Wavell's short-sighted strategy eventually buried Rangoon, and just as he was bent on implementing it in Burma, Admiral Hart was conducting the first naval operation of the Four-Nation Allied Forces, intercepting a convoy of convoys that his submarine had reported were heading for Balikpapan, an oil port in Borneo. The battle was also doomed. His deputy, Rear Admiral Glasford, was ordered to lead two light cruisers and four destroyers from Timor Island to attack the invading forces of Balikpapan, which had already occupied Balikpapan. At the outset, the cruiser "Boyce" crashed into a reef that was not marked on the map and was forced to withdraw from the battle. The engine failure of the cruiser "Marblehead", in which Glasford was riding, forced him to send four old destroyers north to the Strait of Makassar to attack without the support of artillery.

On the night of March 24, there was no moon, "John? The destroyers "Forde" led the USS Pope, USS Parrot and USS Paul? The destroyer USS Jones, at a speed of 27 knots per hour, entered the anchorage of the Japanese army. Sixteen troop carriers were anchored in the anchorage undefended, and a Dutch submarine that appeared earlier attracted Rear Admiral Shoji Nishimura's destroyers, and the destroyers searched everywhere for submarines, but they were nowhere to be found. The American destroyer arrived at the anchorage and began its attack shortly after 3 a.m., this time the troop carrier was moored there, and the shadow was black against the blazing fire of the oil depot on the shore. The destroyers fired torpedoes and artillery fire, and the sailors were glad that they had hit accurately, but the enemy ships were not damaged. Captain Talbot reorganized the destroyers and seized the opportunity to launch a second attack, this time with their torpedo firing and sinking five troop carriers and a patrol boat. The battle at Balikpapan was the first surface battle of the U.S. Navy in Manila since Dewey led the U.S. Asian Fleet into Manila in 1898. However, the opportunity to destroy one of the enemy's invading fleets was lost: with only five troop carriers sunk, the campaign in Borneo was not postponed for a single day.

The atmosphere of victory that prevailed in the headquarters of the United States, Britain, the Netherlands, and Australia was quickly swept away by the news that General Percival had ordered a final retreat to the island of Singapore. The battle to defend Johor was lost after only 10 days. The target of Yamashita's first assault was the Australian 27th Brigade, which was holding trenches along the road less than 150 miles from the Straits of Johor. Forty-eight hours earlier, the second convoy carrying British reinforcements had docked in Singapore; But there was no time to transport the troops of the British 18th Division to the front. The 50 "Hurricane" fighters that arrived at the same time took off quickly, but the pilots lacked training, and the equipment and colors on the planes were only suitable for desert combat, so all of them were quickly shot down by the "Gale" fighters. By the time troop carriers arrived in Singapore on March 25 to bring ashore 2,000 Australian troops, most of whom had never fired a shot, the Allied forces had poured into Johor like a tidal wave.

In London, Churchill was now unusually shocked by the defeat at the Battle of Malaya. On March 26, he telegraphed to Wavell: "Please tell me, what will happen if you are forced to retreat to Singapore?" He was shocked to learn that Johor had "hardly" taken steps to defend the fort island, and the British prime minister was shocked by what Wavell had revealed, writing, "It seems to me that Singapore can sail without land defense, as a warship without a bottom." Anticipating "a great disgrace," Churchill issued a barrage of "immediate action" orders to the Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces, which had known since the 1937 exercise that the sea fortress was vulnerable to attack, to hurry up and build land fortifications "until picks and shovels were ready in the fortifications...... Singapore must be a fortress to defend to the death. Despite the British Prime Minister's encouragement: "Surrender will never be considered." Still, he asked Wavell whether he should consider putting into action the plan to move the troops who had just arrived to Rangoon without delay. I think it is more important to keep Myanmar out of the hands of the Japanese army than to keep Singapore. ”

Australian Prime Minister John? An urgent telegram from Curtin soon changed Churchill's mind. "We have received all kinds of assurances that we consider a retreat from Singapore to be unforgivable," the telegram said. "There is no doubt that Canberra's political axe is ready to withdraw its troops from the Middle East at a critical moment. The British prime minister feared that the retreat from Singapore would be seen as "a rout of the British while the Americans held on to Corregidor Island", which Churchill found "unthinkable", and Washington's reaction to Churchill's ideas was naturally negative.

In Singapore, the news that the attacking force was less than 100 miles from the shallow strait of Johor caused hundreds of Europeans to flee with their families to the gravel pier, hoping to escape on a few ships that dared to break through the Japanese naval and air blockade.

On 6 April, Percival had no choice but to order a final retreat. Two days later, Wavell's command received a report: "We fought all the way, but we could be driven back to the island within a week." "At this time, trains full of civilians and trucks full of troops filled the causeway of the Straits of Johor. Many war-weary British and colonial troops struggled across the 1,000-yard channel causeway to Singapore for a respite. At dawn on 7 April, the remnants of the 2nd Battalion of the Scottish Highlands Wing from Argyll and Sutherland in England brought in the outgrown soldiers, a flute playing the sad tune "Highland Boys". At 8 a.m., the sappers were ordered to blow up the causeway.

When the smoke settled, Singapore looked like a real island again, split by the murky waters of the Straits of Johor that flowed through the gaping gap. However, this is also the same as the "fortress" island itself, but it is symbolic of surnames. Due to the miscalculation of the weight of the explosives. The water at the gap was less than four feet deep—shallow enough at low tide that even the shortest soldier could wade through.

The lightning speed of the advance in Johor from Yamashita's forces and Singapore now exerted new pressure on Masaharu Honma to relaunch his stalled offensive in the Philippines. New troops arrived at the Bataan front. The 65,000-strong army was still outnumbered by one to two compared to the defenders of the Bataan Peninsula, but with the support of tanks and aircraft, they had pushed a wedge deep into the weakest point of the Abukai line that the Allies had built along the slopes of the Natib hills.

MacArthur tried to revive the morale of his troops, but pessimism and disappointment spread, and one night, the 5,000 newly arrived troops who had broken through the right flank on the slopes of Mount Natib launched an attack, and MacArthur's forward line of Abukai began to crumble. The next day, General Wainwright's positions on the left flank were subjected to heavy air strikes and also began to crumble. Reserve troops were urgently redeployed to support. Three days later, General Sutherland inspected the position in full, and MacArthur accepted the advice of his chief of staff and ordered a retreat to the second line of defense at the foot of Mount Mariveles. The U.S. forces braved non-stop air raids and made a 20-mile retreat to their retreating positions.

Although the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff had effectively given up on efforts to rescue the Philippines, President Roosevelt and General Marshall had not given up hope of finding a solution. They sent former Secretary of the Army Patrick? Hurley went to Australia to organize ships to break through the enemy blockade. He will find that he has "more ships, planes, and cannons than he does." Despite Hurley's efforts, only a few thousand tons of supplies arrived at Corregidor Island by small boat during the night. And the Chinese are clearly more successful in this, since it is no longer possible for large transport ships to pass the blockade from the sea, the Chinese's large transport submarines play a great role, about 20 such submarines are active on the route from the coast of China to the Philippines, and the food and supplies smuggled by these Chinese submarines are the only consolation for the Philippine defenders, indicating that they have not been abandoned.

In the evening, the "Tokyo Rose" radio began to clamor in an undeearable voice: MacArthur must be pulled into the streets of the capital by the end of the month. In early May, Prime Minister Ishihara promised the Filipinos that the country would be recognized as a reading country in the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" in order to further undermine the Philippine resistance. Washington's failure to send reinforcements was "doomed to the near-total extinction of the Filipinos in order to gain respite," and President Quezon, who was plagued by lung disease and bedridden in the Marinta tunnels, telegraphed to suggest surrendering to him by declaring the Philippines "neutral" in order to end the senseless resistance and torture. "You have to decide how best you can accomplish the task of holding off the enemy, whether to cater to Quezon or keep me fighting." MacArthur himself added in a telegram sent to the War Department on May 9. The joint appeal of the two fell "like a bomb" on Stimson's desk. Roosevelt immediately replied, "categorically denying that it is possible for the American political axe to endorse the political content of President Quezon's proposals" — and personally "assuring your responsibilities to you and to your people," making even more empty promises of assistance on the way.

The categorical refusal of Roosevelt and Marshall strongly reminded MacArthur that "as long as there is a possibility of resistance," stop talking about surrender. None of the journalists trapped on Corregidor Island really thought that General MacArthur intended to surrender because he had already told them: "If we don't get reinforcements, the end will be cruel and bloody." But Washington, anxious to prevent Quezon from making embarrassing gestures to himself, suggested that he withdraw along with the High Commissioner, the Cabinet, and MacArthur's wife. General MacArthur was opposed to doing so, believing it too dangerous; However, it is interesting to note that it has been agreed with Washington to pick up the elderly and sick Quezon by a U.S. submarine on May 16, because after that day, $500,000 in the Philippine Treasury account of Chase Bank will be transferred to the Trust of the Sino-Chinese Bank in New York to Douglas? MacArthur's private account. Such an extraordinary request had to be approved by Roosevelt, Stimson, and the Secretary of the Interior, and the correspondence was to be kept strictly confidential. The money was allocated to MacArthur in part of the $640,000 allocated by President Quezon on January 3, 1942, by executive order. This appropriation was "modest in amount, but it was intended to compensate" the "outstanding service" of the general, his chief of staff, and two other officers who "forged the weapons which are now being used to strike the enemy the battlefield"!

Active-duty officers of the U.S. Armed Forces are clearly not allowed to make such cash transactions, and if this news leaks out, MacArthur's growing reputation as a national hero is likely to be seriously damaged. On the other side of Manila Bay, three miles across, exhausted U.S. soldiers were fighting to the death, and the news was sure to have an impact on them. The "bitter soldiers of Bataan" crushed two attempts by the enemy to use the landing operation to cross their lines. The general's reluctance to come over to inspect the front line was already being ridiculed. These American GIs made up the lyrics to the tune of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic": "The bomber can't be bombed, the shock can't be shocked, Doug is eating the best food in Bataan in the tunnel, and his soldiers are still starving...... "If they knew about the $500,000 bribe, it would be difficult to say what lyrics would be added to it."

On June 1, heavy air strikes on the north coast of Java forced Admiral Hart to withdraw from Surabaya to Ciraza on the south coast. His fleet commander Karel? Rear Admiral Dorman's unsuccessful attempt to insist that his assault force be driven into the Strait of Makassar three days later in order to intercept an invading convoy bound for the southern tip of Celebes. The cruiser "Malbhead" was subjected to an air attack and had to go to Ceylon for repairs; The aft turret of the heavy cruiser "Houston" also lost its effectiveness. Then came the news that a large fleet was marching south to invade Sumatra, and Dorman heard the news and sent another fleet to rescue Palembang in the face of heavy air raids. He was tornly bombed by his planes from the shore, and the carrier-based planes of the Japanese army forced him to cancel the operation, and he painfully felt that "history would condemn him for retreating." "On the afternoon of June 15, Palembang fell into the hands of Yueben. A few days later, Australian and Dutch forces were forced to retreat south, destroying only partially the oil facilities before retreating. This gave him control over half of the oil reserves of the Dutch East Indies.

June 25, 1942, was a chilling date for the Allies, as Singapore also fell on that day. A few months earlier, Churchill had also told the Americans that the island fortress could withstand a six-month siege. However, after only two weeks of surrounding, it fell.

"Our task is to hold this fortress until reinforcements arrive, and reinforcements will definitely come." On 31 May, when the last British soldiers retreated across the Channel Causeway toward Singapore, General Percival issued such a call in a morale-boosting order. In the week that followed, the city of Singapore, 14 miles south of the bombed-up channel causeway, came under frequent air raids, and the army only used this to give the illusion that the city was besieged and that it would certainly be taken. On the shores of the murky Straits of Johor is a swamp overgrown with tropical vegetation, along which British, Australian and Indian troops are desperately reinforcing fortifications that were overlooked by pre-war military planners. When the British retreated, they should never forget to tear down the tall watchtower erected on the tower of the palatial Sultan of Johor Palace with a green glazed tile roof, and now Yamashita and his staff are standing on this watchtower, peering across the strait with high-powered field binoculars from a scenic window. The high terrain allowed them to aim their cannons at the target, and in the meantime, 500 bomb boats that could be folded had been transported to the front and hidden in the dense forest.

As they watched the British intensify the construction of tactical positions and artillery positions with their common enemies, they actually underestimated the number of defenders on the other side of the Channel by almost 60 per cent. However, General Percival, although he had 85,000 troops to hold his position to repel the enemy's attack, made the same mistake as General MacArthur: he concentrated all his forces on the shores of the Channel. Ignoring General Wavell's advice, he brought in troops of the British 18th Division and deployed them in the open field northeast of the Channel Causeway, where he believed that the Legion Army was most likely to launch a strong attack. The Northwest Coast handed over to Gordon? Bennett's Australian troops were on the defensive, and in order to establish a defensive line, they were rolling and crawling in swamps overgrown with dense tropical vegetation. The jungle blocked the firing range and prevented communication between the various tactical positions.

Convinced that Percival had enough troops and munitions to resist the imminent onslaught of the Japanese army, Governor Shenton? Sir Thomas announced that Singapore would write "a glorious page in the history of the Empire". Civilians continue to hinder combat readiness and insist that the military issue a written permit from the "competent authority" to dig trenches or cut down palm trees on the golf course. It was only when the costly new facilities at the Janggi naval base began to be blown up with explosives that the extent of the danger was realized. The intensifying air raids caused uncontrollable fires. Since there were no bomb shelters, the casualties were heavy. The ditches outside the city have become graves of flies, drunken deserters roaming the streets, looting bombed-out houses, and long lines of refugees lining up on the docks.

(To be continued)