Before reading this article, I sincerely invite you to click the "Follow" button, so that you can continue to push such articles in the future, and it is also convenient for you to discuss and share, your support is the driving force for us to insist on creating~
Text: Ye Weihua
Edit|t
introduction
With the invention of airplanes in the early twentieth century and the first use of airplanes in warfare in 1911, the struggle for air supremacy has since become the key to determining the outcome of wars. And a new class of troops, the Airborne Forces, was born.
As Japan's big brother in World War II, Germany's paratrooper units were ceiling-level. On the battlefield, it was even more invincible, like a god soldier descending from heaven, and Japan even invited German instructors to help train the paratroopers, but why was the Japanese paratroop unit called the worst paratrooper unit at that time by the German instructors?
What exactly did the Japanese paratroopers do? It can be so "honored".
(Japan Air Surrender)
1. German instructor: You are the worst class I have ever led!
In fact, long before Germany sent instructors to Japan, the Japanese army had already formed its own airborne forces. As soon as the Japanese Airborne Forces were established, they immediately attracted the attention of the top level of the government, but since the units were established, training became a major problem.
At that time, Japan did not know anything about the training methods of the airborne troops, let alone the training equipment, so a stunned scene appeared......
I saw the Japanese airborne troops, one by one jumping down from the high platform and entertainment facilities, they wanted to simulate the environment of parachuting, and Japan wanted to simulate the airborne troops of the Nazi big brother by closing the door.
(German paratroopers)
Do you know where the Japanese top brass came up with such a training method? You can't even think of it if you want to break your head, this turned out to be the Japanese army, which I saw in American and Soviet newspapers!
But what they didn't know was that this was actually a photo used by the United States and the Soviet Union to propagate the spirit of their own soldiers, and it was not a serious airborne training method at all.
The Japanese high-level officials were indignant when they learned the reason, so they sent a large number of cadres to Germany to study, and at the same time begged Germany to send instructors to help them train the airborne troops, and after repeated hard work by Japan, Germany finally decided to send a large number of instructors to Japan in January 1941 to support the construction of their airborne troops.
When the German instructors came to Japan, they learned that these paratroopers were not only afraid of heights, but also airsick! The reason is that the paratroopers who participated in the training went to see Amaterasu.
(Japan Air Surrender)
During the training, in the face of the orders of the German instructors, no one dared to jump down, and in desperation, the German instructors could only give them psychological counseling first. But even so, they still can't overcome their inner fear and are unwilling to jump down.
This made the German instructors disappointed with them, and in the end, even the Japanese officers on the plane could not stand it, so they could only kick them down one by one, and some of the soldiers forgot to open their parachutes due to excessive nervousness in the process of landing, and fell directly to the ground into a puddle of mud.
("Meatloaf")
Some of them were strangled in the air by parachute ropes because of operational errors, and in the face of such "elite" Japanese paratroopers, they jumped without squeaking, and the German instructors were desperate. The only way to change the strategy was to ask the Japanese officers to replace the paratroopers who did not dare to jump, and then to select the appropriate airborne troops through the project assessment.
Second, Japan is not big, creating myths
After a period of teaching, the Japanese soldiers were finally able to conduct actual combat exercises. However, in the course of the actual combat exercises, they created a "miracle" in the history of the world's airborne.
During a night parachute jump, two transport planes loaded with paratroopers collided in the sky shortly after takeoff, and the stragglers, who had not yet had time to board the paratroopers, finally fulfilled their wish to swear allegiance to the emperor.
(Japanese transport aircraft)
The other time was in the airborne training, because the pilot plane route was wrong, the paratroopers flew to the sea, these Hanhan did not see the situation below, so they parachuted directly, and all of them fell into the sea.
What made people laugh and cry even more was that the airborne troops of the plane behind them saw them jumping down, and they stupidly followed them. The most ridiculous thing is that there are also some airborne troops who forgot to open their parachutes because of the tense transition, and fell directly from a high altitude into the sea and drowned.
(Japan Air Surrender)
It was such a simple daily parachute training that eventually led to the death of many Japanese airborne troops in the sea, and these are just the epitome of the actual combat training of the Japanese airborne troops.
In February 1941, the Japanese Airborne Forces decided to launch an airborne attack on the island of Timor, which was defended by thousands of Dutch-Australian troops.
This time, the Japanese army changed the previous way of fighting, the airborne landing site was set in the center of the battlefield, and the weapons and equipment were also carried by the soldiers.
(World War II Pacific Theater)
Without carefully scouting enemy airfields, they rushed in. As soon as the Japanese airborne troops entered, they fell into the trap of the allied forces of the United States and Australia, and the Japanese troops suffered heavy casualties.
Later, in 1942, the Japanese army received news that there were two oil refineries on Sumatra Island, and the United States had cut off Japan's oil supply at that time, so in order to seize the island's resources, the Japanese army divided the paratrooper brigade into two teams, one team to capture the airport and the other team to capture two oil refineries.
(Airport)
Surprisingly, however, the defenders on the island were unusually experienced in combat, and they spared the escort fighters and instead aimed all their fire at the Japanese transport planes that followed.
In the face of the strong firepower of the defenders on the island, the Japanese had to parachute in the swamp 3 kilometers away from the airport, and after tossing and turning for several hours, the Japanese army gathered more than 100 people to prepare to launch a rush attack on the airport.
The rest of the Japanese troops who heard the gunfire hurriedly advanced to the airfield, and the funny thing was that the Japanese troops who were just about to attack regarded them as the support team of the defenders.
By the time they found out that it was their own men, it was already too late, and it was not until the next day that the defenders retreated, and the Japanese airborne troops barely captured the target.
3. Where you fall, you "lie down"
After experiencing this earth-shattering battle, the Japanese military top brass finally realized that all the paratroopers were sleeping dragons and phoenixes, and they had already come up with the idea of disbanding this unit.
After thinking about it, the Japanese paratroopers who suffered a big loss this time decided to be ashamed and brave, and to do a great job next time. And they did it, and this "big job" is enough to be included in military textbooks, but it is nothing more than a negative textbook.
(Japan Air Surrender)
In March 1942, the Continental Expeditionary Force entered Burma to fight, and on April 28 the Japanese made a very bold plan, they were ready to drop elite troops in the Lashio area and quickly occupy the airfield here.
When the transport plane arrived in the Lashio area to prepare for the airborne, the pilot was dumbfounded, and the Lashio area was full of fog that day, and there was no way to find the airborne landing site, so the transport plane had no choice but to return home.
But what is ironic is that on the way back, the two transport planes collided in the air, and the soldiers in the cabin had no choice but to jump out of the plane to escape, but they jumped to the famous Savage Mountain in Myanmar, and no paratrooper could get out of this primeval forest full of poisonous insects.
(Mt. Wildman)
The successive accidents discredited the Japanese Airborne Forces, and the Japanese regarded the Airborne Forces as a disgrace to the army. In the end, this airborne unit was converted into an infantry unit and went to Saipan to fight, and the outcome can be imagined, naturally all the "jade shatters" fulfilled their ideal of repaying the emperor.
Resources:
[1] Wang Zuohua, Lin Sheng. The shortest-lived Japanese Airborne Forces in World War II[J].Global Military,2005,(19):26-28.)
[2] How bad were the Japanese Airborne Forces in World War II? Paratroopers are afraid of heights and fight with friendly forces. Reference News Network, 2017-02-09
[3] Lin Ziyang. The Madness of Asia--Japanese Airborne Forces[N].Le Monde,2006-05-03(014).