12th Regional Army

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12th Regional Army

Operation Coronet.jpg

The green area largely marks the operational area of ​​the 12th Regional Army. The circle in the middle is Tokyo . The black markings are planned Allied attacks within Operation Downfall .
active February 1, 1945 to September 1945
Country JapanJapan Japanese Empire
Armed forces JapanJapan (war flag) Japanese armed forces
Armed forces JapanJapan (war flag) Japanese army
Branch of service infantry
Type army
Strength approx. 400,000
Insinuation 1st main army
Location Tokyo
Nickname Hata ( 幡 , "banner")
Butcher Pacific War
Supreme command
list of Commander in chief

The 12th Regional Army ( Japanese 第 12 方面軍 , Dai-jūni hōmengun ) was one of the regional armies of the Imperial Japanese Army in 1945 . Your Tsūshōgō code (military code name) was Banner ( 幡 , Hata ).

history

In the second half of 1944, the Japanese high command (upgraded Imperial General Headquarters ) for the anticipated landing of the Allies by these Operation Downfall was called. To this end they pulled troops mainly from Manchuria and the Chinese mainland to the mainland Japan and Formosa back.

As part of Operation Ketsu-gō , the 12th Regional Army was founded on February 1, 1945. Its first commander was General Fujie Keisuke , to whom the 36th , 51st , 52nd and 53rd Armies and other smaller units, totaling around 400,000 men, were subordinate. Fujie was tasked with protecting the capital of the Japanese Empire and the nearby stretches of beach that could be considered for an Allied landing . To this end, Fujie positioned newly excavated divisions on or near the coast, while veteran and tank divisions were positioned in the hinterland as mobile intervention troops.

Many of the subordinate divisions had not been set up until 1945 and had fewer men (sometimes only 50%) than the divisions set up before the Pacific War. Most of these new divisions had 100 and 300 numbers. Since they had practically no means of transport, they were intended solely for static defense and were called coastal divisions . The level of training and armament of the coastal divisions was low and was compensated for by increased artillery within the division.

Furthermore, the 12th Regional Army was subordinated to the 1st Flak Division , which had an above-average proportion of anti-aircraft guns in relation to other Flak divisions. Its eight anti-aircraft regiments counted 780 guns. For comparison: The 2nd Flak Division, on the other hand, only had 195 guns.

On March 9, 1945, General Tanaka Shizuichi took command of the 12th Regional Army. From April 8, 1945 she was subordinate to the 1st Main Army. Since Operation Downfall did not take place because of the surrender of Japan , the 12th Regional Army was not involved in any combat operations. A few days after the surrender committed Tanaka on August 24, 1945 suicide and was General Kenji Doihara replaced, who was responsible for the dissolution of the 12th Regional army.

Commander in chief

Commanders

Surname From To
1. General Fujie Keisuke February 1, 1945 March 9, 1945
2. General Tanaka Shizuichi March 9, 1945 August 24, 1945
3. General Doihara Kenji August 24, 1945 September 14, 1945

Chiefs of Staff

Surname From To
1. Lieutenant General Tatsumi Eiichi February 1, 1945 March 1, 1945
2. Major General Takashima Tatsuhiko March 1, 1945 August 25, 1945

Subordinate units

The 12th Regional Army was composed as follows in early 1945:

literature

  • Victor Madej: Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945. Game Publishing, 1981, OCLC 833591372 , OCLC 833591376 .
  • Philip Jowett: The Japanese Army 1931-1945 (2) Osprey Publishing, 2002, ISBN 978-1-84176-354-5
  • Leland Ness: Rikugun: Guide to Japanese Ground Forces 1937-1945. Helion & Company, 2014, ISBN 978-1-909982-00-0 .
  • Charles Pettibone: The organization and order or battle of militaries in World War II: Volume VII: Germany's and Imperial Japan's allies & puppet states Trafford, 2012
  • Steven Zaloga: Defense of Japan 1945 (Fortress) Osprey Publishing, ISBN 978-1-8460-3687-3
  • DM Giangreco: Hell to Pay: Operation DOWNFALL and the Invasion of Japan, 1945-1947 , Naval Institute Press, 2009, ISBN 978-1-5911-4316-1

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Madej, p. 3
  2. ↑ Giangreco, p 65
  3. ↑ a b c Zaloga, p. 33
  4. ^ Operational Army Mobilization Schedule, April 1945. History of Imperial General Headquarters, Army Section, accessed on November 28, 2015 .
  5. ↑ Zaloga, p. 15
Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Fujie is the family name, Keisuke the first name.