World war 2 tank battles manuals#

The regiment had 64 tanks (25 light Type 95 'Ha-go', 19 medium Type 97 'Chi-ha' and 20 medium Type 97 'Shinhoto Chi-ha') in the august 1945. A character 士 (Samurai) on the turret is a symbol of the regiment. Medium tanks Type 97 ' Shinhoto Chi ha' from the 11th Tank Regiment, Shumshu, 1944. Base of 11th Tank Regiment was placed to the south of the Kataoka.

World war 2 tank battles manuals#

The colonel had a lot of experience from fighting in China and he was a prominent theorist who written number of manuals for Japanese soldiers. I must say that Ikeda Sueo was a prominent person in japanese tank forces. Colonel Ikeda Sueo was appointed as the commander of the regiment. It was formed in Manchuria in 1942 and was part of the 2nd Tank Division. Two artillery batteries on the northwestern tip of the island, an battery near the height 171 and planes based on two airfields were sole forces which could oppose the landing in the north part of the island.ġ1th tank regiment, which played a key role in the battle for Shumshu was transferred to the Kuril Islands in 1944. Non-agression pact was concluded with the USSR in 1941, so the defense of the north was much weaker. It is worth noting that such deployment of fortifications was well founded, as it was designed to protect against American fleet which most likely will come from the southeast. The remaining areas were covered only partially. Another line of defense was created in the northwest. Shumshu had really powerful defensive lines on the southeast end of the island. After a year the three islands (Shumshu, Paramushiro and Matua) were covered with a network of fortifications, underground warehouses, hospitals and a number of other sites. In fact, the main work on the construction of fortifications was done by Japanese military engineers, in whose ranks were many Koreans. You can hear often that chinese PoWs labor was allegedly used. became staple of the forces defending Shumshu island.įortifications construction began in 1943. 91st Infantry division under the command of Lieutenant-General Fusano Tsutsumi (in Soviet documents called Tsutsumi Fusako). Full-scale military construction began much later - in the spring of 1943, when Japanese troops were evacuated from the Aleutian Islands. Shumshu island is separated by the strait from Paramushiro and construction of similar was began here in the territory of the fishing village Kataoka (there was a Ainu settlement Mayruppo and a center of trade of indigenous population with Russians until 1875). North Army was formed only in the autumn of 1940 with its headquarters in Sapporo (Hokkaido) and construction of a naval base began on the territory of the fishing village Kasivabara (now the city of Severo-Kurilsk on island Paramushiro).

The Kuril Islands (the Japanese call them Chisima) saw little military activity until 1940. Given the fact that the troops which participated in the landing were later spread out over the islands and have become the main occupation force you can only begin to think about the living dead. There is also great discrepancies in the assessment of human losses, some russian 'historians' speak about loss of 48% of the landing force - no less than four thousand people. And Japanese sources indicate surprisingly a greater number of lost tanks than soviets sources. Even the number of Japanese tanks that were lost during the Battle of Shumshu do not match. Commonly known sources both from Soviet and the Japanese sides are hotbeds of inaccuracies. Battle for Shumshu island.īefore proceeding directly to the battle, we must talk about the forces which met each other on the northernmost island of the Kuril chain. (I apologize in advance for any errors in the transliteration of Japanese names and terms//CD.)