Figure 1.--A photo dealer suggested that this was a Chinese tank captured in the fighing around Shanghai in 1937. We are not sure just what tank it was, but it looks to us like a Japanese Type 95 which was the main battle tank of the Japanese Army. The Ha-Go, was developed in 1933 by Mitsubishi with a 37mm main gun. It was made with different configurations. The Chinese did not have the industrial capacity to build tanks, but they may have had a few foreign tanks before they got Soviet T-26s in 1938, but we do not yet have any detrails. Source: Japanese Army photogrph.

The Germans before the rise of the NAZIs provided military advise to Nationalist China. They could not provide tanks because the Versailles Treary prohinited the Germans from manufcturing or acquiring tanks. The Germans ended serious cooperation with the Nationalists after the Jaoanese launched the Second Sino-Jpanese War (1937). The Chinese at the had very limited armored forces, a small number of armoured vehicles and mechanised troops which they formed into three armoured battalions. They appear to have had a few tanks, bit we are not sure at this time where thy came from. With the departure of the Germans, Stalin saw China, especially the Naionalists. as a counter-weight to the Japanese. The Nationlists and Soviets, a month after the Japanese invasion began negotiating (August 1937). The Chinese were desperate for Soviet Mmilitary assistance. China did not have the heavy industry to build major weaons systems like artillery and tanks. A Non-Aggression Treaty was reached. Soviet military asdvisers appeared. All of this occured while the Civil War between the Chinese Nationlists and Communists still was in progress and only supeficially papered over. The limited Chinese armored forces were largely destroyed in the Battles for Shanghai and Nanking/Nanjing (1937). The new tanks, armoured cars, and trucks from the Soviet Union and Italy provided the fire power to to create the only mechanized division in the Chinese army. The Soviet advisers provided the expertise to organized the new mechanised unit in China-- the 200th Division. It consisted of one tank regiment and one motorised infantry regiment. A tank unit is of little value unless it has some notorized industry to support it. The mainstay was 82 Soviet T-26 (mod. 1933) tanks. They were shipped to Canton/Guangzhou harbour (spring 1938). The Japanese strategy was to seize Chinese port to cut China off from foreign assitance. Canton was, however, still in Chinese hands.

Created: 11:18 PM 10/29/2016
Last updated: 11:19 PM 10/29/2016