17th Infantry Regiment
17th Infantry Regiment
🟡 索引- Code name
- 杉四七一七
- Higher formation
- 第八師団
- Depot district
- 秋田
- Raised at
- 秋田
- Colours received
- 明19.8.17
- Commanding officer
- 藤重正従
- Main theatres
- the First Sino-Japanese War - the Russo-Japanese War - the Siberian Intervention - the Manchurian Incident - the Second Sino-Japanese War - the Second World War
- Action
- the decisive battle of Luzon
War record
Formed at Akita, moved south from Manchuria→posted to the defence of Balayan Bay and Tayabas Bay, south of Lake Taal on Luzon (from September 1944)→used deception measures such as bogus staff officers and vehicle movements to hold its wide sector→after the American landing the fighting was mainly against anti-Japanese guerrillas→the survivors gathered near Laguna Lake at the end of July 1945 and the fighting stopped in August→after the war the regimental commander and others were executed following war-crimes trials
To defend two vast bays with a single regiment, it ran a deception operation in which officers wearing staff-officer shoulder boards were moved from place to place to give the impression of a much larger force.
Source: The Regimental Histories of the Pacific War, 戦史の本 誌面108
Began under the Sendai garrison, passed to the 2nd Division, and moved to the newly formed 8th Division in 1898; served in Japan's major wars from the First Sino-Japanese War onward
What is still not known
- Men of this unit: apart from the commander, no names have been gathered yet.
This card is made only of facts copied from one book. Only what can be confirmed against a primary source will one day become 🟢. An empty field means the book does not say. Nothing has been filled in by guesswork.
Source: 戦史の本 誌面108
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