The title may be confusing so I'll try to clear it up. I know there were two seperate fronts basically in WW2. You had the European/African front and then you had the Island/Jungle front. Were soldiers trained differently depending on which enemy force they were going to engage or was it simply adapt as you go. I also wanted to know if they just took all the survivors from Europe to go assist the Pacific forces once Germany surrended. I can't find much online about this.
Immediately after World War II in Europe ended, U.S. units there were classified into four categories;
| Category | Explanation |
|---|---|
| I | Units to remain in Europe (the occupation forces) |
| II | Units to be redeployed to the Pacific for the invasion of Japan. Some soldiers were to go directly there (the 86th Infantry Division, having fought in Europe for only 34 days, was guarding POW pens in the Philippines on V-J Day!) while others were to train back in the USA for a while before deploying |
| III | Units to be reorganized and retrained before being classified as Category I or II |
| IV | Units to be sent home and inactivated with personnel discharged |
I talk more about the "points" system used for sending long-serving men home here
Officers also received an ASR score, but were not evaluated based solely on points earned for demobilization; combat effectiveness played an extremely significant role, and many officers who fought in Europe expected to be sent to Japan. The initial landing forces of Operation Majestic (the invasion of the Japanese home island of Kyushu, to be used as a staging ground for the invasion of Honshu island, where Tokyo is located) consisted of Army, Navy, Marine, and Coast Guard forces already in the Pacific. This landing was scheduled for X-Day, November 1, 1945;
U.S. Sixth Army:
| Landing location | Corps | Forces |
|---|---|---|
| Nakakoshiki Ura and Koshiki Retto (X-4) | N/A | 40th Infantry Division, 148th RCT |
| Kushikino | V MAC | 2nd, 3rd, and 6th Marine Divisions |
| Ariake Bay | XI | 1st Cavalry Division, 23rd and 43rd Infantry Divisions, 112th Cavalry RCT |
| Miyazaki | I | 25th, 33rd, and 41st Infantry Divisions |
| N/A | Floating reserve to be used as a diversion on X-2 | 77th, 81st, and 98th Infantry Divisions |
| N/A | Follow-up | 11th Airborne Division |
| US Army Forces Pacific Reserve | N/A | 6th, 7th, and 96th Infantry Divisions |
Y-Day for Operation Coronet (the invasion of Honshu) was scheduled for March 1, 1946, and would have utilized forces still in the Pacific as well as some of the more veteran units redeployed from Europe, bolstered with fresh replacements to take the place of those men who had "pointed" out;
U.S. First Army:
| Corps | Forces |
|---|---|
| III MAC | 1st, 4th, and 6th Marine Divisions (6th available from Y+5) |
| XXIV | 7th, 27th, and 96th Infantry Divisions (96th available from Y+5) |
| Follow-on corps transferred from Europe | 5th, 44th, and 86th Infantry Divisions |
U.S. Eighth Army:
| Corps | Forces |
|---|---|
| X | 24th, 31st, and 37th Infantry Divisions (37th available from Y+5) |
| X (Commonwealth) | 3rd British, 6th Canadian, and 10th Australian Divisions, plus two unnamed British divisions to be available from Y+40 |
| XIII (lands on Y+10) | 13th and 20th Infantry Divisions |
| XIV | 6th, 32nd, and 38th Infantry Divisions (38th available from Y+5) |
| Follow-on corps transferred from Europe | 4th, 8th, and 87th Infantry Divisions |
| U.S. Army Forces Pacific Reserve | 11th Airborne Division, 97th Infantry Division (11th available from Y+35) |
| Unnamed reserve corps transferred from Europe | 2nd, 28th, and 35th Infantry Divisions |
| Unnamed reserve corps transferred from Europe | 91st, 95th, and 104th Infantry Divisions |