RJW - Japanese First Army

For my RJW project I'm basing my Japanese collection around the Japanese 1st Army commanded by General Baron Kuroki.

 

 

The reason I'm picking this army is most Japanese armies during the war had 2 or more divisions. However, the 1st Army also has the Japanese Imperial Guard or Guard division attached to it, plus the two standard divisions of a normal army. Also, the Japanese from the collection I bought were based on that army, so it makes sense to continue the progress made by Mal when he made this collection.

 

The 1st Army had 3 divisions, and I plan on fully collecting the Imperial Guard Division and 2nd Division, then add units to the 12th Division as I can. So, even if I fight another battle that had a different Japanese army, I can use the Imperial Guard as a proxy for the second division of the other army and 2nd as a standard division. The uniforms are different between the 2nd Division and Imperial Guard, but nobody will really complain if I use Imperial Guard as regulars.

 

Imperial Guard Division: commanded by Lieutenant General Hasegawa

2nd Division: commanded by Lieutenant General Nishi

12th Division: commanded by Lieutenant General Inouye

 

To put some faces to the names, here is a great photo of these three generals. (click for larger image)

 

 

 

Here is the complete OOB of the 1st Army and I will discuss each Division in separate posts, as I work on them.

Japanese 1st Army
 Commanding General: General Baron Kuroki

Imperial Guard Division: Lieutenant General Hasegawa
1st Brigade: Major General Asada
     1st Guard Infantry Regiment (3 bns)
     2nd Guard Infantry Regiment (3 bns)
2nd Brigade: Major General Watanabe
     3rd Guard Infantry Regiment (3 bns)
     4th Guard Infantry Regiment (3 bns)

Attached to Guard Division:
     Guard Artillery Regiment (36 guns)
     Guard Cavalry Regiment (3 sqns)
     Guard Engineer\Pioneer Battalion

2nd Division: Lieutenant General Nishi
3rd Brigade: Major General Matsunaga
     4th Infantry Regiment (3 bns)
     29th Infantry Regiment (3 bns)
15th Brigade: Major General Okazaki
     16th Infantry Regiment (3 bns)
     30th Infantry Regiment (3 bns)

Attached to 2nd Division:
     2nd Artillery Regiment(36 guns)
     2nd Cavalry Regiment (3 sqns)
     2nd Engineer\Pioneer Battalion

12th Division: Lieutenant General Inouye
12th Brigade: Major General Sasaki
     14th Infantry Regiment (3 bns)
     47th Infantry Regiment (3 bns)
23rd Brigade: Major General Kigoshi
     24th Infantry Regiment (3 bns)
     46th Infantry Regiment (3 bns)

Attached to 12th Division:
     12th Artillery Regiment (36 mountain guns)
     12th Cavalry Regiment (3 sqns)
     12th Engineer\Pioneer Battalion

Corps Artillery:
5 Howitzer Batteries (20-4.72" Krupp howitzers)
Total Theoretical Strength, all ranks: 40,866

British General Staff, The Russo-Japanese War, His Majesty's Stationary Office, London, 1906-1908.