Battle of Kota Bharu, 8th December 1941

The battle of Kota Bharu, was the first battle, in a series of battles, fought during the second world war, between commonwealth forces and the imperial Japanese army for control of the Malayan Peninsula.

The attack on Kota Bharu, Kelantan, began on the 8th of December, with air strikes by Air Group III, a naval assault, and an infantry attack, that moved from the heavily forested Pattani province in Thailand into Kelantan, and possibly an amphibious crossing across the Golok River that separates Malaysia and Thailand, by forces under the command of General Tomoyuki Yamashita, the man who headed the Japanese 25th Army, and the man who was later dubbed “the tiger of Malaya”.

The first target was the 8th Indian Infantry Division stationed in Kota Bharu, under the command of Brigadier B. W. Key. The destruction on the Malayan side of things was total, the defenders capitulated within hours, but it was not because they lacked the will to fight, they fought, bravely, valiantly, and courageously, but simply because they were overwhelmed by a superior force. The attack was unprecedented, there has never been an attack of such magnitude on the Malayan Peninsula prior to the attack on the 8th of December 1941, or since. 

Kota Bharu was also the base of operations for the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), and there was a vital airstrip that commonwealth forces could use to launch air raids, into Thailand, but with the fall of Kota Bharu, the control of the airstrip, and two other key airstrips located in Machang and Gong Kedah, fell into enemy hands.

As it turned out, the airstrips weren’t of much use, Thailand took no part in the war, and maintained its neutrality.

The attack by air group III was followed by an amphibious landing via the South China Sea, the invading army used small naval crafts to land but it was by no means an easy landing and soldiers from the imperial Japanese army were subjected to concerted artillery fire, and repeated machine gun fire, and they were forced to battle it out to the very end.

From all accounts, the fighting was intense, but by the morning of the 8th of December, it became clear, that the imperial Japanese army had emerged triumphant. From Kota Bharu, the imperial Japanese army would push on to other parts of the state, and from Thailand into the state of Kedah, having gained a foothold on the eastern part of the peninsula, the imperial Japanese army also sought to gain control of the western half of the peninsula, however it was not feasible to cut across because it was near impossible for troops from any infantry division to negotiate the great dividing range, that separated the east of the peninsula from the western half of the peninsula, a heavily forested, rugged mountainous area that ran from the north of the peninsula to the south, and it was much easier to cross the border into Malaya from Thailand instead.

The war for the control of Malaya would continue up to about Christmas of 1941, and by the new year, the entire peninsula had fallen into enemy hands, leaving behind pockets of soldiers, while the rest of the commonwealth troops had retreated to Singapore.

Copyright © 2024 by Kathiresan Ramachanderam