Naval Air Force:
Apart from 370 training and reserve machines, the Japanese Naval Air Force totalled aprox. 1,400 aircraft. There were 660 fighters, 330 carrier-borne strike aircraft, 240 twin-engined shore-based torpedo-bombers specifically intended for fleet cooperation, and 520 flying boats and seaplanes.
All these aircraft were organised in the Combined Air Fleet, based at Kanoya, and were subduvided into the 1st Air Fleet (the Carrier Fleet) and the 11th Air Fleet (under Vice-Admiral Nishizo Tsukuhura) shore-based in Formosa and Indo-China. The fleets were further divided into air flotillas (each commanded by a rear-admiral), which where themselves composed of two or more air groups. Each air group comprised a base unit and 12 to 36 aircraft with 4 to 12 in reserve, depending on size. The combat formation was the air division of about nine aeroplanes.
During 1939-40, the Soviet armed forces were undergoing a period of transition. New weapons and tactical ideas were being developed, but misguided and often stultifying central control meant that there was little sense of initiative or responsibility, and important advances in any sphere were often left in isolation. The excellent progress made in tank construction, for instance, was counterbalanced by the absence of an effective radio-communication system, without which tanks were severely restricted.
The Soviet Union placed great reliance on cavalry because of vast distances, poor road and rail communications and the inability of Soviet industry to provide vehicles for all of such a huge army.
The Soviet Union was divided into 13 military districts and 2 military commissariats.
The Army was essentially a standing army which was run by professional cadre, but it relied on conscription for the mass of its personnel. Men were liable for military service for a period of 22 years from the age of 20 to 41.
The peacetime strength of the army was estimated at 1,800,000 men, while mobilised strength could be as high as 11,000,000.
The baleful influence of Stalin over the Soviet armed forces during the 1930s culminated in the purges of 1938 which decimated the officer corps. Almost inevitably, the most able and outspoken officers were destroyed by the purges and this was a significant factor in the poor performance of the Red Army in the Winter War against Finland in 1939. It has been estimated that Soviet casualties were about 200,000 men during this short campaign.
Basic Red Army units:
Rifle Division Cavalry Division Heavy Tank Brigade Light Tank Brigade
Total units 110
(including 23 Territorial divisions) 44 4 21
Infantry regiments 3 with 2,900 officers and men each 2 motorised rifle battalions
(total approx. 1,900 officers and men) 2,745 officers and men 2,745 officers and men
Cavalry
regiments - 4 - -
Total men 19,000 ? ? ?
Machine guns 417
(174 heavy 7.62mm Maxim, 243 light 7.62mm Degtyares) ? ? ?
Mortars 100+
(50 to 120mm) ? ? ?
Howitzers and Fieldguns 100
(12 x 152mm, 28 x 122mm, 42 x 76mm, 18 infantry guns) approx. 50
(76mm) 46 guns, self-propelled or moved by tractors 46 guns, self-propelled or moved by tractors
Anti-tank guns 72
(45mm) ? ? ?
Tanks 22 T-26, 16 T-37
64
(BT or armoured cars) 136 T-28 (one Brigade with 2/3 T-35s), 37 BT, 10 flame-thrower tanks 278 BT or 267 T-26
Lorries and tractors ? ? 521 521
Red Air Force
Throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s the Soviet Government made enormous efforts to build up a large modern air force, but the difficulties in finding suitable designs and the machines and materials to mass produce aircraft were enormous.
To overcome the lack of pilots and mechanics the government poured money into the voluntary organisation Osoaviakhim (Society for the Support of Defence, Aviation and Chemical Defence). Soon after its formation in 1927 it had a membership of three million which had grown to 13 million by 1936. Aero clubs were set up to provide pilots, mechanics and parachutists, and until 1940 all Red Air Force volunteers came from this source. Shortages of instructors, training aids and aircraft meant that the standard attained was very low, however, and it was finally decided to select Air Force recruits from the annual military draft.
Between 1935 and 1937, 3,576 aircraft, including a large proportion of four-engined bombers, were produced, but as the numbers increased so effectiveness decreased because the technical standard of the aircraft industry was falling behind developments in more advanced industrial nations.
The Red Air Force had its first practical experience in the Spanish Civil War and this resulted in certain organisational and operational changes, but it was the traumatic experience of the Winter War against Finland (in which some 1,000 Soviet aircraft were lost) that really showed up the alarming shortcomings in training, tactics and equipment. Red Air Force commanders were not ignorant of these defects but the purges of 1937-1938, which removed many senior commanders, meant that the remedies undertaken were not necessarily the most effective.
The Air Force of the Red Army (VVS-RKKA) was divided into two basic components. The first was the Air Force of the Red Army which consisted of fighter and ground attack regiments under the direct control of a Military District (later Front). The second component was the Long-Range Bomber Force which was at the disposal of the State Commissariat of Defence for tactical deployment on any front when necessary.
In April 1939 a thorough re-organisation within the Air Force took place. The largest formation was now the air division, which comprised between four and six air regiments (formerly brigades). Each regiment consisted of about 60 aircraft with additional reserve planes (usually about 40 aircraft).
There were three types of Air Regiment:
bomber regiments with four squadrons of 12 aircraft each;
fighter regiments with four squadrons of 15 aircraft each;
ground attack regiments with four squadrons of 15 aircraft each.
The squadron was divided into wings of three aircraft.
The Air Force attached to a Military District or Front included a number of fighter and bomber regiments, while mixed regiments with both bomber and fighter components were attached to army corps, which also retained their own reconnaissance squadrons.
important aircraft types in 1939 number of planes
Beriev MBR-2 flying boat approx. 1,500 built 1933-42
Illyushin II-4 bomber 1,528 built 1937-39
Polikarpov I-15 fighter
approx. 1,000+
Polikarpov I-16 fighter approx. 5,000
Tupolev SB-2 bomber approx. 6,000 built 1936-1941
Tupolev TB-3 heavy bomber 800 built 1931-1939
Total Finnish Forces at the Winter War:
400,000 men, 9 divisions
145 planes
2 coast defence ships, 5 submarines
http://ww2total.com/WW2/History/Orders-of-Battle/Fleets-September-1939.htm
By May 1940, the number of divisions in the German army was as follows:
• 129 infantry divisions;
• 8 motorised infantry divisions (3 Waffen-SS);
• 10 panzer divisions;
• 3 mountain divisions;
• 1 cavalry division;
• 2 airborne divisions;
In addition the SS-Verfuegungstruppe (from April 1940, known as the Waffen-SS) provided three motorised infantry divisions and a brigade. There were now over two-and-a-half million men under arms in the German Army, of which the Waffen-SS contributed about 100,000.
For the invasion of France the German Army was organised into three army groups:
Army Group A (von Rundstedt) with 45 1/2 divisions including 7 panzer;
Army Group B (von Bock) with 29 1/2 divisions including 3 panzer, and
Army Group C (von Leeb) with 19 divisions.
Army Group C held a defensive position against the Maginot Line while the main offensive was launched by Rundstedt’s Army Group A in the Ardennes with a subsidiary invasion of Holland and Belgium undertaken by Army Group B.
From 9 April (when German troops invaded Denmark and Norway) to the armistice with France on 25 June, the German Army confirmed the superiority of its organisation and tactics. Losses in Norway were 5636 men; the invasion of France and the Low Countries cost 27,074 killed, 111,034 wounded and 18,348 missing. On some single days in World War I the losses were higher.
German Air Force (Luftwaffe) and Airborne Forces:
For the campaign in the West the Luftwaffe deployed 3,902 aircraft (1,482 bombers and dive-bombers, 42 ground-attack planes, 1,016 fighter planes and 248 Bf110 twin-engined fighters).
Colonel-General Kesselring commanded Luftflotte 2 with I, IV and IX Fliegerkorps in support of General von Bock’s Army Group B.
Colonel-General Sperrle commanded Luftflotte 3 with II, V and VIII Fliegerkorps in support of General von Rundstedt’s Army Group A.
The forces within the Territorial Air Zones based in Italy were organised as follows:
• Northern Zone: 7 wings of bombers (approx. 315 planes) and 3 wings (plus one group) of CR-42 fighters (approx. 210 planes);
• Central Zone: three wings of bombers (approx. 135 planes) and two wings and a group of fighter planes (approx. 150 planes);
• Southern Zone: five bomber wings (approx. 225 planes) and one fighter wing as well as an autonomous fighter group (approx. 90 planes) and dive¬bomber group (approx. 25 planes);
• South-Eastern Zone: one wing of night-bombers (approx. 45 planes) and float-planes and a group of obsolescent CR-32 fighters (approx. 30 planes).
• the largest of the overseas commands was that based in Libya and comprised four bomber wings (approx. 180 planes) ; a fighter wing and three other fighter groups (approx. 150 planes) ; and two groups plus two squadrons of colonial reconnaissance aircraft (approx. 60 planes).
The Italian Air Force begun the war with nearly 2,000 operational aircraft ready for combat and with almost the same number in reserve.
Italian Navy (Regia Navale)
Mussolini hoped that the Regia Navale would play an important part in any Mediterranean war. He saw control of the sea (Mare Nostrum - Our Sea - was how he described the Mediterranean) as an essential prerequisite for expanding his empire into Nice, Corsica, Tunis and the Balkans.
Picture: a heavy cruiser of the Zara class is firing the guns.
Italian naval building accelerated during his tenure of power, and by June 1940, the Navy comprised:
• 4 battleships;
• 8 heavy cruisers;
• 14 light cruisers;
• 128 destroyers;
• 115 submarines;
• 62 motor-torpedo boats.
There were 1,235 Italian merchant ships, totalling 3,448,453 tons.
The Navy lacked aircraft, and was dependent on the Air Force for protection and reconnaissance. This was an unsatisfactory state of affairs; co-operation was poor, and although the torpedo-bombers and reconnaissance aircraft of the Regia Aeronautica were effective, high-level bombers did not have much success against ships at sea.
Basic US Army units in 1942:
Infantry Division (motorised) Armoured Division Tank Battalion Tank Destroyer Battalion
Total units (in summer 1942) aprox. 28
(42 in December 1942 including armoured) aprox. 5
(16 in 1944-45) 2 +
(65 in 1944-45, often being combined in groups of 3-5, sometimes with mechanized infantry units) 3 +
(80 in 1945)
Infantry regiments 3
(each with three battailons, each with 860 men) 1
(with three battailons, each with 860 men, all mounted on half-tracks) - -
Total men 14,253 10,900 729 1,250
Machine guns 280
(147 x .30, 133 x .50) aprox. 93
(49 x .30, 44 x .50) - -
Mortars 138
(81 x 60mm, 57 x 81mm) 46
(27 x 60mm, 19 x 81mm) - -
Artillery 48
(36 x US 105mm Howitzer, 12 x US 155mm Howitzer)
Self-propelled howitzers 24
(18 x 75mm, 6 x 105mm) 54
(105mm) - -
Anti-tank guns 109
(37mm M3A1 , later 57mm) ? - -
Anti-aircraft guns anti-aircraft battalions were controlled by the Army
Vehicles 1,440
(note: this capacity was not enough to move all equipment and personnel simultaneously) 1,000+ - -
Armoured Cars - 68
(M8) - -
Tanks - 227
(159 medium M3 Lee or M4 Sherman, 68 Stuart)
68
(51 medium M3 Lee or M4 Sherman, 17 Stuart)
36
(M10)
US Army Air Force
In the 1930s there were dramatic strides in civil and commercial aviation, and by the eve of the war the United States was the world leader in civil aviation. Army aviation lagged sadly behind. Its aircraft were not capable of meeting the demands of the war to come, and production was quite limited in comparison with the industry’s potential. In 1938 only 1,800 military aircraft were built, and 2,195 in the following year. But in 1939, when the 1935 Neutrality Act was repealed, the American aircraft industry began to recover. (The Act had put an embargo on the export of all military material to belligerent countries, with the aim of keeping America out of war.) France and Britain were major new customers for American aircraft, and the 1941 Lend-Lease Act gave this production a new boost.
In 1939 the USAAC had a total of 2,400 aircraft, while the U.S. Navy Air Force had 2,500 aircraft, 600 of which were carrier-based.
When war broke out the Army had 3,305 aircraft in a state of readiness, while the Navy had about 3,000 aircraft ready.
Basic British and Empire Army units in August 1940:
Infantry Division (motorised) Armoured Division
Total units approx. 29 - 33 3
Infantry brigades 3 with 2,340 men and 99 officers each 2 battalions with 1,560 men and 66 officers together
Total men 13,600 ?
Artillery 72
(36 x 18 pounders, 36 x 4.5inch Howitzers or 18/25 pounders or 25 pounders) approx. 48
(25 pounders)
Anti-tank guns 75
(2 pounders or 25mm) approx. 48
(2 pounders)
Tanks 28 light tanks, 44 Universal Bren carriers 220 cruiser tanks
Total British and Empire divisions in France on 10 May 1940: 10
Total British and Empire divisions in Great Britain in August 1940: 26 (2 armoured), all short of equipment.
