Type 99 Paratrooper

[cary m2a]

To Jim K
George had a number of Jap war prizes that his kids sold and I only got oneand dont know that much about it .Thanks for the help.

Cary

[cary m2a]

Thanks blu 97
The sight is very helpful shines some light on things .

Cary

[cary m2a]

I will stand corrected. Imperial Japanese Marines, very busy little guys.

Cary

[Jim K]

Same thing - no such organization in the Japanese armed forces.

Jim

[cary m2a]

Japanese marine paratroopers of World War II - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cary

[Jim K]

The article uses term "marine" (small "m") but states that they were part of a Navy landing force. And I know that Japanese naval troops were almost always called "Jap marines" by Americans. But I will say again, there was no such separate organization as a Japanese Marine Corps in the sense that there was in the U.S. and British navies. Navy men were detailed to act as landing forces. Depending on the size of the naval force and the size of the ship, they might be a permanent force, trained for land warfare, or just some ordinary sailors detailed to go fight ashore. Because of the training needed, the navy paratroops were more or less permanently shore based, but at some time in the course of the war, the use of paratroops seems to have been abandoned by both the army and the navy. The army units were restructured as regular infantry and the navy units reassigned, possibly to shipboard duty as conventional landing forces, or just as sailors. Note that the same thing happened to German paratroopers, though they kept an "esprit d'corps" even when they were fighting as plain infantry.

The reason for this is that when the Axis powers began to lose the war, their paratroops became almost useless as such. The role of airborne troops is primarily to go into an enemy area ahead of an advance to gain control of landing areas and disrupt enemy communications and supply lines; they are really an offensive force. The idea is that the general advance will meet the paratroops and they will merge into the regular forces. But if the enemy is advancing, any paratroops dropped behind his lines will be unable to meet with the main body and will be simply lost, killed or captured.

Jim

[cary m2a]

O.K. it seems like both of us know some history,and have friends that lived it .

thanx

Cary

[stryker]

There was one small Japanese airborne operation against an airforce base (Guam? mariannas?) that was a night drop, and essentially a suicide mission. I believe it was a B-29 base so possibly Tinian. I think IIRC the whole force was wiped out without causing any significant damage other than scaring the hell out of the Air Corps types. I'm at work so I'll have to go homke before i can check for the facts.

[Jim K]

It would have had to be within range of land-based transport aircraft. Nothing that was carrier-based was large enough to carry paratroops, the main reason they were rarely used by the Japanese in the Pacific. I would not be surprised to learn of airborne operations in China, but the only one I know of was in Sumatra; it will be interesting to learn of any others.

Jim

[stryker]

There were four notable IJA airborne operations in WWII. Three as the war began: 1st in the Celebes (334 men in a drop on ii Jan '42 and 182 the next day.), 2nd on Sumatra (IJA 2nd parachute regiment, 360 men on 14 Jan. '42 with 100 the next day.) 3rd on Timor IJN 3rd SNLF (the so-called "Jap marines") 308 on 20 Feb '42 and 323 more the next day. These operations were successful. The only operation by true airborne troops against the U.S. was on Leyte by the IJA 3rd Parachute Regiment on 6 Dec. 1944, 409 men dropped from Ki-57 aircraft. A disaster with all IJA paratroops wiped out by overwhelming U.S. forces. Target was a network of airfields. All other ope4rations were in the nature of suicide commando raids by troops in aircraft which crashed on U.S. airfields to attack and distrupt bomber operations against japan, th e most successful on the night of may 24/25 1945 against Yontan in Okinawa. (7 U.S. planes destroyed, 26 damaged, by 12 commandos from the one surviving japanese aircraft. All Japanese killed. Source J-aircraft.com Main Page