Giretsu
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The Imperial Japanese Army "Giretsu" special forces unit was active in 1944 and 1945.
These special forces were trained for one-way travel (shore landing or parachute drop) to USAAF bases in Saipan, Tinian and Guam, and the Ryūkyū islands. They used special versions of Mitsubishi Ki-21 "Sally" and Mitsubishi Ki-67-I Hiryū "Peggy" heavy bombers among other aircraft. These units were formed by Japanese Navy and Japanese Army paratroopers with special training. The operations were a last-ditch attempt to delay USAAF B-29 strike operations against the Japanese home islands.
[edit] Uniforms
The Giretsu units wore a yellow-bordered red badge with a yellow star in the center. Navy members wore a white-bordered dark blue sign with white anchor in the center. Their uniforms during 1944-45 operations were the standard Army Khaki colour with the addition of green and dark brown spots, with a clear or dark brown belt and harness. These units used their badge in their cap and khepi plus a sign on the right arm and small Hinomaru or Kyokujitsu-ki flags on the left arm also, plus dark brown boots.
Certain units wore a brown vest over their uniform to carry cartridges, grenades or other hand explosives, amongst their standard Nambu pistol or revolver and knife in the belt or boot
[edit] Encounters with Allied forces
The Allies encountered the bases of these units after the war in northern Honshū, where they discovered a concentration of 200 aircraft of assorted bomber types, which were to have carried 2,000 paratroop commandos of "Giretsu" special forces to the "Superfortress" B-29 bases in Marianas (and some to Okinawa and Ryūkyū bases).
These operations was undertaken at night, preceded by air strikes by Army Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate "Frank" fighter bombers Mitsubishi Ki-67 Hiryū "Peggy" heavy bombers, Navy Nakajima B6N Tenzan "Jill" torpedo-bombers and Kawanishi N1K-J Shiden "George" fighter bombers. Later the air transports arrived and launched paratroopers on hostile airfields to destroy enemy airplanes on the ground. Another variant was to send a first raid near the enemy location, for later launch the next wave at the actual enemy base, under cover of light artillery weapons from the first group surrounding hostile positions.
