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 ...

(IJA) established several shipping artillery units during the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

. These units provided defensive guns and gun crews for the transport ships operated by the Army, as well as merchant vessels chartered by the service. In December 1941 the IJA had a single shipping artillery unit, the Shipping Artillery Regiment. The

regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscripted ...

comprised two anti-aircraft

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are ...

s, a machine cannon battalion and a depot responsible for training replacement personnel. By early 1944 the Shipping Artillery Regiment had been reorganised into two units, the 1st and 2nd Shipping Artillery Regiments. The 1st Shipping Artillery Regiment was based in Japan. The 2nd Shipping Artillery Regiment was initially based in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, but moved to

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

in the Philippines in July 1944. Each regiment's table of organisation strength was 15 anti-aircraft batteries, three light anti-aircraft batteries, three surface gun batteries, two sea watch companies, a mortar company, a machine gun company, a depth charge company, a hydrophone company and an air watch company. A total of 2,300 soldiers were allocated to each unit. However, the actual strength and organisation of the regiments varied. Small detachments from the regiments were allocated to individual ships to protect them against submarines and aircraft. As a result, the battalion, battery and company headquarters primarily performed administrative functions. The IJA also established the 1st and 2nd Shipping Machine Gun Cannon Regiments to protect small ships. Each of these regiments comprised two light anti-aircraft battalions and a machine gun company. The Imperial Japanese Navy's

Central Pacific Area Fleet The was a fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy established during World War II. History The Central Pacific Area Fleet was a short-lived operational headquarters of the Imperial Japanese Navy, established on March 4, 1944. With United States Nav ...

also raised small air defence squads from April 1944 which were assigned to individual ships.

References

;Citations ;Works consulted * * * {{cite book, last1=War Department, title=Handbook on Japanese Military Forces, date=1944, publisher=HyperWar Project, url=https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/Japan/IJA/HB/index.html#index Military units and formations of the Imperial Japanese Army Military units and formations disestablished in 1945

See also

References