Du Yuming

Du Yuming 杜聿明
Lieutenant General Du Yuming
Born	(1904-11-28)28 November 1904 Mizhi County, Shaanxi Province, Qing Dynasty
Died	7 May 1981(1981-05-07) (aged 77) Beijing, People's Republic of China
Allegiance	Republic of China  People's Republic of China
Years of service	1924-1948
Rank	Lieutenant General
Unit	200th Division
Commands held	5th corps, 2nd army, Xuzhou Forward Command Center
Battles/wars	Northern Expedition Second Sino-Japanese War Defense of the Great Wall Battle of Kunlun Pass Burma Campaign Chinese Civil War Campaign to Defend Siping Linjiang Campaign Liaoshen Campaign Huaihai Campaign
Awards	Order of Blue Sky and White Sun
Other work	writer, researcher, historian

Du Yuming (Chinese: 杜聿明; pinyin: Dù Yùmíng; 1904–1981) was a Kuomintang field commander. He was a graduate of the first class of Whampoa Academy, took part in Chiang's Northern Expedition, and was active in southern China and in the Burma theatre of the Sino-Japanese War. After the Japanese surrendered in 1945, he was an important commander in the Chinese Civil War.

From 1945-47 Du commanded Nationalist forces in Northeast China and won several important battles against Communist forces there, including defeating the Communist general Lin Biao twice at Siping. Despite his successes, Chiang relieved him from command in 1947, after which Communist forces quickly took control of the region.

Du was captured later in the civil war and spent a decade as a prisoner of war. He was released in 1959, and given a position in the Communist government.

A trusted protégé of Chiang Kai-shek, Du was a graduate of the first cadet class at the Whampoa Military Academy. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, he commanded the KMT 5th Corps in the First Changsha Campaign, and Battle of South Guangxi.

During World War II, he commanded the same 5th Corps or Nationalist Fifth Army of the Chinese Expeditionary Force in Burma in the Battle of Yunnan-Burma Road from mid March to early June 1942, during the Burma Campaign under Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell. When the British Army collapsed and abandoned Burma under Japanese pressure, Du was forced to order a hastily planned withdrawal that resulted in the loss of 50,000 Chinese soldiers. Du fell back to China despite General Sun Li-Jen's advice that, because the route back to China was hazardous, he should instead retreat with the British to India. Most men that followed Du Died in the Burmese jungle of tropical disease and starvation or were killed by the Axis forces, while Sun's army retreated in an orderly fashion into India. Because he was acting on the orders of Chiang Kai-shek when he withdrew to China, he was not punished for the outcome of the campaign.