UK Long Campaign East

[Korpraali V]

UK Long East



Major Whitcombe
8th January 1942 Malacca

Japan has attacked against us. They have destroyed His Majesty’s ships Prince of Wales and Repulse. Their ground forces have crossed the Thailand borders and taken the city of Penang. Our forces are in full retreat. Lieutenant General Percival is trying to establish defencelines but the enemy seems to be everywhere. Their infantry is threathening our supply lines and their tanks are rolling over our frontline. They have total air superiority. Few Buffalos can’t do much. Three of them crashed near the town yesterday. No Japanese losses.

I was promoted to Colonel and ordered to take command of an ”Independent” Battalion. Right now it seems that there is not much non-independent around. What a mess. This Battalion is formed from at least three totally beaten British-Australian-Newzealand-Indian Battalions. Great…just great. Many are green and the morale is low. Only fighting experience some of my troops have is the overwhelming Japanese night assault that broke their lines. Luckily I managed to get Squadron of armors and some artillery under my command. We are quickly giving some Malayan and Malayan Chinese volunteers some basic training. Farmers and merchants are not much but have to use everything you can get.

We expect Japanese troops to arrive within few days…



516th Independent Colonial Battalion (Colonel Whitcombe)
Hq
Command Car

Cruiser Squadron
Squadron Hq Stuart I/II
1st Troop: 3x Humber I/II
2nd Troop: 3x Stuart I/II
3rd Troop: 3x Stuart III/IV
4th Troop: 2x Matilda III CS

I Infantry Company
Co Hq (UK), Vickers HMG
1st British Platoon: Plt Hq, 3x Rifle section, 2in Mortar, Bren LMG, Vickers HMG
2nd New Zealand Platoon: Plt Hq, 3x Rifle section, 2in Mortar, Bren LMG, Vickers HMG
3rd Australian Platoon: 4x Australian Engineers, Vickers HMG

II Infantry Company
Co Hq (UK), Vickers HMG
1st Indian Platoon: Plt Hq, 3x Rifle section, 2in Mortar, Vickers HMG
2nd Indian Platoon: Plt Hq, 3x Rifle section, 2in Mortar, Vickers HMG
3rd Gurkha Platoon: 4x Gurkha Rifle section, Vickers HMG

Artillery Battery
Forward Observer
1st Platoon: 4x 25 pdr FG
2nd Platoon: 6x 3in Mortar
3rd Platoon: 6x 3in Mortar
Ammo Dump

AA Platoon
4x 40mm Bofors AA-Gun

Support Troops
4x Bren Carrier
4x Bren Carrier
4x Mule Pack
4x Mule Pack

[Korpraali V]

Japanese advance – Commonwealth delay


Colonel Whitcombe
14th January 1942 Malacca

Kuala Lumpur was lost 11th of January. Now its our turn.

Small map: Jungle in both sides. Large open area in the middle. W-E road from Kuala Lumpur to Malacca goes through the map in the middle. Large hills in our rear lines. Front: Small hill in south and center. Large hill in north. We’ll place our frontlines on those hills and second lines on large hills behind them. If first line falls, we should be able to stop the invaders from second one. Open areas give our MGs very good sights.

Japanese are coming! In front of our lines are still some desperate survivors trying to reach our lines. We have to stop this attack and give them time to reach us. We are their only hope.

Its raining and moving is wery slow. Good for us. Visibility is about a kilometer. All our companies (incl. Malayans) are naturally under British rule. Malayan companies are to slow the enemy in the first line with some HMGs. Bren Carriers are behind them to evacuate broken squads. Second line: I Company to right and II Company to left. On hills or rough terrain. Tanks and HMGs to hills right behind them. Platoon of Gurkhas and New Zealanders are in reserve hiding near the tanks. When we find out where enemy’s main attack is taking place, we should be able to take our tanks and reserves there to support infantry. Bofors’ are along the second line to give AT-support. They are placed so that they can easily withdraw to safe if seen by the enemy.

We will soon abandon Malacca and can’t take all the ammo etc. with us. What is not used, will be destroyed. So we have plenty of ammo to mortars and howitzers and try to use as much as we can. Starting to fire right away…



Support units:

HMG Platoon
4x Vickers HMG

I Malayan Rifle Company
Co Hq (UK)
1st Platoon: 4x Rifle section (CC China)
2nd Platoon: 4x Rifle section (CC China)
3rd Platoon: 4x Rifle section (CC China)
4th Platoon: 4x Rifle section (CC China)

II Malayan Rifle Company
Co Hq (UK)
1st Platoon: 4x Rifle section (CC China)
2nd Platoon: 4x Rifle section (CC China)
3rd Platoon: 4x Rifle section (CC China)
4th Platoon: 4x Rifle section (CC China)

Separate soldiers
9x Separate squads (=5x Br Commandos & 4x ANZ Commandos)




1700: 25pdr malfunctioned. Good start… Few Rail Cars seen.

1710: Rail Cars finished. Some infantry seen.

1720: Light Ha-Gos and heavier Chi-Has coming along the road! Their mortars woke up and hit our frontline there. Malayans suffered their first casualties. They also tried to hit Stuarts behind them. Time to move forward. Stuarts getting ready to deal with enemy tanks. Should get pretty good crossfire from Stuarts from right and Matildas from left. Some infantry coming, not much. Heard some shooting from the distance.

1740: First enemy tanks down. Matildas, Stuarts and Bofors’ got good crossfire from both flanks. Their infantry starts running towards the Malayans in the middle. Malayan infantry is in panic because of heavy mortar shells they just recieved. FO’s count and barrages are ordered to help the pressure there. Minor activity on both flanks.

1755: I have underestimated the Malayans. Despite the barrages they are keeping their positions and with tank and machine gun support fighting the first wave of Japs. Crossfire takes three Ha-Gos and two Chi-Has out. Couple Yi-Gos seen. Japanese are shooting barrages to their own rear! Either they have lost their mind or some separate Commonwealth soldiers are in trouble… Forward observer is counting their artillery positions in case we had time to ease their situation. We can’t do more to help them.

1810: Malayans, mortar barrages, tanks and AA-guns have stopped their first wave in center. They are now trying to break our right flank. Lots of infantry climbing to the hill. Outnumbered Malayans try to slow them down. Redirecting main mortar fire. No enemy movement in the left flank so far. Explosions and smoke in the distance. Another 25 pdr malfunctioned.

1825: Crossfire of several tanks and Bofors’ is effective and stops Yi-Gos and rest of thir tanks. Mortar shell hit Stuart and damaged it badly. Their mortar fire is significally lighter than it was in the beginning. Our left flank’s Matildas and Humber are slowly moving forward and pushing back Japanese right flank. Right flank is fleeing and Malayans are leaving the hill in panic.

1840: Several barrages have hit Malayans in the right and they are now running in open throwing smoke behind them. They are in trouble and the hill is in Japanese hands. They are seriously trying to break through. Carriers are evacuating Malayans and Stuart, Humber, Bofors and couple HMGs shoot with everything they have to cover the infantry. Also mortars are shooting the hill. New Zealanders are moving to right to contact the Japs. Vickers HMGs are using well the advantage the open terrain is giving to them but few are already sort of ammo.

1900: Few HMGs have run out of ammo and few Stuarts are soon joining them. Managed to take most of the broken Malayans out from the line in right flank. Some are still in good shape and New Zealanders joined them to fight against the Japanese. We are now withdrawing there slowly and in good order towards the rear hill. Lots of smoke is thrown between troops. Japs keep still coming. Even one man squads are shooting us. Their losses have been high but they are coming and coming. Our mortar and artillery barrages have been continuous and the air have been full of bullets over one and a half hour now.

1910: Battle is over. Japanese forces are withdrawing. Their losses were high when we managed to keep ours in acceptable levels. About two platoons of separate soldiers of Commonwealth joined our forces and we found out why Japanese barrages got lighter during the fight. They told they had destroyed over a dozen enemy mortars and many AT-guns. Fighting was hard and they too took casualties and used almost all their ammo. Their support was very valuable to us.

We are withdrawing from Malacca. It seems that we can leave in peace. Japanese forces’ activity here is not very high right now. It takes at least few days for them to try again and then we are far from here. Two destroyers and one transport ship are in the harbor waiting for us. We are ordered to move to Burma. Personally I think it would be much better to move towards the Singapore. Enemy can’t take it for sure. But orders are orders.

Our Malayans and Malayan Chinese volunteers fought bravely and performed well. They were green soldiers and their casualties were high but they also inflicted heavy casualties to the enemy. Tank support was essential to us. Without them we would have been overrunned. Now Malayans continue their fight in underground. I ordered to leave them some HMGs and mortars and most of ammo we have. However, Japanese weapons are more useful to collect, cause ammo supply will be much closer.


Commonwealth points: 6731
Japanese points: 299

Commonwealth casualties: 160 men
Japanese casualties: 730 men, 22 artillery, 13 afv’s

[Korpraali V]

Japanese advance – Commonwealth delay

Colonel Whitcombe
1st February 1942 Moulmein
Time: 1900

Last month we landed here in Moulmein and joined 17th Indian Division. Three days ago we were ordered to leave the town and on the following day Japanese forces occupied it. Now as part of the 17th Indian Division were are to cover our forces retreat towards the river Bilin. We have to hold our positions as long as possible, or until we get other orders, and then withdraw.

The area is full of jungle. We found only couple few hundred meters deep open areas and are placing our defences here. In the middle of the area goes E-W road. Probably the main enemy forces will come along that road. Few small hills and one big hill in no man’s land in center. Far right comes unfinished trail that ends between our lines.

Division Hq gave me two infantry Companies and one heavy support Company to this task. I suppose we now form the majority of our Division’s troops that are still in proper fighting shape. We surely pray and hope that the Japanese are tired and not very eager to follow our retreat.

First company takes its positions on left. Third Indian company will keep the road in center. Fourth one is on the right. Second company stays in reserve, one platoon behind each company. Tanks are all in the first line. Two Stuarts and two Humbers on right, three Stuarts and one Humber on left and three Stuarts and two Matildas with thickest armor on center. Stuarts and Humbers can easily change positions if needed. Matildas are slower so they are placed on suspected enemy main attack line. We are going to endure. The weather is clear but the sun is going down so our visibility is limited, only about half a kilometer.

We are ready and start waiting.



Support units:


Support Company
Co Hq
4x Mortar
4x Mortar
4x 25 pdr FG

III Indian Rifle Company
Co Hq, 2in mortar, Vickers HMG
Plt Hq, 3x Rifle section, 2in mortar
Plt Hq, 3x Rifle section, 2in mortar
Plt Hq, 3x Rifle section, 2in mortar

IV Indian Rifle Company
Co Hq, 2in mortar, Vickers HMG
Plt Hq, 3x Rifle section, 2in mortar
Plt Hq, 3x Rifle section, 2in mortar
Plt Hq, 3x Rifle section, 2in mortar




1910 first enemy soldiers seen and killed in right flank and in center. Two Rail Cars in center… What!! Captain Kilgore, leader of our Cruiser squadron, is suicidial. He drove in the middle of the Japanese infantry! He was even able to come back!! No one shot at his tank. I’m going to have word or two with him after this battle, if he survives… maniac!

1925 Their heavy mortars started early and have now been shooting hard our central lines for about ten minutes. Don’t know how long the Indian company will hold their positions if this continues. Humber lost its gears under this barrage and Matilda was hit…no damage. Our artillery and mortars fired full barrage to Japanese frontline which is now incapable to do anything.

1930 Ke-Ni far right coming along the trail! Didn’t expect that to come. Stuart getting ready…

1935 Again their heavy mortars hit hard our central frontline. Right: Stuart destroyed one suicidal Ke-Ni which just kept driving against it. Another one first damaged and then blowed up, when Stuart repeatedly hit its side hull. Another Stuart came to assist if more of them are still to come. Their infantry is getting close both in right and center. Indians are making hard resistance and both sides suffer some casualties.

1940 Right: Third Ke-Ni appeared. Captain Kilgore’s Stuart damaged it with 37mm gun and 1st Lieutenant Cheshire’s Stuart destroyed it with .30 bow machine gun’s front hull hit! Where did he hit it? Can’t believe this!

We are keeping up a firewall with our mortars and howitzers. Those who managed to come through it will face concentrated fire of our tanks and infantry…in theory. In practice some Indians are running and some tanks are quite alone shooting and trying to stop invading Japanese hordes.

1950 Six Yi-Gos coming in the center! Because there has been no enemy movement on left so far we are taking all tanks from there to center. Indian infantry is shaking, Japanese are at close range.

1955 Hard tank battle in the middle of our lines. Yi-Gos against Stuarts and Matildas. Also Humbers are shooting them and even managed to destroy one with 15mm Besa turret machine gun. Three Yi-Gos were quickly destroyed and two was damaged. We lost one Humber. But more tanks are still to come…

2005 Three Yi-Gos clashed our frontline in the middle, little south from the road. Two Stuarts were facing them. One damaged slightly and our infantry is running. Taking two reserve platoons to line on their way. Stuarts are slowly moving back and Matilda is trying to reach the flank of enemy tanks. Lots of shots but almost all missed on both sides, only one Stuart was damaged again and lost its main gun. Hard fighting, also Japanese infantry participated this attack.

Right: Two Stuarts destroyed two Yi-Gos. Matilda blowed third one in pieces with its 3in Howitzer. At least one more coming. First enemy contact in left flank.

Japanese commander orders his troops to cancel the attack. This was very good news to us, despite the fact that our reserves were still untouchable. Our artillery and mortars played the major part in this battle and significally slowed down the enemy advance. At 2130 Major General Smyth sent us orders to withdraw towards the river Bilin and catch our division there. Finally some good news.



Commonwealth points: 16656
Japanese points: 169

Commonwealth casualties: 62 men, 1 afv
Japanese casualties: 424 men, 13 afv’s