51st Division (Japanese Empire)

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51st Division

IJA 51st division on Papua New Guinea.jpg

Soldiers of the 51st Division attack Allied positions in New Guinea , 1943.
active July 10, 1940 to 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 division
Strength approx. 25,000
Location Utsunomiya
Nickname Ki-heidan ( 基 兵 団 , "basic division")
Butcher Second Sino-Japanese War

Pacific War

The 51st Division ( Japanese 第 51 師 団 , Dai-goju-ichi Shidan ) was a division of the Imperial Japanese Army , which was established in 1940 and disbanded in 1945. Your Tsūshōgō code (military code name) was Base Division ( 基 兵 団 , Ki-heidan ) or 2600 .

History of unity

The 51st Division was under the command of the July 10, 1940 Lieutenant General Ueno Kanichiro as Type A "reinforced" Division as Triangular Division set up and consisted mainly of the 51th  Infantry - Brigade (66th, 102nd and 115th  Regiment ) and the 51st  Reconnaissance Regiment , the 51st Divisional Artillery Group and the 51st  Engineer and Transport Regiment. The 66th and 115th Infantry Regiments had previously been transferred from the 114th Division , which had just been disbanded .

The headquarters of the approximately 25,000 strong division was in Utsunomiya , Japan .

During the Second Sino-Japanese War , which had been raging since 1937 , the 51st Division was transferred to Manchuria in August 1941 , where it was subordinated to the Kwantung Army . From July 1, 1941, Lieutenant General Crown Prince Yi Un , the last Crown Prince of Korea , took over the division. On November 16, 1941, the supreme command was handed over to Lieutenant General Nakano Hidemitsu , under whose leadership the division was ordered to Canton , Republic of China in December 1941 , where it was subordinate to the 23rd Army . There she remained in the Chinese theater of war until November 1942 .

In the battle of the Bismarck Sea , the convoy transporting the 51st Division is attacked by Allied bombers and most of it sunk. The picture shows the transport ship Taimei Maru , which has already been hit , March 1943.

In November 1942 the division was transferred to Palau , from where it was shipped to Rabaul in December 1942 . Their destination was New Guinea and the 18th Army stationed there . In view of the bad outcome of the Battle of Guadalcanal , the Japanese General Staff decided in the same month to order over 100,000 men to Lae on the territory of New Guinea . The company became Operation No. 81 and planned to bring the 20th and 41st Divisions to Lae in February 1943 , which was successfully completed. At the end of February 1943 parts of the 51st Division were embarked and on March 1, a convoy of eight destroyers and eight troop transports, accompanied by 100 hunters as hunting protection, set out for Lea. The convoy was sighted by an American B-24 Liberator on the first day of the voyage, but the convoy , which was only moving at 7 knots (about 12 km / h), could not be found by the approaching heavy bombers. On March 2, the convoy was spotted again by a B-24 reconnaissance aircraft. This time the Allied bombers found the convoy and it came to the battle in the Bismarck Sea , in which the Japanese lost four destroyers, all eight transporters and almost 3,000 dead. Of the 6,900 soldiers of the 51st Division, 2,890 were dead. Japanese boats were able to save 2,700 soldiers floating in the water and bring them back to Rabaul. Only about 1200 men of the division including Lieutenant General Nakano reached Lea.

The map shows the combat area on the Huon Peninsula , where the 51st Division, along with the 20th and 41st Divisions, followed by Australian and American troops, withdrew.

Upon arriving in Lea, Nakano reorganized the survivors of the convoy. At the beginning of June 1943 the 66th Infantry Regiment finally arrived in Lea, which attacked the Australian positions at Gaudagasal on June 20 . The attack was repulsed and the remainder of the regiment withdrew. Just a few days later, on June 30, American and Australian troops landed in Nassau Bay and surprised Nakano. This was then forced to dig in with the remaining 7200 men of his division at Lae and Salamaua . The leadership of the 18th Army under General Adachi Hatazō had sent unequivocal orders to Nakano that Salamaua was to be held under all circumstances. The Allies had now landed five divisions on New Guinea, which the three Japanese divisions, the 20th, 41st and 51st Divisions, were supposed to resist. But the Japanese divisions were far below their target strength and so the defense became weaker and weaker. Between September 11 and 14, the Japanese had to evacuate Salamaua and withdrew along the coast on Lae. General Adachi wanted to put pressure on the Allied advance and let the 102nd Infantry Regiment march through the jungle on Wau . On January 16, 1944, the 102nd Wau and the airfield there attacked and was able to drive the Kanga Force (Australian unit in New Guinea) to the edge of the runway by January 28. To counter the danger, the Australians flew in the 17th Brigade, which had thrown the Japanese back into the jungle by January 30th. The situation in Lae had become untenable due to the overstretching of Japanese forces. The Allies tried to cut off the 51st Division's retreat, but most of the survivors managed to escape to the Huon Peninsula . There the battle for the Huon Peninsula developed from September 1943 , which lasted until March 1, 1944.

The retreat was covered by parts of the 51st Division at Wewak . Regiments with a former nominal strength of almost 5,000 men consisted of only 300 soldiers. The survivors also had to spread out over the area because this was the only way they could live on the land or create gardens for self-catering. In mid-1944 the 51st Division had shrunk to around 1000 men, cut off all supply routes and posed no military threat to the Allies. A few hundred survivors capitulated in September 1945.

In July 1944, the 51st Reconnaissance Regiment, which had been in New Britain, was assigned to the 17th Division .

The few remaining survivors of the division who had not been to New Guinea were incorporated into the 49th  Independent Mixed Brigade .

structure

The 51st Division was set up as a Type A "Reinforced" Division as a Triangular Division as follows:

  • 51st Infantry Division Headquarters (approx. 410 men)
    • 51st Infantry Brigade leadership (approx. 100 men)
      • 66th Infantry Regiment (approx. 4830 men)
      • 102nd Infantry Regiment (approx. 4830 men)
      • 115th Infantry Regiment (approx. 4830 men)
    • 51. reconnaissance regiment
      • Staff (approx. 30 men)
      • mounted (approx. 300 men)
      • Type 92 tankettes (approx. 100 men)
      • 1st motorized company (approx. 160 men)
      • 2nd motorized company (approx. 160 men)
      • Supply company (approx. 100 men)
    • 51st Division Artillery Group, staff (approx. 178 men)
      • 14th Field Artillery Regiment staff (approx. 265 men)
      • 1st Battalion (8 × 75 mm guns, 4 × 105 mm howitzers (approx. 685 men))
      • 2nd Battalion (8 × 75 mm guns, 4 × 105 mm howitzers (approx. 685 men))
      • 3rd Battalion (8 × 75 mm guns, 4 × 105 mm howitzers (approx. 685 men))
    • 51st Engineer Regiment (approx. 900 men)
    • 51.Signal and telecommunication unit (approx. 220)
    • 51st Transport Regiment (approx. 2820 men)
    • 51st Supply Company (approx. 185 men)
    • 51st field hospital (four field hospitals with approx. 250 men each)
    • 51st water supply and treatment unit (approx. 160 men)
    • 51st Veterinary Hospital (approx. 100 men)
    • 51st Medical Unit (approx. 1000 men)

Total strength: approx. 24,815 men

See also

Web links

literature

  • John Underwood: The Japanese Order of Battle in World War II. Vol I, The Nafziger Collection, Inc., 1999, ISBN 978-1-58545-044-2
  • Victor Madej: Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle 1937–1945. Volume I + II, Game Marketing Company, 1981
  • Gordon Rottman: Japanese Army in World War II (The South Pacific and New Guinea, 1942-1943). Osprey Publishing, ISBN 978-1-84176-870-0
  • Kengoro Tanaka: Operations of the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces in the Papua New Guinea Theater During World War II. Tokyo: Japan Papua New Guinea Goodwill Society, 1980
  • Louis G. Perez: Japan at War: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, 2013, ISBN 978-1-59884-741-3

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Madej, p. 76.
  2. ↑ a b c d e Underwood, p. 66.
  3. ↑ Rottmann, p. 11.
  4. ↑ Tanaka, p. 88.
  5. ^ Rottman, p. 83.
  6. ↑ a b Perez, p. 270.
  7. ^ Rottman, p. 84.