Customer Reviews

The Chinese Army 1937-49: World War II and Civil War (Men-at-Arms)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was undecided about which soldier had a rougher life--the Japanese, Soviet, or Chinese soldier. After reading Philip Jowett's "The Chinese Army," I'll vote for the Chinese soldier. One in four soldiers issued a blanket? The virtual lack of a logistics pipeline severely hindered the Chinese Army's effectiveness. What little trickled down to the soldier's unit was often stolen and sold by his officers. No wonder Mao won! China was in a state of civil war since the mid 1920's. Japan needed resources and saw a failed nation as ripe for the picking. After Japan exhausted itself in China, Japan declared war on the rest of the world and was utterly crushed--Chinese soldiers played an important role in that defeat. Afterwards, China resumed its civil war, with the Communists routing the Nationalists. That civil war continues today with the conflict over Taiwan.

"The Chinese Army" covers the Nationalist Chinese Army--and I am abusing the term "army." Most of the Nationalist army was a half-trained peasant rabble that would have felt at home in the 100 Years War. It astounds me that the Chinese managed to survive close to three decades of civil war--with nearly a third of that in a formal declared war against Japan. I'll have to look up the other Chinese army, Mao's.

Details on uniforms and equipment included a series of color plates that are worth the price of the book. The details on unit organization are sketchy--but then, Chinese Army organization was flexible to the extreme. This book is 48 pages long, a bit slimmer than other Osprey products--but then, the Chinese fought a "come as you are" war. Virtually all weapons were either imports or copies of foreign weapons. Uniforms ranged from ordinary peasent garb (and a sack for ammunition--the few cartridges available) to German-based uniforms for Chaing's personal divisions.

I have to respect these tough soldiers. The only thing harder than being a Chinese soldier was being a Chinese peasant.

As a Chinese American interested in the 2nd world war history, this is the ONLY book in English on this subject I know of (of course there is a sibling book covering the time period starting 20 years earlier).

The book does cover a lot of information and the readers need to go through evey page and every picture including the captions of the drawings. The author tried to cover so many issues in such a small booklet: army organization, uniform, persoal equipment, and weaponry from light firearm to artillery and armored vehicle. The vast amount of material can be better organized for easier reading. I'll give it a 5 for the fact that there is much information in such a thin book and the only one on this subject in English.

However, as I also accessed information in Chinese, I'm somewhat disappointed by the mistakes in the book and the somewhat poor way of organization of the material. Majority of the information is accurate, but some mistakes are made, such as some of the weaponry used - not a surprise as Chinese Army had to use what they could lay hands on and even article in American Rifleman on the rifles used by Chinese army in the WWII also has several mistakes! It is a total chaos in fact. For the shortage of some important information, I feel it is a 3.

Therefore a rating of 4 is given. But for readers of English only and interested in this subject, it is still highly recommended as a starting material.

This is a great short overview of the history of Chinese involvement in WWII and the Sino-Japanese War, and the contemporary internal conflicts. Uniforms, weapons, insignia, and organization are all also examined, and the color plates are of high quality and powerfully support the text.

Very good book on little known subject. Information on uniforms and equipment was very good.

As far as I know, this is THE book on The Chinese Army of the thirties and forties. The illustrations and photos are the best I've ever seen and show outstanding detail. This book, even though it is short, shows the fantastic diversity of the Chinese Armies of this period, not just in uniforms, but in weapons and other gear. How this ramshackle collection managed to fight major wars against the Japanese and each other is almost beyond comprehension.

The title of my review may seem odd but, after thinking about the subject of this book and reading it and others, I think you will agree with it. If you wonder how the nations of the earth who preach freedom and democracy all stop, kow-tow and do business with a Chinese government that manages to reap the profits of extreme Capitalist exploitation while using the apparatus of Stalin style Communist oppression, this book will show you how it began. One will notice in the excellent color illustrations that almost every Chinese soldier is armed with a better or equal quality weapon than his Japanese opponent. Unlike the French, the Chinese knew it was best to import the best weapons and learn to copy them(one soldier is shown using a crude but functional copy of a Tommygun, another with a perfect copy of a M3 submachine gun). The real problem was the fact that the Nationalist Army was still Feudal in nature with individual Army and Division leaders acting like Warlords and hording supplies and manpower for future use against political opponnents and having to be goaded into fighting the Japanese! The titular leader of this "army" Chiang Kai-Shek was the main practitioner of this strategy as he considered Mao Tse-Tung his real enemy and not the Japanese.This army shaped the world we live in today because it didn't fight against a clear foreign invader and was completely incapable of winning against a domestic one.

So finally there is an illustrated book about the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China... and the cover is of a Japanese soldier sticking his bayonet up some poor Nationalist soldier who promptly surrenders, all while someone dressed in Communist garb calmly watches on. If this image was chosen as the cover I can imagine what goes on inside... I'm sure there's nothing about the defence of Sihang Warehouse, Battle of Shanghai, Operation Ichigo, and the various battles that took place. Instead it is most likely filled with pictures conveying pretty much the same thing the cover does.

That being said, nobody has even bothered to do a book like this before, so a BIG kudos to the publishers (and authors) for that... Enough to make a 5, if not for the farcical cover. Therefore, this gets a 4.