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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. 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 (; ) were the decisive engagements of the undeclared Soviet–Japanese border conflicts involving the Soviet Union, Mongolian People's Republic, Mongolia, Empire of Japan, Japan and Manchukuo in 1939. The conflict wa ...

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 under Major General Masaomi Yasuoka. At this time the 3rd Tank Regiment had the following order of battle: * 26 Type 89 I-Go medium tanks armed with a short-barrelled (low-velocity) Type 90 57 mm gun * 4 Type 97 Chi-Ha medium tanks armed with the similar Type 97 57 mm tank gun * 4 Type 97 tankettes armed with a Type 94 37 mm tank gun * 7 Type 94 tankettes 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 in

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially known as the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of Great Manchuria thereafter, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China that existed from 1932 until its dissolution in 1945. It was ostens ...

in June 1942. The 3rd Tank Regiment was detached from the 1st Armored Division and attached to 11th Army for Operation Ichi-Go 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 Tank Regiments (Imperial Japanese Army) Military units and formations established in 1937 1937 establishments in Asia Military units and formations disestablished in 1945