Kwangtung Army

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Tanaka
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Kwangtung Army

Post by Tanaka »

A large number of new recruits sent to China in the final years of the war recieved little in the way of military uniform. Any uniform that was available was worn, in combination with civilian clothing; items like boots were very scarce, so most recruits had to supply there own footwear, or make do with the straw sandles provided to them.
If available field caps were worn, but steel helmets were severely rationed and were often only worn by officers.
The Kwangtung army had a real problem with supplying there new recruits with weapons. Even rifles were in very short supply, and any source of firearms they could find were utilised. Many sidearms and machineguns came from the limited number still held by training schools. Many men were armed only with home made swords and knives, even sharpened bamboo spears were in short supply by the end of the war. Nevertheless much faith was put in this simple weapon, Gen.Araki boasted that the Japanese could defeat the Soviets if only they could be issued with 3 million bamboo spears!
As on the other fronts the Japanese were defending, troops were issued with home made Molotov cocktails, lunge mines and other suicidal last ditch weaponary. Heavy equipment was almsot non existent, with most artillery units being armed with locally produced mortars, others were equiped with elderly artillery pieces, sometimes taken from museums and were often more dangerous to the crews that the enemy.

1943

8 March The Japanese start there offensive over the Yangtze River towards Hupeh, Hunan rice growing regions. The Chinese nationalist army divert troops intended for Burma to face the Japanese.

1944

April-September The Ichi-Go Offensive starts across the Yello River by 250 000 Japanese troops moved from the north and 50 000 transferred west from Canton. The fighting will eventually involve about a million Chinese and Japanese troops.
One of the Japanese objectives is to destroy the US B-29 bases in the Kwangsi province.
However the B-29 bases are soon transferred to the Marianas, the first raids on Japan being launched in October from Tinian.

1945

5 April The USSR gives Japan a years notice of there renunciation of the non aggression pact.
6 August US bomb Hiroshima with an atomic bomb
8 August The USSR declare war on Japan
9 August 76 Russian divisions with 4500 tanks invade Manchukuo in a three prong offensive from the east, north-west and west. The red army makes rapid progress against the Kwangtung army despite some pockets of determined resistence.
21 August The Japanese Kwangtung army finally surrenders in Manchuria.

The cost of the campaign in China in Japanese lives by mid 1945 would be

1,140,000 Dead
240,000 missing
295,000 wounded
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Franz repper
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Re: Kwangtung Army

Post by Franz repper »

Why good sir each time I pop in your section I am always enlightend thank you .The Kwangtung Army reminds me of the Finnish army in the winter war
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