Week of Disaster

Each day opened with fresh withdrawal, closed with fresh defeat. In the five weeks since war's outbreak, the Japanese had driven 200 miles south. Last week was the worst. It opened with the British hanging on below the tin center, Ipoh. It closed with the British 100 miles south in grim retreat below the Federated Malay States' capital and rubber center, Kuala Lumpur.

At that point nearly all of Malaya's tin and rubber was gone; now only the naval base was left and its site. Singapore, was already within such close reach of the Japanese Air Force that the base could no longer be called importantly naval.

Victorious As Ever. Pacing the enemy south was the Ever-Victorious Fifth. Every Japanese patriot long since learned about the Ever-Victorious Fifth; now the Allies were learning the hard way. Battle laurels of Japan's crack Fifth Division go back to the Russo-Japanese War. Once mummy-faced Lieut. General Seishiro Itagaki himself commanded it. It had smacked the Chinese at the battle of Nankow Pass in 1937, sacked Taiyiian, fought at Suechow. It had spearheaded the spectacular Japanese drive on Nanning in 1939.

If the Fifth were to inscribe Singapore on its roll of battle honors, the entire strategy of the United Nations would require revision. Control of Singapore would give the Japanese easy access to the Indian Ocean. Both Britain's Indian Empire and her Middle Eastern Front (supplied through the Indian Ocean and Red Sea) would be menaced.

The British Command knew just one thing could make the difference between success or failure. That was aid promised from the U.S. and Britain, which presumably was well on the way.

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