In a bound volume of National Geographic from 1946 I picked up from the library for free a while back, there is a fascinating photo essay on seagoing mercenaries in China, career escorts for sailing convoys. Their heritage and family purpose was pirate-fighting. Their junks were armed with ranks of muzzleloading cannons taken or bought from sometimes ancient ships-of-the-line. The author/photographer noted casting dates from the 1700s on some of these cannon. This is my favorite picture: British Royal Navy bronze cannon with Broomhandle Mausers.
According to the article, piracy in the seas off China exploded during World War II; the Japanese didn't have the resources to patrol the coasts, and the various navies of the Allies had no interest in the small junks in the coastal waters. Particularly near the end of the war, Chinese pirates armed themselves with looted or stolen weaponry from the combatants, outfitting their craft with Type 99 machine guns, Vickers Guns, and some truly heavy stuff on top of that, like Japanese copies of .50 caliber Brownings and Oerlikon 20mm anti-aircraft cannon.
Evidently, it took quite a bit of doing to even come close to suppressing this activity at the end of World War II.
Those are some great photos. I seem to recall the Chinese even made a .45 in the old broomhandle style.
ReplyDeleteYes, they did, at Shansei Arsenal in the 20s and 30s. Some of these type were imported to the US a few years ago, and it's been debated since whether these guns were old arsenal stock from militia stores, or were recent reproductions due to many of them being basically brand new.
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