"Aitape Defeat Wrecks Jap 18th Army" Southwest Pacific NEWSMAP Vol. 2 - No. 7 18 August, 1944 The Aitape battle ended last week in a crushing defeat for the Japanese 18th Army. Wrecked as an effective fighting force, its remnants are now straggling back toward Wewak, drifting into the foothills, floundering along jungle trails. the complete story of this Jap disaster dates back to April, when General Hatazo Adachi, the Jap commander, made the first of a fatal series of mistakes. Adachi was deluded into thinking that we planned to hit the Jap 18th at Wewak, so he drew off troops stationed along the New Guinea coast from Hansa Bay to Hollandia and concentrated them at Wewak. Instead of costly direct assault on his massed forces, U.S. troops moved lightly around him, cut him off completely from any hope of supply or reinforcement. Our maneuver, a brilliant application of the classical envelopment, was designed mainly to provide us with a large forward base at Hollandia. Seizure of such a base required fighter cover, and the Hollandia airdromes (Sentani, Cyclops, Hollandia) were some distance inland. The problem was solved by the quick seizure of the Tadji strip at Aitape, near the coast, which Adachi had left lightly held in his mad scramble to provide a welcoming committee for us at Wewak. Tadji was seized, put into operation almost immediately by RAAF technicians. Planes were using it the next day. With this fighter cover assured, the Hollandia operation proceeded without a hitch. End result was the impossible situation in which Adachi suddenly found himself. The Australians had advanced along the coast to the Sepik River on the east. To the west a full scale American base had been established at Hollandia. Allied forces at Aitape provided a screen between the new base and the main strength of the Jap force. Instead of waiting comfortably with overwhelming strength for an Allied attack on his citadel, Adachi woke to find his 18th Army isolated, its supplies dwindling rapidly. He had to act, or see his army disintegrate from starvation and disease. Deciding on a break westward, he threw his forces against the American defense system along the Driniumor River. These attacks were absorbed, destroyed, driven back. Devastating Allied smashes were launched on his troop concentrations and remaining supplies by land, sea, and air. His 18th Army broke, became a demoralized mass that began to flee in fragments into the hills. GHQ last week wrote Adachi's epitaph: "...crushing defeat has destroyed the combat effectiveness of the 18th Army...its casualties...conservatively estimated at approximately 18,000." ------------------------------------------------------------- Source: Image posted by Paul Tillery Transcribed by Paul M. Webber on 20 January 2002 Home Page: http://home.pcisys.net/~pwebber/31_id/rtw.htm