was an

airlift An airlift is the organized delivery of supplies or personnel primarily via military transport aircraft. Airlifting consists of two distinct types: strategic and tactical. Typically, strategic airlifting involves moving material long distanc ...

special forces Special forces and special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...

unit of the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

formed from Army paratroopers, in November 1944 as a last-ditch attempt to reduce and delay

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

bombing raids on the Japanese home islands. The ''Giretsu'' Special Forces unit was commanded by

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

Michio Sugahara.

History

After USAAF

B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 Fl ...

strategic bomber A strategic bomber is a medium- to long-range penetration bomber aircraft designed to drop large amounts of air-to-ground weaponry onto a distant target for the purposes of debilitating the enemy's capacity to wage war. Unlike tactical bombers, ...

s began attacks on

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

from bases in the

Mariana Islands The Mariana Islands (; also the Marianas; in Chamorro: ''Manislan Mariånas'') are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, betw ...

, the 1st Raiding Brigade of the ''

Teishin Shudan was a Japanese special forces/airborne unit during World War II. The unit was a division-level force, and was part of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force (IJAAF). The ''Teishin'' units were therefore distinct from the marine parachute units of ...

'' was ordered to form a commando unit for a "special operations" mission to attack and destroy the bombers on the

Aslito Airfield Saipan International Airport , also known as Francisco C. Ada/Saipan International Airport, is a public airport located on Saipan Island in the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The airport is owned by Commonwealth Port ...

on Saipan. Captain Michiro Okuyama, commander of the brigade's engineering company and trained in

sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...

and

demolition Demolition (also known as razing, cartage, and wrecking) is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down of buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a ...

was selected as mission leader, and he selected an additional 126 men from his own team (1st ''Teishin-Dan'' 1st Regiment 4th Company) to form the first ''Giretsu'' Airborne Unit. It was initially organized with a command section and five platoons and one independent squad, based at the IJA air academy at Saitama. The group unit also included eight intelligence officers and two radio men from the

Nakano School The was the primary training center for military intelligence operations by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. History The Imperial Japanese Army had always placed a high priority on the use of unconventional military tactics. From be ...

Tactics

The ''Giretsu'' operations were to be undertaken at night, beginning with air strikes by bombers. After this, commando units would be inserted onto the target airfield by crash landing their transports. The fact that there was no provision for extraction of the strike force, along with the rejection of surrender in Japanese military doctrine at the time, meant that the ''Giretsu'' ground operations were effectively

suicide attack A suicide attack is any violent Strike (attack), attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has suicide, accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have oc ...

Operations

The attack against the Marianas was scheduled for 24 December 1944, but was called off after American raids damaged the planned refueling airfields on

Iwo Jima Iwo Jima (, also ), known in Japan as , is one of the Japanese Volcano Islands and lies south of the Bonin Islands. Together with other islands, they form the Ogasawara Archipelago. The highest point of Iwo Jima is Mount Suribachi at high. ...

. After the Marianas raid was cancelled plans were made to attack airfields on Iwo Jima captured by the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

in March, but these too were cancelled when the Iwo Jima garrison fell. On 1 April, US forces landed on

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

, and American fighters based on Okinawa's west coast intercepted and shot down many

kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...

aircraft attacking the American fleet. In the middle of April, the Sixth Air Army requested the deployment of the ''Giretsu'' Special Forces to neutralize these airfields, in what was designated "Operation ''Gi-gou''". On 18 May, this was authorized. On the night of 24 May 1945, 12 Ki-21-IIbs of the Daisan Dokuritsu Hikōtai ("3rd Independent Squadron": 32 crew members commanded by Captain Chuichi Suwabe) were dispatched for a strike, each with 14 commandos. Eight were assigned to attack

Yontan Yŏnt‘an County is a county in North Hwanghae province, North Korea. Name The name Yontan means "a fast stream like a swallow", which refers to the river that is fast that exists in the region. History The county was newly created in 1952 from M ...

and four to Kadena. Four aircraft aborted the mission with engine problems, and three more were shot down; however, five managed to crash-land at

Yontan Airfield Yontan Airfield (also known as Yomitan Auxiliary Airfield) is a former military airfield located near Yomitan Village on the west coast of Okinawa. It was closed in July 1996 and turned over to the Japanese government in December 2006. Today it i ...

during the confusion caused by a diversionary attack by some 50 IJAAF and IJN bombers and fighters. Only one plane landed successfully. About 10 surviving raiders, armed with

submachine gun A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine-fed, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to describe its design concept as an autom ...

s and various explosives then wreaked havoc on the supplies and nearby aircraft, killed two US servicemen, destroyed of fuel and nine aircraft, and damaged 29 more before being nearly annihilated by the defenders. One member of the raiding party survived and was able to make his way across the battlefield, reaching the Thirty-Second Army Headquarters (Okinawa) around 12 June. Giretsu memorial Okinawa

A second large-scale attack on bases in the Marianas with the specific intent of destroying B-29 Superfortress bombers was again planned with 60 transports and 900 commandos for the nights of 19–23 August 1945 (Operation ''Ken-gou''). On 15 August, Japan surrendered and the operation was canceled.

Uniforms and equipment

''Giretsu'' personnel wore special hand-made camouflage uniforms made from Ink, and carried special equipment. Most were armed with

Type 100 submachine gun The was a Japanese submachine gun used during World War II and the only submachine gun produced by Japan in any quantity. It was made in two basic variants referred to by American and British observers as the Type 100/40 and the Type 100/44, the ...

Type 99 rifle The was a bolt-action rifle of the Arisaka design used by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. History During the Second Sino-Japanese War in the 1930s, the Japanese soon found that the 7.7mm cartridge being fired by their Type 92 h ...

s, Type 99 light machine guns, and Type 30 bayonets, Type 89 grenade dischargers, Type 99 grenades and

Type 99 mine The Type 99 (Hako-Baku-Rai) mine was a Japanese anti-tank weapon used during the Second World War. It entered service in 1939. Four magnets were attached to the casing made of hemp cloth, along with an external fuze. The fuze had a time delay, whic ...

s, as well as Type 94 8 mm pistols.Giretsu Kuteitai Attack Plan, Equipment list

Notes

References

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External links

* *{{cite news , first1=Claude R. "Red" , last1=Canup , first2=Linda Canup , last2=Keaton-Lima , work= Naval History Magazine, url=http://www.usni.org/magazines/navalhistory/story.asp?STORY_ID=2339, title=The Giretsu Attack, date=June 2010 , accessdate=6 May 2010 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613222104/https://www.usni.org/magazines/navalhistory/story.asp?STORY_ID=2339 , archive-date=13 June 2010 * ''Nippon News'', No. 252. in the official website of NHKbr> "Giretsu Kuteibutai"
Military history of Japan during World War II Military units and formations of the Imperial Japanese Army Japanese World War II special forces Airborne units and formations World War II suicide weapons of Japan