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  • For the Japanese, the war was marching  exceedingly well in these first few weeks.  

  • Poor preparations on behalf of the Allies had left  their Pacific possessions in a very precarious  

  • state, with the Japanese rapidly capitalizing on  this advantage to spread their rule across East  

  • Asia. The British in particular, focused on their  front against Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy,  

  • demonstrated that they were hardly prepared  to fight in these conditions and that not even  

  • their impressive fortress at Singapore could save  them from the might of the Japanese firepower.  

  • The Malayan Campaign up to this point had been  characterized by an ineffective command and a  

  • strain of poor strategic decisions that ended up  giving the upper hand to the Japanese invaders;  

  • and today, we are going to see one of  the biggest blunders in British history,  

  • as the Japanese decide to attack  Malayan positions on the Slim River.

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  • On January 4, the week started with renewed  fighting during the third battle of Changsha.  

  • Just as promised, General Xue Yue of the 9th War  Area had brought enough reinforcements to repel  

  • the Japanese invaders, forcing General Anami of  the 11th Army to make a quick and orderly retreat  

  • back to the Ku Shui river. As nine Chinese armies  and twenty divisions swarmed the Changsha area,  

  • the 3rd and 6th Divisions thus started  to cross the Liuyang Ho at Langlishih to  

  • assemble on the northern bank of the riverTo cover the withdrawal of these divisions,  

  • Anami ordered the 40th Division at  Chinching to advance towards Chunhuashan,  

  • while the 9th Independent Mixed Brigade was  ordered to capture the town of Malinshih  

  • and hold onto it until the retreating divisions  had passed over. After dusk, the 6th Division had  

  • successfully crossed the Liuyang Ho and was  starting to move towards Malinshih, but the  

  • retreat of the 3rd Division was halted by Chinese  forces arriving at Lichiachung. Many losses ensued  

  • as the Japanese soldiers tried to cross the river  under enemy fire, but by midnight of January 5,  

  • the 3rd had successfully assembled on the northern  bank of the river. Earlier that day, the 40th  

  • Division had already gotten to Chunhuashan  after routing a small Chinese force, and it  

  • was starting to move west so it could divert  the attention of the Chinese 78th Army nearby

  • The following day, the 9th Independent  Mixed Brigade reached the town of Fulinpu,  

  • a major point for the retreat of the Japanese  army. An intense fire exchange ensued as the 9th  

  • struck at the Chinese 20th and 58th Armies, taking  the mountain ranges and then occupying Fulinpu.  

  • In the next few days, the 9th's men would be  relentlessly attacked by Chinese forces trying  

  • to dislodge them, but to no avail, as the Japanese  offered a well-coordinated resistance. With  

  • the Chinese armies successfully tied down, the  retreating divisions got to Malinshih by January  

  • 7, the day in which the 40th Division also started  its withdrawal. From Malinshih, the battered 3rd  

  • Division would continue on towards Fulinpu covered  by the 40th , while the 6th Division advanced to  

  • Lichiao, where on January 8, it was delayed by  attacks of the Chinese 73rd and 99th Armies. Faced  

  • with the possibility of losing an entire division  while the rest of his army retreated back north,  

  • Anami ordered his forces to stop their retreat and  support the 6th Division's escape towards Fulinpu.  

  • Meanwhile in the Philippines, the defenders had  established a line running from the town of Porac  

  • to Guagua on January 2. There, the 11th and 21st  Divisions, along with the 26th Cavalry Regiment,  

  • had resisted against swarms of enemy  forces for two days while giving time for  

  • General MacArthur's forces to establish solid  defensive positions on the Bataan Peninsula.  

  • In turn, the Japanese had suffered enormous  casualties against American and Filipino  

  • firepower, with an entire detachment  getting completely decimated at Guagua

  • Since January 4 though, the defenders would  begin to withdraw to a last line at Layac.  

  • By January 6, most of their forces  had retreated behind the Culo River,  

  • blowing up the Layac bridge behind them and  causing a minor delay for the Japanese advance. At  

  • dawn that same morning, the defenders were greeted  with orders and portions officially placing them  

  • on half-ration ; it was a long resistance that  MacArthur was planning on the Bataan Peninsula.  

  • A couple hours later, General Homma's forces  started their attack against the Layac line.  

  • Initially, American artillery managed to  inflict several losses on the invaders,  

  • but as time went on, the Japanese started to get  the upper hand. Pummeled by Japanese artillery  

  • and air bombardment, General Wainwright ordered  his forces to abandon the line at nightfall,  

  • retreating to the new Abucay and Mauban lines  and ending their long withdrawal into Bataan.  

  • This officially marks the start of the Battle  of Bataan, as all American and Filipino forces  

  • had now assembled on the Peninsula. MacArthur  then formed two operational areas for his forces  

  • on Bataan: the 1st Corps, consisting of four  divisions and a regiment of Philippine Scouts  

  • under the command of General Wainwright, defending  a line that stretched from Mauban on the coast  

  • to the ranges of Mount Silangananand the 2nd Corps of General Parker,  

  • also consisting of four divisions andregiment of Philippine Scouts, covering  

  • a line that extended from Mount Natib's foothills  to Mabatang on Manila Bay just in front of Abucay

  • MacArthur's strategy was to conduct a defense  in depth, taking advantage of the rugged terrain  

  • and establishing entrenched defensive positions  at the jungles and mountain ranges. Yet in the  

  • center of the American line, there washuge gap at Mount Natib, which was thought  

  • impassable by the American commanders. This was  a mistake as it formed a gap in the defense line  

  • and the two corps were not in direct contact with  another; something that the Japanese would use to  

  • their advantage in the future. MacArthur had also  formed a rear battle position that stretched from  

  • Bagac to Orion across the Peninsula; this was  to be their last line of defense in Bataan.  

  • So far in the campaign, the Americans had lost  around 13000 men since the start of the war,  

  • while Homma had only lost 2000 soldiers; yet the  Japanese general would unexpectedly see his most  

  • elite division, the 48th, redirected to  participate on the Dutch East Indies campaign,  

  • so he could now only rely on the 16th Division  and the 65th Independent Mixed Brigade for the  

  • remainder of the battle. An unsettling  peace followed until dawn on January 9,  

  • when the Japanese forces started their  first attacks against Abucay and Mauban,  

  • which we'll cover more in-depth next week. Looking  back at the Malay Peninsula, the situation was  

  • very dire. Masanobu Tsuji wrote that it  appeared to be a mistake for the British to  

  • successively exhaust their military strength  in the unprepared fighting zone of Malaya,  

  • but that he was surprised to see the British  command repeating the same mistake over and over

  • By January 4, the 11th Indian Division  had fallen back to the Slim River,  

  • where General Paris formed a new defensive line in  front of Kuala Lumpur. Paris had placed the 12th  

  • Brigade on the Trolak sector to the north, while  the battered 28th Brigade was placed in defense of  

  • the Slim River crossings and the 15th Brigade was  appointed to cover their rear at Tanjong Malim.  

  • In general, this was a sound dispositiongiving the British the chance to execute  

  • a defense in depth; yet nonethelesstheir efforts were doomed from the start,  

  • as the British command had failed to clearly  maintain their lines of communication  

  • and to adequately construct tank defensessuch as anti-tank obstacles or roadblocks.  

  • The Japanese launched their first probe attacks  on January 5 at the Trolak sector, which were  

  • easily beaten off by the Indian defenders. These  attacks were followed by an unusually quiet day,  

  • so Paris ordered the 28th Brigade to rest at  Slim town so that they could recover their  

  • strength. But this moment of calm would be  followed on January 7 by a strong Japanese  

  • tank attack along the Trunk Road. Major Toyosaku  Shimada came up with a very unusual plan for WW2,  

  • the Japanese would perform a 'night attack using  tanks ' to spearhead the infantry, which was  

  • extremely dangerous considering lack of visibility  for tank crews. Without any tank defenses, the  

  • Indian defenders were quickly overrun, allowing  the Japanese tanks under Major Toyosaku Shimada  

  • to get to the main Indian line. There, they would  face more resistance , but eventually the Japanese  

  • would manage to overrun this position as well . The British line of communication had also been  

  • cut by Japanese forces, so they could not alert  the 28th Brigade of the impending tank threat  

  • they were about to face. Meanwhile, the Japanese  tanks were overrunning position after position  

  • of the 12th Brigade, bypassing the Trolak bridge  and advancing about one mile north of Slim town.  

  • The 28th Brigade, which had not deployed  successfully after its day of respite, was caught  

  • completely by surprise by the strong tank assaultThe Indian positions at Slim were thus overrun,  

  • and the Slim River bridge was taken. The Japanese  tanks would then continue their advance for two  

  • more miles after crossing the bridge, finally  being stopped by the 155th Field Regiment.  

  • For six hours, Shimada's tanks had rumbled down  a single road, machine-gunning and shooting up  

  • everything in their path. This resulted in the  destruction or dispersion of five battalions  

  • and the shattering of the British positions on  the Slim River. The 12th Brigade had been almost  

  • completely annihilated, while the 28th Brigade  had been cut down to a third of their force,  

  • then retreating to Tanjong Malim on January  8. Thus, the disastrous Battle of the Slim  

  • River constituted the final destruction of  the already debilitated 11th Indian Division  

  • and also signified the complete fall  of central Malaya into Japanese hands

  • Back on January 1, during the talks of the  Arcadia Conference, the Allied governments  

  • had agreed to form a joint command and  an integrated staff for the Pacific War:  

  • the American-British-Dutch-Australian  Command, or ABDACOM for short. It was to  

  • be responsible for the defense of the vast area  that ranged from Burma to northwestern Australia,  

  • and for the maintenance of the Malay Barrier, a  line running down the Malayan Peninsula through  

  • the southernmost islands of the Dutch East IndiesBritish General Sir Archibald Wavell was the man  

  • appointed as Supreme Commander of the ABDACOMwith Dutch General Hein ter Poorten as commander  

  • of the land forces, British Air Marshal Sir  Richard Peirse as commander of air forces,  

  • and American Admiral Thomas Hart as commander of  naval forces. On January 7, as Paris' men were  

  • being overrun at the Slim River, General Wavell  arrived at Singapore to assume control of the  

  • British Far East Command. Wavell quickly  realized that Johor was the vital ground,  

  • and that they needed to gain enough time for the  arrival of reinforcements. He then appointed the  

  • 8th Australian Division to defend northwestern  Johor, while the Indian forces were placed in  

  • defense of southern and northeastern Johor. This  meant that central Malaya , along with important  

  • cities like Kuala Lumpur and Kuala Selangorwere going to be abandoned to the Japanese;  

  • but this also meant that for the first time in  the campaign, the British were going to attempt  

  • to buy real time, instead of just throwing their  forces into the meat grinder over and over again

  • We're now going to take a quick  detour to the island of Borneo,  

  • where the last actions on the British side of the  island were about to happen. On December 28, upon  

  • returning back to Miri from his attack on KuchingGeneral Kawaguchi ordered the battalion-strong  

  • Watanabe Force to advance and then capture Brunei  with the objective of acquiring small boats for  

  • an attack on North Borneo. Three days laterthe Watanabe Force carried out their orders,  

  • but found all big ships in Brunei's harbour  already destroyed by the British defenders.  

  • This forced Kawaguchi to employ only  small fishing boats for his next attacks.  

  • After taking Labuan Island on January 1, Kawaguchi  decided to launch his main attack on North Borneo.  

  • On January 8, two infantry platoons occupied  the towns of Jesselton and Beaufort,  

  • while the Watanabe Force captured Sandakanthe seat of government of North Borneo,  

  • then rescuing some 600 interned Japanese citizensKawaguchi's men would then continue their advance  

  • throughout British Borneo, with Governor Robert  Smith finally surrendering on January 19.  

  • Meanwhile, the Watanabe Force captured Tawau on  January 24 and Lahad Datu on January 31, freeing  

  • up a further 1500 interned Japanese citizensOn January 9th as the Japanese were falling  

  • back from Changsha, a section of their forces