100th Division (Japanese Empire)

100th division
active	June 15, 1944 to 1945
Country	Japanese Empire
Armed forces	Japanese armed forces
Armed forces	Japanese army
Branch of service	infantry
Type	division
Strength	approx. 13,000
Insinuation	35th Army
Location	Nagoya
Nickname	Yoridokoro-heidan ( 拠兵団 ,, "support division")
Butcher	Pacific War Battle for Leyte;

The 100th Division ( Japanese 第 100 師団 , Dai-hyaku Shidan ) was a division of the Imperial Japanese Army , which was established in 1944 and dissolved in 1945. Your Tsūshōgō code (military code name) was support division ( 拠兵団 , Yoridokoro-heidan ).

History of unity

The 100th Division was set up on June 15, 1944 under the command of Lieutenant General Harada Jirō as a Type-C "Brigade" / "Special" Division mainly from the 30th Independent Mixed Brigade . It consisted of the 75th (163rd, 164th, 165th and 166th Independent Infantry Battalion ) and the 76th Infantry - Brigade (167th, 168th, 322nd and 323rd Independent Infantry Battalion) and the 100th artillery regiment and the 100th pioneer - and transport regiment. The depot of the approximately 13,000 strong division was in Nagoya , Japan .

After the Allies had advanced through the Solomon Islands and New Guinea in 1943 and early 1944 , they threatened to land in the Philippines next and thus cut off the Japanese supply routes to Indonesia , southern China and Burma . In anticipation , the Daihon'ei reinforced the troops in the Philippines and converted the 14th Army into the 14th Regional Army . The army, which had originally had two divisions, grew to 15 divisions. The reinforcements also included the 30th Division, which was withdrawn from Korea in August 1944 and was subordinated to the 35th Army (Lieutenant General Suzuki Sōsaku ) on Mindanao .

On October 20, 1944, troops of the 6th US Army landed on Leyte, initiating the Battle of Leyte . By the end of December 1944, the over 200,000 Americans had succeeded in defeating the 55,000 Japanese and securing Leyte. While General MacArthur and the 6th Army turned north towards Luzon , the 8th US Army landed on December 12, 1944 under Lieutenant General Eichelberger on Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippines and located south of Leyte. In addition to the 100th Division, the 30th Division was also used there to defend the island. After the American troops landed in the undefended west of Mindanao, they quickly advanced into the interior of the island and separated the two Japanese divisions.

The defensive position of the 100th Division collapsed under the onslaught of two American divisions ( 24th and 31st Infantry Divisions ) and suffered 4,500 casualties in the battle for Davao City within a few days. The American units pushed in and were able to eliminate the Japanese troops as a major unit by May 1945. Small groups of survivors of the 100th Division withdrew to the interior of the island and surrendered after Japan's surrender in August 1945.

structure

In July 1944, the formation of a Type C "Brigade" / "Special" division took place as follows:

100th Infantry Division staff (approx. 250 men)
- 75th Infantry Brigade Staff (approx. 150 men)
  - 163rd Independent Infantry Battalion (930 men)
  - 164th Independent Infantry Battalion (930 men)
  - 165th Independent Infantry Battalion (930 men)
  - 166th Independent Infantry Battalion (930 men)
  - 75th Infantry Brigade Signal Unit (140 men)
  - 75th Infantry Brigade Engineer Unit (90 men)
- 76th Infantry Brigade Staff (approx. 150 men)
  - 167th Independent Infantry Battalion (930 men)
  - 168th Independent Infantry Battalion (930 men)
  - 322nd Independent Infantry Battalion (930 men)
  - 323rd Independent Infantry Battalion (930 men)
  - 76th Infantry Brigade Signal Unit (140 men)
  - 76th Infantry Brigade Engineer Unit (90 men)
- 100th Artillery Regiment (approx. 800 men)
- 100th signal unit (approx. 140)
- 100th Engineer Regiment (550 men)
- 100th Transport Regiment (800 men)
- 100th Field Hospital (1x) (250 men)
- 100th water supply and treatment unit (150 men)
- 100th Veterinary Hospital (60 men)
- 100th Supply Company (120 men)

Total strength: approx. 12,810 men

Web links

HyperWar: The Eighth Army Assumes Control. Ibiblio.org, accessed June 27, 2015 .
Nafziger: Leyte Campaign on Ibiblio.org. United States Army Combined Arms Center, accessed June 26, 2015 .

literature

Victor Madej: Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945. Game Publishing, 1981, OCLC 833591372 , OCLC 833591376 (English).
John Underwood: The Japanese Order of Battle in World War II, Vol I. The Nafziger Collection, Inc., 1999, ISBN 978-1-58545-044-2 (English).
Leland Ness: Rikugun: Guide to Japanese Ground Forces 1937-1945. Helion & Company, 2014, ISBN 978-1-909982-00-0 (English).
Samuel E. Morison: History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Vol. 12: Leyte, June 1944 – January 1945. University of Illinois Press, 2002, ISBN 0-252-07063-1 (English).
Robert Ross Smith: Triumph in the Philippines, The War in the Pacific. University Press of the Pacific, 2005, ISBN 978-1-4102-2495-8 (English).

Individual evidence

↑ Madej, p. 101
↑ ^a ^b ^c Underwood, p. 78
^ Smith, p. 194
^ Nafziger: Leyte Campaign on Ibiblio.org. (No longer available online.) United States Army Combined Arms Center, archived from the original on June 29, 2015 ; accessed on June 26, 2015 (English).

[Madej-1] Madej, p. 101

[Underwood-2] Underwood, p. 78

[3] Smith, p. 194

[4] Nafziger: Leyte Campaign on Ibiblio.org. (No longer available online.) United States Army Combined Arms Center, archived from the original on June 29, 2015 ; accessed on June 26, 2015 (English).