The Chinese Army 1937–49: World War II and Civil War (Men-at-Arms, 424)

The Chinese Army 1937-1949by Philip Jowett. Illustrated by Stephen Walsh. I want to know as much as possible about the organization, the battles, the arms and the campaigns of the Nationalists in the time covered in this volume. To the glee of modelers, Englishman Philip Jowett presents us with a volume heavy on the detailed description of uniforms, head gear and the astonishing range of personal weapons used by the Nationalists over the range of the era. I wanted to see more on battles and campaigns. But if I wanted to accurately model a Chinese soldier from any part of China in any of the years in question, I could surely find a photo or a full color drawing to guide me. The many full color drawings by Mr. Walsh, also English, fully rise to the very high standard long established by the Osprey Man at Arms series. The renderings have the life that make them pleasant to view and a strong emphasis on accuracy that we all enjoy, modelers or not. Author Jowett has a number of other Osprey titles under his belt. He begins this one with a few pages of background that I found useful. He sketches the historical period in China between WWI and the outbreak of open hostilities with Japan in 1937. It helps us to understand how we got from here to there as it were. Also interesting are the several page long chronology of the events of WWII in China and the tragic and devastating civil war. We find it hard to credit the ineptitude shown by the Nationalist leadership in the immediate post-war period. With the bulk of the slim 48 page volume devoted to uniforms, helmets and the like this volume will be of more use to the modeler than to the general history buff. That said, I am glad I got my hands on a copy. There exist such a small pool of information on the subject that I found revelations on every page. I didn't know that the Nationalist manufactured the American .45 cal 'grease gun' sub-machine gun, as an example. Author Philip Jowett has a straight forward writing style that presents the information without confusion, which I appreciate.

I was undecided about which soldier had a rougher life--the Japanese, Soviet, or Chinese soldier. After reading Philip Jowett's "The Chinese Army," I'll vote for the Chinese soldier. One in four soldiers issued a blanket? The virtual lack of a logistics pipeline severely hindered the Chinese Army's effectiveness. What little trickled down to the soldier's unit was often stolen and sold by his officers. No wonder Mao won! China was in a state of civil war since the mid 1920's. Japan needed resources and saw a failed nation as ripe for the picking. After Japan exhausted itself in China, Japan declared war on the rest of the world and was utterly crushed--Chinese soldiers played an important role in that defeat. Afterwards, China resumed its civil war, with the Communists routing the Nationalists. That civil war continues today with the conflict over Taiwan."The Chinese Army" covers the Nationalist Chinese Army--and I am abusing the term "army." Most of the Nationalist army was a half-trained peasant rabble that would have felt at home in the 100 Years War. It astounds me that the Chinese managed to survive close to three decades of civil war--with nearly a third of that in a formal declared war against Japan. I'll have to look up the other Chinese army, Mao's.Details on uniforms and equipment included a series of color plates that are worth the price of the book. The details on unit organization are sketchy--but then, Chinese Army organization was flexible to the extreme. This book is 48 pages long, a bit slimmer than other Osprey products--but then, the Chinese fought a "come as you are" war. Virtually all weapons were either imports or copies of foreign weapons. Uniforms ranged from ordinary peasent garb (and a sack for ammunition--the few cartridges available) to German-based uniforms for Chaing's personal divisions.I have to respect these tough soldiers. The only thing harder than being a Chinese soldier was being a Chinese peasant.

As a Chinese American interested in the 2nd world war history, this is the ONLY book in English on this subject I know of (of course there is a sibling book covering the time period starting 20 years earlier).The book does cover a lot of information and the readers need to go through evey page and every picture including the captions of the drawings. The author tried to cover so many issues in such a small booklet: army organization, uniform, persoal equipment, and weaponry from light firearm to artillery and armored vehicle. The vast amount of material can be better organized for easier reading. I'll give it a 5 for the fact that there is much information in such a thin book and the only one on this subject in English.However, as I also accessed information in Chinese, I'm somewhat disappointed by the mistakes in the book and the somewhat poor way of organization of the material. Majority of the information is accurate, but some mistakes are made, such as some of the weaponry used - not a surprise as Chinese Army had to use what they could lay hands on and even article in American Rifleman on the rifles used by Chinese army in the WWII also has several mistakes! It is a total chaos in fact. For the shortage of some important information, I feel it is a 3.Therefore a rating of 4 is given. But for readers of English only and interested in this subject, it is still highly recommended as a starting material.

This is another of the color reference books published by Osprey Publishing that I have come to love. This particular book covers such a wide period of time (both the war time and the post war period of times) that I began to wonder if the book would be as good as previous books in the "Men at Arms" series that I have already read. However this book did not let me down.

This is a great short overview of the history of Chinese involvement in WWII and the Sino-Japanese War, and the contemporary internal conflicts. Uniforms, weapons, insignia, and organization are all also examined, and the color plates are of high quality and powerfully support the text.

I've been fascinated by the Chinese role in the Second Sino-Japanese war/ WWII for a long time and intend to wargame a German-trained Chinese force to bring a forgotten conflict to life on the tabletop through the ruleset for Bolt Action.The book provides a good overview of the Chinese forces through a timeline and sections covering war aganst Japan and then the later half of the civil war against the communists. The colour plates convey the diverseity of equipment and uniforms.One thing I do note is the lack of coverage for Soviet equipment that the KMT recieved in spite of their idealogical differences since Stalin was keen to keep the Japanese busy whilst he conducted the Purge and made plans in the west. A good example of such an occurance is the 200th Iron Division which benefitted greatly from this aid and made for an interesitng mix of Soviet, German, Italian and Chinese equipment. But it is certainly not a disaster nor a major detraction from the book which otherwise provides a good overview.Overall this book provides great reference material of the Chinese infantry in the turbulent times of a balkanized China and is a welcome addition to my collection.

Killer combo of excellent text (all the right kind of info covered for a wargamer/figure painter/converter) and first class colour illustrations. Pretty near perfect really, given the compact size of the book.

This was bought as a present. It doesn't mean much to me, but the recipient was very happy. Good buy.

I read the author's previous book, Chinese Civil War Armies 1911-49 (another Osprey Men at Arms title) which I found the book tried too hard to cover too much within a small amount of pages. In comparison, this book is more focused in time period and subject matter. Like the previous title, I am personally annoyed that the old Wade Giles romanization was used instead of the modern (probably more popular Pinyin romanization). I personally would have preferred that some Chinese characters could be inserted into the text or maybe have a separate glossary of romanized names with the original Chinese characters. Understandably such a glossary might drive up the cost of the book or taken up space for other things. Afterall, the Osprey Men At Arms series are restricted to 48 pages. On the note of restricted pages, I question the need to have the first 10 pages of the book taken up to cover the historic summary /time line?Nevertheless, there are so few English language books on the Chinese army and I appreciate that Osprey Publishing has put out this title.I personally find it helpful when other reviewers list the index of the book reviewed, so I will do the same.Introduction : historic background page 3Chronology page 6The Nationalist Army 1937 -45 page 13*Strength, organization and character*Weapons*Nationalist guerillasThe Nationalist Army 1945 - 49 page 16*Strength, organization and character*weaponsUniforms 1937 -45 page 20*Summer uniforms: tunics - trousers - puttees - footwear*headgear: uniform headgear - steel helmets - other headgear*Officers clothing*Winter uniforms*Insignia: collar patches - identification patches - arm badges - unit badges - arm bands*Field equipment*armoured crews*militia and guerillasUniforms 1945 - 49 page 39*summer uniforms*headgear*model 1946 winter clothing*insignia*officers uniforms*paramilitary uniformsThe plates page 42Index Page 48