The Japanese had paratroopers and developed a folding stock Arisaka bolt action rifle for them. Anyway, where were the paratroopers used? I know some were dropped into the hills of Burma where the indigenous Naga hunted them, collected their heads for a bounty paid by Eicher of the OSS Detachment 101. What was the mission of those paratroopers though?
If I remember Japanese paratroopers were dropped in New Guinea and on Luzon south of Tacloban. Mostly as a disruptive force to reek havoc on airfields and night operations attacking perimeter outposts. Most died before doing any real damage. The rest died within a few days after being hunted down.
The folding stock Arisaka Type 38 rifles (designated Type 1) were not succesful and did not see any significant use. You may be thinking of the takedown Arisaka Type 99 (most common model of which was the Type 2). Over 20k Type 2 rifles were made.
Hi. Both army and navy had their own paratroopers. The navy paratroops were part of the special naval landing force (1st, 2nd and 3rd Yokosuka SNLF). These units were roughly battalion-size. 1st Yokosuka SNLF airdropped near Menado during the innitial phase of the capture of Sulawesi in February 1942. 2nd Yokosuka SNLF was only used as naval landing troops. 3rd Yokosuka SNLF airdropped on 19.02.1942 near Kupang, West Timor. 1st and 3rd returned to Yokosuka with no further airborne operations after battles and 2nd became a naval base force on Borneo. The army paratroops were organised as the brigade-sized Special Raiding Force with two battalion-sized airborne (raiding) regiments, support and and air units. Later the infantry units were reorganised to glider infantry regiments and an airborne tank unit was added, too. headquarters company (220 personnel) aviation brigade raiding brigade or two glider infantry regiments raiding artillery company (120 personnel) raiding signals company (140 personnel) raiding engineer company (250 personnel) raiding tank troop The two raiding groups should be used to capture airfields, oil fields and refineries in the Palembang area of Sumatra. But the 1st Raiding Group lost most of its equipment during the transport to the starting airfields due to the transport ship catching fire, making them not combat-ready. So only 2nd Raiding regiment attacked and suffered heavy losses. Due to the missing 1st raiding regiment he refineries couldn´t be captured as planned and were demolished by dutch forces but the other operational targets were reached. Several planed operations against british forces in Burma were cancelled as the british units were retreating too fast. After reorganisation as glider infantry regiments (without parachute training) the 2nf glider infantry regiment was used for a suicide night mission against US airfields on Leyte and southern Luzon on 06.12.1944. Only a company-sized unit made it through the massive air cover to an airfield near Burauren on Leyte inflicting damage on the parked aircraft before being annihilated. The remains of the Special Raiding Force surrendered on Luzon at the end of the war. There were three take-down rifles (Type 99, Type 1 and Type 2) and a take-down version of the Type 100 submachine gun with a folding buttstock. All these were used by the army unit only. The navy units had to land with bayonetts and pistols only, the rifles were dropped in containers. There was also a special version of the Type 99 lMG with foldable buttstock and a small 81 mm mortar (Type 99 Small Mortar) developed. And also special light-weight versions of the Type 92 70 mm Battalion Gun and the Type 1 37 mm Rapid-Fire Infantry Gun but these remained test versions only. The Raidung Tank Troop started with Type 95 Light Tanks bust switched to Type 98 and later also Type 2 Light Tanks. Yours tom!
That's great insights Tom. Thank you, Who (what unit) dropped into Burma and were caught by the Kachin hill peeople?
To the best of my knowledge there was no drop in Burma, it had been cancelled, although they did apparently fight as ground troops. Have you posted this in the Japanese subsection of Axis History Forum?
Hi. Yes, and here is the reply. Sorry, had to correct myself. This is the official OOB of the IJA Raiding Force: Order of Battle Units under the command of 4th Air Army Commander (1941) 1st Raiding Group HQ - 1st Air Raiding Brigade HQ --- 1st Air Raiding Regiment --- 2nd Air Raiding Regiment --- 1st Glider Regiment --- 1st Air Raiding Brigade Radio Unit - 2nd Raiding Brigade HQ --- 3rd Raiding Regiment --- 4th Raiding Regiment - 1st Infantry Glider Regiment - 2nd Infantry Glider Regiment - 1st Raiding Machine Cannon Uni - 1st Raiding Engineer Unit - 1st Raiding Signal Unit Units under the command of 1st Air Army Commander (1944) - 1st Raiding Brigade HQ --- 1st Raiding Regiment --- 2nd Raiding Regiment --- 1st Raiding Tank Unit --- 1st Raiding Maintenance Unit --- 101st Airfield Company --- 102nd Airfield Company --- 103rd Airfield Company Unit Compsision 1st and 2nd Air Raiding Regiments Commander: 1 man HQ: 27 man + 1 Liaison aircraft and 1 Transport aircraft 1st Company: 147 men / 27 Transport aircrafts and 3 Heavy Bombers 2nd Company: Same as 1st Company 3rd Company: Same as 1st Company 1st Glider Regiment Commander: 1 man HQ: 26 men / 1 Liaison aircraft , 1 Transport aircraft and 1 Heavy Bomber 1st Company: 202 men / 18 Towing aircrafts and 36 Gliders 2nd Company: Same as 1st Company 1st - 4th Raiding Regiments Commander: 1 man HQ: 33 men 1st Company: 158men / 3 Platoons and 1 Machinegun platoon 2nd Company: Same as 1st Company 3rd Company: Same as 1st Company Infantry Engineer Company: 158men / 3 Platoons and 1 Machinegun platoon Heavy Weapons Company: 148men / 1 Battalion Gun Platoon and 1 Mortar Platoon 1st and 2nd Infantry Glider Regiments Commander: 1 man 1st Company: 158 men / 3 Platoons and 1 Machinegun platoon 2nd Company: Same as 1st Company Infantry Engineer Company: 158 men / 3 Platoons and 1 Machinegun platoon Rapid Firing Gun (AT) Company: 158 men / 1 Commanding Platoon and 3 Platoons / 6 Type 1 Mobile 47mm Guns Mountain Gun Company: 180 men / 1 Commanding Platoon, 2 Platoons and 1 Ammunition Platoon / 4 Type 41 Mountain Guns 1st Raiding Machine Cannon Uni Commander: 1 man 1st Company: 134 men / 2 Platoons / 8 Type 98 AA Guns 2nd Company: Same as 1st Company 1st Raiding Engineer Unit Commander: 1 man HQ: 39men 1st Company: 179 men / 3 Platoons 2nd Company: Same as 1st Company Materials Platoon: 28 men / 2 Platoons 1st Raiding Tank Unit Commander: 1 man Infantry Company: 156 men / 3 Platoons Tank Company: 133 men / 4 Platoons / 19 Type 2 Light Tanks Automobile Company: 122men / 3 Platoons / 2 Four-wheel Drive Passenger Cars and 32 Trucks Materials Depot: 36men / 3 Four-wheel Drive Passenger Cars and 6 Trucks Many thanks to fontessa from axis history forum for his support. Yours tom!
From Tom!'s post above, Naval paratroopers were dropped with pistols, and their rifles etc were dropped separately
