What if German advisors to China betrayed everything they knew to the Japanese early in the war?

raharris1973

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How decisive could that be for the Second Sino-Japanese War?

Imagine the German advisors are all out of China by October 1937 and have accepted a Japanese request to debrief them thoroughly on everything they know about Chinese weapons, tactics, plans, equipment strengths and weaknesses.

BTW - The Italian officers who advised the Chinese Air Force prior to the Sino-Japanese War freely shared information with the Japanese once the Sino-Japanese war began and they departed China.
 
Not likely to happen as the German advisers had a close personal relationship with the Chinese and some in fact refused orders to return to Germany.
 

raharris1973

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And how exactly would that help Japan in the first place, given Japan's sheer deficiency in taking on the continent?

It seems to me like any information from the Germans on equipment they had supplied and trained the Chinese on, information on the garrisons and commanders and units that had received the German training, the tactical advice the Chinese tended to accept, and the Chinese strategic plans could be helpful to the Japanese in battles and operations. Maybe among the results are things like the Japanese exploiting some tactical knowledge to win the battle of Shanghai sooner or at lower cost. Or knowledge of the Chinese plans could tell the commanders who took Nanjing that they should maximally pursue the ChiNats to maximally disrupt Chinese ability to evacuate to and fortify Wuhan.

Not likely to happen as the German advisers had a close personal relationship with the Chinese and some in fact refused orders to return to Germany.

Not unprecedented either, though. Italians who worked with the Chinese Air Force spilled a lot of information to the Japanese. Even if the top guys like Seeckt or Wetzell refuse to give anything away could just take one bad, dishonorable apple among the officers of the German training mission to China.
 
IJA habit was to completely ignore any intelligence that didn't fit their own assumptions, which were frequently based on preconceived notions. The British made some deception attempts in 1944 using the old "dress a corpse up as an officer, plant false plans, have him wash up ashore where he'll be discovered" trick. It had zero impact on Japanese planning.

What likely happens is the Germans brief the IJA intel officer, the intel officer brings the information to their superior, their superior calls the intel idiotic and carries on as before.
 

raharris1973

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Well I am not sure German provided intel would go contrary to strongly held Japanese beliefs.And if an early engagement shows German info to be accurate, it may gain credibility in IJA eyes. I think this overplays the "Japanese as Klingons" meme. Not to mention IJAs historic and enduring respect for the German Army.
 
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