Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces
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The Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces (SNLF), (海軍陸戦隊 Kaigun Rikusentai) were the marine troops of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) and were only part of the IJN Land Forces. They saw extensive service in the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) and the Pacific theatre of World War II.
Prior to the late 1920s the IJN did not have a separate marine force, instead it used naval landing forces or rikusentai formed from individual ships's crews, who received infantry training as part of their basic training, for special and/or temporary missions.
In the late 1920s, the navy began to form Special Naval Landing Forces as standing regiments (albeit of battalion size). These forces were raised at — and took their names from — the four main naval districts/bases in Japan: Kure, Maizuru, Sasebo, and Yokosuka. These bases all raised more than one SNLF and others were later raised from IJN personnel in China, at Hankow, and Shanghai, for service in Canton and on the Yangtze River. On 7 December 1941 there were 16 SNLF units, this increasesd to 21 units during the war. The strengths of each SNLF ranged from the prewar peak of 1,200 to a later 650 personnel. There was also a special detachment in the Kwantung area, garrisoning the ports of Dairen and Ryojun.
Some received parachute training and the SNLF conducted more parachute drops than the Imperial Japanese Army's 1st Parachute Brigade.
The original SNLF personnel were well-trained, high quality troops with good morale and they performed well against unprepared and unorganized opposition across Southeast Asia. However, when faced with determined resistance, such as at the invasion of Timor and the Battle of Milne Bay in 1942, they often experienced heavy casualties, do to their unwillingness to give up. When completely out of ammo, they would often resort to fighting with their sword's. They were also responsible for the war crimes committed in their defence of Manila during the American invasion of the Phillipines during 1944.
In a famous last stand in 1943, the 1,500-strong 7th Sasebo SNLF and 1,000 base personnel at the Battle of Tarawa accounted for 3,000 U.S. Marine Corps casualties.
They wore a greener version of the Imperial Japanese Army's uniform with an anchor on their helmet.
(Note: the Imperial Japanese Army also raised amphibious units called Sea Landing Brigades. These 3,500-strong brigades were used to assault and then garrison islands.)
SNLF Units
- Kure Naval Base
- *1st Kure SNLF
- *2nd Kure SNLF
- Maizuru Naval Base
- *1st Maizuru SNLF
- *2nd Maizuru SNLF
- Sasebo Naval Base
- *1st Sasebo SNLF
- *2nd Sasebo SNLF
- *5th Sasebo SNLF
- *7th Sasebo SNLF
- *8th(?) Sasebo SNLF
- *Sasebo Combined SNLF (Combined 1st and 2nd Sasebo SNLF)
- Yokosuka Naval Base
- *1st Yokosuka SNLF (Parachute trained)
- *2nd Yokosuka SNLF , there were two of these,
- ** the first was disbanded after its operations in British Borneo were completed, and
- **the second was raised in June 1943 from 1st Yokosuka SNLF personnel. It spent the war on Nauru.
- *3rd Yokosuka SNLF (Parachute trained)—was later mergered with the 1st Yokosuko SNLF.
- *4th Yokosuka SNLF
- Butai Yokosuka: the IJN combined the 1st Yokosuka and 3rd Yokosuka SNLF's into one force for larger operations. Disbanded in late 1943.
External links
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