WW2 Chinese Army Ranks - Collar Badges and Chest Patches
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- Опубліковано 29 чер 2024
- The ranks used by the Chinese army or the National Revolutionary Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War and WW2 was introduced in 1936. Ranks were displayed through a series of stripes and triangular pips on a pair of collar badges and a cloth patch worn above the left chest pocket. This video will explain in detail the insignias of each rank as well as potential positions for people with that rank.
Link to starwarstudio100’s channel: youtube.com/@starwarsstudio10...
*This video is not monetized and made solely for the purpose of education.
Sources:
《陆军服制条例》- 1936 version
Kangzhan: Guide to Chinese Ground Forces 1937-45
TM 30-333 Chinese: A Guide to the Spoken Language
artsandculture.google.com/par...
archive.org
catalog.archives.gov
www.history.navy.mil
www.icp.org
www.iwm.org.uk
uwm.edu/lib-collections/
www.e-pics.ethz.ch
00:00 Introduction
01:05 Army Branches
02:52 Collar Badges and Chest Patches
04:35 Enlisted Soldier Ranks
05:55 NCO Ranks
08:09 Junior Officer Ranks
11:02 Senior Officer Ranks
13:03 General Officer Ranks
It was a honor to collab with you on this video and topic, especially since there wasn't a proper video that dealt wht the rank system in English. You've done a fantastic job!
Thanks! I really like how the video turned out as well. Hopefully the video wasn’t too long or confusing. I was a little worried as there was quite a lot of information and at the same time, I included a lot of Chinese terms as well 😂. Thanks again for your support!
@@resistanceremembered No, not all. Honestly, the longer the video the better in your case as the quality and information is consistent. I couldn't have made it shorter either if I was in your position. I had a lot of fun researching this topic alongside with you, especially that we both discovered a lot of new things in regards of the rank badges and the variants. I think adding the Chinese terms was a good choice. Especially since there aren't a lot of English sources that mention them in different terms per branch.
5:59 The NCO should be called 士官 Shì Guān back in the day in NRA
Thanks for watching! I believe 士官is the more recent term actually. I based this off the original 1930s《陆军服制条例》document, where they referred to NCOs as 军士 so that’s what I used. Before this, I had always thought they were known as 士官as well lol. Thanks again for watching, I hope you enjoyed the video!
Absolutely incredible and informative as always man, we’ll done keep it up
Thanks again for your support!
Splendid introduction, congratulations ! As a WW2 Chinese militaria collector, I've been really delighted. But the truth is that, most often, the Chinese soldier didn't wear collar patches, and sometimes not even the breast patch (by the way there was also sleeve unit patches, and sometimes even breast enameled unit patches, much rarer) for evident reasons. Just have a look at the splendid pics and films shown here, and you'll see that most of the men wearing these things are officers or high ranking soldiers, or soldiers during parades. That's why original collar patches are so rare. In quite 15 years of collecting WW2 Chinese militaria, I only saw a handful of authentic collar patches, and all were officers' or NCO's
Thanks for watching. Yeah, I mentioned that a couple times in the video as well, that color tabs and chest patches weren’t usually worn during combat. Later on in the war, a unique unit design was introduced for many of the chest patches, being printed on the back so it could be turned around in certain situations as well. As this video is a guide to rank insignias, I didn’t mention shoulder patches or unit badges. I will likely cover those in future videos. As for collar tabs, they certainly are rare in the West. However, they’re much more commonly encountered in the Chinese collecting communities (but way more expensive) and from what I’ve seen, enlisted badges appear to be just as common, and will often be cheaper than officer ones. It will still depend on factors such as conditions, maker marks, etc. This only applies to the WW2 era 1936 pattern badges however, and earlier 1929 pattern ones tend to be much rarer, both for officers, and enlisted. It’s really nice to meet another Chinese militaria collector though as it’s an area that’s overlooked by most collectors. Thanks again for watching!
Thank you for the information on this era of history. One suggestion, please use the period correct Chinese traditional characters when possible to indicate Chinese phrases. The simplified characters used by the Communist has not been invented yet. There are some simplified characters in use but all are not used in any official documents, etc.
Thanks for watching!
This was a very good and interesting video. Would love a similar kind of video detailing the ranks and different insignia of the Korean Liberation Army, as stuff in English is quite limited
Thanks for watching! I’m really glad you found the video informative! The suggestion sounds quite interesting. I already have quite a few videos planned but I’ll definitely keep that in mind for future videos!
Very cool to hear! Few other subjects I would like to learn more about are the sleeve badges of the Chinese Divisions and Armies, combat helmets and issued items, such as different pouches for small arms. (Sorry for bombing with suggestions)
@@skullhelm69 No worries, I really appreciate the suggestions! These are all topics that I plan to eventually talk about so stay tuned! If you have any specific questions regarding some of the uniforms and/or equipment, feel free to let me know and I’ll try my best to answer them. Thanks again!
Thanks for the response. I have many questions but these came into my mind first. What different warlord armies fought (If they fought) during the Sino-Japanese war. Did they wear their own uniforms, what were their alliance? Another question is that did minorities, such as Uyghurs wear distinctive uniform attire? Third question is what was the role of former White Russians who fled to China in the Chinese army? Final question is that did Chinese communists wear distinctive uniforms during the war, such as pre-war ones worn by the Chinese Red Army? (Sorry for the question bombing in advance)
@@skullhelm69 No worries, I’ll be happy to answer your questions. When war broke out, most warlords were either already allied with, or soon pledged their allegiance to Chiang Kai-shek. All of their units would have been part of the NRA, just not part of Chiang’s central army. As such, they wore standard Chinese uniforms although one can often tell what region a unit is from by looking at their equipment and uniforms. For example, although there was a universal design for the nationalist cap badge, different regions were responsible for producing their own and as such, they would vary between regions. Many Sichuan units had ceramic cap badges, while some of the Yunnan units had cap badges with small centres and long rays. Some badges coming out of the Guangxi area had large centres with small rays. The above may be an over-generalization but basically, even though they wore the NRA uniform, there are still small details that may hint towards their region of origin. Now these ex-warlord would have been more loyal towards their commanders as opposed to Chiang. This forced Chiang to think of ways to “fix” this problem. Sometimes, replacing a unit’s commander or adding some additional officers into a unit, other times purposely ordering them into battles that would result in extremely high casualty rates. Then there was the option of simply getting rid of the man these warlord forces were loyal to. Examples include Han Fuju, ex-warlord turned military governor of Shandong province, who retreated from the city of Jinan without orders. Some say he was trying to save his loyal troops as Chiang wanted have them killed off by ordering them to hold onto the city, others say he may have colluded with the Japanese. Regardless, Chiang ordered his execution to “set an example” for those who may think of disobeying his orders in the future. Long Yun, Yunnan province warlord turned military governor is another example. He actually made it through the war but Chiang decided to get rid of him right after japan’s surrender. First, Chiang ordered General Long’s troops into neighbouring Indochina, and once his loyal troops were gone, units under Chiang’s control staged an armed coup and overthrew him. He wasn’t killed though, they simply “invited” him to the Chinese capital and gave him what was essentially a desk job. Liu Xiang, from the Sichuan clique is another potential example although this can’t be confirmed. He passed away in 1938 supposedly due to stomach cancer, but his death just so happens to be very convenient for Chiang. His death caused many Sichuan units to turn their loyalty to Chiang, eventually resulting in him moving his wartime capital into Sichuan province.
For your second question, to the best of my knowledge, the uniforms were the same for all soldiers, regardless of their ethnicity. Unfortunately, I’m not really sure of the White Russians in the Chinese Army. That’s a topic that I might have to do some more research on in the future. And finally, communist forces wore nationalist uniforms during the war as they were technically part of the nationalist army during that period. Hope you found the information interesting.
Informative as always...thanks for sharing!
Thanks for watching! I’m glad you found the video informative!
Really stellar work, here. Excellent video.
Thanks for watching! I’m glad you liked the video!
@@resistanceremembered What I liked about this video, was the detail on the patch. I had seen the collar tabs before, but never had an idea about the patch for the shirt. That's pretty innovative.
Yeah, I noticed that there really isn’t any good information available in English on these patches so I thought I’d talk about them in detail on this video as well. Glad you liked it!
Thanks for the informative video- and nice graphics!
Thanks! I’m glad you found it informative! It took me quite a while to find all the photos and footage but I wanted to make it as accurate as possible. Thanks again!
A wonderful and very valuablee video. One of the most unique I have seen on UA-cam. Great job!!
Thanks for your support! Nowadays, this part of history is mostly forgotten unfortunately. Hopefully this will change in the future as the Far East battlefield of WW2 really deserves more recognition. Thanks for watching!
Thank you for the effort for making such a detailed video sir.
Thanks! I tried my best to use accurate photos and footage and to make it as comprehensive as possible as there doesn’t seem to be good English sources on this topic. I’m glad that you enjoyed it!
Great video! I like the format, it is very informative! Your videos are always a great source of information about the 2nd sino-Japanese war as finding good sources in English is not the easiest.
Thanks for your support! I’m really glad you find my videos informative. Yeah, good, accurate sources about the 2nd Sino-Japanese War are really difficult to come by, making it difficult for people to learn about it. It can be difficult to find good sources in Chinese as well so it takes me quite a while to do the research for each video as it often involves looking for memoirs and historical documents, and then translating them to English. Thanks again!
Fantastic video and very well researched and presented.Great photos and illustrations too, I enjoyed seeing the C96 in Chinese service. I will certainly be returning to this video when researching WW2 Chinese subjects in the future. The service colours are very different to what I'm used to with collecting 1914-45 German. The only colour in common is yellow for cavalry, otherwise it's all different :)
Thanks for watching! This video took quite a while for me to make but I wanted to make it as detailed and accurate as possible. The footage and photos took me a long time to find but I really don’t like using stock footage in my videos lol. The branch colours can be quite confusing as there are many Chinese sources out there that provide differing and sometimes incorrect information. I was able to get a pdf file of the original 1930s uniform regulations though so that’s what I based the video off of. Im guessing that the branch colours may have been somewhat influenced by the Japanese as branches like the infantry and medical share similar branch colours. But then again, most of the other branches are completely different as well. Thanks again for watching and I’m glad you found the video informative!
Great video , I always wonder on how their rank system worked .
Thanks! I’m glad you found the video informative. I was worried that the video might be a little confusing as there was a lot of information that I had to cover lol. Thanks again for your support!
A very in depth video , I bow to your research and editing abilities, well done sir. The cloth rank/id set up on the chest...if the soldier had that part of his uniform burnt, obliterated or any other damage then in death he'd be unidentifiable 😮. On a side note , looking at the footage it was interesting to see the Chinese soldier at 'slope arms' I think its called, with the mauser C96,(or variant), plus shoulder stock...the Chinese military really loved the box cannon 😊. There was footage of an officer using what looked like a pair of dienstglas 6x30 german binoculars, with rain shield and leather button flap attached. Finally, whilst the M35 steel helmet in Chinese use/decals/paint etc would be a collectable in its own right...I wonder if a lot of them have been bought surplus in the post war years and converted to 'german'....they'd be the right age etc...how could even an expert tell?...they had german stampings?...I'm sure you did a video about the helmet a while back...
Good stuff m8 😊😊😊😊
Thanks for watching! With the patches, they would have been damaged quite easily and they were often removed during combat as well. This would have made identification of those killed in action near impossible. Record keeping back then was pretty poor and as a result, it’s next to impossible to even determine the number of those missing in action let alone killed. Often times, people would leave home to join the army (sometimes involuntarily through forced conscription) and their family will never hear from them again. Really tragic if you think about it. It is interesting how the Chinese often treated the c96 as a rifle. I’ve also seen footage of soldiers performing rifle salutes with the c96 as well lol. Thanks for the info on the binoculars! I probably wouldn’t have been able to identify it even if I tried haha. It makes sense though as the Chinese imported a lot of optical equipment from Germany during the cooperation period, from small personal binos to large anti-aircraft range finders which required multiple people to operate. There are some really good photos available in the Life magazine photo archive if you’re interested. As far as I know, Chinese m35s weren’t surplused after the war as they were used during the civil war as well. Those that survived were put into long term storage or scrapped. They cost a small fortune on the collectors market nowadays, fetching 4 digit prices at least so I don’t think you need to worry about getting a converted one. I have seen a couple of later Wehrmacht issued helmets made to look like Chinese ones though! Without markings or provenance, it’s pretty much impossible to prove whether a helmet came from China. Two factories made them and they fall within a specific lot code range but that’s about it in terms of verifying authenticity lol. I’ve heard a few rumours (unproven of course) that certain local militia units may still have them in long term storage to this day although I’m not sure how well the leather would be nowadays. But a number of them did turn up in the early 1980s during the Sino-Vietnamese border conflict when the PLA recognized the importance of steel helmets. Since they didn’t have a lot of their own domestically produced helmets, they issued troops with whatever they had available, M35s, Japanese type 90s, American M1s, etc. resulting in some really interesting photographs. So I guess that proves the helmets were stored until the 1980s at least.
The cloth rank was indeed a problem, as very fragile (I have two, one is made of a light gauze glued on paper, the other, an officer's patch, is made of printed silk...), and thus many Chinese soldiers never had one, not to mention this patch said too much things to be used without causing problems. But hey often either wrote, either sewed a patch wearing their name in their uniforms. Several pieces of WW2 Chinese uniform pieces I posess do have this kind of identification. About the C96, whether german made or locally made, it was indeed very popular, and its shoulder stock was most often Chinese made. Nothing strange about german Dienstglass, as the best units of the Chinese army were trained and equiped by Germany, mine are WW1 made and found in Beijing, and were used by a Chinese officer.
Finally, the Chinese M35 helmet is more than a collectable in itself, it's a highly sought after helmet, one of the rarest of WW2. In its original version, it was painted Feldgrau, like the German army early helmets, and sent without insignia to China, where the blue/white rising sun was painted (there wasn't decals). As only around 250 000 found their way to China before Germany cut links with China under Japanese pressure, very few have survived the war, so none of them were bought surplus after the war, only a handful were picked by US veterans and brought back. During the war, many of them used by collaborationist troops saw their insignia scratched (it was very resistant, I saw some heavily rusted shells still wearing a still very visible insignia), some used by the Japanese were repainted khaki, and quite a lot were refurbished after the communists took the power. Within two days, I could help you find a dozen authentic WW2 German helmets wearing insignias, but I challenge you to find a single Chinese M35... I had to wait ten years before getting mine ! Moreover, as a good, complete Chinese M35 is worth several thousand dollars, it's very unlikely some were converted to "German", but it would be more probable that a German-used helmet had been converted to a "Chinese" one.
How could an expert tell then ? Well, first understand this helmet, as it is very rare, is heavily faked, nearly all I saw were fakes. But, roughly, a genuine Chinese helmet can only be a M35, never a M40 and even more a M42 (but I saw one, someone dared...). It's color is ALWAYS the German feldgrau (the famous "apple green"), don't listen to those who say they were sometimes painted blue-grey to match the uniforms. WW2 China was such a mess they had more urgent things to do than wasting time and money to repaint helmets... You can also tell it can be a good Chinese helmet by checking the batch number stamped in the shell. If it exceeds 3120, it can't be a Chinese used one. Same thing if the insignia is a decal, I never saw a genuine M35 Chinese helmet with an insignia other than painted, whether with a stencil or by hand, like mine. And if the helmet is mint (don't dream...), it could even have a ink stamp in the shell.
我真没想到能在油管上找到对抗日战争的点点滴滴解释的如此清楚的主播！我很期待你的下一期视屏！最后还想请问一句，这些黑白影像能在那里找到？欧美的网站上这些影视资源似乎十分匮乏。
感谢观看！影像的来源比较多 有英国的IWM，美国的National Archives等等。我在视频的下面提供了一些我用的资源，我个人认为是比较好用的。您要是感兴趣的话我觉得可以去看一看
Great video
I am curious - were the rank titles taken directly from western military ranks transliterated into Chinese (EG, does Zhong Shi literally mean Sargent), or are they completely Chinese names with their western equivalents presented
Thanks for watching! These were actual Chinese terms. Take the private 2nd class for example, that’s the western term for the rank. If one was to translate it literally, it’s actually closer to ‘2nd class soldier’ instead. Thanks again for watching!
Thank you! Wasn't sure if the German military reforms involved verbatim adopting western terms or not@@resistanceremembered
非常棒的作品！平心而论您视频整体质量在我早期出的那期陆军军衔视频之上！您的信息很详细也更有深度！很多部分我没有涉及很深比如一些军衔的变体！也非常喜欢您的历史影像比我找的更清晰尤其在军衔细节上！我注意到您将军衔和同样标有军衔信息的胸章有所联系，我是打算将胸章另一出节目。 而且我也意识到以前我讲解中的一些误区比如特级上将军衔的金色边框等等！我从您的作品受益颇多！！期待您关于海军和空军军衔的相关作品！校长up主敬上！
非常感谢观看！我原本也打算把胸章和领章分开的 但后来想了一下反正讲的是军衔 不如就放在一起吧。为了找到那些照片和影像花了挺长一段时间的 但确实找到了一些很有意思的影像(比如说那名佩戴军衔的八路军下士等等)。关于特级上将的军衔其实也算是我个人的猜测因为确实有其他上将军官佩戴过类似的领章。非常感谢您的支持，我也很期待看到您的下一期视频！哦对了 出于好奇想问一下您是在国内吗哈哈哈
@@resistanceremembered 确实很多细节问题我的视频也是基于我的猜测和理解。我在海外，说实话很多关于抗战的高质量历史文献和影像都来自国外尤其是台湾地区的网站和国史馆。访问这些网站在大陆很不方便，所以我也很庆幸自己在国外有这个机会。在国内讲这段历史依旧会有很多限制所以我只在海外和油管上创作！感觉您也是在海外多年，您英语旁白非常清晰顺畅！！继续加油！
@@xiaozhangyouhuashuo2023 是的 我在视频里用的影响也都是来自于外国的一些网站。国内很少有好的资源 不能说没有但确实比较少。之前也有朋友建议我在B站上发一些视频 但和您一样我也觉得有点麻烦 而且感觉用的很多影像都很难过审。我其实是在国外长大的所以英语算是我的母语了哈哈哈。感觉我的中文水平反而有进步的空间，不知道这里面有没有出现错别字什么的😂
@@resistanceremembered 是的！尤其是如果你了解到讲抗战历史会多少受到现代中国政治的影响后就不太会想在国内（大陆）平台打不作品了（也是降低我们自身的潜在风险）！我自己字幕里也有错字我觉得不必太在意，只要大部分没有问题就行！继续加油这是很有意义的题材！尤其是通过英语让世界上更多人知道中国抗战的历史！
在这里看到校长真是有意思，新年快乐，抗战是被可以抹杀遗忘的，两位的作品都非常优质，非常感谢，新年快乐
Very informative video I was curious if you would do a similar video for the Chinese communists during wwii. A compare contrast video could be cool
Thanks for watching! During WW2, Communist forces were nominally under the control of the Nationalist government and as such, used the same rank system and insignias as the nationalist units. If you take a look at the footage I used for the corporal rank, the first soldier has a 18GA sleeve patch, which shows he was part of the communist 8th Route Army. But still, even though they technically had ranks, it seems that communist units didn’t use it all that frequently, with the standard red collar patches of the Red Army being more common. Thanks again!
@@resistanceremembered Yes, and even, most often, no collar patches at all. But sleeve unit patches were more common
@@laurentdevaux5617 If you look at footage and photos of 18GA troops (I mean the regulars, not militia), a pair of red collar badges seem to be the standard for their uniforms, with most being sewn directly onto the uniforms, meaning they were mostly worn in battle as well. Less common were the 1936 pattern rank insignias, although they were sometimes seen as well.
@@resistanceremembered The 18GA... In other words the famous 8th Route army... No wonder ! As a showcase for the communist party, the regular units were particularly cared after, and there is nothing strange they wore collar patches, as they also wore sleeve unit patches as well (I had an opportunity to buy a genuine one last year by the way, I unfortunately didn't, too expensive). But it is more an example than a rule, a lot of pics picturing soldiers well equipped, even with M35 German helmets, showed the collar patches were far from being the rule. And about the 8th Route army, don't forget that, no matter what the propaganda and the films sponsored by the Chinese government say, it was above all a guerrilla unit which was rarely involved in hard fighting and whose efficiency was very low. Their main task was above all ideological fight among the peasants, not direct confrontation with the Japanese troops, except small and weak ones, particularly after the failure of the Hundred Regiments offensive... To put it short, with this kind of showcase unit, which had to display their best look for photos and ideological work, it's hard to generalize, even more when we know they rarely used M36 collar patches, as you rightly said. And like I said, in nearly 15 years of Chinese militaria collection, I never saw a single authentic soldier collar patch... Officers, even NCO's, I saw a few, and have a pair, but low rank soldiers, never. I have a full uniform and equipment of the regular army, even breast patch and an extremely rare enameled unit breast patch, but I'm still waiting for this kind of sewn patches, and I think I'll wait for long...
真的很棒的內容！致敬，但是能否改用繁體中文呢？這會讓整個影片層次更加提升
感谢观看！我其实不会繁体字，就连简体字对我来说都有点困难😅
@@resistanceremembered 喔喔您非華人嗎？我聽您的發音非常標準！可以嘗試看看，支持繁體中文！
@@tsaipatience 我从小在国外长大的所以没有正式学过中文😂
Can you Guide Chinese Uniform During Second Sino japanese war
Thanks for the suggestion! This is a topic that I plan to cover in more detail in the future. Thanks for watching!
@@resistanceremembered thanks for reading my little comment comrade
Could you do a video about 18th Group Army of NRA
Thanks for watching! Anything in particular that you want to know about them?
@@resistanceremembered i'm in planning to recreate the impression of 18GA . I saw few pics of them having garrison collar tabs ( which is not the same thing as rank tabs ) , so I would like to know the details about it , the fabric used and the size of the collar tabs.
( Hopefully what I write is understandable because English isn't my first language and I rarely write in English, so I bet the sequence of my sentences could be a bit messy. )
@@Zhao99Reenactor From what I’ve seen, the 18GA primarily used a variant of the red collar tabs reminiscent of those from the earlier Red Army. A few different variants have been observed, most of them being a cloth patch sewn on the collars, but there are also metal badges and some may even be of different colors. So far, there’s not enough documentation on them but if you’re reenacting the average soldier, a pair of red cloth patches should be enough. If you look at my uniform colors video, around 7:50, there are some period illustrations of Communist soldiers depicting the same red collar insignias in use. It’s important to note that some members of the 18GA also used regular rank tabs since they were part of the NRA. If you look at one of the examples I used for the corporal rank, the soldier in the footage is actually from the 18GA. Hope this helps!
According to my observations, you are Chinese American and your origin is Taiwan, ROC. That's why you have so many videos talking about the Nationalist Army during the WWII era. Unlike those separatists nowadays in Taiwan, you stick to the ROC Constitution and might even be a loyal KMT member. Or at least you are from a KMT family. Keep up the good work. Taiwan needs you.
Thanks for watching! I don’t necessarily support any sides or parties, I just try my best to keep politics out of my videos. When politics is introduced into history videos, people will inevitably be bias towards a certain side, and as such, I try my best to keep politics and history separate whenever possible. I feel that this will also make my videos more historically accurate as well. Thanks again for watching the video and I hope you enjoyed it!