Mauser in China: Mauser Rifles sale to China 1937-1939 Overview
The Second Sino-Japanese war outbreak on July 7 1937, Chinese domestic rifle production incapable of fulfilling enormous demands of rifles as the number of the Army growing fast. Meanwhile, many arsenals and weapon deposits were lost to the Japanese. Nationalist Government had to purchase more than 300,000 Mauser rifles from Mauser Company, FN, A Gavage and CZ between 1937 and 1939.
From 1937.7 to 1939.4, Nationalist Government Military Affairs Commission ordered 322,000 Mauser rifles from Mauser Company, FN, A.Gavage and CZ. This number dose not include local orders, taking over orders prior to the war and other government agencies orders.
Here’s a simplified version:
Part 1: Chinese Banner Mauser K98k
Part 2：Ceskoslovenska Zbrojovka Model 24
CZ was another important source of Mauser rifle to China at the beginning years of the war. CZ supplied 100,000 Model 24 rifles to China between 1937 and 1939.
The first Nationalist Government contract of 50,000 Model 24 was signed in July 1937 in London by Chinese Minister of Finance, H.H. Kung, on behalf of Military Affairs Commission. Chinese contract including ZB26 LMG, ZB53 HMG and Model 24 rifle.
Another contract was singed by T.L Song, who was appointed as Special Envoy to Europe in October 1937. His real purpose of European travel was to buy more armaments to sustain the war against Japanese. In Europe, He purchased additional rifles and machine guns from CZ who agreed to supply China 50,000 more Model 24 rifles in late 1938.
Each Czech Model 24 costs 5 pounds including insurance and transportation fees. Czech sources said the 1st 50,000 was shipped before June 1938.
Delivery went well until March 1939 when Nazi took over. Under Germany control, any exports had to acquire German Government permission before shipment. Because of Japan-Germany relationship, CZ received various pretexts from Germany administration to prevent last 20,000 Chinese shipment. At the end all Chinese shipments were transferred from IMEX to Finnish carrier. H.H Song’s contract was spread over 10 months (06/1938 - 03/1939), the spread is probably due to priority on Romanian and Japanese contacts.
Part 3：Fabrique National Herstal Model 30
The book of MMRoW stated that China ordered 164500 FN rifles, I only can confirm 142300 so far.
Coming soon
At one time, FN issued catalogs showing an entry called FN 24/30. It confused people for a long time. On Gunboards Mauser Forum, members determined that the catalog was advertising two similar models, Mod.24 and Mod.30 in one ad. There is no such model as FN24/30, rather a Mod.24 and a Mod.30. All the FN24/30 rifles on your chart are actually FN30's. China did obtain FN24's during 1930-34 (may be off by a year) according to FN records. The arsenal at Guangdong apparently obtained rights to produce a copy of the FN30 at the same as the FN24 contracts (1930-1931), the Type 21.
ReplyDeleteAm enjoying your work.
You are right, Mr.Vanderlinden in his book discussed it. I use "FN 24/30" here because it was the term originally used by Nationalists in their documents.
DeleteThank you!