H WWII CHINESE ARMY

As early as 1931, China entered into military interaction with Imperial Japan, when it lost Manchuria, which is rich in natural resources, for its sake. However, in the years 1937-1945, the Japanese-Chinese war (ang. Second Sino-Japanese War) which claimed the lives of 3.8 to 10.6 million Chinese. It should be honestly added that you can also find smaller and larger estimates than those presented in the previous sentence. The main forces fighting the Japanese aggressor were Chinese communist troops (up to 1.2 million people in 1945) and Kuomintang troops (also known as the National Army), estimated in 1945 at around 5, 5 million officers and soldiers. They were headed by Chiang Kai-Shek. It is assumed that throughout the war of 1937-1945, the Kuomintang troops established 515 divisions. Depending on the time of formation and purpose, the Chinese infantry division counted from 5-6 thousand. people up to about 15 thousand people. These troops were poorly equipped with motorized, mechanized and armored equipment. They didn't have much artillery either. The basic shooting weapons were domestic production, although based on German solutions, the Hanyang 88 rifles and the so-called Zhongzheng Type. The Mauser Gewehr 98 and the Karabiner 98k rifles were also used on a large scale. The basic light machine gun was a Chinese copy of the Czechoslovakian Brno ZB26 cal. 7.92 mm. Many types of weapons were used as heavy MGs, for example the Browning M1917, but recalibrated for Chinese needs.