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Singapore The Japanese Malaya Campaign
On December 8, 1941, the Japanese troops of two large
convoys,
which had sailed from bases in Hainan and southern
Indochina,
landed at Singora (now Songkhla) and Patani in southern
Thailand
and Kota Baharu in northern Malaya. One of Japan's top
generals and
some of its best trained and most experienced troops were
assigned
to the Malaya campaign. By the evening of December 8,
27,000
Japanese troops under the command of General Yamashita
Tomoyuki had
established a foothold on the peninsula and taken the
British air
base at Kota Baharu. Meanwhile, Japanese airplanes had
begun
bombing Singapore. Hoping to intercept any further
landings by the
Japanese fleet, the Prince of Wales and the
Repulse
headed north, unaware that all British airbases in
northern Malaya
were now in Japanese hands. Without air support, the
British ships
were easy targets for the Japanese air force, which sunk
them both
on December 10.
The main Japanese force moved quickly to the western
side of
the peninsula and began sweeping down the single
north-south road.
The Japanese divisions were equipped with about 18,000
bicycles.
Whenever the invaders encountered resistance, they
detoured through
the forests on bicycles or took to the sea in collapsible
boats to
outflank the British troops, encircle them, and cut their
supply
lines. Penang fell on December 18, Kuala Lumpur on January
11,
1942, and Malacca on January 15. The Japanese occupied
Johore
Baharu on January 31, and the last of the British troops
crossed to
Singapore, blowing a fifty-meter gap in the causeway
behind them.
Singapore faced Japanese air raids almost daily in the
latter
half of January 1942. Fleeing refugees from the peninsula
had
doubled the 550,000 population of the beleaguered city.
More British and
Commonwealth of nations (see Glossary) fleets
and armed
foces were brought to Singapore during January, but most
were
poorly trained raw recruits from Australia and India and
inexperienced British troops diverted from the war in the
Middle
East. Singapore's Chinese population, which had heard
rumors of the
treatment of the Malayan Chinese by the invading Japanese,
flocked
to volunteer to help repel the impending invasion. Brought
together
by the common enemy, Guomindang and communist groups
banded
together to volunteer their services to Governor Shenton
Thomas.
The governor authorized the formation of the Chung Kuo
Council
(China National Council), headed by Tan Kah Kee, under
which
thousands volunteered to construct defense works and to
perform
other essential services. The colonial government also
reluctantly
agreed to the formation of a Singapore Chinese
Anti-Japanese
Volunteer Battalion, known as Dalforce for its commander,
Lieutenant Colonel John Dalley of the Federated Malay
States police
force. Dalley put his volunteers through a ten-day crash
training
course and armed them with basic weapons, including
shotguns,
knives, and grenades.
From January 1-8, 1942, the two armies faced each other
across
the Johore Strait. The Japanese stepped up their air
raids, bombing
the airfields, naval base, and harbor area. Bombs also
fell in the
commercial and residential sections of the city, causing
great
destruction and killing and wounding many civilians. With
their
mastery of the skies, the Japanese could choose the time
and place
for invasion and maintain an element of surprise.
Yamashita,
however, had only 30,000 troops and limited ammunition
available to
launch against a British force of about 70,000 armed
personnel. As
the General Officer Commanding Malaya, Lieutenant General
Arthur E.
Percival commanded the defense of Singapore under the
direction of
General Archibald Wavell, the newly appointed commander in
chief
Far East, who was headquartered in Java. Percival's orders
from
British prime minister Winston Churchill through Wavell
called for
defending the city to the death, while executing a
scorched-earth
policy: "No surrender can be contemplated . . . . every
inch of
ground . . . defended, every scrap of material or defences
. . .
blown to pieces to prevent capture by the enemy . . . ."
Accordingly, the troops set about the task of destroying
the naval
base, now useless without ships, and building defense
works along
the northern coast, which lay totally unprotected.
On the night of February 8, using collapsible boats,
the
Japanese landed under cover of darkness on the northwest
coast of
Singapore. By dawn, despite determined fighting by
Australian
troops, they had two divisions with their artillery
established on
the island. By the next day the Japanese had seized Tengah
Airfield
and gained control of the causeway, which they repaired in
four
days. The British forces were plagued by poor
communication and
coordination, and, despite strong resistance by
Commonwealth troops
aided by Dalforce and other Chinese irregulars, the
Japanese took
Bukit Timah--the highest point on the island--on February
11. The
British forces fell back to a final perimeter around the
city,
stretching from Pasir Panjang to Kallang, as Yamashita
issued an
invitation to the British to surrender. On February 13,
the
Japanese broke through the final perimeter at Pasir
Panjang,
putting the whole city within range of their artillery.
As many as 2,000 civilians were killed daily as the
Japanese
continued to bomb the city by day and shell it at night.
Governor
Thomas cabled London that "there are now one million
people within
radius of three miles. Many dead lying in the streets and
burial
impossible. We are faced with total deprivation of water,
which
must result in pestilence...." On February 13, Percival
cabled
Wavell for permission to surrender, hoping to avoid the
destruction
and carnage that would result from a house-to-house
defense of the
city. Churchill relented and on February 14 gave
permission to
surrender. On the evening of February 15, at the Japanese
headquarters at the Ford factory in Bukit Timah, Yamashita
accepted
Percival's unconditional surrender.
Data as of December 1989
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