Group armies or army groups or combined corps,[1] are corps-level[2] military formations of the People's Liberation Army Ground Force of China. Despite what the name suggests, current Group Armies are not army-level formations, but corps-sized formations commanding 12 to 14 brigades, roughly equivalent to United States Army Corps.
Some may use or translate 'Group Army' loosely to mean the same as Army Group through various time periods of history, depending on whether the military formation is under Nationalist China (ROC) or Communist China (PRC). Chinese Army Group or Group Army used to be equivalent to field army or army group in other militaries due to translation issues and ambiguity of the Chinese language. This is because while" " in Chinese 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 as army, Army group, or even entire military branch.
See main article: List of army groups of the National Revolutionary Army.
By the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the National Revolutionary Army had organized 40 army groups. These were roughly equivalent to a field army in other militaries.[3]
From November 1948, the People'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 the 1st 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, in 1950, the 30th and 35th Armies were disbanded in January, the 51st Army on September 24, 1950, and the 29th, 32nd, and 33rd in November 1950. The 45th and 48th Armies appear to have been broken up in 1951–52; the 48th Army had the 142nd Division become the 11th 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, the 3rd, 4th, 9th, 10th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 25th (July 1952), 36th, 37th, 43rd, 44th, and 49th Armies were disbanded. 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, the 131st Division to the Navy Qingdao Base and the 132nd Division to the 43rd Army. The 49th Army was broken up in January. 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 the Landing Operation on Hainan Island, the 43rd Army merged with the Hainan Military Region on July 5, 1952. In September 1968 the 43rd Army was reformed, including the 127th Division, the 128th Division, the 220th 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). Zhang Wannian became corps commander in 1981. In October 1985, the 43rd Army was disbanded again.[4] The 127th Division transferred to the 54th Army, and the 128th Division to the 20th Army. The 129th Division was disbanded.
In March 1967, the Central Intelligence Agency identified some 35 field corps:[5]
16th, 23rd, 38th, 39th, 40th, 46th, 50th, 64th.
21st, 24th, 63rd, 65th, 66th Army, 69th.
12th, 20th, 22nd, 27th Army, 60th Army.
1st, 10th Airborne (part of the PLAAF), 15th.
Potential disbanded field armies may have included:
43rd Army (People's Republic of China) - definitely disbanded, see above;
the 55th Army;
Jun 11. 24 Army
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 at Zibo, Shandong, in the Jinan Military Region.[8] In September 2003, a further series of reductions were announced, and from 2003 to 2006 the 24th Group Army at Chengde, Hebei, the 63rd Army at Taiyuan, Shaanxi (both BMR), and the 23rd Group Army at Harbin in the Shenyang Military Region were eliminated.[9]
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 several brigade or regiment sized 'combat arms'/ 'support-arms' formations e.g. artillery, armour, air defence artillery, motorized (infantry), aviation/helicopter regiment etc.
See main article: 2015 People's Republic of China military reform. The reform in 2015 was a major restructuring of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), which flattened the command structure and allowed the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to have more control over the military, with the aim of strengthening the combat capability of the PLA.[10]
Legend:
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:[11] [12] [13]