Kuomintang Order of Battle

We present here the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist) order of battle from 7 December 1941 on, as near as we have been able to determine it. This order of battle is very uncertain due to the lack of English-language sources. Much of what is here is interpolated from earlier campaigns described by Dorn (1974) and Hsu and Chang (1971) and the campaigns of 1944, supplemented with command information from Generals.dk.

Units that deployed as part of a higher echelon (such divisions assigned to armies) are not listed separately. Also, units redesignated from other units are not included, though the redesignation is noted. The intent is to give a reasonable reinforcement schedule for war games.

Tabulated information

Unit. This is the name of the unit.

Commander. This is the commander of the unit at the time of its activation. For units already active when war broke out, it is the commander of the unit on 7 December 1941. In general, we do not display commanders below flag or general rank. Ships showing a commander are the flagship of that commander.

Start. This gives the date and location of the unit's activation. For units already active when war broke out, only the location is given (at 8:00 AM on 7 December 1941, Hawaii time). If no location is given, a unit should be assumed to be at the same location as its operational headquarters (or administrative headquarters if no operational assignment is given.) Naval headquarters are located on the flagship of their commander unless otherwise specified.

Administrative Assignment. The administrative assignments in this table represent the formal organizational structure. The table is sorted by adminstrative assignment, such that every unit appears after the unit to which it is administratively assigned.

Operational Assignment. The operational assignment, if one is given, represents temporary attachment to another unit for a single operation. For example, an aircraft carrier might be administratively assigned to a carrier division, but be operationally assigned to a task force for a particular mission.

Notes. This is miscellaneous information about a unit, such as its manpower and equipment, where it was raised, what its initial orders were, any redesignation of the unit, and how well it performed in battle.

Organization of the tables

The order of battle tables are laid out for maximum readability by software tools while retaining some semblance of human readability. In addition to the displayed text and associated links, each unit has an HTML anchor with a unique identifier based on the unit name. For example, the entry for 3 Army Group includes the anchor 3_Army_Group, which appears immediately before the unit name in the table. These anchors are used to cross-reference the tables but may also be of use to software tools scanning the tables.

We are considering offering the complete orders of battle as SQL files or as C++ code. Users of the Encyclopedia who desire these or other formats may write to trollingshallows@msn.com and make their desires know.

The order of battle

The rank and unit structure of the Kuomintang Army was inflated relative to Western and Japanese armies. Divisions typically had a strength of just 6,000 to 7,000 men, except for a few divisions organized and trained by German advisors before 1937 or American advisors after 1942. The echelon above division is described by different sources either as corps or army; because histories of the Burma campaign have leaned towards army, and because the next higher echelon is usually described as army group, we have settled on army in this Encyclopedia. The army is the lowest echelon listed separately in the order of battle which follows.

There were ~300 divisions active in December 1941, of which the vast majority were poorly trained and equipped. 1,200,000 men (~176 divisions) were under Chiang, of whom 650,000 were directly controlled and 550,000 under nominally loyal warlords. Total manpower was 3 million men. The best 31 divisions, "The Generalissimo’s Own" (300,000 men), had been trained and equipped by the Germans prior to the Tripartite Pact and were relatively capable. However, they were constantly held in reserve against the Communists and rebel warlords, who Chiang regarded as the real long term enemy. The remaining ~145 divisions were under regional warlords or the Communists.

Replacements

The Kuomintang inducted some 14 million men between 1937 and 1945. However, peak strength never exceeded 6 million men, which gives the reader some idea of the casualty rate (which likely includes a fair number of desertions.) The bulk of the army replacements came from Szechuan (close to half a million conscripts per year towards the end of the war, about a third of all conscripts) and from Hunan (another quarter million recruits per year.)

The following table provides some additional clues on  recruitment versus casualties (Hsiung and Levine 1992):

Number of divisions in combat by year

References

Dorn (1974)

Ellis (1993)

Generals.dk (accessed 2008-8-16)

Hsiung and Levine (1992)

Hsu and Chang (1971)

Willmott (1982)

The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2008-2010 by Kent G. Budge. Index

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