2nd Army (Japanese Empire)

2nd Army
Japanese soldiers of the 2nd Army during the Battle of Shaho .
active	September 1894 to August 1945
Country	Japanese Empire
Armed forces	Japanese armed forces
Armed forces	Japanese army
Branch of service	infantry
Type	corps
Strength	approx. 40,000
Nickname	Ikioi ( 勢 , "energy, strength") (4th list)
Butcher	First Sino-Japanese War Russo-Japanese War Battle of the Nanshan Battle of Te-li-ssu Battle of Tashihchiao Battle of Liaoyang Battle of the Shaho Battle of Sandepu Battle of Mukden Second Sino-Japanese War Battle of Xuzhou Battle for Wuhan Pacific War Take-Ichi convoy Battle for Morotai
Supreme command
list of	Commander in chief

The 2nd Army ( Japanese 第 2 軍 , Dai-ni-gun ) was a large unit of the Imperial Japanese Army . It was erected and demobilized four times between 1894 and 1945. Your Tsūshōgō code (military code name) was Kraft ( 勢 , Ikioi ).

history

1894 to 1895

The 1st Army was set up during the First Sino-Japanese War on September 27, 1894 under the command of General Ōyama Iwao and took part in all major battles in this. Demobilization took place after the end of the war on May 14, 1895.

1904 to 1905

Shortly after the start of the hostilities in the Russo-Japanese War , the 2nd Army was reactivated on March 6, 1904 under the command of General Oku Yasukata . The 1st , 3rd and 4th Divisions and the 1st Artillery Brigade were subordinate to it . General Oku Yasukata landed on the Liaoyang Peninsula near Pitzuwo, about 80 km northeast of Port Arthur. The landing on May 6, 1904 took place without resistance and from May 13, the Japanese troops headed for Port Arthur. On 25/26 In May, the Battle of Nanshan broke out , in which the Japanese attacked well-fortified Russian positions and suffered very high losses. In the further course of the war she took part in the Battle of Te-li-ssu (shortly before the battle the 5th Division joined the 2nd Army.), Battle of Tashihchiao , Battle of Liaoyang , Battle of Shaho , Battle of Sandepu and participated in the battle of Mukden . After the hostilities ended, the 2nd Army was disbanded on January 12, 1906.

1937 to 1938

On August 23, 1937, on the occasion of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the 2nd Army was re-established, initially as part of the Northern China Regional Army . The army took part in operations along the Tianjin-Pukou Railway in 1937, the Battle of Xuzhou in early 1938, and the Battle of Wuhan in the summer and fall of 1938. The demobilization took place on December 15, 1938.

1942 to 1945

The 2nd Army was last deployed on July 4, 1942 during the Pacific War . At the beginning she was under the command of the 1st Regional Army, which was stationed in the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo as part of the Kwantung Army . On October 30, 1943, she was subordinated to the 2nd Regional Army. From June 30, 1945 until the end of the war, she was subordinate to the Southern Army and defended the Indonesian Sulawesi island . At that time, the 32nd , 35th and 36th Divisions , the 2nd Amphibious Brigade and the 57th Independent Mixed Brigade were assigned to her, which increased its strength to around 50,000 men.

Commander in chief

	Surname	From	To
1.	Field Marshal Ōyama Iwao	September 25, 1894	May 26, 1895
	demobilized	May 26, 1895	March 6, 1904
2.	General Oku Yasukata	March 6, 1904	January 12, 1906
	demobilized	January 12, 1906	August 23, 1937
3.	General Nishio Toshizō	August 23, 1937	April 30, 1938
4th	General Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko	April 30, 1938	December 9, 1939
	demobilized	December 9, 1939	4th July 1942
5.	Lieutenant General Kozuki Yoshio	4th July 1942	May 28, 1943
6th	Lieutenant General Shichida Ichirō	May 28, 1943	October 29, 1943
7th	Lieutenant General Teshima Fusatarō	October 29, 1943	August 15, 1945

literature

• Gordon L. Rottman : The Japanese Army in World War II. Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2005, ISBN 1-84176-789-1 . P. 9 ff.
• Bernard Jowett: The Japanese Army 1931-45 (Volume 2, 1942-45). Osprey Publishing, Oxford 1999, ISBN 1-84176-354-3 .
• Victor Madej: Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945. Game Publishing Company, 1981.
• Daniel Marston: The Pacific War Companion: From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima. Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2005 ISBN 1-84176-882-0 .
• Rotem Kowner : The A to Z of the Russo-Japanese War. Scarecrow Press, Lanham 2009, ISBN 978-0-8108-6841-0 .
• Robert Ross Smith: The Approach to the Philippines , CENTER OF MILITARY HISTORY UNITED STATES ARMY WASHINGTON, DC, 1996

Web links

• Organization of Imperial Japanese Army during World War II , English
• Robert Ross Smith: The Approach to the Philippines. www.ibiblio.org, 1996, accessed September 25, 2015 (English). 
• Japanese Forces Operating on Northern Sector Tientsin - Pukow Railway Early September 1937. http://usacac.army.mil , accessed December 19, 2017 . 

Individual evidence

1. ^ The official history of the Russo-Japanese war, Great Britain. Committee of Imperial Defense, p. 12
2. ↑ Jowett, Philipp; The Japanese Army 1931-1945 , Osprey Publishing, p. 15
3. ^ Smith, p. 93

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Ōyama is the family name, Iwao the first name.