55th Army (Japanese Empire)

55th Army
active	April 8, 1945 to August 15, 1945
Country	Japanese Empire
Armed forces	Japanese armed forces
Armed forces	Japanese army
Branch of service	infantry
Type	corps
Strength	approx. 60,000
Insinuation	15th Regional Army
Location	Kami
Nickname	Kai ( 偕 )
Butcher	Second World War Operation Downfall
Supreme command
list of	Commander in chief

The 55th Army ( Japanese 第 55 軍 , Dai-gojū-gō-gun ) was a major unit of the Imperial Japanese Army in 1945 . Your Tsūshōgō code (military code name) was Kai ( 偕 ).

history

On April 8, 1945, Daihon'ei (Japanese Headquarters) set up the 55th Army under Lieutenant General Harada Kumakichi in anticipation of an Allied invasion of the main Japanese islands and the offshore islands . It was stationed with four divisions , an independent mixed brigade , two tank regiments and some artillery on the island of Shikoku in southern Japan with headquarters in Kami .

Like most units set up in the Japanese Empire in 1945 , it consisted of previously drafted recruits who had neither the necessary military training nor sufficient weapons. Sometimes weapons from the 19th century and bamboo spears had to be used. While divisions with two-digit numbering had a nominal strength of 20,000 men, the divisions with 100 and 200 numbers had almost 10,000 men. The latter divisions had practically no means of transport and were intended for coastal defense. Their immobility was offset by an above-average allocation of artillery and mortars .

The area of ​​operations of the 55th Army included the island of Shikoku . While the three divisions with the newly drafted recruits were stationed near the coast, the battle-tested 11th Division formed the reserve and was positioned in the hinterland.

The 55th Army was disbanded on August 15, 1945, without having been involved in any fighting.

Commander in chief

commander

	Surname	From	To
1.	Lieutenant General Harada Kumakichi	April 17, 1945	August 15, 1945

Chiefs of Staff

	Surname	From	To
1.	Major General Terakura Koshirō	April 6, 1945	June 21, 1945
2.	Major General Kaburagi Masataka	June 21, 1945	September 20, 1945

Subordinate units

• 55th Army Staff
• 11th division
• 155th Division
• 205th Division
• 344th Division
• 121st Independent Mixed Brigade
• 45th Panzer Regiment
• 47th Panzer Regiment
• 10th Artillery Regiment
• 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 .

Web links

• 第 55 軍. Organization of IJA, accessed December 30, 2014 (Japanese). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 平 成 20 年度 高 知 南国 道路 外 埋 蔵 文化 財 発 掘 調査 業務 委託 向 山 戦 争 遺跡 . 記者 発 表 及 び 現 地 説明 会 資料 , p. 4 , accessed March 15, 2017 (Japanese). 

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Harada is the family name, Kumakichi the first name.