57th Army (Japanese Empire)

57th Army
active	April 8, 1945 to September 15, 1945
Country	Japanese Empire
Armed forces	Japanese armed forces
Armed forces	Japanese army
Branch of service	infantry
Type	corps
Strength	approx. 90,000
Insinuation	16th regional army
Location	Takarabe , Kagoshima Prefecture
Nickname	Kissaki ( 鋒 , "push")
Butcher	Pacific War Operation Downfall
Supreme command
list of	Commander in chief

The 57th Army ( Japanese 第 57 軍 , Dai-gojū-nana-gun ) was a major unit of the Imperial Japanese Army in 1945 . Your Tsūshōgō code (military code name) was shock ( 鋒 , Kissaki ).

history

On April 8, 1945, Daihon'ei (Japanese Headquarters) set up the 57th Army under Lieutenant General Nishihara Kanji in anticipation of an Allied invasion of the main Japanese islands . It was stationed with five divisions , two independent mixed brigades , two tanks and an artillery brigade in the south of the Japanese island of Kyushu in Takarabe (today: Soo ), Kagoshima Prefecture .

The majority of the teams consisted of previously drafted recruits who had neither the necessary military training nor adequate 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 57th Army included the Ariake Sea , a bay in the East China Sea off Kyūshū and the coast of Miyazaki Prefecture . While the 86th , 154th , 156th and 212th Divisions were positioned on the coast, the 25th Division and the 5th and 6th Independent Tank Brigades were inland in the Kirishima Mountains to be available as a mobile reserve .

Because of the atomic bombs being dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki , the Japanese Empire was forced to surrender . Due to the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945, the 57th Army did not take part in combat operations and was disbanded that same month.

Commander in chief

commander

	Surname	From	To
1.	Lieutenant General Nishihara Kanji	April 8, 1945	August 15, 1945

Chiefs of Staff

	Surname	From	To
1.	Major General Yoshitake Yasumasa	April 6, 1945	August 19, 1945

Subordinate units

The formation of the army was as follows:

• 57th Army Staff
  • 25th division
  • 86th Division
  • 154th Division
  • 156th Division
  • 212th Division
  • 98th Independent Mixed Brigade
  • 109th Independent Mixed Brigade
  • 5th Independent Panzer Brigade
  • 6th Independent Panzer Brigade
  • 1st Artillery Brigade
    • 26th Independent Field Artillery Battalion
    • 28th Independent Field Artillery Battalion
    • 13th Heavy Field Artillery Regiment
    • 28th Heavy Field Artillery Regiment
    • 54th Heavy Field Artillery Regiment
    • 5th Assault Gun Battalion
    • 7th Assault Gun Battalion
    • 20th Independent Mortar Battalion
    • 26th Independent Mortar Battalion
    • 28. Independent Mortar Battalion
    • 2nd automatic cannon battalion
    • 4th 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 .
• Clayton Jun: Japan 1945, From Operation Downfall to Hiroshima and Nagasaki Osprey Publishing, 2008, ISBN 978-1-84603-284-4
• Steven Zaloga: Defense of Japan 1945 (Fortress) , Osprey Publishing, ISBN 978-1-8460-3687-3

Web links

• 第 57 軍. Organization of IJA, accessed December 30, 2014 (Japanese). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Madej, p. 5
2. ↑ ^{a b} Zaloga, p. 33
3. ↑ ^{a b} Chun, p. 44
4. ↑ Japanese Homeland Land Armies, April 8, 1945. (No longer available online.) Combined Arms Research Library, archived from the original on December 8, 2015 ; accessed on November 30, 2015 (English). 

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Nishihara is the family name, Nukichi the first name.