“Perhaps as many as 150 of the lost 105mm howitzers fell into Chinese hands with little or no damage and were not destroyed by subsequent air strikes. The North Koreans had little interest in the American-made artillery when they overran much of the South the previous summer because their Army was a totally Soviet-equipped and supplied force. However, the mainstays of Chinese field artillery in 1950 were Japanese 75mm field guns and 105mm howitzers and guns, Soviet 76mm guns, and the “made in USA” 105mm. For obvious reasons, the Chinese were more than happy to add the captured weapons to their inventory.
An even bigger windfall when the U.S.-equipped Nationalist armies were destroyed, scattered, or defected en masse between 1947 and 1949.50 The exact amount of equipment which fell intact into Communist hands is impossible to pin down, but it is worth noting that so many 105s were harvested from the “running-dog lackies of Yankee imperialism” that the Chinese actually went into the export business. For example, the Viet Minh 351st Heavy Division, a formation patterned along the lines of a Soviet artillery division (and which pummeled the French
garrison at Dien Bien Phu), was equipped with 48 105s.”
Source: Giangreco, D.M. “Korean War Anthology, Artillery in Korea: Massing Fires and Reinventing the Wheel”, United States Army, Command and General Staff College