The 3rd Tank Regiment was an armored regiment of the Imperial Japanese Army in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It served in the China/Manchuria theater throughout the war.

History

The 3rd Tank Regiment was created in 1937 by upgrading the 3rd Tank Battalion. At the end of January 1939, Lieutenant Colonel Kiyotake Yoshimaru took command of the regiment; Yoshimaru was promoted to full colonel in March, and under him the regiment participated in the

Battles of Khalkhin Gol The Battles of Khalkhin Gol (russian: Бои на Халхин-Голе; mn, Халхын голын байлдаан) were the decisive engagements of the undeclared Soviet–Japanese border conflicts involving the Soviet Union, Mongolia, Jap ...

against the Soviet Union in 1939, as part of the 1st Tank Corps. The other regiment of the 1st Tank Corps was the 4th Tank Regiment, which was equipped mostly with light tanks, and the 1st Tank Corps was part of the

Yasuoka Detachment Yasuoka Detachment or Yasuoka Task Force, was an armored Japanese Imperial Army unit in 1939. It was commanded by Lt. General Yasuoka Masaomi, composed of 3rd Tank Regiment and 4th Tank Regiment (seventy-three tanks total), 64th Infantry Regim ...

under Major General

Masaomi Yasuoka was a lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. Biography Military career Yasuoka was born in Sendai city, Kagoshima Prefecture (present day Satsumasendai, Kagoshima) and was the son of an officer in the Imperial Japanese ...

. At this time the 3rd Tank Regiment had the following order of battle: * 26

Type 89 I-Go The was a medium tank used by the Imperial Japanese Army from 1932 to 1942 in combat operations of the Second Sino-Japanese War, at Khalkhin Gol against the Soviet Union, and in the Second World War. The Type 89B model was the world's first m ...

medium tanks armed with a short-barrelled (low-velocity) Type 90 57 mm gun * 4

Type 97 Chi-Ha The was a medium tank used by the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Battles of Khalkhin Gol against the Soviet Union, and the Second World War. It was the most widely produced Japanese medium tank of World War II. T ...

medium tanks armed with the similar

Type 97 57 mm tank gun The Type 97 57 mm tank gun was originally the main armament of the Imperial Japanese Army Type 97 Chi-Ha medium tank during the Second World War. Design and use The Type 97 Chi-Ha tank was the most widely produced Japanese medium tank of th ...

* 4 Type 97 tankettes armed with a Type 94 37 mm tank gun * 7

Type 94 tankette The Type 94 tankette ( ja, 九四式軽装甲車, Kyūyon-shiki keisōkōsha, literally "94 type light armored car"; also known as TK, an abbreviation of ''Tokushu Keninsha'', literally "special tractor") was a tankette used by the Imperial Japane ...

s armed with a light machine guns Japanese armor fared poorly in these battles, the low-velocity guns being unable to penetrate Soviet armor, while being themselves vulnerable to Soviet high-velocity tank guns. Colonel Yoshimaru himself was killed when his command tank was destroyed by Soviet gun fire on 3 July 1939. During the action of 2 and 3 July, the 3rd Tank Regiment was badly mauled by the Soviet army forces. 3rd Tank Regiment was included in 1st Tank Division when the division was formed at

Ningan Ning'an () is a city located approximately southwest of Mudanjiang, in the southeast of Heilongjiang province, China, bordering Jilin province to the south. It is located on the Mudanjiang River (formerly known as Hurka River), which flows north, ...

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China, Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 afte ...

in June 1942. The 3rd Tank Regiment was detached from the 1st Armored Division and attached to 11th Army for

Operation Ichi-Go Operation Ichi-Go ( ja, 一号作戦, Ichi-gō Sakusen, lit=Operation Number One) was a campaign of a series of major battles between the Imperial Japanese Army forces and the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China, fought from Apri ...

against China in 1944. It remained in China while the rest of the 1st Armored Division returned to Japan for the defense of the home islands, and was disbanded with the rest of the 11th Army in 1945.

References

Notes

{{reflist, group=note Military units and formations of the Imperial Japanese Army Military units and formations established in 1937 1937 establishments in Asia Military units and formations disestablished in 1945