"China and WW2" Topic

"The Japanese had been in northern China since 1931, and in coastal China since 1937 when they attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, marking the official beginning of World War II in Asia and the Pacific. The Japanese occupied most of the eastern and coastal part of China but not the interior until the end of World War II. They had difficulty advancing into the interior. In rugged terrain, the well-equipped Japanese were no match for the modestly-armed but determined Chinese peasants.

The Kuomintang and Communists formed an alliance against the Japanese. Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists and Mao Zedong's Red Army occupied the interior of China. The area under Mao's control was home to around 100 million people. Chiang reluctantly agreed to form a United Front with the Communists against the Japanese after being pressured to do so by the United States…."

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Have anyone wargame with Chinese Army of WW2?
They all have English Uniforms?

Amicalement
Armand

I just finished reading Tuchman's book on Stilwell. Interesting subject and one I had not read much about. Chiang tended to hoard the lend lease equipment, for the coming fight against Mao. He preferred to let the allies fight defeat the Japanese with as little Chinese effort as possible. I will be starting a Chinese army in 28mm soon. I am going with the warlord era guys to do a warlord army, and probably CCP. Chiang's army had a lot of different kit. German before the Tri-Partite pact, then American/British. I imagine the Chinese in India would have gotten British kit.

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Also, Armand's own post: TMP link

I just finished reading Tuchman's book on Stilwell.

You should next get Rana Mitter's China at War and Jay Taylor's Generalissimo and judge for yourself how Tuchman's book has fared in the light of new research.

Great models & table !!!!

Those are great!. (smile)

Many thanks for the comments boys!.

Amicalement
Armand

I originally created and based these for Crossfire but I am about to embark on a re-basing project to get these onto individual bases for playing Chain of Command. These are all 1/72 (20mm or even 1/76) plastic figures, mainly Caesar and conversions using Airfix German heads.

Wow ! Great ! I've seen in historical pics they had armor and uninforms from various sources.

Like most countries they were buying from the international arms market between the wars. The Chinese formed a number of elite divisions and these were trained under German instructors, the head of the German mission was none other than Hans Von Seeckt between 1933-35. It was during this period these Chinese divisions began wearing the 1935 pattern German helmet (which they made under licence in China) and also acquired weapons included the Pak 36 and the PzkfwI.

The Chinese had already acquired T26 tanks from Russia; Vickers tanks from Britain, L3/33 tankettes from Italy to add to the few remained FT17s left over from the Warlord era (1920s). During the fighting in Burma some Chinese divisions retreated with the British into India where they were re-equipped with British uniforms and equipment. Other divisions retreated into China and were re-equipped with US equipment.

Much of the armour was lost during the battle for Shanghai, where the German trained divisions also lost heavily.

Worth remembering that the IJA kept an army of 1,000,000 in China and saw this as the main theatre of war. The Pacific was very much the navy's war.

I had an opportunity to visit the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution which has many of these weapons. The museum has a most impressive collection and it is beautifully displayed. I have some pictures on my blog Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution

Nice pics !

I have seen them in German uniforms in early war action. I think several companies make them in 20mm.
I have seen them in British and early US pie helmets in 15 and 20mm. Even Filipino scouts used as Chinese. I have seen them in hats and American helmets.
I have even seen Korean War Chinese used as Communists.

I am always in awe of your skills Tactical Painter. Nicely done and very inspiring. Thanks for sharing.

Tacticalpainter thanks for the heads up on the museum. I'll be in Beijing in the fall. I'll have to check it out.

Many thanks!.

Amicalement
Armand