18th Army (Japanese Empire)

18th Army
Lieutenant General Adachi, commander of the 18th Army, hands over his sword to Major General HCH Robertson after signing the document of surrender, September 13, 1945
active	November 9, 1942 to September 1945
Country	Japanese Empire
Armed forces	Japanese armed forces
Armed forces	Japanese army
Branch of service	infantry
Type	corps
Strength	approx. 100,000
Insinuation	8th regional army 2nd regional army
Location	Wewak
Nickname	Mō ( 猛 , "determined")
Butcher	Pacific War Battle for New Guinea
Supreme command
list of	Commander in chief

The 18th Army ( Japanese 第 18 軍 , Dai-jūhachi-gun ) was a major unit of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1942 to 1945 . Your Tsūshōgō code (military code name) was resolved ( 猛 , Mō ) or Mō 7910 .

history

When the Battle of Guadalcanal approached its climax in October 1942 and a Japanese defeat was looming, Lieutenant General Hitoshi Imamura , commander of the 8th Regional Army (part of the South Army ), decided to found the 18th Army on November 9, 1942. This allowed the 17th Army , which had previously been responsible for the Solomon Islands and New Guinea , to concentrate fully on the former.

The Eighteenth Army was responsible for the eastern part of New Guinea, which stretched approximately 400 km in western and eastern directions from its headquarters in Wewak . This 800 km wide area of ​​responsibility ran south across the island to its southern edge. This area covered approx. 480,000  square kilometers , which roughly corresponds to the area of Germany , Austria and Switzerland combined. Approx. 100,000 soldiers were available to Lieutenant General Adachi Hatazō , their commander in chief, and his chief of staff, Lieutenant General Yoshihara Kane . The main contingents of the 18th Army consisted of the 20th , 41st and 51st divisions and other smaller units. However, due to previous battles and losses in ship transport, the three divisions were no longer up to target strength . The 41st Division had only 13,700 men of its original 20,000 men, the 51st Division had already suffered considerable losses, including in the battle of the Bismarcksee , and amounted to only 7,200 men from the previous 25,000 men. In addition, almost the entire artillery park remained in the bases on the coast, while only a few light guns such as the 37 mm field gun Type 94 and Type 92 battalion gun could be taken into the interior.

Map of the operational area of ​​the 18th Army in New Guinea.

As of June 30, 1943, the started Allies the Operation Cartwheel which was aimed at the heavily fortified stronghold of Rabaul to isolate and bypass. To this end, it was planned to bring New Guinea under Allied control. With the landings at Hollandia and Aitape (→ Operation Reckless , Operation Persecution ) on April 22, 1944, the implementation of General McArthur's RENO plan to capture Japanese airfields and bases in western New Guinea began. This largely isolated the 18th Army at Wewak , of which the Daihon'ei was aware and placed them under the 2nd Regional Army in November 1943 . As a result of poor supplies, the 18th Army not only lost in battles such as B. in the battle for the Huon Peninsula a large part of their soldiers, but also through disease and malnutrition. At the end of the war, 13,000 men were still alive who surrendered to the Australian 6th Division under Lieutenant General HCH Robertson.

In September 1945 the 18th Army was disbanded.

Commander in chief

	Surname	From	To
Commander in chief	Lieutenant General Adachi Hatazō	November 9, 1942	September 1945
chief of staff	Lieutenant General Yoshihara Kane	November 9, 1942	September 1945

Subordinate units

• 18th Army Staff
• 20th division
• 41st Division
• 51st Division
• 18th Army Signaling and Telecommunication Unit
• 6. Independent antitank - Battalion
• 21st Mortar Battalion (9 cm)
• 50th, 56th, 58th, 61st, 62nd and 63rd Field Air Defense Battalion
• 38th, 39th, 40th and 41st Independent Air Defense Company
• 25 and 29 field machine guns -Kompanie
• 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th and 7th Independent Field Searchlight Company
• 4. Pioneer Unit, Staff
  • 8th, 30th, 33rd, 36th and 37th Independent Pioneer Unit
  • 35th, 36th, 37th, 38th, 40th, 44th and 48th road construction unit
• 3rd and 4th field transport command
• 3. Independent Transport Regiment
  • 39th and 42nd Transport Battalions
  • 225th, 263rd, 290th, 291st, 302nd and 304th Independent Transport Company
  • 1. – 12., 16. – 18. Independent special transport company
• 1. Ship Transport Group
• 5th and 9th Ship Pioneer Regiment

literature

• Victor Madej: Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945 . Game Publishing, 1981, OCLC 833591372 , OCLC 833591376 .
• Bill Yenne: The Imperial Japanese Army: The Invincible Years 1941–42 . Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-1-7820-0932-0 .
• Philip Jowett: The Japanese Army 1931-45 (1) . Osprey Publishing, 2002, ISBN 978-1-8417-6353-8 .
• Gordon Rottman: Japanese Army in World War II (The South Pacific and New Guinea, 1942–43) . Osprey Publishing, Oxford, ISBN 978-1-8417-6870-0 .

Web links

• 第 １8 軍. Organization of IJA, accessed December 30, 2014 .  , Japanese

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rottman, p. 82
2. ^ Rottman, p. 13
3. ^ Rottman, p. 44
4. ^ Rottman, p. 83
5. ↑ Rottmann, p. 44

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus, Adachi is the family name, Hatazō the first name.