This was a deal that caused heavy casualties to the Japanese army invading China, relying on 400,000 sets of weapons and equipment sent by Germany, and the Chinese army annihilated 300,000 Japanese troops. For this batch of equipment, China has paid a huge price.
Kuomintang German Mechanic
As an ally of Japan, why did Germany send so many weapons and equipment to our country before the War of Resistance Against Japan? What has China paid for this batch of equipment? How did Japan react to the deal between China and Germany? Today, Brother Leng will take you to review the military trade transactions between China and Germany during World War II.
Isolated China, ambitious Germany
On November 11, 1918, Germany officially announced its surrender, ending World War I once and for all. Two months later, Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles as a defeated country. Unexpectedly, this peace treaty became the fuse of World War II.
As a small country with an area of less than 360,000 square kilometers, Germany is not only sparsely populated, but also very scarce in natural resources, in addition to coal and salt can be self-sufficient, most of the other raw materials and energy are all dependent on imports, so since the 19th century, Germany has been frantically opening colonies around the world. However, with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany ushered in an existential crisis.
Image source network
Germany's territory was massively reduced, the population lost more than 10%, all the colonies overseas were divided by the United States, France, and Britain, and it was even more difficult to accept that Germany's already incomparably scarce natural resources had lost nearly one-fifth. In addition to these losses, Germany was saddled with a war debt of up to 132 billion marks, which, given Germany's economic strength at the time, would take at least 92 years to pay off completely.
However, the heavy debt did not bring Germany to a standstill, but they quickly adjusted their state and soon developed the ambition to launch a second invasion, and it was hitler, the most "crazy" figure in Germany's modern history, who led all this.
Hitler
Despite the idea of launching an invasion, the actual situation in Germany left Hitler with more than enough energy. As an industrial powerhouse, Germany has advantages in innovation and manufacturing, but it is stretched thin on raw materials and energy. Huge economic pressures and a lack of natural resources forced Germany to find a suitable "partner".
At that time, Although China was nominally the victor of the First World War, it ended up being treated as a "defeated country", and even many countries began to be eager to move against China. In 1931, Japan launched the "918 Incident" in northeast China, and originally thought that the "League of Nations" would quickly mediate from it, but unexpectedly, the countries of the world quickly became a hill with Japan.
9/18 Incident
In the eyes of the United States, Japan's aggression against China is entirely in the interests of the United States, which will not only quickly weaken the control of European countries in the Asian region and make the United States profitable; but also make a large war fortune; let the United States rise rapidly. To this end, the United States not only turned a blind eye to China's requests for assistance, but also continued to provide Strategic Materials such as oil and steel to Japan. Out of jealousy of Japan, Britain and France not only sent a large amount of military equipment to Japan, but also imposed an "arms embargo" on China.
The clarion call of the Japanese invasion of China has sounded, and the Chinese nation has reached the most dangerous moment, but just when our country is unable to break the situation, Germany, as an ally of Japan, has handed an olive branch to our country.
Take the required trades and compromise powerlessly
This was the real reason why Hitler was hesitant to start World War II, and without enough raw materials and energy, Germany's "revenge plan" would be completely destroyed. And just when Hitler was at a loss, a letter from Chiang Kai-shek immediately caused an uproar in Germany.
After the end of the First World War, taking advantage of the contradictions between the major European powers, Germany rose rapidly, and in the process, in order to quickly break the shackles of the Treaty of Versailles and smoothly implement the "revenge plan", Germany invested a lot of material and financial resources in the military. In just four years, from 1933 to 1937, Germany's military spending increased from the initial 1.5 billion marks to 11 billion marks.
However, at the same time as the rapid development of military power, Germany soon encountered a huge problem: the domestic supply of raw materials was gradually depleted, and the Allies in World War I imposed a resource blockade on Germany. If Germany is to win this war of aggression, it must find a long-term supply of raw materials. At the end of Germany's road, Chiang Kai-shek sent a "surprise" to Germany.
As the Japanese army's aggression against China became more and more rampant, China's problems in insufficient weapons and equipment became more and more obvious, but China's military industry at that time was relatively backward, and both the productive forces and the offensive power of the output weapons were far from being able to compete with Japan. In desperation, Chiang Kai-shek had no choice but to ask for help from all countries in the world, but under the historical truth that "weak countries have no diplomacy", the United States, Britain, and France all refused Chiang Kai-shek's request.
Cornered, Chiang Kai-shek pinned his last hopes on Germany, and when Chiang Kai-shek's handwritten letter was sent to Hitler, Hitler gave an unexpected answer: "Germany agreed to sell weapons and equipment to China, but China needs to exchange three things for it." The three things hitler wanted were the three mineral resources of tungsten, antimony and tin.
Chiang Kai-shek
Tungsten was the scarcest resource in Germany at that time, because German ordnance experts found that bullets containing tungsten guns fired faster, and armor plates made of tungsten and armored bullets had very strong defensive attack capabilities. For example, later in World War II, the German army severely damaged the armored bullets of Soviet heavy tanks, which were made of tungsten.
As an important additive, the utilization rate of antimony in peacetime is not high, but in wartime, antimony is a very tight resource, because antimony not only has a very high fire resistance, but also can be combined with other metals, thereby greatly increasing the strength of the metal, is an excellent material for German gears.
The biggest feature of the last kind of tin material is that the corrosion resistance is very strong, it can greatly extend the preservation time of food, so the tin material is also an important strategic material to ensure the logistics supply of the troops, in addition, tin can also form alloys with many elements, at that time Germany urgently needed this material to make bearings for armored vehicles and tanks.
Tin material
For Germany's shortage of tungsten, antimony, tin three mineral resources, China's storage is extremely rich, and for China's urgently needed weapons and equipment, Germany is overcapacity. Against this backdrop, China and Germany decided to take what they needed. But why was this sweet deal abruptly suspended in 1941?
There is no eternal cooperation, only eternal interests
It was a deal that drove Hitler crazy, and it was a deal that made the Germans invincible on the Battlefields of Europe. In less than six years, more than 50,000 tons of mineral resources were continuously sent to Germany, and China also smashed Japan's plan to "occupy China in three months" with 400,000 sets of weapons and equipment sent by Germany. But why was such a mutually beneficial transaction abruptly halted by Germany shortly after?
Sino-German Trade Order (Partial)
In August 1934, Chiang Kai-shek and Hitler formally signed the Sino-German Barter Agreement, in which Germany was responsible for supplying weapons to China, and China was responsible for providing Germany with three mineral resources: tungsten, antimony and tin. In just over a year, Germany sent £50 million worth of weapons and equipment to China, including rifles, bullets, gas masks and steel helmets, as well as mechanized equipment such as fighter jets, tanks and warships.
Between 1936 and 1937, China and Germany again traded £50 million. It was also with these equipment that the Kuomintang quickly prepared for the establishment of the German Mechanic Division, and this German Mechanic Division unit caused heavy casualties to the Japanese army in the subsequent Battle of Songhu, the Battle of Nanjing, and the Battle of Wuhan.
With the full outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, China's demand for weapons soared, but at this time Germany suddenly opened its mouth and proposed more and more trading conditions. At first, Germany proposed a trading condition that China provide Germany with about 6,000 tons of mineral resources a year, but then suddenly increased to 8,000 tons, in addition to germany also asked China for another thing, that is, grain.
Most of Germany's land is affected by humid westerly winds all year round, which makes it difficult for them to develop agriculture, and all along, more than 80% of Germany's agricultural products have been imported, but in the event of war, there must be a large number of grain reserves, and at this time, Germany's economic strength does not allow them to purchase large amounts of grain from abroad. However, Germany soon set its sights on China, and although it knew that Germany's demands were unreasonable, in order to obtain sufficient ammunition, we could only agree to Germany's conditions.
Unexpectedly, soon after, Germany's conditions changed again, and Germany said: China cannot exchange all materials for German weapons and equipment, and must also pay a certain currency. This was undoubtedly to add fuel to the fire for China, which was short of foreign exchange at that time, but for the sake of equipment, China had to agree again.
However, in 1941, Germany abruptly halted arms trade with our country, not only publicly expressing its support for Japan, but also banning the supply of arms to our country. There are two main reasons for this change in Germany, one is that Germany already has sufficient mineral resources and grain reserves at this time, and the other is that Germany's offensive against the Soviet Union has been stubbornly resisted, and Germany needs the support of Japan, an ally. It is based on these two factors that the arms trade transaction between China and Germany, which lasted for 6 years, is completely over.
In its decades of struggle, China is well aware of the truth that "weak countries have no diplomacy." However, with the wise decisions of generations of great leaders and the arduous struggles of countless sons and daughters of China, our country has finally ushered in the dawn of a thousand dawns. In the past 72 years, our country has carried the burden forward, and under the tenacious struggle of generations of Chinese, our country is gradually approaching the "Chinese Dream" belonging to the Chinese.