Text/Huo Anzhi
Belgian, Austrian, Hungarian, Czech and Danish munitions allowed China to survive the darkest moment of defeat in the north-south battlefield at the end of 1937.
The movie "Eight Hundred" was a big hit at the box office, and public opinion was enthusiastically discussing the reason why eight hundred lone soldiers were stuck in the Sihang Warehouse.
Chiang Kai-shek's order to stay in the Sihang warehouse was to "win the sympathy of friends", which was actually a euphemism for asking European and American countries to sell arms. At that time, China's industrial foundation was too thin, and it had to rely on foreign arms to fight wars. In August 1937, Yu Dawei, director of the Bureau of Arms and Industry, estimated that if European and American countries did not sell arms, domestic weapons and ammunition would only last for half a year.
Take the 88th Division, the protagonist of "Eight Hundred", as an example, under the polished German steel helmet, the elite German mechanic could not even receive rifle bullets. When Chiang Kai-shek launched the Battle of Songhu, he halved the supply of ammunition for his troops. The "Zhu Banchang" who carries a rifle in "Eight Hundred" should have been wrapped in a bullet bag and carried 1 base of 200 rounds of rifle ammunition with him. However, in the historical 88th Division, riflemen could only carry 100 rounds of ammunition on the battlefield.
Buying arms requires a victorious posture and "friendly sympathy". If China has no chance of winning, European and American countries will never risk retaliation from Japan to sell arms to China. Fortunately, the Battle of Songhu lasted for two and a half months, establishing an international image that China could persist in the War of Resistance, and arms orders finally moved. However, Shanghai lost and retreated, and China's image collapsed again, and it was still impossible to buy arms. As a result, the eight hundred brave men who shouldered the heavy responsibility of "winning the sympathy of friends" stubbornly guarded the Sihang warehouse in front of the global media cameras and fought the most wonderful international propaganda war, effectively boosting China's prestige, and much-needed arms followed.
The smoke from the Sihang warehouse has not yet dissipated, and a group of small European countries that have no direct conflict of interest with Japan have taken over large orders for arms that are related to China's survival. Arms from Belgium, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Denmark filled in the gaps in time to allow China to survive the darkest moments of the defeat in the north-south battlefield at the end of 1937. China was able to quickly rebuild its army and continue the War of Resistance Against Japan.
Realistically speaking, without the arms exchanged for eight hundred brave men, the War of Resistance against Japan might not have lasted in 1937, but this secret history is little known. In 2009, the "National History Museum" in Taipei published the secret file of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, explaining that the Defense Of the Sixing Warehouse was a key battle to make the War of Resistance a lasting resistance.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > arms business at the beginning of the War of Resistance</h1>
Two days after the evacuation of the Sihang warehouse by eight hundred heroes, a small gamble took place at the venue of the Nine-Nation Pact in Brussels, the capital of Belgium, vividly illustrated the change in the perception of the Sino-Japanese war between Europe and the United States.
When the War of Resistance broke out, Europe and the United States originally believed that China was bound to fail quickly. The Battle of Songhu lasted for two and a half months, and the perception of China by various countries was renewed. But after the defeat in the battle for Shanghai in late October, China's prestige was once again severely damaged. Diplomats from various countries who are attending the meeting of the Nine-Power Pact in Brussels are privately and enthusiastically arguing whether China can continue to resist. Lagarde, a French expert on Far Eastern affairs, made a big fuss about whether China would be able to fight and that the Sino-Japanese war would end before the end of the year. U.S. Representative Stanley Kuhl Hornbeck argued with Lagarde, who was convinced that China would continue to resist and bet with Lagarde. Hempek told Chinese representative Gu Weijun that the gamble was not a battle of friendship, but a gamble to win or lose.
Hempek said he wasn't used to betting. However, this time he was very confident, so he also had to gamble with Lagarde to win or lose. He said that usually people only judge whether the situation can persist based on superficial statistics, and ignore psychological factors. And Chinese the spirit of resistance is strong and ready to sacrifice. Even in Washington, he said, military authorities would judge the situation on the basis of numbers such as troops, artillery, tanks, aircraft, etc., without considering the spirit and morale of the troops. Gu Weijun recalled.
When Hempek bet, the eight hundred strong men stuck to the four-line warehouse was the international hot headline, and Hempek was undoubtedly also a "fan" of the eight hundred strong men, and his small gamble was of great significance. Hempek is the Director of the U.S. Department of State's Far East Division and has led U.S. Far East policy for a decade. According to Gu Weijun's observation, Britain's Far East policy followed the United States, and European countries relied on Britain. Seeing That Hempeck bet that China could resist the war for a long time, the European countries' China policy was reassured, and they no longer feared Japanese retaliation when they received Chinese arms orders.
At a time when the eight hundred heroes were becoming famous internationally, China's arms procurement was in trouble.
At the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, millions of anti-Japanese divisions were mainly infantry, and the basic needs of the frontline troops were rifles, light machine guns and heavy machine guns. In October 1937, the Ministry of Military Affairs formulated the "Plan for The Purchase of Additional Ammunition" based on the maintenance of 60 infantry divisions, which analyzed the most urgently needed foreign munitions for China to maintain the War of Resistance, namely 20,000 light machine guns, 4,500 heavy machine guns, and 1.1 billion rounds of 79 rounds. The German barter agreement on which China relied to establish a German ordnance force could not be effective. When the War of Resistance broke out, Germany itself was expanding its own army, preparing to swallow up Europe, unable to sell ready-made machine guns and ammunition.
The second option was the Soviet Union. On August 21, 1937, China and the Soviet Union signed the Non-Aggression Pact, and Russia provided a barter loan of 100 million Francs. However, the Soviet rifle machine gun uses a 7.62×54mmR "Russian type" cartridge, while the Chinese rifle uses a German 7.92×57mm "Mauser" bullet, and the procurement of Soviet rifle machine gun will increase logistical pressure. As a result, China snapped up aircraft and artillery on Soviet loans and sought 79 caliber German light weapons.
There are many suppliers of Ashkenazi light weapons in Europe. In April 1937, as soon as the Sino-Japanese War broke out, Chiang Kai-shek visited European countries with Kong Xiangxi as a special envoy to find sources of arms outside Germany. Kong Xiangxi easily selected suppliers.
The Belgian National Arsenal (FN) is a 79th German light weapons expert, and the Type 1924 rifle, which imitates the German Type 98 Mauser rifle, is almost identical to the Medium Formal Rifle, and can only be distinguished by the length of the handguard cover. The D-type Browning light machine gun modified with the Browning "BAR" automatic rifle not only used 79 Mauser bullets, but also replaced the barrel, and the combat methods and performance were similar to those of the Czech-made light machine gun in China.
The French Arms Company also grabbed the group to grab business. The French used 8 mm Lebel cartridges, but the machine gun company Hotchkiss was more than happy to tailor export versions for foreign customers. The Japanese "crooked handle" light machine gun and the Type 92 heavy machine gun were both modified versions of Hatcheys. In the 1930s, Hatchkies introduced the 79-caliber light and heavy machine gun and actively fought for the Chinese market. In order to sell its products to the Nanjing government, Hatchkais worked together with the mortar factory Brandt and the artillery factory Schneider, with Shanghai's "Groupe-Chine" as the general agent, and worked together for 5 years.
In the first month of the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Kong Xiangxi easily negotiated a large arms order with France in Belgium: 11.55 million rounds of Mauser ammunition and 3,000 bijian light machine guns from the FN Arsenal, 150 81 mortars from The Brande Company, anti-aircraft machine guns from Hatchkies, and 120 75 mm field guns from Schneider. However, after the Qiqi Lugou Bridge Incident, reports of defeat in the War of Resistance against Japan were frequently reported, and Japan took advantage of the situation to exert strong pressure on European and American countries, and China's arms orders were blocked by the Fa-Belgian government. Only FN's first 1.55 million rounds of ammunition were in stock and shipped before the Protests in Japan.
On August 13, Chiang Kai-shek took the initiative to attack the Japanese concession in Shanghai, and China's prestige increased greatly, and European and American countries gradually released China's arms orders. But in late October, after the defeat in Shanghai, countries slowed down. It was not until the eight hundred heroes caused a sensation in the world that China's purchase of arms was smooth. In the early winter of 1937, when the entire northern and southern battlefields were completely broken, a large number of orders were quickly signed, bringing life-saving arms to China.
When foreign arms are imported into China, they need to be "signed" by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and a "transport instruction manual" commonly known as a passport is issued, detailing the country of origin, product name, port of arrival and estimated time of arrival of the arms. The archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Taipei record the 100,000-brand arms that crossed the ocean during the darkest period of the War of Resistance Against Japan.
< H1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > a Belgian rifle that flew in</h1>
After the Outbreak of the Battle of Songhu, the Belgian FN Arsenal opened up to build arms for China. On August 23, FN Arsenal signed a contract to build 50,000 rifles and 5,000 light machine guns, and one order made up for China's losses in the first month of the war. But for the large-scale war that was expected, China needs more arms.
At that time, the five major arms producing countries in the world, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy, could not receive arms orders from China. The United States, Britain, and France were worried about Japan's invasion of the colonies in East Asia, Germany was expanding its armaments, and Italy was allied with Japan. However, with the strong and bitter support of the Battle of Songhu, countries gradually despised Japan. The United States, Britain, and France, which have direct conflicts of interest with Japan, secretly sell arms, while a number of small countries that do not have direct conflicts with Japan have generously accepted Arms Orders from China.
In September, when the Battle of Songhu was at its height, the Austrian company Hirtenberg, which had no business with China, sold 14 million rounds of Mauser ammunition. Half a month later, the Magyar Királyi Államvasutak Gépgyára sold 6 million rounds of Mauser guns. Britain's Imperial Chemical Industries (commonly known as the Bunemen Company) for selling fertilizer also received a large order of 10 million Mauser bullets. Bunemon acquired Kynoc, which manufactures sports firearms, not only for China to produce 79 bullets, but also to build 20 mm shells and tubes.
10 million rounds of Maoser pointed bullets are not much, only equivalent to the output of Gongxian Arsenal in one month. However, after the outbreak of the Battle of Songhu, the two major arsenals in Gongxian and Jinling were urgently relocated inland and could not produce, leaving only the Hanyang Arsenal to support itself, and the monthly output of 79 rifle ammunition dropped sharply from 20 million rounds to 7.5 million rounds. By early 1938, front-line troops were largely dependent on Mauser bullets to fight.
Britain and the United States, which had always been indifferent to China's resistance to Japan, also began to sell weapons. However, the British use the Point 303 British bomb and the United States use the Point 30-03 Springfield Bomb, which is not in line with the caliber of China's light weapons. The Nanjing government was more eager to get Anglo-American fighters. On October 4, the British sold 16 Fighter destroyers. On October 8, the United States sold 30 Hawker 75 destroyers. However, the British and American warplanes deliberately delivered unarmed goods so as not to anger Japan. As a workaround, Kong Xiangxi ordered 79 machine guns from Belgium and bombs from Italy to form a combined army.
Another major weakness of the war against Japan is the anti-aircraft artillery, which is in urgent demand and has no informal caliber. The Austrian company Böhler had 100 47 mm anti-aircraft guns in stock and were immediately snapped up by China. Dansk Rekyl Riffel Syndikat, a Denmark gun factory, sold 200 20mm Madsen cannons and 500,000 rounds of artillery shells. The Danish government had refused to issue export licenses, but the British arms sale was routine, and the Japanese ambassador's protests were ineffective.
The Czech Republic, which is in line with the caliber of Chinese infantry weapons, let go and sign a huge order for 10,000 light machine guns. In contrast, the "Czech-made" monthly output of the Gongxian Arsenal is only 150 to 200.
The more fierce the War in Shanghai, the more fierce the international arms sales. At that time, the main port of arms import was Hong Kong, and the Guangzhou-Kowloon Railway was rushed day and night, which was deeply hated by Japan. The Japanese army announced the blockade of shipping between Guangdong and Hong Kong, bombed the railway line, changed the arms and materials to night, and 300 large trucks rushed back and forth under the cover of darkness. However, there were too many arms, and arms freighters lined up outside Victoria Harbour, and many of the arms had to be temporarily transferred to neighboring ports. The Consul General of Manila reported that a ship of German heavy artillery could not squeeze into Hong Kong and was temporarily stored in the Manila Port Stack, causing great panic among the US and Philippine governments.
Arms snapped up by foreign countries stabilized the supply of arms from 60 infantry divisions on the front line.
At the end of August, Minister of Military Affairs He Yingqin reported that 18,000 light machine guns for 60 divisions of the 20,000 light machine guns needed had been ordered from Belgium and the Czech Republic, and 600 million rounds of 1.1 billion rounds of ammunition had been ordered. Only 4500 heavy machine guns are not easy to buy, the Nanjing government originally ordered heavy machine guns from the French Hatcheches company, but the French Third Republic government political tide, lack of external confidence, dare not blame Japan, only the Czech Republic agreed to sell 1000 pieces, but the shipment was too slow.
The authorities had no choice but to order 500 Russian-made Maxim wheeled heavy machine guns and 500 Maxim-Tokarev light machine guns from the Soviet Union of different calibers. The arms ordered after August 1937, delivered in early 1938, enabled China to survive the trough of defeat in the northern and southern battlefields and quickly rebuild a million troops.
The Battle of Songhu was lost in late October, and fiery arms exports froze abruptly at the end of October. However, the eight hundred brave men who stubbornly guarded the Sihang Warehouse injected a strong needle into China's international prestige. The smoke from the Sihang warehouse has not yet dissipated, and the larger procurement of arms for the 1938 operation has been initiated.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the two years before the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression</h1>
The scale of the war against Japan far exceeded pre-war forecasts, and the weapons procurement task of 1938 was heavy. Yu Dawei, director of the Bureau of Ordnance Engineering, reported in the spring of 1938 that the annual demand was estimated to be 440,000 rifles, 36,000 light machine guns, 6,500 heavy machine guns and 1,550 mortars. The domestic arsenal could only supply 70,000 rifles, 3,400 light machine guns, 1,300 heavy machine guns and 500 mortars.
However, the "spiritual combat strength" felt by Hempeck ignited the confidence of European and American countries in China's protracted war of resistance, and arms orders became larger and larger after the Sihang Warehouse Defense War. The Belgian FN Arsenal is fully committed to Serving China, delivering 5,000 rifles and 5 million rounds of rifle ammunition every month. The Royal Hungarian Railway Machinery Factory went all out to produce 45 million rounds of 79 rounds of ammunition, and the Mauser Arsenal, which rushed to work day and night, also squeezed out the production line to produce 4 million rifle ammunition for China.
With spare strength, China has added sharp weapons. China has used the Mauser Ten Shell Gun for more than 30 years, but the Mauser factory no longer supplies it. FN factory marketed a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol, reloaded 13 rounds, the initial speed of up to 350 meters per second, the addition of wooden butts can be used as a carbine, the gauge range of 500 meters. Chiang Kai-shek personally approved the purchase of 10,000 pieces, and the Chinese soldiers fell in love at first sight, nicknamed "Bizhuang Powerful 90 Pistols", which became a legendary gun of the War of Resistance.
The Czech Republic, which is about to perish, has also shown the greatest goodwill to China. After the outbreak of the Battle of Songhu, the Czech Republic directly allocated light machine guns used in the army, but the German invasion was imminent, and the Czech Republic mobilized in May 1938 to prepare for the war. Deeply moved by the spirit of resistance of 800 brave men, the Czech president personally presented a full set of "Czech-made" machine gun patterns, filled with 7 large boxes, and escorted them back to China. Since then, China has been able to make its own Czech-made light machine guns completely, and there is no need to buy guns from the Czech Republic.
In addition, China also lacked heavy machine guns, and the Czech government allocated 50 newly launched ZB-37 heavy machine guns for sale to China, and sent technicians to guide their use. The Czech special telegram advised not to fall into the hands of the Japanese: "It is a heavy machine gun specially made for the country, the structural utility is different from the ordinary, and the two countries have thick diplomatic relations, so they are willing to sell it." The pattern manual is not as good as the translation, please use it with caution and do not fall into the hands of the enemy. ”
Secretly assisting China became the consensus of most European and American countries in 1938. Japan announced the blockade of China's coast, Germany invented the reverse date method, and the date of arms exports to China was all reversed until the outbreak of the War of Resistance, and Belgium and other countries followed suit. Even if a Japanese warship intercepts a cargo ship off the coast of China, it does not dare to seize the cargo. China's arms are mainly exported from the port of Hamburg, and Japan has protested strongly, and the arms of various countries have been transferred to the port of Antwerp in Belgium to ship goods, blocking the mouth of the Japanese ambassador.
In addition to ready-made weapons and ammunition, China also needs materials and machines for making weapons. China's arsenals have always relied on foreign materials to make weapons, especially alloy steel supplied by Germany. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, China snapped up a large number of machines and military materials with Sino-German barter loans. Chen Xiuhe, director of the Military Engineering Bureau's office in Vietnam, recalled that the port of Haiphong was almost filled with military materials that China snapped up: "The dock warehouse is full of goods. Along the river road, the machine materials are piled up. ”
In 1938, China and Japan fought an unprecedented super-conference battle, with millions of troops in the Battle of Xuzhou and the Battle of Wuhan lasting thousands of miles. The eight hundred heroes exchanged for the International Brand of Arms allowed China to survive this year of life and death.
After surviving 1938, Yu Dawei looked forward to the war situation and put forward an even greater demand for procurement in 1939. "Infantry weapons can be formulated for 400,000 to 500,000 rifles, 35,000 light machine guns, 9,000 to 10,000 heavy machine guns, and 1,600 mortars next year. Bullet consumption... It takes about 80 million to 10,000 rounds per month. ”
However, China really can't buy it.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > China's foreign exchange bottomed out and also dragged down qiangkou</h1>
Buy arms in foreign exchange. China's foreign exchange reserves mainly come from the sale of silver to the United States in exchange for dollars.
Young, an American adviser to the Treasury Department, estimated that in 1937 the foreign exchange reserve was about $252 million. Based on the exchange rate at the time of the war, about 850 million yuan is legal. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, international trade was extinguished, domestic funds fled, and Japan fought a currency war to absorb China's foreign exchange, and the cost of buying arms became less and less. The total amount of urgent orders in the two years before the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was nearly 300 million yuan, equivalent to 35% of the total foreign exchange before the war. In the spring of 1938, Yu estimated that the armaments needed in 1939 were another 300 million Francs.
The only way to buy arms for a long time was to rely on barter in exchange for arms, but at that time only Germany and the Soviet Union were willing to provide barter loans. Germany had limited availability of weapons, and the Soviet Union's barter loans were a thrilling step.1. In March 1938, the Soviet Union issued the first bill for arms sales, and in the name of "packaging fee", "assembly fee", "loading and unloading fee", "land transportation fee", "car fee" and "car driver fee", it issued a "C bill", demanding that China pay more than 9.85 million US dollars, equivalent to 4% of China's pre-war foreign exchange reserves. Chiang Kai-shek firmly denied this strange account, and the pen and ink lawsuit lasted for two months.
In the summer of 1938, Wuhan fell, Guangzhou fell, and China's foreign exchange also bottomed out. The Chongqing government could not afford belgian machine guns, so it could only use Sino-Soviet barter loans to buy machine guns from the Soviet Union. Actual combat proved that the three light and heavy machine guns purchased by China from the Soviet Union were too bulky for Chinese soldiers, and the guns were old and unstable, and could only be allocated to the rear school organs and miscellaneous troops.
China's arms procurement has become unsustainable. But at the same time, Japan can't hold out.
Japan's foreign exchange is also limited, and it has to buy fuel oil, scrap iron and rubber from Europe and the United States to fight a war, so it has to sell gold reserves to support the war of aggression against China. At the end of the Battle of Wuhan, Japan's 388 tons of gold reserves were only 25 tons, becoming a problem customer with bad credit in the international market. As a result, the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression became a protracted confrontational war of partial warfare since 1939. It was not until Japan launched the Pacific War and went down to the South China Sea to loot combat resources that it could fight a big war.
In fact, Japan is a master of international sympathy. French Foreign Ministry Secretary-General Lege reminded Ambassador Gu Weijun that Chiang Kai-shek's diplomatic posture was not soft enough. On the second day of the Shanghai War, the Chinese Air Force mistakenly bombed the "big world" in the downtown area of the French Concession in Shanghai, and France demanded that the air force not cross the border. The Nanjing government proudly refuted that the concession only leased the ground, and the airspace still belonged to China and could be freely overstepped. In contrast, Japanese warships lowered their posture to avoid the French Concession and win favor.
Léger commented: "The Japanese have been clever at fighting for sympathy everywhere... When the Manchurian Incident occurred, the whole world sympathized with China and blamed Japan. However, through a series of carefully arranged propaganda activities by the Japanese, a large part of the sympathy was pulled by the Japanese, which was very unfavorable to China's (anti-Japanese) cause. In the current incident, Japan is again skillfully winning favor and sympathy from abroad. ”
Chiang Kai-shek was a soldier, his diplomatic posture could not be softened, and if he wanted to compete with Japan for "friendly sympathy," he could only do it hard and let the eight hundred strong men stick to the Sihang warehouse. A small battle in front of the international media was a great success, winning for China the arms that survived the first year of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and bringing the War of Resistance against Japan into a protracted war.
It can be said that the feats of the eight hundred heroes have aroused a magnificent strategic butterfly effect, thus creating miracles and rewriting history.