68th Division (Japanese Empire)

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68th Division

active February 2, 1942 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. 12,000
Insinuation 20th Army
Location Jiangxi Province
Nickname Hinoki-heidan ( 檜 兵 団 , "Cypress Division")
Butcher Second Sino-Japanese War

The 68th Division ( Japanese 第 68 師 団 , Dai-68 Shidan ) was a division of the Imperial Japanese Army , which was set up in 1942 and disbanded in 1945. Your Tsūshōgō code (military code name) was Cypress Division ( 檜 兵 団 , Hinoki-heidan ) or Hinoki 2327 .

History of unity

The 68th Division was set up on February 2, 1942 under the command of Lieutenant General Nakayama Makoto in the Kiangsi Province ( China ) as a Type C "Brigade" / "Special" Division. As with most divisions created later in the war, existing units were detached or disbanded from their parent units. In the case of the 68th Division, the 14th  Independent Mixed Brigade served as ancestry. Division under the stand 57.  infantry - brigade with the self-employed infantry battalions 61, 62, 63 and 64, and the 58th infantry brigade with the self-employed infantry battalions 65, 115, 116 and 117 as well as the 68th pioneering, 68th signal unit, 68th transport and 68th medical unit. The division had a strength of about 10,000 to 12,000 men and had no field artillery or tank units of its own . As is usual for Type C divisions, it was intended for fighting partisans .

In early 1943 she was transferred to Kiukiang in Kiangsi Province, where she was used as a garrison unit for the area between Kiukiang and Nanchang .

The movements of Japanese troops during Operation Ichi-gō

From April 17 to December 11, 1944, the 68th Division was involved in Operation Ichi-gō , the largest Japanese company of the war, in which a total of 23 divisions with over 400,000 soldiers were involved. In May there was the fourth battle for Changsha , which this time, after the three previous battles for the city had been fought off with losses, ended victorious for the Japanese. After taking Changsha, the 68th, together with the 116th Division , attacked the city of Hengyang on June 22nd, which had been heavily fortified by the National Revolutionary Army . The Battle of Hengyang from June 22 to August 8, 1944 was the longest battle for a city during the Second Sino-Japanese War. After the Army Air Force had occupied the city with incendiary bombs , the infantry attacked . The Chinese had built their defenses with overlapping fire zones, so the Japanese casualties rose rapidly. Reinforced by three more divisions, the Japanese increased pressure on the Chinese defenders and Hengyang fell on August 8th. Of the 110,000 Japanese attacking, around 30,000 were killed or wounded.

After the fighting around Hengyang ended, the remnants of the 68th Division remained in the area and in 1945 the division was disbanded.

structure

In February 1942 the division was set up as a Type C "Brigade" / "Special" division as follows:

  • Division staff (350 men)
    • Headquarters of the 57th Infantry Brigade (50 men)
      • 61st Independent Infantry Battalion (approx. 1200 men)
      • 62nd Independent Infantry Battalion (approx. 1200 men)
      • 63rd Independent Infantry Battalion (approx. 1200 men)
      • 64th Independent Infantry Battalion (approx. 1200 men)
    • Staff of the 58th Infantry Brigade (50 men)
      • 65th Independent Infantry Battalion (approx. 1200 men)
      • 115th Independent Infantry Battalion (approx. 1200 men)
      • 116th Independent Infantry Battalion (approx. 1200 men)
      • 117th Independent Infantry Battalion (approx. 1200 men)
    • 68th Engineer Unit (approx. 250 men)
    • 68.Signal unit (approx. 140)
    • 68th transport unit (approx. 800 men)
    • 68th Veterinary Hospital (approx. 80 men)
    • 68th Medical Unit (approx. 500 men)

Total strength: approx. 11,820 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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Underwood, p. 73
  2. ↑ a b Madej, p. 91
  3. ^ The Defense of Heng-yang. HyperWar, accessed January 29, 2015 . , English