부산대학교 도서관

Subsequent to the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, the Nankou (Nankow) Campaign broke out on August 8, 1937, as the first strategic military operation in North China. It forged the accumulated hostilities into a total war in the north as the Shanghai Campaign, which started 5 days later, did in the south. Elevation 850 was one of the most critical sites in the battlefield during the Nankou Campaign. Unfortunately, the primary sources fail to provide any precise records of the location of Elevation 850. And the historical atlas of China's War of Resistance against Japan, as the only graphic secondary source published by the academic authority in Mainland China, has mislocated this elevation. Based on the primary sources of this campaign, this article explains why the current location of Elevation 850 in the historical map is inaccurate and incorrect, and analyses where the real Elevation 850 should be located. New methodology, a combination of battlefield investigation and topography, is introduced into the field of history study. Oral history work is also applied to assist the search. Eventually, the only possible location of Elevation 850 is figured out, which meets all its known conditions.