The unit insignia of the legendary "Tiger Division" - the Republic of China's National Revolutionary Army (NRA) 88th Division.
The division was formed in 1932 for the overall reorganization of the National Revolutionary Army as it purged communist elements from their ranks. Germany's Weimar Republic sent advisors to help the development of the unit, with German military advisors taking more prominently roles after 1933 after the ascension of the Nazi Party. With shared anti-communist ideals, Nazi Germany and the Republic of China made for unlikely allies during this short pre-war period. Acting under the advise of World War I veteran General Hans von Seekt, the 88th Division rapidly modernized into an elite unit of motivated soldiers, armed largely by German equipment.
Thrust into the front lines of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937, the 88th Division performed extremely admirably during the defense of Shanghai. It was there between the 26t October and the 1 November that the 1st Battalion, 524th Regiment of the 88th Division participated in the celebrated defense of the Sihang Warehouse. Earning an immortal reputation in modern China and Taiwan as the "Eight Hundred Heroes", the lone battalion of only 452 men held out gallantly against a Japanese force of some 20,000 IJA troops. Retreating to the British controlled international concession area across an adjacent bridge on the 1st of November, the battered battalion had ultimately destroyed a large number of Japanese vehicles, and killed at least 200 of the enemy at the cost of 10 dead, and 37 wounded. The commanding Colonel Xie Jinyuan was taken into British custody, and assassinated by a Japanese collaborator in April 1941.
The remainder of the division took part in the ill-fated Battle of Nanjing, where it was badly mauled over 13 days of vicious fighting. While the division later participated the Battle of Wuhan in 1938, and the Chinese Expeditionary Force during the Burma campaign until 1945, it never regained it's full strength. As the clear delineation between Axis and Allies powers emerged after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941, the waning German influence on the division ceased entirely and the unit's fighting effectiveness dwindled.
Having bore the brunt of fighting against Imperial Japan alongside other NRA units during the Second World War, the unit continued to fight in the Chinese Civil War in the post-war period against Communist forces that had remained relatively unengaged. The remnants of the division were largely destroyed in October 1948 at the Battle of Chinchow, as Mao Zedong's largely fresh "Red" Chinese forces.
We've faithfully reproduced this legendary unit's patch as worn on the sleeves of 88th Division soldiers, with the modern additional of hook velcro backing. We also made sure to reproduce this patch with the corrected traditional Chinese translation, indicating the formation of the division in a Traditional Chinese character set.
Produced in the standard 3x2" size with hook velcro backing, similar in specification to milspec unit patches.
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