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Speaking of which, when it comes to the "reorganized division," I believe that many friends who are more interested in military history know that the 74th Division of the National Revolutionary Army is integrated, and it can be said that this division is the first of the five main forces of the National Revolutionary Army. However, his ultimate fate was annihilated by Huaye in the Battle of Menglianggu, and Zhang Lingfu was also killed in this battle.
So, why is this division called an integrated division, and whether this reorganized division is a division-level unit or a military-level unit, and what are the differences between this division and the ordinary division in the usual sense?
After the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan, in order to achieve peace, our Party held Chongqing talks with the old Chiang Kai-shek clique, and in the Chongqing talks, the reorganization of the troops was a key topic, and to put it bluntly, it was to let the troops of both sides carry out large-scale disarmament in order to avoid military conflict.
However, the old Chiang Kai-shek played a trick, nominally disarming, but secretly expanding his own armament, especially his concubine ace military system.
Before the outbreak of the War of Liberation, the old Chiang clique had completed the reorganization of 58 divisions, in other words, they already had 58 integrated divisions. The integrated division is nominally a division-level unit, but in fact it is a military-level unit, for example, the integrated 74th Division is a new number that was reorganized on the basis of the original 74th Army.
It can be said that the reorganized division is the structure of an army, on the contrary, the strength of the reorganized division has not only not decreased at all, but has also increased a lot.
At that time, an integrated division contained 2 to 3 integrated brigades, while the integrated brigade contained 2 to 3 integrated regiments, and the number of integrated divisions of different natures was also different, and the more units were subordinated, the more equipped the soldiers.
To be fair, such a reorganization means changing soup without changing medicine or filling materials, and "reorganization" is nominally a division-level unit, but in fact it belongs to the reinforcement army.
Speaking of the ordinary division establishment, there are 3 combat regiments under the subordinate plus divisional units and other departments, which is not more than 10,000 people, which is completely incomparable compared with the reorganized division of more than 30,000 people.
Therefore, the reorganized division can completely crush the ordinary division in terms of combat effectiveness, and above the reorganized division, there is also the so-called integrated army, which is equivalent to the original group army, and the highest can even exceed 70,000 people.
Of course, the reorganization divisions of the old Chiang Kai-shek Clique are not all as tough as the 74th Division, and some of the reorganized divisions have only about 10,000 people, and they are not all American-style equipment in terms of weapons and equipment. If all the reorganized divisions were of the same specifications as the reorganized 74th division, the financial resources of the old Chiang Kai-shek clique would not be able to support them at all.
However, although it is the smallest reorganization division, its average number can reach about 20,000 people, far exceeding the ordinary division establishment, which is the disarmament reduction vigorously propagated by the old Chiang Kai-shek clique, which is simply the opposite.
After the full outbreak of the Liberation War, the old Chiang clique had completed the reorganization of the army, so they had both integrated divisions and integrated armies at that time. As for the several ace units, they were all military-level units, such as the New 1st, 5th, 18th Army and the New 6th Army.
Prior to this, even during the Agrarian Revolutionary War and the War of Resistance, the National Revolutionary Army did not have the concept of an integrated division or the number of troops.
By the end of 1948, the five main forces of the old Chiang clique had basically been wiped out by our army, and their reorganization system had ceased to exist in name only.
In view of this, in the autumn of 1948, the National Revolutionary Army decided to abolish the number of the integrated division and restore it to the orthodox unit number of the army. Therefore, from the autumn of 1948 to the end of the Liberation War, the troops of the old Chiang Kai-shek clique were only at the military level and no longer had integrated divisions.
From this point of view, the integrated division has only existed in the history of war for two years, and this is also only in the troops of the old Chiang Kai-shek clique during the Liberation War. In our army, however, there is no concept of an "integrated division" at any time, and of course there are no integrated divisions in foreign armies.
However, there are still many netizens who post on the Internet to ask about the situation of the Indian Integrated Division and the US Military Integrated Division, which is the result of their failure to study history well. Because whether in the past or now, the armed forces of India and the United States, as well as many countries now, do not have the concept of integrated divisions.
References for this article: "General History of the World", "Liberation War", "History of the Development of the National Revolutionary Army", "Baidu Encyclopedia Related Terms - Liberation War, Reorganization Division, etc."