was an airborne commando unit of the

Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...

formed from

Teishin Shudan was a Japanese special forces/ airborne unit during World War II. The unit was a division-level force, and was part of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force (IJAAF). The ''Teishin'' units were therefore distinct from the marine parachute unit ...

(IJA airborne forces), in November 1944 as a last-ditch attempt to reduce and delay Allied bombing raids on the

Japanese home islands The is an archipelago of 14,125 islands that form the country of Japan. It extends over from the Sea of Okhotsk in the northeast to the East China and Philippine seas in the southwest along the Pacific coast of the Eurasian continent, and cons ...

. The ''Giretsu'' commando unit was commanded by

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...

Michio Sugahara.

History

After

USAAF The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is a retired American four-engined Propeller (aeronautics), propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to ...

strategic bomber A strategic bomber is a medium- to long-range Penetrator (aircraft), penetration bomber aircraft designed to drop large amounts of air-to-ground weaponry onto a distant target for the purposes of debilitating the enemy's capacity to wage war. Unl ...

s began attacks on

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

from bases in the

Mariana Islands The Mariana Islands ( ; ), also simply the Marianas, are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, between the 12th and 21st pa ...

, the 1st Raiding Brigade of the ''

'' was ordered to form a commando unit for a "special operations" mission to attack and destroy the bombers on the

Aslito Airfield Saipan International Airport , also known as Francisco C. Ada/Saipan International Airport, is a public airport located on Saipan Island in the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The airport is owned by Commonwealth Po ...

on Saipan. Captain Michiro Okuyama, commander of the brigade's engineering company, was selected as mission leader, and he selected an additional 126 men from his own team (1st ''Teishin-Dan'' 1st Regiment 4th Company) to form the first ''Giretsu'' Airborne Unit. It was initially organized with a command section and five platoons and one independent squad, based at the IJA air academy at Saitama. The group unit also included eight

intelligence officer An intelligence officer is a member of the intelligence field employed by an organization to collect, compile or analyze information (known as intelligence) which is of use to that organization. The word of ''officer'' is a working title, not a r ...

s and two radio men from the

Nakano School The was the primary training center for military intelligence operations by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. History The Imperial Japanese Army had always placed a high priority on the use of unconventional military tactics. Before ...

Tactics

The ''Giretsu'' operations were to be undertaken at night, beginning with air strikes by bombers. After this, commando units would be inserted onto the target airfield by crash landing their transports. The fact that there was no provision for extraction of the strike force, along with the rejection of surrender in Japanese military doctrine at the time, meant that the ''Giretsu'' ground operations were effectively

suicide attack A suicide attack (also known by a wide variety of other names, see below) is a deliberate attack in which the perpetrators knowingly sacrifice their own lives as part of the attack. These attacks are a form of murder–suicide that is ofte ...

Operations

The attack against the Marianas was scheduled for 24 December 1944, but was called off after American raids damaged the planned refueling airfields on

Iwo Jima is one of the Japanese Volcano Islands, which lie south of the Bonin Islands and together with them make up the Ogasawara Subprefecture, Ogasawara Archipelago. Together with the Izu Islands, they make up Japan's Nanpō Islands. Although sout ...

. After the Marianas raid was cancelled plans were made to attack airfields on Iwo Jima captured by the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...

in March, but these too were cancelled when the Iwo Jima garrison fell. On 1 April, US forces landed on

Okinawa most commonly refers to: * Okinawa Prefecture, Japan's southernmost prefecture * Okinawa Island, the largest island of Okinawa Prefecture * Okinawa Islands, an island group including Okinawa itself * Okinawa (city), the second largest city in th ...

, and American fighters based on Okinawa's west coast intercepted and shot down many

kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to d ...

aircraft attacking the American fleet. In the middle of April, the Sixth Air Army requested the deployment of the ''Giretsu'' Special Forces to neutralize these airfields, in what was designated "Operation ''Gi-gou''". On 18 May, this was authorized. On the night of 24 May 1945, twelve Ki-21-IIbs of the Daisan Dokuritsu Hikōtai ("3rd Independent Squadron": 32 crew members commanded by Captain Chuichi Suwabe) were dispatched for a strike, each with fourteen commandos. Eight were assigned to attack

Yontan Yŏnt‘an County is a county in North Hwanghae province, North Korea. Name The name Yontan means "a fast stream like a swallow", which refers to the river that is fast that exists in the region. History The county was newly created in 1952 from ...

and four to Kadena. Four aircraft aborted the mission with engine problems, and three more were shot down; however, five managed to crash-land at

Yontan Airfield Yontan Airfield (also known as Yomitan Auxiliary Airfield) is a former military airfield located near Yomitan Village on the west coast of Okinawa. It was closed in July 1996 and turned over to the Japanese government in December 2006. Today it i ...

during the confusion caused by a diversionary attack by some fifty IJAAF and IJN bombers and fighters. Only one plane landed successfully. About ten surviving raiders, armed with

submachine gun A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine (firearms), magazine-fed automatic firearm, automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to descri ...

s and various explosives then wreaked havoc on the supplies and nearby aircraft, killed two US servicemen, destroyed of fuel and nine aircraft, and damaged 29 more before being nearly annihilated by the defenders. One member of the raiding party survived and was able to make his way across the battlefield, reaching the Thirty-Second Army Headquarters (Okinawa) around 12 June. Giretsu memorial Okinawa

A second large-scale attack on bases in the Marianas with the specific intent of destroying B-29 Superfortress bombers was again planned with 60 transports and 900 commandos for the nights of 19–23 August 1945 (Operation ''Ken-gou''). On 15 August, Japan surrendered and the operation was canceled.

Uniforms and equipment

''Giretsu'' personnel wore special hand-made camouflage uniforms made from Ink, and carried special equipment. Most were armed with Type 100 submachine guns, Type 99 rifles,

Type 99 light machine gun The was a light machine gun used by the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. It was similar in design to the earlier Type 96 light machine gun, but designed to fire the new and more powerful 7.7×58mm Arisaka cartridge, which improved energy ...

s, and

Type 30 bayonet The is a bayonet that was designed for the Imperial Japanese Army to be used with the Arisaka Type 30 Rifle, which was later used on the Type 38 and Type 99 rifles, the Type 96 and Type 99 light machine guns, and the Type 100 submachine gun ...

Type 89 grenade discharger The , inaccurately and colloquially known as a knee mortar by Allied forces, is a Japanese grenade launcher or light mortar that was widely used in the Pacific Theater of World War II. It got the nickname the "knee mortar" because of an errone ...

s, Type 99 grenades and

Type 99 mine The Type 99 (Hako-Baku-Rai) mine was a Japanese anti-tank weapon used during the Second World War. It entered service in 1939. Four magnets were attached to the casing made of hemp cloth, along with an external fuze. The fuze had a time delay, whic ...

s, as well as Type 94 8 mm pistols.Giretsu Kuteitai Attack Plan, Equipment list

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

* * * ''Nippon News'', No. 252. in the official website of

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

br> "Giretsu Kuteibutai"
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120406201527/http://cgi2.nhk.or.jp/shogenarchives/jpnews/movie.cgi?das_id=D0001300380_00000&seg_number=002 , date=6 April 2012 . Military history of Japan during World War II Military units and formations of the Imperial Japanese Army Japanese World War II special forces Airborne units and formations of Japan World War II suicide weapons of Japan