Polish arms sales/deliveries to China/Trade

[Jerry Asher]

Does anyone know if there were arms sales or deliveries of Polish arms, ammunition or weapons to China during the 1930's. From 1933 on China would have been in the market and would have paid cash on demand. Legal or illegal? from 1936 on with greater urgency.

I have no knowledge of Polish shipping in East Asia but as anyone come across anything?

[YC Chen]

Some Polish-made artillery ammunition, especially those for Bofors 40mm, were used in China at least in 1940s, see my posts here:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 1&start=45

However their provenance is a mystery(in fact the history of Chinese Bofors 40mm guns is a big mystery itself :roll: ).

I have read some Chinese documents on Polish weapons sold to China in 1938. I need time to dig them out and translate them. There is also a Polish wz. 30 HMG on display in the Military Museum in Beijing.

[Jerry Asher]

Thank you YC. As you can plainly see the amount of data regarding this time frame is becoming much better. Thank you for your efforts.

[wm]

According to dws-xip.pl (although the original source is Na krawędzi ryzyka: eksport polskiego sprzętu wojskowego w okresie międzywojennym) those wz. 30s (and wz. 28s) were captured during the war of 1939 and then handed over to China by the USSR.

The Polish exports were, (and this is an incomplete list, for example it is possible there was a large shipment in 1939):

1929 - Mauser wz. 98, 3500 pieces,
1930 - wz. 29e, 4200
1934 - Mannlicher wz. 95, 6000; Schwarzlose wz. 07/12, 359

[YC Chen]

Tanks for these info. Recently I have found a detailed list of Soviet military equipment sent to China as the result of Soviet loan in a series of published Chinese documents. In the list of 1940 there are items like "Browning-type HMG in 7.92mm caliber", "40mm Bofors AA guns with accessories", "75mm French gun with accessories", etc. I suspect these to be captured Polish weapons.

Perhapes those "Browning type 7.92mm HMG" ( wz.30?) solved lots of problems for China and Russia. As the Russian Maxim originally supplied used 7.62mm rounds which were not standard in China, the ammo supply was always in trouble.

[Pibwl1]

You are probably right about their Polish origin. Interesting info.

[forttravel]

Regarding to this topic: http://www.dws-xip.pl/encyklopedia/infimp-cn/
from Poland were sold to China following weapons:
year 1929 - from stock 3500 pcs of german Mauser mark 98
1930 - 4200 pcs of polish short rifle mark 29e (e = export) system Mauser 7,92 mm
1934 - 1500 pcs from stock of austrian long rifle Manlicher mark 95
1934 - 4500 pcs from stock of austrian short rifle Manlicher mark 95
1934 - 359 pcs from stock of austrian hmg Schwarzlose mark 07/12
and http://www.cmhq.pl/node/2947
1936 - from stock 1100 pcs ex german lmg Maxim 08/15 with spare parts (by broker company "Daugs")
and http://www.strzelecka.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3660
1937 (january/february) - from stock 508 pcs of ex russian/sowjet hmg Maxim 10/28 (updated to 7,92 mm Mauser ammo)
But these last two contracts could be delivered to Spain (civil war) too with false destination on documents.