| Original caption: “Mountain-climbing United States medium tanks, manned by Chinese and American crews, use the Burma Road for the first time after the combined Allied offensive had broken the two-year Jap[anese] control of the only overland supply route to China.” M4A4 Sherman tanks of the 1st Chinese-American Provisional Tank Group move forward on the Ledo Road. The 1st Chinese-American Provisional Tank Group was a combined Kuomintang-United States Army unit, commanded by United States Army Colonel Rothwell H. Brown (December 3, 1903 – September 23, 1973) and Executive Officer Kuomintang Colonel Zhao Zhenyu (1910 – 2004). After 5 months of training for Zhao and some English-speaking officers, the 1st Chinese-American Provisional Tank Group was activated at Ramgarh, India, on October 1, 1943. Brown could speak Chinese, although not as well as United States Army General Joseph W. “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell (March 19, 1883 – October 12, 1946), Commanding Officer of all United States forces in China, Burma, and India, the other American officer Kuomintang Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (October 31, 1887 – April 5, 1975) allowed to command Chinese field armies. Brown had served in China since the 1930s and commanded respect among both American and Chinese officers. The integral 527th Tank Heavy Maintenance Ordinance Company, mostly comprised of highway workers from North Carolina, taught the Chinese how to maintain their tanks in the field. The 6 battalions of the 1st Chinese-American Provisional Tank Group initially operated the M3A3 Stuart light tank, armed with a 37 millimeter (1.47 inch) main gun and several 30 caliber (7.62 millimeter) M1919 Browning machine guns. Brown and Zhao thought they would have months to train their crews, but the personnel, mostly Chinese peasants who had never seen gasoline-powered vehicles before, had only a few weeks to learn to drive the tanks and fire the weapons. The Americans had to give instructions to the English-speaking Chinese officers, who would pass them on to the enlisted men. On December 23, 1943, the 1st Chinese-American Provisional Tank Group left Ramgarh and arrived at Ledo a week later. Traveling over rivers swollen by monsoons, the tankers followed the engineers building the Ledo Road. On March 3, 1944, they engaged the Japanese for the 1st time near Maingkwan. The Japanese destroyed an armored bulldozer, and 2 Stuarts fell into the Idi River. The accompanying Chinese infantry took heavy casualties, but the tankers drove off the Japanese by daybreak and recovered the 2 Stuarts from the river. In March 1944, the 1st Chinese-American Provisional Tank Group supported Merrill’s Marauders, the 5307th Composite Unit. Maingkwan fell on March 6. On April 19, 1944, the 1st 12 M4A4 Sherman tanks, Lend-Lease versions with Chrysler multi-bank engines, were sent to the British and shipped by rail from Calcutta to Assam. The Shermans were painted with yellow turret tops for aerial recognition and colorful “tiger eyes” on the mantlet. With Merrill’s Marauders, the 1st Chinese-American Provisional Tank Group assaulted Myitkyina, which fell in August 1944. The tanks drove a 100 miles (a 160 kilometers) to Bhamo, which fell on December 15, 1944. The tankers entered Bhamo the next day, after the fighting. The 1st Chinese-American Provisional Tank Group engaged Japanese armor for the 2nd time on January 28, 1945, near the town of Kutkai. 3 Japanese tanks were destroyed, and 1 Stuart was damaged. The M4 Shermans accounted for another Japanese light tank and damaged 2 more in a separate engagement in a nearby village. At the Battle of Lashio in March 1945, the M4 Shermans destroyed 13 Japanese trucks and killed a 100 soldiers by shelling the town’s gasoline supply dump. Tokyo Rose decried the Allies’ “automatic cannon fire” at Lashio, amusing the men of the 1st Chinese-American Provisional Tank Group. The 1st Chinese-American Provisional Tank Group moved to Kunming in June 1945 and to Chanyi in July. The unit was deactivated on December 18, 1945. The Americans turned over all the equipment to the Kuomintang and went home. The cadre was lost in 1949 defending the Marco Polo Bridge in Beijing. The “tiger eyes” livery was often added to American 8th Army M4 Shermans during the Korean War, perhaps inspired by the 1st Chinese-American Provisional Tank Group. Photo by United States Army Technician 4th Class F. Wayne “Bud” Shearer (November 10, 1920, May 1, 1981). Shearer was present when American troops linked up with Chinese soldiers across the Burmese border in September 1944. He rode the 1st train from Myitkyina to Mogaung in October 1944. Shearer accompanied the 1st Chinese-American Provisional Tank Group in early 1945. He was slightly wounded in January 1945 when shrapnel hit him in the head, disemboweling the Chinese soldier next to him. A newspaper reporter with the New Kensington, Pennsylvania, Dispatch before the war, he joined the Pittsburgh Press after his service and supervised its printing plates. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1617.jpg |
| Image Size | 1.10 MB |
| Image Dimensions | 2400 x 2916 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | Franklin D. Roosevelt Library |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | March 1, 1945 |
| Location | |
| City | Lashio |
| State or Province | Shan State |
| Country | Burma |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NLR-PHOCO-A-65380D |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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