At the end of 1941, after the Third Battle of Changsha, the intensity of the Japanese army's operations against China quietly changed, and the Japanese army, which succeeded in the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, began to transfer the spearhead of the strategic offensive from the Chinese battlefield to the Pacific islands and the jungles of Southeast Asia.
So from the beginning of 1942 to the end of World War II, how many Japanese troops were left in Kannai (excluding Tohoku and Treasure Island)?
How good are these troops, and how many elites are left?
Japanese troops in the Chinese theater
At its peak, a million troops
Before and after the start of the Lugou Bridge, the main combat strength of the Japanese Army was the 17th permanent division at that time (the Guards Division, the 1st-20th Division, the 13th, 15th, 17th and 18th Divisions were missing), as well as the overseas garrison and the Northeast Garrison, which were the standing forces of the Japanese army. As the war progressed, the divisions of the Japanese army were expanded again and again.
So how did the Japanese army change before and after the start of World War II?
On the basis of the original 17 permanent divisions, the Japanese army added 7 ad hoc divisions, namely:
The 13 (Sendai) and 18 (Kurume, also known as Fukuoka) two former permanent divisions were restored, and the reserve forces of the 101 (Tokyo), 114 (Utsunomiya), 106 (Kumamoto), 108 (Asahikawa), and 109 (Kanazawa) divisions were reinstated, and the 26 divisions were expanded from the independent mixed 11 brigades (3 wings).
A total of 24 divisions.
Among them, except for the Imperial Guards Division on the mainland, the 20th Division on the peninsula, and the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, and 12th Divisions under the Kwantung Army, the remaining 21 elite divisions are all located in the Kannai, accounting for more than 80% of the total number of Japanese divisions.
The total number of troops is more than 800,000.
Japanese troops during the Battle of Songhu
The total strength of the Japanese army was increased to 34 divisions, and in addition to the above 24, the new 10 divisions were 5 temporary divisions established according to the document "Showa 13th Military Order Lujia No. 21": 15th, 17th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd divisions, and the newly added 24th, 25th, 27th, 110th, 114th and 116th divisions.
Among these divisions, there were 24 divisions in the Kannai, accounting for 70% of the total strength of the Japanese divisions.
At this time, the Japanese army had 12 divisions in Northeast China (Manchuria) and 12 in North China, and once it fought against the Soviet Union, the Japanese army could assemble 24 divisions at the first time.
Japanese troops storming the city during the Battle of Wuhan
From 1939 to the end of 1940, garrison divisions and some permanent divisions were added, with a total strength of 40 divisions, and 32-41 divisions were added to these divisions and regiments for the garrison tasks in the occupied areas.
By the end of 1941, in order to deal with the Soviet army in the north and compete with Britain and the United States in the south, the Japanese army expanded again before World War II.
The entire Japanese army was expanded to 58 divisions, of which the total strength was 2.41 million, but at this time, the proportion of the Japanese army in the Kannai (which had been changed to the Chinese dispatch army at this time) also fell again and again, and among the 58 divisions and regiments, 14 were outside the Kansai (against the Soviet Union), 23 were in the Kannai, and 15 were in the Pacific.
Japanese troops during the Battle of Normenheim
The number of divisions in the Kannai accounted for only 40% of the total number of Japanese divisions and regiments, and only 27% of the total strength of the Japanese army, and the number of troops was reduced to 650,000.
This ratio is not even as large as the number of Kwantung Army in the northeast (750,000).
Therefore, in the period before and after the start of World War II, the strength of the Japanese army in China was the lowest since the full-scale invasion of China in 1938.
The Japanese Army has always pursued the policy of "elite soldiers", and before 1944, the Japanese Army was considered to be a relatively strong level among the participating countries in terms of individual soldiers. Therefore, in 1941-1944, although the number of Japanese troops also increased, they were not as "cloned" as in Europe and the United States.
The elite of the Japanese army in the Pacific
So after the start of World War II, what about the strength of the "China Dispatch Army", which commanded all the Japanese troops in the Kannai?
According to the records of "China's Dispatch Army in Showa 17 and 8" written by the War History Office of the Japan Institute of National Defense, the strength of China's dispatch army from the end of 1942 to 18 (1943) was 24 infantry divisions, 1 armored division (3rd tank division), 16 independent mixed brigades, and 13 army aviation squadrons.
It was organized into 2 front armies (North China Front Army and Mongolian Army) and 3 armies (11th, 13th and 23rd armies). In addition to the directly subordinate units of the various armies, including the garrison, garrison and other security forces, the total strength is about 600,000.
Its number is still the lowest since the invasion of China in 1937.
Japanese troops during the Third Battle of Changsha in 1941
Therefore, at this time, the so-called "No. 5 Operation Plan" (moving south from Guanzhong to capture Chongqing and forcing the Chongqing government to surrender) was also terminated due to insufficient troops, and the entire dispatch army's policy toward China also changed from "promoting surrender" to "strengthening the ruling power of the Nationalist Government (Wang Puppet) and strengthening public order in the occupied areas".
The overall operational posture is biased toward stability maintenance and strategic defense.
At the end of 1943, the strength of the Chinese Dispatch Army was not much different from that of the beginning of the year, the number of divisions and regiments remained unchanged, and the number of independent mixed brigades and regiments was reduced to 11 (the other five divisions and regiments were expanded into public security garrison divisions), with a total strength of about 620,000 troops.
With the Japanese army's lines of communication in the Pacific Ocean cut off, the Japanese base camp, which urgently needed to transfuse blood to the mainland through the Kansai Road, decided to make trouble in the Kannai.
Therefore, after the beginning of 1944, the base camp vigorously strengthened the troops of the Chinese Dispatch Army.
Japanese armored forces during the Battle of Henan-Xiang-Gui
First of all, the original 3rd Flying Division was expanded into the 5th Air Army, and in terms of ground forces, 14 infantry brigades and regiments were expanded, and the elite 27th Division of the Kwantung Army was transferred to the elite Kwantung Army, and 8 field supplementary teams were transferred from the country, with a total strength of 700,000.
By the second half of 1944, the 115th, 117th, and 118th divisions had been formed, and the number of Chinese troops dispatched to the Guannai had reached a historical peak of 760,000.
In 1945, after the Japanese army began to carry out the "100 million jade crushing operation", the Chinese dispatch army also began to expand the army and form a large number of new divisions for decisive battles, such as the 129th, 130th, 131st, 132nd, 133rd, and 161st divisions, so when Japan surrendered, the total strength of Japan's Chinese dispatch army in Guannai was 2 front armies (North China Front Army and Central China 6th Front Army), as well as the 6th, 13th and 23rd armies, a total of 25 divisions, 16 brigades, and a total of 1.05 million people.
The number of Japanese troops on the battlefield in China at the time of the surrender of the Japanese army
Among these divisions, how many elites account for them
It can be said that before the start of World War II, in the war against China, all the elites were gathered, for no other reason, mainly because the main object of the Japanese army at that time was the national army.
Let's get back to the point, how strong was the elite of the Japanese army in China before World War II?
In the Battle of Songhu, the Chinese Dispatch Army and the 10th Army formed by the Japanese army were all victorious armies in the Japanese Army at that time, such as the 3rd, 6th, and divisions. North China has the strongest 5th and 10th divisions.
In the Battle of Wuhan, the Japanese troops participating in the battle were the 3rd, 6th, 9th, 10th, 13th, 16th, 18th, 27th, 101st, 106th, and 116th divisions, of which 5 were permanent divisions and 5 ad hoc divisions (the strongest 13 and 18 were all listed, and their combat effectiveness was even stronger than some permanent divisions).
Elite units of the Japanese army
Around 1941, although some units of the Japanese army had taken turns to rest and go north to resist the Soviet army, in fact, there were still a large number of elites fighting with the national army on the front line, such as the elite troops of the 3rd, 6th, and 13th in the regular combat sequence of the 11th Ace Army. The South China Front (before going to Nanyang) had the 5th and 18th most ace divisions.
Even after 1939, the 10 garrison divisions (No. 32-41) were established to combat effectiveness that should not be underestimated, and these divisions and regiments were all composed of permanent divisions and regimental reserve forces, and their characteristics were stronger than those of ad hoc divisions and regiments, and were comparable to those of permanent divisions and regiments, but the infantry wings lacked baggage teams, the artillery wings lacked wing columns and brigade sections, and the amount of ammunition and supplies was far less than that of permanent divisions and ad hoc divisions.
Japanese Kwantung Army
For example, the 33rd Division.
For a long time, he was the main force of the 11th Army, and after being requisitioned and transferred to the North China Front, his record was still strong, and he was also the initiator of one of the biggest defeats of the National Army - the Battle of Zhongtiao Mountain. The 39-40 divisions were also frequent visitors to the 11th Army and fought against the 74th Army on the front line many times.
Therefore, there is some truth in saying that the Japanese troops on the Kannai battlefield before World War II were all elite.
However, just as the number of Japanese troops in the Kannai region decreased dramatically after the start of World War II, after the start of World War II, a large number of ace units of the Japanese army were transferred south to join the Southern Army.
Take, for example, the mighty 11 Army.
In the Second Battle of Changsha, Anan Weiji also had the 3rd, 4th, and 6th Divisions and other first-class elite divisions, but after the beginning of World War II, in addition to the 3rd Division and the 13th Division, several other divisions went to the Pacific Ocean to fight with the American army.
The 32nd Division went south to the Philippines in 1944 to be bombed, and the 33rd Division, the 35th and 36th Divisions, which went south to the Philippines in 1944 to fight against the Expeditionary Force, went to Papua New Guinea to starve.
Japanese troops fighting in the North China Theater (Shanxi).
Therefore, after 1942, there were not too many elite Japanese troops in Kannai.
In this, Yutian-kun divides it into 4 gears.
In the first gear, the 3rd, 13th, 47th, and 116th divisions are the mainstay.
These four divisions have been the number one main force of the Chinese dispatch army after the beginning of World War II, not to mention the first two, which have been fighting in Guannai since the beginning of the Battle of Songhu. Hattori Takushiro commented on them in "The History of the Great East Asian War".
"The 3rd and 13th Divisions are the core forces of the 11th Army, a unit with combat experience since the Shanghai Incident (Battle of Songhu) in Showa 12 (1937), and are considered the most elite troops in the war against China."
Its 3rd Division was known as the captain of the Japanese army's firefighting team in Guannai, and he fought wherever he was needed, and almost all the elites of the national army fought again. The 47th and 116th Divisions were formed later, and although the former was numbered backward, it was well equipped and had strong firepower, and its equipment level was even higher than that of the 3rd Division. The final battle of the Guannai operation, the Battle of Xuefeng Mountain, was dominated by these two divisions, and although they were deeply surrounded by the national army, they were still allowed to slip away.
The Third Division has been fighting all over the battlefield in China
The second level is due to the formation of previously ad hoc divisions or temporarily formed garrison divisions.
Typical divisions include the 27th, 34th, 40th, and 110th divisions, all of which have artillery wings or artillery brigades (before Japan's surrender), which are often used as a supplement to the first-class divisions in operations, such as the 40th Division, which has long been in the 11th Army, responsible for sweeping before the campaign. The 34th Division has been fighting against the Nationalist Army in the Hunan and Jiangxi regions since 1939.
The third level is the formation of divisions such as public security after 1942.
These troops lack heavy weapons, and they only serve as a prestige in the occupied areas on weekdays, such as the 62nd Division, which is used to being at ease and happy in North China on weekdays, while the 68th Division is relatively unlucky, and suffered heavy losses in the battle of Changheng to attack Hengyang, so the combat effectiveness of these troops is not necessarily stronger than that of the elite of the national army.
Japanese security forces
The fourth gear, the temporarily formed division.
In 1945, in order to fight a decisive battle, the Japanese army transferred local second-class soldiers to form the 100-generation (non-adhoc) division and regiment one by one, and its combat effectiveness was also the level of the ordinary national army, and its ranks were filled with a large number of children and old people, as well as some unqualified soldiers who had been brushed down by vicious diseases, and their training and soldier quality were weaker than those of the young soldiers of the national army after 1944.
Later in the war, the junior soldiers who were replenished to the front
Therefore, before the end of the Anti-Japanese War, don't look at the fact that the Japanese army still has 1 million troops in the pass, but basically the elite divisions have been evacuated, and the rest are more Class C and D divisions, lacking heavy artillery equipment, and the combat effectiveness of a division is about the same level as an elite division of the National Army......