Author : U. S. Navy
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 28 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2012-12-27
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1481855786
Japanese Naval Ground Forces Know Your Enemy! by U. S. Navy Pdf
From the US Navy comes Japanese Naval Ground Forces "Know Your Enemy!".....As the war draws closer to the main islands of JAPAN, enemy units are forced into new functions of home defense. Naval ground units, which played an important part in JAPAN's early victories, may assume an equally important role in the final attempt to deny beaches and approaches to troops invading the Empire. An earlier survey of this subject ("Weekly Intelligence," Vol. I, No. 12) pointed out that in the period immediately following the MARIANAS campaigns the overseas use of Naval ground units by the enemy was decreasing. The offensive power of these troops, blunted in the GILBERTS and MARSHALLS, had been largely ended during the NEW GUINEA and MARIANAS campaigns. Many units had been destroyed. Disbandment and absorption of others apparently indicated that JAPAN intended to confine Naval troops outside the Empire to purely defensive garrison and service functions. The PHILIPPINES campaign may result in the isolation of most of the remaining garrisons. In the Empire, however, the functions of Naval ground units remain important. The Navy bears the formal responsibility for the defense of harbors, Naval stations and the approaches to the Inland Sea. It seems likely, moreover, that reactivated and increased Naval ground troop units will cooperate with the Army in defensive fighting in almost any threatened locality. The home reservoir for Naval ground replacements is large. Despite recent heavy ship losses there has apparently been no curtailment in JAPAN's Naval training programs. The number of personnel awaiting assignment in receiving barracks, training schools and other shore stations must therefore be rapidly increasing. It is logical to assume that much of this surplus Naval personnel will be used to organize and enlarge to combat strength such badly-needed organizations as [anti-aircraft] AA Defense Units, Guard Units and Special Naval Landing Forces [SNLF] (now assigned primarily defensive functions). In any case, unattached Naval personnel awaiting assignment are at least given temporary combatant organization and duties as a part of the enemy's defensive preparations. Large numbers of permanent personnel attached to the Empire's many Naval Stations will also presumably be given an emergency defense role. Considerable new information on Naval ground units has appeared in official captured documents. This and other information is summarized in the three basic charts enclosed herewith, which are believed to present a more accurate view of the organization and disposition of Jap naval ground units than has hitherto been available.Reader please be advised that some of the charts and or maps may appear blurry and hard to read. (They are old)
