{{Infobox military unit |unit_name= Japanese Eighteenth Army |image=Hatazo Adachi signed surrender.jpg |image_size=220px |caption= General Adachi surrendering |dates= November 9, 1942 – August 15, 1945 |country= {{flag|Empire of Japan}} |allegiance= |branch={{army|Empire of Japan}} |type= Infantry |role= Corps |garrison=New Guinea |nickname={{nihongo|Mō|猛|Fierce}} |battles=New Guinea campaign }} {{command structure |name= Japanese Eighteenth Army |date=1945 |parent=Japanese Eighth Area Army |subordinate=<br> * 20th Infantry Division * 41st Infantry Division * 51st Infantry Division<ref name=AWM63>Williams and Nakagawa 2006, p. 63.</ref> }} The {{nihongo|'''Japanese 18th Army'''|第18軍 |Dai-jyūhachi gun}} was a field army of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.
==History== The Japanese 18th Army was formed on November 9, 1942,<ref name=Axis>{{cite web |url=http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=6929 |title=18 Army (Japan) | last = Wendel | first = Marcus | work=Axis History Factbook |access-date=May 26, 2012}}</ref> 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.{{Citation needed|date=May 2012}} Upon establishment, it was made up of three divisions: the 20th, which had been raised from men from Kyushu, and the 41st and 51st Divisions formed from the Kantō region.<ref name=AWM63/>
===New Guinea campaign=== {{Main| 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<ref>Gillison 1962, p. 695.</ref> with the loss of 3,664 men, and only 2,427 men of the division were rescued.{{Citation needed|date=May 2012}}
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 and Hollandia, in April 1944.
Adachi's forces were badly affected by tropical diseases including malaria, heat exhaustion and malnutrition for the remainder of the war,<ref name=AWM59/> 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,{{Citation needed|date=May 2012}} barely 13,000 were still alive when the war ended.<ref name=AWM59>Williams and Nakagawa 2006, p. 59.</ref> The remnants of the Japanese 18th Army surrendered to the Australian 6th Division at Cape Wom, by Wewak, New Guinea.<ref>Johnston 2008, p. 234.</ref> They were held on Mushu Island before being returned to Japan.<ref name=AWM59/>
==List of Commanders== {| class=wikitable ! || Name || From || To |- |Commanding officer|| Lieutenant General Hatazō Adachi<ref name=Axis/> ||9 November 1942||15 August 1945 |- |Chief of Staff||Lt. General Kane Yoshihara<ref name=Axis/> ||9 November 1942||15 August 1945 |- |}
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==References== ===Books=== *{{cite book | last = Drea | first = Edward J. | chapter = Adachi Hatazo: A Soldier of His Emperor | year = 2003 | title = In the Service of the Emperor: Essays on the Imperial Japanese Army | publisher = Bison Books | isbn = 978-0-8032-6638-4 }} *{{cite book | last = Fuller | first = Richard | chapter = Adachi Hatazo | year = 1992 | title = Shōkan: Hirohito's Samurai | publisher = Arms and Armour Press | location = London | isbn = 1-85409-151-4 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/shokanhirohitoss00full }} *{{cite book | last=Gillison | first=Douglas | year=1962 | series=Australia in the War of 1939–1945 | title=Royal Australian Air Force 1939–1942 | location=Canberra | publisher=Australian War Memorial | url=http://www.awm.gov.au/histories/second_world_war/volume.asp?levelID=67912 | oclc=2000369 | access-date=2012-05-25 | archive-date=2011-06-07 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607140547/http://www.awm.gov.au/histories/second_world_war/volume.asp?levelID=67912 | url-status=dead }}
*{{cite book | last = Hayashi | first = Saburo | year = 1959 | title = Kogun: The Japanese Army in the Pacific War | publisher = Marine Corps. Association | id = ASIN B000ID3YRK }} * {{cite book |last=Johnston |first=Mark |title=The Proud 6th: An Illustrated History of the 6th Australian Division 1939–1945 |year=2008 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Port Melbourne, Victoria |isbn=978-0-521-51411-8 }}
===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 Category:Military units and formations established in 1942 Category:Military units and formations disestablished in 1945 J