Shandong Base Ordnance Development Research

The war industry of Shandong Base was an important source of weaponry for People's army during the Anti-Japanese War and the Liberation War. However, limited by methods and times, the past military history refered to this theme less. With the deepening of History of Chinese Modern research and gradual opening of archives, it was imperious and feasible to enforce the research on this issue.Based on the historical archives, this paper made initial study on the development of the war industry of Shandong Base. The paper concluded that it was the result of mutual interaction between the factors during wartime, actual circumstances of Shandong Base and its own law for the war industry of Shandong Province to grow out of nothing, develop from decentralization to centralization and transfer from military management to business management.It was the Anti-Japanese War that induced the emergence and elementary development of the war industry of Shandong Province and it was the Liberation War that promoted its growth. From then on, the war industry developed into a new stage and it had experienced innovation and distributaries untill the end of the war. The factors during wartime were the important ones promoting the development of war industry, which determined various characteristics of the war industry. The characteristics, such as fluidity, decentralization, concealment, small scale of production, practicability and simplification of its products, reflected directly the influences of power difference between enemy and our force on the development of war industry.It was the actual circumstances of Shandong Base and the inherent law of war industry that led to the transformation of war industry of Shandong Province in production organization and internal administration. With the development of war, the conditions of war industry of Shandong Base had been improved gradually and its development increasingly followed its own inherent law. In production organization, atthe beginning various bases produced dispersedly and dealt individually. Later, they operated and led in a centralized way, formed a perfect production organization system and transferred administration system, which supported material collection, financing, technology innovation and personnel training and so on. In internal administration, military management conflicted with mechanization. With the development of war industry, business management increasingly became the demand of internal administration. The responsibilities of political organization, administrative organization and trade union were redefined and the management system in the charge of factory director generated.The war industry is an important constitution of military rear service construction. The war industry of Shandong Base provided a lot of weapons and ammunition for the Anti-Japanese War and the Liberation War, which guaranteed the battle effectiveness of People's army. At the same time, the war industry was part of heavy industry. After the war, most of arsenals changed the line of production, which strengthened the industry of Shandong Province integrally. Besides these, the war industry cultivated many talented persons and accumulated a lot of experience during wartime, which provided important resources for reference for the production and management of planned economy.