Ukrainian Kish (= Corps), February 1919 - TO&E drawing

 

In early 1919 armed forces of the Ukrainian People's Republic, which took control of the Ukraine after the successful rebellion against the Ukrainian State, were in retreat after attacks of Bolshevik Russians and internal unrests of peasant rebels, who refused to accept any kind of state power on their lands.

Situation was aggravated by the fact, that most Ukrainian Corpses-Divisions-Regiments, hastily formed during the rebellion, had many personnel in the headquarters and trains, but few combat troops.

general Oleksandr Grekov

So mid-February 1919, the new commander of the UNR Army general Oleksandr Grekov decided to carry out reorganization to reduce the number of headquarters and to create a more flexible organizational structure, better suited to the conditions of maneuver warfare.

According to the order dated 21 February 1919, “in keeping with historical traditions and the nature of combat operations,” the army was to consist of “koshes” (singular: “kish”), replacing the previous corps structure. Each “kish” had only 2 brigades (named “zagin” – literally “detachment”), but each is to be composed of very large battalions. Various formations were to be consolidated, divisions and regiments were eliminated, headquarters and trains were reduced.

The new organization of the infantry battalion was particularly unusual: it had 5 infantry and 2 machine gun companies, whereas a standard infantry battalion at the time typically comprised no more than 3-4 infantry companies and 1 machine gun company.

Unfortunately, not a single “kish” under the new organizational scheme was ever fully formed. Constant combat operations made a thorough reorganization impossible; furthermore, the new structure differed too radically from the familiar and well-established "corps-division-regiment" system to which career officers were accustomed. This necessitated a revision of tactics as well – something for which there was neither the time nor the inclination.

SVG-file of tactical symbols I use to make company-level TO&E drawings and OOBs

 

I’d like to share the SVG-file of tactical symbols I use to make company-level TO&E drawings and OOBs. OOB symbols on top, individual symbols for TO&Es are at the bottom.

Hope they’ll be useful to other ORBAT makers. Feel free to use them.

The download link is: https://https://rikukaigun.org/UNIT%20and%20INDIVIDUAL%20symbols%20by%20Eugen%20Pinak%20v.5-2026-07-15.zip
NDIVIDUAL%20symbols%20by%20Eugen%20Pinak%20v.5-2026-07-15.zip

TO&E drawing, Japanese regimental gun company of Type B infantry regiment (1929)

The Imperial Japanese Army constantly faced shortages of infantry heavy weapons. This led to the situation, when new organization was created without providing all the weapons, necessary for it.

Sometimes shortages were so severe, that quite unusual units were created - like this regimental gun company of Type B infantry regiment in 1929.

Unlike regimental gun company of Type A infantry regiment, described here: https://vijsko.blogspot.com/2026/05/to-drawing-japanese-regimental-gun.html - company lacked mortars and there was no weapons to replace them. So 2 mortar platoons were armed with rifles and were provisionally used as infantry.

This "gun-infantry" company, apparently, was not mentioned in any tactical manuals, as it was provisional organization until more heavy weapons will be available. 

TO&E drawing, Japanese regimental gun company of Type A infantry regiment (1929)

 

This organization was introduced for the new regimental heavy weapons: Type 11 37 mm infantry gun and  Type 11 70 mm infantry mortar, officially adopted in the 11th year of the Emperor Taishō's reign (= 1922).

Note, this is wartime organization only. In peacetime Japanese infantry regiment had only 1 heavy  weapons platoon (1 gun and 1 mortar) in the regimental machine-gun company.

Type 11 37 mm infantry gun 

Type 11 70 mm infantry mortar

Japanese infantry division in 1938, peacetime organization as seen by Soviet intelligence

Japanese infantry division in 1938, peacetime organization as seen by Soviet intelligence.

Japanese infantry regiment Type "A", 1940 – TO&E organization drawing

Organization of the Japanese infantry regiment Type "A", created 1940, was the product of the reorganizations in 1930s.

Unusual feature of this unit was regimental Gun (or Artillery) Battalion to command regimental gun company and anti-tank company, which were previously subordinated directly to the regimental headquarters. 

But those battalions existed but for a short time. Tables of organization for this unit were adopted in October 1940, units were probably created by Spring of 1941, and by November 1941 some of them were already disbanded.  

It is not hard to guess, why this happened: two subordinate companies had too different duties to be put under the same headquarters. So previous arrangement was found out to be the best after all and all Type "A" infantry regiments had those headquarters disbanded.

But other features of this organization were considered successful and survived until 1945.

Proposed IJA infantry regiment, 1941 – TO&E drawing

Proposed organization of the infantry regiment of the Imperial Japanese Army, as seen by US intelligence. This organization was described, as part of the new divisional organization of the IJA, in the TM 30-480 "Handbook On Japanese Military Forces", published in 1941.

One thing immediately noticeable, compared to actual organization: serious shortage of transport horses with no motor vehicles available. Regiment couldn't move even its basic supplies. Maybe author of such arrangement thought, that fully motorized transport regiment of the division could detach its trucks to carry regimental supplies?

This organization does not correspond to the real tables of organization, introduced by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1940. Though some details does show knowledge of the actual Japanese infantry organization. Probably this organization is based on some proposals, published in contemporary Japanese military literature.