The British created the
earliest settlements in the Malay peninsula in 1786. Rich in rubber
and tin, Malaya became a British protectorate.
By the start of the Second
World War Malaya was supplying half the world's natural rubber
and more than half its tin ore and was one of the most important economic
and strategic territories in the British Empire. The peninsula was
defended by 88,000 troops (Malayan, Indian, Australian and British)
under the command of General Arthur Percival.
On Sunday, 7th December,
1941, 105 high-level bombers, 135 dive-bombers and 81 fighter aircraft
attacked the the US Fleet at Pearl Harbor.
In their first attack the Japanese sunk the Arizona,
Oklahoma, West
Virginia and California.
The second attack, launched 45 minutes later, hampered by smoke, created
less damage. In two hours 18 warships, 188 aircraft and 2,403 servicemen
were lost in the attack.
That night the Japanese
Army began arriving at Kota Bharu. This was just a diversionary
force and the the main landings took place the next day at Singora
and Patani on the north-east coast. Under the command of General Tomoyuki
Yamashita, the Japanese 18th Division, made rapid progress as
they moved south.
On 10th December, 1941,
the Prince of Wales and
Repulse were both sunk by Japanese
aircraft off the coast of Malaya. This left the Japanese
Navy in control of the sea and it was able to provide the Japanese
Army with the necessary supplies to win the battle with the Allied
forces on Malaya.
The British Army in Malaya
did not have any tanks whereas the Japanese had over two hundred.
The Japanese
Air Force were also able to carry out a series of air attacks
on Allied positions. Unsuccessful attempts were made to halt the advance
of General Tomoyuki Yamashita at Perak
River, Kampar and the Muar River.
On 25th January 1942, P
gave orders for a general retrat across the Johore Strait to the island
of Singapore. The island was difficult to defend and on 8th February,
13,000 Japanese troops landed on the northwest corner of the island.
The next day another 17,000 arrived in the west. Percival, moved his
soldiers to the southern tip of the island but on 15th February he
admitted defeat and surrendered his 138,000 soldiers to the Japanese.
It was Britain's most humiliating
defeat of the war. Percival and his troops remained prisoners of the
Japanese until just before the end of the Second
World War.
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