32nd Division (Japanese Empire)

32nd division
active	February 7, 1939 to 1945
Country	Japanese Empire
Armed forces	Japanese armed forces
Armed forces	Japanese army
Branch of service	infantry
Type	division
Strength	approx. 19,000
Insinuation	12th Army 14th Army 2nd Army
Location	Tokyo
Nickname	Kaede-heidan ( 楓 兵 団 , "Maple Division")
Butcher	Second Sino-Japanese War Pacific War Take-Ichi convoy Battle for Morotai

The 32nd Division ( Japanese 第 32 師 団 , Dai-sanjūni Shidan ) was a division of the Imperial Japanese Army , which was established in 1939 and disbanded in 1945. Your Tsūshōgō code (military code name) was Ahorn-Division ( 楓 兵 団 , Kaede-heidan ) or Kaede 4250 or Kaede 4251 .

History of unity

The 32nd Division was posted on February 7, 1939 under the command of Lieutenant General Kimura Heitaro as Type B "Standard" Division as Triangular Division set up and consisted of the 32th  Infantry - Brigade (210th, 211th and 212th Regiment) and the 32.  Tanketten - company , 32nd  field artillery regiment and the 32  pioneer - and transport regiment. The headquarters of the approx. 20,000 strong division was in Tokyo , Japanese Empire .

Second Sino-Japanese War

The division was shipped to the theater of the Second Sino-Japanese War in May 1939 after being deployed . There it was used mainly in the south of the Shandong Province as a garrison unit in the hinterland to fight partisans and was subordinate to the 12th Army . On October 22, 1940, Lieutenant General Ide Tetsuzo took command of the division. Ide was replaced by Lieutenant General Ishii Yoshio on October 8, 1942 .

Pacific War

In April 1944, the Daihon'ei ordered reinforcements to the Philippines ( 14th Army ) to counter the threatened landings of the Allies . For this purpose, a ship convoy was put together in Shanghai, the Take Ichi convoy (Eng. "Ship Association Bambus Eins") was called and consisted of 10 warships , 2 submarines and 15 troop carriers . The aim was to move the 32nd Division to Mindanao and the core of the 35th Division to western New Guinea.

Using intercepted radio messages, the American submarine USS Jack was able to sight the convoy northwest of the coast of Luzon on the morning of April 26, and shortly afterwards sank the cargo ship Yoshida Maru . A complete regiment of the 32nd Division was on the ship. All approximately 3,000 people on the ship perished in the rapid sinking. The remaining Japanese ships continued their voyage and reached Manila on April 29 without further incident.

The goal of the 32nd Division changed while driving from Shanghai to Manila. The GHQ feared that the increasing difficulty of transporting troops to the front could prevent the planned reinforcements from reaching the "absolute zone of national defense" in full strength before the Allied forces. Therefore, the division should strengthen the 2nd Army in western New Guinea and the eastern part of the Dutch East Indies . This was in the opinion of the GHQ under a more immediate threat of attack than the troops on Mindanao, where the division was originally supposed to land.

On May 6, the USS Gurnard discovered the convoy in the Celebes Sea near the northeastern tip of Sulawesi . The boat attacked the Japanese transporters and hit three of them with three torpedo compartments. The Gurnard attacks sank the transport ships Aden Maru and Tajima Maru and the cargo ship Tenshinzan Maru . Despite the rescue measures initiated, 1,290 people were killed in the attacks and large amounts of material were lost. Due to its heavy losses, the Take Ichi convoy was ordered to call at Halmahera instead of continuing towards New Guinea. He reached the island without incident on May 9th. Both divisions disembarked there before the ships began their march back to Manila on May 13, where they arrived on May 20 without losses.

Course of the battle during the Battle of Morotai , September to October 1944.

After arriving at Halmahera, Lieutenant General Ishii ordered two battalions of the 211th Regiment on Morotai , an island close to Halmahera, to protect them from an Allied landing. In July 1944, the two battalions were ordered back to Halmahera and the 2nd Provisional Assault Unit under Major Kawashima Teknobu took over the defense of Morotai.

On September 15, 1944, a landing fleet consisting of 80 Allied ships appeared off Morotai and landed an infantry division. Since the 2nd Provisional Assault Unit was hopelessly inferior in terms of quantity and quality, Ishii ordered the 211th and 212th regiments as well as the 10th expeditionary unit to Morotai. The aim was to destroy the Allied airfield on Morotai, which directly threatened the Japanese defense in the Philippines.

Japanese troops landed on Morotai on September 26th and 27th. Shortly after landing, they encountered American patrols , who forced them to move into the jungle instead of using paths close to the beach. As a result, the unification of the landed reinforcements with the forces already on the island was delayed because they need three weeks to make their way through the jungle to the 2nd Provisional Storm Unit . In the meantime it had carried out occasional night raids against the American airfield, but they had little success. General Numada , Commander of the 2nd Regional Army , the night attacks were insufficient and on October 8th he radioed Lieutenant General Ishii:

“The enemy obviously has no intention of landing on any other island in the Moluccas except Morotai. Therefore it is essential for the 32nd Division to use all available units against the enemy on Morotai and to destroy them. The minimum goal must be to hinder the expansion of the enemy base and to decimate its forces. "

- Order of the commanding general of the 2nd regional army

The 32nd Division was able to break into the perimeter around the airfield on Morotai, but could not prevent their use.

From December 1944, the 136th Regiment of the American 33rd Infantry Division launched attacks on the remaining Japanese troops and forced them into the interior of the island in costly jungle battles. 870 Japanese were killed and ten were captured. American casualties were 46 dead and 127 wounded.

From April 1945 the American 93rd Infantry Division launched attacks against the remnants of the 32nd Division, which at that time numbered only about 600 men. The supply was carried out by light ships that brought supplies from Halmera. From May onwards, American PT speedboats finally prevented the landing of supplies. On August 2, a US patrol captured Colonel Ōuchi Kisō , commander of the 211th Infantry Regiment. Ōuchi was one of the most senior Japanese officers who was captured before the Japanese surrender . The remaining Japanese on Morotai surrendered to the Americans in August 1945.

After August 15, the end of the fighting, Lieutenant General Ichii was brought to Morotai to sign the remaining troops on Halmera. The surrender was formally signed on September 2, 1945.

structure

In February 1939 it was set up as a triangular type B - "Standard" division as follows:

• 32nd Infantry Division Staff (350 men)
  • 32nd Infantry Brigade Staff (100 men)
    • 210th Infantry Regiment (3845 men)
    • 211th Infantry Regiment (3845 men)
    • 212th Infantry Regiment (3845 men)
  • 32nd Tankette Company (100 men)
  • 32nd Field Artillery Regiment (2100 men; 36 75 mm field guns Type 90 )
  • 32nd Engineer Regiment (956 men)
  • 32.Signal unit (240)
  • 32nd Transport Regiment (1810 men)
  • 32nd Supply Company (110 men)
  • 32nd Field Hospital (two field hospitals with 250 men each)
  • 32nd water supply and treatment unit (235 men)
  • 32nd Veterinary Hospital (114 men)
  • 32nd Medical Unit (1110 men)

Total strength: 19,260 men

guide

Division commanders

• Kimura Heitarō, Lieutenant General: March 9, 1939 - October 22, 1940
• Ide Tetsuzō, Lieutenant General: October 22, 1940 - October 8, 1942
• Ishii Yoshio, Lieutenant General: October 8, 1942 - August 1945

See also

• Divisions of the Imperial Japanese Army

Web links

• Charles Willoughby: Reports of General MacArthur: Japanese Operations in the Southwest Pacific Area Volume II - Part I. www.history.army.mil/, 1966, accessed August 6, 2015 . 

literature

• Victor Madej: Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945. Game Publishing, 1981, OCLC 833591372 , OCLC 833591376 .
• John Underwood: "The Japanese Order of Battle in World War II, Vol I". The Nafziger Collection, Inc., 1999, ISBN 978-1-58545-044-2
• Leland Ness: Rikugun: Guide to Japanese Ground Forces 1937-1945. Helion & Company, 2014, ISBN 978-1-909982-00-0 .
• Charles Willoughby: Reports of General MacArthur: Japanese Operations in the Southwest Pacific Area Volume II - Part I , Washington DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1966

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Madej, p. 60
2. ↑ Japanese Officer. (No longer available online.) United States Army Combined Arms Center, archived from the original on September 28, 2015 ; Retrieved August 3, 2015 (Japanese). 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.  
3. ↑ ^{a b} Underwood, p. 20
4. ^ Willoughby, p. 272.
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Clay Blair: Silent Victory. The US Submarine War Against Japan. 2001, p. 623.
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} Willoughby, p. 273.
7. ↑ Edward J. Drea: MacArthur's ULTRA. Codebreaking and the war against Japan, 1942-1945. 1992, p. 130.
8. ↑ CombinedFleet.com: IJN Minelayer Shirataka: Tabular Record of Movement. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
9. ^ Willoughby, p. 348
10. ^ Willoughby, p. 350
11. ↑ ^{a b} Willoughby, p. 352
12. ^ ^{A b} 33rd Infantry Division "The Prairie Division". 33rdinfantrydivision.org, accessed August 9, 2015 . 
13. ↑ ^{a b} THE EMPLOYMENT OF NEGRO TROOPS. history.army.mil, accessed August 9, 2015 .