![]() ![]() Independent brigades, independent regiments, and similar equivalents such as independent garrison units also deployed. During this action in April 1945, the Americans sank at least three transports and six escort vessels, while damaging several others. Men are seen scrambling for cover as machine gun bullets rip through decking and bombs fall close by. Part of a convoy en route to resupply and reinforce the airfield and garrison at Ormoc on the Philippine island of Leyte, this Japanese freighter is under attack by B-25 Mitchell medium bombers of the U.S. Japan executed at least 28 full lifts of divisions or divisions (minus) with elements, such as a regiment or more temporarily detached, by the end of 1942. The 4th Division went from Shanghai to Luzon, campaigned there, and then returned to Japan, therefore two division lifts. Java-Rabaul required different ships and thus was a second maru lift, while the dash to Guadalcanal was a third. The division’s Japan-Formosa-Camranh Bay-Java travel was one lift, using the same ships throughout. For instance, the well-traveled 2nd Division sailed in three separate lifts. More impressive is the number of lifts, that is, the number of times a division moved by sea after an interruption such as disembarking, campaigning, and then embarking for the next objective. The Japanese moved 14 Army divisions/divisions minus (flags) by sea during the first 13 months of the war. After the initial deployments, lift capacity declined, with fewer and fewer ships moving more and more men. Once the Army secured its objectives, Tokyo withdrew many ships to carry the raw materials from those conquered lands back to Japan. The first four months of war saw the best Army lift capacity the Japanese would ever know. Shipboard crowding was no more drastic than usual. They did this within normal man per square foot ratios. This healthy pool of ships moved large numbers of men, equipment, and supplies over a short period. ![]() So the nation dispatched ships normally engaged in that effort to support invasion forces. The Japanese wrote off any immediate requirement to support normal trade when war began. ![]() Behind those successes lay a logistics effort not often appreciated, that of shipping. Japanese military successes in 19 shocked the West. ![]()
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