2. The Battle for Singapore begins.

General Tomoyuki Yamashita - The Tiger of Malaya

On December 3 Yamashita decides he'll attempt to capture Singapore on February 11, Japan's National Day and the 2,6000th anniversary of Emperor Jimmu's coronation and on December 4 the Japanese invasion fleet left Samah Harbour, Hainan at dawn, heading south.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Robert Brooke-Popham was given the discretion to launch Matador without prior reference to London. On December 6 intelligence reports that an RAAF Hudson sighted 3 transports and an escort destroyer heading northwest from Cape Cambodia towards the Gulf of Siam. All British forces within Malaya Command are ordered to "the highest degree of readiness". Matador is nearly launched.

December 7, 1941,  without warning or any formal declaration of hostilities, the Japanese destroy a significant proportion of the Pacific American fleet at Pearl Harbor naval base. Hong Kong and the Philippines are invaded simultaneously. America and Britain declare war on Japan.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Robert Brooke-Popham decides to delay Matador for the night. RAAF Hudsons spot Japanese ships intermittently in the evening 240km from Kota Bahru. An RAAF Hudson identifies a Japanese cruiser, 4 destroyers and a troopship 112 km from Singora.

The Japanese begin their battle for Singapore on December 7-8 . In the evening, Japanese forces land on the east coast of South Thailand and North Malaya as part of an invasion on simultaneous fronts. At 10pm three Japanese transports land on Sabak-Badang Beach in Kota Bharu and started putting ashore more than twelve thousand men. By 1am, after about an hour fighting, the Japanese assault wave is established on the beachhead. Simultaneously, 16 transports were stood off the Siamese coast preparing to land the first wave of the Japanese 5th Division at Singora and Patani. On December 8, 1941 at 5.20am, Lt-Gen Tomoyuki Yamashita, Commander-in-Chief of the invading Japanese 25th Army, came ashore at Singora with his Japanese troops. The landings at Singora and Patani were unopposed and beach-heads were easily established. By 1.00pm Yamashita reached a compromise agreement with the neutral Siamese Government. At 11.00pm formalities were completed to allow Japanese forces to pass through Siam.

At 4.30am on December 8, in a coordinated surprise attack, 17 Japanese naval bombers, flying from Saigon, attack Singapore's Keppel Harbour Docks, Naval Base and airbases at Tengah and Seletar. During the day Japanese aircraft attack airfields at Alor Star, Sungei Patani, Butterworth and Penang in Malaya's north-west, and Kuala Trengganu and Kuantan on the east coast. Force Z (the codename for the naval force comprising the Prince of Wales, the Repulse and their escort destroyers, HMS Electra, HMS Express, HMS Tenedos and HMAS Vampire) leaves Singapore to intercept the Japanese landings. Seven Royal Australian Air Force Hudson aircraft attack the enemy transports off Kota Bahru. Percival issues orders to cancel all thought of Matador and to take up defence positions astride the roads coming south from the frontier.

Keppel Bay Docks today

At dawn, two companies of the Indian 11th Division are ordered across the border into Siam to meet the Japanese advance south along the road from Singora. Further east, another Indian force crosses the border from Kroh in a move to block the Japanese advance down the Patani road.

At first light on December 9 the Hudsons are sent from Kuantan to bomb the Japanese at Kota Bahru and lose five aircraft doing so. British and Indian defences are forced back from Kota Bahru and by 2pm the Japanese capture the township and the airfield. Within hours the British and Australian forces also abandon Gong Kedah and Machang. The Japanese rapidly occupy the airstrips, which become bases for their own strike aircraft. The airfield at Kuantan is attacked by enemy aircraft and three Royal Australian Air Force Hudsons are destroyed on the ground. All but one in a squadron of British Blenheim bombers are destroyed at Butterworth by a Japanese air raid moments before the craft were due to set off for Singora. The squadron is ordered back to Ipoh. At Jitra the defence continues, designed to protect the airfield at Alor Star. The Japanese drive down the Patani-Kroh road, wipe out Indian troops and cross into Betong.

Two Hudson aircraft from No. 13 Squadron near Darwin in 1940

On December 10 the British battleships, the Prince of Wales and Repulse are sunk by Japanese Navy bombers in the South China Sea, off Kuantan, in an action lasting only one and a half hours.

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