history 2

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THE HISTORY OF BATTLES OF IMPERIAL JAPANESE TANKS

PART II

Operation Ichi-Go

Date : April to Dec., 1944

Place : Henan - Hunan - Guangxi, China

Opponent : Chinese Army

Tank Unit Commander Tanks

3rd Tank Division Lieut. General Yamaji 255 Tanks (Type 97 Medium Tanks, Type

97-Improved Medium Tanks, Type 95 Light

Tanks)

The OOB of 3rd Tank Division in Operation Ichi-Go

3rd Tank Divison

6th Tank Brigade

13th Tank Regiment

1 Light Tank Company, 3 Medium Tank Companies, 1 Gun Tank Company

17th Tank Regiment


Recon Unit

2 Light Tank Companies, 1 Gun Tank Company, 1 Motorized Infantry Company

Notes:

i. Only tank units are stated. Other units are omitted.

ii. Each Tank Company had 12 tanks + 2 tanks in HQ.

iii. One Tank Regiment had 73 tanks.

iv. Gun Tank Company was equipped with Type 97 Medium Tanks. Real Gun Tank was not deployed.

In the spring of 1944, Japan took the greatest offensive in China during the Japanese-Chinese War. This

offensive was called as the Operation "Ichi-Go" or "Tairiku Dastu Sakusen"(Operaton to break through the

Continent), which means that this operation aimed to secure the route across the China continent and connect

Manchuria to East-South Asia by railway.

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This operation was consisted of two phases; The first phase to secure the railway between Peking and Wuhan

and the second phase to exterminate US air forces stationed in Hunan and to reach at Liuzhou. 17 divisons, ie.

400,000 men, 12,000 cars and 70,000 horses paticipated in this operation.

In Henan, 390,000 Chinese troops led by General Tang Enbo were deployed and its strategic position was

Luoyang. The 3rd Tank Division crossed Huang River around Zhengzhou in the late of April and defeated

Chinese forces near Xuchang. Then the 3rd Tank Division swang around clockwise and dashed to Luoyang.

Luoyang was defensed by three Chinese divisions. The 3rd Tank Division began to attack Luoyang on May 13and took it on May 25.

In the sequence of these fights, the 3rd Tank Division had shown its full mobility and won a quick victory.Chinese forces withdrew and Henan was secured by Japanese.

The second phase of Ichi-Go began in May, following the success of the first phase. Japanese forces went

down south and occupied Changsha, Hengyang, Guilin and Liuzhou. In Dec. 1944, Japanese forces reached at

French Indochina and achieved the purpose of the operation.

Though the purpose was achieved, Japan could not profit from this success. US air forces moved to the inland

of the China Continent and often interrupted the railway between Peking and Liuzhou by air raid. Japan

continued the attack to the airfields where US air forces stationed up to the spring of 1945.

Map of Ichi-Go

3rd Tank Division advancing to Luoyang

Operation Imphal

Date : March to July, 1944

Place : Imphal, BurmaOpponent : British Army

http://www.geocities.co.jp/MotorCity-Rally/7109/ichi-go.gif

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14th Tank Regiment Lieut. Colonel Ueda 66 Tanks (Type 95 Light Tanks, Type 97-

Improved Medium Tanks, M3 Light Tanks, Type97 Tankettes, Type 1 75mm SPH)

In March, 1944, the Japanese took the offensive in the Burma theater. The purpose of this offensive was tooccupy Imphal where the British dump existed and to prevent the expected Britsh offensive to Burma.

However, this Japanese offensive was quite reckless because they lacked the supply. At the beginning, Japaneseforces advanced quickly and besieged Imphal. But soon this operation became the awful disaster for Japanese.

British forces in Imphal were supplied by air transport and kept the Imphal steadily. By the other hand, Japaneseforces had no supply and suffered from starvation.

On June 22, the siege of Imphal was raised and the Japanese forces were routed. During the retreat from

Imphal, thousands of Japanese soldiers died of a hunger and of an illness. It was the awful tragedy for JapaneseArmy.

The 14th Tank Regiment fought with the Biritsh in the south of Imphal. In this battle, Japanese tanks first

encountered M3 Medium Tanks. In the early fight, a Japanese captured M3 Light Tank destroyed one M3Medium Tank. That tank shot at the rear of M3 Medium Tank at close range.

The regiment lost almost all tanks during the fights and the retreat. After the battle of Imphal, the regiment was

rebuilt near Mandalay and its strenght was about one third of the previous strenght. The regiment fought with theBritish around Meiktila and was annihirated in April, 1945.

The 14th Tank Regiment's Shinhoto Chi-Ha captured near Imphal

Leyte

Date : Oct. to Dec., 1944

Place : Leyte, The Philippines

Opponent : US Army


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7th Independent Tank Company Captain Kawano 11 Type 89 Medium Tanks

1st Independent Tank Company Captain Uchida 10 Type 95 Light Tanks

2nd Independent Tank Company Captain Kurobe 10 Type 95 Light Tanks

Itoh SNLF Lt. Commander Itoh 10 Type 2 Amphibious Tanks

Notes : The 1st Independent Tank Company was converted from the 1st Company/10th Tank Regiment and the 2nd Independent TankCompany was converted from the 1st Company/6th Tank Regiment.

When the American forces landed on Leyte, the 7th Independent Tank Company was only one tank unit on

Leyte. This Tank Company was deployed near the Burauen airfield. On D-Day, the tanks of the companyadvanced towards the beach and fought with the Americans around Dulag. Six tanks were destroyed and the

remains withdrew. It is unknown how did the remaining tanks do after that.

Japan sent the large reinforcements to Leyte in order to fight a decisive battle. The 1st & 2nd Independent TankCompany extracted from 2nd Tank Division were attached to the 1st Division, which was the main force of

reinforcements to Leyte. The tanks of both companies were used as the tractor to carry 1st Division's artillery

from Ormoc to the Limon Pass. Then, the tanks carried the ammunitions and fought to support infantry who

defended the Limon Pass. The tanks were lost gradually with fights or accidents and the last three tanks weredestroyed by the Japanese when they retreated from Liomon Pass at the end of Dec.

The Itoh SNLF unit equipped with 10 Type 2 Amphibious Tanks was send to Leyte in order to make acounterattack against the Americans who had landed near Ormoc. However, when they left transport ships and

were going to the Ormoc breach, Ormoc had been already occupied by the Americans. The transport ships

were shot from the Americans in Ormoc. 10 Type 2 Amphibious Tanks were launched from ships and eight

reached the beach. However, they were destroyed or captured by the Americans on the beach.

Luzon

Date : Jan. to April, 1945

Place : Luzon, The Philippines

Opponent : US Army


2nd Tank

Division

Lieut. General Iwanaka Approx. 200 Tanks (Type 97 Medium Tanks, Type 97-

Improved Medium Tanks, Type 89 Medium Tanks, Type

95 Light Tanks, 4 Type 1 75mm SPHs, 20 ArmoredEngineer Vehicles)

8th

IndependentTank

1st Lt. Matsumoto 11 Type 89 Medium Tanks

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Company

9thIndependent

Tank

Company

1st Lt. Nakajima 11 Type 89 Medium Tanks

Iwashita

Tank

Company

Captain Iwashita 8 Type 97-Improved Medium Tanks

Sumi

Independent

SP GunCompany

Captain Sumi 2 Type 4 150mm SPHs

The OOB of 2nd Tank Division in the Philippines

2nd Tank Divison

3rd Tank Brigade (Major General Shigemi)

6th Tank Regiment (Colonel Ida)


7th Tank Regiment (Lt. Colonel Maeda)


10th Tank Regiment (Lt. Colonel Harada)


Notes:

i. The 1st Company/10th Tank Regiment and the 1st Company/6th Tank Regiment were sent to Leyte.

ii. Only tank units are stated. Other units are omitted.

iii. Gun Tank Company was equipped with Type 97 Medium Tanks. Real Gun Tank was not deployed.

As the lots of units had been sent to Leyte, the 14th Army in Luzon became weak. When confronted with the

American invasion to Luzon, General Yamashita, the 14th Army commander, gave up a decisive battle and

decided a protracted struggle. Three years ago, he had attacked the British in Malaya and became a gloriousvictor. Now, he was a defender of Luzon and had to fight a hopeless battle against the gigantic forces of USA.

General Yamashita intended to withdraw his forces into the mountain strongholds. He planned to use the 1st

Tank Division to delay the Americans so that other forces could withdraw. He himself moved his HQ to Baguio.

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The 2nd tank division under the 14th Army also became weak by that time. From the beginning, it lacked one

regiment and lost many tanks by submarine attack during transport. For the battle of Leyte, two companies

were extracted from the division to send to Leyte as the reinforcements. Therefore, they had to use even oldType 89 Medium Tanks which had been retained on Luzon after the battle of the Philippines in 1942.

The American forces landed along the Gulf of

Lingayen on Jan. 9th. They overwhelmed theJapanese defenders and were breaking through the

Japanese line. General Yamashita decided a

counter-attack and ordered the 7th Tank Regimentto attack the American beachhead in Lingayen. The

regiment dispatched a vanguard consisted of one

tank company and one motorized infantry battalion.

In the night of 16th, the vanguard advanced towardsthe beachhead, but they were ambushed by AT

guns and suffered heavy losses.

The next morning, American M4 Sherman tanksadvanced and engaged with the tanks of the 7th

Tank Regiment stationed in Urdaneta. The 47mm

gun of Japanese medium tank was able to destroySherman only when shooting the side or rear of

Sherman at close range. One platoon of 3rd

Company ambushed Sherman tanks on the road to

Urdaneta and destroyed two Shermans by flank fires. But, the platoon was destroyed by the attack of enemytanks. Other tanks of 3rd Company swung around towards the flank of the troop of Sherman tanks and

attacked them. However, a company commander tank was destroyed by the fire of Sherman tanks and they

retreated.

When the 7th Tank Regiment withdrew to San Manuel, 34 tanks remained and they dug in along the fan-shaped

line. The Americans bombarded them in 5 days. In the morning of Jan. 26th, 15 to 16 Sherman tanksapproached the Japanese defensive line. They came carefully not to show the side for the enemy and fired

Japanese tanks from a safe distance. Japanese tanks were destroyed one by one. In the night of 27th, there

remained only 7 tanks in the regiment. The regiment carried out a Banzai attack and brigade commander

Shigemi and regimental commander Maeda were killed in action.

The 10th Tank Regiment had sent the 5th Company to Baguio and the 1st Company to Leyte. The 3th

Company deployed in Lupao and the remaining regiment deployed in San Ishidro. On Jan. 31st, the regimentwas attacked by shipplanes and suffered a heavy loss. The regiment received an order of withdrawal from the

division. They advanced forwards San Jose, but they were checked by the American forces. The regimental

commander decided to abandon the tanks and the crews withdrew on foot.

The 3th Company in Lupao was surrounded by the Americans and had been attacked by Sharman tanks in

several times. On Feb. 7th, the company escaped the siege and withdrew into the eastern moutains of Lupao.

During the retreat, they lost all their tanks.

On D-Day, the 6th Tank Regiment was stationed in the southern part of Luzon. They moved north and reached

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at Gonzalez on Jan. 18th. There, they were order to deploy in Munoz in order to check the emeny forces. Theregiment moved to Munoz and built a defensive position.

The bombardment into Munoz began on Jan. 26th. On Jan. 27th, GI's attacked Munoz, but the regiment's tanks

repulsed them. The Americans stopped attacking and had been bombarding heavily in some days. The

regiment's tanks were destroyed one by one with bombardments. From Jan. 30th, GI's and Sherman tanks

restarted the attack to Munoz. The regiment was surrounded by the American forces and its tanks decreased to

approximate twenty.

On Feb. 6th, the regiment was ordered to withdraw. In this night, the regiment intended to break through the

siege, but the Americans found out the cars and tanks escaping from the seige and fired them furiousely. When

the regiment reached at the mountain near San Jose, the regiment's strenghts decreased to one fifth.

The Iwashita Independent Tank Company and Sumi Independent SP Gun Company fought at Clark Field

togather with the main body of the 2nd Mobile Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Tank Division. After the fierce

battle at the airfield, they lost their all tanks and retreated to the west mountains.

In April, 1945, the American forces had been approaching to the 14th Army HQ in Baguio. The only tank force

that General Yamashita had was the 5th Company of 10th Tank Regiment. The company had 3 Medium tanks

and 2 Light Tanks. As the Japanese tank could not cope with the American tank, General Yamashita ordered

the company to carry out a suicide-attack by tanks.

One Type 97 Medium Tank and one Type 95 Light tank were attached with two explosives in front of the hull.

They hid into a bamboo bush near the road between Baguio and Sablan on which the Amercian tanks wouldadvance. When a column of Sherman tanks turned the corner about 100m far from them, they dashed forwards

the column. The leading tank of the column was surprised at them and tried to go back, but it failed to turn and

fell into a valley along the road.

Japanese tanks clashed with enemy tanks and four tanks(two Shermans and two Japanese tanks) burned up.

The Japanese crews who survived jumped off a tank and run into the enemy position, brandishing a Japanese

sword. After this incident, the Americans would not advance for a week.

Iwo Jima

Date : Feb. to March, 1945Place : Iwo Jima, Bonin Islands

Opponent : US Marine


26th Tank Regiment Lieut. Colonel Nishi 11 Type 97 Medium Tanks*

12 Type 95 Light Tanks

*Some were Type 97-Improved Medium Tanks

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The 26th Tank Regiment was converted from the recon regiment of the 1st Tank Division. The regimental

commander Nishi came from the cavalry. He was a famous horseman and was the champion of the equestrian

event of the Los Angels Olympic in 1932. He inspected Iwo Jima and understood there was no room for the

movement of the tank in this small rocky island. He ordered to dig in the tanks and intended to use them as

pillbox.

At first, the units of the regiment were deployed at three positions. The 2nd company with one artillery platoonwas deployed in the western district and the 1st company with one artillery platoon was deployed in the

southern district. The 3rd Company and HQ were deployed in the eastern district in the rear of the front line.

On Feb. 20th, the next D-Day, the 1st Company was engaged with a Marine regiment supported by a tank

company. They continued to fight until March 1st, and was annihilated on the Hill 382. On Feb. 25th, the 3rd

Company was sent to the Second Airfield in order to defense the airfield from the Marines. The fights around

the Second Airfield was a fierce battle. They fought desperately, but the airfield was occupied by the Marines

on Feb. 27th.

In the morning of 28th, the tanks of the 2nd Company which had been hidden in the caves suddenly appeared

and attacked the 21st Marine Regiment. The Marines were surprised at the Japanese tanks, but destroyed them

by the bazookas.

The survivors of the regiment gathered in Maruman village in the eastern district. They lost almost all the tanks

and fought as infantry until about March 20th. The last time of Lieut. Colonel Nishi is not known.

Okinawa

Date : May, 1945Place : Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands

Opponent : US Army/Marine


27th Tank Regiment Lieut. Colonel Murakami 14 Type 97 Medium Tanks


From the American forces landed on Okinawa, General Ushijima, the general commander of Okinawa defense

forces was doing only a defense and refusing the repeated requests for offensive. However, in the end of April,he agreed with the plan of offensive, pursuaded from his staff. Though he knew that the offensive was useless, he

could not lose the battle without taking the offensive.

The 27th Tank Regiment paticipated in the offensive of May 4th. They attacked the Hill 120 and Kochi, but

they were repulsed by the enemy fires and suffered a heavy loss. They stopped attacking and withdrew to Shuri.

On May 5th, they attacked towards Maeda, but this attack also did not succeed. In this night, the offensive was

cancelled due to the heavy loss.

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The regiment was deployed in Shuri and they digged in the tanks and deployed Type 90 75mm Field guns in the

defensive position. The Type 90 Field gun was effective against the enemy tanks and the regiment maintained the

defensive position until Shuri was abandonned in the end of May. The regiment withdrew into the south end of

Okinawa and its regulated activity was ended.

Shimushu

Date : Aug, 1945

Place : Shimushu, Kuril Islands

Opponent : Soviet Army/Marine


11th Tank Regiment Colonel Ikeda 19 Type 97-Improved Medium Tanks

20 Type 97 Medium Tanks


Shimushu Island is the most north island of the Kuril and the border line of Japan and the Soviet Union was

drawn between Shimushu Island and Kamchatska Penninsula. About 8,000 Japanese soldiers and one tank

regiment were deployed on Shimushu to defend a Japanese territory against the Soviet.

When Japan surrendered on Aug. 15th, Japanese forces were ordered to stop the attack against the Allied.However, the Japanese government still reserved the right of self-protection. On Aug. 18th, the Soviet forces

suddently invaded Shimushu Island without notice. The strenghts of the Soviet forces were 8,360 soldiers and

the Soviet Navy and Soviet Air Forces supported the attack. This Soviet invasion was caused by the territorial

ambitions of Stalin. He desired to occupy the Kuril Islands before the American forces would been stationed

there.

When the Soviet attacked Shimushu, Japanese forces on the island were prepared for disarmament. They wereambarrassed with the Soviet invasion, but dicided to fight with the Soviet for self-protection. They fought

strongly with the Soviet soldiers landed on the beach of Shimushu and did much damage to the Soviet, who had

not expected the strong resistance of the Japanese defenders.

The 11th Tank Regiment also attacked the Soviet forces. About 40 Japanese tanks run over the Soviet soldiers

and rushed into the beach. The Soviet soldiers fired to the tanks with AT guns, which were unloaded on the

beach in a hurry. As a fog gathered over the beach, it was difficult for the tanks to find out AT guns. A close

combat had been fought for over two hours and both sides suffered a heavy loss. When the combat ended,there were twenty one destroyed tanks and over one hundred dead Soviet soldiers on the beach.

On Aug. 20th, Japan and the Soviet concluded a cease-fire agreement. The battle on Shimushu Island was the

last battle for Imperial Japanese tanks.

- The End -

history 2

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