The reputation and use of the
Czechoslovakian ZBvs26/30 light machine guns by China from the 1920’s through
World War II has been covered in some detail by documented evidence along with
production capabilities in expanded efforts during their wars with Japan.
Little is recorded however after the 1930’s invasion by the Japanese and capture
of ordnance facilities in both China and Manchuria of the continuing production
of the Czech light machine guns. From the past there has been only speculation
of the Japanese manufacturing their own copies of the vs26 gun. The following
presents an accounting on the matter.
The Czechoslovakian ZBvs26/30 series of light
machine guns produced in the 1920’s were one of the most efficient and popular
of its decade. It began at the Prague Armory in Vrsovice, Czechoslovakia in 1922
with a vision of two brothers, Emmanuel and Vaclav Holek. Starting with an
original design concept by Rudolf Jelan, within a year samples of the prototypes
were ready for preliminary testing. It included features of the then current
and tried machine gun mechanisms from several known inventors such as Browning
and Hotchkiss. By 1924 an improved design included changing from a cartridge
belt feed to a magazine feed and was tested before the Czechoslovakia Ministry
of National Defense. Identified as the army’s new hand-held machine gun, it was
titled ‘Praga vz 24’. More improvements were needed in the metallurgical make up
and when finally resolved, it was accepted for production at the Brno Arsenal.
The final model would be was designated, in short term, as ‘ZBvs26’. Use of a
new cartridge design in 7.92x57mm rimless configuration and based on a German
development for their machine guns, required additional changes. The final
version was designated as ‘ZBvs30’.
Based on acceptance by the Czechoslovakian
government for production, and with some 18,000 delivered by 1932, the company
extended their marketing of the weapon on a worldwide basis. Strategy on
reputation paid off in dividends. A reliable and effective automatic weapon
with proven concepts, some 24 countries around the world purchased the Czech
weapon series and manufacturing contracts were consummated with four separate
countries including China. By 1938, the company produced over 120,000 of the
vz26/30 guns.
In the eastern Asian countries the reputation of
the ZBvz26 light machine gun influenced China’s Nationalist Party Government who
had ordered 5,000 of the weapons in the late 1920’s. Although they were
producing their own copy of the vz26 by 1927, they entered into a formal
contract with the Czech company in 1929.
The Chinese Taiyuan Arsenal in the Shansi
Province was a major producer of both the ZBvz26 light machine guns and Thompson
submachine guns. With its capture by the Japanese in 1939, the Thompson weapon
manufacture was discontinued, however, the vz26 gun production continued but in
the Japanese 6.5mm caliber cartridge instead of the 7.92mm. Although several
arsenals and private ordnance companies throughout China were producing the
Czech automatic weapons, little is documented on the continued production after
Japanese occupation.
The amount of the Japanese version of vz26/30
weapons manufactured is unknown for reason that those quantities were produced
in captured territories and used on their eastern front against the Chinese and
Russians. The Manchurian company, Mukden Arsenal Company Limited [Hoten
Zoheisho Kabushiki Kaisha] did produce Japanese design copies of the Czech
weapons along with other major Japanese ordnance as the Type 3 and Type 92 Heavy
Machine Guns, and Types 11, 96, and 99 Light Machine Guns.
The photos in this document are of a Mukden
produced weapon and its accessories. There are no inscriptions or markings on
the weapon other than the serial number. The caliber is of Japanese 6.5mm with
cartridges fed from a curved-style magazine. This feature was continued for the
series type 96/99 weapons due to the demand of their cartridge design.
Cartridge magazines are serial numbered to match the gun and hyphenated to
quantity number of issued spares. Its Barrel length of 23.75 inches and overall
length of 45.75 inches is within size fractions of the original Czech and
Chinese weapons. Stainless steel materials are absent from the specimen, however
some parts are brass. The gas regulator assembly for the gas vent control is
fixed and not the flexible type. The finish on certain parts appear to be from
a sulfurous motor oil mixture while other parts are painted in a black
configuration. The front sight, although hooded, does not have the horizontal
movement feature for windage adjustment.
The Japanese had a certain policy about
identification of foreign weapons which they copied, [pirated], without license
or permission to manufacture. They did not designate an official title to the
weapon such as type or model or use any form of dating procedure. Also absent
from the guns were service inspection marks which might identify arsenals or
coded private firms. This was the case in several automatic weapons including
the Czech ZBvz26 series of light machine guns. They did however identify the
gun source either by origin of country or the foreign manufacture. In certain
cases where existing Kanji characters were insufficient to identify the source,
combinations or abbreviations were used. In this instance the Kanji character chi was abbreviation for Czechoslovakia.
From a close inspection of the Japanese copy
of the Czech vz26 series automatic weapon one can conclude by comparison its
influence on the birthing of the Japanese Type 96 light machine gun
series.
|
Japanese copy for the Czech ZBvz26 Light Machine Gun. The right magazine fits
Japanese Type 96 lmg. Both are of 30 round capacities for 6.5mm ammunition. |
|
Magazine, magazine loader for the ZBvz26 Japanese copied weapon and samples of
Japanese 6.5mm cartridge. |
REFERENCES: This
works is adopted from the soon to be published book: DRAGONS OF FIRE by
william m.p. EASTERLY
ARTICLE: JAPANESE-CZECH LIGHT MACHINE GUNS
