I got to wondering what the Chinese were armed with in their fight with Japan - this part of history is all but ignored in volumes about WWII but it was a large fight. Does anybody know what the Chinese battle rifle was?
I've seen photos of Chinese soldiers from that war, and it looked to me like no two were armed alike. As it was the Americans and the British in the main who were supplying them, I'm not surprised to see what look like American Enfields and British No. 1 Mark IVs. But from what I can tell, China didn't have its own arms plants during that war. They didn't have a standard battle rifle the way the other belligerents on both sides did.
I'm sure there is someone on the forum who knows more about that theatre of operations than I do. My studies of it have been aimed more at the aviation aspects ("Tonnage" Tunner setting up the airlift over the Hump, the failure of 20th Bomber Command to make its B-29s work effectively and of course the Flying Tigers) than at ground combat there.
The Chinese had copies of the Mauser G98 (known as the Chiang Kai-Shek rifle). Which is probably the closest thing to a standard issue rifle that they had. They also had captured Arisakas, Springfield rifles, and quite of a bit of equipment supplied by Nazi Germany (prior to 1937).
Factor in the fact that they were fighting a civil war at the same time; and you end up with a very eclectic collection of military weaponry.
