From the beginning of April until the end of September 1942, all of my attention is focused on the Malay Peninsula. VIII, IX and LI Gun are marching to nearby ports for redeployment, and are largely irrelevant during this time. Likewise, in North America my forces and those of the Allies merely stare at each other across the lines, with only the occasional air battle to liven things up. The debacle off Singapore, then, takes up nearly half of my army and all of my concentration for fully half of the year.
Blunting the British Spearhead
The first order of business was to prevent the British armored column from capturing Phet Buri. Phet Buri is my supply center on the Asian mainland, and facilities there contain over 30,000 units each of supplies and fuel, which I really want to keep. The spearhead of the invasion had just entered Chaiya as our transports began unloading VII Gun in front of them. I landed 3 divisions at Kapee, which prevented any further advance, and the remainder at Kapoe. While the British armored division certainly travelled faster than other units, their combat abilities were significantly reduced by the dense jungles. This helped ameliorate the lack of armor, or even anti-tank guns, attached to VII Gun. The British division launched a brief attack against Kapee, but broke it off quickly, and inexplicably settled into a defensive posture. This marked the turning point in the campaign; the British would not launch a substantive attack throughout the remainder of the campaign, and further compounded their dilemma through indecisiveness and an unwillingness to either advance, retreat, or evacuate.
I gradually spread my divisions into a semi-circle around Chaiya, fully enveloping the armored division within a week. As is usually the case with the AI, they failed to recognize the peril until it was far too late. Once the encirclement was complete, they initiated a break out attack towards Sichon. We responded by attacking with the remainder of the Gun. Threatened with the multiple-combat penalty, they decided to accept the lesser of two evils and fought strictly on the defensive, until finally surrendering a few days later.
The Petani Pocket
Even with the British offensive turned back, the remainder of our troops on the peninsula were in a tenuous position. Back in February, I had intended to reach a stalemate by mounting a stout defense at Kuala Lampur. Once this failed, LXI Gun began a leapfrog retreat northward; in danger of being overrun or surrounded by the British armored and motorized divisions, we had to fall back to Kota Bharu, leaving the British offensive to continue to the west. Only I Gun was immediately available to come to LXI Gun’s aid, and of them, only 2 Shidan (armored) was near enough a port to be immediately transferable. LXI Gun was able to make it to Kota just barely ahead of the advancing Brits. 2 Shidan alone stood on the front line, confronted by no less than six divisions on all sides. Yet the sight of our armor was enough to dissuade any attack. For more than a month LXI Gun was able to recuperate while VI Gun was brought in to help. By June, with VI Gun fully arrived, LXI fully recovered, and VII Gun beginning to arrive from Nakhon Si Thammarat, 2 Shidan was put aboard a transport and sent to Los Angeles to rejoin the remainder of I Gun already there. This division single-handedly saved an entire corps of Rikusentai from certain annihilation, without even firing a shot. This campaign highlights the importance of armor on the battlefield and the strategic map. While I have been fortunate enough up until now to have mostly avoided enemy tanks, I am reminded that I will see many in the upcoming campaigns in Britain, America and the Soviet Union; and if I don’t go prepared, I had better not go at all.
VI Gun, arriving first at Kota, makes the first effort to widen our zone of control. We strike first to the southeast, at Jertih. With the offensive turned back, and their supply lines cut, I expect the Brits to start falling back headlong towards Singapore, in an attempt to overrun our Rikusentai at Johore. While I am able to push the Brits out of Jertih, and even continue pushing them southward along the coast, westward of Kota they refuse to retreat. This is a similar situation to that which took place during my second offensive down the peninsula back in 1939; for some reason, the British insist on fighting to the death over every inch of ground on this peninsula, despite a reasonable chance of concentrating their forces farther south.
Accordingly, in June I carry out maneuvers to surround the northernmost group of British troops. This group, dubbed the Petani Pocket, consists of three divisions: one armored, one motorized, one infantry, distributed in Sungei Petani, Kelian Intan, and George Town, respectively. VI Gun, while continuing a southward advance, strikes west to separate the forces here from the remaining British force farther south; meanwhile, the recovered LXI Gun forms up the northern flank, while the newly arrived VII Gun holds the center. Thus, the Petani Pocket faces five marine divisions, three divisions from VI Gun and six divisions from VII Gun, making them outnumbered by roughly three-to-one.
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| The encirclement of the Petani Pocket, marking the beginning of the end for the British on the peninsula. |
In the first fight at Kelian Intan, the Brits put up a stout defense, but fall back on July 9th. Casualties here amount to 2,544 KIA for us, 1,414 suffered by the Brits. A second offensive drives the troops from George Town with modest losses on either side. By the end of July the British make a last stand at Sungei Petani; they eventually surrender on the 29th. Casualties in this final fight remain disproportionately high. We suffer 1,774 KIA, while then British lose 1,288 killed and 22,164 captured.
The Bandar Pocket
With the British now reduced to a single group in the southern part of the peninsula, I begin to go in for the kill. Regrettably, with the dense jungles, poor infrastructure and bad weather, we spend all of August simply bringing the front up. By early September we have retaken Kuala Lampur, allowing us to surround and capture a British infantry division at Gunung Tapis. This done, I press the attack farther south. After LXII Gun was deployed in Johore, the British sent two divisions to pin it in; one at Eundau and one at Bandar Penggaram. By September 12th these were the only two divisions remaining on the mainland, and were surrounded at Bandar. VI Gun, on the most immediate front, began the final attack. This battle, oddly, is the only one of the campaign in which we suffer fewer casualties than the British: we take 764 casualties, while the Brits suffer 771, with the remaining 16,823 men captured. This brings an end to the peninsula campaign, so VI and VII Gun travel to Teluk Anson for redeployment elsewhere. LXI and LXII Gun, however, have one last score to settle.
Last Stand at Singapore
One of the primary reasons for bringing LXII Gun back from North America was to use them in the final assault at Singapore. Any attack against that city will have to overcome the amphibious assault penalty and the naval forts. In all honesty, three divisions stationed there can hold off five assaulting divisions, even marines, quite well. The solution, then, is to assault with ten divisions. The attack is commenced on September 12th, the same day as the destruction of the Bandar Pocket. LXII Gun takes the lead, assaulting with the full corps. The battle ran bloodily for over two weeks, but the British finally surrendered on the 28th. The final toll for us was 4,423 KIA, not including those lost in scattered air attacks. We inflicted a mild 1,376 deaths, and captured the remaining 13,618. We occupy the city immediately, and, hopefully, indefinitely.
Thus I say good-bye to the persistent thorn in my side at the tip of the Malay Peninsula. This campaign was a baffling and destructive setback. Running from January 1st to September 28th, it occupied ten full months, during which 22 divisions, at least two warship fleets, numerous aircraft and troop transports were tied up and prevented from much more profitable missions elsewhere. The human toll was also far out of proportion to the strategic value; I suffered over 15,000 combat casualties in the land battles of the campaign, and likely an equal amount from bombing raids. While my manpower reserve is not yet a problem, I would much rather have spent those troops anywhere else.
And these numbers only include the final botched campaign. My original plan called for the occupation of the city within the first few months of the war, in early 1939. However, I squandered at least two good opportunities, and I grow to regret it deeply over the next four years. Offensives and counteroffensives dragged my troops up and down the entire Malay Peninsula three times. Calculating the total losses suffered, from combat, bombings and attrition, is beyond my ability, but certainly tops 75,000. I won’t recover these losses from the meager manpower provided by the city. But, its occupation was a strategic necessity. For now, I can brush off the campaign and begin on bigger and more enticing endeavors, but the bitter aftertaste of the Singapore campaigns will rankle throughout the remainder of the game, in particular if my final push against the Soviets winds up nine months short.
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