Battle for Malaya

Kaushik Roy

Description

The defeat of 90,000 Commonwealth soldiers by 50,000 Japanese soldiers made the World War II Battle for Malaya an important encounter for both political and military reasons. British military prestige was shattered, fanning the fires of nationalism in Asia, especially in India. Japan's successful tactics in Malaya—rapid marches, wide outflanking movement along difficult terrain, nocturnal attacks, and roadblocks—would be repeated in Burma in 1942–43. Until the Allied command evolved adequate countermeasures, Japanese soldiers remained supreme in the field. Looking beyond the failures of command, Kaushik Roy focuses on tactics of the ground battle that unfolded in Malaya between December 1941 and February 1942. His analysis includes the organization of the Indian Army—the largest portion of Commonwealth troops—and compares it to the British and Australian armies that fought side by side with Indian soldiers. Utilizing both official war office records and unofficial memoirs, autobiographies, and oral histories, Roy presents a synthesis of history from the top with history from below and provides a thick narrative of operations interwoven with tactical analysis of the Battle for Malaya.

Introduction
1. Prelude to Invasion
2. The Imperial Armies
3. Retreat from the Beaches
4. Defeat along the Slim and Muar Rivers
5. Disaster at Johore
6. Endgame at Singapore
7. Assessment
8. Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• HISTORY
• Segunda Guerra Mundial
• Military history
• Japanese Army
• Indian Army
• Military
• World War II
• History of Asia
• Armée des Indes britanniques
• Malaya
• Asia
• Indian
• Seconde Guerre mondiale

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 02 décembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253044242
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 6 Mo

Extrait

THE BATTLE FOR MALAYA
TWENTIETH-CENTURY BATTLES
Spencer C. Tucker, editor
The Battle for Western Europe, Fall 1944: An Operational Assessment by John A. Adams
Operation Albion: The German Conquest of the Baltic Islands by Michael B. Barrett
Prelude to Blitzkrieg: The 1916 Austro-German Campaign in Romania by Michael B. Barrett
New Georgia: The Second Battle for the Solomons by Ronnie Day
The Brusilov Offensive by Timothy C. Dowling
The Siege of Kut-al-Amara: At War in Mesopotamia, 1915-1916 by Nikolas Gardner
D-Day in the Pacific: The Battle of Saipan by Harold J. Goldberg
Invasion of Norway, 1940 by Jack Greene
Balkan Breakthrough: The Battle of Dobro Pole 1918 by Richard C. Hall
The Battle of the Otranto Straits: Controlling the Gateway to the Adriatic in World War I by Paul G. Halpern
The Battle for North Africa: El Alamein and the Turning Point for World War II by Glyn Harper
Midway Inquest: Why the Japanese Lost the Battle of Midway by Dallas Woodbury Isom
China s Battle for Korea: The 1951 Spring Offensive by Xiaobing Li
The Imjin and Kapyong Battles, Korea, 1951 by S. P. MacKenzie
The Second Battle of the Marne by Michael S. Neiberg
The Dieppe Raid: The Story of the Disastrous 1942 Expedition by Robin Neillands
In Passage Perilous: Malta and the Convoy Battles of June 1942 by Vincent P. O Hara
The Battle of Heligoland Bight by Eric W. Osborne
Battle of Dogger Bank: The First Dreadnought Engagement, January 1915 by Tobias R. Philbin
The Battle for Manchuria and the Fate of China: Siping, 1946 by Harold M. Tanner
Where Chiang Kai-shek Lost China: The Liao-Shen Campaign, 1948 by Harold M. Tanner
Battle of Surigao Strait by Anthony P. Tully
Written in Blood: The Battles for Fortress Przemy l in WWI by Graydon A. Tunstall Jr.
The Battle of An Loc by James H. Willbanks
The Battle of Leyte Gulf: The Last Fleet Action by H. P. Willmott
The Generals War: Operational Level Command on the Western Front in 1918 by David T. Zabecki
THE BATTLE FOR MALAYA
The Indian Army in Defeat, 1941-42
KAUSHIK ROY
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
2019 by Kaushik Roy
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Cataloging information is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-0-253-04415-0 (hdbk.)
ISBN 978-0-253-04417-4 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-253-04422-8 (web PDF)
1 2 3 4 5 24 23 22 21 20 19
CONTENTS
List of Maps
Preface
Acknowledgments
Glossary
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1. The Rise of the Singapore Naval Base
2. The Allied Ground Forces in Malaya
3. The Invasion
4. Defeat at Slim River
5. Disaster at Muar and Johore
6. Endgame on Singapore Island
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
LIST OF MAPS
Map 1: Far East Asia
Map 2: Proposed Sites for the Naval Base
Map 3: Malaya
Map 4: Japanese Advance in the Malayan Peninsula
Map 5: Japanese Attack on Northern Malaya, 7/8 December 1941
Map 6: Kota Bahru, 8 December 1941
Map 7: Jitra
Map 8: WESTFORCE Disposition in Johore, 14 January 1942
Map 9: Northern Johore, 15 January 1942
Map 10: Johore Bahru, January 1942
Map 11: Disposition of Troops on Singapore Island, 8 February 1942
Map 12: Japanese Attack, Singapore, February 1942
Map 13: The Japanese Assault and Advance and the Final Defense of the Perimeter, Singapore
PREFACE
Military history in general is not at the cutting edge of the discipline of history. And within military history, the focus is on the so-called New Military History writing, which emphasizes the social and cultural aspects of the military institutions and the effects of the armed forces on society. These aspects are certainly important, but we must note that, after all, most armies exist for fighting. So the study of the army as an institution in combat is worth pursuing. Following Carl von Clausewitz, one can say that the study of battles is like gold and silver in commercial transactions. And this is what the present volume intends to do. The objective is to study the Indian Army as an institution in the Malaya-Singapore Campaign of 1941-42. A lot of books have been written on this campaign, but the Indian Army, which constituted the biggest component of the Allied ground force in that theatre, has been left out of these studies. The present volume is a modest attempt to fill this gap. Unlike the present postmodernist slant, this work depends heavily on archival materials collected from three continents (Europe, Asia, and Australia) in order to build up the story. The battle narrative is integrated with analysis to offer a fresh insight into the Malaya-Singapore debacle. Since this book is aimed at English-speaking Western readers, Japanese names are given in the more common Western style. I sincerely hope that this book will encourage further studies in this genre.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book would not have been possible without the support of Professor Spencer C. Tucker, the editor of Indiana University Press s Twentieth-Century Battles Series, who showed interest in the subject. Credit is due to the editor Ashley Runyon for showing exceptional patience in the face of delays in the preparation of the book. Special thanks to my research assistant Jane Bryan-Brown and PhD student Moumita Chaudhury for helping me collect materials from various archives in Britain and India. I am grateful to my friends Gavin Rand and Peter Stanley for directing me to important holdings in the United Kingdom and Australia. And of course, Narender Yadav deserves praise for helping me access the Ministry of Defence Historical Section in New Delhi. My thanks to KnowTechInfo for funding some of my research trips. I am grateful to Jennifer Crane for her support while editing the manuscript. And I will not thank my wife because it would never be enough. It goes without saying that any faults in the book are mine alone.
GLOSSARY Atta Wheat flour Attap Malayan hut made of palm leaves Blitzkrieg Literal meaning: lightning war; this term is usually applied to explain the fast, mobile armored war practiced by the Germans in Europe and Russia between 1939 and 1942 Bushido Way of the Japanese warrior Dharma Religion Izzat An Urdu word that stands for personal reputation Jawan Literal meaning: young man; the term refers to an Indian private Kesselschlacht/Kettelschlacht Cauldron Battle, which involved pinning down the enemy s army frontally and enveloping its two wings and rear Kikan Agency/department/section Kukri Curved knife used by the Gurkha soldier Luftwaffe German Air Force during the Second World War Mai-baap Literal meaning: father figure; a jawan looked up to his commanding British officer as a mai-baap Parang A machete or cleaver used by the Malays Raj Literal meaning: realm; the term refers to the British government in India Sahib British officer of the Indian Army Sampan Large Chinese country boat used by the natives in Malaya Sepoy This term refers to the Indian infantry; the word is derived from the Persian word sipahi Sirdar Chieftain Wehrmacht German armed force during the Second World War
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AA Anti-Aircraft ABDACOM American, British, Dutch, and Australian Command; code name for Supreme Allied Headquarters South-West Pacific from 15 January 1942. AIF Australian Imperial Force AIML All India Muslim League AOC Air Officer Commanding ARP Air Raid Precaution A/T Antitank AWM Australian War Memorial BAR Browning Automatic Rifle BL British Library BOR British Other Rank CAS Close Air Support C3I Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence CIGS Chief of the Imperial General Staff CO Commanding Officer CoSC Chiefs of Staff Committee CP Cabinet Papers EBO Effects Based Operation ECIO Emergency Commissioned Indian Officer ECO Emergency Commissioned Officer FFR Frontier Force Rifles FOO Forward Observation Officer GHQ General Headquarters GOC General Officer Commanding GoI Government of India GR Gurkha Rifles GSO General Staff Officer ICO Indian Commissioned Officer IIL Indian Independence League IJA Imperial Japanese Army IJN Imperial Japanese Navy INA Indian National Army INC Indian National Congress IOR India Office Records IWM Imperial War Museum JAAF Japanese Army Air Force JNAF Japanese Navy Air Force KCIO King s Commissioned Indian Officer LMG Light Machine Gun LoC Line of Communication MODHS Ministry of Defence Historical Section MS Milestone NAI National Archives of India NAM National Army Museum NCO Noncommissioned Officer NMML Nehru Memorial Museum and Library OIOC Oriental and India Office Collection OR Other Rank/Private OTU Officer Training Unit PoW Prisoner of War PRO Public Record Office PWD Public Works Department RA Royal Artillery RAAF Royal Australian Air Force RAF Royal Air Force RE Royal Engineers RGR Royal Garwahl/Garhwal Rifles RN Royal Navy RR Rajputana Rifles SLoC Sea Line of Communication VCO Viceroy s Commissioned Officer

Map 1: Far East Asia

Map 2: Proposed Sites