50th Army (Japanese Empire)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

50th Army

Map-IJA Army, 50th.jpg
active June 19, 1945 to August 15, 1945
Country JapanJapan Japanese Empire
Armed forces JapanJapan (war flag) Japanese armed forces
Armed forces JapanJapan (war flag) Japanese army
Branch of service infantry
Type corps
Strength approx. 30,000
Insinuation 11th Regional Army
Location Aomori
Nickname Shun ( 俊 , "genius")
Butcher Operation Downfall
Supreme command
list of Commander in chief

The 50th Army ( Japanese 第 50 軍 , Dai-gojū-gun ) was a large unit of the Imperial Japanese Army , which was set up and disbanded in the last year of the war in 1945. Your Tsūshōgō code (military code name) was Genie ( 俊 , Shun ).

history

After the Allies landed on the island of Iwojima, about 1000 km from mainland Japan, on February 19, 1945 , the Daihon'ei (Japanese Headquarters ) made hasty preparations for the imminent landing of the US Army , which they called Operation Downfall . To this end, several armies were alone with over 80 in 1945. Divisions newly dug . On June 19, 1945, the 50th Army was set up under the command of Lieutenant General Hoshino Toshimoto and placed under the 11th Regional Army. It consisted of the 157th and 308th divisions . In addition, the 95th Independent Mixed Brigade was subordinate to the Army  . The infantry units were recently formed divisions made up of hastily recruited recruits, many of them students. For lack of rifles, many of the recruits were armed with bamboo spears .

The operational area of ​​the 50th Army was Aomori Prefecture on the northeast coast of the Tōhoku region with headquarters in Aomori .

The 50th Army was disbanded at the end of the war in August 1945 without being involved in combat operations .

Army command

Surname From To
Commander in chief Lieutenant General Hoshino Toshimoto June 10, 1945 August 15, 1945
chief of staff Major General Ōta Kinhide June 1, 1945 November 1, 1945

Subordinate units

Structure of the 50th Army as follows (as of April 1945):

literature

  • John Underwood: The Japanese Order of Battle in World War II. Vol I, The Nafziger Collection, 1999, ISBN 1-58545-044-8 .
  • Steven J Zaloga: Defense of Japan Osprey Publishing, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84603-687-3

Web links

  • 第 50 軍. Organization of IJA, accessed December 30, 2014 . , Japanese

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Zaloga, p. 30
  2. ↑ a b Underwood, p. 51
  3. ↑ 荒 井 悦 郎 : 市民 と 一体 「軍 都 弘 前」 ＝ ３１ . In: Mutsu Shimpō. August 10, 2015. Retrieved March 15, 2016 (Japanese).
Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Hoshino is the family name, Toshimoto the first name.