For the remaining ships of the Pacific Fleet, the most urgent task was to prevent the expected Japanese attack on Hawaii and the occupation of the strategic islands of the South Pacific such as Samoa, Palmyra, and Johnston, which held the necessary sea route to Australia and the maritime lifeline to the Philippines, where MacArthur was stationed. Frustrated by Washington's pessimistic estimates, Nimitz replied that he would have liked to remedy the initial heavy losses suffered by the American military by redeploying the Pacific Fleet and creating an aircraft carrier task force. However, the destruction of fuel depots and ammunition depots on Oahu in successive bombardments by Japanese aircraft prevented Nimitz from assembling an aircraft carrier task force to stop the Japanese invasion and defend the Hawaiian Islands and rescue Wake Island.

In the weeks immediately following Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Navy on the oceans and the U.S. Navy Department in Washington were in disarray. The task force to rescue Wake Island had to wait for the USS Wasp and USS Tahiti to arrive from the west coast; Storms and lack of training prevented the USS Wasp and the task force from refueling at sea, forcing Wilson? Vice Admiral Brown withdrew the fleet to port. The biggest setback for Nimitz and his elaborate plan to launch a counterattack to rescue Wake Island was the arrival of Secretary of the Admiralty Knox, who was preemptively trying to prevent "Congress from conducting a nasty investigation." The instinct of a politician drives him to come and "get to the bottom of the matter" and then look for a suitable scapegoat. The sight of many burned-out and wrecked warships slumped in the filthy Pearl Harbor clearly angered him.

On the first Sunday after Pearl Harbor, Winston? Churchill, accompanied by members of the Chiefs of Staff, went on a visit to the United States on the Royal Navy's newest battleship, the Duke of York, leaving Allen behind? General Sir Brooke "looks after the house". Their most urgent task was to persuade the Americans to agree to the "Europe First" strategy, which had been discussed many times to defeat Germany first, and not to transfer manpower and material resources to the Pacific theater. Churchill sat in the cabin of the battleship and briefed his entourage on the upcoming bilateral discussions, with three documents on the course of the future war he envisioned, namely the Atlantic Front, the Pacific Front, and the Battle of 1942. These documents were three "masterpieces" that gave a thorough strategic analysis of the objectives of Britain's participation in the war.

The British Prime Minister's cabin was located in the captain's quarters, and next door was a special travel map room, so that he could keep abreast of the progress of the global war. In North Africa, the assembled British forces launched a counteroffensive, forcing Rommel to temporarily retreat. News from North Africa brought comfort to the cause of the Allies. British Foreign Secretary Anthony? Aiden was on his way to the Far East on a warship, and he was going to try to enter China to meet with Wu Peifu, and Churchill sent him a telegram with an encouraging suggestion: "It would be extremely advantageous for us if China declared war on Japan. MacArthur, on the other hand, believed that convincing China to reduce pressure on the Far East was "a brilliant idea." Roosevelt also supported this proposition, and he repeatedly called Wu Peifu to suggest that "we jointly discuss and study various situations that may arise," and the Chinese side gave a positive response, and Wu Peifu replied that he was willing to hold relevant meetings, but the Chinese government did not immediately declare war on Japan, because the proposal to declare war was strongly resisted by the "pan-Asianists" in the two houses of the Chinese Congress, and the two sides of the debate had a fierce quarrel, so that the proposal could not be adopted for a long time. On the day he left London, Churchill sent a telegram to Hong Kong, a Chinese colony, suggesting that General Morteby negotiate with the Chinese government, urging the Chinese government to send troops to help defend Hong Kong. Moultby replied that consideration should be given to returning Hong Kong to China in order to prompt China to enter the war as soon as possible. Churchill, for his part, stubbornly insisted on his own claims and refused to discuss any question of Hong Kong's ownership. …,

To Churchill's surprise, the Japanese army soon moved south from Malaya. After the sinking of two capital ships of the British Navy in the Far East, shipwloads of Japanese soldiers arrived at the ports of Songkhla and Pattani. The British Air Force conducted a volley on the Japanese in an attempt to prevent the Japanese from landing. On 11 December, British planes attacked the Japanese convoy, sinking a transport ship and a destroyer, but Japanese fighters quickly broke up the British attack, and about 20 Buffalo fighters were shot down. That night. A submarine of the Dutch Navy attacked four Japanese troop carriers near the port of Pattani. The torpedo it fired hit only one target, and the next day, the submarine strayed into a British minefield and was blown up by a mine.

British reinforcements rushed to Malaya, and four squadrons of Hurricane fighters were transferred from the British mainland to Singapore. The 18th Division of the British Army, sailing around the Cape of Good Hope to Libya, had been preparing for the desert war, but now it had changed direction and sailed to the Far East. They crossed the Indian Ocean and could not reach it until mid-January. Churchill feared that the Japanese army would threaten India with an offensive to the north. On December 12, he expanded the command of the British forces in the Far East, Archibald ? General Wavell's command, while reminding him: "You must pay attention to the East. Burma is now part of your zone. You must stop the Japanese advancing on Burma and India, and try to cut off their lines of communication in the Malay Peninsula. ”

Churchill's fears were not unfounded, as he had previously received information that Germany and Japan were considering joint operations. The proposal to attack India was actually made by the Japanese ambassador to Germany, Oshima, two days later when he briefed Strassell on the operational objectives in Tokyo. This was one of the strategic patterns that the British General Staff in New Delhi feared the most. Shocking news continued to arrive from Malaya, but the front of Wavell's forces was stretched so long that he had no choice but to send a telegram to Percival, who was guarding Singapore, telling him to hold his ground and wait for reinforcements to arrive across the Indian Ocean.

"The eyes of the people of the empire are watching us, and the security of our position in the Far East is at stake," Percival issued a morale-boosting order from Singapore on December 10 to the commanders in Malaya, instructing them to hold their positions along the Malayan Siamese border and "fight to the last man." The British had a three-to-one advantage in numbers, but, in what he expected, in the "long and hard" battle, the British commanders would command their poorly trained soldiers against battle-tested Japanese troops and their light tanks. Most of the Indian army had neither tanks nor anti-tank guns, nor did they have experience in armoured warfare, as the pre-war battle planners believed that these things would not be useful in the forests of the Malay Peninsula. They ignored the main roads on the peninsula that had been built to transport rubber and tin from the Malay Peninsula to Singapore, and it was along these roads that the Japanese were about to launch a "tank blitzkrieg" similar to that of the Germans.

On the night of December 11, the Japanese army under the command of Yamashita Fumi launched a fierce attack on the Malay Peninsula. In the pouring rain, Japanese tanks rumbled on the asphalt road, trying to break through this circular line. Yamashita estimated that the 11th Indian Division was guarding the road to the south in order to defend the nearby Alor Setar airfield. The fact was that the defenders left their wet positions and took refuge under leaky rubber trees, and hundreds of machete-wielding Japanese soldiers easily broke through the line and disappeared on the road - a "small oversight," the chief of staff, Yamada Osa, sarcastically reported: "We now have a clear understanding of the enemy's combat effectiveness." What had just happened confirmed his prediction in the Japanese Army's instruction manual: "Although the officers were Europeans, the sergeants and other soldiers were almost all locals, and the sense of solidarity between officers and soldiers was equal to zero." "The Japanese captured the blood-stained defense map of the city of Sitra and conquered it the next day. Although Percival had ordered General Heath two days earlier to "hold on," his Indian army fled along the road, leaving behind field guns, heavy machine guns, and 500 trucks and armoured vehicles. The cost of the Japanese victory was the death of just 117 soldiers, while Yamada had estimated at least 1,000 dead. Now that the road to the south was opened, they quickly occupied Alor Setar airport. This meant that Japanese planes could be dispatched from what they called "Churchill Airfield", loaded with British fuel, and dropped British bombs on British positions. …,

Heath sought to alter the disposition of his troops so that he could hold the road as the Japanese advanced south, an effort undermined by constant air raids. On 15 December, the Japanese offensive forced the British garrison on Penang on the west coast of Malaya to retreat. Defeat spread like a plague among the Malayan troops. Again and again, British officers tried to get the Indian army to hold the road. But their positions were mercilessly bombarded by the enemy, and then the Japanese penetrated into the British from the flanks and rear into the forest. Heath could not shake off his fear of retreating in stride, and he embarked on a 400-mile train journey to the Singapore Command, asking for a 100-mile retreat to Johor. Percival was initially adamantly opposed. At a strategic planning meeting with representatives of the United States, the Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand, they decided that if naval and air reinforcements could reach Singapore, the Japanese would be held back for at least another month. Heath repeatedly warned that his forces were in danger of being cut off by the Japanese advancing inland from Kota Bharu. Percival got the shrewd and capable Australian commander Gordon? With the support of Major General Bennett, Bennett wanted to attack from Mersing, where his troops were stationed to block the Japanese advance to the east coast. But Heath mercilessly "laughed at the idea," and Percival had no choice but to stop insisting on his opinion.

On 17 December, Heath again rushed north to oversee the retreat, and the British army withdrew from Penang in panic, causing the British to lose face. The British abandoned the Malays and Chinese for the Japanese to slaughter, and as a result, they lost the trust of the local people. The retreat soon became chaotic, and the field commander had to rely on the commercial telephone system, but the phone kept getting jammed, and the telephone operator told the angry brigade commanders that the three-minute speaking time was up. The sad tone of the heavily censored news in The Straits Times, the news of Singapore's increasingly frequent bombing, eroded the colonial government's earlier excessive self-confidence. In bars and clubs, the sale of liquor has increased dramatically, and trenches have suddenly been dug on the once sacrosanct cricket pitch, and no one has protested.

As Churchill gazed in astonishment at the map room of the battleship Duke of York, showing the position of the Japanese advance in Malaya, he became increasingly concerned about the safety of Britain in "Gibraltar in the Far East." Churchill apparently did not realise that the fortress of Singapore would not be able to hold if Johor was lost, so he left a memorandum to the Chiefs of Staff on 15 December: "Please note that the last force used to defend the island of Singapore must not be fought in the Malay Peninsula or cut off." Nothing is more important than this fortress. "The sea was rough and the gloomy news came from Malaya, and the British Prime Minister's mood became extremely low." The voyage seems to be very long", he gave Anthony? Aiden complained when he sent the telegram. By this time, Aiden had arrived in Peking, and he found himself apprehensive when he spoke of China's involvement in the Far East war with the Allies. "The Soviet Union is concentrating a large number of troops on the border, and China will fight the Soviet Union alone in the future," Wu Peifu directly expressed his concern to Aiden: "If a full-scale war breaks out with Japan at this time, China is likely to fall into the dangerous situation of fighting on two fronts, and China's military preparations are still very insufficient, and it is difficult to fight two strong enemies at the same time." Aiden repeatedly told Wu Peifu that "China, with its powerful allies such as the British Empire, the Dutch East Indies, and the United States of America, will be able to defeat the Soviet Union and Japan." But it doesn't seem to dispel Wu Peifu's worries.

The proposal to declare war on Japan was delayed due to the interference of "pan-Asianists" in the Chinese Congress, but Wu Peifu told Aiden that he would do everything possible to support the Pacific allies who were currently in trouble. Although he had not been able to achieve his original goal, Aiden was satisfied that he had reached a consensus on a joint war against Japan and the top of the Chinese government. Wu Peifu has promised to hand over to the Allies as soon as possible the 500 P1M "Skylark" fighters that the Chinese army is now equipped with. …,

For a variety of reasons, this large coalition against the Axis powers still lacked military coordination. By 16 December, the British were still unable to assemble reinforcements to prevent the Japanese from landing in Sarawak on the north bank of Borneo, and only "a battalion that could be spelled" of the Punjab infantry put up two weeks of guerrilla resistance and destroyed the oil well facilities. Dutch Navy submarines sank two Japanese troop carriers and damaged one destroyer, but their efforts were no more successful than those of the U.S. Asian Fleet in preventing the Japanese from capturing southeastern Luzon. The only ship to hit its target, the USS Sailfish, which sank a troop carrier near Guam, and other warships of the U.S. Asian fleet, including the old aircraft carrier USS Langley, retreated south to the safer Java Sea. The flagship cruiser "Houston" was withdrawn to Balikpapan on the east coast of Borneo, and Hart said in a frustrating memo to MacArthur that he had withdrawn most of his personnel and the remaining naval seaplanes because of "the victory of the Japanese Air Force over Luzon." The apparent desertion of the U.S. Navy created a deep disagreement between the Admirals and MacArthur in the future, which MacArthur specifically referred to in his report to Washington. Despite this, however, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff endorsed Hart's action, agreeing that the 65 Navy fighters currently remaining in the Philippines would not be able to prevent a large-scale invasion.

Despite MacArthur's repeated requests for reinforcements, Marshall believed that reinforcements could not pass through the Japanese naval blockade, so he ordered the convoy that was carrying troops and planes across the Pacific to Manila to change course and sail to Australia. MacArthur protested, stressing the "strategic importance" of the Philippines and calling on democracies to concentrate all their efforts and send reinforcements to their destinations. However, by 12 December, he had to admit that "the enemy's air force had an overwhelming advantage" and had to allow General Britton to withdraw the remaining "B-17" bombers and most of the surviving fighters to the port of Darwin on the northern coast of Australia.

Marshall and Secretary of the Army Stimson have not yet fully acknowledged that they must give up the Philippine Islands. This is the head of the army to Dwight? The first question posed by Eisenhower. A week after Pearl Harbor, Eisenhower assumed the extremely important position of director of the War Planning Commission, a vital position in the U.S. military, and realized that Marshall wanted him to agree with the idea that "we cannot give up the Philippines." Although he had been MacArthur's deputy in Manila for three years and had a personal relationship with MacArthur, he had a sober estimate that it would take several months for reinforcements to arrive in the Philippines. He warned: "If the enemy attacks in a big way, then with a small amount of assistance, it may not be able to hold out for several months." ”

"Do your best to save them," Marshall ordered anyway, knowing that the Navy was under great pressure to rescue Wake Island and defend Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States, and the chances of holding the Philippines were extremely slim. In Manila, MacArthur reproached Admiral Hart for not making more efforts, but he could not blame him for not getting the planes he desperately needed. When the crate containing the parts of the aircraft arrived in Brisbane, the crate was opened to reveal that the plane's engine lacked the essential solenoids, an negligent mistake made by the clerk of the American shipping company, which caused Stimson to be furious. Fortunately, things quickly took a turn for the better, and a Chinese fleet from Saigon soon arrived in the Philippines and handed over the first batch of 150 P1M "Skylark" fighters to the US military, of which 50 were for the British army