Brigades and Equivalents
The Japanese Imperial Army had two types of Mixed Brigades.
- The divisional Mixed Brigade was the semi-permanent detachment of a brigade from an Infantry Division with various Divisional support units or units attached from its Corps or Army. This provided a combined arms force of infantry, artillery, cavalry and other support units.
- List of IJA Mixed Brigades
- The Independent Mixed Brigade was a detachment composed of various units detached from other units or independent support units formed together in a brigade. The first two Independent Mixed Brigades, formed by the Kwantung Army in the 1930s was the IJA 1st Independent Mixed Brigade and the IJA 11th Independent Mixed Brigade. Each of these brigades were organized in a unique manner and one of them, the 11th was later formed into the IJA 26th Division.
- Later a series of Independent Mixed Brigades were formed for the purpose of garrisoning the large territories of China captured in the early phase of the Second Sino-Japanese War. This variety for China was usually organized with five infantry battalions, an artillery unit, and labor troops. In the Pacific theater they had different and more varied configurations of subordinate units. Towards the end of the Burma Campaign, some were hastily formed from line-of-communication troops, and even naval personnel and conscripted Japanese civilian workers.
- The Independent Infantry Brigade; several of these were raised as garrison units, mostly for China.
- List of IJA Independent Infantry Brigades
- The 1st to 4th Amphibious Brigades were formed for use in the Pacific theater. These 3,500 man Sea-Landing Brigades, were used to conduct amphibious assaults on an island but afterwards they stayed to garrison that island.
Read more about this topic: Organization Of The Imperial Japanese Army, Organization of The Imperial Japanese Army