Battle Story by Chris Brown Read Free Book Online Page B

general ethos of the Japanese Army could hardly have been more different to those of Britain, India or Australia. Encouraged to be self-reliant and treated with ruthless brutality, the Japanese soldiers’ training instilled confidence in battle and a high degree of physical fitness. Prior to the invasion, only one regiment had engaged in any degree of jungle training, so the average Japanese soldier was no more familiar with the combat environment than his British or Indian counterpart; the difference was that he had been taught not to fear the jungle, whereas most Allied troops had been conditioned to avoid it.
    Japanese Army staff work and the ability to improvise had been honed by years of fighting in China, where considerable distances and a poor transport infrastructure posed major problems with supplies. The term ‘army’ as in ‘Twenty-Fifth Army’ really equates to the term ‘corps’ in other armies. An ‘army’ was not so much a permanent administrative structure as a group of divisions brought together for a particular campaign. The Twenty-Fifth Army consisted of the three infantry divisions, 5th, 18th and theImperial Guards, supported by elements of four medium and light tank regiments.

    21. Waxwork effigy of a Japanese soldier with an Arisaka rifle at the Si!oso Fort Museum, Singapore.
    The Japanese divisional structure varied considerably throughout the war and from one theatre to another, but 5th and 18th Divisions in 1941 each had two infantry brigades, each of two regiments comprising three battalions; some twelve infantry battalions in total. Each division had an artillery regiment, a reconnaissance unit and various divisional troops. The Imperial Guards Division and 5th Division were entirely motorised, but 18th Division’s transport was horse drawn and the reconnaissance unit was a cavalry battalion. The division started the campaign with nearly 6,000 horses, which may seem anachronistic, but in fact almost all of the German divisions other than those in North Africa had horse-drawn transport and artillery throughout the Second World War. The Guards Division had nine battalions in three regiments and although the formation enjoyed a certain status, it was, arguably, the least effective of the three divisions in the Twenty-Fifth Army.
    With about thirty officers and a little over 1,000 men at full strength, the Japanese infantry battalion was rather larger than its Commonwealth counterpart and consisted of a headquarters company, a machine-gun company and four rifle companies. The companies, again bigger than their Commonwealth equivalent, had a headquarters company, three rifle platoons each with three squads of thirteen men commanded by a corporal or sergeant, and a grenade discharger squad of thirteen men to give a total company roll of about 200. The standard rifle was the Type 99 Arisaka, a bolt-action weapon of 7.7mm calibre; however, some of the earlier Type 38 models (6.5mm calibre) were still in use, which complicated ammunition supply. The Japanese infantrymen had a rather ramshackle appearance which belied their fighting ability. Their cotton uniforms came in a wide variety of shades of khaki, green and grey, and the puttees worn by many gave them a somewhat old-fashioned look. Steel helmets were issued as standard, but some chose to wear ‘solar topi’-type sun helmets. Soft rubber-soled shoes were popular and gave the advantage of virtual silence on the battlefield, but most soldiers wore slightly curious footwear with a separation to accommodate the big toe.

    22. Japanese machine-gun crew.
    The standard squad light machine gun was the dependable and accurate Type 99, which was very similar in appearance to the British Bren gun, even to the thirty-round curved magazine. Japanese officers were expected to purchase their own pistols and many favoured foreign-made weapons over the underpowered and unreliable Nambu models. Japanese officers and NCOs were much more inclined to carry