Imperial Japanese Army - Request

[Minotauros]

Dear Friends!

It seems that the organisation of the Imperial Japanese Army was quite different from the "classic" western armies.

I have a couple of questions about it:

Was there Army Corps in the Japanese Army?
To what the term "Army Area" refers to?
Was there a rank of Colonel General (Generaloberst) in the Japanese Army? I heard once that the rank of Field Marshal (Gensui) was just honorific.
What about the table of organization and equipment of an infantry division AD 1942, 1943, 1944 and 1945?

I'll be very grateful to anyone who can answer those few questions!

[Musashi]

Hallo!
I have many Japanese TO&Es in an instruction from Steel Panthers, but its in .pdf and its hard to copy the text from there.
Regards,
Chris

[hisashi]

>Was there Army Corps in the Japanese Army?
No. Army was responsible both for supply and operation throughout the history of IJA.
>To what the term "Army Area" refers to?
As peacetime organizations, in Korea and Taiwan IJA had a HQ, such as Taiwan-Gun (Taiwan army). After 1941, IJA placed similar 'army' HQs for each parts of Japan for local defense. In 1945 IJA 'reformed' each HQs to 'army area (gunkanku)' HQs, and created theater army (homengun)　HQs corresponding to each army area. In fact it seems that the commander of the two redundant HQs was the same. Perhaps it is an organization in paper, so that both chief-in-staff of GHQ and minister of the army could order the same commander on their business.
>Was there a rank of Colonel General (Generaloberst) in the Japanese >Army? I heard once that the rank of Field Marshal (Gensui) was just >honorific.
Japanese army and navy did not have the entitlement of Colonel General.
For example, formally Admiral Togo was called as 'Gensui Kaigun Taisho'. IJN and IJA had a virtual (never summoned) 'marshall board (gensuifu)' and assigned some full generals/admirals to the board. So in Japan, 'marshall' is not a class, but a life-time appointment.
>What about the table of organization and equipment of an infantry >division AD 1942, 1943, 1944 and 1945?
I don't know. Japanese mobilization resembles that of German 'Welle' system. We can group several divisions into a category, but authorized strength have been seldom published even in Japanese.

[daveh]

try:

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/Japan/I ... B-3-1.html

this is based on US intelligence sources and the whole book has been published as

Handbook of Japanese Military Forces
Louisiana State University 1991

This Handbook is also the basis for much of what has been published more recently in english eg The Japanese Army Handbook by G Forty.

John Underwood has written 3 volumes on the Japanese Order of Battle in WW2 which does include a brief discussion of infantry division organisation. Published by The Nafziger Collection.

R Tarnstron in his 50 centuries of warfare; the Wars of Japan includes useful OOB for various campaigns and outline TOEs.

http://www.bayonetstrength.150m.com is the new address for Battalion Organisation during the Second World War which includes a discussion on the IJA.

rank structure

http://patriot.net/~jstevens/Isiu-Island/ranks.html

hope this helps

[hisashi]

>Handbook of Japanese Military Forces
>Louisiana State University 1991

Because TO&E data is so scarce, we sometimes consult to Japanese translation of this book. Tranlators found some misidentifications of vehicle pictures on it, but they noted no error in organizational topics.

[Lawrence]

As has been mentioned before, there was never a rank of colonel-general in the Japanese Army. Interestingly enough, there were only three general ranks in the Imperial Army; major-general (gold bar with one star), lieutenant-general (gold bar with two stars) and general (gold bar with three stars). The only field marshals I know of were Teruchi and Sugiyama, both of whom had enormous commands in China.

[hisashi]

As has been mentioned before, there was never a rank of colonel-general in the Japanese Army. Interestingly enough, there were only three general ranks in the Imperial Army; major-general (gold bar with one star), lieutenant-general (gold bar with two stars) and general (gold bar with three stars). The only field marshals I know of were Teruchi and Sugiyama, both of whom had enormous commands in China.

According to a Japanese website, in total 18 generals were listed in Gensui-Fu. Most of them were entitled after they in fact retired.
Sometimes even theater army (homen-gun) commander was a lieutenant general, and three commanders in the hierarchy (theater army, army and division) was in the same class. IJA felt it was very problematic, but eventually they did not change the general class system.

[VJK]

Hi!

A visit to this link will give a full list of Field Marshals.

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... d+marshals

Regards,

VJK