On this day, 83 years ago, January 9, 1942 (November 23, 1941 in the lunar calendar), the Battle of Malaya in the Pacific during World War II: The Japanese army captured Kuala Lumpur. Battle of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. December 8, 1941-February 15, 1942, during the Second World War, the Japanese Army and Army carried out the battle to capture the Malay Peninsula. When the Japanese imperialists formulated the 1941-1942 plan to invade Southeast Asia, they believed that it was of great significance to seize the strategic point of the Pacific Defense Line and rich British Malaya. The Japanese command's attempt was to send heavy troops to land, seize air supremacy, annihilate the British fleet, and rapidly develop attacks along the coast to capture the Malay Peninsula and the British main naval base in Southeast Asia, Singapore, and establish a forward base for the subsequent attack on the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia). To achieve this attempt, the Japanese army used the 25th Corps, the 3rd Air Force and the Malayan Campaign Joint Formation. The troops participating in the war were: 70,000 troops of the Army (the commander was Lieutenant General Fengwen Yamashita), 9 cruisers, 16 destroyers, 16 submarines, 3 seaplane carriers, many transportation and auxiliary ships and about 600 combat aircraft. The Japanese army faced three British divisions and some independent troops (100,000 troops) commanded by Lieutenant General Percival, supported by the Eastern Fleet (1 battleship, 1 battle-cruiser, 3 cruisers, 9 destroyers) and approximately 250 Coast Aviation aircraft. In addition, the British High Command sent 45,000 additional reinforcements and 141 aircraft to Singapore during the battle. On December 4, 1941, the 25th Army of the Japanese Army under the command of General Fumigi Yamashita set out from Sanya Port on Hainan Island, China, and sailed towards the Malay Peninsula under the cover of the Southern Detachment Fleet (46 ships) and the 3rd Army Flying Group (450 aircraft). On the night of December 7, 1941, the Japanese advance troops began to land in Kota Bharu in Malaya and Songkhla in Thailand. They quickly occupied the local airport and the Isthmus of Kara, and then divided their troops south on three routes. The British troops only resisted slightly in Kota Bharu. The British army lost the first battle and retreated one after another, trying to use passes and rivers to delay the Japanese attack in order to buy time to strengthen the southern defense. The 22nd Aviation Team of the Japanese Navy and the 3rd Flying Group of the Army bombed British bases and airports such as Singapore and Kuantan, severely damaging the British Air Force. The picture shows the British battlecruiser HMS Counterattack. On the evening of December 8, in order to fight against the landing Japanese army, the flagship battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battle-cruiser HMS Restrike sailed from Singapore to sea under the escort of four destroyers. The British ship was sailing without air cover and was discovered by Japanese reconnaissance planes and submarines. On the afternoon of December 10, it was sunk by Japanese aviation in the sea southeast of Kuantan. In this way, two days and nights after the U.S. fleet was attacked at Pearl Harbor (see Battle of Pearl Harbor), the core ships of the British Eastern Fleet were also annihilated. As a result, the Japanese army gained the right to control the sea and air, ensuring the smooth completion of the sea transportation task. The 25th Army simultaneously attacked in both directions on the east and west banks of the Malay Peninsula, and quickly moved south through the tropical jungle. The British tried to stop the Japanese attack in Johor, but failed. The Japanese army, with the cooperation of the navy, occupied Kuantan on December 31 and captured Kuala Lumpur on January 11 of the following year. After the Japanese army entered the open land of Johor, it accelerated its attack and the British army was quickly defeated. On January 31, the Japanese army captured Johor Baru, the southern tip of British Malaya, and the British and Malaysian troops withdrew to Singapore. At that time, the Singapore garrison had a large amount of weapons, ammunition and food, but their morale was low. On the night of February 8, the Japanese army forcibly crossed the Johor Strait in two ways and landed on Singapore Island. It occupied Tinga Airport on the evening of the 9th, and fought fiercely with the British army in the Bukit Timah Heights on the 10th. Both sides suffered heavy casualties, and Lieutenant General Moutiangulian, commander of the Japanese 18th Division, was injured. On the 12th, the Japanese army advanced into the suburbs of Singapore and occupied the naval base along the coast of Singapore on the 14th. On the 15th, the entire fortress was captured. Percival led more than 80,000 British troops stationed in Malaya to surrender. Judging from this battle, the Japanese army killed and captured 140,000 British troops at the cost of only about 10,000 casualties. It can be said that the number of British troops was defeated by the number. The Japanese army defeated the most powerful British group in the Far East and captured important areas in Southeast Asia. The defeat of the British army in Malaya and the surrender of Singapore seriously affected the entire process of Allied defense operations in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. Thailand was occupied, the Malay Peninsula was lost, and the Allied strategic defense line from India to Australia was cut in two. This created favorable conditions for the Japanese army to continue to develop its offensive and move north to Myanmar and south to Sumatra and Java. The Japanese Battle of Malaya was characterized by the sudden landing of heavy troops, destroying most of the British aircraft parked at the airport to gain air supremacy, and the army's rapid development of attacks along the coast.