Podcasts about nra

Fatal Police Shooting Caught On A Camera He Bought. He had responded to a complaint in a high crime area and got into an altercation with a suspect. During the altercation the suspect was able to take his pistol. The suspect then stood over him and pointed the pistol at him. He was able to utilize his bail out device. And his K-9 Princes then exited the unit and engaged the suspect. In a powerful episode now streaming on the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast website, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and most every major Podcast platform. The suspect struck K-9 Princes in the head causing her to have a fractured skull. K-9 Princes never stopped the fight and was able to allow him to retrieve his back up weapon. He then fired numerous shots and neutralized the threat. Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast social media like their Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn , Medium and other social media platforms. The attack and incident was captured on a dashcam that the Officer had purchased from his own money. That video is what eventually cleared him of wrongdoing. Look for supporting articles about this and much more from Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast in platforms like Medium , Blogspot and Linkedin . Retired Investigator and Sergeant Jay “Packy” Dempsey is our guest, he is a 25-year veteran of law enforcement and a 6-year Military Policeman in the Alabama Army National Guard. Over the course of his career, he served as a dual-purpose K-9 officer for more than 22 years, specializing in narcotics, criminal, and marine theft investigations. Rising through the ranks, he became a SWAT team commander and dedicated much of his life to protecting his community. Fatal Police Shooting Caught On A Camera He Bought. Dempsey's work has taken him into some of the toughest investigations, including murders, rapes, bank robberies, and stolen vehicles. With his cadaver dogs, he helped recover multiple bodies and located more than 80 stolen vessels and marine-related equipment. His expertise also extended into instructionserving as an FBI and NRA-certified firearms instructor, as well as an ASP, Mace, Taser, and NNDDA K-9 instructor. His outstanding service earned him recognition as a five-time Officer of the Year and recipient of the National Award for Bravery in the Line of Fire. Available for free on their website and streaming on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcast platforms. But beyond the accolades, Dempsey's story is one of survival, faith, and redemption. His book, The Fastest 4 Seconds, is a true account backed by eyewitness testimony, investigators, news articles, and even dashboard camera footage from the Dallas County Sheriff's Office in Selma, Alabama. It covers the events leading up to and following a shooting that unfolded in just four seconds after a one-minute struggle with a suspect. The book not only documents the incident and the investigation but also shines a light on the hidden battle that followed, undiagnosed PTSD, addictions, and the near collapse of everything he held dear. Through it all, Dempsey testifies to the undeniable hand of God working miracles in his life. Today, he shares his experiences with law enforcement academies and Christian men's groups, teaching the hard truth. Fatal Police Shooting Caught On A Camera He Bought. Jay “Packy” Dempsey always wanted to work in law enforcement. The only way to get in the door and start his law enforcement career was to volunteer. Working as a pulp mill helper at the local paper plant, Packy volunteered as a reserve deputy for the sheriff's department on his nights off. Packy saw that the sheriff's department did not have a K-9 unit, so after volunteering for two years, Packy bought a German shepherd puppy, named her Princess, and trained her to become a narcotics K-9. Eventually, Packy was hired by the sheriff's department to work at the jail. Over time, he worked his way to the narcotics division. However, as his career soared, his first marriage failed. His wife at the time had not signed up for the life of a police officer's wife. After getting his personal life back on track, Packy almost lost it all on a muggy December day when he answered a loitering complaint at former Craig Air Force Base on the outskirts of Selma. The Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast episode is available for free on their website , Apple Podcasts , Spotify and most major podcast platforms. While trying to arrest one of the loitering teens for crack cocaine possession, the teen, overpowered Packy, taking his gun and pointing it at Packy's head. Using a special remote, Packy released Princess from the back of his patrol vehicle, and she came to his rescue. Princess distracted Walker long enough for Packy to draw his backup weapon and apply deadly force. The reporting and aftermath that ensued pitted the community against Packy as civil rights activists labeled Packy a murderer. Fortunately, he had the entire incident on film due to a dash camera that he bought and installed from his own personal budget. Eventually cleared him of any wrong doing, Packy returned to police work and eventually had to leave the Sheriff's Officer to have a successful career at the Orange Beach Police Department with Princess. The narrative ends in Orange Beach, Alabama where Princess retired and eventually succumbed to cancer at age 14. In the United States, police fatally shoot more than 1,100 people annually, with 1,270 people killed by police in 2024 alone, the highest number in a decade. The full podcast episode is streaming now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and across Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. On May 14, 2024, the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program released Officers Killed and Assaulted in the Line of Duty, 2023 Special Report and data from the Law Enforcement Employee Counts on the FBI's Crime Data Explorer. Officers Killed and Assaulted in the Line of Duty, 2023 Special Report, provides preliminary counts of law enforcement officers killed and assaulted in 2023, as well as an in-depth analysis of law enforcement officers who were killed or assaulted from 2014 through 2023, based on the data voluntarily provided by law enforcement agencies to the FBI's UCR Program. Fatal Police Shooting Caught On A Camera He Bought. The study of the data reveals, from 2021 to 2023, more officers were feloniously killed (194) than in any other consecutive three-year period in the past 20 years (73 officers in 2021, 61 officers in 2022, and 60 officers in 2023). Information about offenders of officer felonious killings in 2023 show there were 57 offenders, 54 were male, more than half were white, 8 were reported as having a mental illness, and there were 32 violent prior arrests/offenses from an unknown number of offenders. You can find the show on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, X (formerly Twitter), and LinkedIn, as well as read companion articles and updates on Medium, Blogspot, YouTube, and even IMDB. From 2014 through 2023, the South region had the most line-of-duty deaths yearly compared to other regions. There was a 38% decrease in line-of-duty deaths in the region in 2023 (20 deaths) compared to 2022 (32 deaths). Last year marked the lowest number of line-of-duty deaths in the South since 2015 (19 deaths). While there has been a slow decline of officers feloniously killed in the line of duty over the past three years, a study of the data shows the rate of officers assaulted has increased each of the past three years. Agencies reported 79,091 officers were assaulted in 2023, marking the highest officer assault rate in the past 10 years. Most officer assaults occurred when responding to simple assaults against a non-officer (6,783 incidents), followed by drug/narcotic violations (4,879). The number of officers assaulted and injured by firearms has climbed over the years, reaching a 10-year high in 2023 with approximately 466 officers assaulted and injured by firearms. Fatal Police Shooting Caught On A Camera He Bought. Police shootings are a significant source of trauma that can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other serious mental health consequences for involved officers, witnesses, and families. Law enforcement officers are exposed to an average of 178 critical incidents throughout their careers, compared to the general population's two to three traumatic events. A police shooting is considered a highly severe critical incident that can trigger "post-shooting trauma," a form of PTSD. Available for free on their website and streaming on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcast platforms. The studies reviewed suggest elevated rates of PTSD among those exposed to firearm violence, with particularly high levels of PTSD found among witnesses of mass shootings and firearm injury survivors. Additionally, these studies indicate that certain factors, such as closer proximity to the incident and closer relationship to the victims, increase one's risk for developing PTSD. Gaps in the current literature are discussed, as well as directions for future study. Firearm violence remains a significant public health concern, and identifying its impacts and potential risk factors such as PTSD will be crucial for interventions aimed at addressing this problem. He eventually left the Dallas County Alabama Sheriff's Office due to extreme pressure and joined the Orange Beach, Alabama Police Department, where he continued his career and eventually retired from. Jay talks about that decision and what lead up to it. Fatal Police Shooting Caught On A Camera He Bought. Look for supporting articles about this and much more from Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast in platforms like Medium , Blogspot and Linkedin . He wrote the book The Fastest 4 Seconds. You can help contribute money to make the Gunrunner Movie . The film that Hollywood won't touch. It is about a now Retired Police Officer that was shot 6 times while investigating Gunrunning. He died 3 times during Medical treatment and was resuscitated. You can join the fight by giving a monetary “gift” to help ensure the making of his film at agunrunnerfilm.com . Background song Hurricane is used with permission from the band Dark Horse Flyer. You can contact John J. “Jay” Wiley by email at Jay@letradio.com , or learn more about him on their website . Get the latest news articles, without all the bias and spin, from the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast on Medium , which is free. “If you enjoy the show,” John Jay Wiley adds, “please share it with a friend or two, or three. And if you're able to leave an honest rating or review, it would be deeply appreciated.” The Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast is available for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and LETRadio.com, among many other platforms. Stay connected with updates and future episodes by following the show on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, their website and other Social Media Platforms. Find a wide variety of great podcasts online at The Podcast Zone Facebook Page , look for the one with the bright green logo. Be sure to check out our website . Be sure to follow us on X , Instagram , Facebook, Pinterest, Linkedin and other social media platforms for the latest episodes and news. Listeners can tune in on the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show website, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and most every major Podcast platform and follow updates on Facebook, Instagram, and other major News outlets. You can find the show on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, X (formerly Twitter), and LinkedIn, as well as read companion articles and updates on Medium, Blogspot, YouTube, and even IMDB. Fatal Police Shooting Caught On A Camera He Bought. Attributions Fastest 4 Seconds The Selma Times Journal Scott Silverii Ashley Harris Paul FBI   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hasan sits down with ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero to chat through why it’s important to represent the NRA, what it’s like going toe to toe with the Supreme Court, and whether or not he misses George W. Bush. Right now, you can try ZipRecruiter FOR FREE at ZipRecruiter.com/HASAN. Shop everything you need for Thanksgiving now at Whole Foods Market! Get 50% off Monarch, the all-in-one financial tool at monarch.com with code HASAN. Exclusive $45-off Carver Mat at auraframes.com/HASAN. Promo Code HASAN. Don’t miss out on consistent bookings and global reach. Head over to Booking.com and start your listing today Thanks so much for listening to Hasan Minhaj Doesn’t Know. If you haven’t yet, now is a great time to subscribe to Lemonada Premium. Just hit the 'subscribe' button on Apple Podcasts, or, for all other podcast apps head to lemonadapremium.com to subscribe. That’s lemonadapremium.com. Co-Creator & Executive Producer: Hasan MinhajCo-Creator & Executive Producer: Prashanth VenkataramanujamExecutive Producer/Director: Tyler BabinExecutive Producer/Showrunner: Scott VroomanProducer: Kayla FengCinematographer: Austin MoralesEditor: N/V Moore and Will FeinsteinWriter's assistant: Annie FickTalent Coordinator: Tanya SomanaderExecutive Assistant: Samuel PilandSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Glock V launch is stirring up the 2A world—especially in California! In this episode, we break down the controversy: California's safe handgun roster, AB 1127, and what it means for gun owners, dealers, and law enforcement. Is the Glock V really off-limits for civilians? Are we seeing a manufacturer–DOJ drama or just confusion? From technical details to legislative twists, get the clearest explanation on the internet—plus what to watch for at SHOT Show. Also in this episode: California's new 11% excise tax on firearms, ammo, and accessories—and how gun owners can take action. Ghost guns: what they really are, why the media gets it wrong, and how recent California cases reveal bigger law enforcement patterns. Massad Ayoob's Deadly Force Instructor course coming to San Diego. Turning Point USA and San Diego County Gun Owners partnership—discount shooting socials for new activists. Local spotlight: Imperial Beach's new city council member, Mariko Nakawatase, and San Diego's grassroots Second Amendment politics. The Hoffman v. Bonta court decision now allows non-California residents to apply for a concealed carry permit in California, changing the landscape for out-of-state CCW applicants. See John Correa's video: https://youtu.be/tSN5pRK4MlE NRA reform and board elections - Rob Beckman on what's changing, who's running, and why the future looks brighter for gun owners. National defensive gun use study: why most gun owners never fire in self-defense, and how the real data gets misused in the news. Check out the NRA reformer candidates: https://electanewnra.com/ Learn more about the Deadly Force Instructor Class coming to San Diego: https://gunownersradio.ticketspice.com/deadly-force-instructor-class-san-diego-2026     The right to self-defense is a basic human right. Gun ownership is an integral part of that right. If you want to keep your Second Amendment rights, defend them by joining San Diego County Gun Owners (SDCGO), Orange County Gun Owners (OCGO), or Inland Empire Gun Owners (IEGO). https://www.sandiegocountygunowners.com https://orangecountygunowners.com http://inlandempiregunowners.com Support the cause by listening to Gun Owners Radio live on Sunday afternoon or on any podcast app at your leisure. Together we will win. SUPPORT THE BUSINESSES THAT SUPPORT YOUR SELF DEFENSE RIGHTS! Get expert legal advice on any firearm-related issues: https://dillonlawgp.com Smarter web development and digital marketing help: https://www.sagetree.com Clean your guns easier, faster, and safer! https://seal1.com Get your cases & outdoor gear at C.A.R.G.O in El Cajon or visit them at https://cargostores.com

Join Paul Barron and the Restaurant Masterminds team—Paul Molinari, Anna Tauzin, and Rudy Miick—as they dive deep into fast casual trends shaping 2026. From Dave's Hot Chicken's billion-dollar valuation to Cava's impressive 28% growth, discover why only some of the 3,500+ fast casual brands will survive the coming consolidation. The team explores the chicken wars, international expansion strategies, AI integration, rising labor costs, and the critical "fourth dimension" of experiential dining that's redefining customer expectations. Plus, get insider picks on emerging brands to watch including Mendocino Farms, Tatte, and Brazilian newcomer Tap. Don't miss their predictions on which concepts will achieve escape velocity and why McDonald's departure from the NRA signals major industry shifts ahead.~This episode is sponsored by: Gusto → https://gusto.pxf.io/PBN ~ #1 rated HR platform for payroll, benefits, and more With Gusto's easy-to-use platform, you can empower your people and push your business forward. See why over 400,000 businesses choose Gusto.#FastCasual #RestaurantIndustry #RestaurantTrendsGet Your Podcast Now! Are you a hospitality or restaurant industry leader looking to amplify your voice and establish yourself as a thought leader? Look no further than SavorFM, the premier podcast platform designed exclusively for hospitality visionaries like you. Take the next step in your industry leadership journey – visit https://www.savor.fm/ Capital & Advisory: Are you a fast-casual restaurant startup or a technology innovator in the food service industry? Don't miss out on the opportunity to tap into decades of expertise. Reach out to Savor Capital & Advisory now to explore how their seasoned professionals can propel your business forward. Discover if you're eligible to leverage our unparalleled knowledge in food service branding and technology and take your venture to new heights.Don't wait – amplify your voice or supercharge your startup's growth today with Savor's ecosystem of industry-leading platforms and advisory services. Visit https://www.savor.fm/capital-advisory

This week, we're taking a close look at what's going on with the National Rifle Association (NRA). The NRA was swamped by its rivals in the gun debate during the 2025 elections just as it was announcing a major restructuring effort that featured dozens of staff furloughs. To provide insight into the group's plans, we've brought on NRA board member Amanda Suffecool. She is a member of the internal reform movement and now sits on the board's Finance Committee. Suffecool said she is confident that reformers are in full control of the NRA and have a specific plan for its future. She argued the restructuring is necessary to put the NRA on a realistic path to resurgence. Suffecool noted the NRA has spent years running deficits under the old leadership, and the cuts to staff and operations under the new plan will bring the group's budget back into the black. She said that would enable them to better compete down the line rather than face potential bankruptcy. She argued that the reforms she and other members of the new NRA leadership have implemented will bring the group up to modern standards. Suffecool said that while the NRA is reducing the frequency of its paper magazines, it's also expanding its digital offerings. She said it is shifting its fundraising and public relations approach to match what works in 2025, rather than sticking with older methods. Special Guest: Amanda Suffecool.

Summary In this episode, Mark Walters discusses the implications of recent elections on gun control legislation, particularly in Virginia, and the role of the NRA in advocating for Second Amendment rights. The conversation also covers upcoming Supreme Court cases that could impact gun rights, the importance of grassroots activism, and the responsibility of corporations like Patriot Mobile in supporting these causes. The discussion highlights the energized political landscape and the need for continued vigilance among gun owners and advocates. Takeaways The Virginia elections have significant implications for gun control legislation. Grassroots activism is crucial in the fight for Second Amendment rights. The Supreme Court's involvement is essential in shaping future gun laws. Corporate responsibility plays a role in supporting Second Amendment advocacy. The left is motivated and organized, necessitating a strong response from conservatives. Elections can drastically change the political landscape and affect gun rights. Legal challenges are a key strategy in combating anti-gun legislation. The NRA is actively involved in multiple court cases related to gun rights. Public awareness and engagement are vital for protecting freedoms. Patriot Mobile exemplifies corporate activism in support of Second Amendment rights. Keywords gun control, NRA, Virginia elections, Supreme Court, Second Amendment, legislation, corporate responsibility, activism, political landscape, advocacy  

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #241 Jeff Boren Boren Training Solutions   It was by chance that I was able to connect with Jeff Boren. I wanted to do a show in Arkansas and reached out to Ed Monk (RSWC #222). Since I've already had him on the show in Boston, I was looking for someone else. Ed suggested Jeff.  I reached out to a complete stranger, asked if he'd be on the show, and he said yes. Although Jeff is in Mississippi I'm glad it worked out. As the saying goes, "I'd rather be lucky than good."    Jeff took an interest in firearms at a young age. As a child of the 80's, he loved Die Hard and wanted a Beretta 92 for Christmas. Santa did not bring it.  He fired a GLOCK 17 Gen 1 when he was just a teenager. Then he got a job so that he was able to buy some guns for himself. A few years and a couple courses later, he realized that this may be worth pursuing.    While his career was a football and baseball coach, he was working towards administration. There were several friends and family that asked him to take them to the range. He figured that if he became a firearm instructor, he would still be able to coach people and help them get into shooting. He found Citizen's Safety Academy in Murfreesboro, TN, and became an NRA certified instructor. Currently, he holds many more certifications, including UCSSA, Tom Givens' Rangemaster "Master" certified instructor, and Armed Response to Active Shooter Events.    Jeff has been in the administration side of education after moving out of coaching sports. Spending years as a coach, then being a principal, he's now a district administrator. His job is to be responsible for safety and operations. They do have an armed staff program. He's responsible for teaching the teachers how to handle firearms, shooting, and active shooter situations. "There's more of them (armed schools) out there than people realize, but there's not a lot", Jeff said. Having his hand in administration and firearms training, he's able to instruct those who are willing to step up to be able to protect schools.    With programs like FASTER Saves Lives and Ed Monk's Active Shooter Training, there's no reason that some teachers shouldn't be armed. Not every teacher needs to be armed, not every teacher wants to be armed, but they can be educated. Including trauma first aid, which can save the lives of students. In Jeff's program for carrying in schools, there's 64 hours of training. He says it is more about accountability than it is responsibility. Teachers have to be accountable for what happens if they need to use a firearm. It's much more about the mindset than anything else.    The Borens are all into shooting. His wife is an instructor, his children enjoy shooting. One drawback is that his wife will know which guns he has and which he's trying to sneak into the safe. However, it is a wonderful thing that everyone enjoys it. Jeff also instructs at Citizen's Safety Academy in Tennessee and Patriots Training Center in Eastabogo, AL, where he is the Director of Training.    In Mississippi, it is a "Constitutional Carry" or permitless carry state. However, having the state issued permit has benefits. One is reciprocity. Jeff lives in the north east corner of the state, 20 minutes from Alabama and 5 minutes from Tennessee. It also lets you forgo the background check as the carry permit shows the holder has passed one. Moving to permitless carry has changed what instructors offer their clients. It's no longer the state's mandated curriculum, it's geared towards what citizens really need for training. Along with the permit, someone can carry inside of a school.    We had a great conversation. I'm happy to meet more pro-gun people around the country and have them on the show. Jeff teaches in three states. He attends things like TacCon. He's got a full resume and offers lots of training. And he passes it on to everyone who takes courses with him.  Favorite quotes: "It (instructing) filled a void, but it's something I'm deeply passionate about." "I got into it for that reason alone because it was fun to shoot." "If it weren't for that, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now." "You're not just responsible, you're accountable for what happens."   Boren Training Solutions https://borentrainingsolutions.com/   Boren Training Facebook https://www.facebook.com/JeffBorenTrainingSolutions/   Patriot Training Center https://patriottrainingcenter.com/ Second Amendment Foundation https://secure.anedot.com/saf/donate?sc=RidingShotgun Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms https://www.ccrkba.org/     Please support the Riding Shotgun With Charlie sponsors and supporters.    US Law Shield Legal Defense for Self Defense. Use "RSWC" as the discount code and get 2 months for free! https://www.uslawshield.com   Patriot Mobile Use this link and get one month for free! https://patriotmobile.com/partners/rswc Or listen on: iTunes/Apple podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/riding-shotgun-with-charlie/id1275691565

Doug Hamlin, CEO of the NRA, joins Steve Gruber to discuss the organization's latest restructuring and how it's positioning itself for the next battles to protect Americans' Second Amendment rights. From legislative challenges to defending law-abiding gun owners, Hamlin explains how the NRA is adapting to continue its mission in a changing political and legal landscape.

In This Episode Erin and Weer'd discuss: the latest development in the story of the Wyoming Airman who killed his friend and blamed it on his SIG M18; the Ad Council using tax money to push gun control; the US Navy Sailor who was sentenced to 20 years for possessing demilled guns and legal-to-own parts, and why his appeal will affect all gun owners. There's a big shake-up within the NRA, and Board Member John Richardson gives us the inside scoop; and David gives us his thoughts about a recently acquired Super Safety from Hoffman Tactical. Did you know that we have a Patreon? Join now for the low, low cost of $4/month (that's $1/podcast) and you'll get to listen to our podcast on Friday instead of Mondays, as well as patron-only content like mag dump episodes, our hilarious blooper reels and film tracks. Main Topic S.A.F.E. Pet Rescue Tillie, Erin's good little pupper girl Ad Council Using Your Tax Dollars to Push Anti-Gun Rhetoric Gun Violence in the United States 2022 (PDF) Six Words Every Killer Should Know: 'I Feared for My Life, Officer' Adamiak's Attorney Strikes Back at his Criminal Charges John Richardson No Lawyers, Only Guns and Money National Rifle Association Announces Massive Restructuring Gun Lovers and Other Strangers National Firearms Act 1934 (PDF Warning) Forced Reset Trigger Hoffman Tactical Trigger-Man Super Safety v4.4 AR Disconnector AR Disconnector Spring AR Selector Spring AR Hammer & Trigger Pin AR Selector Detent AR Trigger AR Bolt Carrier AR Recoil Buffer Hoffman Super Safety (YouTube Warning) Super Safety 01 Super Safety 02 Super Safety 03 Super Safety 04 Super Safety Position Forward Super Safety Position Rearward Super Safety Detents Bolt Comparison Brena Bock Author Page David Bock Author Page Team And More  

Contributing writer Jake Fogleman and I recap the results of the off-year elections this past week, which saw Democratic candidates and gun-control ballot measures alike win big. We discuss what that might portend for likely changes in gun policy moving forward. We also cover Everytown's latest attempt to replicate its success in pressuring Glock to redesign its handguns, this time by going after Ruger.

James Comey's push to have his federal indictment dismissed lands him in even hotter water as Kash Patel drops damning data proving Comey lied on multiple occasions to Congress. Comey's personal notes prove he was working with middleman Daniel Richman as his government leaker to the media as he tried to control - on his own private email server - to cover for the media fallout over Hillary's email scandal. Letitia James gets hit with another legal avalanche, this time involving the NRA. Nancy Pelosi calls President Trump vile as the walls close in. Tick. Tock,

Hey guys before you listen to this one, do realize this is part 3 on a series about General Kanji Ishiwara, so if you have not already done so I would recommend listening to Part 1 & 2.    This episode is General Kanji Ishiwara part 3: The gradual fall into War with China   I tried so hard this time to finish this up neatly in part 3 and utterly failed. I wrote pages and even deleted them to keep squeezing, but theres simply too much to the story. Part 3 will be focusing on the insane politics of the 1930's and how Ishiwara tried to prevent war with China.   Its rather ironic that the man who was the chief instigator that ushering in the conquest of Manchuria was unable to impose his will when it came to molding Manchukuo. Now while Ishiwara Kanji was the operations officer given official responsibility over the planning and conduct of military operations to seize Manchuria, the arrangements for that new state, being political in nature, were not in his sphere of influence. Regardless, Ishiwara was extremely vocal about his opinions on how Manchukuo should develop and he heavily emphasized racial harmony. He continuously hammered his colleagues that the economic development of Manchukuo should reflect the spirit of racial cooperation. Ishiwara assumed the economic interests of Manchukuo would simply coincide with that of the Kwantung army, by definition both's ultimate goals would be unity of Asia against the west. He was very wrong. Ishiwara was consumed by his theory of final war, everything he did was to prepare for it, thus his obsession of racial harmony was another part of the plan.    In 1932 the self government guidance board was abolished in march, leaving its functions and regional organizations to be tossed into brand new bureaus of the new government of Manchukuo. An organization emerged in April called the (Kyowakai / Concordia Association). It was brought together by Yamaguchi Juji and Ozawa Kaisaku, and its purpose was to promote racial harmony and it was backed by members of the Kwantung army, notably Ishiwara, Itagaki and Katakura. The Kwantung army flooded money into the organization and it grew rapidly…well amongst the Japanese anyways. General Honjo was a bit weary about how much the organization might have in the political sphere of Manchukuo, he did not want to see it become an official political party, he preferred it remain in a educative role. By educative role, I of course mean, to be a propaganda arm of the Kwantung army to exert influence over Manchukuo without having real skin in the game.    But to Ishiwara the Concordia Association was the logical means to unify the new nation, guiding its political destiny, to be blunt Ishiwara really saw it should have much more authority than his colleagues believed it should. Ishiwara complained in August of 1932, that Manchuria was a conglomerate of conflicting power centers such as the Kwantung army, the new Manchukuo government, the Kwantung government, the Mantetsu, consular office and so on. Under so many hats he believed Manchukuo would never become a truly unified modern state, and of course he was one of the few people that actually wanted it to be so. He began arguing the Kwantung army should turn over its political authority as soon as possible so “Japanese of high resolve should hasten to the great work of the Manchurian Concordia Association, for I am sure that we Japanese will be its leaders. In this way Manchukuo will not depend on political control from Japan, but will be an independent state, based on Japanese Manchurian cooperation. Guided by Japanese, it will be a mode of Sino-Japanese friendship, an indicator of the present trends of world civilization” Needless to say the Concordia Association made little headway with the Chinese and it began to annoy Japanese leaders. The association gradually was bent into a spiritless propaganda and intelligence arm of the IJA, staffed largely by elite Japanese working in the Manchukuo government.    Ishiwara began using the Concordia Association to promote things such as: returning leased territories like the Railway zone, abolition of extraterritoriality, equalizing payment between the races working in Manchukuo, the kind of stuff that would promote racial harmony. Such advocacy as you can imagine deviated heavily with the Japanese military, and Ishiwara's reputation would be hurt by this. The Kwantung Army staff began shifting dramatically, seeing Ishiwara isolated, aside from Itagaki and a few other followers being around. The upper brass as they say had had enough of the nuisance Concordia Association's and gradually took control of it and made sure to stop the talk of concessions. In August of 1932 Ishiwara received a new assignment and it seems he was only too happy to leave Manchuria.   Ishiwara returned to Japan, disgusted with the turn of direction Manchuria was going, and believing he would be blamed for its future failures he submitted his resignation. But the IJA knew how popular Ishiwara was and how dangerous he could become so they rejected his resignation. Instead they gave him a military decoration. He was in a very strange spot now, for the youthful officers of the Kodoha faction loved Ishiwara, but the senior top brass of the IJA were extremely suspicious of him and lets just say he was kept under close watch.   Now with Ishiwara back in Japan he would get himself involved in a bit of a war between two factions. As many of you probably already know, the Japanese military of the late 1920s and early 1930's saw the emergence of two factions: the Kodoha “imperial way” and Tosei “control” factions. The Kodoha sought what they called a “showa restoration” to give the emperor absolute power like the good olds days as they say. They were willing to even form a coup if necessary to make this happen. Another thing they believed was in the Hokushin-ron “northern strike” war plan. The idea behind this was that the USSR and communism as a whole was Japans largest threat and the IJA needed to invade the USSR. Now the Tosei faction believed in most of what the Kodoha did, but they differed on some issues. Number 1) they were not willing to perform a coup to usher in a showa restoration, no they thought they could work with the existing Zaibatsu elites and politicians to get things done. THe Kodoha hated the politicians and Zaibatsu to the point they wanted to murder them, so differing opinions. The Tosei also believed the next world war would require a total war strategy, to build up Japan to fight the USSR, but probably the US as well. They favored Nanshin-ron “the southern strike” policy, to target the resources of south east asia necessary to give Japan what it needed to be self sufficient. Another thing that separated these two factions, the Kodoha typically were younger officers.   Despite their differences, everyone in the Japanese military understood forceful expansion into Asia was going to happen and this meant collison with the USSR, America and Britain. Ishiwara's first assignment back in Japan was a temporary duty with the foreign ministry, he was a member of the Japanese legation to the league of nations under Matsuoka Yosuke. The league of nations at this time was performing the Lytton Commission which was investigating the Macnhurian problem, ie: Japan invading Manchuria. Upon returning to Japan in summer of 1933, Ishiwara sought a regimental command, but found it difficult to acquire because of his troublemaker like history. Then General Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko who commanded the 2nd sendai division gave him command over the 4th infantry regiment. Ishiwara went to work training the men under him to counter the latest soviet infantry tactics and of course he lectured extensively about his final war theories. During this time rumors emerged that Ishiwara supported the Nanshin-ron strategy. Many of his old colleagues who supported Hokushin-ron demanded he explain himself and Ishiwara did. These rumors were actually false, it was not that Ishiwara favored the Nanshin-ron strategy, it was simply that he did not back all aspects of the Hokushin-ron strategy.   Ishiwara believed to challenge the USSR, first Japan needed an Asian union, which he thought would take probably 30 years to create. But to usher such an Asian union, first Manchukuo needed to be hammered out properly, something Ishiwara thought Japan was failing to do. Also Japan's military strength was insufficient to overwhelm the multiple enemies before her, the war she would enter would be a protracted one. To win such a war she needed resources and allies, notably Manchukuo and China. To confront the USSR, Japan would need to subvert outer mongolia, but to confront the USA and Britain she would have to seize the Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong and Guam. It was going to be a global clash.   Ishiwara was gravely concerned with how powerful the USSR was becoming in the early 1930s. In the 3 years since he had left Manchuria, the Soviet divisions in east asia had jumped from 8 to 14 by the end of 1935, while Japanese divisions in Manchuria were only 3. For aircraft the Soviets had 950 vs 220 for Japan. On top of that the Soviets had TB-5 long range bombers, capable of hitting Japan, but the Japanese had no comparable aircraft. A large reason for such build up's were literally because Kodoha leaders were publicly threatening the Soviets such as Generals Sadao Araki. The Kodoha faction faced a lot of challenges as to how they could hope to face off against the USSR. They figured out three main principles needed to be overcome: 1) Japan had to prevent the USSR from being able to defeat its enemies to the west and east one at a time, Japan should seek diplomatic aims in this like allying with Germany. 2) A devastating blow was necessary to the USSR far east, perhaps against the Trans-siberian railway and air bases in the maritime provinces. 3) If Japan was able to demolish Soviet resistance in the far east, Japan would need to take forward positions on the Manchurian border for a protracted war. Ishiwara tried to figure out ways to get by these principles. First he advocated for Japanese troops strength in Manchuria and Korea to be 80% equivalent to that of the Soviets east of Lake Baikal at the offset of hostilities. He also urged cooperation with Germany and to preserve friendly neutral relations with Britain and the US, that is until the soviets were dealt with of course. Ishiwara vigorously felt the Nanshin ron strategy to push into southeast asia and the pacific was far too ambitious for the time being and that all efforts should be made to consolidate Manchuria for resources. Ishiwara tried to win over some Naval support for his plans, but none would be found. When Ishiwara showed his formal plans for Asia to the war ministry, they told him his projections in Manchuria would cost at least 1 billion 300 million yen. They also notified Ishiwara the navy were asking for about the same amount for their programs. Now while Ishiwara spent years trying to produce a 6 year plan to build up Manchuria, other significant things were going on in Japan.   The Kodoha faction as I said had a lot of younger officer support and a lot of these were men who came from rural parts of Japan. A lot of these men came from poor families suffering, and it looked to them that Japan was a nation full of social injustice and spiritual disintegration. These young officers were becoming more and more vocal in the early 1930's about wanting a showa restoration. They thought Japan would be better off as a military state with the emperor on top. Ishiwara empathized with the desire for a showa restoration, and many of the young officers calling for it claimed he was one of their champions. He made some fiery speeches in 1935 linking the evils of capitalism to the destitution of rural japan. He argued farmers were bearing crushing burdens because of economic privation. In his words “if the clash between the exploiters (landlords and capitalists) and the exploited continues much longer the exploited will be ground to bits. The present system of free economic competition has produced a situation where there is a small number of fabulously rich and limitless number of desperately poor. The national has indeed reached a national crisis. Liberal capitalism must inevitably give way to a newer system". What that “newer system was” however differed from what the youthful officers saw as their Showa restoration. Ishiwara wanted the Japanese government to create plans and policy, the Kodoha hardliners wanted to form a violent coup.    Kodoha officers began to push Ishiwara to champion their cause more and more. However by late 1935 Ishiwara's name would actually begin to be connected to the Tosei faction. While Ishiwara supported much of the Kodoha ideology, he simply did not share their beliefs in the same Showa restoration, he was more akin to the Tosei in that regard. Now after the manchurian incident the two factions kind of went to war with another to dominate the military. The Kodoha faction was early on the most powerful, but in 1934 their leader Araki resigned from the army due to failing health and he was replaced by General Senjuro Hayashi who favored the Tosei. In November of 1934, a plot was discovered that involved Kodoha officers seeking to murder some top ranking politicians. The result of this saw the Tosei faction force the resignation of the Kodoha leader General Jinzaburo Masaki, who was serving as the inspector general of military education. In retaliation to this, the Kodoha officer Saburo Aizawa murdered the Toseiha leader General Tetsuzen Nagata. This caused a frenzy, things began to really escalate, and many looked at Ishiwara Kanji to prove which side he favored. While in prison awaiting trial, Aizawa asked Ishiwara to be his defense counsel, to which he promised he would consider it. At the same time other Kodoha officers began pressing Ishiwara to support their cause openly. It is really hard to see where exactly Ishiwara was in all of this as all of his speeches prior were purposely ambiguous. He looked like a fence sitter and after what will be the February coup of 1936, there was testimony that Ishiwara was a middle-echelon member involved in the coup, other testimony literally had him on the list of people to be assassinated. A few weeks before Aizawa's trial, Ishiwara refused his request.   On February 26th, Ishiwara was awakened at his Tokyo home by a telephone call from Colonel Suzuki Teiichi informing him a rebellion was underway. Ishiwara, though ill at the time rushed over to the Military police HQ in Kudan. There he was informed of what was going on and how the officers were now taking the side of the showa restorationists or to quell the rebellion. From there he rushed to meet War Minister Kawashima Yoshiyuki where he demanded a proclamation of martial law to cope with the rebellion. He then urged Vice Chief of staff Sugiyama to order units from garrisons around Tokyo to overwhelm the rebels. Within 24 hours of the event, Ishiwara was then named operations officer of the Martial Law headquarters and he began coordinating plans to deal with the crisis. Thus Ishiwara occupied a crucial position in quelling the coup. On the night of the 27th a bunch of officers who sympathized with the rebels came to the HQ to argue for delaying actions against them. To this Ishiwara rose up and announced “we shall immediately carry forward plans for an assault. All units will assemble for that purpose. The army will wait until noon of the 28th; then it will begin its assault and crush the rebellion”. The next day,  Ishiwara went to the main entrance of the War Ministers office, where a large number of the rebels occupied and he demanded to talk to their leaders face to face. He hoped the youthful officers who looked up to him would see reason. They let him in, after they had shot Captain Katakura Tadashi for trying to do the same thing. Ishiwara then told them he shared many of their goals, but condemned their use of force. With a pistol pointed at him Ishiwara declared this “If you don't listen to reason you will be crushed by the severest measures”. He delivered his ultimatum and just walked out the door.    By the 28th the tides turned on the rebels. Emperor Hirohito put his foot down, demanding an end to the mutiny, many of the top Kodoha leaders walked away because of this. The Navy brought all of its power to Tokyo bay including its SNLF marines, all guns were on the rebels. Some of the rebels held out, still hoping the Emperor would change his mind and order a showa restoration, but by the 29th it fell apart. The rebels surrendered, aided by Colonel Tomoyuki Yamashita (one of my favorite generals of WW2, fascinating character). In the words of Matsumura Shuitsu a member of the Martial law HQ “In the midst of all the confusion and commotion, Ishiwara never lost sight of his objective and dealt with the criss with cool efficiency. If ever there was a case of the right man in the right place it was Ishiwara at that time. No doubt, what brought about the ultimate surrender of the rebel forces, was, of course, the Imperial command. But I believe that in a large part the collapse of the rebellion was due to the decisiveness of Ishwara, who never swerved, never hesitated. In short, Tokyo was saved by Ishiwara's courage”. It is rather ironic, many would point out it was Ishiwara who instigated the insurrection, but when it came time for it, he was the largest one to stamp down upon it. One could argue, by suppressing the rebellion, Ishawara had exploited the crisis in order to earn the political power necessary to bring about his version of a Showa Restoration.   During the mutiny, after meeting the rebels, Ishiwara actually had a secret meeting with two Kodoha officers at the Imperial Hotel. They were Colonel Hashimoto Kingoro and Colonel Mitsui Sakichi. He spoke to them about the possibility of forming a new government. The 3 of them came to these conclusions to actually perform a real Showa restoration. The rebels needed to go back to their barracks; the emperor needed to endorse the showa restoration; and members of the cabinet and top military leaders had to support it. Ishiwara then went to the Martial Law HQ and demanded Army vice chief of staff Sugiyama that he submit to the emperor a petition “to establish a restoration which would make clear the spirit of the nation, realize the national defense, and stabilize the peoples livelihood”. Sugiyama wanted nothing to do with this and told him “its simply impossible to relay such a request from the army” Ishiwara knew Sugiyama's position was too strong to challenge directly so he backed off, this was his last attempt to alter the nation's course through confrontation. Because of his actions during the quelling of the rebellion, this little scene was forgotten, his reputation was not tarnished…well it was amongst the Kodoha hardliners who saw him as a traitor, but other than that. Yet again he seems to be a man of many contradictions.  After the February coup the Kodoha faction ceased to exist and the Toseiha's ideology grabbed most of the military, though they also faded heavily.     Ishiwara went back to planning and lecturing taking a heavy notice of how Germany and Italy's totalitarian models were looking like the most efficient ones that Japan should emulate. He pushed heavily for a national defense state. He kept advocating for a 5 year plan he had to push Japan into a total war economy, but the industrialists and economists kept telling him it was far too much. I could write pages on all the ideas he had, he covered every aspect of Japanese society. He wanted the whole of Japan to devote itself to becoming the hegemonic power in Asia and this required self-sufficiency, more territory, alliances, an overhaul of Japan's politics, economy, etc etc he worked on this for years. One thing I find amusing to note, Ishiwara's plans had the national defense state not run directly by the military. No instead the military would only focus on military affairs to maximize their efficiency, thus civilians would lead the government. In his words “the tactics and strategy of national defense in the narrow sense are unquestionably the responsibility of the military. But national defense in the widest sense, industry, economy, transportation, communications are clearly related to the field of politics. Of course, the military can naturally express their opinion on these matters in order to counsel some minister whose duties are political, but to go before the general public and discuss the detailed industrial and economic is an arrogation of authority”. So ye, Ishiwara actually sought to remove military officers from political positions.    In 1937 Ishiwara was promoted to the rank of major general and his duties were of the operations division of the general staff. Because of his popularity and now his rank, some began to see him almost as that of a rising dictator. In January of 1937, the government of Hirota Koki who had come to power largely because of the february coup were having problems. Politicians were unable to deal with the rising military budgets. Ishiwara was eager to press forward his national defense state idea. Alongside this Captain Fukutome Shigeru, his naval counterpart was angry at the cabinet for hindering funding and called for their dissolution. In one meeting Ishiwara blurted out “if there's any disturbance the military should proclaim martial law throughout the country until things were straightened out”. Well within days the cabinet fell on its own and now everyone looked to a successor.    The Army and Navy fought for their candidate. The Nazi favored Ugaki Kazushige, but the Army held grudges against him. Ishiwara also did not like his appointment stating he had a bad political past, by bad that meant he had advocated for military budget cuts. Ugaki refused the job because of the pressure and made a note about Ishiwara's remarks towards him. Seeing Ugaki pushed aside, Ishiwara and his followers pushed for 3 other candidates; Hayashi Senjuro, House President Konoe Fumumaro and President of the privy council Hiranuma Kiichiro. Ishiwara sent to each man his 5 year plan to test their enthusiasm for it. Hiranuma didn't like it, Konoe was neutral and Hayashi liked it. So Ishiwara backed Hayashi go figure. All of his Manchurian oriented followers pushed to get him into office. When Hayashi was given Imperial command to head a new government, Ishiwara met with his Manchurian faction friends to draw a list of people to put in the cabinet. Itagaki Seishiro was chosen as war minister; Admiral Suetsugu Nobumasa known to have radical reformist leanings for navy minister; Matsuoka Yosuke or SHiratori Toshio for foreign minister, industrialist Ikeda Seihin for finance, Tsuda Shingo for commerce and industry, Sogo Shinji as chief cabinet secretary and Miyazaki as chairman. Ishiwara himself stayed carefully in the background to make it seem like he was only attending military duties.    But rivals to Ishiwara began working against him, especially some of those Kodoha hardliners who felt he betrayed them. They pressed Hayashi to not accept many of Ishiwara's cabinet candidates such as Itagaki and Hayashi backed off the majority of them as a result. The effort to form a Macnhurian cabal failed and this further led to a lack of enthusiasm for Ishiwara's national defense plans. Hayashi's government which Ishiwara had placed his hopes upon became antagonistic towards him and his followers.    Now over in Manchuria, the Kwantung army was looking to seize territory in northern China and inner mongolia. This was something Ishiwara was flip floppy about. At first he began speaking about the need to simply develop Manchukuo so that China and Inner mongolia would follow suite, but gradually he began to warm up to schemes to invade. Though when he heard his former Kwantun colleagues were basically going to perform the exact same plan he had done with the Mukden incident he traveled back to Manchuria to dissuade them. Ishiwara landed at Dairen and within days of his arrival he learned that 15,000 troops under Prince Demchugdongrub, known also as Prince Teh of Mongolia, backed by Kwantung arms and aircraft were launching a full scale invasion of Suiyuan province. Ishiwara was furious and he screamed at the General staff “the next time I visit the Kwantung Army I'm going to piss on the floor of the commanders office!”    Within a month, the Warlord Yan Xishan, now fighting for the NRA turned back Prince Teh's forces. This angered the Kwantung army, fueling what Ishiwara always feared, a war between China and Japan. Ishiwara began lecturing left right and center about how Japan needed to curb her imperialist aggression against China. He advocated as always racial harmonization, about the East Asian League idea, cooperation between China and Japan. He thought perhaps China could be induced by joined a federation with Japan and to do all of this Japan should help develop Manchukuo as a positive model. Ishiwara warned any aggressive actions against China would waste valuable resources needed dearly to be directed against the USSR. In his words “China was an endless bog that would swallow men and materiel without prospect of victory and it would cripple the possibility of East Asian Union” Prophetic words to be sure.   Ishiwara was still influential and many in Hayashi's cabinet headed him, trying to push for more diplomacy with China. But by spring of 1937 Tokyo HQ had split over the issue. On one side were Ishiwara and those seeking to obtain a sort of treaty with China to form an alliance against the USSR. On the other hand the Nationalists and Communists were on the verge of forming a united front allied to the USSR, thus the invading China faction was gaining steam. This faction simply sought to get China out of the way, then focus on the USSR. As much as Ishiwara fought it, the China War would come nonetheless.   In June of 1937, a report from a Japanese civilian visiting China reached Colonel Kawabe Torashiro. The report stated that the China Garrison Army in the Peking area were planning an incident similar to what had occurred in Mukden in 1931. Kawabe took the report to Ishiwara who said he would investigate the matter. Ishiwara pressed the war ministry to send Colonel Okamoto Kiyotomi to the military administration section to north china to warn Generals Hashimoto Gun of the China Garrison Army and Kwabe Msakazu commander the brigade station in the Peking area that Tokyo would not tolerate provocation actions. Okamoto came back and stated they reassured him it was just rumors and nothing was occurring.   Two weeks later on July 7th, the infamous Marco Polo Bridge incident began WW2. When it began, Tokyo took it as a minor incident, just some skirmishes between minor forces, but the fighting grew and grew. The two factions in Tokyo who we can call the “expansionists and non expansionists” began arguing on what to do. The expansionists argued this was the time to deliver a quick and decisive blow, which meant mobilizing and dispatching divisions into northern China to overwhelm them. The non expansionists argued they needed to terminate hostilities immediately and seek diplomacy before the conflict got out of hand. From the offset of the conflict, Ishiwara led the doomed non expansionists. Ishiwara tried to localize the conflict to prevent more Japanese from getting involved. To do this he urged Prince Kan'in to send a cable on July 8th to the local Japanese forces to settle the issue locally. But they reported back that the Nanjing government was tossing 4 divisions of reinforcements to the area, prompting the Japanese to mobilize 3 divisions in response. For 3 days Ishiwara tried to halt the reinforcements, but the Nanjing report came true, the Chinese reinforcements arrived to the scene, pushing the Japanese to do the same. General Kawabe Masakazu argued 12,000 Japanese civilians were in the area and now under threat, thus Ishiwara had to stand down.   The conflict at the Marco Polo Bridge quickly got out of hand. Ishiwara was very indecisive, he tried to thwart the spread of the conflict, but he was continuously forced to stand down when reports false or true poured in about Chinese offensives. In fact, Ishiwara's efforts were getting him in a ton of trouble as his colleagues began to point out they were hindering the military operations which at the time were trying to end the conflict quickly. Ishiwara did not go down without a fight tossing one last attempt to stop the conflict. He urged Prime Minister Konoe to fly to Nanjing to speak directly with Chiang Kai Shek, it was a last ditch effort before the Japanese reinforcements arrived. When Konoe received requests to do this from multiple Japanese military leaders on urged on by Ishiwara, he was initially favorable to the idea and had a plane prepared for the trip. But within hours of the idea leaked out raising a storm of protests from the expansionists. Sugiyama then told Konoe it was Ishiwara pushing the idea and that his views represented a small minority in the military. Konoe ultimately back down and chose not to do it. Ishiwara was outraged when he found out screaming “tell the Prime minister that in 2000 years of our history no man will have done more to destroy Japan than he has by his indecisiveness in this crisis”.   Ishiwara began fighting with his colleagues as the situation worsened. He tabled a motion to press Nanjing to support Manchukuo in order for the Japanese to withdraw, but his colleagues blocked it. By August the conflict had spread as far as Shanghai and now even the IJN were getting involved. To this Ishiwara argued they should just evacuate Japanese civilians in Shanghai and pay them several hundred million yen in compensation as it would be cheaper than a war. He was quickly overruled. Thus the North China Incident simply became the China incident. In early september Ishiwara tried one last attempt to negotiate a settlement, trying to get Germany to mediate, but by mid september Ishiwara's influence had dropped considerably. By late september Ishiwara was removed from the General staff by General Tada. The remnants of Ishiwara's followers in the central army were defeated, particularly when Konoe declared in January of 1938 that Japan would not treat with Chiang Kai-shek. Ironically Konoe would quickly come around to believe Japan had made a grave mistake. By 1938 24 IJA divisions were tossed into China, the next year this became 34. 

Last time we spoke about the fall of Wuhan. In a country frayed by war, the Yangtze became a pulsing artery, carrying both hunger and hope. Chiang Kai-shek faced a brutal choice: defend Wuhan to the last man, or flood the rivers to buy time. He chose both, setting sullen floodwaters loose along the Yellow River to slow the invaders, a temporary mercy that spared some lives while ripping many from their homes. On the river's banks, a plethora of Chinese forces struggled to unite. The NRA, fractured into rival zones, clung to lines with stubborn grit as Japanese forces poured through Anqing, Jiujiang, and beyond, turning the Yangtze into a deadly corridor. Madang's fortifications withstood bombardment and gas, yet the price was paid in troops and civilians drowned or displaced. Commanders like Xue Yue wrestled stubbornly for every foothold, every bend in the river. The Battle of Wanjialing became a symbol: a desperate, months-long pincer where Chinese divisions finally tightened their cordon and halted the enemy's flow. By autumn, the Japanese pressed onward to seize Tianjiazhen and cut supply lines, while Guangzhou fell to a ruthless blockade. The Fall of Wuhan loomed inevitable, yet the story remained one of fierce endurance against overwhelming odds.   #174 The Changsha Fire Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. In the summer of 1938, amid the upheaval surrounding Chiang Kai-shek, one of his most important alliances came to an end. On June 22, all German advisers to the Nationalist government were summoned back; any who refused would be deemed guilty of high treason. Since World War I, a peculiar bond had tied the German Weimar Republic and China: two fledgling states, both weak and only partially sovereign. Under the Versailles Treaty of 1919, Germany had lost extraterritorial rights on Chinese soil, which paradoxically allowed Berlin to engage with China as an equal partner rather than a traditional colonizer. This made German interests more welcome in business and politics than those of other Western powers. Chiang's military reorganization depended on German officers such as von Seeckt and von Falkenhausen, and Hitler's rise in 1933 had not immediately severed the connection between the two countries. Chiang did not share Nazi ideology with Germany, but he viewed Berlin as a potential ally and pressed to persuade it to side with China rather than Japan as China's principal East Asian, anti-Communist partner. In June 1937, H. H. Kung led a delegation to Berlin, met Hitler, and argued for an alliance with China. Yet the outbreak of war and the Nationalists' retreat to Wuhan convinced Hitler's government to align with Japan, resulting in the recall of all German advisers. Chiang responded with a speech praising von Falkenhausen, insisting that "our friend's enemy is our enemy too," and lauding the German Army's loyalty and ethics as a model for the Chinese forces. He added, "After we have won the War of Resistance, I believe you'll want to come back to the Far East and advise our country again." Von Falkenhausen would later become the governor of Nazi-occupied Belgium, then be lauded after the war for secretly saving many Jewish lives. As the Germans departed, the roof of the train transporting them bore a prominent German flag with a swastika, a prudent precaution given Wuhan's vulnerability to air bombardment. The Japanese were tightening their grip on the city, even as Chinese forces, numbering around 800,000, made a stubborn stand. The Yellow River floods blocked northern access, so the Japanese chose to advance via the Yangtze, aided by roughly nine divisions and the might of the Imperial Navy. The Chinese fought bravely, but their defenses could not withstand the superior technology of the Japanese fleet. The only substantial external aid came from Soviet pilots flying aircraft bought from the USSR as part of Stalin's effort to keep China in the war; between 1938 and 1940, some 2,000 pilots offered their services. From June 24 to 27, Japanese bombers relentlessly pounded the Madang fortress along the Yangtze until it fell. A month later, on July 26, Chinese defenders abandoned Jiujiang, southeast of Wuhan, and its civilian population endured a wave of atrocities at the hands of the invaders. News of Jiujiang's fate stiffened resolve. Chiang delivered a pointed address to his troops on July 31, arguing that Wuhan's defense was essential and that losing the city would split the country into hostile halves, complicating logistics and movement. He warned that Wuhan's defense would also be a spiritual test: "the place has deep revolutionary ties," and public sympathy for China's plight was growing as Japanese atrocities became known. Yet Chiang worried about the behavior of Chinese soldiers. He condemned looting as a suicidal act that would destroy the citizens' trust in the military. Commanders, he warned, must stay at their posts; the memory of the Madang debacle underscored the consequences of cowardice. Unlike Shanghai, Wuhan had shelters, but he cautioned against retreating into them and leaving soldiers exposed. Officers who failed in loyalty could expect no support in return. This pep talk, combined with the belief that the army was making a last stand, may have slowed the Japanese advance along the Yangtze in August. Under General Xue Yue, about 100,000 Chinese troops pushed back the invaders at Huangmei. At Tianjiazhen, thousands fought until the end of September, with poison gas finally forcing Japanese victory. Yet even then, Chinese generals struggled to coordinate. In Xinyang, Li Zongren's Guangxi troops were exhausted; they expected relief from Hu Zongnan's forces, but Hu instead withdrew, allowing Japan to capture the city without a fight. The fall of Xinyang enabled Japanese control of the Ping-Han railway, signaling Wuhan's doom. Chiang again spoke to Wuhan's defenders, balancing encouragement with a grim realism about possible loss. Although Wuhan's international connections were substantial, foreign aid would be unlikely. If evacuation became necessary, the army should have a clear plan, including designated routes. He recalled the disastrous December retreat from Nanjing, where "foreigners and Chinese alike turned it into an empty city." Troops had been tired and outnumbered; Chiang defended the decision to defend Nanjing, insisting the army had sacrificed itself for the capital and Sun Yat-sen's tomb. Were the army to retreat again, he warned, it would be the greatest shame in five thousand years of Chinese history. The loss of Madang was another humiliation. By defending Wuhan, he argued, China could avenge its fallen comrades and cleanse its conscience; otherwise, it could not honor its martyrs. Mao Zedong, observing the situation from his far-off base at Yan'an, agreed strongly that Chiang should not defend Wuhan to the death. He warned in mid-October that if Wuhan could not be defended, the war's trajectory would shift, potentially strengthening the Nationalists–Communists cooperation, deepening popular mobilization, and expanding guerrilla warfare. The defense of Wuhan, Mao argued, should drain the enemy and buy time to advance the broader struggle, not become a doomed stalemate. In a protracted war, some strongholds might be abandoned temporarily to sustain the longer fight. The Japanese Army captured Wuchang and Hankou on 26 October and captured Hanyang on the 27th, which concluded the campaign in Wuhan. The battle had lasted four and a half months and ended with the Nationalist army's voluntary withdrawal. In the battle itself, the Japanese army captured Wuhan's three towns and held the heartland of China, achieving a tactical victory. Yet strategically, Japan failed to meet its objectives. Imperial Headquarters believed that "capturing Hankou and Guangzhou would allow them to dominate China." Consequently, the Imperial Conference planned the Battle of Wuhan to seize Wuhan quickly and compel the Chinese government to surrender. It also decreed that "national forces should be concentrated to achieve the war objectives within a year and end the war against China." According to Yoshiaki Yoshimi and Seiya Matsuno, Hirohito authorized the use of chemical weapons against China by specific orders known as rinsanmei. During the Battle of Wuhan, Prince Kan'in Kotohito transmitted the emperor's orders to deploy toxic gas 375 times between August and October 1938. Another memorandum uncovered by Yoshimi indicates that Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni authorized the use of poison gas against the Chinese on 16 August 1938. A League of Nations resolution adopted on 14 May condemned the Imperial Japanese Army's use of toxic gas. Japan's heavy use of chemical weapons against China was driven by manpower shortages and China's lack of poison gas stockpiles to retaliate. Poison gas was employed at Hankou in the Battle of Wuhan to break Chinese resistance after conventional assaults had failed. Rana Mitter notes that, under General Xue Yue, approximately 100,000 Chinese troops halted Japanese advances at Huangmei, and at the fortress of Tianjiazhen, thousands fought until the end of September, with Japanese victory secured only through the use of poison gas. Chinese generals also struggled with coordination at Xinyang; Li Zongren's Guangxi troops were exhausted, and Hu Zongnan's forces, believed to be coming to relieve them, instead withdrew. Japan subsequently used poison gas against Chinese Muslim forces at the Battle of Wuyuan and the Battle of West Suiyuan. However, the Chinese government did not surrender with the loss of Wuhan and Guangzhou, nor did Japan's invasion end with Wuhan and Guangzhou's capture. After Wuhan fell, the government issued a reaffirmation: "Temporary changes of advance and retreat will not shake our resolve to resist the Japanese invasion," and "the gain or loss of any city will not affect the overall situation of the war." It pledged to "fight with even greater sorrow, greater perseverance, greater steadfastness, greater diligence, and greater courage," dedicating itself to a long, comprehensive war of resistance. In the Japanese-occupied rear areas, large armed anti-Japanese forces grew, and substantial tracts of territory were recovered. As the Japanese army themselves acknowledged, "the restoration of public security in the occupied areas was actually limited to a few kilometers on both sides of the main transportation lines." Thus, the Battle of Wuhan did not merely inflict a further strategic defeat on Japan; it also marked a turning point in Japan's strategic posture, from offense to defense. Due to the Nationalist Army's resolute resistance, Japan mobilized its largest force to date for the attack, about 250,000 personnel, who were replenished four to five times over the battle, for a total of roughly 300,000. The invaders held clear advantages in land, sea, and air power and fought for four and a half months. Yet they failed to annihilate the Nationalist main force, nor did they break the will to resist or the army's combat effectiveness. Instead, the campaign dealt a severe blow to the Japanese Army's vitality. Japanese-cited casualties totaled 4,506 dead and 17,380 wounded for the 11th Army; the 2nd Army suffered 2,300 killed in action, 7,600 wounded, and 900 died of disease. Including casualties across the navy and the air force, the overall toll was about 35,500. By contrast, the Nationalist Government Military Commission's General Staff Department, drawing on unit-level reports, calculated Japanese casualties at 256,000. The discrepancy between Japanese and Nationalist tallies illustrates the inflationary tendencies of each side's reporting. Following Wuhan, a weakened Japanese force confronted an extended front. Unable to mount large-scale strategic offensives, unlike Shanghai, Xuzhou, or Wuhan itself, the Japanese to a greater extent adopted a defensive posture. This transition shifted China's War of Resistance from a strategic defensive phase into a strategic stalemate, while the invaders found themselves caught in a protracted war—a development they most disliked. Consequently, Japan's invasion strategy pivoted: away from primary frontal offensives toward a greater reliance on political inducements with secondary military action, and toward diverting forces to "security" operations behind enemy lines rather than pushing decisive frontal campaigns. Japan, an island nation with limited strategic resources, depended heavily on imports. By the time of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, Japan's gold reserves,including reserves for issuing banknotes, amounted to only about 1.35 billion yen. In effect, Japan's currency reserves constrained the scale of the war from the outset. The country launched its aggression while seeking an early solution to the conflict. To sustain its war of aggression against China, the total value of military supplies imported from overseas in 1937 reached approximately 960 million yen. By June of the following year, for the Battle of Wuhan, even rifles used in training were recalled to outfit the expanding army. The sustained increase in troops also strained domestic labor, food, and energy supplies. By 1939, after Wuhan, Japan's military expenditure had climbed to about 6.156 billion yen, far exceeding national reserves. This stark reality exposed Japan's economic fragility and its inability to guarantee a steady supply of military materiel, increasing pressure on the leadership at the Central Command. The Chief of Staff and the Minister of War lamented the mismatch between outward strength and underlying weakness: "Outwardly strong but weak is a reflection of our country today, and this will not last long." In sum, the Wuhan campaign coincided with a decline in the organization, equipment, and combat effectiveness of the Japanese army compared with before the battle. This erosion of capability helped drive Japan to alter its political and military strategy, shifting toward a method of inflicting pressure on China and attempting to "use China to control China", that is, fighting in ways designed to sustain the broader war effort. Tragically a major element of Chiang Kai-shek's retreat strategy was the age-old "scorched earth" policy. In fact, China originated the phrase and the practice. Shanghai escaped the last-minute torching because of foreigners whose property rights were protected. But in Nanjing, the burning and destruction began with increasing zeal. What could not be moved inland, such as remaining rice stocks, oil in tanks, and other facilities, was to be blown up or devastated. Civilians were told to follow the army inland, to rebuild later behind the natural barrier of Sichuan terrain. Many urban residents complied, but the peasantry did not embrace the plan. The scorched-earth policy served as powerful propaganda for the occupying Japanese army and, even more so, for the Reds. Yet they could hardly have foreseen the propaganda that Changsha would soon supply them. In June, the Changsha Evacuation Guidance Office was established to coordinate land and water evacuation routes. By the end of October, Wuhan's three towns had fallen, and on November 10 the Japanese army captured Yueyang, turning Changsha into the next primary invasion target. Beginning on October 9, Japanese aircraft intensified from sporadic raids on Changsha to large-scale bombing. On October 27, the Changsha Municipal Government urgently evacuated all residents, exempting only able-bodied men, the elderly, the weak, women, and children. The baojia system was mobilized to go door-to-door, enforcing compliance. On November 7, Chiang Kai-shek convened a military meeting at Rongyuan Garden to review the war plan and finalize a "scorched earth war of resistance." Xu Quan, Chief of Staff of the Security Command, drafted the detailed implementation plan. On November 10, Shi Guoji, Chief of Staff of the Security Command, presided over a joint meeting of Changsha's party, government, military, police, and civilian organizations to devise a strategy. The Changsha Destruction Command was immediately established, bringing together district commanders and several arson squads. The command actively prepared arson equipment and stacked flammable materials along major traffic arteries. Chiang decided that the city of Changsha was vulnerable and either gave the impression or the direct order, honestly really depends on the source your reading, to burn the city to the ground to prevent it falling to the enemy. At 9:00 AM on November 12, Chiang Kai-shek telegraphed Zhang Zhizhong: "One hour to arrive, Chairman Zhang, Changsha, confidential. If Changsha falls, the entire city must be burned. Please make thorough preparations in advance and do not delay." And here it seems a game of broken telephone sort of resulted in one of the worst fire disasters of all time. If your asking pro Chiang sources, the message was clearly, put up a defense, once thats fallen, burn the city down before the Japanese enter. Obviously this was to account for getting civilians out safely and so forth. If you read lets call it more modern CPP aligned sources, its the opposite. Chiang intentionally ordering the city to burn down as fast as possible, but in through my research, I think it was a colossal miscommunication. Regardless Zhongzheng Wen, Minister of the Interior, echoed the message. Simultaneously, Lin Wei, Deputy Director of Chiang Kai-shek's Secretariat, instructed Zhang Zhizhong by long-distance telephone: "If Changsha falls, the entire city must be burned." Zhang summoned Feng Ti, Commander of the Provincial Capital Garrison, and Xu Quan, Director of the Provincial Security Bureau, to outline arson procedures. He designated the Garrison Command to shoulder the preparations, with the Security Bureau assisting. At 4:00 PM, Zhang appointed Xu Kun, Commander of the Second Garrison Regiment, as chief commander of the arson operation, with Wang Weining, Captain of the Social Training Corps, and Xu Quan, Chief of Staff of the Garrison Command, as deputies. At 6:00 PM, the Garrison Command held an emergency meeting ordering all government agencies and organizations in the city to be ready for evacuation at any moment. By around 10:15 PM, all urban police posts had withdrawn. Around 2:00 AM (November 13), a false report circulated that "Japanese troops have reached Xinhe" . Firefighters stationed at various locations rushed out with kerosene-fueled devices, burning everything in sight, shops and houses alike. In an instant, Changsha became a sea of flames. The blaze raged for 72 hours. The Hunan Province Anti-Japanese War Loss Statistics, compiled by the Hunan Provincial Government Statistics Office of the Kuomintang, report that the fire inflicted economic losses of more than 1 billion yuan, a sum equivalent to about 1.7 trillion yuan after the victory in the war. This figure represented roughly 43% of Changsha's total economic value at the time. Regarding casualties, contemporary sources provide varying figures. A Xinhua Daily report from November 20, 1938 noted that authorities mobilized manpower to bury more than 600 bodies, though the total number of burned remains could not be precisely counted. A Central News Agency reporter on November 19 stated that in the Xiangyuan fire, more than 2,000 residents could not escape, and most of the bodies had already been buried. There are further claims that in the Changsha Fire, more than 20,000 residents were burned to death. In terms of displacement, Changsha's population before the fire was about 300,000, and by November 12, 90% had been evacuated. After the fire, authorities registered 124,000 victims, including 815 orphans sheltered in Lito and Maosgang.  Building damage constituted the other major dimension of the catastrophe, with the greatest losses occurring to residential houses, shops, schools, factories, government offices, banks, hospitals, newspaper offices, warehouses, and cultural and entertainment venues, as well as numerous historic buildings such as palaces, temples, private gardens, and the former residences of notable figures; among these, residential and commercial structures suffered the most, followed by factories and schools. Inspector Gao Yihan, who conducted a post-fire investigation, observed that the prosperous areas within Changsha's ring road, including Nanzheng Street and Bajiaoting, were almost completely destroyed, and in other major markets only a handful of shops remained, leading to an overall estimate that surviving or stalemated houses were likely less than 20%. Housing and street data from the early post-liberation period reveal that Changsha had more than 1,100 streets and alleys; of these, more than 690 were completely burned and more than 330 had fewer than five surviving houses, accounting for about 29%, with nearly 90% of the city's streets severely damaged. More than 440 streets were not completely destroyed, but among these, over 190 had only one or two houses remaining and over 130 had only three or four houses remaining; about 60 streets, roughly 6% had 30 to 40 surviving houses, around 30 streets, 3% had 11 to 20 houses, 10 streets, 1% had 21 to 30 houses, and three streets ) had more than 30 houses remaining. Housing statistics from 1952 show that 2,538 houses survived the fire, about 6.57% of the city's total housing stock, with private houses totaling 305,800 square meters and public houses 537,900 square meters. By 1956, the surviving area of both private and public housing totaled 843,700 square meters, roughly 12.3% of the city's total housing area at that time. Alongside these losses, all equipment, materials, funds, goods, books, archives, antiques, and cultural relics that had not been moved were also destroyed.  At the time of the Changsha Fire, Zhou Enlai, then Deputy Minister of the Political Department of the Nationalist Government's Military Commission, was in Changsha alongside Ye Jianying, Guo Moruo, and others. On November 12, 1938, Zhou Enlai attended a meeting held by Changsha cultural groups at Changsha Normal School to commemorate Sun Yat-sen's 72nd birthday. Guo Moruo later recalled that Zhou Enlai and Ye Jianying were awakened by the blaze that night; they each carried a suitcase and evacuated to Xiangtan, with Zhou reportedly displaying considerable indignation at the sudden, unprovoked fire. On the 16th, Zhou Enlai rushed back to Changsha and, together with Chen Cheng, Zhang Zhizhong, and others, inspected the disaster. He mobilized personnel from three departments, with Tian Han and Guo Moruo at the forefront, to form the Changsha Fire Aftermath Task Force, which began debris clearance, care for the injured, and the establishment of soup kitchens. A few days later, on the 22nd, the Hunan Provincial Government established the Changsha Fire Temporary Relief Committee to coordinate relief efforts.  On the night of November 16, 1938, Chiang Kai-shek arrived in Changsha and, the next day, ascended Tianxin Pavilion. Sha Wei, head of the Cultural Relics Section of the Changsha Tianxin Pavilion Park Management Office, and a long-time researcher of the pavilion, explained that documentation indicates Chiang Kai-shek, upon seeing the city largely reduced to scorched earth with little left intact, grew visibly angry. After descending from Tianxin Pavilion, Chiang immediately ordered the arrest of Changsha Garrison Commander Feng Ti, Changsha Police Chief Wen Chongfu, and Commander of the Second Garrison Regiment Xu Kun, and arranged a military trial with a two-day deadline. The interrogation began at 7:00 a.m. on November 18. Liang Xiaojin records that Xu Kun and Wen Chongfu insisted their actions followed orders from the Security Command, while Feng Ti admitted negligence and violations of procedure, calling his acts unforgivable. The trial found Feng Ti to be the principal offender, with Wen Chongfu and Xu Kun as accomplices, and sentenced all three to prison terms of varying lengths. The verdict was sent to Chiang Kai-shek for approval, who was deeply dissatisfied and personally annotated the drafts: he asserted that Feng Ti, as the city's security head, was negligent and must be shot immediately; Wen Chongfu, as police chief, disobeyed orders and fled, and must be shot immediately; Xu Kun, for neglect of duty, must be shot immediately. The court then altered the arson charge in the verdict to "insulting his duty and harming the people" in line with Chiang's instructions. Chiang Kai-shek, citing "failure to supervise personnel and precautions," dismissed Zhang from his post, though he remained in office to oversee aftermath operations. Zhang Zhizhong later recalled Chiang Kai-shek's response after addressing the Changsha fire: a pointed admission that the fundamental cause lay not with a single individual but with the collective leadership's mistakes, and that the error must be acknowledged as a collective failure. All eyes now shifted to the new center of resistance, Chongqing, the temporary capital. Chiang's "Free China" no longer meant the whole country; it now encompassed Sichuan, Hunan, and Henan, but not Jiangsu or Zhejiang. The eastern provinces were effectively lost, along with China's major customs revenues, the country's most fertile regions, and its most advanced infrastructure. The center of political gravity moved far to the west, into a country the Nationalists had never controlled, where everything was unfamiliar and unpredictable, from topography and dialects to diets. On the map, it might have seemed that Chiang still ruled much of China, but vast swaths of the north and northwest were sparsely populated; most of China's population lay in the east and south, where Nationalist control was either gone or held only precariously. The combined pressures of events and returning travelers were gradually shifting American attitudes toward the Japanese incident. Europe remained largely indifferent, with Hitler absorbing most attention, but the United States began to worry about developments in the Pacific. Roosevelt initiated a January 1939 appeal to raise a million dollars for Chinese civilians in distress, and the response quickly materialized. While the Chinese did not expect direct intervention, they hoped to deter further American economic cooperation with Japan and to halt Japan's purchases of scrap iron, oil, gasoline, shipping, and, above all, weapons from the United States. Public opinion in America was sufficiently stirred to sustain a campaign against silk stockings, a symbolic gesture of boycott that achieved limited effect; Japan nonetheless continued to procure strategic materials. Within this chorus, the left remained a persistent but often discordant ally to the Nationalists. The Institute of Pacific Relations, sympathetic to communist aims, urged America to act, pressuring policymakers and sounding alarms about China. Yet the party line remained firmly pro-Chiang Kai-shek: the Japanese advance seemed too rapid and threatening to the Reds' interests. Most oil and iron debates stalled; American businessmen resented British trade ties with Japan, and Britain refused to join any mutual cutoff, arguing that the Western powers were not at war with Japan. What occurred in China was still commonly referred to in Western diplomatic circles as "the Incident." Wang Jingwei's would make his final defection, yes in a long ass history of defections. Mr Wang Jingwei had been very busy traveling to Guangzhou, then Northwest to speak with Feng Yuxiang, many telegrams went back and forth. He returned to the Nationalist government showing his face to foreign presses and so forth. While other prominent rivals of Chiang, Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, and others, rallied when they perceived Japan as a real threat; all did so except Wang Jingwei. Wang, who had long believed himself the natural heir to Sun Yat-sen and who had repeatedly sought to ascend to power, seemed willing to cooperate with Japan if it served his own aims. I will just say it, Wang Jingwei was a rat. He had always been a rat, never changed. Opinions on Chiang Kai-Shek vary, but I think almost everyone can agree Wang Jingwei was one of the worst characters of this time period. Now Wang Jingwei could not distinguish between allies and enemies and was prepared to accept help from whomever offered it, believing he could outmaneuver Tokyo when necessary. Friends in Shanghai and abroad whispered that it was not too late to influence events, arguing that the broader struggle was not merely China versus Japan but a clash between principled leaders and a tyrannical, self-serving clique, Western imperialism's apologists who needed Chiang removed. For a time Wang drifted within the Kuomintang, moving between Nanjing, Wuhan, Changsha, and Chongqing, maintaining discreet lines of communication with his confidants. The Japanese faced a governance problem typical of conquerors who possess conquered territory: how to rule effectively while continuing the war. They imagined Asia under Japanese-led leadership, an East Asia united by a shared Co-Prosperity Sphere but divided by traditional borders. To sustain this vision, they sought local leaders who could cooperate. The search yielded few viable options; would-be collaborators were soon assassinated, proved incompetent, or proved corrupt. The Japanese concluded it would require more time and education. In the end, Wang Jingwei emerged as a preferred figure. Chongqing, meanwhile, seemed surprised by Wang's ascent. He had moved west to Chengde, then to Kunming, attempted, and failed to win over Yunnan's warlords, and eventually proceeded to Hanoi in Indochina, arriving in Hong Kong by year's end. He sent Chiang Kai-shek a telegram suggesting acceptance of Konoe's terms for peace, which Chungking rejected. In time, Wang would establish his own Kuomintang faction in Shanghai, combining rigorous administration with pervasive secret-police activity characteristic of occupied regimes. By 1940, he would be formally installed as "Chairman of China." But that is a story for another episode.  In the north, the Japanese and the CCP were locked in an uneasy stalemate. Mao's army could make it impossible for the Japanese to hold deep countryside far from the railway lines that enabled mass troop movement into China's interior. Yet the Communists could not defeat the occupiers. In the dark days of October 1938—fifteen months after the war began—one constant remained. Observers (Chinese businessmen, British diplomats, Japanese generals) repeatedly predicted that each new disaster would signal the end of Chinese resistance and force a swift surrender, or at least a negotiated settlement in which the government would accept harsher terms from Tokyo. But even after defenders were expelled from Shanghai, Nanjing, and Wuhan, despite the terrifying might Japan had brought to bear on Chinese resistance, and despite the invader's manpower, technology, and resources, China continued to fight. Yet it fought alone. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. In a land shredded by war, Wuhan burned under brutal sieges, then Changsha followed, a cruel blaze born of orders and miscommunications. Leaders wrestled with retreat, scorched-earth vows, and moral debts as Japanese force and Chinese resilience clashed for months. Mao urged strategy over martyrdom, Wang Jingwei's scheming shadow loomed, and Chongqing rose as the westward beacon. Yet China endured, a stubborn flame refusing to surrender to the coming storm. The war stretched on, unfinished and unyielding.

In This Hour:-- Doug Hamlin, Executive Vice President of the NRA, announces changes to the iconic magazines American Rifleman and American Hunter.--  These sisters continue to win shooting competitions around the world.  A visit with Jalise and Justine Williams, members of the Colt shooting team.--  Another shooter thinks his sights are off, but it's really just his bad shooting.Gun Talk 11.02.25 Hour 2Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gun-talk--6185159/support.

  Episode 262-The Ballot is Stronger than the Bullet Also Available On Searchable Podcast Transcript Gun Lawyer -- Episode 262 Transcript SUMMARY KEYWORDS New Jersey governor's race, Second Amendment, gun rights, voting importance, anti-gun organizations, NRA rating, gun

[00:22:29] – Ghost Guns & State TyrannyKnight spotlights the case of Brooklyn engineer Dexter Taylor, sentenced to ten years for 3D-printing guns he never used or sold. He calls it proof that New York punishes defiance, not danger, and argues the state's real crime is independence from its control. [00:30:04] – NRA vs. New York's Financial CensorshipKnight covers the NRA's First Amendment lawsuit against New York regulators who pressured banks to cut ties with gun groups. He says the case proves the state now weaponizes finance to silence dissent—“Operation Choke Point reborn.” [00:39:56] – SNAP Cuts, Entitlement, & Marxist LootingKnight reviews viral videos of people vowing to steal from stores after food-stamp cuts. He links the mindset to Marxist indoctrination, saying “1619 Project logic” now justifies theft and dependency as moral rebellion against capitalism. [01:11:26] – When the Government Censored Frankenstein & DraculaKnight ends with a historical exposé on Hollywood censorship—how films like Dracula and Frankenstein were once banned for being “too disturbing.” He uses it to illustrate the cycle of censorship, warning that today's “fact-checking” regime is just the modern Inquisition. [01:57:25] – Trump Orders Nuclear TestingKnight exposes Trump's unilateral order to resume nuclear weapons testing—overturning a 1992 moratorium without congressional approval. He calls it an ego-driven stunt that violates the Constitution and risks triggering global escalation. [02:00:51] – SNAP Shutdown & Civil UnrestKnight predicts riots as 41 million Americans lose food stamps during Trump's shutdown. He argues that engineered dependency and welfare chaos are deliberate tools of state control under “America's Great Reset.” [02:25:41] – Epstein Fallout & The Royal FamilyKnight contrasts the British monarchy's expulsion of Prince Andrew with Trump's ongoing defense of Epstein-linked elites. He predicts Trump will pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, calling it proof of bipartisan complicity in sex-trafficking cover-ups. Follow the show on Kick and watch live every weekday 9:00am EST – 12:00pm EST https://kick.com/davidknightshow Money should have intrinsic value AND transactional privacy: Go to https://davidknight.gold/ for great deals on physical gold/silverFor 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to https://trendsjournal.com/ and enter the code KNIGHTFind out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.com If you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-showOr you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-david-knight-show--2653468/support.

[00:22:29] – Ghost Guns & State TyrannyKnight spotlights the case of Brooklyn engineer Dexter Taylor, sentenced to ten years for 3D-printing guns he never used or sold. He calls it proof that New York punishes defiance, not danger, and argues the state's real crime is independence from its control. [00:30:04] – NRA vs. New York's Financial CensorshipKnight covers the NRA's First Amendment lawsuit against New York regulators who pressured banks to cut ties with gun groups. He says the case proves the state now weaponizes finance to silence dissent—“Operation Choke Point reborn.” [00:39:56] – SNAP Cuts, Entitlement, & Marxist LootingKnight reviews viral videos of people vowing to steal from stores after food-stamp cuts. He links the mindset to Marxist indoctrination, saying “1619 Project logic” now justifies theft and dependency as moral rebellion against capitalism. [01:11:26] – When the Government Censored Frankenstein & DraculaKnight ends with a historical exposé on Hollywood censorship—how films like Dracula and Frankenstein were once banned for being “too disturbing.” He uses it to illustrate the cycle of censorship, warning that today's “fact-checking” regime is just the modern Inquisition. [01:57:25] – Trump Orders Nuclear TestingKnight exposes Trump's unilateral order to resume nuclear weapons testing—overturning a 1992 moratorium without congressional approval. He calls it an ego-driven stunt that violates the Constitution and risks triggering global escalation. [02:00:51] – SNAP Shutdown & Civil UnrestKnight predicts riots as 41 million Americans lose food stamps during Trump's shutdown. He argues that engineered dependency and welfare chaos are deliberate tools of state control under “America's Great Reset.” [02:25:41] – Epstein Fallout & The Royal FamilyKnight contrasts the British monarchy's expulsion of Prince Andrew with Trump's ongoing defense of Epstein-linked elites. He predicts Trump will pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, calling it proof of bipartisan complicity in sex-trafficking cover-ups. Follow the show on Kick and watch live every weekday 9:00am EST – 12:00pm EST https://kick.com/davidknightshow Money should have intrinsic value AND transactional privacy: Go to https://davidknight.gold/ for great deals on physical gold/silverFor 10% off Gerald Celente's prescient Trends Journal, go to https://trendsjournal.com/ and enter the code KNIGHTFind out more about the show and where you can watch it at TheDavidKnightShow.com If you would like to support the show and our family please consider subscribing monthly here: SubscribeStar https://www.subscribestar.com/the-david-knight-showOr you can send a donation throughMail: David Knight POB 994 Kodak, TN 37764Zelle: @DavidKnightShow@protonmail.comCash App at: $davidknightshowBTC to: bc1qkuec29hkuye4xse9unh7nptvu3y9qmv24vanh7Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-real-david-knight-show--5282736/support.

Steve Dulan, professor, attorney, and Second Amendment expert, joins The Steve Gruber Show to break down the latest developments shaking up the firearms community. A new Form 4 proposal could allow for silencers with a $0 transfer tax, marking a major shift in federal firearms regulation. Dulan also discusses the high-profile lawsuit by the NRA, Gun Owners of America, and Firearms Policy Coalition seeking to dismantle parts of the National Firearms Act, arguing that current restrictions violate constitutional rights.

Summary In this episode of Armed American Radio, host Mark Walters discusses various topics related to gun rights, marijuana laws, and the current political landscape with guest Dave Workman. The conversation delves into the implications of marijuana use on gun ownership, the myths surrounding gun control, and the role of organizations like Patriot Mobile in supporting Second Amendment rights. The episode also highlights the importance of youth engagement in politics and the need for community relationships to counteract misinformation. Takeaways Armed American Radio is a platform for discussing gun rights. The Supreme Court's ruling on marijuana and gun rights is crucial. Gun rights groups are pushing for clarity on the Second Amendment. The relationship between marijuana use and gun ownership is complex. Anti-gun narratives often contradict statistical evidence. Patriot Mobile supports conservative values and gun rights. Youth engagement in politics is essential for future change. The millennial generation faces challenges in understanding political issues. Community relationships can combat misinformation. The NRA plays a vital role in defending freedom and gun rights. Keywords Armed American Radio, gun rights, marijuana laws, Second Amendment, Dave Workman, Patriot Mobile, gun control myths, youth engagement, conservative values, NRA  

NRA Executive Vice President Doug Hamlin joins Cam to discuss the organization's restructuring. The NRA is consolidating its magazine offerings and its Membership, Marketing and Advancement Divisions; moves Hamlin says are part of the NRA's first balanced budget in several years, and steps that will allow additional resources for NRA's Institute of Legislative Action for the 2026 election cycle.

In this episode of Walk the Talk America, Michael Sodini and Kevin Berry sit down with firearms instructor and Firearm Trainer Podcast host Rob Beckman to discuss his candidacy for the NRA Board of Directors and his vision for “NRA 2.0.” Rob shares how the organization is changing under new leadership, how instructors can bridge the gap between gun ownership and mental health, and why collaboration—not division—will shape the future of the Second Amendment.Send us a text Walk the Talk America would like to thank our partners who make these conversations possible and want to highlight our top two partner tiers below! Platinum Tier:RugerArmscorGold Tier:NASGWLipsey'sDavidson's

Lee joins today to discuss in depth his "training course" offered by Bloomberg funded anti-gun group. It's a joke to say the least and a conversation you do NOT want to miss! Enjoy! Everytown for Gun safety, Bloomberg, gun control, gun safety, firearm training, Lee Williams, The Gunwriter, second amendment Foundation, NRA, gun rights, second amendment, 2A, guns

Riding Shotgun With Charlie #240 Buz Mills Gunsite Academy, Owner NRA BOD   I met Buz Mills in passing NRA AM a few years ago. I felt a little in awe knowing he owns Gunsite Academy, the world's premier civilian training school started by the late, great Jeff Cooper. This year at NRA AM, I found myself at a dinner and was introduced to him again.  I'm honored that he was able to take time during the very busy weekend to give me an hour. I've been a fan of Cooper and his books since I became a gun owner so I was excited to take with someone else that has a connection to him. The ultimate question was "when am I coming to Gunsite?"   Before we kicked off the show, we spent about 15 minutes just talking in the car. He's got amazing stories to tell and I was able to get some of them on video. Buz grew up in the era where everyone shot, hunted and took their .22 rifles to school. After school, if he didn't shoot any small game, dinner was going to be vegetable soup. He learned to shoot in the Boy Scouts and participated in the postal matches through the NRA. As a kid, he was able to cash in empty soda bottles for .22 ammunition. There wasn't ammo for misses.    Back in the 1970's, Buz was in sales and worked with electronics and cell phones. He said he's not a fortune teller, but just an observer, telling people that one day, we'd have one number attached to us (our cell phone). He got out of that business in 1999 when he purchased Gunsite. Buz met Cooper in 1980 and was a "frequent flyer" at Gunsite.    Next year is Gunsite's 50th anniversary. They have lots of classes to offer. Besides pistol, carbine, rifle, and shotgun, there are tactical courses, knife courses, responding to active shooter courses, and just about anything you can think you'd need. Probably more than you can think of. This year, they've been building a fifth new building in five years. Since he bought the business back in 1999, it's grown from 165 acres to over 3,200 acres!   You can tell that Buz breathes the Second Amendment and the NRA. We talked a lot about the goings on at NRA when we filmed at NRA AM in April 2025. The NRA was formed to teach the North how to shoot after the Civil War. With the passing of the Gun Control Act of 1968, the NRA got more involved in politics.    Having been on the NRA BOD for a few terms, Buz saw that what they were doing was a textbook version of how to "chase your members" away. Particularly, at the members meeting, if someone spoke out, the Board would shut that person down. This tactic chased off about 40% of the membership, according to him.    Mills and a handful of others have been working hard to get the "Reformers" on the board. Last year, about 75% of those elected were Reformers. This year, there's more of them on the ballot. The BOD does need a variety of members with a wide swath of skills, including people who run successful businesses who can handle the business of the NRA. The NRA is working to get back to some of the things that made it what it was, which is training and education. They also want to increase membership. The Association has been around for over 150 years and needs to be around for another 150 years. It is going to take some time to right the ship as it took time for it to go in the wrong direction.    There's a lot of NRA talk in the show. About Doug Hamlin becoming the EVP and his history with the NRA. About getting rid of some of the law firms that were hired for cases. About finding out how the NRA looks for replacements and knows that someone has a 12 month contract to make changes, knowing that it will take more time to make the changes.    Buz shared a lot of wisdom he's acquired over the years being in the firearms community and running a successful business. Between Gunsite and NRA, he's a very busy and well respected man. And he keeps asking me "when am I coming to Gunsite?" Favorite quotes: "Gunsite is the oldest and largest privately owned tactical firearms training facility in the world." "I'm not a fortune teller; I'm just an observer." "America wouldn't be what it is today without the NRA." "All that's behind us. That's all behind us. No more lawyers, No more lawsuits.  "I have never been to a class that I didn't learn something positive that I can put in my toolbox."   Gunsite Academy https://www.gunsite.com/   Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GunsiteAcademy/   Instagram https://www.instagram.com/gunsiteacademy/?hl=en   YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/1Gunsite   X https://x.com/gunsiteacademy   Second Amendment Foundation https://secure.anedot.com/saf/donate?sc=RidingShotgun    Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms https://www.ccrkba.org/     Please support the Riding Shotgun With Charlie sponsors and supporters.    US Law Shield Legal Defense for Self Defense. Use "RSWC" as the discount code and get 2 months for free! https://www.uslawshield.com/   Patriot Mobile Use this link and get one month for free! https://patriotmobile.com/partners/rswc

Summary The conversation covers a range of topics related to gun rights, including the NRA's advocacy efforts, the importance of voter engagement in upcoming elections, legal challenges facing gun owners, and a specific self-defense case in Prescott, Arizona. The discussion also delves into the implications of marijuana use on Second Amendment rights, highlighting the complexities and potential consequences for users. The conversation delves into various aspects of gun rights, focusing on the Second Amendment, the implications of red flag laws, and the role of government in regulating firearms. It highlights the ongoing debates surrounding these issues, including the impact of federal laws on individual liberties and the challenges posed by AI detection systems in schools. The discussion also touches on the importance of due process and the need for a balanced approach to gun legislation. Takeaways Gun owners are fired up to vote in upcoming elections. Grassroots mobilization is crucial for protecting Second Amendment rights. Legal challenges are ongoing, particularly in states like California and New Jersey. Self-defense cases can have significant legal and personal repercussions. The NRA is actively working to counter anti-gun legislation. Voter engagement is essential to prevent complacency among gun owners. Marijuana use complicates Second Amendment rights due to federal laws. The importance of having legal representation in self-defense cases cannot be overstated. The political landscape is shifting, and gun owners must remain vigilant. The outcome of the Supreme Court case could have far-reaching implications for gun rights. The Second Amendment is a fundamental right that needs protection. Red flag laws are controversial and often seen as unconstitutional. The role of the DOJ in gun legislation is complex and often criticized. There is a significant difference between state and federal gun laws. AI detection systems in schools can lead to dangerous misunderstandings. The importance of due process in any legal framework cannot be overstated. Florida's use of red flag laws raises concerns about individual rights. The Supreme Court's decisions will shape the future of gun rights. Public opinion on gun control is shifting, with more people advocating for rights. The conversation around gun rights is ongoing and requires active participation. Keywords NRA, Second Amendment, gun rights, self-defense, election strategies, legal challenges, marijuana, voter engagement, advocacy, grassroots mobilization, Second Amendment, gun rights, red flag laws, DOJ, Harmeet Dhillon, Supreme Court, AI detection, Florida gun laws, firearms legislation, self-defense  

Summary The conversation covers a range of topics related to gun rights, including the NRA's advocacy efforts, the importance of voter engagement in upcoming elections, legal challenges facing gun owners, and a specific self-defense case in Prescott, Arizona. The discussion also delves into the implications of marijuana use on Second Amendment rights, highlighting the complexities and potential consequences for users. The conversation delves into various aspects of gun rights, focusing on the Second Amendment, the implications of red flag laws, and the role of government in regulating firearms. It highlights the ongoing debates surrounding these issues, including the impact of federal laws on individual liberties and the challenges posed by AI detection systems in schools. The discussion also touches on the importance of due process and the need for a balanced approach to gun legislation. Takeaways Gun owners are fired up to vote in upcoming elections. Grassroots mobilization is crucial for protecting Second Amendment rights. Legal challenges are ongoing, particularly in states like California and New Jersey. Self-defense cases can have significant legal and personal repercussions. The NRA is actively working to counter anti-gun legislation. Voter engagement is essential to prevent complacency among gun owners. Marijuana use complicates Second Amendment rights due to federal laws. The importance of having legal representation in self-defense cases cannot be overstated. The political landscape is shifting, and gun owners must remain vigilant. The outcome of the Supreme Court case could have far-reaching implications for gun rights. The Second Amendment is a fundamental right that needs protection. Red flag laws are controversial and often seen as unconstitutional. The role of the DOJ in gun legislation is complex and often criticized. There is a significant difference between state and federal gun laws. AI detection systems in schools can lead to dangerous misunderstandings. The importance of due process in any legal framework cannot be overstated. Florida's use of red flag laws raises concerns about individual rights. The Supreme Court's decisions will shape the future of gun rights. Public opinion on gun control is shifting, with more people advocating for rights. The conversation around gun rights is ongoing and requires active participation. Keywords NRA, Second Amendment, gun rights, self-defense, election strategies, legal challenges, marijuana, voter engagement, advocacy, grassroots mobilization, Second Amendment, gun rights, red flag laws, DOJ, Harmeet Dhillon, Supreme Court, AI detection, Florida gun laws, firearms legislation, self-defense  

Summary The conversation covers a range of topics related to gun rights, including the NRA's advocacy efforts, the importance of voter engagement in upcoming elections, legal challenges facing gun owners, and a specific self-defense case in Prescott, Arizona. The discussion also delves into the implications of marijuana use on Second Amendment rights, highlighting the complexities and potential consequences for users. The conversation delves into various aspects of gun rights, focusing on the Second Amendment, the implications of red flag laws, and the role of government in regulating firearms. It highlights the ongoing debates surrounding these issues, including the impact of federal laws on individual liberties and the challenges posed by AI detection systems in schools. The discussion also touches on the importance of due process and the need for a balanced approach to gun legislation. Takeaways Gun owners are fired up to vote in upcoming elections. Grassroots mobilization is crucial for protecting Second Amendment rights. Legal challenges are ongoing, particularly in states like California and New Jersey. Self-defense cases can have significant legal and personal repercussions. The NRA is actively working to counter anti-gun legislation. Voter engagement is essential to prevent complacency among gun owners. Marijuana use complicates Second Amendment rights due to federal laws. The importance of having legal representation in self-defense cases cannot be overstated. The political landscape is shifting, and gun owners must remain vigilant. The outcome of the Supreme Court case could have far-reaching implications for gun rights. The Second Amendment is a fundamental right that needs protection. Red flag laws are controversial and often seen as unconstitutional. The role of the DOJ in gun legislation is complex and often criticized. There is a significant difference between state and federal gun laws. AI detection systems in schools can lead to dangerous misunderstandings. The importance of due process in any legal framework cannot be overstated. Florida's use of red flag laws raises concerns about individual rights. The Supreme Court's decisions will shape the future of gun rights. Public opinion on gun control is shifting, with more people advocating for rights. The conversation around gun rights is ongoing and requires active participation. Keywords NRA, Second Amendment, gun rights, self-defense, election strategies, legal challenges, marijuana, voter engagement, advocacy, grassroots mobilization, Second Amendment, gun rights, red flag laws, DOJ, Harmeet Dhillon, Supreme Court, AI detection, Florida gun laws, firearms legislation, self-defense  

Last time we spoke about the beginning of the Wuhan Campaign. As Japanese forces pressed toward central China, Chiang Kai-shek faced a brutal choice: defend Wuhan with costly sieges or unleash a dangerous flood to buy time. The Yellow River breached its banks at Huayuankou, sending a wall of water racing toward villages, railways, and fields. The flood did not erase the enemy; it bought months of breathing room for a battered China, but at a terrible toll to civilians who lost homes, farms, and lives. Within Wuhan's orbit, a mosaic of Chinese forces struggled to unite. The NRA, split into competing war zones and factions, numbered about 1.3 million but fought with uneven equipment and training. The Japanese, deploying hundreds of thousands, ships, and air power, pressed from multiple angles: Anqing, Madang, Jiujiang, and beyond, using riverine forts and amphibious landings to turn the Yangtze into a deadly artery. Yet courage endured as troops held lines, pilots challenged the skies, and civilians, like Wang Guozhen, who refused to betray his country, chose defiance over surrender. The war for Wuhan was not a single battle but a testament to endurance in the face of overwhelming odds.   #173 The Fall of Wuhan Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. In the last episode we began the Battle of Wuhan. Japan captured Anqing and gained air access to Jiujiang, Chinese defenses around the Yangtze River were strained. The southern Yangtze's Ninth War Zone held two key garrisons: one west of Poyang Lake and another in Jiujiang. To deter Japanese assault on Jiujiang, China fortified Madang with artillery, mines, and bamboo booms. On June 24, Japan conducted a surprise Madang landing while pressing south along the Yangtze. Madang's fortress withstood four assaults but suffered heavy bombardment and poison gas. Chinese leadership failures contributed to the fall: Li Yunheng, overseeing Madang, was away at a ceremony, leaving only partial contingents, primarily three battalions from marine corps units and the 313th regiment of the 53rd division, participating, totaling under five battalions. Reinforcements from Pengze were misrouted by Li's orders, arriving too late. Madang fell after three days. Chiang Kai-shek retaliated with a counterattack and rewarded units that recaptured Xiangshan, but further progress was blocked. Li Yunheng was court-martialed, and Xue Weiying executed.   Madang's loss opened a corridor toward Jiujiang. The Japanese needed weeks to clear minefields, sacrificing several ships in the process. With roughly 200,000 Chinese troops in the Jiujiang–Ruichang zone under Xue Yue and Zhang Fukui, the Japanese captured Pengze and then Hukou, using poison gas again during the fighting. The Hukou evacuation cut off many non-combat troops, with over 1,800 of 3,100 soldiers successfully evacuated and more than 1,300 missing drowned in the lake. Two weeks after Hukou's fall, the Japanese reached Jiujiang and overtook it after a five-day battle. The retreat left civilians stranded, and the Jiujiang Massacre followed: about 90,000 civilians were killed, with mass executions of POWs, rapes, and widespread destruction of districts, factories, and transport. Subsequently, the Southern Riverline Campaign saw Japanese detachments along the river advance westward, capturing Ruichang, Ruoxi, and other areas through October, stretching Chinese defenses thin as Japan pressed toward Wuchang and beyond. On July 26, 1938, the Japanese occupied Jiujiang and immediately divided their forces into three routes: advancing toward De'an and Nanchang, then striking Changsha, severing the Yue-Han Railway, and surrounding Wuhan in an effort to annihilate the Chinese field army. The advance of the 101st and 106th Infantry Divisions slowed south of the Yangtze River, yet the Central China Expeditionary Army remained intent on seizing Ruichang and De'an to cut off Chinese forces around Mount Lu. To this end, the 9th and 27th Infantry Divisions were deployed to the sector, with the 9th regarded as an experienced unit that had fought in earlier campaigns, while the 27th was newly formed in the summer of 1938; this contrast underscored the rapidly expanding scope of the war in China as the Japanese Army General Staff continued mobilizing reservists and creating new formations. According to the operational plan, the 101st and 106th Divisions would push south toward De'an to pin Chinese defenders, while the 9th and 27th Divisions would envelop Chinese forces south of the river. Okamura Yasuji ordered five battalions from the 9th to move toward De'an via Ruichang, and the Hata Detachment was tasked with securing the area northwest of Ruichang to protect the 9th's flank. North of the Yangtze, the 6th Infantry Division was to move from Huangmei to Guangji, with Tianjiazhen as the ultimate objective; capturing Tianjiazhen would allow the 11th Army to converge on Wuhan from both north and south of the river.  The operation began when the 9th Division landed at Jiujiang, threatening the left flank of the Jinguanqiao line. The Chinese responded by deploying the 1st Corps to counter the 9th Division's left flank, which threatened the Maruyama Detachment's lines of communication. The Maruyama Detachment counterattacked successfully, enabling the rest of the 9th Division to seize Ruichang on August 24; on the same day, the 9th attacked the 30th Army defending Mount Min. The Chinese defense deteriorated on the mountain, and multiple counterattacks by Chinese divisions failed, forcing the 1st Corps to retreat to Mahuiling. The seizure of Ruichang and the surrounding area was followed by a wave of atrocities, with Japanese forces inflicting substantial casualties, destroying houses, and damaging property, and crimes including murder, rape, arson, torture, and looting devastating many villages and livelihoods in the Ruichang area. After Ruichang and Mount Min fell, the Maruyama Detachment and the 106th Infantry Division advanced on Mahuiling, seeking to encircle Chinese forces from the northwest, with the 106th forming the inner ring and the Maruyama Detachment the outer ring; this coordination led to Mahuiling's fall on September 3. The 27th Infantry Division, arriving in late August, landed east of Xiaochikou, providing the manpower to extend Japanese offensives beyond the Yangtze's banks and outflank Chinese defenders along the river. Its main objective was to seize the Rui-wu highway, a vital route for the continued advance toward Wuhan. After the fall of Mahuiling, Japanese command altered its strategy. The 11th Army ordered the Maruyama Detachment to rejoin the 9th Infantry Division and press westward, while the 101st Infantry Division was to remain at Mahuiling and push south toward De'an along with the 106th Infantry Division. This divergent or “eccentric” offensive aimed to advance on Wuhan while protecting the southern flank. The renewed offensive began on September 11, 1938, with the 9th Infantry Division and Hata Detachment advancing west along the Rui-yang and Rui-wu highways toward Wuhan, followed days later by the 27th Infantry Division. Initially, the Japanese made solid progress from Ruichang toward a line centered on Laowuge, but soon faced formidable Chinese defenses. The 9th and 27th Divisions confronted the Chinese 2nd Army Corps, which had prepared in-depth positions in the mountains west of Sanchikou and Xintanpu. The 27th Division encountered stiff resistance from the 18th and 30th Corps, and although it captured Xiaoao by September 24, its vanguard advancing west of Shujie came under heavy attack from the 91st, 142nd, 60th, and 6th Reserve Infantry Divisions, threatening to encircle it. Only the southward advance of the 101st and 106th Divisions relieved the pressure, forcing the Chinese to redeploy the 91st and 6th Reserve Divisions to the south and thereby loosening the 27th's grip. After the redeployment, the 9th and 27th Divisions resumed their push. The 9th crossed the Fu Shui on October 9 and took Sanjikou on October 16, while the 27th seized Xintanpu on October 18. The Hata Detachment followed, capturing Yangxin on October 18 and Ocheng on October 23, further tightening Japanese control over the highways toward Wuhan. By mid-October, 11th Army commander Okamura Yasuji resolved to sever the Guangzhou-Hankou railway to disrupt Chinese lines. On October 22, the 9th and 27th Divisions attacked toward Jinniu and Xianning. By October 27, the 9th had captured Jinniu and cut the railway; the 27th Division extended the disruption further south. These actions effectively isolated Wuchang from the south, giving the Imperial Japanese Army greater leverage over the southern approaches to Wuhan. The push south by the 101st and 106th Infantry Divisions pressed toward De'an, where they encountered the entrenched Chinese 1st Army Corps. The offensive began on September 16 and by the 24th, elements of the 27th Division penetrated deep into the area west of Baishui Street and De'an's environs. Recognizing the growing crisis, Xue Yue mobilized the nearby 91st and 142nd Divisions, who seized Nanping Mountain along the Ruiwu Line overnight, effectively cutting off the 27th Division's retreat. Fierce combat on the 25th and 26th saw Yang Jialiu, commander of the 360th Regiment of the 60th Division, die a heroic death. Zhang Zhihe, chief of staff of the 30th Group Army and an underground CCP member, commanded the newly formed 13th Division and the 6th Division to annihilate the Suzuki Regiment and recapture Qilin Peak. Learning of the 27th Division's trap, Okamura Yasuji panicked and, on the 25th, urgently ordered the 123rd, 145th, and 147th Infantry Regiments and mountain artillery of the 106th Division on the Nanxun Line, along with the 149th Regiment of the 101st Division on the Dexing Line, to rush to Mahuiling and Xingzi. To adapt to mountain warfare, some units were temporarily converted to packhorse formations. On the 27th, the 106th Division broke through the Wutailing position with force, splitting into two groups and pushing toward Erfangzheng and Lishan. By the 28th, the three regiments and mountain artillery of the 106th Division advanced into the mountain villages of Wanjialing, Leimingguliu, Shibaoshan, Nantianpu, Beixijie, and Dunshangguo, about 50 li west of De'an. On the same day, the 149th Regiment of the 101st Division entered the Wanjialing area and joined the 106th Division. Commanded by Lieutenant General Junrokuro Matsuura, the 106th Division sought to break out of Baicha and disrupt the Nanwu Highway to disrupt the Chinese retreat from De'an. At this juncture, Xue Yue's corps perceived the Japanese advance as a predatory, wolf-like maneuver and deemed it a strategic opportunity to counterattack. He resolved to pull forces from Dexing, Nanxun, and Ruiwu to envelop the enemy near Wanjialing, with the aim of annihilating them. Thus began a desperate, pivotal battle between China and Japan in northern Jiangxi, centered on the Wanjialing area. The Japanese 106th Division found its rear communications cut off around September 28, 1938, as the Chinese blockade tightened. Despite the 27th Division's severed rear and its earlier defeat at Qilin Peak, Okamura Yasuji ordered a renewed push to relieve the besieged 106th by directing the 27th Division to attack Qilin Peak and advance east of Baishui Street. In this phase, the 27th Division dispatched the remnants of its 3rd Regiment to press the assault on Qilin Peak, employing poison gas and briefly reaching the summit. On September 29, the 142nd Division of the 32nd Army, under Shang Zhen, coordinated with the 752nd Regiment of the same division to launch a fierce counterattack on Qilin Peak at Zenggai Mountain west of Xiaoao. After intense fighting, they reclaimed the peak, thwarting the 27th Division's bid to move eastward to aid the 106th. Concurrently, a portion of the 123rd Regiment of the 106th Division attempted a breakout west of Baishui Street. Our 6th and 91st Divisions responded with a determined assault from the east of Xiaoao, blocking the 123rd Regiment east of Baishui Street. The victories at Qilin Peak and Baishui Street halted any merger between the eastern and western Japanese forces, enabling the Chinese army to seal the pocket and create decisive conditions for encircling the 106th Division and securing victory in the Battle of Wanjialing. After the setback at Qilin Peak, Division Commander Masaharu Homma, defying Okamura Yasuji's orders to secure Baishui Street, redirected his focus to Tianhe Bridge under a pretext of broader operations. He neglected the heavily encircled 106th Division and pivoted toward Xintanpu. By September 30, Chinese forces attacked from both the east and west, with the 90th and 91st Divisions joining the assault on the Japanese positions. On October 1, the Japanese, disoriented and unable to pinpoint their own unit locations, telegrammed Okamura Yasuji for air support. On October 2, the First Corps received orders to tighten the encirclement and annihilate the enemy forces. Deployments were made to exploit a numerical advantage and bolster morale, placing the Japanese in a desperate position. On October 3, 1938, the 90th and 91st Divisions launched a concerted attack on Nantianpu, delivering heavy damage to the Japanese force and showering Leimingguliu with artillery fire that endangered the 106th Division headquarters. By October 5, Chinese forces reorganized: the 58th Division of the 74th Army advanced from the south, the 90th Division of the 4th Army from the east, portions of the 6th and 91st Divisions from the west, and the 159th and 160th Divisions of the 65th Army from the north, tightening the surrounding cordon from four directions. On October 6, Xue Yue ordered a counterattack, and by October 7 the Chinese army had effectively cut off all retreat routes. That evening, after fierce hand-to-hand combat, the 4th Army regained the hilltop, standing at a 100-meter-high position, and thwarted any Japanese plan to break through Baicha and sever Chinese retreat toward De'an. By October 8, Lieutenant Colonel Sakurada Ryozo, the 106th Division's staff officer, reported the division's deteriorating situation to headquarters. The telegram signaled the impending collapse of the 106th Division. On October 9, Kuomintang forces recaptured strategic positions such as Lishan, tightening encirclement to a small pocket of about three to four square kilometers in Nantianpu, Leimingguliu, and Panjia. That night, the vanguard attacked the Japanese 106th Division's headquarters at Leimingguliu, engaging in close combat with the Japanese. Matsuura and the division's staff then took up arms in defense. In the early hours of October 10, Japanese forces launched flares that illuminated only a narrow arc of movement, and a limited number of troops fled northwest toward Yangfang Street. The two and a half month battle inflicted tremendous casualties on the Japanese, particularly on the 101st and 106th divisions. These two formations began with a combined strength of over 47,000 troops and ultimately lost around 30,000 men in the fighting. The high casualty rate hit the Japanese officer corps especially hard, forcing General Shunroku Hata to frequently airdrop replacement officers onto the besieged units' bases throughout the engagement. For the Chinese, the successful defense of Wanjialing was pivotal to the Wuhan campaign.  Zooming out at a macro level a lot of action was occurring all over the place. Over in Shandong, 1,000 soldiers under Shi Yousan, who had defected multiple times between rival warlord cliques and operated as an independent faction, occupied Jinan and held it for a few days. Guerrillas briefly controlled Yantai. East of Changzhou extending to Shanghai, another non-government Chinese force, led by Dai Li, employed guerrilla tactics in the Shanghai suburbs and across the Huangpu River. This force included secret society members from the Green Gang and the Tiandihui, who conducted executions of spies and perceived traitors, losing more than 100 men in the course of operations. On August 13, members of this force clandestinely entered the Japanese air base at Hongqiao and raised a Chinese flag. Meanwhile, the Japanese Sixth Division breached the defensive lines of Chinese 31st and 68th Armies on July 24 and captured Taihu, Susong, and Huangmei Counties by August 3. As Japanese forces advanced westward, the Chinese Fourth Army of the Fifth War Zone deployed its main strength in Guangji, Hubei, and Tianjia Town to intercept the offensive. The 11th Army Group and the 68th Army were ordered to form a defensive line in Huangmei County, while the 21st and 29th Army Groups, along with the 26th Army, moved south to outflank the Japanese. The Chinese recaptured Taihu on August 27 and Susong on August 28. However, with Japanese reinforcements arriving on August 30, the Chinese 11th Army Group and the 68th Army were unable to sustain counteroffensives and retreated to Guangji County to continue resisting alongside the 26th, 55th, and 86th Armies. The Chinese Fourth Army Group directed the 21st and 29th Army Groups to flank the Japanese from the northeast of Huangmei, but they failed to halt the Japanese advance. Guangji fell on September 6, and while Guangji was recovered by the Chinese Fourth Corps on September 8, Wuxue was lost on the same day. Zooming back in on the Wuhan Front, the Japanese focus shifted to Tianjiazhen. The fortress of Tianjiazhen represented the 6th Infantry Division's most important objective. Its geographic position, where the Yangtze's two banks narrow to roughly 600 meters, with cliffs and high ground overlooking the river, allowed Chinese forces to deploy gun batteries that could control the river and surrounding terrain. Chinese control of Tianjiazhen thus posed a serious obstacle to Japan's amphibious and logistical operations on the Yangtze, and its seizure was deemed essential for Japan to advance toward Wuhan. Taking Tianjiazhen would not be easy: overland approaches were impeded by mountainous terrain on both sides of the fortress, while an amphibious assault faced fortified positions and minefields in the narrow river. Recognizing its strategic importance, Chinese forces reinforced Tianjiazhen with three divisions from central government troops, aiming to deter an overland assault. Chinese preparations included breaching several dykes and dams along the Yangtze to flood expanses of land and slow the Japanese advance; however, the resulting higher water levels widened the river and created a more accessible supply route for the Japanese. Instead of relying on a long overland route from Anqing to Susong, the Japanese could now move supplies directly up the Yangtze from Jiujiang to Huangmei, a distance of only about 40 kilometers, which boosted the 6th Division's logistics and manpower. In August 1938 the 6th Infantry Division resumed its northward push, facing determined resistance from the 4th Army Corps entrenched in a narrow defile south of the Dabie Mountains, with counterattacks from the 21st and 27th Army Groups affecting the 6th's flank. The Dabie Mountains are a major mountain range located in central China. Running northwest to southeast, they form the main watershed between the Huai and Yangtze rivers. The range also marks the boundary between Hubei Province and its neighboring provinces of Henan to the north and Anhui to the east. By early September the 6th had captured Guangji, providing a staging ground for the thrust toward Tianjiazhen, though this extended the division's long flank: after Guangji fell, it now faced a 30-kilometer front between Huangmei and Guangji, exposing it to renewed Chinese pressure from the 21st and 27th Army Groups. This constrained the number of troops available for the main objective at Tianjiazhen. Consequently, the Japanese dispatched only a small force, three battalions from the Imamura Detachment, to assault Tianjiazhen, betting that the fortress could be taken within a week. The KMT, learning from previous defeats, reinforced Tianjiazhen with a stronger infantry garrison and built obstacles, barbed wire, pillboxes, and trench networks, to slow the assault. These defenses, combined with limited Japanese logistics, six days of rations per soldier, made the operation costly and precarious. The final Japanese assault was postponed by poor weather, allowing Chinese forces to press counterattacks: three Chinese corps, the 26th, 48th, and 86th, attacked the Imamura Detachment's flank and rear, and by September 18 these attacks had begun to bite, though the floods of the Yangtze prevented a complete encirclement of the eastern flank. Despite these setbacks, Japanese riverine and ground operations continued, aided by naval support that moved up the Yangtze as Matouzhen's batteries were overtaken. After Matouzhen fell and enabled a secure riverine supply line from Shanghai to Guangji, 11th Army commander Okamura Yasuji quickly sent relief supplies upriver on September 23. These replenishments restored the besieged troops near Tianjiazhen and allowed the Japanese to resume the offensive, employing night assaults and poison gas to seize Tianjiazhen on September 29, 1938, thereby removing a major barrier to their advance toward Wuhan along the Yangtze. The 11th Army pressed north along the Yangtze while the 2nd Army, commanded by Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni, concentrated the 3rd, 10th, 13th, and 16th Infantry Divisions around Hefei with initial aims at Lu'an and Heshan and the broader objective of moving toward the northern foothills of the Dabie Mountains. When Chinese forces began destroying roads west of Lu'an, Naruhiko shifted the 2nd Army's plan. Rather than pushing along a line from Lu'an to Heshan, he redirected toward the Huangchuan–Shangcheng corridor, where more intact roads remained accessible, and Chinese withdrawals in the Huangchuan–Shangceng area to counter the 11th Army's Yangtze advance allowed the 2nd Army to gain speed in the early stage of its offensive. The 10th and 13th Infantry Divisions were ordered to begin their advance on August 27, facing roughly 25,000 Chinese troops from the Fifth War Zone's 51st and 77th Corps, and achieving notable early gains. The 10th captured Lu'an on August 28, followed by the 13th taking Heshan on August 29. The 10th then seized Kushi on September 7. Meanwhile, the 13th crossed the Shi River at night in an attempt to seize Changbailing, but encountered stiff resistance from multiple Chinese divisions that slowed its progress. To bolster the effort, Naruhiko ordered the Seiya Detachment from the 10th Division—three infantry battalions—to reinforce the 13th. Despite these reinforcements, momentum remained insufficient, so he deployed the 16th Infantry Division, which had arrived at Yenchiachi, to assault Shangcheng from the north. After crossing the Shi River at Yanjiachi, the 16th outflanked Shangcheng from the north, coordinating with the 13th from the south; the Chinese withdrew and Shangcheng fell. Following this success, Naruhiko ordered the 13th and 16th Divisions to push deeper into the Dabie Mountains toward Baikou and Songfu, while the 10th and 3rd Divisions moved toward Leshan and Xinyang, with Xinyang, a crucial Beijing–Wuhan Railway node, representing a particularly important objective. The Japanese advance progressed steadily through the Dabie Mountains, with the 10th executing bold maneuvers to outflank Leshan from the south and the 3rd penetrating toward the Beijing–Wuhan railway north of Xinyang, collectively disrupting and cutting the railway near Xinyang in October. An independent unit, the Okada Detachment, operated between these forces, advancing through Loshan before sealing Xinyang on October 12. The seizure of Xinyang effectively severed Wuhan's northern artery from external reinforcement and resupply, signaling a decisive turn against Wuhan as a Chinese stronghold. While the 2nd Army advanced in the Dabie Mountains, another critical development was taking place far to the south. By the end of 1937, southern China became more crucial to the Republic of China as a lifeline to the outside world. Guangzhou and Hong Kong served as some of the last vital transportation hubs and sources of international aid for Chiang Kai-Shek, with approximately 80 percent of supplies from abroad reaching Chinese forces in the interior through Guangzhou. Imperial General Headquarters believed that a blockade of Guangdong province would deprive China of essential war materiel and the ability to prolong the war. As I always liked to term it, the Japanese were trying to plug up the leaks of supplies coming into China, and Guangzhou was the largest one. In 1936 the Hankow-Canton railway was completed, and together with the Kowloon-Canton railway formed a rapid all-rail link from south China to central and northern China. For the first sixteen months of the war, about 60,000 tons of goods transited per month through the port of Hong Kong. The central government also reported the import of 1.5 million gallons of gasoline through Hong Kong in 1938, and more than 700,000 tons of goods would eventually reach Hankou using the new railway. In comparison, the Soviet Union in 1937 was sending war materiel through Xinjiang to Lanzhou using camels, with Chinese raw materials traveling back either the same route or via Hong Kong to Vladivostok. By 1940, 50,000 camels and hundreds of trucks were transporting 2,000–3,000 tons of Soviet war material per month into China. Japanese planning for operations began in early November 1937, with the blockade's objectives centered on seizing a portion of Daya Bay and conducting air operations from there. In December 1937, the 5th Army, including the 11th Division, the Formosa Mixed Brigade, and the 4th Air Brigade, were activated in Formosa under Lt. Gen. Motoo Furusho to achieve this objective. Due to the proximity of Daya Bay to Hong Kong, the Japanese government feared potential trouble with Britain, and the operation was subsequently suspended, leading to the deactivation of the 5th Army. By June 1938, the Battle of Wuhan convinced Imperial General Headquarters that the fighting could not be localized. The headquarters reversed policy and began preparations to capture Guangzhou and to expedite the settlement of the war. During the peak of the battles of Shanghai and Nanjing, urgent demands for aerial support at the Battle of Taiyuan in the north and at Canton in the south forced the Nationalist Air Force of China to split the 28th Pursuit Squadron and the 5th Pursuit Group , based at Jurong Airbase in the Nanking defense sector. The squadron was divided into two smaller units: Lt. Arthur Chin led one half toward Canton, while Capt. Chan Kee-Wong led the other half to Taiyuan. On September 27, 1937, the 28th PS under Lt. Arthur Chin dispatched four Hawk IIs from Shaoguan Airbase, and the 29th PS under Lt. Chen Shun-Nan deployed three Hawk IIIs from Tianhe Airbase. Their mission was to intercept Japanese IJNAF G3M bombers attempting to strike the Canton–Hankow railway infrastructure. The two flights engaged the Japanese bombers over Canton, claiming at least two kills; one G3M dumped fuel and ditching off the coast of Swatow, with its crew rescued by a British freighter, though one of the gunners died of battle injuries. In October 1937, amid mounting demands and combat losses, the Chinese government ordered 36 Gloster Gladiator Mk.I fighters, whose performance and firepower surpassed that of the Hawk IIs and IIIs, and most of these would become frontline fighters for the Canton defense sector as the war extended into 1938. On February 23, 1938, Capt. John Huang Xinrui, another Chinese-American volunteer pilot, took command of the renewed 29th PS, now equipped with the Gladiators. He led nine Gladiators from Nanxiong Airbase on their first active combat over Canton, supporting three Gladiators from the 28th PS as they intercepted thirteen Nakajima E8N fighter-attack seaplanes launched from the seaplane tenders Notoro Maru and Kinugasa Maru. The battle proved challenging: most of the Gladiators' machine guns jammed, severely reducing their firepower. Despite this, five of the E8Ns were shot down, confirmed by Capt. Huang and his fellow pilots who managed to strike the Japanese aircraft with only one, two, or three functioning guns per Gladiator. Chin later revealed that the gun jams were caused by defective Belgian-made ammunition. The combat nevertheless proved tragic and costly: Lt. Xie Chuanhe (Hsieh Chuan-ho) and his wingman Lt. Yang Rutong pursued the E8Ns but were stymied by inoperable weapons, with Lt. Yang killed in the counterattack, and Lt. Chen Qiwei lost under similar circumstances. The 4th War Area Army, commanded by He Yingqin, was assigned to the defense of south China in 1938. General Yu Hanmou led the 12th Army Group defending Guangdong province. The region's defense included about eight divisions and two brigades of regular army troops stationed around Guangzhou, with an additional five divisions of regular troops deployed in Fujian. The 4th War Area Army totaled roughly 110,000 regular army troops. By this time, most regular army units in Guangxi and four Guangdong divisions had been redirected north to participate in the Battle of Wuhan. Beyond the regular army, two militia divisions were deployed near Guangzhou, and the Guangxi militia comprised five divisions. Militia units were typically raised from local civilians and disbanded as the army moved through new areas. Their roles centered on security, supply transportation, and reconnaissance. Guangdong's main defensive strength was concentrated in Guangzhou and the immediate environs to the city's east. Other Chinese forces defended Chaozhou and western Guangdong. Defensive fortifications included the Humen fortress guarding the Pearl River mouth and three defensive lines near Daya Bay. Guangzhou housed three batteries of four three-inch guns, a battery of three 120mm guns, and Soviet-supplied 37mm anti-aircraft guns. The Imperial Japanese Navy conducted an aerial and naval interdiction campaign aimed at China's communication lines to neighboring regions. Japan believed that the blockade would hasten the end of the war, and disruption of the Chinese logistics network was the primary objective in Guangdong province from August 1937 until October 1938. The 5th Fleet's blockading actions extended along the coast from Haimenchen, Zhejiang to Shantou, with the 5th Destroyer Squadron patrolling the coast south of Shantou. At times, units from the Marianas were deployed to support coastal blockade operations in south China, usually consisting of cruisers accompanied by destroyer flotillas. One or two aircraft carriers and fleet auxiliaries would also be on station. Naval interdictions focused on stopping junks ferrying military supplies from Hong Kong to coastal China. The first recorded attack occurred in September 1937 when eleven junks were sunk by a Japanese submarine. Although Japan successfully blockaded Chinese shipping and ports, foreign shipping could still enter and depart from Hong Kong. The central government had established Hong Kong as a warehouse for munitions and supplies to pass through. Aerial interdictions targeted Chinese railway bridges and trains in Guangdong. Starting in October 1937, the Japanese launched air raids against the Sunning railway, focusing on government facilities and bridges in Jiangmen and towns along the railway. By 1938, airstrikes against the Kowloon–C Canton railway became common, with damaged trains periodically found along the line. An air-defense early warning system was created to divert trains during raids into forested areas that offered overhead concealment. In May 1938, the Colonial Office and the Foreign Office approved a Chinese request to construct and operate a locomotive repair yard within the New Territories to keep the railway operational. Airstrikes against rail facilities in Guangzhou were designed to interrupt rail supplies from Hong Kong so Japan would not need to commit to land operations in south China. However, the air raids did not severely impede railway operations or stop supplies moving through Hunan or Guangxi. The blockade in south China also targeted aircraft flying out of Hong Kong. In November 1937, a Royal Navy aircraft from HMS Eagle encountered Japanese naval anti-aircraft fire off the coast of Hong Kong. In December 1937, fifteen Japanese bombers overflew Lantau Island and the Taikoo docks. In August 1938, Japanese naval aircraft shot down a China National Aviation Corporation passenger plane, and two Eurasia Aviation Corporation passenger planes were shot down the following month. Beyond military targets, the Japanese conducted politically motivated terror bombing in Guangzhou. Bombing intensified from May to June 1938 with incendiary munitions and low-level strafing attacks against ships. The Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service, operating from Formosa and the carrier Kaga, conducted about 400 airstrikes during this period and continued into July. By the end of the summer, Guangzhou's population had dwindled to approximately 600,000 from an original 1.3 million. From August 1937 to October 1938, casualties in Guangzhou were estimated at 6,000 killed and 8,000 injured. On October 12, 1938, Japanese forces from the 21st Army, including the 5th, 18th, and 104th Infantry Divisions, landed in Guangzhou, launching the operation at 4:00 am with elements of the 5th and 18th Divisions hitting Aotou and elements of the 104th Division landing at Hachung in Bias Bay. Initially totaling about 30,000 men, they were soon reinforced by a further 20,000, and resistance was minimal because most of Yu Hanmou's 12th Army Group had been redeployed to central China to defend approaches to Wuhan, leaving only two regular Chinese divisions, the 151st and 153rd, to defend the region. By the night of October 12, the Japanese had established a 10-kilometer-deep beachhead and advanced inland; on October 13 they seized the towns of Pingshan and Tamshui with little opposition, and on October 15 they converged on Waichow and captured it. The fall of Pingshan, located on the Sai Kong River with a deep, broad river and only a flimsy crossing, and Waichow, where Chinese defenses included trenches and concrete pillboxes, surprised observers since these positions had been prepared to resist invasion; nonetheless, Chinese forces fled, opening the road to Guangzhou for the Japanese. Between October 16 and 19, three Japanese columns pushed inland, with the easternmost column crossing the East River on the 16th and the 5th Infantry Division capturing Sheklung on the 19th as Chinese forces retreated. By the night of October 20, Guangzhou's defenders withdrew and adopted a scorched-earth policy to deny resources to the invaders. On October 21, Japanese tanks entered Guangzhou without infantry support, and a regiment from the 5th Infantry Division captured the Bocca Tigris forts with no resistance. With Guangzhou secured, the Guangzhou–Wuhan railway and the Hong Kong–Guangzhou railway were severed, supplies to Wuhan were cut, Chiang Kai-Shek faced a daunting and depressing task, he had to abandon Wuhan. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The Yangtze became a bloodied artery as Chinese and Japanese forces clashed from Anqing to Jiujiang, Madang to Tianjiazhen. A mosaic of Chinese troops, filled with grit and missteps, held lines while civilians like Wang Guozhen refused to surrender. The siege of Wanjialing crowned Chinese resilience, even as Guangzhou buckled under a relentless blockade. The Fall of Wuhan was all but inevitable.

Hello everyone and welcome back to This Week in Guns, brought to you by Patriot Patch Company, FFLPayments, Traditional Arms, and MAF Corporation. This show offers commentary on the latest firearms industry news, information and buzz. I'm your host Matthew Larosiere and I'm joined by the ratman. The End of an Era? The Glock Schism Traditional Arms: Fuddbusters and Ratman The Everytown Fun Safety Program LA Sheriff office gets sued by DOJ for being slow about gun permits MAF Corp: Fudbdusterss Supreme Court Agrees to Take Up Woolford, Where DOJ is Amicus SCOTUS also takes up guns and durgs case FFL Payments Federal Government Shutdown Shits up NFA Forms, Wagies sent back to cagies but other issues remain Patriot patch Co. TWIG10 Highlight on the Adamiak case and update 0:00 Introduction and sponsors 0:24 Ivan's anecdotes and references 0:56 Matt's updates on delays and recent events 1:48 Glock rumors and discussion 3:17 Glock models and market analysis 6:20 Personal gun preferences and anecdotes 7:06 Public and market reaction to Glock changes 13:25 California's impact on Glock and firearm industry 20:29 Glock's new model rollout and associated risks 26:23 California's new gun law and its implications 32:25 Underground market and Glock's legal considerations 37:05 Sponsor: Traditional Arms LLC 37:50 NRA's current status and Everytown's firearm safety program 46:03 Everytown's internal issues and qualifications debate 55:16 DOJ's legal actions and Los Angeles Sheriff's Department case 59:29 Sponsor: MAF Arms 1:00:20 Supreme Court cases on gun rights and government roles 1:06:19 Sponsor: FFL Payment Processing 1:07:17 NFA firearms processing during government shutdown 1:10:02 Sponsor: Patriotpatch.co 1:10:35 Adamiak case update and Seventh Circuit arguments 1:19:07 DOJ's stance and actions in firearm-related cases 1:23:07 Thanks to Patreon supporters

Friday, October 27th, 2023In the Hot Notes: at least 18 people are dead and another 13 injured after shootings in Lewiston Maine; New York Republicans push ahead with a resolution to expel George Santos from the House; NRA revenue is in free-fall after dues and membership plummet; A federal judge has struck down Georgia's congressional and legislative maps ruling that they violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act; Ford and the United Auto Workers Union have reached a tentative deal that includes a record pay raise; Republicans delay more than $1B in HIV program funding; a former healthcare executive is charged for a multi-million dollar Medicare fraud scheme; the DoJ responds to Trump's motions to stay his DC gag order and to alert the court of his advice of counsel defense; the US economy grew at a blistering rate in the third quarter; the Ohio secretary of state has quietly removed 26,000 people from voter rolls; plus Allison delivers your Good News.Dana is out and about.More from our Guest:Anna Bowerhttps://twitter.com/annabowerhttps://www.lawfaremedia.orgSubscribe to Lawyers, Guns, And Money:Ad-free premium feed:https://lawyersgunsandmoney.supercast.comSubscribe for free everywhere else:https://link.chtbl.com/LawGunsMoney Our Donation LinksNational Security Counselors - DonateMSW Media, Blue Wave California Victory Fund | ActBlueWhistleblowerAid.org/beansFederal workers - feel free to email AG at fedoath@pm.me and let me know what you're going to do, or just vent. I'm always here to listen. Find Upcoming Actions 50501 Movement, No Kings.org, Indivisible.orgDr. Allison Gill - Substack, BlueSky , TikTok, IG, TwitterDana Goldberg - BlueSky, Twitter, IG, facebook, danagoldberg.comCheck out more from MSW Media - Shows - MSW Media, Cleanup On Aisle 45 pod, The Breakdown | SubstackShare your Good News or Good TroubleMSW Good News and Good TroubleHave some good news; a confession; or a correction to share?Good News & Confessions - The Daily Beanshttps://www.dailybeanspod.com/confessional/ Listener Survey:http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=shortFollow the Podcast on Apple:The Daily Beans on Apple PodcastsWant to support the show and get it ad-free and early?The Daily Beans | SupercastThe Daily Beans & Mueller, She Wrote | PatreonThe Daily Beans | Apple Podcasts Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jeff was joined by Monte Bowen and Chris Stone from the Gun Owners (GOA) of America. They discuss why they are visiting Alaska, what the GOA is and their mission, the difference between the GOA and the NRA, their no compromise stance on the Second Amendment, their thoughts on red flag laws, the importance of firearm safety, why some areas have more gun violence than others, and the role mental health plays in the gun debate. 

Summary In this episode of Armed American Radio, host Mark Walters discusses the implications of Glock's recent business decisions and their impact on the firearms industry. Joined by David Codrea, they explore the intersection of gun rights, political strategy, and the responsibilities of gun manufacturers. The conversation emphasizes the importance of constructive criticism within the gun community and the challenges faced by companies like Glock in navigating political pressures while maintaining their business integrity. Takeaways Mark Walters emphasizes the importance of freedom and gun rights. David Codrea discusses the implications of Glock's recent decisions. The conversation highlights the challenges faced by gun manufacturers. Criticism within the gun community is necessary for growth. The impact of political decisions on the firearms industry is significant. Glock's business strategy is questioned in light of recent events. The need for constructive criticism is stressed by both speakers. The importance of consumer choices in the firearms market is discussed. Mark and David agree on the necessity of defending the Second Amendment. The episode concludes with a call to action for listeners to stay engaged. Keywords Armed American Radio, gun rights, Glock, political strategy, firearms industry, freedom, NRA, gun control, business decisions, David Codrea  

Summary In this episode of Armed American Radio, host Mark Walters discusses various topics surrounding gun control, the Second Amendment, and the implications of recent legislation. The conversation touches on the symbolic nature of certain gun control ordinances, the ongoing battle against organizations like Everytown for Gun Safety, and the potential impact of Supreme Court cases on gun rights. Additionally, the discussion includes the intersection of marijuana legislation and gun ownership, cultural perspectives on alcohol, and the political climate that may lead to civil unrest. Takeaways The St. Paul City Council's gun violence prevention ordinance is largely symbolic due to state law restrictions. Everytown for Gun Safety is actively working against gun manufacturers like Glock. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on significant Second Amendment cases soon. Marijuana legislation may affect gun ownership rights for users. Cultural attitudes towards alcohol and marijuana influence discussions on gun ownership. Patriot Mobile supports gun rights and is a partner of Armed American Radio. Political polarization is a growing concern in the U.S. The potential for civil unrest is heightened by current political tensions. Gun owners need to be active in supporting their rights through organizations like the NRA. The left's violent rhetoric raises concerns about future political stability. Keywords Armed American Radio, gun control, Second Amendment, Supreme Court, marijuana legislation, civil war, political polarization, Everytown for Gun Safety, Glock, Patriot Mobile  

Summary In this episode of Armed American Radio, host Mark Walters discusses significant developments in the firearms industry, particularly focusing on Glock's recent announcement to discontinue many of its models. The conversation delves into the implications of this decision, community reactions, and the broader political landscape surrounding gun rights and legislation. With insights from Lee the Gun Writer Williams, the episode emphasizes the importance of staying informed about legal matters related to firearms and encourages listeners to engage in the ongoing conversation about gun rights. Takeaways Mark Walters emphasizes the importance of freedom and the Second Amendment. The conversation highlights the impact of legal decisions on gun manufacturers. Glock's discontinuation of models raises questions about market strategy and consumer safety. Community feedback reveals concerns about potential gun control implications. The discussion reflects on the reliability and reputation of Glock firearms. Mark and Lee discuss the political landscape surrounding gun legislation. The importance of staying informed about legal matters related to firearms is stressed. The conversation touches on the role of social media in shaping public opinion on gun issues. Mark encourages listeners to support the NRA and other gun rights organizations. The episode concludes with a call to action for responsible gun ownership. Keywords Armed American Radio, Glock, Second Amendment, gun rights, NRA, firearms news, legal updates, gun control, community reactions, Glock discontinuation  

Summary This episode of Armed American Radio features host Mark Walters and guest Cam Edwards discussing the current political climate surrounding gun rights, particularly in Virginia. They delve into the implications of upcoming elections, the importance of voter turnout, and a controversial school search incident involving a New Hampshire student. The conversation also highlights the legal efforts of the Second Amendment Foundation to protect gun owners' rights and debunk myths about gun registries. Ryan Petty joins the discussion to share insights on school safety and the necessity of armed security in schools, emphasizing the importance of quick response times in emergency situations. The episode concludes with a call to action for continued advocacy in protecting Second Amendment rights. In this conversation, the speakers discuss various themes surrounding political discourse, school safety, media influence, and the polarization of American politics. They emphasize the importance of parental involvement in school safety, the security concerns facing political leaders, and the role of media in shaping public perception. The conversation also touches on the consequences of political rhetoric and the need for engagement in the fight for rights and safety. Takeaways The left thrives on tragedy to push their agenda. Parental involvement is crucial for school safety. The polarization in American politics is deepening. Media plays a significant role in shaping public perception. Security threats against political leaders are increasing. Political discourse often lacks genuine arguments. Engagement in political processes is essential for change. Understanding the safety of children in schools is paramount. The concept of a constitutional republic is under threat. Incitement of violence through media rhetoric is concerning. Key Words Armed American Radio, gun rights, Virginia elections, school safety, Second Amendment, NRA, political commentary, Cam Edwards, Ryan Petty, legal issues, politics, school safety, media influence, gun rights, political discourse, parental involvement, security concerns, American polarization, public perception, political rhetoric

Summary This episode of Armed American Radio features host Mark Walters and guest Cam Edwards discussing the current political climate surrounding gun rights, particularly in Virginia. They delve into the implications of upcoming elections, the importance of voter turnout, and a controversial school search incident involving a New Hampshire student. The conversation also highlights the legal efforts of the Second Amendment Foundation to protect gun owners' rights and debunk myths about gun registries. Ryan Petty joins the discussion to share insights on school safety and the necessity of armed security in schools, emphasizing the importance of quick response times in emergency situations. The episode concludes with a call to action for continued advocacy in protecting Second Amendment rights. In this conversation, the speakers discuss various themes surrounding political discourse, school safety, media influence, and the polarization of American politics. They emphasize the importance of parental involvement in school safety, the security concerns facing political leaders, and the role of media in shaping public perception. The conversation also touches on the consequences of political rhetoric and the need for engagement in the fight for rights and safety. Takeaways The left thrives on tragedy to push their agenda. Parental involvement is crucial for school safety. The polarization in American politics is deepening. Media plays a significant role in shaping public perception. Security threats against political leaders are increasing. Political discourse often lacks genuine arguments. Engagement in political processes is essential for change. Understanding the safety of children in schools is paramount. The concept of a constitutional republic is under threat. Incitement of violence through media rhetoric is concerning. Key Words Armed American Radio, gun rights, Virginia elections, school safety, Second Amendment, NRA, political commentary, Cam Edwards, Ryan Petty, legal issues, politics, school safety, media influence, gun rights, political discourse, parental involvement, security concerns, American polarization, public perception, political rhetoric

Summary This episode of Armed American Radio features host Mark Walters and guest Cam Edwards discussing the current political climate surrounding gun rights, particularly in Virginia. They delve into the implications of upcoming elections, the importance of voter turnout, and a controversial school search incident involving a New Hampshire student. The conversation also highlights the legal efforts of the Second Amendment Foundation to protect gun owners' rights and debunk myths about gun registries. Ryan Petty joins the discussion to share insights on school safety and the necessity of armed security in schools, emphasizing the importance of quick response times in emergency situations. The episode concludes with a call to action for continued advocacy in protecting Second Amendment rights. In this conversation, the speakers discuss various themes surrounding political discourse, school safety, media influence, and the polarization of American politics. They emphasize the importance of parental involvement in school safety, the security concerns facing political leaders, and the role of media in shaping public perception. The conversation also touches on the consequences of political rhetoric and the need for engagement in the fight for rights and safety. Takeaways The left thrives on tragedy to push their agenda. Parental involvement is crucial for school safety. The polarization in American politics is deepening. Media plays a significant role in shaping public perception. Security threats against political leaders are increasing. Political discourse often lacks genuine arguments. Engagement in political processes is essential for change. Understanding the safety of children in schools is paramount. The concept of a constitutional republic is under threat. Incitement of violence through media rhetoric is concerning. Keywords Armed American Radio, gun rights, Virginia elections, school safety, Second Amendment, NRA, political commentary, Cam Edwards, Ryan Petty, legal issues, politics, school safety, media influence, gun rights, political discourse, parental involvement, security concerns, American polarization, public perception, political rhetoric  

Last time we spoke about the flooding of the Yellow River. As Japanese forces pressed toward central China, Chiang Kai-shek weighed a desperate gamble: defend majestic Wuhan with costly sieges, or unleash a radical plan that would flood its heart. Across/Xuzhou, Taierzhuang, and the Yellow River's bend near Zhengzhou, commanders fought a brutal, grinding war. Chinese units, battered yet stubborn, executed strategic retreats and furious counteroffensives. But even as brave soldiers stalled the enemy, the longer fight threatened to drain a nation's will and leave millions unprotected. Then a striking idea surfaced: breach the dikes of the Yellow River at Huayuankou and flood central China to halt the Japanese advance. The plan was terrifying in its moral cost, yet it offered a temporary shield for Wuhan and time to regroup. Workers, farmers, soldiers, laborers—pushed aside fear and toiled through the night, water rising like a raging tide. The flood bought months, not victory. It punished civilians as much as it protected soldiers, leaving a nation to confront its own hard choices and the haunting question: was survival worth the price?   #172 The Road to Wuhan Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Following the Battle of Xuzhou and the breaching of the Yangtze dykes, Wuhan emerged as Japan's next military objective for political, economic, and strategic reasons. Wuhan served as the interim capital of the Kuomintang government, making it a crucial center of political authority. Its fall would deprive China of a vital rail and river hub, thereby further crippling the Chinese war effort. From a strategic perspective, Japanese control of a major rail and river junction on the Yangtze would enable westward expansion and provide a base for further advances into central and southern China. For these reasons, the Intelligence Division of the Army General Staff assessed that the capture of Wuhan would likely deliver the decisive blow needed to conclude the Second Sino-Japanese War.  Recognizing Wuhan's strategic importance, both the National Revolutionary Army and the Imperial Japanese Army committed substantial forces to the city and its approaches. The IJA deployed roughly 400,000 troops, while the NRA fielded at least 800,000. China began the war with an estimated regular force of 1.7 to 2.2 million men, organized into six broad loyalty-based categories around Chiang Kai-shek's command. Directly loyal troops formed the first group, followed by a second tier of soldiers who had previously supported Chiang but were less tightly controlled. The next category consisted of provincial troops that Chiang could ordinarily influence, while a fourth group included provincial units over which his sway was weaker. The fifth category comprised Communist forces, the Eighth Route Army in the northwest and the New Fourth Army forming in the central Yangtze region. The final category consisted of Northeastern or Manchurian units loyal to Zhang Xueliang, known as the “Young Marshal.” The first two categories together accounted for roughly 900,000 men, with about a million more in independent provincial armies, and roughly 300,000 in Communist and Manchurian forces. As commander-in-chief, Chiang could effectively command only about half of the mobilizable units at the outbreak of war in July 1937, which meant that military decisions were often slow, fraught with negotiation, and administratively cumbersome. Division-level coordination and communication proved particularly challenging, a stark contrast to the Japanese command structure, which remained clean and disciplined. Geographically, most of Chiang's loyal troops were located in the corridor between the Yangtze and the Yellow rivers at the start of 1938. Having participated heavily in the defense of Shanghai and Nanjing, they retreated to Wuhan at about half strength, with an already decimated officer corps. They then numbered around 400,000 and were commanded by generals Chen Cheng and Hu Zongnan. The northern regional armies, especially Han Fuju's forces in Shandong, had suffered severe losses; some units defected to the Japanese and later served as puppet troops. After six months of Japanese onslaught that cost the coastal and central regions—Peiping-Tianjin to Shanghai and inland toward Nanjing—much of the relatively autonomous, sizable armies remained from the southwest or northwest, under leaders such as Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi (Guangxi), Long Yun (Yunnan), and Yan Xishan (Shanxi and Suiyuan). Roughly 700,000 of these troops—predominantly from Guangxi under Li and Bai—were committed to the defense of Wuhan. The Communist forces, by contrast, numbered about 100,000 and remained relatively unscathed in bases north and east of Xi'an. In total, approximately 1.3 million men were under arms in defense of Wuhan. In December 1937, the Military Affairs Commission was established to determine Wuhan's defense strategy. Following the loss of Xuzhou, the National Revolutionary Army redeployed approximately 1.1 million troops across about 120 divisions. The commission organized the defense around three main fronts: the Dabie Mountains, Poyang Lake, and the Yangtze River, in response to an estimated 200,000 Japanese troops spread over 20 divisions of the Imperial Japanese Army. Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi, commanding the Fifth War Zone, were assigned to defend the north of the Yangtze, while Chen Cheng, commanding the Ninth War Zone, was tasked with defending the south. The First War Zone, situated to the west of the Zhengzhou–Xinyang segment of the Pinghan Railway, was responsible for halting Japanese forces advancing from the North China Plain, and the Third War Zone, located between Wuhu, Anqing, and Nanchang, was charged with protecting the Yuehan Railway. Following the Japanese occupation of Xuzhou in May 1938, they sought to expand the invasion. The IJA decided to dispatch a vanguard to occupy Anqing as a forward base for an assault on Wuhan. The main force would then advance north of the Dabie Mountains along the Huai River, with the objective of eventually capturing Wuhan via the Wusheng Pass. A second detachment would move west along the Yangtze. However, a flood from the Yellow River forced the IJA to abandon plans to advance along the Huai and instead to attack along both banks of the Yangtze. Despite Chinese numerical superiority on the Wuhan front, roughly a 2:1 advantage, the offensive faced several complicating factors. The NRA was a heterogeneous, fragmented force with a variety of tables of organization and equipment, and it lacked the unified command structure that characterized the IJA. Historian Richard Frank notes the broad diversity of Chinese forces at the outbreak of the war, which hindered cohesive mobile and strategic operations: “Chiang commanded armies of 2,029,000 troops of highly variegated capability and loyalty. His personal forces included an elite cadre of three hundred-thousand German-trained and eighty-thousand German armed men. A second stratum of the Chinese armies, numbering roughly 600,000 included various regional commands loyal to Chiang in the past that generally conformed to his directives. These troops were better armed and trained than the rest. The third category encompassed a million men who were neither loyal nor obedient to Chiang”. The NRA faced a significant disadvantage in both quantity and quality of equipment compared to the Japanese. The disparity was stark in artillery allocations. An IJA infantry division possessed 48 field and mountain guns, whereas a German-equipped Chinese division had only 16. In terms of regiment and battalion guns, a Japanese division had 56, while a German-equipped Chinese division possessed just 30. Of roughly 200 Chinese infantry divisions in 1937, only 20 were German-equipped, and merely eight of those met their paper-strength standards. Many Chinese divisions had no artillery at all, and those that did often lacked radios or forward-observation capabilities to ensure accurate fire. These deficiencies placed the NRA at a clear disadvantage in firepower when facing the Japanese. These equipment gaps were compounded by poor training and tactical doctrine. The NRA lacked adequate training facilities and did not incorporate sufficient field maneuvers, gun handling, or marksmanship into its program. Although the 1935 drill manual introduced small-group “open order” tactics, many formations continued to fight in close-order formations. In an era when increased firepower rendered close-order tactics obsolete, such formations became a liability. The NRA's failure to adapt dispersed assault formations limited its tactical effectiveness. Defensively, the NRA also faced serious shortcomings. Units were often ordered to create deep positions near key lines of communication, but Chinese forces became overly dependent on fixed fortifications, which immobilized their defense. Poor intelligence on Japanese movements and a lack of mobile reserves, there were only about 3,000 military vehicles in China in 1937, meant that Japanese infantry could easily outflank fixed NRA positions. Moreover, the Japanese enjoyed superiority in artillery, enabling them to suppress these fixed positions more effectively. These realities left Chinese defenses vulnerable, especially in the war's first year. The leadership deficit within the NRA, reflected in limited officer training, further constrained operational effectiveness. Chiang Kai-shek reportedly warned that Chinese commanders often equaled their counterparts in rank but did not outmatch them in competence. Only 2,000 commanders and staff officers had received training by 1937, and many staff officers had no military training at all. Overall, about 29.1 percent of NRA officers had no military education, severely limiting professional development and command capability. With the exception of the Guangxi divisions, Chinese units were hampered by an unnecessarily complex command structure. Orders from Chiang Kai-shek needed to pass through six tiers before action could be taken, slowing decision-making and responsiveness. In addition, Chiang favored central army units under direct control with loyal commanders from the Whampoa clique when distributing equipment, a pattern that bred discord and insubordination across levels of the Chinese field forces. Beyond structural issues, the Chinese force organization suffered from a lack of coherence due to competing influences. The forces had been reorganized along German-inspired lines, creating large field armies arranged as “war zones,” while Russian influence shaped strategic positioning through a division into “front” and “route” armies and separate rear-area service units. This mix yielded an incoherent force facing the Japanese. Troop placement and support procedures lacked rationalization: Chiang and his generals often sought to avoid decisive confrontation with Japan to minimize the risk of irreversible defeat, yet they also rejected a broad adoption of guerrilla warfare as a systematic tactic. The tendency to emphasize holding railway lines and other communications tied down the main fighting forces, around which the Japanese could maneuver more easily, reducing overall operational flexibility. Despite these deficiencies, NRA officers led roughly 800,000 Chinese troops deployed for the Battle of Wuhan. On the Wuhan approaches, four war zones were organized under capable if overextended leadership: 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 9th. The 5th War Zone, commanded by Li Zongren, defended north of the Yangtze to protect the Beijing–Wuhan railway. Chen Cheng's Ninth War Zone defended south of the Yangtze, aiming to prevent seizure of Jiujiang and other key cities on approaches to Wuhan. The 1st War Zone focused on stopping Japanese forces from the northern plains, while Gu Zhutong's 3rdWar Zone, deployed between Wuhu, Anqing, and Nanchang, defended the Yuehan railway and fortified the Yangtze River. Japan's Central China Expeditionary Army, commanded by Hata Shunroku, spearheaded the Wuhan advance. The CCEA consisted of two armies: the 2nd Army, which included several infantry divisions under Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni, and the 11th Army, advancing along the Yangtze's northern and southern banks under Okamura Yasuji. The 2nd Army aimed to push through the Dabie Mountains and sever Wuhan from the north, while the 11th Army would converge on Wuhan in a concentric operation to envelop the city. The Japanese forces were augmented by 120 ships from the 3rd Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy under Koshirō Oikawa, more than 500 aircraft from the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service, and five divisions from the Central China Area Army tasked with guarding Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, and other key cities. These forces were intended to protect the back of the main Japanese thrust and complete the preparations for a major battle. The Kuomintang, led by Chiang Kai-shek, was acutely aware that Japan aimed to strike at Wuhan. Facing Japan's firepower and bold offensives, Chiang and his commanders pursued a strategy of attrition at the Wuchang conference in January 1938. Central China would be the primary theater of China's protracted struggle, distant from Japan's existing center of gravity in Manchuria. Chiang hoped Japan's manpower and resources would be exhausted as the empire pushed deeper into Central China. Eventually, Japan would be forced either to negotiate a settlement with China or to seek foreign assistance to obtain raw materials. The mountainous terrain to the north and south of the Yangtze presented natural obstacles that the Chinese believed would hinder large-scale concentration of Japanese forces. North of the Yangtze, the Dabie Mountains provided crucial flank protection; to the south, rugged, roadless terrain made expansive maneuvering difficult. In addition to these natural barriers, Chinese forces fortified the region with prepared, in-depth defenses, particularly in the mountains. The rugged terrain was expected to help hold back the Japanese offensive toward Wuhan and inflict substantial casualties on the attackers. The Yangtze itself was a critical defensive factor. Although the Chinese Navy was largely absent, they implemented several measures to impede amphibious operations. They constructed gun positions at key points where the river narrowed, notably around the strongholds at Madang and Tianjiazhen. Specialized units, such as the Riverine Defense Force, were deployed to defend these river fortifications against amphibious assaults. To reinforce the Riverine Defense Force, Chinese forces sank 79 ships in the Yangtze to create obstacles for potential Japanese naval advances. They also laid thousands of mines to constrain Japanese warships. These defensive measures were designed to slow the Japanese advance and complicate their logistics. The Chinese aimed to exploit stalled offensives to strike at exposed flanks and disrupted supply lines, leveraging terrain and fortified positions to offset Japan's superior firepower. On 18 February 1938, an Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service strike force comprising at least 11 A5M fighters of the 12th and 13th Kōkūtais, led by Lieutenant Takashi Kaneko, and 15 G3M bombers of the Kanoya Kokutai, led by Lieutenant Commander Sugahisa Tuneru, raided Wuhan and engaged 19 Chinese Air Force I-15 fighters from the 22nd and 23rd Pursuit Squadrons and 10 I-16 fighters from the 21st Pursuit Squadron, all under the overall command of the 4th Pursuit Group CO Captain Li Guidan. They faced a Soviet Volunteer Group mix of Polikarpov fighters as well. The 4th Group fighters claimed at least four A5Ms shot down, while the Soviet group claimed no fewer than three A5Ms. Both the Japanese fighter group commander, Lieutenant Kaneko, and the Chinese fighter group commander, Captain Li, were killed in action during the battle. A largely intact A5M downed in the engagement was recovered with a damaged engine; it was the second intact A5M to be recovered, repaired, and flight-tested in the war, following the first recovered-intact A5M credited to Colonel Gao Zhihang during an air battle over Nanjing on 12 October 1937. On 3 August 1938, 52 Chinese fighters, including 20 I-15s, 13 I-16s, 11 Gloster Gladiators, and 7 Hawk IIIs, intercepted at least 29 A5Ms and 18 G3Ms over Hankou. The Guangxi era pilots Zhu Jiaxun and He Jermin, along with Chinese-American fighter pilots Arthur Chin and Louie Yim-qun, all flying Gladiators, claimed at least four A5Ms shot down on that day. The Wuhan Campaign began in earnest when the Imperial Japanese Army's 3rd and 13th Infantry Divisions advanced north of the Yangtze River. Central China Expeditionary Army commander Hata Shunroku designated Shouxian, Zhengyangguan, and the Huainan coal mine as the objectives for the 3rd and 13th Infantry Divisions. Meanwhile, the 6th Infantry Division, part of the 11th Army, advanced toward Anqing from Hefei. The 6th Infantry Division coordinated with the Hata Detachment, which launched an amphibious assault from the river. The 2nd Army's sector saw immediate success. On June 3, the 3rd Infantry Division seized the Huainan coal mine; two days later, it captured Shouxian. The 13th Infantry Division also secured Zhengyangguan on that day. The 6th Infantry Division then made rapid progress immediately north of the Yangtze River, taking Shucheng on June 8 and Tongcheng on June 13. These advances forced the Chinese 77th Corps and the 21st and 26th Army Groups to withdraw to a line spanning Huoshan, Lu'an, and Fuyang. More critically, the Hata Detachment crossed the Yangtze River and landed behind the Chinese 27th Army Group's 20th Corps. The sudden appearance of Japanese forces in their rear forced the two Chinese divisions defending Anqing to withdraw. The fall of Anqing represented a major Japanese success, as they gained control of an airfield crucial for receiving close air support. After battles around Shucheng, Tongcheng, and Anqing, all three cities and their surrounding countryside suffered extensive damage. Much of this damage resulted from air raids that indiscriminately targeted soldiers and civilians alike. In Shucheng, the raids were reportedly aided by a Chinese traitor who displayed a red umbrella to guide daylight bombing on May 10, 1938. This air raid caused substantial destruction, killing or wounding at least 160 people and destroying more than a thousand homes. The town of Yimen also endured aerial destruction, with raids killing over 400 people and destroying 7,000 homes. Yimen and Shucheng were among many Chinese towns subjected to terror bombing, contributing to widespread civilian casualties and the destruction of livelihoods across China. The broader pattern of air raids was enabled by a lack of quality fighter aircraft and trained pilots, allowing Japanese bombers free rein against Chinese cities, towns, and villages. While the aerial assaults caused immense damage, the atrocities committed in these cities were even more severe. In Anhui, where Shucheng, Anqing, and Tongcheng were located, the Japanese brutality was on full display. The brutality can be partly understood as an attempt to destroy China's will and capacity to wage war, yet the extremity of some acts points to a warped martial culture within the Japanese Army, which appeared to encourage murder, torture, rape, and other crimes. Indeed, the Army eventually enshrined this brutality in its doctrine with the so-called “three alls”: kill all, burn all, loot all.  These acts, and more, were carried out in Anhui during the summer of 1938 as the Japanese advanced up the Yangtze River. In Anqing, the Hata Detachment killed at least 200 people without compunction. A further 36 civilians on a boat were detained and killed by Japanese marines, who claimed they were potentially Chinese soldiers. The countryside around Anqing, Shucheng, and Tongcheng witnessed continued atrocities. In Taoxi village of Shucheng County, the Japanese burned over 1,000 houses and killed more than 40 people. At Nangang, Japanese soldiers killed more than 200 people and committed numerous rapes, including many victims over 60 years old. Tongcheng also became a site of forced sexual slavery. The Japanese atrocities, intended to terrify the Chinese into submission, did not achieve their aim. Chinese resistance persisted. After a brief withdrawal, the 20th Army held stoutly at Jinshan for four days before retreating to Xiaochiyi and Taihu. These withdrawals, while costly, lured the Japanese deeper into the interior of China. As the Japanese advanced, their flanks became increasingly vulnerable to counterattack. On June 26, 1928, the Chinese 26th Army Group attacked the flanks of the 6th Infantry Division at Taihu. The 26th Army Group was supported by the 20th and 31st Armies, which attacked from the front to pin the 6th Infantry Division in place. The 6th Infantry Division was ill-prepared to respond, suffering a malaria outbreak that left about 2,000 soldiers unfit for combat. Fighting continued until June 29, when the Japanese withdrew. The focus of operations north of the Yangtze shifted to Madang, a key river fortress protected by obstacles and river batteries. Roughly 600 mines were laid in the Yangtze near Madang, and the fortress was largely manned by the Riverine Defense Force, with a small garrison; including stragglers from the 53rd Infantry Division, the Madang garrison totaled roughly 500 men. Initial expectations had Madang holding, since Japanese ships could not easily remove obstacles or suppress the batteries. On the dawn of June 24, however, news reached Madang that Xiangkou had fallen to the Japanese, enabling a land threat to Madang, and many Madang defenders, including most officers above the platoon level, were absent at a nearby ceremony when the attack began.  On 24 June, Japanese forces conducted a surprise landing at Madang, while the main body of the Japanese Eleventh Army advanced along the southern shore of the Yangtze. The Chinese garrison at the Madang river fortress repelled four assaults, yet suffered casualties from intense bombardment by Japanese ships on the Yangtze and from poison gas attacks. Compounding the difficulty, most of the Chinese officers responsible for Madang's defense were absent due to a ceremony at a local military school by Li Yunheng, the overseeing general. Consequently, only three battalions from the second and third Marine Corps and the 313th regiment of the 53rd Division took part in the defense, totaling no more than five battalions. When the 167th Division, stationed in Pengze, was ordered by War Zone commander Bai Chongxi to move swiftly along the highway to reinforce the defenders, divisional commander Xue Weiying instead sought instructions from his direct superior, Li Yunheng, who instructed him to take a longer, more navigationally challenging route to avoid Japanese bombers. Reinforcements arrived too late, and Madang fell after a three-day battle. Chiang Kai-shek promptly ordered a counterattack, offering a 50,000 yuan reward for the units that recaptured the fortress. On June 28, the 60th Division of the 18th Corps and the 105th Division of the 49th Corps retook Xiangshan and received 20,000 yuan, but made no further progress. As the Japanese army pressed the attack on Pengze, Chinese units shifted to a defensive posture. Chiang Kai-shek subsequently had Li Yunheng court-martialed and Xue Weiying executed. After the fall of Madang, the broader Wuhan campaign benefited from Madang as a foothold along the Yangtze, as the river continued to function as a dual-use corridor for transport and amphibious landings, aiding later operations and complicating Chinese defensive planning. The rapid capture of Madang demonstrated the effectiveness of combined arms, amphibious insertion, and secure supply routes along a major river, while Chinese defenses showed weaknesses such as reliance on rough terrain, underestimation of Japanese amphibious capabilities, and delayed reinforcement, which, coupled with gas warfare, produced a swift loss. The fall influenced subsequent Chinese fortifications and defensive doctrine along the Yangtze and affected decisions regarding garrison allocations and riverine operations. After Madang fell, Japan's 11th Army pressed toward its next major objectives, Jiujiang, Huangmei, and Xiaochikou. It took nearly three weeks for the Japanese to clear the waterway around Madang of mines, costing them five minesweepers, two warships, and a landing craft full of marines. Jiujiang stood out as the most important due to its status as a key river port and railway junction. To defend these targets, China deployed the 1st Army Corps to Jiujiang, the 2nd Army Corps to cover the area west of Jiujiang, and the 4th Army Corps to defend Xiaochikou. Despite these reinforcements, the Japanese continued their advance.  The Japanese initially captured Pengze but met strong resistance at Hukou, where they again deployed poison gas during a five-day battle. During the breakout, there were insufficient boats to evacuate the auxiliary troops of the defending 26th Division from Hukou, leaving only a little over 1,800 of the more than 3,100 non-combat soldiers able to be evacuated, and the majority of the more than 1,300 missing soldiers drowned while attempting to cross the Poyang Lake. On July 23, they conducted an amphibious operation at Gutang, with the Hata Detachment landing at Jiujiang shortly thereafter. These landings south of the Yangtze represented another step toward Wuhan, which lay about 240 kilometers away. The Chinese responses consisted of relentless counterattacks, but they failed to dislodge the Japanese from their bridgeheads. Consequently, the Japanese captured Xiaochikou by July 26 and Jiujiang by July 28, with a note that poison gas may have been used at Jiujiang. North of the Yangtze, the 6th Infantry Division moved forward and seized Huangmei on August 2. Despite stubborn Chinese resistance, the Japanese had gained considerable momentum toward Wuhan. Soon after the fall of Jiujiang and surrounding areas, the local population endured a renewed surge of war crimes. The Imperial Japanese Army sought to break China's will to resist and its capacity to endure the onslaught. Male civilians were executed indiscriminately, along with any POWs unable to retreat in time, while women and children were subjected to mass rape. In addition, numerous urban districts and suburban villages were deliberately razed, including the city's ceramics factories and its maritime transportation system. The widely documented “three alls” policy proved devastating in the Yangtze region: in Jiujiang alone, as many as 98,461 people were killed, 13,213 houses destroyed, and property losses reached 28.1 billion yuan. Yet numbers fail to convey the brutality unleashed in Jiujiang, Hukou, and Xiaochikou south of the Yangtze. On July 20, the Japanese confined 100 villagers in a large house in Zhouxi village, Hukou County, and erased them with machine guns and bayonets. Tangshan village witnessed similar brutality on July 31, when eight people were drowned in a pond and 26 houses burned. That September, learning that children and the elderly at Saiyang Township were taking refuge in caves on Mount Lushan, the Japanese proceeded to bayonet defenseless civilians, many beheaded, disemboweled, or amputated. These acts, among others, were carried out on a mass scale south of the Yangtze, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths around Jiujiang. Despite the enormity of these crimes, Chinese people did not surrender. Among those who resisted was Wang Guozhen of Wang Village in Pengze County. Upon learning of the Japanese approach to Pengze on July 1, Wang, a teacher, led women, children, and the elderly into mountains and forests to seek safety. However, Wang and his followers soon encountered Japanese troops who attacked them, instantly killing over 20 people. Wang denounced their actions as the Japanese took him captive and had him whipped for over an hour. They had hit him so hard his skin was peeling off and he had broken his left thigh. They then demanded he collaborate with them, but to this Wang responded “a common man cannot resist the enemy for his country and he will only die”. After hearing these words, the Japanese simply stabbed him with a bayonet in his left eye and in his chest area, ultimately killing him. Wang's small act of defiance would earn him a plaque from the KMT that states “Eternal Heroism”. Even though Wang's heroism was commendable, bravery alone could not halt the Japanese advance along the Yangtze. After securing Jiujiang, Xiaochikou, and Gutang, the 106th and 101st Infantry Divisions carried out amphibious operations further upriver. The 106th Infantry Division landed on the Yangtze's east bank, pushing south of Jili Hu. Concurrently, the Sato Detachment, two infantry battalions plus a field artillery battalion from the 101st Infantry Division, landed east of Xiaochikou and concentrated on the east side of Mount Lu. The Japanese advance soon faced firm Chinese resistance despite these early gains. The 106th Infantry Division encountered the in-depth defenses of Xue Yue's 1st Corps. These defenses formed an isosceles triangle with Jiujiang at the apex and the Jinguanqiao line at the base. Although Jiujiang was abandoned in late July, the triangle's base at Jinguanqiao remained strong, with the 8th, 74th, 18th, 32nd, 64th, 66th, 29th, 26th, 4th, and 70th Armies concentrated in the Jinguanqiao area. These forces inflicted heavy losses on the 106th Infantry Division, which saw nearly half of its captains killed or wounded during the fighting. To aid the 106th Division's breakthrough near Jinguanqiao, the 11th Army deployed the 101st Infantry Division to the area east of Xiaochikou in mid-August. From there, the division pushed toward the east side of Mount Lu, aiming to seize Xingzi in an amphibious assault via Lake Poyang. The objective was to outflank De'an and the nearby Nanxun Road. On August 19, the 101st Infantry Division executed the plan and landed at Xingzi, where they faced strong resistance from the 53rd Infantry Division. However, the division found itself isolated and thus vulnerable to being outflanked. By August 23, the 53rd Infantry Division had withdrawn to the east. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. In 1938 Wuhan stood as China's fragile beacon. Wuhan's defense hinged on a patchwork of war zones and weary commanders, while Japan poured in hundreds of thousands of troops, ships, and air power. The Yangtze became a deadly artery, with river fortresses, brutal bombings, and mass casualties. Yet courage endured: individuals like Wang Guozhen chose defiance over surrender.

Guest Doug Hamlin, Executive Vice President of the National Rifle Association, joins to discuss the NRA reboot 2.0, hunting season, educating the next generation in gun safety, battling gun restrictions across the nation, and more.  Another weekend of "No Kings Day Protests" across the nation. Where is the king? Discussion of Democrats desperate for a bit of control, battling for socialism, and elected officials ramping up the rhetoric against Trump. 

Summary In this episode of Armed American Radio, host Mark Walters discusses various political topics, including the importance of the NRA, the political climate in cities like Atlanta, and the rhetoric surrounding current political figures. The conversation also touches on personal anecdotes about winter preparations and the significance of gun rights in America. Throughout the episode, Walters emphasizes the need for active participation in the fight for freedom and the importance of being informed about political issues. Takeaways The NRA plays a crucial role in advocating for gun rights. Atlanta's political climate is viewed negatively due to its leadership. Rhetoric in Washington is intensifying, especially between parties. Democratic policies are critiqued for coddling criminals and illegal immigrants. Media influence shapes public perception and political narratives. Membership in the NRA offers significant benefits and discounts. National reciprocity for gun laws is a pressing issue. Engagement in political issues is essential for citizens. Personal anecdotes can provide relatable context to political discussions. The importance of self-defense and legal representation is emphasized. Keywords Armed American Radio, NRA, political commentary, gun rights, media influence, winter preparations, national reciprocity, Carolyn Levitt, Hakeem Jeffries, Atlanta politics  

Blue State Keith Ellison, NRA, Shutdown & Demonic Content. Silk breaks it down. Tonight at 10pm ET on Lindell TV. #DiamondandSilk http://DiamondandSilkMedia.com Use Promo Code: DIAMOND or TRUMPWON 1. http://DiamondandSilkStore.com2. https://thedrardisshow.com/shop-all/?aff=123. http://PatchThat.com4. https://cardiomiracle.com/?ref=DIAMOND5. https://MyPillow.com/TrumpWon6. https://DrStellaMD.com7. https://www.Curativabay.com/?aff=18. http://MaskDerma.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kimber Firearms is back with a vengeance. In this exclusive episode of Gun Talk Nation, host Ryan Gresham sits down with Everett Deger from Kimber to explore the brand's evolution, innovation, and resurgence across handguns, rifles, and revolvers.From their iconic 1911s to the groundbreaking 2K11 double-stack, and even a return to legacy rifles, this conversation is a deep dive into Kimber's DNA and future. Topics include:Why Kimber is more than just 1911sThe origin and innovation behind the 2K11 seriesDetails on Kimber's coatings: DLC, PVD, Cerakote, and KimProThe return of Kimber rifles and what to expectThe sleek CDS9 and its "Classic" carry-ready versionKimber revolvers and their standout K6XSWhat's next at SHOT Show and beyondWhether you're a lifelong Kimber fan or curious about what they've been up to, this is the inside look at one of America's most recognizable firearm brands you don't want to miss.This Gun Talk Nation is brought to you by Hodgdon Powder, NRA, Safariland, EOTECH, and Range Ready Studios.About Gun Talk NationGun Talk Media's Gun Talk Nation with Ryan Gresham is a weekly multi-platform podcast that offers a fresh look at all things firearms-related. Featuring notable guests and a lot of laughs. Gun Talk Nation is available as an audio podcast or in video format.For more content from Gun Talk Media, visit guntalk.com or subscribe on YouTube, Rumble, Facebook, Instagram, and X. Catch First Person Defender on the new Official FPD YouTube channel. Watch Gun Talk Nation on its new YouTube channel. Catch Gun Talk Hunt on the new dedicated YouTube Channel. Listen to all Gun Talk Podcasts with Spreaker, iHeart, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find podcasts.Copyright ©2025 Freefire Media, LLCGun Talk Nation 10.15.25Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gun-talk--6185159/support.

Summary In this episode of Armed American Radio, host Mark Walters discusses various topics related to gun rights, including live show preparation, Florida's gun purchase age legislation, and updates on Second Amendment rights from Harmeet Dhillon. The conversation also addresses misinformation within the gun rights community and features a guest appearance by AWR Hawkins, who shares insights on the current administration's stance on gun rights. The episode emphasizes the importance of unity among gun rights organizations and encourages listeners to stay informed and engaged. Takeaways Mark Walters introduces the show and its purpose. Live show prep is conducted, focusing on gun control topics. Discussion on Florida's proposed legislation to lower the gun purchase age. Harmeet Dhillon provides updates on Second Amendment rights and legal cases. Misinformation in the gun rights community is addressed, emphasizing the need for clarity. AWR Hawkins joins the show to discuss the administration's pro-gun stance. Listeners are encouraged to support gun rights organizations. The importance of unity among gun rights groups is highlighted. Mark emphasizes the need to verify information before sharing. The episode concludes with a call to action for listeners to stay engaged. Keywords Armed American Radio, Second Amendment, gun rights, Harmeet Dhillon, misinformation, Florida gun laws, AWR Hawkins, NRA, live show prep, gun control  

(October 15, 2025)NRA sues California over alleged Glock ban aimed at illegal machine gun ‘switches.' Dr. Jim Keany, Chief Medical Officer at Dignity Health St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, joins The Bill Handel Show for 'Medical News'! Dr. Keany talks with Bill about kiwis for constipation, more L.A. deaths tied to Kratom, a liver disease breakthrough, and FDA clearing a bloodtest for Alzheimers.

Summary In this episode of Armed American Radio, host Mark Walters discusses various pressing issues surrounding gun rights, including the ongoing Tate-Adomniak case, which highlights concerns about judicial fairness and the ATF's actions. The conversation also delves into California's recent Glock ban and the legal responses from major gun rights organizations. Throughout the discussion, the importance of activism and awareness in the fight for Second Amendment rights is emphasized. Takeaways Mark Walters introduces the show and highlights its purpose. The Tate-Odomniak case raises serious questions about judicial fairness. The appellate court's decision on Tate's case is mixed, with some convictions overturned. Concerns are raised about the evidence not being allowed in the original trial. The conversation emphasizes the importance of activism in the gun rights movement. California's Glock ban is a significant issue for gun owners. Legal responses to the Glock ban are being spearheaded by major organizations. The importance of understanding legal implications in gun ownership is discussed. Mark Walters expresses frustration with the judicial system's handling of gun cases. The episode concludes with a call to action for listeners to support gun rights. Keywords Armed American Radio, Second Amendment, gun rights, ATF, legal news, Glock ban, Tate-Adomniak case, judicial system, freedom, NRA  

Summary In this episode of Armed American Radio, host Mark Walters discusses various pressing issues surrounding gun rights and legislation with guests including Alan Gottlieb and AWR Hawkins. The conversation covers Everytown's political hypocrisy, legal challenges to firearm regulations, the NRA's response to California's gun laws, the implications of red flag laws, and the recent decision by Publix to allow open carry in Florida. The episode emphasizes the ongoing battle for Second Amendment rights and the importance of staying informed and engaged in the fight against restrictive gun laws. This conversation delves into various aspects of firearm laws, mass shootings, and the media's portrayal of gun violence. Mark Walters discusses Florida's firearm regulations, the myths surrounding mass shootings, and the importance of legal representation for gun owners. The dialogue also touches on the political rhetoric surrounding gun rights, corporate policies affecting gun ownership, and the implications of recent legislation in California. Throughout the discussion, the speakers emphasize the need for responsible gun ownership and awareness of local laws. Takeaways Everytown's hypocrisy is evident in their political endorsements. The NRA is actively challenging California's gun laws. Red flag laws are an invitation for tyranny. Open carry policies are gaining traction in Florida. Gavin Newsom's gun control agenda is politically motivated. Legal challenges to the NFA could reshape gun regulations. The Supreme Court may take on more Second Amendment cases soon. Public awareness of gun rights is crucial in the current political climate. Misinformation about gun laws can lead to public confusion. The fight for Second Amendment rights is ongoing and requires vigilance. Florida law allows concealed carry in certain establishments. Mass shootings occur globally, not just in the U.S. Media often misrepresents gun violence statistics. Legal representation is crucial for gun owners. Political rhetoric can escalate tensions around gun rights. Corporate policies can influence public perception of gun laws. Understanding local gun laws is essential for responsible ownership. California's recent gun legislation raises concerns for gun owners. The importance of fighting for Second Amendment rights in a polarized environment. Responsible gun ownership includes knowing when not to carry. Keywords Armed American Radio, gun rights, Second Amendment, NRA, Everytown, gun control, legal challenges, red flag laws, open carry, Gavin Newsom, Florida firearm laws, mass shootings, media narratives, gun rights, legal representation, political rhetoric, corporate policies, gun laws, California gun legislation  

Summary In this episode of Armed American Radio, host Mark Walters discusses various pressing issues surrounding gun rights and legislation with guests including Alan Gottlieb and AWR Hawkins. The conversation covers Everytown's political hypocrisy, legal challenges to firearm regulations, the NRA's response to California's gun laws, the implications of red flag laws, and the recent decision by Publix to allow open carry in Florida. The episode emphasizes the ongoing battle for Second Amendment rights and the importance of staying informed and engaged in the fight against restrictive gun laws. This conversation delves into various aspects of firearm laws, mass shootings, and the media's portrayal of gun violence. Mark Walters discusses Florida's firearm regulations, the myths surrounding mass shootings, and the importance of legal representation for gun owners. The dialogue also touches on the political rhetoric surrounding gun rights, corporate policies affecting gun ownership, and the implications of recent legislation in California. Throughout the discussion, the speakers emphasize the need for responsible gun ownership and awareness of local laws. Takeaways Everytown's hypocrisy is evident in their political endorsements. The NRA is actively challenging California's gun laws. Red flag laws are an invitation for tyranny. Open carry policies are gaining traction in Florida. Gavin Newsom's gun control agenda is politically motivated. Legal challenges to the NFA could reshape gun regulations. The Supreme Court may take on more Second Amendment cases soon. Public awareness of gun rights is crucial in the current political climate. Misinformation about gun laws can lead to public confusion. The fight for Second Amendment rights is ongoing and requires vigilance. Florida law allows concealed carry in certain establishments. Mass shootings occur globally, not just in the U.S. Media often misrepresents gun violence statistics. Legal representation is crucial for gun owners. Political rhetoric can escalate tensions around gun rights. Corporate policies can influence public perception of gun laws. Understanding local gun laws is essential for responsible ownership. California's recent gun legislation raises concerns for gun owners. The importance of fighting for Second Amendment rights in a polarized environment. Responsible gun ownership includes knowing when not to carry. Keywords Armed American Radio, gun rights, Second Amendment, NRA, Everytown, gun control, legal challenges, red flag laws, open carry, Gavin Newsom, Florida firearm laws, mass shootings, media narratives, gun rights, legal representation, political rhetoric, corporate policies, gun laws, California gun legislation  

Summary In this episode of Armed American Radio, host Mark Walters discusses various pressing issues surrounding gun rights and legislation with guests including Alan Gottlieb and AWR Hawkins. The conversation covers Everytown's political hypocrisy, legal challenges to firearm regulations, the NRA's response to California's gun laws, the implications of red flag laws, and the recent decision by Publix to allow open carry in Florida. The episode emphasizes the ongoing battle for Second Amendment rights and the importance of staying informed and engaged in the fight against restrictive gun laws. This conversation delves into various aspects of firearm laws, mass shootings, and the media's portrayal of gun violence. Mark Walters discusses Florida's firearm regulations, the myths surrounding mass shootings, and the importance of legal representation for gun owners. The dialogue also touches on the political rhetoric surrounding gun rights, corporate policies affecting gun ownership, and the implications of recent legislation in California. Throughout the discussion, the speakers emphasize the need for responsible gun ownership and awareness of local laws. Takeaways Everytown's hypocrisy is evident in their political endorsements. The NRA is actively challenging California's gun laws. Red flag laws are an invitation for tyranny. Open carry policies are gaining traction in Florida. Gavin Newsom's gun control agenda is politically motivated. Legal challenges to the NFA could reshape gun regulations. The Supreme Court may take on more Second Amendment cases soon. Public awareness of gun rights is crucial in the current political climate. Misinformation about gun laws can lead to public confusion. The fight for Second Amendment rights is ongoing and requires vigilance. Florida law allows concealed carry in certain establishments. Mass shootings occur globally, not just in the U.S. Media often misrepresents gun violence statistics. Legal representation is crucial for gun owners. Political rhetoric can escalate tensions around gun rights. Corporate policies can influence public perception of gun laws. Understanding local gun laws is essential for responsible ownership. California's recent gun legislation raises concerns for gun owners. The importance of fighting for Second Amendment rights in a polarized environment. Responsible gun ownership includes knowing when not to carry. Keywords Armed American Radio, gun rights, Second Amendment, NRA, Everytown, gun control, legal challenges, red flag laws, open carry, Gavin Newsom, Florida firearm laws, mass shootings, media narratives, gun rights, legal representation, political rhetoric, corporate policies, gun laws, California gun legislation  

NRA-ILA Director of Litigation Joseph Greenlee joins Cam to discuss the latest in the legal challenges to New Jersey's plethora of "gun-free zones" and prohibitions on so-called assault weapons and large capacity magazines, as well as a recent amicus brief filed by NRA and other 2A groups in support of a non-violent felon's attempt to regain his Second Amendment rights.

On Today's Episode –Retired Col. Rob Maness is back to talk about the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk, and its lasting ramifications. Tune in for all the Funhttps://x.com/RobManesshttps://www.stripes.com/opinion/2025-08-12/keep-artificial-intelligence-out-government-18742200.htmlhttps://gatorpac.com/ Retired Colonel Rob Maness has a lifelong record of providing dedicated service to the nation. He made the decision as a 17-year-old high school senior to enlist in the United States Air Force and serve in uniform as the country faced multiple crises around the world.Having worked his way up from the enlisted ranks to full colonel, he retired from active duty in 2011, ending his military service of more than 32 years. Following military retirement Rob returned to Louisiana to work as an executive in a Fortune 500 energy corporation. He is currently founder and the owner of Iron Liberty Group and resides in Gulfport, Mississippi.Rob has proven his competence at the local, state, and federal levels of government with his demonstrated leadership and effectiveness as a steward of our citizen's tax dollars. He has broad experience working at the Louisiana State Legislature, in the national budget process, national emergency response decision-making, law enforcement, successful community relations with governments at all levels, and working directly with citizens to meet today's challenges. He has provided direct, executive oversight to local schools in coordination with elected school boards, working to make them secure and more effective to meet the needs of America's military children. His leadership and combat experiences give him a unique perspective when considering how national action impacts our American families.During his military service, Colonel Maness led numerous combat operations, including as a bomber squadron commander in Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. Colonel Maness served as an enlisted bomb disposal technician in three assignments countering terrorism before being commissioned and selected for flight training. As a Joint Chiefs of Staff operations officer he was on duty in the National Military Command Center located within the Pentagon during the September 11, 2001 attack. In the ensuing months, he directly assisted the United States national security team with creating, synchronizing, and executing the campaign plan for the global war on terrorism. Colonel Maness authored the first theater nuclear war plan and designed decision-making tools for the Presidential nuclear decision handbook strengthening U.S. extended strategic deterrence policy in European and Pacific regions. Colonel Maness served as the Vice Commander of America's largest Airborne Intelligence Wing conducting strategic and battlefield intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations against America's enemies. He went on to command Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, NM, the sixth largest U.S. Air Force Base encompassing 53,000 acres and 22,000 employees, housing our nation's most critical assets.After running for the U.S. Senate on this America First Platform, Rob founded GatorPAC and its Veterans Leadership Fund, a Federal political action committee. The PAC educates grass roots political activists on the most effective ways to influence their elected officials, get a candidate elected, or to fight for a cause. It advocates for policies that protect your liberty, fight for limited government, and ensure prosperity. He has also served as a board member at Military Veterans Advocacy, Inc., a veteran's advocacy group fighting for veteran toxic exposure benefits, committed to preventing veteran suicides, and ensuring military families have equal access to benefits. He has served as a non-voting board member of the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and Hispano Chamber of Commerce in his role as Commander of Kirtland AFB. As president of his local chapter of the Military Officers Association of America, he led a team that created an annual scholarship fund for graduating high school students. Rob is a Life Member of the NRA, Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, and the Military Officers Association of America. He is also a member of the Louisiana Military Order of Foreign Wars and the Society of the Sons of the Revolution. Active in the community, Rob served as an elected member of the Republican Party Executive Committee representing St. Tammany Parish Council District 1 for two terms and served on the board of the only Republican Men's Club in Louisiana. He Currently serves on the Harrison County and Gulfport Mississippi GOP Executive committees.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.