Japanese Assault Plans
Japanese StrategyMany years prior to their attack on Malaya in December 1941, the Japanese had studied the Malayan terrain and worked out their strategy, the troops and equipment needed to mount the campaign. Their immediate objective - the Capture of Singapore.Lieutenant-General Tomoyuki Yamashita, Commander-in-Chief of the 25th Japanese Army, had studied the science and technology of modern warfare. Before taking command, he had spent 6 months in Germany exchanging ideas with Adolf Hitler's military experts.The highly trained and battle hardened 25th Army led by the Imperial Guard Division, and elite troops of the 5th Division, were assigned to carry out the lightning offensive down the Malay Peninsula and capture Singapore, before the British could dispatch its reinforcements. British Defence Plans CrushedThe “Main Fleet to Singapore” strategy collapsed on 10th December 1941, a mere two days after Japanese invaded Malaya, when the Prince of Wales and the Repulse, the only two battleships, were sunk 60 miles off Kuantan. Soon after landing on southern Thailand and northern Malaya, the Japanese invading forces established air superiority as Britain had only old and obsolete aircraft.
Moreover Britain had no tanks to stop the Japanese onslaught over land.Japanese troops landed at Kota Bharu on 8th December 1941 at 12.25am - 90 minutes before the bombing of Pearl Harbour.The attacks were relentless, augmented by troop reserves in South Thailand and Indo-China. Outflanked and outclassed, the British were forced to retreat.It took the Japanese army only 55 days to over run Peninsular Malaya and reached Johore. They crossed the Johore Strait on 7th February 1942 to capture Fortress Singapore.The British lost because they underestimated their enemy - the cardinal mistake in warfare!January the 31st, 1942 : Only 55 days after the landing at Kota Bahru, the Japanese had already won the battle for Malaya. And now…. the battle for Singapore was to begin. Seventy miles of Singapore's coastline lay vulnerable. Whilst the British were hastening their defence preparations, Yamashita was getting ready for the Japanese assault on Singapore.Under Lt-General Percival, Singapore's coastline was divided into three combat zones - the north, west and southern areas - with a reserve area in the centre of the island. About 100,000 military personnel from Australia, Great Britain and India, as well as soldiers raised in Malaya and Singapore, prepared to defend Singapore. The British also allowed the Malayan Communist Party to help set up a Singapore Overseas Chinese Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army. Led by a British officer, J.D. Dalley, these recruits, a few hundred of them, were given some old weapons, and only ten days of actual training in combat skills. This was the Dalforce.
But the Japanese strategy was a wily one - at midnight on the 7th February 1942, Japanese troops landed unopposed on Pulau Ubin. Opening fire on Singapore's north-east coast, they gave the impression of an impending attack from that direction.
On February the 8th, however, the Japanese directed a strategic air and artillery attack on the north-west coast instead. By 9.30 that night, the first Japanese amphibious assault on Singapore was launched. Undeterred by heavy casualties suffered from Australian machine-gunners, wave upon wave of Japanese troops landed on Singapore's north-west coast. And by midnight of that day the Australian defence was broken.
On February the 9th, Tengah Airfield fell to the Japanese and both the villages at Choa Chu Kang and Ama Keng were captured.
Preparations were meanwhile made for a Japanese landing on the beaches between the Kranji River and the Causeway. By the 10th of February the Japanese had successfully taken the Singapore side of the Causeway.
With his troops well established on the northern shores, Yamashita's next objective was Bukit Timah, for this area commanded the north-western approach to Singapore town. Advancing eastwards along the Choa Chu Kang and Jurong Roads, the Japanese army approached Bukit Timah.
By the 11th of February, Bukit Timah village was taken. With the taking of Bukit Timah, Yamashita called upon Percival to surrender. But Percival had strict orders … and they were "to fight till the end." Pushing on eastward, Japanese troops captured the Race Course area and as well as the MacRitchie Reservoir.
On the eastern front more Japanese troops from Pulau Ubin landed at Punggol and Loyang. Meeting no resistance, Upper Serangoon, Paya Lebar and then Geylang were taken.
Their next target - the Pasir Panjang Ridge. There, the Japanese 18th Division fought a bitter battle with the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Malay Regiment. Supported by men from the Australian forces, the Malay Regiment fought stubbornly and kept the Japanese onslaught at bay until the midnight of 12th February. As the odds grew obviously too great, the "C" Company of the Malay Regiment retreated to Bukit Chandu the following day.
Up on Bukit Chandu, soldiers of the Malay Regiment had run out of ammunition. True to the spirit of "Ta'at dan Setia", they resorted to hand-to-hand combat against the Japanese invaders. Point 226 or Bukit Chandu, was captured by afternoon, the 14th of February.
Enraged by the stubborn stand put up by the Malay Regiment soldiers, the Japanese exacted revenge by storming into the nearby Alexandra Hospital on the same day, bayoneting and killing patients and staff on sight. More than 200 died in the senseless Alexandra Hospital massacre.
By this time the Japanese advance had forced British troops to fall back to a perimeter around the Municipality. This was their last defence. Around this the Japanese converged. The end was imminent.
Not only were water supplies falling to a critical level but supplies including food, fuel and ammunition were also running low. These reasons along with mounting civilian casualties, led Percival made the momentous decision to surrender.
At the Ford Motor Factory in Bukit Timah on the 15th of February at 10 past 6 that evening, the official surrender was signed. It was a magnificent victory for Japan, for the capture of Singapore signalled the end of British power in the Far East. On the part of the British, Percival's cable to the Supreme Commander of the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command read : ALL RANKS HAVE DONE THEIR BEST.