During the night of December 7-8, 1941, elements of the Twenty-Fifth Japanese Army (Yamashita Tomoyuki) under naval cover from ships of the Japanese Southern Force, invaded northern Malaya and southern Thailand preparatory to an assault on Singapore.

The Malayan Campaign began early on the morning of December 7, even before the Battle of Pearl Harbor, and was therefore the first Japanese act of aggression in the Pacific. Yamashita deployed 60,000 men, supported by 158 naval aircraft and 459 aircraft of 3rd Air Division to attack Malaya. The Anglo-Indian garrison on the island was taken by surprise, quickly lost the ability to maneuver, and was unable to defend its handful of air bases.

Yamashita's first landings, at Singora and Patani in southern Thailand, were unopposed. His next landings, on the northern Malayan coast, were inadequately met. Although the British commander in chief, Far East, Air Chief Marshal Robert Brooke-Popham, had a superior force of 88,600 Australian, British, Indian, and Malay troops under the direct command of Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, they were inadequately equipped with just 158 obsolete or obsolescent aircraft and no tanks.

Before the war, British planners had clearly recognized the importance of adequately defending Malaya because of its position with regard to Singapore. An enemy who took Malaya would possess the means of invading Singapore from the rear. Accordingly, a plan (known as MATADOR) was drawn up before the war to occupy Singora-Patani in Thailand, thereby interdicting any Japanese landing there. Political considerations, however, prevented implementation, and orders were not given to occupy defensive positions around Jitra until a full 10 hours after the Japanese had landed. The delay enabled the Japanese to seize control of the airfields at Singora and Patani. They were thus able to hit Anglo-Indian installations freely and frequently.

While the ground battle was rapidly developing into a British disaster, at sea the Japanese sank the Prince of Wales and the Repulse, two major Royal Navy ships.

Yamashita moved with great speed, quickly occupying Bangkok and sweeping aside all resistance at Jitra. The Japanese invaders also secured the cooperation of the Malayan civilian population and were thereby enabled to advance to the south with extraordinary rapidity, so that the Anglo-Indian defenders were repeatedly outflanked. . .

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