44th Army (Japanese Empire)

44th Army
active	July 17, 1941 to September 1945
Country	Japanese Empire
Armed forces	Japanese armed forces
Armed forces	Japanese army
Branch of service	infantry
Type	corps
Strength	approx. 80,000
Insinuation	3rd regional army
Location	Mukden
Nickname	Ensei ( 遠征 , "expedition")
Butcher	Second World War Operation August Storm
Supreme command
list of	Commander in chief

The 44th Army ( Japanese 第 44 軍 , Dai-yonjū-yon-gun ) was a major unit of the Imperial Japanese Army in 1945 . It emerged from the Kwantung Defense Army ( 関 東 防衛 軍 , Kantō Bōeigun ) founded in 1941 and was renamed the 44th Army in the spring of 1945. Your Tsūshōgō code (military code name) was Expedition ( 遠征 , Ensei ).

history

Kwantung Defense Army

In July 1941, the Kwantung Defense Army was established in Mukden under the command of General Yamashita Tomoyuki and was subordinate to the Kwantung Army . The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 9th independent garrison units were subordinate to you.

44th Army

On May 30, 1945 the Daihon'ei (Japanese Headquarters) regrouped the Kwantung Defense Army , renamed it under its commander Lieutenant General Hongō Yoshio in 44th Army and assigned it to the 63rd , 107th and 117th Infantry Divisions and the 9. Independent tank brigade and some artillery units too.

The 44th Army had orders to block potential invasion routes in western Manchuria south of Handagai to north of Jehol . To do this, they ordered the 107th Division to Wangyemiao , where they dug trenches, covered gun emplacements, combat shelters and a few bunkers . The 63rd and 117th divisions were positioned in the rear area at Dongliao (Tungliao) and Baichengzi (Paichengtzu), respectively . The remnants of the army remained in central Manchuria in the Liaoyuan region. In the event of a Soviet attack, the Japanese strategy provided for the attackers to deliver delaying engagements and to retreat to strongly fortified positions near Tunhua. It was even considered to let the enemy roll over you and then attack from behind. The strongest fortifications were built at Handagai, Iruse, Halung-Arshaan and Wuchakou in the Great Hinggan Mountains . There they were laid out parallel to the road and railway line that led through the mountains. A second line of defense was laid to the west of Wangyemiao, but it was not completed in August 1945. Although the Japanese built strong defensive positions, they were spread over too large an area and thus susceptible to evasion maneuvers. Still, Lieutenant General Hongō and his men felt relatively safe from a Soviet attack.

In the neutrality pact between Japan and the Soviet Union of April 13, 1941, both contracting parties entered into a commitment to respect the mutual territorial integrity and inviolability. On April 5, 1945, the Soviet Union announced that it would no longer renew the contract, so that it would become invalid on April 25, 1946. On August 8, 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan and began a large-scale offensive ( Operation Auguststurm ), initially on the Asian continent and later on the Kuril Islands .

On August 9, 1945 at 2:00 am, General Hongo received news of the Soviet attack. At 5:00 am, the 107th Division reported that hundreds of enemy tanks with infantry support were advancing against them. On the Soviet side, the 39th Army attacked with over 1000 tanks and vehicles and nine divisions in the 44th Army sector. It soon emerged that the Soviet attack formations were bypassing and isolating individual Japanese positions. The 107th Division retreated east into the mountains and tried, as intended, to attack the enemy from behind. The Soviet superiority reduced the 44th Army further and further and on August 15th the powerful Japanese defensive position in the Great Hinggan Mountains was bypassed and enclosed. After the fighting ended, the Japanese soldiers went into Soviet captivity .

The 44th Army in Mukden was officially disbanded in September 1945.

Commander in chief

commander

	Surname	From	To
1.	General Yamashita Tomoyuki	July 17, 1941	November 6, 1941
2.	Lieutenant General Kusaba Tatsumi	November 6, 1941	December 21, 1942
3.	Lieutenant General Kinoshita Hayashi	December 21, 1942	December 7, 1943
4th	Lieutenant General Yoshida Shin	December 7, 1943	March 1, 1945
5.	Lieutenant General Hongō Yoshio	March 1, 1945	September 1945

Chiefs of Staff

	Surname	From	To
1.	Lieutenant General Yoshioka Yasunao	July 17, 1941	July 1, 1942
2.	Major General Tasaka Sen'ichi	July 1, 1942	May 16, 1944
3.	Major General Tamura Hiroshi	May 16, 1944	October 2, 1944
4th	Major General Obata Nobuyoshi	October 2, 1944	September 1945

Subordinate units

• 44th Army Staff
• 63rd Division
• 107th Division
• 117th Division
• 9th Independent Panzer Brigade
• 31st, 81st and 88th Field Hospital
• 2nd storm department
• artillery
  • 17th Heavy Field Artillery Regiment
  • 30th Heavy Field Artillery Regiment
  • 14th Independent Field Artillery Battalion
  • 29th Independent Anti-Tank Battalion
• other smaller units

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 .
• David Glantz: Soviet Operational and Tactical Combat in Manchuria, 1945: "August Storm". Routledge, 2004.

Web links

• 第 27 軍. Organization of IJA, accessed December 30, 2014 (Japanese). 

Individual evidence

1. ^ V. Madej: Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945. 1981, p. 4.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Glantz, p. 153
3. ↑ ^{a b} Glantz, p. 154
4. ↑ Glantz, p. 156
5. ↑ Glantz, p. 181