Japanese Airborne Imperial Army

Emblem of army paratroopers

Teyshin shudan ( 挺進 集 団 ) - airborne troops of the Japanese imperial army . Because of the discord between the army and the navy in the Japanese Empire , the Japanese imperial fleet had its own independent airborne units .

Attempts to create airborne units in the Imperial Army of Japan were made in the late 1930s, however, the German Blitzkrieg in Europe in the spring and summer of 1940 made the Imperial Headquarters pay serious attention to this type of troops. In October 1941, during another attempt to take Changsha to the rear of the Chinese forces, three small parachute assault forces were thrown for tactical, reconnaissance and sabotage purposes.

Parachute units of the ground forces took an active part in the beginning of the Pacific War: on February 14, 1942, the 1st and 2nd parachute regiments captured the city of Palembang , an airfield and an oil refinery. After that, army paratroopers took part in the capture of Burma .

In July 1943, the 1st glider tank detachment was formed, which included four Ha-Go light tanks. Gradually, this detachment was deployed to a battalion, which included a tank company of 14 Ke-To tanks, an infantry company, and a vehicle company.

In 1944, all the airborne units of the Japanese army were reduced to the airborne division under the command of Major General Rikiti Tsukad . Two regiments under his command were given to the Southern Army Group and participated in the defense of the Philippines in 1944-45 as ordinary infantry units. At the end of 1944, several sabotage operations by Japanese paratroopers against American airfields on the Leyte and Okinawa islands were planned, from which bombing raids on Japanese territory were carried out, but all these operations remained unrealized.