18th Infantry Division (United Kingdom)

18th Infantry Division (United Kingdom)

For the First World War unit, see 18th (Eastern) Division.

The 18th Infantry Division was a Division of the British Army in the Second World War. It was a duplicate of the 54th (East Anglian) Division using mostly units with connections to East Anglia .

Among its brigades, the 53rd Brigade was converted (seemingly redesignated) from the British 163rd Infantry Brigade on September 18, 1939. The Brigade arrived at Singapore on January 13, 1942, before the rest of the division, and was attached to the Indian 11th Infantry Division and Westforce on mainland Malaya where it was involved in the retreat back to Singapore, fighting the Battle of Muar in company with Indian units.

The main part of the 18th Infantry Division landed at Singapore a few weeks before the fall of the island. After the violent week long Battle of Singapore, General Arthur Percival, commander of the Singapore garrison, surrendered to the Japanese on February 15, 1942. The division's soldiers went into Japanese POW camps.

The division was not reformed.