Singapore

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• In the pre-dawn twilight, The Japanese 18th Division lands at Kota Bharu in northern Malaya and takes significant casualties from the defending 8th Indian Brigade.

 

• Japanese heavy cruiser Kumano provides close support off Cap Camau during the landings at Singora, Patani and Kota Bharu on the Mayla Peninsula.

 

• Ten Australian Hudson bombers, each carrying four 250 lb bombs, depart the aerodrome at Kota Bharu to attack the Japanese transports just offshore. After repeated sorties two Hudsons are shot down and three badly damaged. One Hudson crashes into a fully laden landing craft after being hit while strafing the beachhead, killing some 60 Japanese soldiers aboard. Two Japanese troopships are significantly damaged while a third is left burning and abandoned. Although the Japanese take casualties of 850 killed and 2,000 wounded, they take the airfield and will be operating aircraft from it within days. Only five of the Hudsons can be evacuated.

 

• The Japanese 5th Division lands at Singora and Pitani in Thailand close to the Malay border. Thai forces give token resistance before capitulating. The Japanese immediately begin driving for Jitani in Malaya on the other side of the peninsula.

 

• The Japanese stage repeated raids on all Allied aerodromes, and the Allied pilots find to their chagrin that the guns of their Brewster Buffaloes repeatedly jam. The fighter engines are weak (1,000 hp vice the 1,200 hp in American versions), and to save money Brewster had placed used engines taken from airliners in many of them. The engines tend to overheat during maneuvering and spray the windshield with oil, forcing the pilot to abort to base. Still, the Buffaloes down several bombers and Ki-27 fighters while losing three in the air. They also help prevent any hits on the naval ships in the harbour.

 

• British Indian Army Captain Patrick Heenan, attached to an Army-Air liaison unit, is a spy for Japan, probably due to Irish Republican sympathies. He uses a disguised transmitter to alert the Japanese on Allied air movements. This allows the Japanese to repeatedly catch Allied aircraft on the ground while refueling between sorties. Sixty Allied aircraft are destroyed this day, most on the ground.

 

- Heenan will be caught on the 10th and tried by court-martial. Prior to the surrender of Singapore he will be summarily executed.

 

• Japanese submarine I-56 attacks Dutch submarine K-XVII off Malaya but misses.

 

• Dutch submarine O-16 attacks a Japanese invasion force off Malaya but due to high density of escorts fails to make any hits.

 

• Force Z gets underway from Singapore.

HMS Prince of Wales departing Singapore"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Japanese submarine I-65 spots and reports Forze Z and begins a tail chase. When an E7K from light cruiser Kinu attacks I-65, mistaking it for an Allied submarine, she dives and loses contact with the British ships.

 

• No 62 Squadron RAF is ordered to make a raid on the advanced Japanese air base at Singora in Thailand. Apprised of the raid through Captain Heenan's treachery, Japanese fighters and bombers arrive at RAF Butterworth as the Blenheims are taking off. All of them are destroyed on the runway except for Squadron Leader Arthur Scarf who had been the first to take off. Despite the plan being for a formation strike, he presses on alone and attacks Singora. On the way back he evades several Japanese fighters and is mortally wounded, though he is able to make a crash landing at Alor Star without injury to his crew. Scarf will be posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

 

All of these No 62 Squadron Blenheims are destroyed Dec 9th 1941"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Prince of Wales, Repulse, and four destroyers have been driving northward to attack Japanese troop convoy concentrations off Singora in the Gulf of Siam.

 

- Overnight, Force Z is sporadically tracked by Japanese float planes. At one point a float plane illuminates a force with flares only to discover they’d lit up Jisaburō Ozawa’s heavy cruiser Chokai. The flare is seen by Force Z but the Japanese cruiser force is not detected, nor are the Japanese sure where the British are.

 

- At this point, Admiral Sir Tom Philips decides that he has been discovered and lost the element of surprise. Rather than continue to attack the transport fleets in the face of Japanese air superiority he decides to return to Singapore.

 

0100: Philips receives word of Japanese landings at Kuantan, halfway down the Malayan peninsula. He alters course to attack, without radioing his intentions so as to not give away his position to Japanese direction finders. This makes it impossible to plan fighter cover for Force Z, though a depleted squadron of Australian Buffaloes is standing by to depart when requested.

 

0340: Japanese submarine I-58 attacks Prince of Wales or Repulse but misses. Her contact report results in three naval air groups having their missions changed from ground support to anti-shipping.

 

0718: Prince of Wales catapults off her Walrus which flies to Kuantan and reports no Japanese landing force. The flying boat then proceeds to Singapore. Philips begins searching northward, and then southward for the Japanese, not realizing that the intelligence from Singapore is in error. Repulse will launch her Walrus around 0900 to aid in the search.

 

0655: The Genzan, Mihoro, and Kanoya air groups (G3M and G4M) begin taking off from Saigon. One third are armed with bombs and the rest with torpedoes.

 

~ 1000: The Japanese aircraft have passed east of Force Z and are well south of them. A C5M “Babs” reconnaissance plane spots Force Z and alerts the strike force, which turns to intercept.

 

C5M is the naval version of the Mitsubishi Ki-15.

 

- Around this time Ozawa begins closing Force Z with his six cruisers plus destroyers for a torpedo attack after the aircraft have “softened up” force Z, but he is too far north to participate. Naval Lt-General Kondō with battleships Kongo and Haruna, two heavy cruisers and destroyers is also driving southwest from the vicinity of Borneo to intercept but is too far away.

 

1113: A first wave of eight G3Ms make a high level bombing attack, scoring one direct hit on Repulse that does no lasting damage, merely blowing up the marines’ mess. Prince of Wales’ modern 5.25” AA guns are hampered by her AA firce control radar being inoperative, while Repulse’s older 4” guns are being directed optically. Still, two of the G3Ms are damaged by Repulse. Force Z steams south at 25 knots.

Repulse (at bottom) taking a bomb hit

 

1130: A wave of seventeen G3M torpedo planes arrive. Eight attack Repulse and nine Prince of Wales.

 

1140: Captain William Tennant of Repulse counts ten torpedoes passing close aboard his ship as he combs the wakes.

 

1142: One G3M is shot down by the battleship before a torpedo strikes Prince of Wales astern, dropping her speed to 15 knots and giving her an 11½ degree list.

 

1158: Captain Tennant breaks radio silence: "FROM REPULSE TO ANY BRITISH MAN OF WAR, ENEMY AIRCRAFT BOMBING. MY POSITION 134NYTW22X09." Within minutes the pilots 453 Squadron are scrambling.

Buffaloes of RAAF No. 453

 

1220: A wave of twenty-six G4M bombers attack with torpedoes. 17 of them target the Prince of Wales, which can only respond with her 2 pounder pom pom guns as the list prevents her heavy AA guns from targeting. Six Bettys put three torpedoes into Prince of Wales. With remarkable presence of mind, a following element leader switches to Repulse and is followed by most of his pilots.

 

1226: Repulse has evaded 19 torpedoes so far but is neatly caught in a pincer attack. No matter which way Captain Tennant turns, he will be in the path of one or more. He evades eight more torpedoes coming in from starboard, but two strike his port side. One fails to detonate but the other blows open a hole, causing the battlecruiser’s speed to drop sharply.

 

Japanese photograph from the battle. The ships have been heavily retouched by a Japanese artist to make them more visible.

 

1228: Another nine G4Ms attack Repulse, six from starboard and three from port. They wait until they are 550 yards away before launching, and two of them are shot down. Three torpedoes slam into Repulse. Knowing that his ship’s compartmentation is old and that Repulse never received the anti-torpedo blisters fitted onto Renown, Tennant immediately gives the order to abandon ship. Repulse’s list quickly exceeds 12 degrees and she rolls over six minutes later.

 

1241: Prince of Wales, now limping on one propeller shaft, comes under high altitude bombing. One strikes in the cinema flat where the wounded had been gathered. Two near misses cause further hull damage and she goes dead in the water with her list increasing.

 

1305: Destroyer Express is ordered to come alongside and take off the crew. Electra and Australian destroyer Vampire are already picking up Repulse crew.

 

1318: Four Brewster Buffalo fighters arrive overhead, followed by six more a few minutes later. All they can do is watch Prince of Wales capsizing.

 

1320: Prince of Wales suddenly rolls over and sinks, nearly taking Express with her. The destroyers pick up 1,862 survivors. 513 men are lost with Repulse and 327 from Prince of Wales. Captain Tennant is picked up but both neither Admiral Philips nor Captain Leach survive. As the destroyers return to Singapore, they meet the northbound elderly Admiralty destroyer Stronghold and American destroyers Alden, Edsall, Edwards, and Whipple which had made a high speed run in an attempt to reach Force Z. The American destroyers continue to search the area of the sinking, but find no more survivors. Battlecruiser Repulse's Walrus lands in the water out of fuel. Her crew is picked up and the Walrus towed to Singapore by HMS Stronghold.

 

Abandoning HMS Prince of Wales - destroyer HMS Express is alongside"

 

[Vig]

Anyone but Tom Thumb would have had air cover in place before attempting that sortie.  It would have been interesting to see how the Buffaloes handled the Bettys.  Repulse was superbly handled and showed herself a hero.  Prince of Wales was a hard-luck ship to the end.

[cardboard_killer]

I'd say it was a doomed exercise from the git go. Land based air cover was never very successful during the war; the Japanese navy had surface superiority and better scouting and communications so even if Z had evaded the air attacks they would probably have lost a surface engagement. Even if they reached the landing zones, the battle was basically already over so little could be accomplished.

 

What is kind of amazing to me is how much the Japanese did in the first weeks of the Pacific war across such a broad front. It dwarfed even the German/Russian front.

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• General Percival reorganizes his forces. The Indian 12th Brigade is incorporated into the battered Indian 11th Division which is pulled into the reserve, and the Indian 6th and 15th Brigades are combined. Plans are made for a withdrawal from the Krian River to the Grik River, and a third defense line is set up on the Perak River. All remaining combat worthy aircraft are ordered to Singapore.

Buffaloes and a Blenheim over Malaya

 

• Japanese troops land on Penang Island, just off Malaya. The extensive port facilities, second only to Singapore in the region, will be used as an Axis submarine base, supplying and maintaining Japanese, German, and Italian submarines.

 

Base Penang dining hall"

Edited December 18, 2021 by cardboard_killer
Edit photo

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Newly arrived Hawker Hurricanes shoot down eight Japanese bombers out of a group of twenty-seven over Singapore. This forces the Japanese to increase escort strength for the raids.

 

• Lieutenant Colonel Charles Anderson, the only remaining battalion commander, is in command of the 45th Indian Brigade and all other units around Bakri. Early in the morning, he is ordered to pull out and attempt to break through to the Commonwealth lines. A mile out of Bakri, Anderson's column, laden with wounded, is held up by a Japanese roadblock. Several efforts to break through fail until Anderson personally leads a bayonet charge to clear it.

 

- Anderson leads his force through fifteen miles of enemy-occupied territory, harassed all the way. During this march his column receives support from Dutch Martin-166 (export version of the B-10) bombers that attack Japanese units on the road following the column.

Militaire Luchtvaart KNIL Martin-166s over Malaya. This is the last mission of the squadron from Singapore prior to its relocation to Sumatra.

 

- The remnants of the 45th are then completely cut off by a strong Japanese force in front of them. As the 45th bogs down, the Japanese ask Anderson to surrender, promising good treatment and care for the wounded. Anderson refuses and will spend two days attempting to break through to the bridge at Parit Sulong. Heavy fighting will rage, with several Japanese tanks disabled by Boys anti-tank rifles. Australian Buffalo fighters will strafe the Japanese, but Anderson’s force will be under heavier air attack. Two naval Albacores drop morphine for the wounded. Anderson is finally forced to leave 150 of the more serious wounded in the care of volunteers from the 45th's ambulance company. Anderson destroys all of his equipment and the remnants of the brigade take to the jungle.

 

- Troops under Lieutenant Fujita Seizaburo will massacre the wounded and ambulance personnel, killing them by shooting, beheading, bayoneting, and drowning. The bodies, some still alive, will be burned. An Australian survivor who was able to crawl into the jungle notes that the Japanese officers only seemed to use their swords on the Indian, and not the white, soldiers.

 

- In an attempt to clear the path for the retreating 45th Brigade, the 3/16th Punjab Regiment is ordered to recapture the ridge. By the time they reach it, they come under friendly fire from the 6th Norfolks, who had mistaken them for the Japanese. After some losses on both sides, the Japanese attack and drive the British and Indian troops off.

 

- Only 500 Australians and 400 Indians of the original 4,000 men will reach the Allied lines. The inexperienced 45th Indian Brigade has ceased to exist as a formation. Most of its officers are killed or wounded, including Brigadier Duncan and three battalion commanders. Anderson will receive the Victoria Cross for his actions."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] • In Malaya there is a general withdrawal towards Singapore. The British Brigade of the 11th Indian Division is cut off at Rengit on the east coast. A new Japanese landing at Endau, on the east coast of Malaya only 80 miles from Singapore, jeopardizes the withdrawal. A large convoy lands the Japanese 18th Division plus the 96th airfield battalion. The RAF orders an immediate strike with all available aircraft, including elderly (from 1928) Vickers Vildebeeste torpedo bombers. The Vildebeeste pilots have previously been restricted to night missions.

Vickers Vildebeest making a practice drop

 

- Twelve Vildebeestes and nine Hudsons from Singapore sortie and attack the troop convoy which is defended by light cruiser Sendai, six destroyers, and five minesweepers. The planned escort of twelve Buffaloes and nine Hurricanes is unable to locate the strike aircraft and arrives late, leaving the bombers to face nineteen Ki-27 fighters alone. Five Vildebeestes are shot down while one Ki-27 is downed. Transports Kansai Maru and Kanbera Maru are damaged.

 

Ki-27

 

- A second wave of eight Vildebeestes and three Albacores attacks two hours later, with five Vildebeestes and two Albacores plus one Hurricane shot down. A5M fighters from carrier Ryūjō are also covering the convoy.

 

A5M

 

- A third wave of six Hudsons attacks troops on the beach, bombing and strafing them. Two Hudsons are shot down.

 

- A fourth wave of five Blenheims from Sumatra aborts due to gathering darkness.

 

- Meanwhile, elderly British Admiralty-S destroyer Thanet and Australian destroyer Vampire depart Singapore and make a high speed run to Endau. They arrive shortly after midnight and are detected by Japanese minesweeper W-4 which alerts the convoy. Thanet and Vampire are confronted by Sendai and all six destroyers. They fire torpedoes which all miss and engage with 4” guns. Both Allied destroyers are illuminated with searchlights. Sendai quickly hits Thanet in the engine rooms, disabling her with a boiler explosion. Vampire attempts to shield her with a smokescreen but is driven off with heavy fire from destroyers Shirayuki, Amagiri, and Hatsuyuki. Vampire takes splinter damage but escapes without casualties.

 

- HMS Thanet sinks about fifteen minutes later. Of her 116 crewmen, sixty swim to shore. Joined by downed RAF pilots, forty of them make it to Singapore. Thirty-one are picked up by destroyer Shirayuki but none of them survive the war. The circumstances of their deaths are unknown.

HMS Thanet

 

- The Vickers Vildebeeste will be retired from RAF service in March, 1942.

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• During daytime, a large Japanese bombing raid targets Singapore.

 

No 232 Squadron Hurricane Mark-II downed over Singapore February 8th, 1942.

 

• As darkness falls, Japanese artillery opens up on the entire North shore of Singapore while troops of the 5th and 18th Divisions begin loading into 300 small rubber boats with outboard motors plus some larger, slower barges. The first 4,000 Japanese cross the 600 yard wide strait on the northwest coast defended by Australian 22nd Brigade. They fire a flare as they hit the beach and the Japanese artillery ceases fire. At Sarimbum beach, sixteen Japanese battalions are opposed by three Australian battalions, one Indian battalion, and a company of ethnic Chinese volunteers (Dalforce). Defensive fire is limited to machine gun and 2 pounder anti-tank fire since the Japanese artillery has cut the telephone wires leading back to the batteries and searchlights fail to come on to illuminate the incoming Japanese craft.

 

Australian 2 pounder crew overlooking Johore Strait.

 

- The first two waves take heavy losses but the third gets ashore in force and conducts bayonet charges in the darkness. General Percival continues to believe that the main landings will still be in the northeast and does not agree to reinforce the badly-weakened 22nd Brigade until Tengah Airfield itself is threatened. Overnight, much of the 22nd Brigade is overrun and the Japanese push towards their objective of Tengah airfield."

 

Edited February 8, 2022 by cardboard_killer
Correct miskey

[ITAF_Airone1989]

2 hours ago, cardboard_killer said:

[30 years ago today] "• During daytime, a ...

 

1992? ?

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Japanese engineers bridge the blown causeway and push more armor onto Singapore. An assault by the 18th Division on the Malay Regiment results in hand to hand fighting before the Malays are overrun. The remainder of the Malay Brigade and Indian 44th Brigade pull back to the main line of resistance.

 

- General Tomoyuki Yamashita is desperate to keep up the pressure, as he is outnumbered and will soon run out of supplies.

 

• While the bombardment of Singapore continues, Lieutenant General Percival confers with his senior officers who all recommend surrender. When Percival declines, saying “I have my honour to consider”, Major General Lewis Heath, commanding Indian III Corps replies, “You need not bother about your honour. You lost that a long time ago up in North Malaya.”

 

- Percival messages Wavell seeking greater discretion on when to cease resistance.

 

• Motor launch ML-310 leaves Singapore with Rear Admiral E. J. Spooner, Vice Air Marshal C. W. H. Pulford, and their staffs. After being damaged early on the 14th by Japanese aircraft, the launch is beached on an uninhabited island and destroyed. American submarine S-39 will be sent to search for the group, but is unable to locate them. Over the next two months, both flag officers and fourteen others perish of exhaustion and malaria before the rest are captured by the Japanese.

 

• Japanese carrier Ryūjō conducts anti-shipping strikes off Singapore, sinking Dutch 8,200 ton tanker Merula, British auxiliary patrol vessel Giang Bee, armed trawler Siang Wo, and crippling the British 5,200 ton steamer Subadar which is beached.

 

• In the evening a convoy of 44 ships filled with wounded, refugees, and critical personnel leaves Singapore. Nearly anything that can float, including Chinese junks, are heading south.

 

Escaping Singapore"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Mindful of Churchill’s orders (“fight to the bitter end, at all costs”), ABDA commander Wavell refuses Percival’s request for permission to surrender, replying “you must continue to inflict maximum damage on the enemy as long as possible by house-to-house fighting if necessary…continued action essential”.

 

- The Japanese again hit the battered Malay Brigade in the battle of Pasir Pajang. After eight hours of continuous fighting, much of it hand-to-hand, the brigade collapses when its flank is turned by Japanese armor.

 

- The Japanese attempt to infiltrate a column of troops by dressing them in captured uniforms. 2nd Lieutenant Adnan bin Saidi recognizes them by their different marching style and most of the Japanese are gunned down. Follow-up Japanese units then conduct a banzai charge. As they are being overrun, Saidi urges his men to keep fighting despite being shot. After the Japanese capture the position, they tie him to a tree and bayonet him to death. Today, he is considered a Malaysian hero.

 

Monument to the Malay Regiment at Bukit Chandu. General Percival will say: “The Malay Regiment showed what esprit de corps and discipline can achieve. Garrisons of posts held their ground and many of them were wiped out almost to a man.”

 

- As Japanese troops approach the Alexandra Hospital, a British officer approaches them with a white flag. He is bayoneted. As the Japanese enter the hospital, they bayonet 323 patients and staff, including men on the operating table or in their beds.

 

• Japanese carrier Ryūjō is attacked by eleven Blenheims escorted by fifteen Hurricanes. Her A5M Claudes down two Blenheims and Ryūjō isn’t hit.

 

• British gunboats Dragonfly and Grasshopper are bombed and sunk at Singapore by Japanese aircraft.

 

• Many of the evacuation ships which left Singapore yesterday run into the Japanese invasion fleet heading to Sumatra. Japanese cruiser Yura, destroyers Fubuki and Asagiri sink river gunboat HMS Scorpion. Japanese bombers from carrier Ryūjō sink three navy tugs, a minelayer, and two patrol boats. Auxiliary patrol vessel HMS Li Wo (a former river ferry), fires on and rams a Japanese transport ship before being sunk by shellfire.

 

Attack of the Li Wo.

 

• The Vyner Brooke, Royal Yacht of the independent Raj of Sarawak, is bombed and sunk by Japanese aircraft while assisting with the evacuation of Singapore."

[messsucher]

Damned barbars.

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• After receiving reports from Singapore, Prime Minister Churchill grants General Wavell “discretion to cease resistance”, which Wavell passes on to Lt-General Percival. General Yamashita sends back the first (junior) officers, demanding to see Percival in person. In the late afternoon Percival returns with the white flag and Union Jack to meet Yamashita in the Ford Motor Factory at Bukit Timah. After 50 minutes of one-sided negotiations, during which Yamashita bangs his fist on the table and insists that surrender be immediate, Percival agrees to the largest surrender in British history.

 

- Yamashita was desperate that fighting not continue as his outnumbered troops were exhausted and low on ammunition. He later writes:

 

"My attack on Singapore was a bluff – a bluff that worked. I had 30,000 men and was outnumbered more than three to one. I knew that if I had to fight for long for Singapore, I would be beaten. That is why the surrender had to be at once. I was very frightened all the time that the British would discover our numerical weakness and lack of supplies and force me into disastrous street fighting."

 

- The Japanese have taken 5,092 casualties (1,714 killed) but capture 500 mortars, artillery, anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns. The Commonwealth forces have an estimated 5,000 killed or wounded. 65,000 Indian, 35,000 British, 15,000 Australian and 15,000 Malay troops go into captivity, where many will die. Numerous Allied troops escape overnight on small boats including Australian Major-General Gordon Bennett who will be reprimanded for not seeking permission from Percival and for abandoning his division. To impose order on the island, Japanese will slaughter 5,000 ethnic Chinese civilians as an example.

 

• RAF auxiliary seaplane tender Aquarius is sunk by Japanese aircraft off Bangka Island."

 

 

[messsucher]

Roflmao at the song in the video ?

[cardboard_killer]

[I have limited posting much of the Japanese war crimes reported after the fall of Malaysia, but here's one of the worst. 80 years ago today] "• The Japanese begin the Kakyōshukusei (purging of Chinese) program in Singapore. Singapore is perceived to have large numbers of Chinese who are communist and/or loyal to Britain or Nationalist China, and the guidelines had been laid down by the Imperial General Staff in 1941. All Chinese are to be “screened” in order to determine if they are anti-Japanese. Decisions are arbitrary and vary by screening points set up all over the city, manned by IJA troops and/or the Kempeitai. Those condemned are marched away and murdered, being buried by other Chinese or by Allied POWs. The program (known in Singapore as the Sook Ching massacre) will continue into March and the death toll is between 5,000 (Japanese claim) and 70,000 (Singapore’s estimate). Most historians place it at around forty to fifty thousand. In war crimes trials, seven officers will be tried but only two convicted and executed as much evidence had been destroyed by the Japanese.

 

Murder of Chinese civilians

 

- Japan will pay $50 million in reparations after the war but has made no apology or admission of responsibility.

 

- Masanobu Tsuji, who planned the massacre, will be protected by Chiang Kai-shek as by 1946 he will be an advisor to the Kuomintang in fighting the Chinese communists. Tsuji will be elected to the Japanese Diet in 1952 as an ultranationalist." [Tsuji disappeared in Laos in 1961; he was also paid by the US CIA during the Cold War.]

[Vig]

This is an excellent corrective for American post-war mea culpae.