US Army Topo maps of China circa WWII

[asiaticus]

Check out this web site. Has topo maps of most of the area of combat for the 2nd Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil Wars too..

China 1:250,000

Series L500, U.S. Army Map Service, 1954-

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/china/

[sjchan]

Wow. Great maps. I have been looking for such maps for a long time!

[David Thompson]

Thanks, asiaticus, for the excellent link.

[Kim Sung]

Wow, those maps make me speechless!

[Peter H]

Obviously relics from the Cold war(circa 1954) but still only a decade out from WW2.

[sjchan]

That's what I thought when I look at the date of the Series (1954-), but when I looked at the maps more carefully, many of them said on the sides things like "planimetry based on 1945-1946 aerial photography", or "compiled in 1946, planimetry based on 1945 aerial photography", so it seems like the most of the maps are good for WW2 purposes.

[asiaticus]

sjchan is correct about the information date for the maps. That what got my attention.

The only thing that would improve it would be the maps of Jehol and Manchuria! :^(

[asiaticus]

Uh, guess what. They do have maps of Jehol and Manchuria!

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/manchuria/

Even a map of the Khalkhin Gol area.

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/manc ... nl50-3.jpg

Chengkufeng

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/kore ... nk52-6.jpg

[LWD]

I remember reading about a ferry flight to China that lost a lot of planes. They were flying over some mountains and set there altitude to give them a few thousand feet of clearance. The weather was cloudy so they couldn't see the ground. The pilot quoted found an opening and was admiring the scenery when he realised that he could see a lot more detail than he should have been able to from a few thousand feet over the ground. He added a few thousand feet to his planned altitude at that point. His and similar experiances clearly pointed to a need for better maps. Given our support to the nationalist regime after the war I'm not surprised that there was an extensive mapping effort in 45-46.

[sjchan]

Hi Asiaticus:

Talking about resources on the Sino Japanese War, I realize that you are using Hsu and Chang heavily.

I just came across this website. It is the online version of a farily recent history of the Sino Japanese War. The book is in Chinese, but at least you can feed whatever part you want to translate into some on-line translator and at least get a different point of view from Hsu and Chang.

http://www.wehoo.net/book/wlwh/a30012/A0170.htm


The book "Zhongguo Kangri Zhanzhen Zhengmian Zhanchang Zuozhan Ji" is a fairly lengthy volume (>1400 pages) that covers the main battle fronts i.e. KMT battles. The chief editor was a high ranking officer in the KMT army in the 30s and 40s (turned out he had been a communist in disguise all along -- one of the many reasons the KMT lost so badly in the civil war). The maps are missing, but I think it provides a lot of information from the (mainland) Chinese point of view. Not the best account, in my view, among recent Chinese works, but still a recent (1996) and much referenced work.

[asiaticus]

Wow! This "Zhongguo Kangri Zhanzhen Zhengmian Zhanchang Zuozhan Ji" is great!

Thanks for the link sjchan.

First thing I click on is the dispostions of the Japanese and Northeastern Army in Manchuria on the eve of the Japanese Invasion! Definitely a keeper.


BTW what is the English translation of that title? Alta Vista gets me

"The Chinese Sino-Japanese War is recording to the battlefield combat"

Doesnt sound quite right. :^)

[sjchan]

Unfortunately sometimes that's the best most on-line translator can do for you.

It should say something like "The Military History of the Main Battlefront in the Sino Japanese War"; the main battlefront refering to the large scale campaigns fought by the KMT troops as distinguished from the guerilla warfare waged by the Communists.

[asiaticus]

It should say something like "The Military History of the Main Battlefront in the Sino Japanese War".

Thanks for clearing that up.

[asiaticus]

Did a Google search and found it being sold. Here is the info on it.

China's Anti-Japanese War Battlefield Operations
China's Anti-Japanese War Combat Operations

seems to have been two of the translations.

中国抗日战争正面战场作战记（上下册）
• 作者：郭汝瑰，黄玉章 主编
• 出版社：江苏人民出版社
• 出版日期：2005-7-1
• ISBN：7214030349



China's Anti-Japanese War combat operations (volumes)
• Author : Guo Rugui, editor-in-chief Huang Yuzhang
• Press : Jiangsu People's Publishing House
• Date published : 2005-7-1
• ISBN:7214030349

[sjchan]

The books are widely available; however I am not aware of a translated version.

The ISN you quoted are the same as that of my Chinese version.