Battle of Sarimbun Beach

The Battle of Sarimbun Beach was the first stage of the Japanese assault on Singapore in February 1942 during World War II. Sarimbun Beach, in the northwestern corner of mainland Singapore, was the area in which Japanese troops, under the direction of Lieutenant-General Tomoyuki Yamashita, first attacked Allied forces (predominantly British) in Singapore. The commander of all Allied forces in Singapore, Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival, did not expect the Japanese to make their main attack on the island from the northwest and subsequently failed to reinforce the 22nd Australian Brigade, which took the brunt of the Japanese assault. The main Japanese objective to be attained following their landing at Sarimbun Beach was the capture of Tengah Airfield. Percival gave Major-General Gordon Bennett's two brigades, from the 8th Australian Division, responsibility for the north-western sector of the island. The terrain was primarily mangrove swamp and tropical forest, broken up by rivers and creeks. The 22nd Australian Infantry Brigade (Brigadier Harold Taylor) and most of the Australian 2/4th Australian Machine Gun Battalion, was assigned a sector wide along Sarimbun Beach with the Jind Infantry Battalion of the Indian States Forces, which was guarding Tengah and a company of Dalforce, a guerilla militia recruited from Singaporean Chinese. The 27th Australian Infantry Brigade was assigned an adjoining wide area to the north, adjoining the causeway. The 2/4th Australian Machine Gun Battalion was distributed among the infantry units. At 10:30 p.m. on 8 February, Australian machine-gunners opened fire on vessels carrying the first wave of 4,000 Japanese troops from the IJA's 5th and 18th Divisions towards Singapore Island. The Japanese wasted no time in assaulting Sarimbun Beach, which was held by the 22nd Australian Brigade. Fierce fighting raged throughout the night in the area but the increasing Japanese strength in numbers – as well as their superiority in artillery, tanks, planes and military intelligence – eventually began to take their toll on the ill-reinforced defenders.