Wednesday, February 16, 2011   I was recently researching how
many divisions were in action for which nations, at what time
and for how long, during the Second World War: and came up with
some astonishing misconceptions. (Coincidentally backed up by a
recent readers question about who ‘Frenched’… not a term I am
familiar with, but I can hazard a guess at its meaning.)  China
for instance had theoretically more than 300 divisions, though
in fact most were lucky to have the combat power of a Western
battalion, perhaps Regiment if they were one of the best
equipped. Some of their best ‘Armies’ might have matched a poor
Japanese division… maybe. When Stillwell was assigned to rebuild
a more useful force on American lines he felt he might assemble
about 30 lightweight divisions out of the resources actually
available, with no pretence that any of the end products would
actually match a Japanese division in the field (even if the
Chinese would have let them fight).  The Eastern Front is also a
bit fanciful in this