What the heck kind of pistol is this?
- Thread starter raftman
- Start date
Chris B, Neverless it is true. In fact the Communist Army was part of the Nationalist Army-at least on paper. Check Wikipedia which says:
and
It was in 1937 I think, or 1938 that Mao had his troops change cap badges. It was the New Fourth Army that was ambushed I think.
Mao even wrote a book titled: "Tactics in the anti-Japanese United Front"
The gibberish on the pistol is common on Chinese pistols of the period, intended to make the pistols look like they are made in the West. Most of their copies of the FN1900 pistol have both FN and Belgian markings. Some have good copies of the markings on Belgian pistols, or portions of the markings. Others have gibberish like the pistol in this thread. Talking to Chinese who have some experience, including one whose father taught at the KMT military academy and was the Chinese Chief or Ordnance near the end of WW2 and they tell an interesting story. When the Chinese got kicked out of Korea and had other defeats by the west in the late 1800s they decided that they needed a modern army with modern equipment. They sent lots of promising students to Japan, the US, Germany, UK and other places in Europe. These guys were still considered lower class when they came home and not much was really done with moderniztion so I'm told, many stayed overseas until 1911 when the Manchus were overthrown, and more came back after the KMT defeated the warlords in the mid 1920s. Many of these guys had been in the west for 20 years or so. They could speak western languages and were known as the "college boys" in the Chinese ordnance system. On the otherhand, the guys who were marking guns who had never been to the west knew as much about western languages as I do about Chinese. When they marked a pistol, it came out like the one above.
I have seen Chinese made Mausers with almost perfect German markings, and everthing inbetween to the gibberish above.
Cheers, interesting thread!!!
Lew
Second Sino-Japanese War against the Imperial Japanese Army, and in the Chinese Civil War against the People's Liberation Army. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the armed forces of the Communist Party of China were nominally incorporated into the National Revolutionary Army (while retaining separate commands)
and
from 1937 to 1945, the Communist military forces were nominally integrated into the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China forming the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army units. During this time, these two military groups primarily used guerrilla warfare, but also fought several conventional battles with the Japanese and the Kuomintang.
It was in 1937 I think, or 1938 that Mao had his troops change cap badges. It was the New Fourth Army that was ambushed I think.
Mao even wrote a book titled: "Tactics in the anti-Japanese United Front"
The gibberish on the pistol is common on Chinese pistols of the period, intended to make the pistols look like they are made in the West. Most of their copies of the FN1900 pistol have both FN and Belgian markings. Some have good copies of the markings on Belgian pistols, or portions of the markings. Others have gibberish like the pistol in this thread. Talking to Chinese who have some experience, including one whose father taught at the KMT military academy and was the Chinese Chief or Ordnance near the end of WW2 and they tell an interesting story. When the Chinese got kicked out of Korea and had other defeats by the west in the late 1800s they decided that they needed a modern army with modern equipment. They sent lots of promising students to Japan, the US, Germany, UK and other places in Europe. These guys were still considered lower class when they came home and not much was really done with moderniztion so I'm told, many stayed overseas until 1911 when the Manchus were overthrown, and more came back after the KMT defeated the warlords in the mid 1920s. Many of these guys had been in the west for 20 years or so. They could speak western languages and were known as the "college boys" in the Chinese ordnance system. On the otherhand, the guys who were marking guns who had never been to the west knew as much about western languages as I do about Chinese. When they marked a pistol, it came out like the one above.
I have seen Chinese made Mausers with almost perfect German markings, and everthing inbetween to the gibberish above.
Cheers, interesting thread!!!
Lew
