Pacific Onslaught

Abstract

Sorne hours before the Pearl Harbor attack, at dawn on 8 December 1941 (the other side of the International Dateline), Japanese troops landed in Thailand (by arrangement with the Thai government) and in Malaya. While outnumbered by the defenders, the Japanese proved adept at speedy manoeuvre in the jungle, and repeatedly outflanked the British defensive positions. Japanese aircraft were greatly superior to those the British had — and when Force Z, the Royal Navy’s two largest units in the area, HMS Repulse and Prince of Wales, attempted to intervene without aircover, they were sunk by air attack. A new era of naval warfare had begun: without air cover the mightiest of battleships was in peril.