Inner Mongolian Army

The Inner Mongolian Army, also sometimes called the Mengjiang National Army, referred to the Inner Mongolian military units in service of Imperial Japan and its puppet state of Mengjiang during the Second Sino Japanese War, particularly those led by Prince Demchugdongrub. It was primarily a force of cavalry units, which mostly consisted of ethnic Mongols, with some Han Chinese infantry formations.

After Japanese intrigues led to the formation of the Mongol Military Government under Prince Demchugdongrub (De Wang), the Inner Mongolian Army was initially formed from the personal units of various Mongol banner chiefs. Among those was Prince De Wang's personal bodyguard force of about 900 men, armed with weapons from the armories of the "Young Marshal" Zhang Xueliang, who had given them to the Prince in an attempt to win his favor. It was not the largest Mongolian army but was the most efficient, being aided by Japanese advisers. Another source of recruits were the bandit gangs that were based in the region. Thus the original force came to include Mongolian tribesmen along with Han Chinese bandits and irregulars from the Manchukuo Imperial Army, the latter of which were led by the warlord Li Shouxin. He would later be appointed the commander of the army. This exotic force suffered from disunity and poor discipline during the preparations to invade the Nationalist controlled Inner Mongolian province of Suiyuan in 1936. The majority of them were also poorly armed, with only about half of them having rifles. They were primarily armed by weapons from the stocks of the defeated Young Marshal, which fell into the hands of the nearby Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. Among the preparations was the setting up of an air arm for the Inner Mongolian Army, but this air force was a purely Japanese one. It consisted of Japanese aircraft flown by Japanese pilots, who did not even bother applying any Mongol insignia to their aircraft and just flew with the original Japanese ones. In total it had 28 planes and were based at a town about 40 mile (64 km) north of Kalgan, the Inner Mongolian capital. They flew several bombing missions against Nationalist targets in an attempt to soften them up for the coming operation. They forced the Prince to sign a decree stating that the Mongolian government had declared war on the United Kingdom and the United States in 1941. In August 1945, after the Soviets declared war on Japan, the Red Army and its allied Mongolian People's Army invaded both Manchukuo and Mengjiang during the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation. The few Inner Mongolian cavalry units that engaged the Soviets proved to be no match for the battle hardened Red Army and were swept aside, with the Mongolian regime falling shortly after Japan surrendered. Prince De Wang led the army (which consisted of six divisions at the time, two cavalry and four infantry, and some independent brigades) in battle personally. Three divisions were destroyed by the Red Army, the rest reportedly joined the Chinese Communists.

A wide variety of rifles found their way into the Inner Mongolian Army arsenal, mostly bought by Prince De Wang or given by the Japanese. The first weapons that they received were 10,000 Liao Type 13 rifles from the Mukden Arsenal, given as a gift by the Young Marshal Zhang Xueliang. Other small arms included the Swiss Sig. Model 1930 sub machine gun, utilized by bodyguards in small numbers. Machine guns in use numbered about 200 with some of them being the Czech ZB 26 light machine gun. Those also came from Zhang Xueliang's former army after it was defeated by the Japanese. The Inner Mongolians had about 70 artillery pieces, mostly mortars, but also a few field and mountain guns, from former Nationalist stores. Reportedly they did use a few armored cars and tanks, but they were most likely operated by Japanese. The early uniforms worn by Mongolian troops were their civilian clothing. Typical it consisted of a long blue padded cotton tunic that was worn which reached down to the ankles along with an orange sash around the waist. Headgear was either a lambs' wool hat or a colored turban wrapped around the head. The color of the turban varied with each Mongol banner clan having a distinctive one. In addition they wore a leather bandolier for cartridges which was slung over the left shoulder. Some soldiers were dressed in loose fitting cotton jacket and trousers along with a peak cap. In 1936 a new uniform was in use, modeled on the Nationalist Chinese uniform. It included a loose fitting grey jacket and grey cotton trousers. A peaked grey cotton peaked cap was worn along with it (similar in appearance to those worn by the Russian Imperial Army during World War I). Other uniforms they used included the regular Japanese Army uniform but with Inner Mongolian insignia.