page_title: Tanks in China
section_title: Sino-Japanese conflict – World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Tanks in China / History / Sino-Japanese conflict – World War II
caption_attribution_description: English: T-26 Tanks at Hunan province
context_page_description: From the early half of the 20th century, tanks were initially obtained from other countries; eventually indigenously designed Chinese tanks started manufacture and became used during the Cold War and towards the modern era.
context_section_description: At the beginning of the war in 1937 the armour were organized in three armoured battalions, equipped with tanks and armoured cars from various countries. When the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in earnest, the  1st and 2nd Armored Battalions participated in the Second Battle of Shanghai and the Battle of Nanking and were more or less completely destroyed by the Japanese forces. Many of the tanks were captured by the Japanese. By 1938 nearly half of China's armor was either captured or destroyed as out of the 96 tanks they started with, only 48 remained. China, at that time, had German advisors, but these were withdrawn as German relations with Japan warmed. In early 1938, the Japanese government had demanded that the German government withdraw all German advisers from China. Given the closer relations between the two nations, Hitler agreed and soon after they left China.
  After the Germans left, the Soviet Union started to support the Nationalists. The National Revolutionary Army facing Japanese forces had only the small number of armoured vehicles and mechanised troops formed into the three armoured battalions to defend a large front. In August 1937, Chiang Kai-shek's government negotiated with the Soviet government for military aid for the War of China's Resistance Against Japan (1937–1945) during a signing of a Treaty of Non-Aggression between the Republic of China and the Soviet Union. The Soviets came in and began to provide Soviet advisers and Soviet tanks arrived in China for the first time in March 1938. After these battalions were mostly destroyed in the Battle of Shanghai and Battle of Nanjing, new tanks, armoured cars and trucks from the Soviet Union and Italy made it possible to create the only mechanized division in the army. The Soviet advisers organized the new mechanised unit in China, the 200th Division, which consisted of one tank regiment and one motorised infantry regiment.
  The USSR sold 82 T-26 mod. 1933 tanks to China as Russia was wary of having Japan on its back door. These tanks were shipped to Guangzhou harbour in the spring of 1938, and used to set up the first tank regiment of the 200th Infantry Division of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army, the only motorized infantry formation in the Chinese Army at that time. The 200th Infantry Division was a mechanized division consisting of four regiments, including a tank regiment equipped with the T-26s, an armoured car regiment, a mechanized infantry regiment, and an artillery regiment.
  Chinese tank crews were trained under the supervision of Soviet specialists. The 200th Division was set up as the first mechanised division in the National Revolutionary Army by General Du Yuming, who was also its first commander. The tank regiments had 70 T-26, 4 BT-5, 20 ( 92? ) CV-35 tanks.  The armoured car regiment had around 50 BA armoured cars and 12 ( 18? ) Leichter Panzerspähwagen (Sd.Kfz. 221) armoured cars.  The tank regiment consisted of four tank battalions. Each tank battalion had three tank companies. The tank regiments had approximately 200 armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs). The Nationalist government bought 88 T-26 tanks and BA-10 and BA-20 armoured cars. These AFVs and remaining German AFVs were deployed in the 200th Division and the division finally saw action in late 1938. Its first action was against the 14th Division in the Battle of Lanfeng. Following the division's combat in the Battle of Lanfeng and in operations afterward until September 1938 the division's original subordinate mechanized units were placed under direct command of the 11th Army, and the division was reorganized. It inflicted the devastating defeat upon the Japanese army at the Battle of Kunlun Pass. It suffered heavy losses after the battle at Kunlun Pass in an offensive against Batang, losing nearly two-thirds of its strength and was rebuilt and reorganized. With the Soviet and Japanese non-aggression pact signing, this help from the Soviets went out the window and China started searching for allies. After signing the nonaggression pact with Germany and defeating the K
caption: T-26 tanks of Chinese Nationalist Army during WW2
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