Twenty-Eighth Army (Japan)

Japanese Twenty-Eighth Army
Japanese troops on elephant in Burma
Active	1944–1945
Country	Empire of Japan
Branch	Imperial Japanese Army
Type	Infantry
Role	Corps
Garrison/HQ	Moulmein, Burma
Nickname(s)	Saku (策, Scheme?)

The Japanese Twenty-Eighth Army (第28軍, Dai-nijyūhachi gun^?) was an army of the Imperial Japanese Army during the final days of World War II.

The Japanese Twenty-Eighth Army was raised on 6 January 1944 in Rangoon in Japanese-occupied Burma as a garrison force and in anticipation of Allied attempts to invade and retake southern Burma. It was under the overall command of the Burma Area Army, and its headquarters were initially situated in Moulmein. It was assigned to defend the coastal region of Arakan and the lower Irrawaddy valley and consisted at first of the 55th Division in Arakan, the 54th Division in reserve in Southern Burma, and various garrison units including the 24th Independent Mixed Brigade in Moulmein.

The Allies had started a cautious offensive in the Arakan. The Japanese had scored a decisive success here in early 1943, striking at the flanks and rear of badly trained and exhausted Allied units. The main body of 55th Division attempted to repeat this success by infiltrating the Allied lines to attack an Indian Division from the rear, overrunning the Divisional HQ. Unlike the previous occasion, the Allied troops were better-trained and did not panic. The Japanese had also not anticipated that the Allies would parachute supplies to the cut-off forward units, while the Japanese themselves were unable to obtain supplies and starved.