The Malayan Campaign and
7th Australian Division
By Brian Knipple
April 2006

For two months the Japanese Army had steadily driven the Commonwealth forces defending Malaya back on the great naval base at Singapore. In early February it became clear that colony might soon fall. On the 10th the desperate situation in Malaya led to a visit by the Allied Commander, General Sir Archibald Wavell. He brought a stunning telegram from the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, calling for the troops to fight to the death and for the officers to die with their men.

The commander of the British Army in Malaya, Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival ordered an attack by the 8th Australian Division, but it was repulsed and no further attacks were contemplated. Water and provisions of all types were in short supply and the steady advance of the Japanese and their close proximity to Singapore made a defense of the island and city an impossible task. Percival knew that continuation of the fighting would only result in heavy civilian casualties; after obtaining permission to make the necessary decision he requested terms on the 15th. General Tomoyuki Yamashita, the Japanese commander, demanded an immediate surrender with no terms. Percival agreed and signed the surrender document early that evening.

This is history. The Japanese victory was overwhelming. The defenders were continuously outmaneuvered and outfought by troops moving faster than expected and fighting with a professionalism and dedication never imagined.

In addition, the British garrison had been stripped of its more experienced men and newest equipment to supply those formations fighting in Africa. The possibility of war with the Japanese had been deemed unlikely, the Allies believed Japanese forces were inferior in both equipment and ability. This mistaken assumption more than anything else led to the rapid loss of northern Malaya and the destruction of the British and Indian formations fighting there. Even the arrival of a new British Division, the 18th, could not stop the tide. They too eventually went into the POW cages.

What would have been the result of a more successful defense of Malaya? While Tiger of Malaya covers the historical campaign, it includes the possibility of diverting units entering the theater at the time. The 7th and later the 6th Australian Infantry Divisions and a number of independent units, collectively designated as I Australian Corps, were sent from the Middle East at the Australian Government’s insistence at the outbreak of war with Japan. The British 7th Armoured Brigade had also been dispatched from the desert in response to the Japanese threat.

The game offers two possibilities other than those actually employed for the use of these forces. The 18th Division already in Malaya in the strengthened Allied Order of Battle scenario, and the optional commitment of the lead division of I Corps and the British 7th Armoured Brigade in the historical scenario.

Troops of 7th Australian Division puzzle out a map exercise, Cyprus, 1941.

In reality, Churchill tried to divert the 7th Division to Burma and was forced to relent by an angry Australian government. The British did land the 7th Armoured Brigade in Rangoon, where it went on to figure prominently in the “successful” British retreat from Burma, although at the cost of all its vehicles.

The lead elements of I Corps (2/3 Machine Gun Bn, 2/2 Pioneer Bn, 2/2 Anti-Aircraft Bn, 2/6 Field Company, Royal Australian Engineers and supporting troops) actually began landing in Southern Sumatra on 15 February, but the loss to the Japanese of Palembang and the approach of the Japanese led to their withdrawal before the force was established ashore.

The ship carrying the 3,000-odd Australians then sailed to western Java where they were ultimately captured when the island fell to the Japanese. Consideration was even given to landing the two Australian infantry divisions, but Java had been overrun by the time the ships carrying them were near enough to reach port and they instead continued on to Australia.

If the Japanese in Malaya had been held further north at the time, the lead elements of I Corps might have been directed there instead of the Dutch East Indies. And if the defenders still stood when the 7th Australian Division and 7th British Armoured Brigades sailed, the two formations might have been committed to Malaya.

The gamble would have been a big one. Success would have halted the Japanese advance, but would it have changed the course of the war in the Far East in the long run? The loss of the two formations would have had terrible consequences to the Burma and New Guinea campaigns, but those are other stories. In one playtest the arrival of these two experienced units completely reversed the Japanese advance and allowed the British player to drive them away from Singapore with heavy casualties. The combination of tough infantry and tanks proved to be too much for a weakened Japanese army.

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