Page:A Pocket Guide to China (1943).pdf/41

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

addition to these soldiers, China has 50,000,000 able-bodied men of military age available for service. Under a system of national military training instituted by Chiang Kaishek, about 6,000,000 men are now given elementary mili­tary training in their own villages and towns each year.

Field organization of Chinese troops is as follows:

Army groups—consisting of two or more armies.

Armies—consisting of two or more divisions.

Division—consisting of two or more infantry brigades, plus one artillery battalion or regiment, and contingents of engineers, signal troops, medical units, and transport, totaling 10,000 men.

The basic infantry unit is the squad composed of 12 to 14 men armed with 7.9-mm rifles. Theoretically, each squad is equipped with at least one automatic rifle, mostly of the 30-caliber or 7.9 millimeter types, coming from Germany, Denmark, Great Britain, Russia, Czechoslovakia, and the United States. The Chinese have some Browning automatic rifles, 1937 model. Machine guns are of the 30-caliber or 7.9-millimeter variety and come from the same sources as the rifles. Infantry units are also equipped with trench mortars and 37-millimeter guns.

The trench mortar is one of the principal weapons, re­ceiving somewhat the same emphasis as in the Japanese Army. The shortages of artillery and of artillery ammuni-

37