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56th Division
56th Division
Active	1940–1945
Country	Empire of Japan
Branch	Imperial Japanese Army
Type	Infantry
Garrison/HQ	Kurume
Nickname(s)	Dragon Division
Engagements	Battle of Toungoo; Siege of Myitkyina; Battle of Mount Song
Commanders
Notable; commanders	Masao Watanabe; Yuzo Matsuyama

The 56th Division (第56師団, Dai-gojūroku Shidan) was an infantry division of the Imperial Japanese Army. Its call sign was the Dragon Division (龍兵団, Tatsu Heidan). It was formed on 10 July 1940 in Kurume, simultaneously with the 51st, 52nd, 54th, 55th, and 57th Divisions. The formation nucleus was the headquarters of the 12th Division. Its manpower came primarily from Fukuoka, Saga and Nagasaki prefectures. The 56th Division was initially assigned to the Kurume Mobilization District, under the command of the Western District Army.

History

A 56th division officer carries a regimental flag, Burma 1944

In October 1941, the 146th Infantry Regiment and 2nd Battalion of the 56th Field Artillery Regiment were re-organized as the "56th Independent Mixed Regiment" (subordinated to Sakaguchi detachment). It departed from Palau on 16 December 1941^[1] and landed in Davao City on 17 December 1941^[2] and sailed again on 7 January 1942 to Tarakan.^[3] Afterwards, it was slated for the Borneo invasion. On 21 January 1942 it sailed from Tarakan to Balikpapan^[4] and on 19 February 1942, the Sakaguchi detachment was sent to eastern Java,^[5] arriving on 1 March 1942, to cooperate with the 48th Division. The Sakaguchi detachment is credited with the capture of Cilacap Regency port after a 400 km long march. The detachment was merged back into the 56th Division in April 1942.

With the Pacific War becoming imminent, the 56th Division was fully mobilized in November 1941. Although initially the 56th division was slated as reinforcements for the Japanese invasion of Malaya, the rapid cessation of British resistance have resulted in division been attached to 25th Army and sent to Burma in March 1942, landing in Rangoon and participating in the Battle of Toungoo. The 56th Division linked with the 55th Division in Toungoo on 28 March 1942. Its reconnaissance elements forced the Chinese to evacuate the city opening the way to the east. Later the 56th Division flanked the allied line to the east, by advancing through the mountains to the Salween River in the Karenni States. The Division defeated the Chinese 6th Corps in the Karen Hills area battles of Mawchi on 13 April 1942, Bawlake, Bato, Taunggyi and Loikaw on 20 April 1940,^[6] and forced their retreat eastward to Yunnan. Advancing north through the Shan States the 56th Division defeated elements of the Chinese 65th Corps to take the city of Lashio on the Burma Road. The fall of Lashio to the 56th Division on 29 April 1942 cut off much of the local Chinese Army from China and compelled the Allies to evacuate Burma. The Division advanced into Yunnan in pursuit of the Chinese but were halted at the Battle of Salween River by the Chinese 36th and 88th Divisions on 31 May 1942.

From May 1942, the 56th Division mostly performed garrison duties on the Yunnan border. The 113th Infantry Regiment was mostly in Yunnan, except for the 3rd Battalion. which was stationed in Longling County. The 148th Infantry Regiment was stationed in Tengchong. The heavy fighting resumed in January 1944 with the Battle of Lashio, as part of Battle of Northern Burma and Western Yunnan campaign in 1944. During the campaign, the division's 114th Infantry Regiment, borrowed from the 18th Division, was credited with shattering Merrill's Marauders in the Siege of Myitkyina in May–August 1944 and in delaying the 15:1 superior Chinese forces and inflicting heavy Chinese casualties during the Battle of Mount Song. Faced with numerically and better equipped enemy in an attrition battle, the 56th Division suffered heavy losses. The remnants of the division were removed from the front line in October 1944, and on the day of the surrender of Japan, 15 August 1945, on the border between South Burma and Thailand.

The 56th division of the Japanese Burmese Front was the most destroyed by the Chinese. At least 70% of the division was wiped out by the Chinese army in the Burmese battlefield, more than a thousand men of the 56th Division died during the Japanese occupation of Western Yunnan in 1942-44, as well as hundreds of Imaoka Allied troops died in northern Burma and dozens in Myitkyina, and the 56th Division suffered devastating blows in western Yunnan, China. 1. During the counterattack of the Yunnan Expeditionary Force (April 29 to July 5, 1944)

The total number of men fighting under the command of the 56th Division was approximately 11,000. During the two months of fighting, 1,719 people were killed and 1,257 wounded. About 200 people died from war illnesses and about 4,500 suffered war illnesses. [3]

2. The first phase of the "Broken" operation (July 6 to October 5, 1944)

The 56th Division (with a total strength of about 11,000 men) suffered 4,868 battle deaths, 1,430 battle wounds, and 386 battle sickness deaths.

The 2nd Division (with a total strength of about 6,000 men) suffered about 800 killed and 800 wounded. [4]

3． During the second phase of the "Broken" operation (October 5, 1944 to January 26, 1945)

The 56th Division (with a total strength of approximately 8,000 men) suffered 1,803 battle deaths, 3,194 battle wounds, and 27 deaths from battle illnesses. [5]

About 9,000 people from the 56th Division (including those who died from war illnesses) died in the 1944-45 counterattack in Western Yunnan.

The 1st Battalion of the 146th Regiment (Pingga Garrison) started fighting with our two reinforced regiments in Pingga on April 29, 1944, and ended before the expeditionary force and the garrison in India joined forces on January 26, 1945. The team suffered 3,102 casualties on the battlefield in western Yunnan alone (including 2,734 dead and 368 wounded), and 236 others were missing. Because in the early stage of our counterattack, this regiment sent its main force to northern Myanmar to support the 18th Division in fighting our troops in India. There were another 453 casualties (including 413 dead and 40 injured), which has not yet been included in this table. middle. Taken together, the total casualties of the regiment were as high as 3,555 (excluding missing persons), which was already the total number of organic troops of the Japanese infantry regiment. The 146th Regiment is a standard organic wing (its infantry brigade has 4 infantry squadrons, while the 113th Regiment and the 148th Regiment each have 3 infantry squadrons) with a strength of 3,443 personnel. [7] During the war, the 56th Division received three batches of 2,400 additional troops. If one-third of the 146th Regiment's troops were 800, its peak strength would be approximately 4,200. Based on this estimate, the casualty ratio of the wing was 73.8%, and the mortality rate was 65%. Relatively speaking, the 146th Regiment, which has maintained its organizational structure and military flag, is in a better situation than the 113th Regiment and the 148th Regiment, which burned their military flags in Songshan and Tengchong.

The 148th Regiment lost 3,510 people in western Yunnan in 1944-45 (including those who died from war illness)

Notes

This article incorporates material from Japanese Wikipedia page 第56師団 (日本軍), accessed 9 June 2016

Reference and further reading

^ "Japanese Army Auxiliary Transports". www.combinedfleet.com. Retrieved Mar 28, 2023.
^ "Japanese Army Auxiliary Transports". www.combinedfleet.com. Retrieved Mar 28, 2023.
^ "Japanese Patrol Boats". www.combinedfleet.com. Retrieved Mar 28, 2023.
^ "Japanese Ammunition Ships". www.combinedfleet.com. Retrieved Mar 28, 2023.
^ "Japanese Army Auxiliary Transports". www.combinedfleet.com. Retrieved Mar 28, 2023.
^ "Invasion of Burma". WW2DB. Retrieved Mar 28, 2023.