combat in Shanghai.<ref>David Askew, "Defending Nanking: An Examination of the Capital Garrison Forces," ''Sino-Japanese Studies'', April 15, 2003, 151–152.</ref><ref name="itakura22">{{Cite book |last=Yoshiaki Itakura |publisher=Nihon Tosho Kankokai |year=1999 |location=Tokyo |pages=78–80 |language=ja |script-title=ja:本当はこうだった南京事件}}</ref> By the time they reached Nanjing they were physically exhausted, low on equipment, and badly depleted in total troop strength. In order to replenish some of these units, 16,000 young men and teenagers from Nanjing and the rural villages surrounding it were speedily pressed into service as new recruits.<ref name="jiken22" /><ref name="force22">David Askew, "Defending Nanking: An Examination of the Capital Garrison Forces," ''Sino-Japanese Studies'', April 15, 2003, 163.</ref>
[[File:NH_77774.jpg|thumb|Chinese soldiers from one of the elite [[List of German-trained divisions of the National Revolutionary Army|German-trained divisions]] between Nanjing and Shanghai, November 26, 1937. Most wear the [[Stahlhelm|M35 Stahlhelm]]. One wears a German-style ski cap.]]
The German trained units, the 36th, [[87th Division (National Revolutionary Army)|87th]] and [[88th Division (National Revolutionary Army)|88th Divisions]], had each taken heavy casualties in Shanghai and saw their elite quality drop as a result. As of December, each division consisted of between 6,000 and 7,000 troops, of which roughly half were raw recruits.<ref name="Askew"/> In addition to these units, the defenders of Nanjing and the outside defensive lines were composed of four [[New Guangxi clique|Guangdong]] (Cantonese) divisions in the 66th and 83rd Corps, five divisions and two brigades from [[Sichuan]] in the 23rd Group Army, and two divisions from the [[National Revolutionary Army|NRA]] Central Army in the 74th Corps. Additional units were provided in by the [[Military police|Nanjing Gendarmerie]] and Nanjing Capital Garrison.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harmsen |first=Peter |title=Nanjing 1937: Battle for a Doomed City |date=2015 |publisher=Casemate |pages=268–270}}</ref> However, most of these units had also suffered very high losses from the months of fighting in and around Shanghai. The 66th Corps had been reduced to half its original size, and its two divisions had to be reorganized into regiments.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Askew |first=David |date=2003 |title=Defending Nanking: An Examination of the Capital Garrison Forces |url=https://chinajapan.org/articles/15/askew15.148-173.pdf |journal=Sino-Japanese Studies |volume=15 |pages=155-156}}</ref> To replenish the Chinese garrison, 40,200 men from 44 supplementary battalions, 4 supplementary regiments, and 1 Jiangxi security regiment were sent towards the 36th division, 87th division, 88th division, 51st and 58th divisions of the 74th corps, and the Training Division of the Central Army.<ref>國史館檔案史料文物查詢系統，何應欽曹浩森代呈蔣中正遵辦調補南京各師補充團營等文電日報表，典藏號：002-080200-00487-040 [https://ahonline.drnh.gov.tw/index.php?act=Display/image/5658683xK=5gLm#82l]</ref> An additional 16,000-18,000 fresh soldiers were brought in from [[Hankou]] in the ranks of the 2nd Army, with 80% of their strength composed of recent recruits.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Li Junshan |publisher=Guoli Taiwan Daxue Zhuban Weiyuanhui |year=1992 |location=Taipei |pages=241–243 |language=zh-hant |script-title=zh:為政略殉: 論抗戰初期京滬地區作戰}}</ref> However, due to the unexpected rapidity of the Japanese advance, most of these new conscripts received only rudimentary training on how to fire their guns on their way to or upon their arrival at the frontlines.<ref name="jiken22" /><ref name="itakura22" />

No definitive statistics exist on how many soldiers the Nanjing Garrison Force had managed to cobble together by the time of the battle. [[Ikuhiko Hata]] estimates 100,000,<ref name="echo22">Ikuhiko Hata, "The Nanking Atrocities: Fact and Fable," ''Japan Echo'', August 1998, 51.</ref> and [[Tokushi Kasahara]] who argues in favor of about 150,000.<ref name="jiken22" /> The most reliable estimates are those of David Askew, who estimates via a unit-by-unit analysis a strength of 73,790 to 81,500 Chinese defenders in the city of Nanjing itself.<ref>David Askew, "Defending Nanking: An Examination of the Capital Garrison Forces," ''Sino-Japanese Studies'', April 15, 2003, 173.</ref> These numbers are backed up by the Nanking Garrison staff officer T'an Tao-p'ing, who records a garrison of 81,000 soldiers, a number which Masahiro Yamamoto argues to be one of the most probable figures.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yamamoto |first=Masahiro |title=Nanking : Anatomy of an Atrocity |date=2000 |publisher=Praeger |pages=43}}</ref>