Osprey - Men-at-Arms 424 Cninese 1937-49 (WWII and Civil War)[Osprey MaA 424].pdf

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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
• Historical background: the Kuomintang - the Communists
-Japanese ambitions in Manchuria
CHRONOLOGY
PHILIP JOWETT was born
in Leeds in 1961 and has
been interested in military
history for as long as he can
remember. His first Osprey
book was the ground-breaking
Men-at-Arms 306:
Chinese
Civil War Armies 1911-49;
he
has since published a three-
part sequence on the
Italian
Army 1940-45
(Men-at-Arms
volumes 340, 349 & 353).
A rugby league enthusiast
and amateur genealogist,
he is married and lives in
Lincolnshire.
3
6
13
THE NATIONALIST ARMY 1937-45
• Strength, organization and character
• Weapons
• Nationalist guerrillas
THE NATIONALIST ARMY 1945-49
• Strength, organization and character
• Weapons
UNIFORMS 1937-45
• Summer uniforms: tunics - trousers - puttees - footwear
• Headgear: uniform headgear — steel helmets —
other headgear
• Officers' clothing
• Winter uniforms
• Insignia: collar patches - identification patches - arm
badges - unit badges - armbands
• Field equipment
• Armoured crews
• Militia & guerrillas
UNIFORMS 1946-49
• Summer uniforms
• Headgear
• "Model 1946" winter clothing
• Insignia
• Officers' uniforms
• Paramilitary uniforms
THE PLATES
INDEX
16
20
39
STEPHEN WALSH studied
art at the North East Wales
Institute. Since then, he
has worked mainly for the
American historical board-
game market, fulfilling a
lifelong interest in historical
subjects. His American works
include the best-selling
Settlers of Catan.
He has
also produced many pieces
of artwork inspired by J R R
Tolkien. He is married with
two children and lives in
Macclesfield.
42
48
First published in Great Britain in 2005 by Osprey Publishing
Midland House, West Way, Botley, Oxford 0X2 OPH, United Kingdom
443 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016, USA
Email:
info@ospreypublishing.com
© 2005 Osprey Publishing Ltd.
All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study,
research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should
be addressed to the Publishers.
ISBN 1 84176 904 5
Page layouts by Alan Hamp
Index by Alison Worthington
Originated by The Electronic Page Company, Cwmbran, UK
Printed in China through World Print Ltd.
05 06 07 08 09
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Dedication
To my family
Acknowledgements
The author would like to express his appreciation to the following:
Paul Cornish, Colin R.Green, Joseph Liu, D.Y.Louie, Kevin Mahoney,
Eric McChesney, Robert E. Passinini & Phil Piazza of the Merrill's
Marauders Association, and Paul V.Walsh. Finally, thanks to
Stephen Walsh for his hard work on the plates and for squeezing
in the extra figures.
Editor's
Note
For clarity, Chinese place names in this text are spelt according
to the conventions employed in the 1940s, as being more familiar
to Western readers - e.g. Peking rather than Beijing, Canton rather
than Guangzhou, etc.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
FOR A CATALOGUE OF ALL BOOKS PUBLISHED BY
OSPREY MILITARY AND AVIATION PLEASE CONTACT:
North America:
Osprey Direct, 2427 Bond Street, University Park, IL 60466, USA
Email:
info@ospreydirectusa.com
All other regions:
Osprey Direct UK, PO Box 140, Wellingborough, Northants, NN8 2FA, UK
Email:
info@ospreydirect.co.uk
www.ospreypublishing.com
Artist's
Note
Readers may care to note that the original paintings from which
the colour plates in this book were prepared are available for
private sale. All reproduction copyright whatsoever is retained
by the Publishers. All enquiries should be addressed to:
info@stevewalsh.co.uk
The Publishers regret that they can enter into no correspondence
upon this matter.
THE CHINESE ARMY 1 9 3 7 - 4 9
INTRODUCTION
A soldier of the early 1940s,
remarkably well kitted out
for the Chinese Army, with a
knapsack as well as a haversack
and canvas ammunition
bandolier. The almost universal
Kuomintang sunburst badge, in
white on blue enamel, is pinned
to his cap. His rank, equivalent
to lance-corporal or private first
class, is indicated by the three
triangles on his coloured metal
or plastic collar patches; the
small white cotton personal
identification patch above his
left breast seems to be bordered
in blue, which is now thought
to have denoted all ranks junior
to major. The khaki colour of
Chinese uniforms varied greatly;
this man's two-button 'ski'-type
field cap and tunic seem to be
of one of the darker greenish
or brownish shades.
URING WORLD WAR II, China was an important partner in the fight
against the Japanese Empire. Although often overlooked today as
an ally of the United States and the British Empire, China had
already been fighting Japanese armies on her own soil for four and a
half years when the attack on Pearl Harbor opened hostilities between
Japan and the Western Allies in December 1941, and thereafter this
so-called Sino-Japanese War became absorbed into the wider conflict. It
has been estimated that in the period 1937-45 some 14 million Chinese
served in the armed forces, losing about 1,400,000 dead and 1,800,000
wounded. (Total Chinese civilian casualties are, of course, incalculable,
but a figure of around 800,000 dead has been suggested.)
While the United States provided the government of Generalissimo
Chiang Kai-shek with generous financial and material aid, air support,
staff assistance, and training for a proportion of his forces, only a small
minority of China's troops served in direct co-ordination with the British
Empire forces in South-East Asia. Nevertheless, the stubborn resistance
against the Japanese in China itself tied down more than a million
Japanese troops throughout the war - troops who would otherwise have
been free for massive reinforcement of the southern armies facing the
British on the Burma/India border and the US forces in the Pacific,
with very damaging results.
An undeclared state of hostilities had already existed between China
and Japan since the latter's invasion of Manchuria in September 1931,
and full-scale war had broken out in July 1937. During the years that
followed Chinese armies were to suffer catastrophic losses in both men
and material, and huge tracts of territory and most of the major cities -
roughly, the entire northern and eastern half of the country - were to
fall under Japanese occupation. By the outbreak of the Pacific war in
1941 the Chinese Army was exhausted, and its ability and will to resist
had been worn down; however, encouraged and funded by the Western
Allies, the nation and army continued to fight until the final Allied
victory in August 1945.
The Chinese Army was to emerge from the war seemingly
stronger than ever in both numbers and equipment. However,
the fragility of this outward strength was soon to be exposed by
their Communist adversaries in the resumed Civil War of
1946—49. Severe weaknesses in strategy, morale and leadership
were to lead to the final defeat of the Nationalist forces in late
1949, and their flight to the island of Formosa (Taiwan).
The huge size and diversity of Chinese forces in mis period,
the weakness of central control, the essentially regional
3

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