Battle of Jitra
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The Battle of Jitra was the first major engagement fought between the invading Japanese and British forces in Malaya. The battle lasted from 11 to 13th December 1941.
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[edit] Preparations
Allied defences at Jitra were not completed when the Pacific War broke out. Barbed wire lines were erected and anti-tank mines laid-while heavy raining flooded the shallow trenches and gun pits. Many of the field telephone cables laid across the waterlogged ground failed to work, resulting in lack of communication during combat.
Two brigades of Major General David Murray-Lyon's 11th Indian Division held the front line. On the right were the 15th Indian Brigade, composed of 1st Leicestershires, the 1/14th Punjab Regiment and the 2/9th Jats; on the left, were the 6th Indian Brigade, composed of the East Surreys, the 1/8th and 2/16th Punjab Regiments. Batteries from the 155th Field Regiment, the 22nd Mountain Regiment and the 80th Anti-tank Regiment provided the artillery support. The 28th Indian Brigade were placed in reserve.
The front was as long as 14 miles, stretching across both roads and a railway, and far beyond on either side, from the jungle-clad hills on the right via flooded rice fields and a rubber estate to a tidal mangrove swamp on the left.
[edit] Battle
In the late afternoon of December 11, a Japanese tank charge into British defences north of the town swamped the 1/14th Punjab Regiment and the 2/1st Gurkha Rifles. It was the first time the Indian troops had seen a tank. General Murray-Lyon requested to retire from Jitra to a position he had already selected about 30 miles southward, at Gurun. It was a natural stronghold, though it was not put into a state of active defence. General Arthur Percival firmly refused it. He feared that such an early and long retreat would have a demoralising effect both on the troops and on the civilian population. Murray-Lyon was told that the battle must be fought out at Jitra.
By evening of 11 December, the situation had deteriorated so rapidly that at 7:30 p.m., Murray-Lyon again sought leave to fall back to the position at Gurun. General Percival finally agreed that he should be given discretion to withdraw from Jitra. General Murray-Lyon's task now was to try and hold North Kedah and block the enemy tanks on good natural obstacles, and to dispose his forces so as to obtain real depth on the two parallel North-South roads which traversed the rice-growing area, and thus get greater scope for his artillery. At 10 p.m., the 11th Indian Division were ordered to withdraw to the South bank of the River Kedah at Alor Star, beginning at midnight.
| “ | This withdrawal would have been difficult under the most favourable conditions. With the troops tired, units mixed as the result of the fighting, communications broken and the night dark, it was inevitable that orders should be delayed and that in some cases they should never reach the addressees. This is what in fact occurred. Some units and sub-units withdrew without incident. Others, finding themselves unable to use the only road, had to make their way as best they could across country. On the left flank, there were no roads, so some parties reached the coast and, taking boats, rejoined farther south. Some, again, were still in position the following morning. The fact is that the withdrawal, necessary as it may have been, was too fast and too complicated for disorganised and exhausted troops, whose disorganisation and exhaustion it only increased. - Lt. Gen. Arthur Percival [1] | ” |
At midnight, of December 13th, a Japanese effort to rush an only bridge over the River Bata were violently repulsed by the 2/2nd Gurkha Rifles. Two hours later, the bridge was blown and the battalion withdrew through a rearguard formed by the 2/9th Gurkha Rifles, who fought another fierce engagement before, at 4.30 a.m., before retiring as well. By noon, all contact with the pursuing enemy ended.
After 15 hours of bitter combat, the Japanese 5th Division captured Jitra and with it a large number of allied supplies in the area. Around that same time, Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft conducted massive air raids on Penang, killing more than 2000 civilians.
After the destruction of most of the allied aircraft at Alor Star, General Percival ordered that all aircraft will, until reinforcements arrive, only be used in the defence of Singapore and for the protection of supply convoys moving north into Malaya. Murray-Lyon was relieved of command on December 23.
[edit] References
- ^ The War in Malaya, Arthur Percival.
[edit] Books
Frank Owen, The Fall of Singapore, Penguin Books, 2001, ISBN 0-14-139133-2
