Lmao the helmets
this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2026
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Don't worry everyone! They covered up the swastika emblem with the twelve-pointed star!
Look at it's cute little face!
Tank development really escalated once the war kicked off, the T-26 wasn't bad in 1938 but was an obsolete design by 1941. It would likely do just fine in the Asian theater though, Japan never fielded anything comparable to the T-34 or Sherman.
Soviet officer who was was never a tanker and has no idea what he's doing: "Uh, so you see, this is the tread!"
KMT: "Ohhhhhh!"
Huh. We always think of the KMT as Nazi allies. Chiang Weikuo, Chiang Kai-Shek's son, fought in the Wehrmacht in the invasion of Poland. The troops that fought in the battle of Shanghai were trained and outfitted by the Germans, including Kraut helmets, stick grenades and 98k rifles. That's why John Rabe was in Nanking when he was.
This was when the KMT was resisting Japanese occupation, they were cooperating with the CCP as well, foreign occupation can make strange bedfellows.
The Soviet Union started helping KMT in 1937 to help them defend against Japan., and Germany sided with Japan and pulled out its advisors in early 1938.
We always think of the KMT as Nazi allies
Uh... do we? I mean, I don't think arms sales and training really make someone an ally. Wei-kuo was in the Wehrmacht to study their methodology and bring back what he learned to China, not as some deployment of troops as per a mutual defense pact, which isn't something that would have really been feasible for the KMT anyway given that they were two years into a brutal war with Japan by that point. Also, it seems like he didn't fight in Poland - he was recalled back to China before the invasion ever happened. He served during the Anschluss of Austria, over a year earlier, and which notably didn't involve any actual fighting.
The Germans were looking around East Asia for potential partners throughout the '20s and '30s and initially favored China, but a pro-Japan faction led by Ribbentrop eventually won out and Germany severed relations with China. By the time WW2 actually started the Germans were solidly on Japan's side. And even when they maintained relations with China, their interest was in raw materials, not military support (which isn't something 1930s China could provide anyway).
Von Falkenheyn is a national hero in China because he led the defense of Shanghai, like US generals led the defense of Ukraine. Imagine my shock when I see his portrait in a museum and it's a FUCKING NAZI! I was like, what the fuck, China? The unit that was destroyed defending the city? The 88th division. "Can't shake the devil's hand then say you're only kidding" --They Might Be Giants, Your Racist Friend
Von Falkenheyn
von Falkenhausen? Falkenhayn's a WW1 guy. And I don't think he can be said to have led the defense, he was a military advisor, but there were still actual Chinese generals in charge. Germany's relationship with China also cannot really be likened to that of the US/NATO with Ukraine either, the scale of support and geopolitical interests are wholly different (and I don't think the West can be said to have "led" the defense if Ukraine either, they may have had some influence on planning things like the 2023 offensive and various special ops, but after the disastrous outcomes of those they've lost a lot of their cachet, which is why there were a bunch of op-eds afterwards complaining about the Ukrainians being too Soviet-minded to follow "superior" Western doctrine properly, and from the Ukrainian side ones complaining about how much Western training sucks and doesn't actually prepare them for modern war).
I'm not sure if I'm missing some sarcasm here, but the Battle of Shanghai involved seventy Chinese divisions, and I don't think a numerical substitution in an alphabet the Chinese don't even use was of any particular symbolical significance to them. I don't think the 88th was destroyed either, they were severely damaged after the subsequent Battle of Nanking, but they still remained around until the end of the war.
Did you mean Alexander von Falkenhausen?