Chu Teh, General, 1886-1976

Chu Teh was the Commander in Chief of the Chinese Communist troops in northwest China. He had been one of the military leaders of the Long March and had continued to fight CHIANG Kai-shek until 1937 when the Communists and the Kuomintang had decided to join together in fighting China’s enemy, the Japanese. Chu Teh’s first significant success against the Japanese was on 25 September 1937 at the battle of P’ing-sinkuan when he ambushed the Japanese 5th Division. However the Communists mainly fought using guerrilla tactics as they had very little conventional, modern equipment. Chu Teh, therefore, confined himself to political planning. In July 1946 the Communist Army he had created became the People’s Army and full-scale civil war broke out shortly after.