14th Division (Japanese Empire)

14th division
Bunkers built on Peleliu by the 14th Division.
active	July 6, 1905 to 1945
Country	Japanese Empire
Armed forces	Japanese armed forces
Armed forces	Japanese army
Branch of service	infantry
Type	division
Strength	15,000-20,000
Location	1905: Kitakyūshū 1907: Utsunomiya
Nickname	Shō-heidan ( 照 兵 団 , "Shining Division")
Butcher	Russo-Japanese War Siberian Intervention. Second Sino-Japanese War. Second World War Battle for Peleliu Battle for Angaur

The 14th Division ( Japanese 第 14 師 団 , dai-jūyon shidan ) was a division of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1905 to 1945 . Your Tsūshōgō code (military cover name) was Shining Division ( 照 兵 団 , Shō-heidan ).

General data

The 14th Division, along with the 13th , 15th and 16th , was a division that was set up towards the end of the Russo-Japanese War . It was supposed to reinforce the Japanese army, whose divisions were all in Manchuria at that time . The cover name of the division was Shōheidan ( 照 兵 団 , "Luminous Division") and the headquarters of the approximately 15,000-strong division was in Utsunomiya . It was mainly used in China and then from 1944 on the Palau Islands in the Pacific . The last superordinate unit of the division was the Southern Army .

History of unity

The division was set up on July 6, 1905 as the Karree Division under the command of Lieutenant General Tsuchiya Mitsuharu in Kitakyushu and consisted of the 27th Brigade (53rd and 54th Infantry Regiment) and the 28th Brigade (55th and 56th Infantry Regiment). Infantry Regiment), as well as the 14th Cavalry Regiment and the 14th Artillery Regiment. In August 1905, the division moved to Manchuria and was incorporated into the 3rd Army under General Nogi Maresuke , where it was responsible for guard duties on the Liaodong Peninsula .

In September 1907 the division was regrouped and the headquarters were moved to Utsunomiya . The 53rd Infantry Regiment was transferred to the 16th Division, the 54th Infantry Regiment to the 17th Division and the Infantry Regiments 55th and 56th were assigned to the 18th Division . Instead, the 14th Division received the 2nd, 15th, 59th and 66th Infantry Regiments.

The headquarters of the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Regiment, 14th Infantry Division during the Nikolayevsk Incident in Nikolayevsk-on-Amur .

In the course of Japan's Siberian intervention in support of the White Army during the Russian Civil War , the division was sent to Siberia in April 1919 . In March 1920 the Nikolayevsk incident occurred , when soldiers of the 3rd Battalion of the 2nd Infantry Regiment were captured and murdered together with the Japanese civilian population in Nikolayevsk by partisans fighting on the side of the Red Army .

In 1925 the 66th Infantry Regiment was disbanded and replaced by the 50th.

In 1927 the division was stationed in Manchuria. There she took part in the Battle of Shanghai in 1932 as a unit of the Kwantung Army . In 1934 she was relocated to Japan. At the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War after the incident at the Marco Polo Bridge , the relocation to the North China Front took place in 1937 under the command of Major General Doihara Kenji . In August 1939 the division was ordered to Japan, where it handed over the 50th Infantry Regiment to the newly established 29th Division because it was converted into a triangular division with three regiments. From August of the same year she was used again in Manchuria.

In April 1944, the division moved from Manchuria to the Palau Islands. During the Battle of the Palau Islands from September to November 1944, the 2nd Infantry Regiment and the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the 15th Infantry Regiment on Peleliu were almost completely destroyed. The 1st Battalion of the 59th Infantry Regiment met the same fate on Angaur . The remaining parts of the division on the other islands of the archipelago suffered heavy losses through air attacks and starvation without direct combat until the end of the war.

structure

1905

• 27th Brigade
  • 53rd Infantry Regiment
  • 54th Infantry Regiment
• 28th Brigade
  • 55th Infantry Regiment
  • 56th Infantry Regiment
• 14th Cavalry Regiment
• 14th Artillery Regiment

1937

• 27th Brigade
  • 2nd Infantry Regiment
  • 59th Infantry Regiment
• 28th Brigade
  • 15th Infantry Regiment
  • 50th Infantry Regiment
• 14th Cavalry Regiment
• 14th Artillery Regiment

At the end of the war

• 2nd Infantry Regiment
• 15th Infantry Regiment
• 59th Infantry Regiment
• Divisional News Department
• Divisional Weapons Repair Department
• Divisional Supply Department
• Division field hospital
• Divisional water treatment department
• Divisional armored division
• 23. Airfield assembly
• Staff of the 57th Supply Unit
• 42nd Independent Motor Vehicle Battalion
• 123. Stage hospital
• 23. Field water treatment unit

guide

Division commanders

• Tsuchiya Mitsuharu, Lieutenant General: July 6, 1905 - July 6, 1906
• Sameshima Shigeo, Lieutenant General: July 6, 1906 - September 6, 1911
• Uehara Yusaku, Lieutenant General: September 6, 1911 - April 5, 1912
• Yamada Chuzaburo, Lieutenant General: April 12, 1912 - January 21, 1916
• Kurita Naohachiro, Lieutenant General: January 21, 1916 - November 1, 1919
• Shirozu Tan, Lieutenant General: November 1, 1919 - June 3, 1921
• Asakuno Kanjuro, Lieutenant General: June 3, 1921 - February 4, 1924
• Suzuki Takao, Lieutenant General: February 4, 1924 - August 20, 1924
• Oshima Matahiko, Lieutenant General: August 20, 1924 - March 2, 1926
• Miyaji Kusugawa (Hisatoshi?), Lieutenant General: March 2, 1926 - August 1, 1929
• Matsuki Akira, Lieutenant General: August 1, 1929 - August 1, 1933
• Hata Shunroku, Lieutenant General: August 1, 1933 - December 2, 1935
• Suematsu Shigeharu, Lieutenant General: December 2, 1935 - March 1, 1937
• Doihara Kenji, Lieutenant General: March 1, 1937 - June 18, 1938
• Iseki Takamasa (Ryusho?), Lieutenant General: June 18, 1938 - March 9, 1940
• Kita Seiichi, Lieutenant General: March 9, 1940 - October 15, 1941
• Kawanami Mitsu, Lieutenant General: October 15, 1941 - December 1, 1942
• Noda Kengo, Lieutenant General: December 1, 1942 - October 1, 1943
• Sadae Inoue, Lieutenant General: October 1, 1943 - September 1945

See also

• Divisions of the Imperial Japanese Army

literature

• Rotem Kowner : The A to Z of the Russo-Japanese War. Scarecrow Press, Lanham 2009, ISBN 978-0-8108-6841-0 .

Web links

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

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 師 団 Ⅰ. (No longer available online.) Organization of IJA, archived from the original on November 14, 2015 ; accessed on January 2, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Rotem Kowner, p. 107