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The Siege February - March 1942 (part 2) Japanese forces and buildup
Japanese Forces Siege of Bataan April 5, 1942
The 20th Army is taken from Kwantung Army February 11with General Seki Genroku in command until his death from dengue fever March 3. He is then replaced by Major General Kita Siechi. The 14th Army is relegated to garrison duty in Luzon and stripped of its artillery, armor and most of its engineers. General Homma is made military governor of Luzon while retaining his command. This is considered a major humiliation but deserved for his failure to destroy the American and Filipino forces before they escaped to Bataan.

14th Army
48th Infantry Division - badly mauled in the early campaign, it is combat ineffective by the end of the December and spends January and February as the garrison of Manila before finally getting sufficient replacements to allow it to be sent to Timor in April 1942.
65th Infantry Division – badly mauled at 1st Bataan, it suffers serious attrition in January and February holding the line from disease before it is moved to Manila to take over garrison duty as well as providing garrisons for northern Luzon.
14th Infantry Division – like the other divisions of the 14th Army, severely mauled at 1st Bataan and suffered serious casualties from disease until pulled out of the line in early March. It takes over garrison duty in southern and central Luzon. The 65th and 14th Divisions are still understrength due to casualties and are not considered capable of offensive operations.
10th Independent Garrison Force – arrives April 2, and consists of 5 infantry battalions of reservists for garrison duty who are assigned positions in central Luzon.

20th Army
16th Infantry Division – badly mauled at 1st Bataan, more so by disease, this division was pulled back to Subic Bay to refit and absorb replacements and remains there until April as the garrison until sufficient Imperial Navy garrison troops can be moved to Subic Bay to take over.
4th Infantry Division – seriously hurt at 1st Bataan, for a time was the only division holding the line for almost two weeks and suffered heavy attrition from disease and small scale clashes with the enemy. It is the highest priority in terms of replacements and thus is fully back up to strength by the end of March, although few of the infantry soldiers in the front line battalions remain from the start of the campaign.
38th Infantry Division – this division conquered Hong Kong, where it took serious losses and committed a number of atrocities. It arrives at Subic Bay in late March and moves into line alongside of the 4th Infantry Division where it quickly becomes known for its aggressive patrolling. Its deployment to the Philippines forced the allocation of a division from Manchuria to take its place in the Invasion of Java

Army troops – 4th, 7th Tank Regiments (150 light and medium tanks total), 3rd, 21st Engineer Regiments, 1st, 8th, 16th Field Artillery regiments (105 and 150 mm guns), 9th Artillery battalion (150 mm guns)
also arriving is the 62nd Infantry Brigade (drawn from the 21st Infantry Division out of Indochina)

1st Artillery Special Brigade (5.9 inch howitzers, 9.4 inch guns, and 210 mm howitzers, with the 9.4 inch guns already shelling Fort Frank, the rest are in Bataan). Later the 10th Artillery Command, a division sized formation, takes over and the 1st Special Brigade is incorporated into it.

Also arriving is the 22nd Air Brigade with 60 Helen bombers to upgrade Army aviation in the Philippines and take the place of Naval Air Force units that have been sent elsewhere. This gives the Japanese Army 90 medium and 120 light bombers for operations over Luzon, along with 60 Nate and Oscar fighters.

Navy Units
1st and 4th Kure Special Naval Landing Force (brigade strength units, with the 1st at Manila, the 4th at Subic Bay). Only a few float planes and flying boats remained assigned to the Philippines at this time.

As of April 1, the Japanese have suffered 35,000 casualties, including 8,000 dead, 11,000 wounded or sick to the point of evacuation from the theater, and the Americans hold 250 prisoners (most of whom were captured while wounded and helpless).


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