Troops under General Sun Lien: hung, with headquarters at Sinyang. fre already stated to have taken up positions on this line to act as a hhueleus round. which the armies veeating from the first line, should It'be broken, would reform, Behind this, second line, there is stilt another third line running in a remi-elrele from Wushengkwan, on the Peiping-Hankow Railway at the border of Honan and Hupeh pro~ vinees, through Macheny, east of Hankow, across the Yangize to. the south bank, where the major stand will be attempted.
'This line will be stocked by, fresh troops, supported by all the' new supplies of artillery and mechanised units, Guarding the flanks of these three main lines running diagonally across the Peiping-Hankow Railway are two forees: "ne to the north along the 'Lunghai between Kunghsien and 'Tungkwan and southward from Tung-Hwan along the Tapishan mountains, Jand the other to the south running' Southward from Kushih through Macheng to the Yangtze, The nottlern flank Is composed of '9 portion of the forces withdrawn from Lanfeng, Kaifeng and Cheng chow combined with those formerly stationed in "the western section the Lunghai. Tety are_under the command of" General Chen Chien, with headquarters at Loyang. yuthern Flank Split 'The southern flank Is split into two Jentities. One is composed of troops withdrawn from the 'Tientsin-Pukow Railway' front and under the command of General Li Tsung-Jen, with headquarters at Kushih. Their task protect the right flank on the Peiping-Hankow Railway.
'The other entity Is under the command of General Chang. Fah-kwel the famous "Ironsides" gener headquarters at' Kiukiang. "Their take is to hold off an attack along the Yangtze and later fall back on Macheng.
Tt is slated that the total number of forees employed in the defence Hankow. will be 60 divisions. It is Impossible to obtain any official figures of the newly-organized a ery and mechanical units, but information "from. usually" reliable Jsourees. indicates that the organization of 30 artillery regiments has [been completed and that the Chinese Jarmy has obtained 1,200 new tanks.
The new artillery' units will be equipped with 380 eld pieces from the USS.R. and 300 from other con-
The Soviet guns are 72 millimetre guns, There are also some. six-inch The tanks are mainly of light and medium weight.
While undoubtedly these new guns and tanks will be used in the defence of Hankow, it {s reliably learned that only. part of newly arrived arm Diagram showing the triple Chinese defence tines against the Japanese ments will be so used. Many will be kept in reserve for a possible later battle west of Hunon—ev Alr Force Concentrated Hankow, June 23.
With the zero hour of te Japanese g push on Hankow believed to be! very near, preparations are being, Betively. completed in order to con centrate the entire Chinese air force here to defend one city.
reliably Jearned that 60 bombers and 100 pursuit. planes either have already been concentrated in Hankow or are on the way. One hundred more bombers have been promised to arrive here before the fend of June, while 100 French pursuit planes are stated to be now on the way to Hankow from Indo-China Chinese aeroplanes have hitherto been unable to participate actively in.
igements on various fronts, it is pointed out, because there have not been enough pursuit planes to pr teet bombers "in operations 100 far away from their base.
This is also stated 10 explain why the Chinese air force has not sent any pursuit machines to Canton to challenge the Japanese dally raids there, The official military view is that, owing to the smallness of the Chinese alr force, planes must be con: centrated at a few strategic centres protect Chinese" bombers from Sapanese raids and also to protect Chinese bombers when they Ko on bombing missions, Once they are separated, it is stated, they are not powerful' enough protect Canton or defend Hankow. They must sacrifice one and in pres cumstances, st hus been decided to concentrate on the defence of Hankow.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.