101st Division (Japanese Empire)

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101st Division

active September 1, 1937 to February 25, 1940
Country JapanJapan Japanese Empire
Armed forces JapanJapan (war flag) Japanese armed forces
Armed forces JapanJapan (war flag) Japanese army
Branch of service infantry
Type division
Strength 15,000-17,000
Insinuation Shanghai Expeditionary
Army 11th Army
Location Tokyo
Nickname not known
Butcher Second Sino-Japanese War

The 101st Division ( Japanese 第 101 師 団 , Dai-101 Shidan ) was a division of the Imperial Japanese Army , which was established between 1937 and 1940 and disbanded. It is one of the few divisions that were not active until the end of the war in 1945. Your Tsūshōgō code (military code name) is unknown.

History of unity

The 101st Division was set up on September 1, 1937 under the command of Lieutenant General of the Reserve Itō Masayoshi as a square division and consisted of the 101st  Brigade (101st and 149th  Infantry Regiment ) and the 102nd Brigade (103rd and 157. Infantry regiment) and the 101st  cavalry - regiment , the 101st  field artillery regiment and the 101st  pioneer - and transport regiment. The headquarters of the 16,000 strong division was in Tokyo .

After only five months of training, the 101st Division landed in Hangzhou Bay in early 1938 and then moved towards Nanchang . She was subordinate to the Shanghai Expeditionary Army as reinforcement and advanced further into the Chinese interior. In February 1938, she took part in the Battle of Xuzhou . She was then subordinated to the 11th Army and participated in operations in Huangmei County from June 1938 to October 1938 , which occurred during the Battle of Wuhan . 120 Chinese divisions with just over a million men defended themselves against 350,000 attacking Japanese. When the 106th Division was encircled by 16 enemy divisions near Lushan , the 101st Division tried to relieve them . In the ensuing Battle of Wanjialing , both divisions, which together had been around 31,000 strong at the beginning of the fighting, lost around 30,000 soldiers. Through the use of the 9th and 27th divisions , 1,000 survivors were saved. Although the Japanese army was victorious in the entire operation, it suffered a Pyrrhic victory in which it suffered almost 30% casualties (over 100,000 men). After the end of the battle, Lieutenant General Saitō Yaheita took over the remains of the division on November 9 , 1940, and it was disbanded on February 25, 1940.

structure

On September 1, 1937, a type B "Standard" division was set up as a square division as follows:

  • 101st Infantry Division Headquarters (350 men)
    • 101st Infantry Brigade (50 men)
      • 101st Infantry Regiment (approx. 2850 men)
      • 149th Infantry Regiment (approx. 2850 men)
    • 102nd Infantry Brigade (50 men)
      • 103rd Infantry Regiment (approx. 2850 men)
      • 157th Infantry Regiment (approx. 2850 men)
    • 101st Cavalry Regiment (900 men)
    • 101st Field Artillery Regiment (2,100 men; 36 75 mm field guns)
    • 101st Engineer Regiment (900 men)
    • 101st Transport Regiment (approx. 750 men)
    • 101.Signal unit (approx. 200)
    • 101st Medical Unit (approx. 700 men)

Total strength: approx. 16,500 men

See also

Web links

  • 師 団 Ⅰ. Organization of IJA, accessed January 2, 2015 . , Japanese

literature

  • John Underwood: The Japanese Order of Battle in World War II, Vol I , The Nafziger Collection, Inc., 1999, ISBN 978-1-58545-044-2
  • Victor Madej: Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle 1937–1945, Volume I + II , Game Marketing Company, 1981

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Madej, p. 102
  2. ↑ a b Underwood, p. 39
Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Itō is the family name, Masayoshi the first name.