Before (and to an extent, during) the Second Sino-Japanese War, Germany provided training and material aid to Nationalist China. Is there any record of German trained units' interactions with American/Soviet equipped/trained units?

by Minihawking

I was reading about Chinese history recently, and remembered that Nationalist China received heavy aid from Germany for a while, with some units entirely equipped with equipment of German origin. What I'm wondering is if there's any record of these units interacting with units that had received American or Soviet equipment/training, and if so, what they entailed.

ParkSungJun

So the funny thing is that for the most part the units that received the German training and equipment were the same ones that had priority on the Soviet and American equipment. The way the National Revolutionary Army was set up was essentially that the Kuomintang central government maintained a large pool of troops, many of which were under the command of warlords nominally loyal to the NRA. There was a substantial core of "elite" troops of marginally improved combat value, but because of their loyalty to Chiang Kai-Shek were highly valued and often received "dibs" on modern equipment. This was especially in the case of the officer corps, which had attended the Whampoa Military Academy that Chiang kept tight control of to ensure loyalty of its officers.

To give you an example, the 200th Division, a motorized division with armored support, was a division organized by veterans of some of the German-trained divisions that were badly mangled after the Battle of Shanghai. They were equipped with Soviet supplied light tanks and tankettes, and inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese (although not without great loss). After being reconstituted, the division was dispatched as part of Stilwell's force to attempt to defend Burma from the Japanese, in an effort to keep the Burma Road open. It, along with several other units, including the 1st Honor Division (another unit consisting of German-trained veterans) were forced to retreat to India with the rest of the Allied divisions. In India, these divisions were re-trained and reequipped with American equipment, with manpower differences being made up by Chinese emigres and other volunteers. They later constituted part of Stilwell's "X" force that helped push the Japanese back in Burma, although in the case of the 200th Division it was shattered en route back to China, being reconstituted and later reformed in Kimmen/Quemoy. As you see, this is one of several divisions that, being enormously loyal to Chiang Kai-Shek, ended up utilizing German, Soviet, and American equipment.

Another thing to point out is that while only some 16 divisions received at least some German training and modernization, most Chinese units utilized the German Stahlhelm and used German-designed rifles, including the Hanyang 88 (a Mauser derivative) and the Chiang Kai-Shek Rifle (a relative of the Kar98).