Strategies Against the British
Yamashita set forth a plan of deception. The Japanese made huge bombardment
patterns to reflect "limitless" ammunition supplies, and the meagre army
constantly shifted positions to give the impression of much firepower.
He would be launching an all out attack on the town centre in the night
to force defeat on the British.
"My attack on Singapore was a bluff - a bluff that worked. 1 had 30,000
men and was outnumbered more than three to one. 1 knew if 1 had to fight
long for Singapore 1 would be beaten. That is why the surrender had to
be at once. 1 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." (Lieutenant-General Yamashita)
The Japanese strategies
1. Ambush from behind: the pincer method (outflanking, cutting off
supply and retreat)
1. The Japanese would also infiltrate between posts so that the defenders
would be caught by surprise. 2. Small parties would also move to the flanks to threaten them or
attack the rear. This is to demoralise the inexperience defenders; again
an element on unpredictability is used here. 3. In the situation where the British were in a better position the
Japanese employ the ambush tactic. Typically they would launch a surprise
attack, this time appearing suddenly from hiding behind the thick forested
shelter. 4. And to prevent the British from retreating into the sea, captured
boats and steamers were used by the Japanese to land south (behind)
the British army. 2. Firecrackers to scare the enemy (Bowden-.36)
Firecrackers were used not only to scare the enemy, but also to simulate
weapon fire and divert the defenders. To give the impression that they
had more ammunition than they actually had.
3. Mobility
Without the cumbersome desert warfare equipment that the British used,
the Japanese could move fast.
3.1 The use of bicycles
The Japanese Army had 18,000 bicycles. With bridges being demolished
in front of the advancing troops, motor transport would have been held
up while the bridges were being repaired; with bicycles, the infantry
could continue the advance by wading across rivers with the bicycles on
their shoulders, or by crossing log bridges held up on shoulders of engineers
standing in the stream. The bicycles did not have tyres; when they moved,
they would sound like tanks on the move, demoralising the British troops
further.
3.2 "Depend on the enemy for rations and ammunition"
Each soldier had been sent to the front with enough dry bread and rice
for a few days. Without having to wait for rations to be unloaded and
stored, the Japanese could move more quickly than the British. Ammunition
was also taken over from the British.
4. Repairing bridges
The Japanese expected that the bridges along the trunk road in Malaya
would be blown up before them, and made sure that each of their divisions
had a direct support engineer regiment. This helped to maintain the momentum
of the advance.
The 15th Regiment of Engineers was led by Lieutenant-Colonel Yokoyama.
Yokoyama always made sure that twenty trucks were always fully loaded
with bridge beams and heavy planks from local sawmills, so that bridges
could be repaired almost immediately. In fact Army Headquarters treated
the work capacity of this regiment at more than three times the capacity
of other regiments. (Tsuji: 1 81) The British expected that the Japanese
would need at least 72 hours to repair the bridge at Sungei Kedah, but
the Japanese were in new positions within 30 hours.
5. Using side trails
The Japanese used trails, estate roads, and tracks to outflank the British
positions, which concentrated, on the main roads.
6. Taking initiative
"Japanese tactics proved frighteningly effective. The main positions
would be cracked frontally, often by a single tank company and a motorized
infantry battalion, while bicycle-mounted infantry 'hooked' around road
blocks on plantation tracks and jungle trails ... Japanese tanks were
handed with boldness and audacity..."
7. Disguise
It was said that the Japanese would dress as locals to mislead the defenders,
and then launch a surprise attack.
8. Quality of the Japanese troops
The 5th and 18th Divisions, originally stationed in China, were selected
for operations in Malaya because these units had particularly well trained
officers and men. Many of them had actual battle experience, and all had
the team spirit which came from "long and continuous association in the
same Army formation" (Tsuji:40). The Imperial Guards Division, on the
other hand, was inexperienced, lacking the training and the spirit of
the soldiers who had been trained in Mainland China.
8.1 The forces were homogeneous and valued military virtues
The Japanese people lived under a strict code of behaviour. Dying in
battle was an honourable death; surrender was humiliation. The code of
the Japanese soldier was "duty is weightier than a mountain, while death
is lighter than a feather. 80% of conscripts were labourers and peasants,
many with previous military experience. So they often fight to their death.
8.2 Tough training
In operations in Manchuria, the troops had gone without food for three
days, in weather so cold that the water had frozen in the flasks (Haii:36).
"...the greatest sufferers from my fanatical activities were the non-commissioned
officers and men, some of whom became very fatigued...It may have been
unbearably cruel, but nothing could shake my belief that the small sacrifice
of one or two persons ... would later save the sacrifice of hundreds of
men in the front line..." (Tsuji:34, battle preparations)
8.3 Rested troops
Japanese forces could be relieved by fresh forces from the mainland.
Moreover, they had an effective malaria repressant from Germany and so
were not debilitated by malaria as the defenders were.
8.4 Attitude towards the British
"We now understood the fighting capacity of the enemy. The only things
we had to fear were the quantity of munitions he had and the thoroughness
of his demolitions." Masanobu Tsuji, Staff Officer in Charge of Operations
(Ts uj i: 1 1 0).
9. Performance of the Japanese Navy
The Japanese Navy was more powerful than the combined strength of all
other naval forces in the Pacific. The loss of the two British battleships,
the Prince of Wales and the Repulse, gave complete naval supremacy to
the Japanese fleet.
10. Performance of the Japanese Air Force
The Japanese had total air superiority. The Zero fighters outclassed
all Allied fighters and cleared the way for massive Japanese bombing raids.
The Japanese came in waves of 27, 54 or 81 aircraft. Sometimes they flew
round the island to approach from an unexpected angle. They often used
a technique called carpet bombing, where all the planes dropped their
bombs simultaneously.
11. Masters of Jungle Warfare
The troops were highly trained in jungle warfare as well as in how to
cope with problems that happen during jungle warfare -- problems such
as malaria and sunstroke. At the end of the day , the Japanese not only
have a clearer sense of purpose, strategies and better training but their
use of the most up to date technology won the battle against the Allied
army.
