Arming the Chinese: Western Armaments Trade in Warlord China, 1920-1928
By Anthony Chan, 1982, University of Columbia Press
An interesting book covering what is known about how the various Warlords of China gained their arms in the 1920’s.
Good points
1. They got their arms from everywhere. Italy, France, Japan, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Russia (both Soviet and retreating white Russians), Great Britain, and the United States (though not so much from the last two- there was an embargo that they somewhat followed that most countries ignored). Usually using at least two of these sources. This means that no army was equipped with one standard caliber for rifles or machineguns (what a headache for supply), let alone artillery.
2. Some mention of specific weapons for specific warlords such as Mauser rifles, Brequet and Caudron airplanes for warlord Tang Jiyao of Yunnan and Maxims, Lewis, Vickers and St. Etien machineguns for Feng Yuxiang.
3. Since the book almost solely dealt with large arms transfers from major companies, arms manufacturers and governments (the Italians had an arms display at Embassy and regularly issued catalogs- despite and arms embargo) they listed purchases that ran into thousands of rifles, hundreds of machineguns, and dozens of cannons. The Warlords were not small armies that could be supplied with just a few cases of rifles.
4. Some information on White Russian mercenaries who mainly worked for Zhang Zuolin in northeast China (Manchuria). He was wealthy enough to afford them and was anti-Bolshevik. He also had 100 armored cars built for himself in Shanghai?!?!!
5. Detailed information on attempts ( some successful, some not) of warlords to obtain chemical weapons.
Bad Points
1. Not enough detail on most weapons sales. Sure you can presume that the Italians supplied Italian weapons and the Japanese supplied Japanese weapons but weapons sales by companies from Norway and Denmark could be almost anything. Also there is at least one case mentioned of a French Official supplying Czech Mauser rifles and ammo. Even when brand names are mentioned you are left wondering what model (knowing a warlord had Caudron trainers, and Brequet airplanes is nice, knowing models would be better).
2. Other than a brief mention of sailors doing small time smuggling (a Browning automatic pistol bought in Marseilles, France would bring six to eight times it’s price in China) there is no mention of the medium to small gun-dealers, those with 6 to 12 grates of rifles and a couple machineguns. Those size traders would be of interest as focal points for wargames.
3. Obviously not a person who knows weapons, he occasionally has bloopers. Such as calling Russian revolvers Namat (Nagant) or referring to 75 cm (mm) cannons.
25 June 2009, 03:12:03 PM