Technical Term for Troops Armed with Melee Weapons?

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Stephen_Rynerson
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Technical Term for Troops Armed with Melee Weapons?

#1

Post by Stephen_Rynerson » 14 Sep 2015, 04:54

I'm curious -- during the Republican era was there a specific term used for troops that were only armed with melee weapons (swords, spears, etc.) as compared to firearms? While I realize that firearms were becoming more and more available throughout the period, I've seen references in several sources to forces in more rural locations still having sizable numbers of troops equipped with melee weapons even into the 1930s.

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The 51st Division
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Re: Technical Term for Troops Armed with Melee Weapons?

#2

Post by The 51st Division » 16 Sep 2015, 05:52

While melee combat was still a big part in the Chinese military, most warlord armies didn't have entire "TROOPS that were ONLY armed with melee weapons". Most soldiers had firearms and were just called "infantry" and to my knowledge no melee weapon (other than bayonets of course) was standard-issued as primary weapons in the Chinese military. Maybe some poorer warlord armies couldn't equip everyone with a rifle and some had to carry swords and spears, but they were still grouped together with firearm-wielding soldiers in infantry units and simply referred to as "infantry". There weren't entire units armed with only melee weapons and didn't have any firearms...well at least not in the regular armies (there were certainly various self-organized armed peasant groups that had little weapons, but they weren't really armies, they were just villagefolks defending themselves against bandits)

However, a few armies did have the so-called "Sabre Units" (大刀队), most famously that of the 29th Route Army, that were purposefully organized to excell in close-quarter combat--assault troops, basically, like the WWI German Sturmtruppe. But those units also weren't melee-only. Other than a traditional Chinese sabre each soldier were also armed with one or two Mauser automatic pistols and a whole bunch of grenades. The most famous action of the 29th Route Army Sabre Unit was the "Victory at Xifengkou Pass" (喜峰口大捷)during the "Defence of the Great Wall" (长城抗战, also known as the First Battle of Hebei in many English sources)...quite an interesting topic, really, 20th Century modern armies fighting on the Great Wall using tactics developed by 2nd Century BCE Warring States-era armies.
"The nation might be powerful, yet it shall be destroyed if it seeks war; the world might be peaceful, yet it shall be doomed if it forgets war."
--The Method of the Sima, Qin Dynasty Chinese Military Classic


Stephen_Rynerson
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Re: Technical Term for Troops Armed with Melee Weapons?

#3

Post by Stephen_Rynerson » 17 Sep 2015, 15:20

Thank you, The 51st Division. Perhaps I have misunderstood what I've been reading, but in China's Wars: Rousing the Dragon, 1894-1949 by Philip Jowett, he states that during the Northern Expedition in 1927, the warlord Sun Chuanfang's hastily mobilized forces included "whole units armed only with spears due to a shortage of rifles." Also from Jowett, his book Chinese Civil War Armies: 1911-1949 includes a photograph of spear-carrying troops, with the caption, "Communist spearmen set out on a guerrilla operation against the Japanese in the late 1930s. All wear civilian dress and are armed purely with their roughly made spears; at the first opportunity they would swap these for a captured rifle."

And this isn't just something that Jowett mentions. In News from Tartary, Peter Fleming, who traveled through southern Xinjiang in 1935, describes the forces under Ma Hushan's command there as follows: "Their effective strength is probably in the neighbourhood of 15,000 rifles, but they could put into the field a much larger force of auxiliaries armed with swords."

I'm quite certain there are similar references in some of my other books on 1920s-30s era Chinese forces, but I don't have time at the moment to track them all down. In any event, these sources clearly give the impression of units whose primary weapons were not firearms. If this is a misrepresentation by the authors or a misunderstanding on my part, I apologize.

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YC Chen
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Re: Technical Term for Troops Armed with Melee Weapons?

#4

Post by YC Chen » 17 Sep 2015, 18:43

Hello,

It is a complex question, you perhaps just did not realize its complexity. There are many different kinds of troops that are armed mainly with melee weapons. Of course there are many badly equipped troops without enough rifles. Just one more example, according to the book "Chinese Warlord: the Career of Feng Yu-hsiang" by Sheridan, many troops in the Chahar Anti-Japanese Allied Army do not have rifles. But afaik they do not seem to have a specific terms.

However, in other instances, it was not badly-equipped force that was armed with melee weapons, but elite troops. Some sources mentioned the "Dare-to-die" squadrons(敢死队) in General Wu Peifu's forces consisted of hand-picked soldiers especially trained in marshal arts and mainly used melee weapons; they were used as first-line assault forces in the battlefied.

And yes, when I first read your post I thought of the rural paramilitary organization that were usually armed only with melee weapons(as The 51st Division has mentioned). They were usually called "Big Sword Society"(大刀会) or simply "Sword Societly"(刀会), and existed in vast areas of China during Republican era. They were always associated with secret sects and secret society(in fact not so secret during Republican era), those who joined the "Big Sword Societies" did so through some kind of pseudo-religious ceremonies, and relied mainly on spiritual power during battles. There were many instances of Sword Societies attacking Japanese-occupied towns, often resulted in high casualties. The Communists, Nationalists and collaborationists(or other regional "powers") often compete each other for the alliance of local "Big Sword Societies" during WW2 and the Civil War.

Also, most bandit groups were mainly armed with melee weapons.

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