Japanese invasion of the Malay Peninsula
Left: The Allied communication structure
Right: The Japanese advance on Singapore
| date | December 7 (8) 1941 to February 15, 1942 |
|---|---|
| place | Malay Peninsula |
| output | Japanese victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
|
|
| Troop strength | |
| 37,000 Indians, 19,000 British, 15,000 Australians, 17,000 Malay volunteers |
approx. 70,000 men 568 aircraft 200 tanks |
| losses | |
|
5,500 dead |
1,793 dead |
Operation Krohcol - Prince of Wales and Repulse - Jitra - Gurun - Kampar - Slim River - Gemas - Muar - Endau
1941
Thailand - Malay Peninsula - Pearl Harbor - Hong Kong - Philippines - Guam - Wake - Force Z - Borneo
1942
Burma - Rabaul - Singapore - Sumatra - Timor - Australia - Java - Salamaua - Lae - Indian Ocean - Port Moresby - Coral Sea - Midway - North America - Buna-Gona - Kokoda-Track
The Japanese invasion of the Malay Peninsula (Operation "E") began as the first combat operation of the Pacific War in the Pacific region before the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 (8) 1941 with the landings at Kota Bharu in the north of present-day Malaysia and others Landings in Thailand . It was characterized by the unexpectedly rapid advance of the Japanese through the jungle and over more than a hundred destroyed bridges with the help of cycling troops and strong pioneers and ended with the fall of Singapore on February 15, 1942.
prehistory
The conquest of the important British naval base Singapore (see Singapore strategy ) was one of the main goals of the first phase of the Japanese southern offensive , on which the Japanese leadership had finally committed in November 1941 and which opened the Pacific War. To this end, it was initially necessary to take possession of the Malay Peninsula as quickly as possible as a base for land and air operations, for which amphibious landings by Japanese troops in southern Thailand and northern Malaya were planned. Of troops stood in Hainan dislocated 25th Army of the Japanese army under Lt. Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita ready. This army was reinforced by the 4th, 15th and 23rd Independent Engineer Regiments, as there were about 250 bridges on the 1000 km stretch between the landing sites and Singapore, which were expected to be destroyed by the Allied forces. In contrast to the Allies, the Japanese infantry also had tank support from the 3rd Tank Brigade with its light and medium tanks of the type 95 Ha-Go and 97 Chi-Ha .
On December 4, 1941, 18 transporters loaded with 26,640 Japanese soldiers of the 5th Infantry Division under Lieutenant General Matsui Takuro and the 56th Regiment of the 18th Infantry Division left Hainan for the invasion of the Malay Peninsula. The 3rd Destroyer Flotilla under Vice Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa took over the security of the convoy . The 7th cruiser squadron was given the task of cover and left on the same day under the command of Rear Admiral Takeo Kurita . Vice Admiral Nobutake Kondo took over the remote security with the 2nd Division of the 3rd Battleship Squadron and left the Pescadoren for the South China Sea on the same day . Further units joined the convoy from Cam Ranh Bay on December 6, and the “Southern Expeditionary Fleet”, coming from Saigon , reinforced the shock wedge.
Japanese submarines and mine-layers put several mine blocks in Southeast Asia on the night of December 7, for example off Singapore and between the Anambas Islands and Tioman .
During the trip south, the Japanese were under constant observation of the British, Dutch and Americans who flew the area with their reconnaissance planes. The Allies put their warships on high alert. Four American destroyers that lay ahead Balikpapan were instructed to run in the South China Sea, and the Repulse spent on the way to Darwin to go immediately back to Singapore. In the meantime, however, the weather conditions over the sea deteriorated, so that the reconnaissance flights had to be largely stopped and the Japanese ships initially remained undisturbed. However, the Japanese sighted some machines on December 5th and 6th. On the morning of December 7th, the weather cleared a little and a PBY Catalina of the Royal Air Force's 205th Squadron, commanded by Flight Officer Bedell, set course for the Japanese convoy. It was taken under fire from Japanese ships with anti-aircraft guns and shot down over the Chinese Sea at the transition to the Gulf of Thailand . The members of the crew were the first victims on the Allied side.
Small landing flotillas split off from the invasion fleet at noon on December 7th. The targets were Prachuap Khiri Khan (→ Battle for Prachuap Khiri Khan ), Chumphon , Bay of Bandon and Nakhon Si Thammarat , to block the Isthmus of Kra , the narrow isthmus between the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand . The main force with 17 vans continued to Pattani , Singora and Kota Bharu .
In Singapore, the British convened a conference that evening at 10:30 p.m. Air Marshal Sir Robert Brooke-Popham toyed with the idea of launching Operation Matador . It stipulated that the British marched into Thailand to prevent an impending invasion from the north. After some discussions with Sir Shenton Thomas and Arthur Percival , Popham postponed the decision until the next day.
British Malaya, December 8, 1941
Shortly after midnight (local time), around 12:25 a.m., Indian patrol soldiers spotted three large shadows on the horizon in front of the beach at Pantai Kuala Pak Amat near Kota Bharu. It was the Japanese Transportation Awagisan Maru , Ayatosan Maru and Sakura Maru , the three kilometers had gone off the coast at anchor. On them were about 5,200 soldiers of the Takumi unit under the command of Major General Hiroshi Takumi , who was on the Awajisan Maru . A little further out at sea was the cover fleet under Rear Admiral Hashimoto Shintaro , which consisted of the light cruiser Sendai , the destroyers Ayanami , Isonami , Shikinami and Uranami , as well as two mine layers and a submarine hunter. At the same moment, the Japanese began bombarding the beach. The East Asian conflict began to expand into the Pacific region about 90 minutes before the attack on Pearl Harbor, and World War II was in full swing.
Immediately after anchoring, the three transporters began loading the soldiers onto the landing craft. Due to the rough seas, some of these small boats overturned and several Japanese soldiers drowned. But despite the adversity, the remaining boats were able to form a four-tier phalanx, which from 0:45 a.m. moved as the first landing wave towards the beaches of Kuala Sungai Pengkalan Chepa , Sungai Sabak , Pantai Badang and Sungai Kelantan .
The 8th Indian Infantry Brigade , the 21st Mountain Battery with four howitzers and a battalion Dogra within sight of the beach were on the beach for defense . The latter was supposed to guard a twelve-kilometer stretch of beach. The Indians had mined the entire beach, provided it with barbed wire and built fortified shelters. A British artillery unit stationed at the Kota Bharu airfield supported the Indian soldiers. When it became clear that a Japanese landing was imminent, the British began to fire their guns at the ships lying offshore. The Dogras also opened fire with their machine guns from their positions. Many Japanese, including officers, fell victim to strong defensive fire from the defenders when they reached the beach. Only when the Japanese began to attack the two machine gun positions of the Indians and the trenches leading to them in a concentrated manner, did they succeed in gaining a foothold on the beach. It also came to close combat with the defenders. Meanwhile, the second wave landed, but was initially stopped by the British artillery fire on the beach and suffered great losses. After the Dogras positions were captured and the Japanese ran in full force against the defensive trenches, the Indians began to withdraw.
Meanwhile , on the airfield to the north, an Australian squadron of the Hudsons was preparing to attack the invaders with bombs. The first seven machines were able to take off at 2:10 a.m. on December 8 and set course for the Japanese transporters. After two approaches, the Australians succeeded in setting fire to the Awajisan Maru and sinking it. She was the first Japanese ship to be lost in the Pacific War. By around 5:00 a.m., the Australians made a total of 17 approaches to the Japanese ships. The escort ships of the transporters were able to shoot down two Hudsons and severely damage three others. Since all the transporters were now on fire, the Japanese asked their commander to withdraw the ships, but this was refused for the time being because not all units had gone ashore. It was only around 6:00 a.m. that two transporters and the escort ships set north course.
Three more Australian bombers took off at 6:30 a.m. from Kuantan Airfield near Kota Bahru, and three more squadrons of three Hudsons followed shortly afterwards. The Japanese had meanwhile covered their ships with a screen of smoke and were firing at the approaching machines with their on- board flak . Of the twelve Hudsons, five were badly hit and one of them crash-landed on the airfield.
When the first Japanese fighter planes, which had covered the main landings in Thailand, flew in from the north, the British Blenheims , who were about to launch an attack on the ships, got into an aerial battle with them that claimed many British victims. In the further course of the morning the Japanese expanded their bridgehead to three infantry divisions and were able to reach the outskirts of Kota Bahru at around 10:30 a.m. despite a brief counterattack by the Indians. The Indian soldiers had been pushed back as far as Kuala Lipis . Kota Bahru was completely under Japanese control around 2:00 p.m. that afternoon.
Both sides suffered heavy losses during the battle. Although there are no British records on this and the Japanese sources differ greatly in the numbers they cited, Colonel Tsuji Masanobu names 320 dead and 538 wounded in his book on the Malay invasion. He also calls the battle "one of the most brutal and bloodiest of the entire Malay campaign"
Thailand, from December 8, 1941
To invade Thailand , the Japanese launched a combined ground, air and sea operation that began in nine separate locations at dawn on December 8th. The land offensive started from Battambang in Cambodia , Japanese paratroopers landed on Don Mueang Airfield in Bangkok and the first sea landing operations in southern Thailand took place between Huan Hin and Pattani. Although local resistance was quickly organized in the south, the Thai field marshal Phibul Songkhram ordered the fire to be stopped after a few hours of desperate fighting.
The Allies viewed Thailand as the innocent victim of a Japanese invasion from that point on, but Field Marshal Phibul, who was also the government leader, signed a secret document on December 14th placing Thai soldiers under Japanese command to invade Burma. Finally, on December 21, an agreement was reached that formally made Thailand an ally of Japan. The official declaration of war on the British and the USA took place on January 25, 1942.
British Malaya, from December 8, 1941
At the same time as the landings in Thailand and northern British Malaysia, Japanese fighter planes bombed Singapore. The airfields of Sungai Petani , Butterworth Air Base and Alor Star were shut down on December 9th after heavy air raids by the Japanese. Most of the British and Australian machines were destroyed while they were still on the ground.
To ward off a falsely reported Japanese landing near Kuantan, the British Force Z ran from Singapore , but was destroyed in several waves by Japanese air raids on December 10th . The HMS Prince of Wales and the HMS Repulse sank .
After the devastating defeats of the British Air Force and Navy, the defense of Malaysia was now only in the hands of the Army. To stop the Japanese advance, the British planned a blockade at Jitra , south of the Thai border on the west side of the peninsula. A smaller vanguard should stop the approaching Japanese on a narrow strip of land and if possible not allow a breakthrough. But the Japanese pushed the units back into the hinterland. Meanwhile, the main British forces had taken a defensive position at Jitra before the Japanese reached the city in pouring rain on the afternoon of December 10th. After an officer broke into the British ranks and killed a guard, he reported to headquarters that there were large gaps in the British lines and that a night attack would be very promising. But when the Japanese attacked, they encountered considerably more resistance than expected and had to retreat under British artillery fire. Immediately they began to transport supplies of weapons and ammunition to the front line.
The Alor Star airfield in the rear of the British had meanwhile been cleared by the air force, which is why the British and Indian soldiers began to doubt their defense role. A request concerning the withdrawal of the troops was initially rejected by Percival from Singapore, but after the pressure from the Japanese increased he gave the appropriate order. The Jitra position, which was actually planned as a week-long defensive position, had to be left after a few hours. The Japanese lost only 25 soldiers in their attack on Jitra.
The Japanese troops, whose strength was still underestimated by the British, advanced further south over the next few days via a western route via the Alor Star and Butterworth airfields, which they captured on December 12th. The invasion units that had landed at Kota Bahru, on the other hand, took an eastern route to the south, so that there was always a risk of a flank attack for the British.
The second wave of invasions with 39 transport ships started on December 13th from Cam Ranh Bay with the large contingent of the 5th Infantry Division and parts of the 25th Army in the direction of the Malay Peninsula. The 3rd and 4th destroyer flotillas were used as escorts. The landings took place on December 17th at night. The transporters split up and reached their destinations as follows: One transporter Bandon, two transporters Nakhorn, five Kota Bahru and 31 anchored at Singora. By December 16, Dutch submarines had sunk one transporter and damaged another four.
At that time, more than 70,000 Japanese were under the command of General Yamashita on the Malay Peninsula. There were also about 200 tanks, two artillery regiments, and 500 combat aircraft, 80 of which were in reserve, on land. Ten destroyers, two aircraft carriers, five submarines and several other armed Japanese ships cruised in the waters. This contrasted with 37,000 Indian, 19,000 British and 15,000 Australian soldiers and around 17,000 Malay volunteers. But none of them had the combat experience that many Japanese had acquired during their deployment in China.
On December 16, the British evacuated Penang, leaving the island to the Japanese, who occupied it later that day.
Again and again, the retreating British, Indians and Australians came under violent low-flying attacks from the Japanese, who were now able to play their air sovereignty without resistance. In many cases, the Japanese machines flew well below 30 meters above the ground and mainly targeted artillery units.
After a further rapid advance, the Japanese took the city of Ipoh , 200 km north of Kuala Lumpur on the Kinta River, on December 26th . At Kampar , however, the British were able to hold a line of defense for three and a half days until they had to withdraw further south on January 2, 1942. Just five days later, the Japanese units overran two Indian brigades on the Slim River near Trolak . With six tanks and around 100 infantry vehicles, they stormed over the positions of the Indians towards the Slim River. These could no longer inform the British waiting in the hinterland about the Japanese breakthrough, so that the way to Kuala Lumpur was free for the Japanese. The British were unable to destroy the bridge over the river in time: it fell into Japanese hands around 8:30 a.m.
At the end of December, Air Marshal Brooke-Popham was replaced by Lieutenant General Henry Pownall . Shortly thereafter, however, the British Far East Command was completely dissolved and all military structures east of India came under the command of Field Marshal Archibald Wavell and ABDACOM, newly founded on January 7, 1942 .
On December 31, a convoy with the third wave, consisting of the 25th Army and accompanied by the 5th, 8th and 22nd destroyer divisions , started from Formosa towards the Malay Peninsula. In the meantime, the Japanese Guards Division and the 5th Division, partly over land and partly at sea with various landings, made an advance south to Johor . The 56 transporters from Formosa entered Singora and Patani on January 8th. At the same time, the Japanese moved parts of the 18th Infantry Division from Canton to Cam Ranh Bay. These were embarked on eleven transporters on January 20 and ran in a convoy with four destroyers on January 24 to Singora and Patani. Two transports continued from there to Kuantan and brought the troops ashore on January 26th.
In the meantime, the Allied survivors had fought their way to downtown Kuala Lumpur, which they reached on the morning of January 10th. They had expected a prepared British defense line there, but found nothing of the kind. The exhausted soldiers therefore immediately withdrew to the city's train station, from where they took the last train to Singapore and left Kuala Lumpur to the Japanese without a fight.
The next day the Japanese entered Kuala Lumpur while the Japanese offensive advanced rapidly on Singapore. Three days later, Japanese troops but were from the Australian 27th Brigade at Gama lured into an ambush. General Gordon Bennett had ordered his soldiers to let a large group of Japanese infantrymen pass on their bicycles and then attack them from the flanks and from behind. The Japanese suffered heavy losses. More than 100 of their soldiers fell. The Australians were also prepared for the Japanese light tanks. They posted small armor-piercing artillery pieces on a mined road, which became the undoing of the ten poorly armored and therefore quite vulnerable Japanese tanks of the Gotanda unit. The Australians managed to destroy all tanks in a very short time. Since the Australians concentrated their forces only on the main road and neglected the flanks, Japanese soldiers could fall in their backs from the coast and the jungle and wear them out. The survivors had to withdraw into the area around Segamat .
The line of defense at Johore finally collapsed on January 18 after the Japanese successfully eliminated two Indian battalions at Muar . The Allies now had to withdraw completely from British Malaya and settled on the access road to Singapore, not without blowing the bridges behind them. On January 31, the Japanese controlled the entire Malay Peninsula.
In order to defend Singapore (→ Battle of Singapore ), General Percival began to move supply units towards the island. The 18th British Division, the 44th Indian Brigade and 1,700 Australian soldiers gradually arrived in convoys. In total, Percival had around 85,000 soldiers available. The Allies brought civilians, mostly Europeans, to safety with the ships then lying in port. Meanwhile, General Yamashita rallied his troops of more than 30,000 soldiers to prepare for the attack on Singapore.
After days of artillery fire on Singapore, the first Japanese landing craft crossed over to the island on the morning of February 8th. Despite strong resistance from the Allies, Singapore could not be held and General Percival and his staff surrendered to the Japanese on February 15.
See also
- Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA)
- Force 136
- Lim Bo Seng
- Dalforce , or Singapore Overseas Chinese Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army (星 华 义勇军 - Xinghua Yi Yong Jun)
swell
- ^ The Fall of Malaya and Singapore. Retrieved August 4, 2014 .
- ↑ The date line must be observed for the date . While it was December 7th in Pearl Harbor, it was already December 8th in Kota Bahru.
- ↑ Masanobu Tsuji, Japan's Greatest Victory / Britain's Worst Defeat , Sarpedon Publishers, 1997, ISBN 1-885119-33-X
- ↑ Andrew Forbes, A Forgotten Invasion: Thailand in Shan State, 1941–45 , published in the Bangkok Post 2002.
- ^ The Fall of Malaya and Singapore. Retrieved August 4, 2014 .
- ^ Basil Henry Liddell Hart, History of the Second World War , Da Capo Press, 1999, ISBN 0-306-80912-5
literature
- Christopher Bayly , Tim Harper: Forgotten Armies. The Fall of British Asia, 1941-1945. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA 2006, ISBN 0-674-01748-X .
- Ong Chit Chung: Operation Matador. World War II. Britain's Attempt to Foil the Japanese Invasion of Malaya and Singapore. Times Academic Press, Singapore 2003, ISBN 981-210-266-3 .
- Nicholas Tarling: A Sudden Rampage. The Japanese Occupation of South East Asia, 1941-1945. C. Hurst & Co, London 2001, ISBN 1-85065-584-7 .
- Masanobu Tsuji : Japan's Greatest Victory / Britain's Worst Defeat. Sarpedon Publishers, New York NY 1997, ISBN 1-885119-33-X .
- Joseph Kennedy: British Civilians and the Japanese War in Malaya and Singapore. 1941-45. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke et al. a. 1987, ISBN 0-333-41603-1 .
- Arthur Swinson: Defeat in Malaya: the fall of Singapore. Macdonald & Co. (Publishers) Ltd., London 1970, ISBN 0-356-03072-5
