Battle of Muar

Battle of Muar
Part of the Malayan Campaign of the Pacific War
Australian 2 pounder gun of 13th Battery, 2/4th Anti-Tank Regiment, firing on Japanese Type 95 Ha-Go light tanks of the 14th Tank Regiment on the Muar-Parit Sulong road on 18 January 1942.[1] Sergeant Charles Parsons and his crew were credited with destroying six of the nine tanks in this engagement.[2]
Date 14–22 January 1942 Location Muar, Malaya Result Japanese victory Parit Sulong massacre
Belligerents
Australia  United Kingdom  British India	Japan
Commanders and leaders
Gordon Bennett Herbert Duncan † Charles Anderson Frederick Galleghan	Takuma Nishimura Masakazu Ogaki Shiegeo Gotanda †
Units involved
Westforce: 8th Division 9th Infantry Division 45th Infantry Brigade 53rd Infantry Brigade	Twenty-Fifth Army: Imperial Guards 5th Division 3rd Air Division
Strength
4,000 infantry 60 aircraft	8,000 infantry 400 aircraft
Casualties and losses
3,100 killed and wounded(including 145 prisoners of war)[info 1]	700+ killed and 800+ wounded Total casualties: 1500+ killed and wounded 15+ tanks destroyed[Note 1]
^ See Parit Sulong massacre

The Battle of Muar was the last major battle of the Malayan Campaign during the Second World War. 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 240 kilometres (150 mi) south into the State of Johore to rest and regroup, while the 8th Australian Division would attempt to stop the Japanese advance.^[4]

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 kilometres north of the town of Gemas. Members of the Australian 8th Division killed an estimated 600 personnel from the Japanese 5th division, in the ambush at the bridge itself, whilst Australian anti-tank guns destroyed several Japanese tanks in the battle north of Gemas. The battle saw the heaviest Japanese losses of any battle the Japanese had fought in the Malayan campaign and saw the death of one of their commanders Shiegeo Gotanda who was killed by Australian fire while directing his troops, temporarily shattering the morale of many Japanese soldiers.

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.^[5] This was the first engagement between units of the British 18th Division and Japanese forces in Malaya.

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