World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseThe Hubei Arsenal in Hanyang County, Hubei Province, Qing Dynasty China was established in 1894 after over three years of construction, but merely months later an accidental fire destroyed nearly the entire complex. The rebuilding of the arsenal lasted from Jul 1894 through Aug 1895. In late 1895, it began manufacturing Hanyang Type 88 rifles (which were patterned after the German Gewehr 88 design), field and mountain guns, and various small arms. By 1900, it was producing about 1,200 rifles and 6 mountain and field guns each month, along with thousands of shells, rifle cartridges, and other military supplies. In 1904, the combination of a new Hanyang Type 88 variant design and the expansion of production facilities increased the rifle output to about 1,500 examples per month. In 1908, it was renamed the Hanyang Arsenal. After the fall of Qing Dynasty, the arsenal remained in operation for the newly established Republic of China. By 1917, a training school for new Army recruits was established adjacent to the arsenal. In 1921, Hanyang Arsenal began producing Browning M1917 machine guns and Mauser C96 pistols. In 1935, it began producing a copy of the Russian Maxim machine gun designated Type 24 Heavy Machine Gun, with blueprints supplied by German intelligence. During WW2, when Japanese approached the nearby city of Wuhan, the heavy machinery of Hanyang Arsenal was relocated to other arsenals across the country. The arsenal officially ceased to exist in Jul 1947, although such intentions were already declared in the previous year. Most of its senior level employees were relocated to Taiwan to establish new arsenals. The Communists had since relocated the remnants of the facilities southeast across the Yangtze River near the White Cloud Cave recreational area, and are available to tourists as the "3303 Arsenal".

Hanyang Arsenal Interactive Map

Photographs

Hanyang Arsenal Timeline