"Did the Japs use fighting holes?" Topic

During WW2 did the Jap army or Marines use fighting hole(foxholes), I have not read of anything that says they did has anyone else? Did they just fight from trenches and bunkers.

Rifle pits?

Yes – certainly in Burma

"An observer in another area reported that the enemy depended largely upon foxholes and individual weapon pits for defense positions in his forward area. Most of the positions were well camouflaged with natural foliage, and some of the foxholes were covered, with lids resembling trap doors. Japanese soldiers would keep these lids down except for short periods of observation. Some of these positions were 4 feet deep. Around the top of each position was a bundle of brushwood, about 2 feet high and tied together with wire. One of these posts contained three grenades, a rifle, an individual cooker, and an ammunition box full of rice and various papers—evidence of the self-contained nature of Japanese individual defense positions. "

link

I think the IJA called individual fighting positions 'octopus pits', takotsubo. GOK why that sticks in my mind.

here's something

link

and

link

Yes, both sides did. If the Japanese had time to prepare the defense, as on some of the islands, they even connected them together underground so that soldiers could move from position to position without interference. In that case, they were called spider holes.

According to accounts of the 192nd Tank Battalion operating against "The Points" and "The Pockets" on Bataan in Feb. 1942 the Japanese dug 'spider holes' that usually held an individual rifleman. The Japanese would try and seperate the infantry from the tanks and pop out of the holes to place thermite charges on the tanks or drag mines across the trail with a cord. The Americans and Philippines Scouts countered this by assigning four or five scouts to each tank. The scouts would then bayonet, shoot, or grenade the Japanese when they ducked down to let the tank pass.

That sounds like it would make an awesome skirmish scenario!

Impala,
I've collected a bunch of 1941 US figures that I painted as Philippines Scouts and I have a few Stuarts that I've yet to put together.

Another skirmish action during the same battle involved more tanks, this time supported by Philippines Army Igorot tribesmen. The Igorots would ride on the backs of the Stuarts and when they spotted a Japanese position, one of the tribesmen would bang on the turret with his bolo to indicate which direction to shoot. The tank would then light up the Japanese position with its machine guns. The Igorots were former headhunters from the Luzon highlands and would often become exited and dismount the tanks to hack the Japanese to death in their spider holes!

The Japanese would dig in deep at an alarming rate once they took a position. One of the keys to their success was that they were frequently fighting tactically on the defensive, even when they were strategically on the offensive. That is, they would infiltrate past the defenders, take a key piece of terrain (preferaby cutting the Allied lines of communication) and then dig in and defend.

There is a very interesting XIVth Army training pamphlet here on Japanese fighting methods, including details of their fortified positions:

link

R Mark Davies,
That is an interesting pamphlet!
I saved it to my favorites.
From my Fall of the Philippines reasearch I came across an unusual case involving an immobilized Stuart that was used by the Japanese as a fighting position.
The crew of the tank was unable to escape and the Japanese managed to burn them to death using the fuel canisters stowed on the rear deck.
The Japanese then dug in around and under the vehicle and dumped the earth spoil inside the tank, entombing the crew!
The Japanese position was overrun and the tank salvaged later on. A very strange tale, but confirmed by several eyewitnesses in the 192nd Tank Battalion.
This happened on around Febuary 3rd, 1942.

I would guess that the Japanese dumped all the earth inside the tank to camouflage their position and also to cut down the effects of decomposition in the extreme heat.

Just finished "With the Old Breed" by Sledge – a great book – the Japanese and Marines would both dig fox-holes whenever they could – some of the islands were too rocky so they had to use improvised positions

They certainly knew how to dig in …

What Frederick said…!!

WRT Zippy's post – those fighting positions had extensions
of either shallow trench-works or tunnels to other
rifle-pits. Viwed from above, they'd appear as an
octopus, the 'arms' the accesses to the remote fighting
pits from the central pit.

Couple diagrams as examples I've seen – if I can find them
again, I'll post a link…