Poor preparations on behalf of the Allies had left  their Pacific possessions in a very precarious  

state, with the Japanese rapidly capitalizing on  this advantage to spread their rule across East  

Asia. The British in particular, focused on their  front against Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy,  

demonstrated that they were hardly prepared  to fight in these conditions and that not even  

their impressive fortress at Singapore could save  them from the might of the Japanese firepower.  

The Malayan Campaign up to this point had been  characterized by an ineffective command and a  

strain of poor strategic decisions that ended up  giving the upper hand to the Japanese invaders;  

and today, we are going to see one of  the biggest blunders in British history,  

as the Japanese decide to attack  Malayan positions on the Slim River.

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On January 4, the week started with renewed  fighting during the third battle of Changsha.  

Just as promised, General Xue Yue of the 9th War  Area had brought enough reinforcements to repel  

the Japanese invaders, forcing General Anami of  the 11th Army to make a quick and orderly retreat  

back to the Ku Shui river. As nine Chinese armies  and twenty divisions swarmed the Changsha area,  

the 3rd and 6th Divisions thus started  to cross the Liuyang Ho at Langlishih to  

assemble on the northern bank of the river.  To cover the withdrawal of these divisions,  

Anami ordered the 40th Division at  Chinching to advance towards Chunhuashan,  

while the 9th Independent Mixed Brigade was  ordered to capture the town of Malinshih  

and hold onto it until the retreating divisions  had passed over. After dusk, the 6th Division had  

successfully crossed the Liuyang Ho and was  starting to move towards Malinshih, but the  

retreat of the 3rd Division was halted by Chinese  forces arriving at Lichiachung. Many losses ensued  

as the Japanese soldiers tried to cross the river  under enemy fire, but by midnight of January 5,  

the 3rd had successfully assembled on the northern  bank of the river. Earlier that day, the 40th  

Division had already gotten to Chunhuashan  after routing a small Chinese force, and it  

was starting to move west so it could divert  the attention of the Chinese 78th Army nearby. 

The following day, the 9th Independent  Mixed Brigade reached the town of Fulinpu,  

a major point for the retreat of the Japanese  army. An intense fire exchange ensued as the 9th  

struck at the Chinese 20th and 58th Armies, taking  the mountain ranges and then occupying Fulinpu.  

In the next few days, the 9th's men would be  relentlessly attacked by Chinese forces trying  

to dislodge them, but to no avail, as the Japanese  offered a well-coordinated resistance. With  

the Chinese armies successfully tied down, the  retreating divisions got to Malinshih by January  

7, the day in which the 40th Division also started  its withdrawal. From Malinshih, the battered 3rd  

Division would continue on towards Fulinpu covered  by the 40th , while the 6th Division advanced to  

Lichiao, where on January 8, it was delayed by  attacks of the Chinese 73rd and 99th Armies. Faced  

with the possibility of losing an entire division  while the rest of his army retreated back north,  

Anami ordered his forces to stop their retreat and  support the 6th Division's escape towards Fulinpu.  

Meanwhile in the Philippines, the defenders had  established a line running from the town of Porac  

to Guagua on January 2. There, the 11th and 21st  Divisions, along with the 26th Cavalry Regiment,  

had resisted against swarms of enemy  forces for two days while giving time for  

General MacArthur's forces to establish solid  defensive positions on the Bataan Peninsula.  

In turn, the Japanese had suffered enormous  casualties against American and Filipino  

firepower, with an entire detachment  getting completely decimated at Guagua. 

Since January 4 though, the defenders would  begin to withdraw to a last line at Layac.  

By January 6, most of their forces  had retreated behind the Culo River,  

blowing up the Layac bridge behind them and  causing a minor delay for the Japanese advance. At  

dawn that same morning, the defenders were greeted  with orders and portions officially placing them  

on half-ration ; it was a long resistance that  MacArthur was planning on the Bataan Peninsula.  

A couple hours later, General Homma's forces  started their attack against the Layac line.  

Initially, American artillery managed to  inflict several losses on the invaders,  

but as time went on, the Japanese started to get  the upper hand. Pummeled by Japanese artillery  

and air bombardment, General Wainwright ordered  his forces to abandon the line at nightfall,  

retreating to the new Abucay and Mauban lines  and ending their long withdrawal into Bataan.  

This officially marks the start of the Battle  of Bataan, as all American and Filipino forces  

had now assembled on the Peninsula. MacArthur  then formed two operational areas for his forces  

on Bataan: the 1st Corps, consisting of four  divisions and a regiment of Philippine Scouts  

under the command of General Wainwright, defending  a line that stretched from Mauban on the coast  

to the ranges of Mount Silanganan;  and the 2nd Corps of General Parker,  

also consisting of four divisions and a  regiment of Philippine Scouts, covering  

a line that extended from Mount Natib's foothills  to Mabatang on Manila Bay just in front of Abucay. 

MacArthur's strategy was to conduct a defense  in depth, taking advantage of the rugged terrain  

and establishing entrenched defensive positions  at the jungles and mountain ranges. Yet in the  

center of the American line, there was a  huge gap at Mount Natib, which was thought  

impassable by the American commanders. This was  a mistake as it formed a gap in the defense line  

and the two corps were not in direct contact with  another; something that the Japanese would use to  

their advantage in the future. MacArthur had also  formed a rear battle position that stretched from  

Bagac to Orion across the Peninsula; this was  to be their last line of defense in Bataan.  

So far in the campaign, the Americans had lost  around 13000 men since the start of the war,  

while Homma had only lost 2000 soldiers; yet the  Japanese general would unexpectedly see his most  

elite division, the 48th, redirected to  participate on the Dutch East Indies campaign,  

so he could now only rely on the 16th Division  and the 65th Independent Mixed Brigade for the  

remainder of the battle. An unsettling  peace followed until dawn on January 9,  

when the Japanese forces started their  first attacks against Abucay and Mauban,  

which we'll cover more in-depth next week. Looking  back at the Malay Peninsula, the situation was  

very dire. Masanobu Tsuji wrote that it  appeared to be a mistake for the British to  

successively exhaust their military strength  in the unprepared fighting zone of Malaya,  

but that he was surprised to see the British  command repeating the same mistake over and over. 

By January 4, the 11th Indian Division  had fallen back to the Slim River,  

where General Paris formed a new defensive line in  front of Kuala Lumpur. Paris had placed the 12th  

Brigade on the Trolak sector to the north, while  the battered 28th Brigade was placed in defense of  

the Slim River crossings and the 15th Brigade was  appointed to cover their rear at Tanjong Malim.  

In general, this was a sound disposition,  giving the British the chance to execute  

a defense in depth; yet nonetheless,  their efforts were doomed from the start,  

as the British command had failed to clearly  maintain their lines of communication  

and to adequately construct tank defenses,  such as anti-tank obstacles or roadblocks.  

The Japanese launched their first probe attacks  on January 5 at the Trolak sector, which were  

easily beaten off by the Indian defenders. These  attacks were followed by an unusually quiet day,  

so Paris ordered the 28th Brigade to rest at  Slim town so that they could recover their  

strength. But this moment of calm would be  followed on January 7 by a strong Japanese  

tank attack along the Trunk Road. Major Toyosaku  Shimada came up with a very unusual plan for WW2,  

the Japanese would perform a 'night attack using  tanks ' to spearhead the infantry, which was  

extremely dangerous considering lack of visibility  for tank crews. Without any tank defenses, the  

Indian defenders were quickly overrun, allowing  the Japanese tanks under Major Toyosaku Shimada  

to get to the main Indian line. There, they would  face more resistance , but eventually the Japanese  

would manage to overrun this position as well . The British line of communication had also been  

cut by Japanese forces, so they could not alert  the 28th Brigade of the impending tank threat  

they were about to face. Meanwhile, the Japanese  tanks were overrunning position after position  

of the 12th Brigade, bypassing the Trolak bridge  and advancing about one mile north of Slim town.  

The 28th Brigade, which had not deployed  successfully after its day of respite, was caught  

completely by surprise by the strong tank assault.  The Indian positions at Slim were thus overrun,  

and the Slim River bridge was taken. The Japanese  tanks would then continue their advance for two  

more miles after crossing the bridge, finally  being stopped by the 155th Field Regiment.  

For six hours, Shimada's tanks had rumbled down  a single road, machine-gunning and shooting up  

everything in their path. This resulted in the  destruction or dispersion of five battalions  

and the shattering of the British positions on  the Slim River. The 12th Brigade had been almost  

completely annihilated, while the 28th Brigade  had been cut down to a third of their force,  

then retreating to Tanjong Malim on January  8. Thus, the disastrous Battle of the Slim  

River constituted the final destruction of  the already debilitated 11th Indian Division  

and also signified the complete fall  of central Malaya into Japanese hands. 

Back on January 1, during the talks of the  Arcadia Conference, the Allied governments  

had agreed to form a joint command and  an integrated staff for the Pacific War:  

the American-British-Dutch-Australian  Command, or ABDACOM for short. It was to  

be responsible for the defense of the vast area  that ranged from Burma to northwestern Australia,  

and for the maintenance of the Malay Barrier, a  line running down the Malayan Peninsula through  

the southernmost islands of the Dutch East Indies.  British General Sir Archibald Wavell was the man  

appointed as Supreme Commander of the ABDACOM,  with Dutch General Hein ter Poorten as commander  

of the land forces, British Air Marshal Sir  Richard Peirse as commander of air forces,  

and American Admiral Thomas Hart as commander of  naval forces. On January 7, as Paris' men were  

being overrun at the Slim River, General Wavell  arrived at Singapore to assume control of the  

British Far East Command. Wavell quickly  realized that Johor was the vital ground,  

and that they needed to gain enough time for the  arrival of reinforcements. He then appointed the  

8th Australian Division to defend northwestern  Johor, while the Indian forces were placed in  

defense of southern and northeastern Johor. This  meant that central Malaya , along with important  

cities like Kuala Lumpur and Kuala Selangor,  were going to be abandoned to the Japanese;  

but this also meant that for the first time in  the campaign, the British were going to attempt  

to buy real time, instead of just throwing their  forces into the meat grinder over and over again. 

We're now going to take a quick  detour to the island of Borneo,  

where the last actions on the British side of the  island were about to happen. On December 28, upon  

returning back to Miri from his attack on Kuching,  General Kawaguchi ordered the battalion-strong  

Watanabe Force to advance and then capture Brunei  with the objective of acquiring small boats for  

an attack on North Borneo. Three days later,  the Watanabe Force carried out their orders,  

but found all big ships in Brunei's harbour  already destroyed by the British defenders.  

This forced Kawaguchi to employ only  small fishing boats for his next attacks.  

After taking Labuan Island on January 1, Kawaguchi  decided to launch his main attack on North Borneo.  

On January 8, two infantry platoons occupied  the towns of Jesselton and Beaufort,  

while the Watanabe Force captured Sandakan,  the seat of government of North Borneo,  

then rescuing some 600 interned Japanese citizens.  Kawaguchi's men would then continue their advance  

throughout British Borneo, with Governor Robert  Smith finally surrendering on January 19.  

Meanwhile, the Watanabe Force captured Tawau on  January 24 and Lahad Datu on January 31, freeing  

up a further 1500 interned Japanese citizens.  On January 9th as the Japanese were falling  

back from Changsha, a section of their forces  were ambushed by Chinese troops at Luoyang River  

causing massive casualties. The last actions  of the week would happen in Changsha,  

where the 6th Division finally managed to  break through towards Fulinpu on January 10,  

reuniting with the 3rd Division and then starting  to march north towards a line that stretched from  

Mount Mashihshan to Mount Piaofengshan. The Japanese divisions would then continue  

their withdrawal under considerable hardship up  until Mount Yingchushan, where the Chinese forces  

finally abandoned their pursuit. By January 13,  the 11th Army had regrouped on the right bank  

of the Ku Shui; and by January 15, Anami's  forces had reached the northern bank of the  

Hsinchiang Ho, finally completing their withdrawal  from Changsha and marking the end of the battle. 

Next week we will delve into the plans for  the Japanese attack on the Dutch East Indies  

and cover the progress of the  Malayan and Philippinean campaigns,  

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