31st Army (Japanese Empire)

31st Army
active	February 18, 1944 to August 15, 1945
Country	Japanese Empire
Armed forces	Japanese armed forces
Armed forces	Japanese army
Branch of service	infantry
Type	corps
Strength	approx. 80,000
Insinuation	Daihon'ei
Location	Truk
Nickname	Bi ( 備 , "The Prepared")
Butcher	Second World War Operation Hailstone Battle for Saipan Battle for Guam
Supreme command
list of	Commander in chief

The 31st Army ( Japanese 第 31 軍 , Dai-sanjūichi-gun ) was a major unit of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1944 to 1945 . Your Tsūshōgō code (military code name) was The Prepared ( 備 , Bi ).

history

On February 18, 1944, the Daihon'ei (Japanese Headquarters) set up the 31st Army under General Hideyoshi Obata . The 31st Army was set up as a garrison force to combat landings by American forces on the Japanese South Sea Mandate Islands of the Mariana Islands and to cause such losses in a war of attrition that they would prevent an American invasion of the Japanese home islands. The South Seas Mandate was divided into three sections Northern Mariana Islands , Southern Mariana Islands, and Truk . The 80,000-strong Japanese 31st Army had its headquarters in Truk.

During Operation Hailstone on February 17 and 18, 1944, Truk was attacked by carrier aircraft belonging to the Fast Carrier Task Force . In the attack, the light cruisers Katori and Naka , the auxiliary cruisers Aikoku Maru , Akagi Maru and Kiyosumi Maru , 4 destroyers , 4 different smaller warships and 31 transport ships were sunk. About 300 aircraft belonging to the Truk garrison were destroyed. More than 4,500 Japanese soldiers were killed. After Operation Hailstone, the Japanese garrison on Truk was isolated and was not attacked until the end of the war. Meanwhile, the American armed forces continued their advance into Japan. The soldiers of the 31st Army and other units on Truk and other islands in the central Pacific were starved until Japan surrendered in August 1945.

The garrisons on other Mariana Islands were destroyed in the Battle of Guam , the Battle of Saipan and the Battle of Tinian . Only a few soldiers were taken prisoners of war. At the Battle of Tinian, almost 8,000 Japanese, including 4,000 men from the 50th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division , faced the 35,000 Americans who landed. The entire island garrison fell to 200 men.

Commander in chief

General Hideyoshi Obata was in command of the 31st Army from February 18 to August 11, 1944. On August 11, 1944, Obata gave the order in Guam that his armed forces should fight to the death and committed seppuku . From August 11 to August 22, 1944 Major General Yoshitomi Tamura led the command and from August 22, 1944 to September 1, 1945 Lieutenant General Junzaburō Mugikura .

Units of the 31st Army

Units in the southern Mariana Islands were the 29th Infantry Division and the 48th Independent Mixed Brigade. Units in the northern Mariana Islands were the 9th Panzer Regiment of the 1st Panzer Division , the 43rd Infantry Division and the 47th Independent Mixed Brigade. The garrison on Truk consisted of the 52nd Infantry Division , the 50th Independent Mixed Brigade, the 51st Independent Mixed Brigade, and the 52nd Independent Mixed Brigade.

An independent mixed brigade ( Japanese 独立 混成旅 団 , dokuritsu konsei ryodan ) was a special unit in the Imperial Japanese Army, which was in the order of magnitude between a division (approx. 15,000 men) and a regiment (approx. 3,500 men) and comprised various branches of service .

literature

• Victor Madej: Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945. Game Publishing, 1981, OCLC 833591372 , OCLC 833591376 .
• Leland Ness: Rikugun: Guide to Japanese Ground Forces 1937-1945. Helion & Company, 2014, ISBN 978-1-909982-00-0 .
• Philip Jowett: The Japanese Army. Part 2: 1931-45. Osprey Publishing, 2002, ISBN 1-84176-354-3 .

Web links

• The Battle of Truk Lagoon ( Memento from October 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
• Organization of Japanese Independent Infantry Brigades and Groups 1939-1945. (PDF) http://usacac.army.mil/ , accessed June 21, 2019 . 

Individual evidence

1. ^ V. Madej: Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945. 1981, p. 6.
2. ↑ World War II Database: Hideyoshi Obata
3. ↑ THE HISTORY OF BATTLES OF IMPERIAL JAPANESE TANKS. August 6, 2014, accessed June 21, 2019 .