The organization of the PLA Ground Force before April 2017
ThePeople's Liberation Army of thePeople's Republic of China has had manydivisions since it was officially established in 1949.However, a growing number of land and air combat divisions have been disbanded in favour of brigades, a process largely completed by the time the2015 PLA reforms were implemented around 2017.
67th Motorised Infantry Brigade, 23rd Group Army, 'demobilised' during 2003 reductions cycle (Blasko 2006, 77). With 23rd Army in Korea.
68th Division – subordinate to Shenyang MR. Now 68th Motorized Infantry Brigade, Qiqihar, Heilongjiang (from 23rd Group Army).[8]
69th Division – Shenyang MR. JSENT p. 91 Listed FAS. With 23rd Army in Korea. Now 69th Motorized Infantry Division, Harbin, Heilongjiang (from 23rd Group Army).[8]
94th Division – with 27th Army served in Korea War. Disbanded in February 1951.[10]
95th Division - In October 195032nd Corps was disbanded and the division was absorbed into the Air Force. On February 14, 1951, the division was reorganized and renamed as 14th Aviation Division.
118th Division - Part of40th Army. 40th Army entered Korea on October 19, 1950 and was the first Chinese formation to make contact with UN forces in Korea.[11][12]
Reserve Infantry Division of Pingliang (Chinese:平凉陆军预备役师) - active between 1984 and 1985. It was activated on May 31, 1984, inPingliang,Gansu.[21] It was composed of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Regiments plus an Artillery Regiment. In October 1985 the division was disbanded along with all its subordinates.[22]
Reserve Infantry Division of Wuwei (Chinese:武威陆军预备役师) - active between 1984 and 1985. It was formally activated in April 1984 inWuwei,Gansu. It was made up of the 1st and 2nd Regiments; 3rd Regiment inYongchang;[23] and an Artillery Regiment. In 1985 the division was disbanded along with all its subordinates.
4th Aviation Division - division disbanded as a fighter formation in 2003, with 10th Regiment going to 30th Division as 89th Regiment. It was re-established as a transport division atQionglai Air Base in 2004.[33]
8th Aviation Division[32] - established in December 1950 flying bombers atSiping, Jilin.[35] Originally had 22nd and 24th Regiments. Scramble.nl, accessed mid 2015, indicates there are at least six regiments of H-6 bombers. All three regiments of the division fly the aircraft - the 22nd, 23rd (former 143rd Regt/48th Div), and 24th. On November 11, 1965, Li Xianbin (T:李顯斌, S:李显斌), a PLAAFIlyushin Il-28captain of the division flew hisbomber numbered 0195 from Jianqiao (T:筧橋, S:笕桥) air base inHangzhou toTaoyuan County, Taiwan (now Taoyuan City), and this became thefirst fully operational Il-28 in western hands. The radio operator / tail gunner Lian Baosheng (廉保生) was found dead at the scene and the navigator Li Caiwang (李才旺) was captured alive after asuicide attempt. Both survivors were honored and rewarded with positions in theRepublic of China Air Force.
9th Aviation Division - established in December 1950 as a fighter division at Jilin, Jilin.[35] Transferred to PLA Naval Aviation as 5th Naval Aviation Division in September 1955; reestablished at Ganzhou in March 1956. Stationed at Foshan, Guangdong.[32] After 2012, from the command of the Nanning Base, the division was abolished and split into the 25th and 26th Brigades.[36]
14th Fighter Division - formed February 1951 atBeijing Nanyuan Airport[35] from elements of the disbanding95th Division. Stationed at Nanchang, Jiangxi.[32] The division fought in Korea, as a mixed MiG-9/MiG-15 fighter unit.[32] Started its second combat tour in April 1953 and ceased combat in July 1953.[37] It appears that in September 1992 the 146th Regiment of the disbanding 49th Air Division may have become the 42nd Regiment.[citation needed]
16th Aviation Division[40] Originally established as 19th Inf Div. In August 1988, the division became the Shenyang Military Region Air Force Aviation Training Base, and the regiments were successively changed to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Regiments of that Base.[41]
17th Aviation Division;[40] Formed April 1951 as a fighter formation. Originally with 49th and 50th Regiments and, then, 51st Regiment from 1953, equipped from the fourth batch of aircraft.[42] Transferred to Naval Aviation 1954, reestablished 1956. "On March 2, 1956, with the approval of the Central Military Commission, the Ministry of National Defense issued an order to [reform] the 17th Air Division.[43] On April 6, 1956, the 17th Division of the Air Force was formally established at Beijing Shahe Airport, and Liu Ying, the deputy commander of the 7th Division of the Air Force, was appointed as the commander of the 17th Division of the Air Force (later the deputy commander of the Ji Air Force), and Guo Qian, director of the Security Department of the Air Force Political Department of the Beijing Military Region He is the political commissar of the 17th Air Division, and Yan Deming is the first deputy division commander and chief of staff. Under its jurisdiction are the 49th Regiment (adapted from the 21st Regiment of the 7th Air Division), the 51st Regiment (adapted from the 41st Regiment of the 14th Air Force Division) and the Shahe Station of the Air Force. Equipped with J-5 and MiG-17 aircraft. It [was assigned] to the Air Force of the Beijing Military Region. In August 1964, the 17th Air Division was ordered to be urgently transferred to the southwest border. The division led the 51st Regiment to station in Mengzi, Yunnan, and the 49th Regiment to station in Kunming, the capital of the province, to participate in the round-robin air defense mission in Yunnan." It was later reorganized into brigades, and in 1969 was sent for combat duty inFujian. On 25 June 1984, aCAAC AirlinesHawker Siddeley Trident aircraft was hijacked by a man armed with hand grenades and demanded to be flown to Taiwan. A passenger overpowered the hijacker and the aircraft continued to Fuzhou.[44] Aircraft of the division took off to provide security amid the incident.
Saw action at a later date (?)[45] In the early 1980s it was subordinate to the Tangshan Command Post in the Beijing MR flying J-5s (MiG-17F "Fresco-Cs"?) andShenyang J-6s.[46] On 26 October 1988 the division was reorganized into the Beijing MR Training Base.
19th Aviation Division (People's Republic of China) - stationed at Zhengzhou, Henan[40] The 57th Regiment, 19th Air Division, at Lianyungang, was re-established from 2nd Regiment, Jinan MR Training Base, in 2010 with J11 after it had been previously disbanded in 1988.[33] However it became a regiment of the reformed 32nd Division in 2012.
22nd Aviation Division - transferred to Shenyang MRAF 1985; disbanded in September 1992. Merged into the 11th Aviation Division; 33rd Aviation Regiment disbanded; 65th and 66th Regiments became "Kong 32 and 33" regiments of the 11th Aviation Division.[47]
41st Aviation Division - established in July–August 1969 in Inner Mongolia, seemingly from training units. Disbanded on November 17, 1985, with the 121st Regiment becoming the 44th Regiment in another division, and the 122nd and 123rd Regiments disbanding.[52]
47th Aviation Division - merged with 6th Aviation Division, no longer active.[50]
50th Aviation Division - established April 1971;[51] merged with 8th Aviation Division in 1985.[53] in August 1985, the 149th Regiment of this division was reassigned to the 8th Aviation Division.[33]
^"「御林軍」京城演練懾貪". Orientaldaily. 12 February 2015. Retrieved5 March 2022.
^Dennis J. Blasko. "PLA Ground Forces: Moving Toward a Smaller, More Rapidly Deployable, Modern Combined Arms Force" The People's Liberation Army as Organization: Reference Volume v1.0, James C. Mulvenon and Andrew N. D. Yang eds. (Santa Monico: RAND; 2002)
^abcdefgKen Allen, "PLA Air Force Organization," inThe People's Liberation Army as Organization: Reference Volume v1.0, James C. Mulvenon and Andrew N. D. Yang eds. (Santa Monico: RAND; 2002), Table 9.7, p451.
Appleman, Roy (1989),Disaster in Korea: The Chinese Confront MacArthur, vol. 11, College Station, TX: Texas A and M University Military History Series,ISBN978-1-60344-128-5
Blasko, Dennis J. (2006).The Chinese Army Today: Tradition and Transformation for the 21st Century. London, United Kingdom; New York, USA: Routledge.ISBN0-415-77003-3. xvii, 228 pp.
Chinese Military Science Academy (2000a),《抗美援朝战争史》 [History of War to Resist America and Aid Korea] (in Chinese (China)), vol. II, Beijing: Chinese Military Science Academy Publishing House,ISBN7-80137-392-8
Guang, Ting (光亭) (2007), Dong, Min Jie (董旻杰) (ed.),《冰血长津湖》 [Ice and Blood, Changjin Lake],Der Strum (突击) Magazine Korean War Special Issue (in Chinese (China)) (1st ed.), Hohhot, Inner Mongolia: Inner Mongolian People's Publishing House (内蒙古人民出版社),ISBN978-7-204-081660{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
Hu, Guang Zheng (胡光正); Ma, Shan Ying (马善营) (1987),《中国人民志愿军序列》 [Chinese People's Volunteer Army Order of Battle] (in Chinese (China)), Beijing: Chinese People's Liberation Army Publishing House,OCLC298945765
Ryan, Mark A.; Finkelstein, David M.; McDevitt, Michael A. (2003),Chinese Warfighting: The PLA Experience Since 1949, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe,ISBN0-7656-1087-6
Zhang, Shu Guang (1995),Mao's Military Romanticism: China and the Korean War, 1950–1953, Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas,ISBN0-7006-0723-4
Tanner, Murray Scot; Mulvenon, James (2002).The People's Liberation Army as Organization. Santa Monica, CA.: RAND.ISBN0-8330-3303-4. (Ken Allen chapter, "PLA Air Force Organization.")
Zhang, Xiao Ming (2004),Red Wings Over the Yalu: China, the Soviet Union, and the Air War in Korea, College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press,ISBN1-58544-201-1
