Battle of Muar The Battle of Muar was the last major battle of the Malayan campaign . It took place from 14 – 22 January 1942 around Gemensah Bridge and on the Muar River . After the British defeat at Slim River , General Archibald Wavell , commander of ABDA , decided that Lieutenant General Lewis Heath ' s III Indian Corps should withdraw 150 miles south into the State of Johore to rest and regroup , whilst the 8th Australian Division would attempt to stop the Japanese advance . Allied soldiers , under the command of Major General Gordon Bennett , inflicted severe losses on Japanese forces at the Gemensah Bridge ambush and in a second battle a few miles north of the town of Gemas . Members of the Australian 8th Division killed an estimated 700 personnel from the Japanese Imperial Guards Division , in the ambush at the bridge itself , whilst Australian anti - tank guns destroyed several Japanese tanks in the battle north of Gemas . Although the ambush was successful for the Allies , the defence of Muar and Bakri on the west coast was a complete failure which resulted in the near - annihilation of the 45th Indian Infantry Brigade and heavy casualties for its two attached Australian infantry battalions . This was the first engagement between units of the British 18th Division and Japanese forces in Malaya . Prelude . The ambush was ordered by the head of Malaya Command , Lieutenant General Arthur Percival ' s own instructions ; he strongly felt that ambush was the way to fight the Japanese . A multinational force under Bennett , codenamed Westforce , was assigned to defend the Muar area . Westforce took up positions , covering the front from the mountains to the shore of the Malacca Straits . There were two main areas , and both of these were sub - divided into sectors , which were themselves widely separated and linked with each other chiefly by rather tenuous signal communications . Gemas positions . The first area was around the central trunk road and the railway beyond Segamat . The three subordinate sectors were : Gemensah Bridge positions . B company of the 2 / 30th Australian Battalion , under Captain Desmond J . Duffy , entrenched and concealed themselves on one side of the Gemensah Bridge , spanning a stream , as part of the ambush . The bridge itself had been mined with explosives , and a battery of field artillery sited on higher ground behind the infantry whence it could command the Japanese approach to the bridge . The 2 / 30th ( New South Wales ) A . I . F . Battalion was under Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Galleghan , nicknamed " Black Jack " . For the Japanese side , the Mukaide Force ( commanded by Colonel Mukaida ) was created to take the lead from the tired Japanese 5th Division and was approaching Gemas and the Australian ambush at Gemensah Bridge . Mukaide Force consisted initially of the 1st Tank Regiment with an infantry battalion and artillery for support under the command of the 9th Brigade . It was reinforced by the 11th Infantry Regiment on 15 January . Colonel Mukaida was the commander of the 1st Tank Regiment , which at the beginning of the Malayan Campaign , consisted of 31 Type 97 Chi - Ha and 17 Type 95 Ha - Go tanks . Muar positions . The second area was that which covered the West Coast and the roads which run along it to the Johore Strait . This had two sectors , actually more in line with one another than those of the first area , but even less effectively in touch . The defence of this area was assigned to the 45th Indian Brigade , reinforced by a single battery of field artillery . It included the seaport of Muar , and stretched some 30 miles up into the jungle towards Segamat , along the winding course of the Muar River , with its deep - wooded , creeper - covered banks . Under orders from General Bennett , two of the battalions were disposed along the river line , which they thus divided between them , while the third went into active reserve near the coast . The Imperial Guards Division was moving down the west coast of Malaya , with a battalion sized force under the command of Col Masakazu Ogaki approaching the Muar river area from the sea , while the 4th and 5th Guards Regiments approached Muar from the north under General Nishimura . The newly arrived 53rd Infantry Brigade of the British 18th Division formed part of Westforce . The brigade included the 2nd Cambridgeshire Regiment , 5th Norfolk and 6th Norfolk Battalions . Although Percival gave the order to deploy them , they were unfit for immediate employment , having been at sea for 11 weeks . Battle . Gemencheh Bridge and Gemas . The ambush occurred at about 1600 hours on 14 January , when Japanese troops from the 5th Division approached , mounted on bicycles , and crossed the bridge unharassed . < ref name = " 2 / 30 Battalion History " > < / ref > Then came the main column , several hundred strong , also cycling , which was followed by tanks and engineer trucks . At this point , the bridge was detonated , sending timber , bicycles and bodies hurtling through the air . B Company , 2 / 30th Australian Battalion spread out along either side of the road , concealed in well protected firing positions , then opened fire and the Japanese column took devastating blows as row upon row of men and equipment were mowed down by machine gun and rifle fire . Most of the Japanese troops tied their rifles to the handlebars of their bicycles making the ambush even more successful for the Australians . Heavy casualties continued to mount for the ambushed column . However , the bicycle infantry who had passed through the ambush area discovered the field telephone cable hidden in a patchy undergrowth which linked back to the gun positions , and promptly cut it . As a result , the Allied artillery received no signal , and were not able to support the ambush party . The Australians nonetheless did receive artillery support , from their counterparts . Most of the Japanese shells rained down on the main column at the bridge , adding to the rising death toll . The ambush party , having done a substantial slaughter , duly fell back in several groups that same evening and by next day most of B Company had rejoined their battalion in a position near Gemas . B Company lost one man killed in action and six men missing in the fighting at the bridge . The six missing men were later learned to have been shot after being captured by the Japanese . < ref name = " History of the 2 / 30th Battalion " > < / ref > The Japanese 9th Brigade war diary puts the casualties of the Mukaide Detachment at seventy dead and fifty - seven wounded but this does not include the other attached units . On the morning of 15 January , Japanese aircraft arrived and began dive - bombing the town of Gemas . Six hours after the ambush the Japanese had repaired the bridge and were moving on their way towards Galleghan ' s main position at the 61 mile peg on the Gemas - Tampin road . The surviving members of Mukaide Force were now reinforced by the Japanese 11th Regiment . The 2 / 30th Battalion were positioned astride the road and railway line with two 2 - Pounder Anti - Tank Guns facing the road . By 1000 hours on 15 January , Japanese infantry clashed with the Allied defence lines , and as the day wore on they were supported by an increasing number of tanks . In a short but violent battle the Australian anti - tank guns , from the 2 / 4th Australian Anti - Tank Regiment , destroyed six of eight Japanese tanks and their supporting infantry inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese infantry following the tanks . After twenty - four hours of fighting Galleghan withdrew his battalion from the area . The 2 / 30th Battalion had inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese with minimal loss to themselves , suffering in all seventeen killed , nine missing and fifty - five wounded . In the two days of fighting , at the bridge and on the Gemas road , the Japanese 5th Division had suffered an estimated 1 , 000 casualties . The withdrawal went unharassed , and for the next day or so quiet settled over the Segamat area . General Bennett , boosted by the initial success , was quoted in the " Singapore Times " as saying that his troops were confident that they would not only halt the Japanese advance , but compel them to be on the defensive . Muar . On the night of 15 January , the Japanese captured a number of barges moored on the southern bank of the Muar river and towed them overstream to flank both the town of Muar and the Indian garrison ' s only reserve battalion . Packed barges and junks were making their way across the river mouth , meeting no resistance except a subsequent brush with an Indian patrol , which retired after a brief exchange of shots . The patrol never alerted headquarters that the Japanese were on the South bank . As day broke , the outflanking force surprised a company of the 7 / 6th Rajputana Rifles , and routed them . The remaining three Indian companies ( two from the 18th Royal Garhwal Rifles and another from the Rajputana Rifles ) on the north bank were cut off and captured soon after , without the main garrison at Muar even realising that an entire Japanese division was on the other side of the river . By noon , they were attacking from upstream both Muar Town and the garrison ' s line of communications with its only reserve battalion , 4 / 9th Jat Regiment , which was located near Bakri , on the main road south from Muar . At Muar itself , a Japanese attempt to land and seize the harbour was repulsed by Australian artillery , firing at packed barges and junks as they tried to make their way across the river mouth . By late afternoon though the Japanese , who had already made another crossing further up river , were in the town of Muar itself . The commanders of the Rajputana Rifles and the Royal Garhwal Rifles were killed along with most of their officers during the fighting around the town , leaving the mostly teenaged sepoy s leaderless . To add to the mounting disasters for 45th Brigade it was at this point in the battle , that an air raid by Japanese aircraft destroyed 45th Brigade Head Quarters , killing all the staff officers and concussing Brigadier Duncan ( one of only two survivors of the raid ) . Due to Brigadier Duncan ' s concussion and the deaths of two of his battalion commanders and most of the HQ staff , command of the 45th Brigade was temporarily handed over to Lt Col Anderson of the 2 / 19th Australian Battalion . By nightfall of 16 January , Muar Town and the harbour had fallen into Japanese hands . The remnants of the 45th Brigade retreated down the coast several miles as far as Parit Jawa . Japanese ambushes were soon deployed to repel any Allied counter - attack , while at the same time they continued their relentless charge towards Bakri , Parit Sulong and Batu Pahat . Siege of Bakri . On 17 January , the surviving units of 45th Indian Brigade , with the Australian 2 / 19th and 2 / 29th Battalions serving as reinforcements , were dispatched to re - capture Muar . They rallied around Bakri and organised a rough perimeter defence of it . The 2 / 29th , led by Lieutenant Colonel John Robertson MC VD , dug in around Bakri - Muar Road with Anti - Tank , Anti - Air and Mortar emplacements . The commander of the 45th Indian Brigade , Brigadier Herbert Duncan , planned a three pronged advance from Bakri to Muar ; up the main road between the towns , from the jungle island , and along the coast road . The attack went wrong before it could be launched . The 45th brigade ran into one of the Japanese ambushes , and the counter - offensive was cancelled . The next day at 0645 , General Nishimura ordered his own three - pronged attack on Bakri . It was spearheaded by nine Type 95 tanks under Captain Shiegeo Gotanda . However , Captain Gotanda , inspired by the Japanese tank ' s success at Slim River , advanced without infantry against the 2 / 29th Battalion , and was wiped out . In a repeat performance of the Australian gunners at Gemas , Lieutenant Bill McClure ' s two anti - tank guns ( also from the 2 / 4th Australian Anti - Tank Regiment ) destroyed all nine of Gotanda ' s tanks . Sergeant Clarrie Thornton , commanding the first gun received a Mention in Dispatches , and Charley Parsons , commanding the second gun was awarded the DCM . Thornton ' s gun fired over seventy rounds during the engagement . Lieutenant Colonel John Robertson , commander of the 2 / 29th Battalion , was killed soon after the commencement of this engagement , shot while retreating a Japanese roadblock . Major Olliff detailed Sergeant Mick Gibbins and a party of three men to bury the battalion commander . Deprived of tank support , the Japanese infantry were unable to break through , an engagement Nishimura later described as " severe and sanguinary " . By dawn on the 19th the Japanese were in action on the main road , nearly surrounding the 45th Brigade . The 6th Norfolk Battalion of the 53rd British Brigade was defending a ridge about 5 miles West of Yong Peng , covering the line of retreat for the 45th Brigade , which was already a practically - encircled area . Early in the afternoon of 19 January , two battalions of the Japanese 4th Guards Regiment attacked and drove them off the ridge . The British retired up through the thick jungle to the summit of the northern ridge . The Norfolks were unable to inform headquarters of their position as they had no wireless . At dawn of 20 January , the 3 / 16th Punjab Regiment , commanded by Lt Col Henry Moorhead ( who took part in Operation Krohcol ) , were ordered to recapture the ridge . By the time they reached it , they came under friendly fire from the Norfolks , who had mistaken them for the Japanese , causing several casualties . After losses on both sides , it was later sorted out . But before a proper defence could be organised , the Japanese attacked , killing Moorhead and driving both the Norfolks and Indian troops off the hill . The 45th Brigade and the two Australian battalions at Bakri were now in danger of being cut off . That same day , Brigadier Duncan , who had recovered from his concussion and was commanding the rear guard , was killed when he led a successful bayonet charge to recover lost vehicles . With Duncan and Robertson dead , Lt Col Charles Anderson assumed full command of the 45th Brigade and all other units around Bakri . Early in the morning of 20 January , Anderson was ordered to pull out from Bakri and attempt to break through to Yong Peng . Anderson decided to delay until the 4 / 9th Jat Regiment could reach the column . During this delay most of the 2 / 29th Battalion were cut off from Anderson ' s position . Only an estimated 200 men from 2 / 29th Battalion and 1 , 000 Indian troops from the 45th Brigade were able to join up with Anderson ' s column . Other survivors from the 2 / 29th would make it back in small fugitive parties . Within a mile or so of Bakri , Anderson ' s column was held up by a Japanese roadblock . Several efforts to break through failed , until a bayonet charge led by Anderson himself was successful . More roadblocks lay ahead for the brigade . By sunset , after a struggle which had raged on throughout all the hours of daylight , the column had covered a distance of three miles . Anderson warned that there was to be no rest that night , and ordered the march to go on . The brigade had now reached the edge of some more open country and passage was easier , though the column , by now , was laden with wounded . The young and inexperienced 45th Indian Brigade had ceased to exist as a formation . Most of its officers were killed or wounded , including Brigadier Duncan and all three battalion commanders . In the space of a few days Percival had lost an entire Indian brigade and the best part of two of his Australian battalions as well as one brigadier , three Indian Army battalion commanders and an Australian battalion commander . Parit Sulong Bridge . It took Anderson ' s column two days to fight their way fifteen miles to get near the bridge . Scouts from the column reported at 0715 that the bridge at Parit Sulong was in Japanese hands . The guards which were placed there by the 6th Norfolks , cut off from all contact and without rations since the Japanese raiding force drove the battalion from the defile a few miles further on , had left their post and set off along the river bank to Batu Pahat . Anderson found a well fortified Japanese machinegun position at the Parit Sulong Bridge . His brigade made an attempt to dislodge the Japanese from the bridge at dawn on 21 January , but were repulsed by tanks , aircraft and artillery . They were then forced into an area measuring only about a quarter - of - a - mile of roadway . Fighting raged all day , and by 1700 casualties were getting severe . A wireless message was then received during the morning that a relieving force from Yong Peng was on its way . The sound of distant gunfire between Parit Sulong and Yong Peng gave the column hope . The rear of the column was repeatedly assailed by tanks and infantry . During the late afternoon and until after dark , two soldiers successfully disabled the leading tank using grenades . Directing an anti - tank gun , the tank burst into flames , forming a temporary roadblock . This gave the rearward defenders an opportunity to disable the other tanks , using grenades and Boys anti - tank rifle s with grim resolve . With ammunition for the mortars and 25 pounder s nearly exhausted , Anderson sent a message to General Bennett requesting an airstrike at dawn on Japanese forces holding the far end of the bridge , and for food and morphine be airdrop ped on the column . He received a reply , " Look up at sparrowfart " . At dusk , with the dead and wounded piling up , Anderson sent two ambulances filled with critically wounded men to the bridge under a flag of truce , requesting that they be allowed to pass through to the Allied lines beyond . The Japanese refused , and instead demanded that the Indian brigade surrender , offering to care for the wounded . Still hopeful of relief , Anderson refused to consider surrendering . The Japanese then ordered that the ambulances were to remain on the bridge to act as a roadblock , and they would be shot if they attempted to move . After dark , Lieutenant Austin and a driver , both of whom were themselves wounded , slipped the brakes of the ambulances , and let them run quietly backwards down the slope from the bridge . Amid the roar of gunfire , they started the engines and drove back to the brigade . Next morning , two RAF Fairey Albacore s arrived from Singapore and dropped supplies on the 45th Brigade . Escorted by three RAAF Brewster Buffalo es , they then turned their attention on the Japanese holding the far end of the bridge , and bombed them . Soon after , enemy tanks were again active , and made a flank attack supported by troops on the shrinking Allied foothold . Anderson later received another message from Bennett , " Sorry unable help after your heroic effort . Good luck " , stating that there was no hope of relief reaching the column on time , leaving it to his discretion to withdraw . As a last resort , he sent a company to test the resistance at the bridge again that same morning , in the hope that the airstrike had weakened it enough for the column to break through . But the response convinced him there was no chance of success . He finally ordered a retreat at 0900 , but not before destroying all guns , vehicles and equipment . The wounded who could not walk were left to the care of voluntary attendants . Anderson and the remnants of the brigade then dispersed eastward through jungle and swamps to reach Yong Peng , leaving behind an estimated 150 wounded personnel . Eventually , about 500 Australians and 400 Indians survived to reach British lines , out of more than 4 , 000 men from the 45th Brigade and two Australian battalions . Stragglers would keep coming in from the units cut off at Bakri . Parit Sulong Massacre . For the wounded who were left behind , the Japanese , after mistreating them , massacred all except a handful who escaped . A captured Australian ambulance column were not even spared . With kicks , clouts and curses , blows from rifle butts and bayonet jabs , their captors crammed them all into a couple of small rooms in a coolie hutment at Parit Sulong village on the Muar highway . The wounded lay piled upon one another ' s bodies on the floor . They were denied drinking water by the Japanese , who mocked them by bringing bucketfuls of it as far as the doorway - and then pouring it out upon the ground . The prisoners were soon promptly trussed up into small groups with rope or wire , pushed into a roadside scrub at the point of a bayonet , and machine - gunned . Petrol was then flung over the bodies of the shot prisoners , some of whom were still alive , and then set alight to remove any evidence of war crimes committed by the Japanese . One of the victims , Lieutenant Ben Hackney of the 2 / 29th Australian Battalion , survived to witness the horror . After crawling agonizingly away from the area , he came upon two members of his battalion , one of them Sergeant Ron Croft . Both were completely soaked in petrol and were among a few who were not tied when the prisoners were shot . They were joined by an English soldier . However , the man who was with Croft died of his wounds the next day . The remaining three were granted shelter in a Malay house for a while . Hackney , still unable to stand , persuaded the others to leave him while he remain hidden . Croft is presumed dead on 15 April 1942 . Hackney was soon carried off by the Malays and left some distance from the house . He was often refused help by Malays who feared reprisals , but was generally aided by the Chinese . He was caught by a party of Malays , one of them a policeman on 27 February , 36 days after he had begun his attempt to escape . They turned Hackney over to the Japanese at Parit Sulong and was subsequently beaten up . He survived the war and provided information regarding the massacre . He and Private Reginald Wharton are the only two European men who survived the massacre . Altogether , 145 prisoners lost their lives . Many of the Indian prisoners were beheaded . General Takuma Nishimura was believed to have ordered the massacre , despite a Lieutenant Fujita Seizaburo admitting to have carried it out . The sworn evidence of two sepoy survivors ( Lance - Havildar John Benedict and Sapper Periasamy ) were confirmed by the post - war discovery of the remains . The War Crimes Court , in 1950 , sentenced Nishimura to death for it . Retreat . On 23 January in the final act of the battle , the 2nd Loyals , covering the last men of Anderson ' s column to make it into British lines , had two companies positioned as rear guard facing the defile on the road to Yong Peng . At 2 pm , as they were about to withdraw , seven Japanese tanks supported by an estimated two battalions of infantry emerged rapidly from the defile and attempted to dismantle the Loyal ' s road block . In the short battle that followed the 2nd Loyals inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese infantry attempting to dismantle the road block but ultimately the Loyals , without any anti - tank weapons , were driven off by the tanks and out numbered by the Japanese infantry . During the Battle of Muar and as the rear guard the 2nd Loyals suffered an estimated 200 casualties before withdrawing to Singapore . Losses . 45th Brigade ' s losses were devastating , especially in officers , and the brigade was not able to rebuild in the last few weeks of the Malayan campaign . Only 400 Indian soldiers from the 45th Brigade and 500 soldiers from the two Australian battalions escaped with Anderson ' s force . The brigade was soon disbanded , and the remaining troops were transferred to other Indian brigades . The two Australian battalions fared little better . 271 men from the 2 / 19th Battalion made it to British lines , but only 130 from the 2 / 29th Battalion would make it back to British lines before Singapore surrendered . Many men of both battalions were still in the jungle when the campaign ended . According to Peter Graeme Hobbins ; in 22 days of fighting ( including on Singapore itself ) the 2 / 19th Battalion suffered " more dead , missing and wounded than any other Australian Infantry Force unit in the Second World War " , with 335 killed and 97 wounded . 700 Japanese troops were killed in the ambush at Gemas , making it the biggest loss suffered in any single action at the time . Japan ' s losses at Muar were a company of tanks and the equivalent of a battalion of men . Aftermath . Shortage of signal equipment and transport were the cause of the Allies slow response . During the week , the Japanese were able to operate 250 bombers and 150 fighters from airfields in Malaya and Southern Thailand . Operational Allied aircraft available were probably two or three dozen bombers and about as many fighters by this stage of the campaign . Arthur Percival blamed the 45th Indian Brigade , who were handed the most important tasks despite their lack of training and experience prior to the war , for the failure of the defence of Muar . Despite this , the brigade did achieve a vitally important task in nearly a week of night - and - day fighting . While they fought on from Muar Harbour to Parit Sulong Bridge , stalling the Imperial Guards Division , strongly backed by air and tank support , the three brigades of Westforce in the Segamat area were able to withdraw safely down the central trunk road to Labis , and thence towards the key crossroads at Yong Peng . Nevertheless , even though they suffered such heavy casualties , Anderson ' s force had kept the Imperial Guards occupied for four days . Percival recorded in his official record , " The Battle of Muar was one of the epics of the Malayan campaign . Our little force by dogged resistance had held up a division of the Japanese Imperial Guards attacking with all the advantages of air and tank support for nearly a week , and in doing so had saved the Segamat force from encirclement and probable annihilation . The award of the Victoria Cross to Lt Col Anderson was a fitting tribute both to his own prowess and to the valour of his men . " One criticism aimed at Percival was his decision to deploy the 53rd British Infantry Brigade to the front line . The brigade had disembarked at Singapore on 13 January , just three days earlier before being sent to the front , after nearly three months at sea in crowded troopships , travelling from England to the east coast of Africa , where they had no exercise whatsoever . The brigade , part of the 18th Division , was originally assigned to take part in the North African Campaign , but the troopships were redirected to Singapore when the Japanese invaded Malaya . News of the ambush at Gemensah Bridge were well received in Singapore . Despite the defeat at Muar , Bakri and Parit Sulong , many Singaporeans thought the action at Gemensah was the long awaited turning point and that the rout of the Japanese invasion force was not long in coming . A commentator over a Singapore radio , announced flamboyantly that the news gave good reason to believe that the tide of battle was on the turn , " with the AIF as our seawall against the vicious flood " . Lt Col Frederick Galleghan , who commanded the Australians at Gemas , was awarded the Distinguished Service Order on March 15 , 1942 , while a POW at Changi Prison , and Captain Desmond Duff , commanding B Company at the bridge ambush , was awarded the Military Cross . According to Alan Warren in his book " Britain ' s Greatest Defeat " ; Tomoyuki Yamashita described the battle at Muar as the most " savage encounter " of the campaign . Warren states that , " Between 16 and 22 January the Imperial Guards lost a company of tanks and a battalion ' s worth of infantry casualties . . . The significance of the fighting between Bakri and Parit Sulong is that it was one of the few occasions where the Japanese received as good as they gave . "