Group armies (simplified Chinese:集团军;traditional Chinese:集團軍;pinyin:jítuán jūn) orarmy groups orcombined corps,[1][2] arecorps-level[3]military formations of thePeople's Liberation Army Ground Force of China. Despite what the name suggests, current Group Armies are notarmy-level formations, but corps-sized formations commanding 12 to 14brigades, roughly equivalent toUnited States Army Corps.
Some may use or translate 'Group Army' loosely to mean the same asArmy Group through various time periods of history, depending on whether themilitary formation is under Nationalist China (ROC) or Communist China (PRC). Chinese Army Group or Group Army used to be equivalent tofield army orarmy group in other militaries due to translation issues and ambiguity of theChinese language. This is because while"军" inChinese means "corps" when classifying by size or number of troops, it also means (and more frequently so) in common and less precise military usage – any significant grouping of combat troops, such asarmy,Army group, or even entiremilitary branch.
By the end of theSecond Sino-Japanese War, theNational Revolutionary Army had organized 40 army groups. These were roughly equivalent to a field army in other militaries.[4]
From November 1948, thePeople's Liberation Army regularised the existing large number of armies and divisions into some sixty-seven armies of three divisions each. While some formations, such as the1st Army, survived for over fifty years, a number were quickly amalgamated and disestablished in the early 1950s.
It appears that over 37% (26 of 70) of the seventy new armies may have been disestablished from 1949 to 1953. In 1949, the 8th and 34th Armies were disbanded,[note 1] in 1950, the30th and35th Armies were disbanded in January, the 51st Army on September 24, 1950,[note 2] and the 29th, 32nd, and 33rd in November 1950. The45th and 48th Armies appear to have been broken up in 1951–52; the 48th Army had the 142nd Division become the11th Public Security Division and the 144th Division transferred to the 21st Army/Corps. The 52nd Army was broken up on September 2, 1951. In 1952, the3rd,4th,9th,10th,17th,18th,19th,25th (July 1952), 36th, 37th, 43rd, 44th, and 49th Armies were disbanded.[note 3] The 36th and 37th Armies appear to have both been broken up in February 1952, and both may have been reorganised for engineering tasks. The 44th Army was broken up in October 1952 with headquarters elements possibly transferred to the Navy, the131st Division to the Navy Qingdao Base and the132nd Division to the 43rd Army. The 49th Army was broken up in January.[note 4] It appears that the 2nd and 6th Corps were disbanded in 1953. The 5th Army/Corps was reorganised into a military region in October 1954.
After theLanding Operation on Hainan Island, the 43rd Army merged with theHainan Military Region on July 5, 1952. In September 1968 the 43rd Army was reformed, including the127th Division, the128th Division, the220th Division (renamed the 129th Division on September 19, 1969), to defend Guangxi Guilin. On October 17, 1969, it moved to Henan Luoyang, changed to Wuhan Military Region leadership (129th Division left Guiyang "support left", in January 1973 to build).[clarification needed] Zhang Wannian became corps commander in 1981. In October 1985, the 43rd Army was disbanded again.[5] The 127th Division transferred to the 54th Army, and the128th Division to the 20th Army. The 129th Division was disbanded.
In March 1967, theCentral Intelligence Agency identified some 35 field corps:[6]
In the mid-1980s, Deng Xiaoping began to redefine PLA orientation radically, beginning with a reassessment in 1985 of the overall international security environment that lowered the probability of a major or nuclear war. Instead, Deng asserted that China would be confronted with limited, local wars on its periphery. The natural consequence of this sweeping reassessment was an equally comprehensive reorientation of the Chinese military. The number ofmilitary 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."[7] Between 1985 and 1988, the 37 field armies were reduced to 24 group armies, and thousands of units at the regimental level and above were disbanded.
— James C. Mulvernon, 'The PLA Army's Struggle for Identity,' inThe PLA and China in Transition, INSS/NDU, 2003, 111.
Potential disbanded field armies may have included:
From 1997 to 2000, force reductions resulted in the disbandment of three group armies: the 28th (BMR), 64th (Dalian, Liaoning, SMR), and the 67th Group Army atZibo,Shandong, in theJinan Military Region.[10] In September 2003, a further series of reductions were announced, and from 2003 to 2006 the24th Group Army at Chengde, Hebei, the 63rd Army at Taiyuan, Shaanxi (both BMR), and the23rd Group Army at Harbin in theShenyang Military Region were eliminated.[11]
Other PRC Chinese language sources typically describe each army group as having 2 or 3 divisions (mainly infantry but some are armour, motorized or artillery divisions) and further augmented by severalbrigade orregiment sized 'combat arms'/ 'support-arms' formations e.g. artillery, armour, air defence artillery, motorized (infantry), aviation/helicopter regiment etc.
The reform in 2015 was a major restructuring of thePeople's Liberation Army (PLA), which flattened the command structure and allowed theChinese Communist Party (CCP) to have more control over the military, with the aim of strengthening the combat capability of the PLA.[12]
Legend:
Northern Theater Command, TC headquarters atShenyang,Liaoning;
Eastern Theater Command, TC headquarters atNanjing,Jiangsu;
Western Theater Command, TC headquarters atChengdu,Sichuan;
Southern Theater Command, TC headquarters atGuangzhou,Guangdong;
Central Theater Command, TC headquarters atBeijing.PLA Army groups listed below have been disbanded:
People's Liberation Army's group armies (combined corps) are divided into Combined Arms Brigades (CA-BDE) and other support elements. Typically, a group army consists of:[1][13][14]
| Field Armies -野战军 (1949–50) | |
|---|---|
| Army Groups -兵团 (1948–55) | |
| Corps -军 (1948–52) Infantry Corps -步兵军 (1952–60) Army Corps -陆军军 (1960-85) |
|
| Group armies -陆军集团军 (1985–2017) | |
| Group Armies -陆军集团军 (2017–) | |
| Air Force Corps -空军军 (1957-) | |
| Air Defense Force Corps -防空军军 (1955-57) | |
| Railway Corps -铁道兵军 (1956-58) | |
