The was a
field army
A field army (or numbered army or simply army) is a military formation in many armed forces, composed of two or more corps and may be subordinate to an army group. Likewise, air armies are equivalent formation within some air forces, and with ...
of the
Imperial Japanese Army during
World War II.
History
The Japanese 18th Army was formed on November 9, 1942,
under the
Japanese Eighth Area Army of the
Southern Expeditionary Army Group for the specific task of opposing landings by
Allied forces in Japanese-occupied
New Guinea. Upon establishment, it was made up of three divisions: the
20th
20 (twenty; Roman numeral XX) is the natural number following 19 and preceding 21. A group of twenty units may also be referred to as a score.
In mathematics
*20 is a pronic number.
*20 is a tetrahedral number as 1, 4, 10, 20.
*20 is the ba ...
, which had been raised from men from
Kyushu
is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surroun ...
, and the
41st and
51st Divisions formed from the
Kantō region
The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. In a common definition, the region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba and Kanagawa. Slight ...
.
[
]
New Guinea campaign
Both the 20th and 41st Divisions arrived in New Guinea safely. However, the 51st Division, including the army's commander, Hatazō Adachi, and his senior staff, came under Allied air attack while en route from their supply base at Rabaul to Lae, in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea. All eight transport ships and four destroyers were sunk with the loss of 3,664 men, and only 2,427 men of the division were rescued.
Operation Cartwheel, an Allied master plan implemented from mid-1943, progressively severed the supply lines between Rabaul and frontline Japanese forces. Key defeats included the withdrawal of the Imperial Japanese Navy from the Solomon Islands campaign, followed by landings on New Britain, as well as Aitape
Aitape is a small town of about 18,000 people on the north coast of Papua New Guinea in the Sandaun Province. It is a coastal settlement that is almost equidistant from the provincial capitals of Wewak and Vanimo, and marks the midpoint of the ...
and Hollandia Hollandia may refer to:
* HVV Hollandia, Dutch football team
* Hollandia Victoria Combinatie, defunct Dutch football team
* ''Hollandia'' (1742 ship), a ship of the Dutch East India Company, wrecked in 1743 on her maiden voyage
* Jayapura, a city ...
, in April 1944.
Adachi's forces were badly affected by tropical diseases including malaria, heat exhaustion and malnutrition for the remainder of the war,[ despite Adachi's efforts to achieve some form of self-sufficiency by planting crops and giving priority in rations to the sick. As ammunition began to run low, many of Japanese field commanders resorted to banzai charges, rather than surrender.
By the end of the war in September 1945, most of his forces had been annihilated. Of Adachi's original 140,000 men, barely 13,000 were still alive when the war ended.][Williams and Nakagawa 2006, p. 59.] The remnants of the Japanese 18th Army surrendered to the Australian 6th Division at Cape Wom, by Wewak, New Guinea.[Johnston 2008, p. 234.] They were held on Mushu Island before being returned to Japan.[
]
List of Commanders
Notes
References
Books
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*
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Journals
*{{cite journal, author=Williams, Peter D. , author2=Nakagawa, Naoko , title=The Japanese 18th Army in New Guinea , journal=Wartime , issue=36 , date=October 2006 , pages=58–63 , publisher=Australian War Memorial , location=Canberra, Australian Capital Territory , issn=1328-2727
18
Military units and formations established in 1942
Military units and formations disestablished in 1945
J