With the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in July 1937, the consumption of weapons and ammunition was huge, and the family funds accumulated by the national army before the war could not be supported for a long time. At that time, the national army had two sources of weapons: imported and self-produced. Due to the weak base of heavy industry, the level of the Kuomintang arsenal was relatively low, and not only could not produce planes and tanks, but also could not meet the demand even with the most basic production capacity of guns and bullets. In the conditions of that time, the importance of imported weapons and equipment was obvious .

Germany was China's most important source of arms imports from the end of the Qing Dynasty until 1938. Before the Anti-Japanese War, the Nationalist Army established the "German Armament Division" by importing German weapons and equipment, and the funds required for the Nationalist Army to import weapons and equipment from Germany were mainly paid for with tungsten ore, tin, antimony, tung oil and other materials. In May 1938, Germany announced that it would stop exporting weapons to China after strong protests from Japan, and the last batch of weapons arrived in China in August. From the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War to the cessation of supplies to Germany, the weapons and equipment imported by the Nationalist Army from Germany included: 12 aircraft, 36 105-mm howitzers, 800 mortars, 500 37-mm anti-aircraft guns, 300 13.2-mm anti-aircraft machine guns, 10,000 machine guns, 5,000 rifles, 20,000 shell guns, and 4,400 pistols; 6000 rounds of 150-mm shells, 36,000 rounds of 105-mm shells, 1.9 million rounds of mortar shells, 500,000 rounds of 37-mm shells, 160 million rounds of ammunition.

After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, on August 21, 1937, the Nationalist Army and the Soviet Union signed the Sino-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, and the Soviet Union began to provide weapons and equipment to the Nationalist Army in the form of loans, which were repaid by China with minerals and agricultural products. The supply of weapons from the USSR to the national army continued until the outbreak of the Soviet-German war. In the past four years, the national army imported weapons and equipment from the Soviet Union, including: 885 aircraft, 82 tanks, 1,540 automobiles, 80 115-mm howitzers, 160 76-mm field guns, 50 76-mm mountain guns, 270 anti-aircraft guns, 50 45-mm anti-aircraft guns, 380 37-mm anti-aircraft guns, 120 aviation machine guns, 1,300 heavy machine guns, 5,300 light machine guns, 50,000 rifles, and 3,000 submachine guns; 31,100 aerial bombs, 126,800 rounds of 115-mm shells, 160,000 rounds of 76-mm shells, 75,000 rounds of 45-mm shells, 610,000 rounds of 37-mm shells, 314,400 rounds of anti-aircraft shells, 184 million rounds of ammunition. (China's payments to the Soviet Union include: 31,177 tons of tungsten ore, 13,162 tons of tin, 10,892 tons of antimony, 600 tons of zinc, 560 tons of mercury, 18 tons of bismuth, 30,293 tons of tea, 309 tons of raw silk, 2.23 million pieces of sheepskin, 14,300 tons of wool, 6,340 tons of pig bristles, and 8,868 tons of tung oil) After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the national army also imported some weapons and equipment from other European countries (arrivals) Imported from the United Kingdom: 36 aircraft, 16.67 million rounds of ammunition, imported from France: 24 planes imported from Italy: 101 armored vehicles imported from Belgium: 54,000 rifles, 38.67 million rounds of ammunition imported from the Czech Republic: 1,829 light machine guns, 5,000 rifles, 26 million rounds of ammunition imported from Sweden: 118 million rounds of bullets imported from Hungary: 15 million rounds of bullets In the second half of 1937 after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the national army got 279 planes and 12.05 million rounds of ammunition from the United States, which were ordered before the war. In November 1939, the United States amended the Neutrality Act to allow arms to be exported to warring countries, but they had to be purchased in cash and transported by themselves. Prior to the introduction of the Lend-Lease Act, the United States successively provided four small loans to the Nationalist Army, namely the tung oil loan in February 1939 (repaid with tung oil), the tin loan in April 1940 (repaid with tin), the tungsten sand loan in October 1940 (repaid with tungsten ore), and the metal loan in February 1941 (repaid with tungsten ore, tin and antimony), which were stipulated to be used for the purchase of other materials in the United States except weapons and ammunition. On March 11, 1941, the United States introduced the Lend-Lease Act to provide assistance to countries in line with the interests of the United States, and on May 6, 1941, the United States announced that China would be included in the object of aid, and since then the United States has officially provided military assistance to the national army.

From July 1937 to August 1945, the Nationalist Army received a rough number of weapons and equipment from the United States: 1,394 aircraft (including aircraft of the U.S. Air Force in China), 108 tanks, 36 armored vehicles, about 20,000 automobiles, 36 155-mm howitzers, about 200 105-mm howitzers, about 100 75-mm field guns, about 500 75-mm mountain guns, about 300 37-mm anti-aircraft guns, about 2,000 mortars, 1,030 rocket launchers, and about 150 flamethrowers. about 6,000 grenades, 1,269 14-mm anti-aircraft guns, about 1,500 heavy machine guns, about 8,000 light machine guns, about 150,000 rifles, about 30,000 submachine guns, and about 3,600 pistols; There are about 2.2 million shells of various types, about 60,000 rockets, and about 700 million rounds of ammunition.

(All of the above are reprinted)