Group Armies - 1985
ARMIES BY MR AND MISSION - 2015 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| MR | Army | Mission | Category |
| Shenyang | 16 | Defense/Offense CT | B |
| 39 | RRU, Mobile Offense | A | |
| 40 | Defense/Offense CT | B | |
| Beijing | 27 | Defense | A |
| 38 | RRU, Mobile Offense | A | |
| 65 | Defense | B | |
| Jinan | 20 | Offense CT/Defense | B |
| 26 | Offense CT/Defense | B | |
| 54 | Offense MF, amphibious | A | |
| Nanjing | 1 | Amphibious/Offense CT | A |
| 12 | Amphibious/Offense CT | B | |
| 31 | Amphibious/Offense CT | B | |
| Guangzhou | 15 | Airborne, RRU | ABN |
| 41 | Offense CT, Amphibious | A | |
| 42 | Amphibious | B | |
| Chengdu | 13 | Defense/Offense CT | A |
| 14 | Defense/Offense CT | B | |
| Lanzhou | 21 | Defense/Offense MF | A |
| 47 | Defense/Offense CT | B | |
|
MF – Mobile Force RRU – Rapid Reaction Unit CT – Complex Terrain (Mountain, urban, jungle, etc.) | |||
In the mid-1980s, Deng Xiaoping began to redefine the PLA after a reassessment in 1985 of the overall international security environment that lowered the probability of a major or nuclear war. Deng asserted that China would be confronted with limited, local wars on its periphery. The number of military regions was reduced from 11 to 7, and the 37 field armies were restructured to bring “tank, artillery, anti-aircraft artillery, engineer, and NBC defense units under a combined arms corps-level headquarters called the Group Army.
Group Army (also known as Field Army) was a military unit originally composed of two to three armies belonging to the Army Group (English: Army Group ) or Front Army (in the Soviet Army). In the major military region, the commander was the commander of the group army, and sets up the group army command organ (such as the staff), the group army chief of staff led the group army command. During the Great War the various echelons of command included army groups, field armies, corps, and divisions. At this time the division was considered to be a large unit. The idea of the army group as an intermediary headquarters developed, and by the end of the War, all major powers had experimented with the army group echelon of command control. the French General Joffre directly commanded eight armies prior to the Battle of the Marne in September 1914, and Von Moltke directly commanded seven German armies. The Russian leader, Grand Duke Nicholas, commanded six armies but organized his command structure differently. The rank of the commander of the group army was generally a full general.
The Chinese People's Liberation Army commander was not called "Commander of the Group Army", but was called "Group Commander", and his rank was Major General. China's "group army" was actually a military-level unit which had several divisions and independent brigades, while Western Army usually had several armies, which was one level higher than China. Therefore, the official English version of the "China Defense White Paper" in 2013 does not regard China's "group army" as a unit at the same level, but refers to China's group army as combined corps. "Diversified Employment at The Armed Forces of China's" wrote: "The PLAA mobile operational units include 18 combined corps, plus additional independent combined operational divisions (brigades), and have a total strength of 850,000. The combined corps, composed of divisions and brigades, were respectively under the seven military area commands (MACs)".
The Army Group Commander was concerned with the conduct of the entire operation in which his group was involved and with long-term strategic planning. The Operations Department was controlled by a chief of staff who was responsible for the operational direction of subordinate units in accordance with the commander's plan. This department includes subordinate sections responsible for operations and training, personnel, securiry, artillery, armor, engineers, chemical warfare, communications, and reconnaissance. The Political Department deals with all political as well as security and propaganda matters. It was also responsible for all aspects of the soldier's welfare, and together with the Operations Department, for the interrogation of prisoners of war. All matters related to civilians, including the Communist Youth League were dealt with by this department. The Logistics Department was responsible for all aspects of logistic support. It was divided into ordnance, quartermaster, finance, and services sections and was supported by a medical and a transportation battalion.
In December 1978, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party determined that the focus of the work of the entire Party should be shifted to economic construction. The guiding ideology of our army construction had also undergone tremendous changes, re-establishing the general policy and task of building a powerful modern, regular and revolutionary army. At the beginning of the reform and opening up in the 1980s, the army successively carried out three large-scale adjustments and reforms.
In July 1980, the Central Military Commission adopted the Central Military Commission’s Plan on the Simplification and Reorganization of the Army, which clearly proposed streamlining the organization, compressing non-combatants and support forces, and increasing the proportion of special forces. The key point is to streamline the establishment of posts to "swell the swelling" of the troops. In this round of reforms, the original 35 troops of the Army had been enriched, and the mobility of air defense and anti-tank and troops had been further enhanced.
With the improvement of the country's external environment and the recovery of the national economy, in February 1982, the Central Military Commission set up a system reform, streamlined and reorganized the leading group, and established the principle of "refining troops, combining, combining peace and war, and improving efficiency" as the main reform principles. According to the "Structured Recruitment of Military System Reform" issued by the Military Commission, the 38th Army of the Beijing Military Region and the 39th Army of the Shenyang Military Region each deployed a main division to form a mechanized infantry division, and the original division of the tank division and most artillery The division was placed under the Army of the Army, and the 43rd Army of the Wuhan Military Region was also responsible for the formation of the pilot group of the Combined Army.
In September 1982, the Central Military Commission issued the "Military System Reform Streamlining and Reorganization Plan." From December 1982 to March 1983, a part of the army was organized into a group army pilot, and the independent divisions led by the military region were placed under the army’s military system to reform the entire military system and provide combat training, logistics support, etc. experience. In April 1984, the 38th Army of the Beijing Military Region and the 39th Army of the Shenyang Military Region, which carried out the pilot tasks of the Synthetic Army, each had a main division to start the mechanization division. This is the earliest two mechanization divisions of the army. The 38th Army and the 39th Army were also the earliest army field forces in the army to implement a synthetic group army. Until today, they were still the only two mechanized group armies in the army.
From May 23 to June 6, 1985, the Central Military Commission held an enlarged meeting and decided to transform the guiding ideology of army building onto the track of peacetime construction. The meeting adopted the "Military System Reform and Streamlined Establishment Plan" and made a decision to reduce the number of posts by 1 million.
In the streamlining and reorganization process, 11 major military regions were merged into 7, and 31 military-level units were abolished. The staff of the three headquarters organs was reduced by 47%. According to the basic principle of "going old and staying new", 11 of the original 35 army troops, 11, 19, 29, 43, 46, 50, 55, 60, 66, 68 and 69, were revoked. In addition to the two mechanized troops, the remaining 22 troops are unified into a group army, and all the armored forces, artillery, most of the artillery units, and some field engineering units are included in the army group army sequence.
On June 10, 1985, the Chinese government decided to reduce the number of troops by 1 million. The army’s formed units withdrew 1/4, and the existing 35 troops, according to the basic principle of “going to the old and staying old”, withdrew the names of 11 of them, namely: No. 11, No. 19, No. 29, No. 43, 46th, 50th, 55th, 60th, 66th, 68th, 69th Army. The remaining 24 armies were all formed into combined arms ["synthetic"] armies.
Between 1985 and 1988, number of military regions was reduced from 11 to 7, and the 37 field armies were reformed to 24 group armies, and thousands of units at the regimental level and above were disbanded. These were sometimes referred to as "three three" structures, which the American military had since WWII identified as triangular organizations. These were not fixed organizations, but may be tailored as heavy or light depending upon the terrain and mission, with various configurations including light, heavy, and mountain.
During the Cold War the standard Group Army had three infantry divisions, one artillery regiment, and other supporting troops totaling about 45,000 troops. The new, main-force Group Armies typically include 46,300 troops in up to four divisions, believed to include infantry, armor, artillery, air defense, airborne, and air support elements. Although the new [as of 2001] Group Armies were supposed to reflect a move to combined-arms operations, because of a lack of mechanization they continue to consist of infantry supported by armor, artillery, and other units. The armored divisions each had 3 regiments and 240 main battle tanks but lack adequate mechanized infantry support.
Category B Armies had outdated equipment and were smalller than A Armies. A Group Army had its own leading body, with infantry, armored force, artillery, air defenses, chemical defenses, communications, electronic countermeasures and Army aviations on its staff. Under the old system, a field army consisted of three partially motorized infantry divisions and two regiments of artillery and antiaircraft artillery. Each field army division had over 12,000 personnel in three infantry regiments, one artillery regiment, one armored regiment, and one antiaircraft artillery battalion. Organization was flexible, the higher echelons being free to tailor forces for combat around any number of infantry divisions. At least theoretically, each division had its own armor and artillery -- actual equipment levels were not revealed and probably varied -- and the assets at army level and within the independent units could be apportioned as needed.
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By 2003 each of the PLA's seven military regions had two or three Group Armies. There were a total of 18 Group Armies, down from 24 in 1997. Of the 24, 3 were eliminated in 1997, and 3 more were cut in 2003.
The white paper issued 16 April 2013 officially disclosed, for the first time, how the army, navy, air force and the second artillery corps of the People's Liberation Army were formed. According to the white paper on "the diversified employment of China's armed forces," the PLA Army mobile operational units include 18 combined corps, plus additional independent combined operational divisions (brigades), and had a total strength of 850,000. The combined corps, composed of divisions and brigades, were respectively under the seven Military Area Commands: Shenyang (16th, 39th and 40th Combined Corps), Beijing (27th, 38th and 65th Combined Corps), Lanzhou (21st and 47th Combined Corps), Jinan (20th, 26th and 54th Combined Corps), Nanjing (1st, 12th and 31st Combined Corps), Guangzhou (41st and 42nd Combined Corps) and Chengdu (13th and 14th Combined Corps).
Northern Burma had many minority armies which can't controlled by Burma government, so 14th Group Army was stationed in YunNan provice, and 42th Group Army was stationed in GuangXi provice close to Vienam. There was virtually no army group at India´s border, and Vietnam faces the 14 Group Army and 41 Group Army.
The aim of Group Army offensives is to break through the various echelons of the enemy's main defenses. The offensive employs one or more forms of the envelopment to isolate and destroy the main body of the enemy and, whenever possible, engage his reserve. If the situation precludes envelopment, multiple penetrations of the defensive position were made, followed by envelopment. At army level, the Chinese were capable of reaching objectives as far as 20 to 25 kilometers behind the enemy FEBA in a single night. Attacks at these levels were normally carried out in three echelons consisting of forces of roughly equal strengths; the echelons were assigned attack, support and reserve roles, respectively. In practice, however, an army may be committed in its entirety and backed by reserve armies available to the higher headquarters. The size of the sector and the depth of objectives allocated to a front or army group vary considerably depending on its strength, role, the terrain, and whether or not the campaign is nuclear.
From 1997 to 2003, the Government announced two more disarmament. For example, the 28th, 64th, and 67th Army were withdrawn in September 1998. In October 2003, the 23rd, 24th, and 63rd Army were withdrawn. At this point, the number of Army Groups of the Chinese People's Liberation Army is 18, including 3 Army Groups in the Shenyang Military Region (16th, 39th, and 40th Army), 3 Army Groups in the Beijing Military Region (27th, 38th, and 65th Army), and Lanzhou Military Region 2 Army Group (21st, 47th Army), Jinan Military Region 3 Army (20th, 26th, 54th Army), Nanjing Military Region 3 Army (1st, 12th, 31st Army), Guangzhou Military Region 2 Army (41st and 42nd Army), 2 Army Groups (13th and 14th Army) in the Chengdu Military Region.
On April 16, 2013, the Chinese government released the white paper "Diversified Use of Chinese Armed Forces," which announced for the first time the formation of the People's Liberation Army Army, Navy, Air Force, and Second Artillery Forces, and the first release of the Chinese Army's 18 Army Group numbers. At this point, the Army Group Army number is no longer secret, and no longer appears as "some" that everyone is familiar with, and can be used publicly.
People's Liberation Army Ground Force units will turn to five-digit numerical designations to be referred to as, CCTV news reported, as they will be mentioned by its numerical designation rather than “some unit”, a move to “make the army more transparent.” The designation of China’s group army was no longer confidential information to the public as of Jan. 15, 2013, reported by CCTV news. “How do snipers practice shooting with great precision in such severe coldness. The reporter had witnessed snipers from the 39th Group Army in the Shenyang military area having military drill under the severely cold condition”, CTV military news reported. This was the first time that the designation of a group army was exposed to the public. The CCTV military channel announced through Weibo that,The designation of group army was unveiled as of today”. According to the information, the designation of PLA group army can be used to the public instead of referred to as “a group army” This act indicates ” more open presentation of Chinese army”.
The news which unveiled the designation of the group army for the first time was with the headline “Snipers in the 39th Group Army conducts drill” The news also showed the subtitle of “a soldiers with the 39th Group Army” when soldier Liu Shan and An Shifu were interviewed. At the same time, “Gao Wei, the deputy battalion commander of the 39th Group Army” accepted interview.
Major general Zhu Chenghu, dean of the strategy teaching and research department of the National Defense University, talked about the questions over “the secrecy of Chinese military” when speaking as a guest at the Qiangguo Forum of People’s Daily Online. Zhu said, the transparency of military was relative. Every country had secrecies to some extent. Chinese military had become increasingly transparent over the years. He also mentioned that some related issues could be affected by cultural and history reasons, like the designation and it was more important to adjust the conception.
After the launch of a new round of military reform, the seven major military regions were withdrawn and the five major theaters were established. 18 group armies were transferred to the army under the five major theaters, "changed leadership", "moved house", the eastern theater under the jurisdiction of the first, 12, and 31 armies, the southern theater under the jurisdiction of the 14, 41, 42 armies, and the western theater It governs the 13th, 21st, and 47th group armies, the northern theater controls the 16th, 39th, 40th, and 26th army, and the central theater controls the 20th, 54th, 27th, 38th, and 65th army. The 13 group armies formed by this adjustment were still attributed to the five major theaters in the southeast, northwest, and middle areas.
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