The was an

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and mar ...

division 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 Emper ...

during

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Its

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally ass ...

was the . It was formed on 10 July 1940 at Zentsūji, simultaneously with 51st, 52nd, 54th, 56th, and 57th divisions. The formation nucleus was the headquarters of the 11th Division. Its manpower came primarily from the four prefectures of

Shikoku is the smallest of the four main islands of Japan. It is long and between wide. It has a population of 3.8 million (, 3.1%). It is south of Honshu and northeast of Kyushu. Shikoku's ancient names include ''Iyo-no-futana-shima'' (), '' ...

Island. The 55th Division was initially assigned to the Central District Army. In 1941, the division was assigned to the 15th Army and participated in the

Japanese conquest of Burma The Japanese invasion of Burma was the opening phase of the Burma campaign in the South-East Asian theatre of World War II, which took place over four years from 1942 to 1945. During the first year of the campaign (December 1941 to mid-1942), ...

. The division had the 143rd Regiment detached to separately capture

Dawei Dawei (, ; mnw, ဓဝဲါ, ; th, ทวาย, RTGS: ''Thawai'', ; formerly known as Tavoy) is a city in south-eastern Myanmar and is the capital of the Tanintharyi Region, formerly known as the Tenasserim Division, on the northern bank of ...

(Tavoy) and Myeik (Mergui), while the main troop had captured

Mawlamyine Mawlamyine (also spelled Mawlamyaing; , ; th, เมาะลำเลิง ; mnw, မတ်မလီု, ), formerly Moulmein, is the fourth-largest city in Myanmar (Burma), ''World Gazetteer'' south east of Yangon and south of Thaton, at t ...

(Moulmein) on 31 January 1942. In March 1942 the division fought for 14 days around the city of Taungoo against the weakened Chinese 200th Division. The fight ended when the Chinese broke through and disengaged. On 18 April 1942, the 55th Division had encircled the Chinese 55th Division, eventually wiping it out. During the Burma Campaign, the 144th Infantry Regiment was detached from the division and sent to

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...

. The rest of the 55th was used to counter an ill-planned British attack at Donbaik (

Sittwe Sittwe (; ; formerly Akyab) is the capital of Rakhine State, Myanmar (Burma). Sittwe, pronounced ''sait-tway'' in the Rakhine language, is located on an estuarial island created at the confluence of the Kaladan, Mayu, and Lay Mro rivers empt ...

(Akyab)) from 18 March 1943. By 3 April 1943 the division had started to advance past the Mayu range, eventually surrounding and defeating a number of British units; encountering stiffer resistance from May 1943 onwards. Mid November 1943 the 55th was still in the Arakan area.John Grehan、Martin Mace, "The Fall of Burma 1941-1943" Finally, the division fought a failed offensive which become the

Battle of the Admin Box The Battle of the Admin Box (sometimes referred to as the Battle of Ngakyedauk or the Battle of Sinzweya) took place on the southern front of the Burma campaign from 5 to 23 February 1944, in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II. Japan ...

in February 1944. On 19 February 1944, the commander of the 112th Infantry Regiment, at that time down from 3000 to 400 men, had broken radio communication with the division headquarters and withdrew his men. In the aftermath of the disastrous

Battle of Imphal ) , partof = the Operation U-Go during the Burma Campaign in the South-East Asian theatre of World War II , image = Imphalgurkhas.jpg , image_size = 300 , caption = Gurkhas advancing with Grant tanks ...

, the division was assigned to the 28th Army in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

and, after retreating to the

Irrawaddy river The Irrawaddy River ( Ayeyarwady River; , , from Indic ''revatī'', meaning "abounding in riches") is a river that flows from north to south through Myanmar (Burma). It is the country's largest river and most important commercial waterway. Orig ...

, was subordinated to 38th Army. On 15 August 1945, when the

Surrender of Japan The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Na ...

was spoken out, the 55th Division was in

Phnom Penh Phnom Penh (; km, ភ្នំពេញ, ) is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since the French protectorate of Cambodia and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its economic, indus ...

Notes

*This article incorporates material from Japanese Wikipedia page 第55師団 (日本軍), accessed 6 June 2016

Reference and further reading

* *Ian Grant and Kazuo Tamayama, Burma 1942, Zampi Press, Chichester, 1999. *Charles Happell "The Bone Man of Kokoda: The extraordinary story of Kokichi Nishimura and the Kokoda Track"

Macmillan Publishers Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publi ...

, Crows Nest, 2008. {{DEFAULTSORT:55th Division (Imperial Japanese Army) Japanese World War II divisions Infantry divisions of Japan Military units and formations established in 1940 Military units and formations disestablished in 1945 1940 establishments in Japan J

Notes

See also

Reference and further reading