December 17th, 1941
Kedah Front - The battle rage all day in Jitra and on the Kedah coast.
In the north, the front seems more or less stabilized. The Japanese direct attack on Jitra is repulsed with heavy losses by a combination of effective infantry action, accurate artillery fire and timely intervention of tanks.
On the Kedah coast, the situation is less favorable. If the bridgehead near Jitra is reduced and is no longer a threat, the one near Alor-Setar seems much more dangerous.
With the support of D3A1 dive bombers, the Japanese troops repel the counter-attacks and continue to threaten the main road. The night before, the small British squadron searched for Japanese ships without result, and HMS Danae shelled the troops landed near Alor-Setar before withdrawing to the south. At dawn, a new convoy of coasters enters the Straits of Malacca, loaded with Japanese reinforcements. The Dutch aircraft based in Medan and Pakan Baru attempt to attack it in the morning, but are intercepted by 15 A6M2s. They lose four Martin WH-3 bombers and seven Brewster Buffalo for three Japanese fighters.
Lieutenant-General Percival (commander of the Malayan troops), who arrived at Alor-Setar during the night of the 16th to the 17th to assess the situation, advises Air Marshal Brooke-Popham that the troops holding on to Jitra could be in great danger if the Japanese were to cut the main road. Percival pleads for a maximum air effort in supporting the attack of the Commonwealth troops. Allied aircraft will do their best...
"The first battle of the French, the day after their arrival, was a 'massive' attack carried out at 13:30 against the Alor-Setar bridgehead, by 12 Glenn of the GB IV/62 and 15 Blenheim IV (all that remains of Sqn 34, 60 and 62 of the RAF), escorted by 22 Hurricanes, 16 of the GC IV/40 and 6 from the RAF. However, both the Navy and the Japanese Army air forces maintained a permanent fighter cover over the region (without neglecting to attack the Kuala Lumpur and Sebang airfields) and many Japanese fighters were waiting for the attackers: Ki-27 Nate and Ki-43 Oscar of the Army, and especially A6M2 "Zero" of the Navy.
A fierce air battle started, while the allied planes tried to break through the Japanese fighters' ranks, which were attacking them from all sides. Bravely, the French and the British go to get massacred. Later on, one of the French Glenn pilots will tell with bitterly: "I felt like a French knight at Azincourt. I even thought it was nice of the British to be with us this time." Four Glenn, seven Blenheims and eight Hurricanes were shot down, compared to six Ki-27s, five Ki-43s and three A6M2s. All this for a moderately effective bombardment. At dusk, a new British counter-attack failed to dislodge the Japanese infantry." (Pierre Clostermann, op. cit.).
During the night, Admiral Tom Phillips orders to reinforce the naval interdiction of the Straits of Malacca and adds the old heavy cruisers HMS Frobisher and HMS Hawkins to the Despatch-Danae group and destroyers. The two ships join the "Malacca Strait Squadron" as it retreats southward after the previous night's operation. At 11:20, learning of the failure of the attack of the Dutch planes carried out in the morning against the convoy of Japanese reinforcements, Rear Admiral Crace, now in command of the "Malacca Strait Squadron", orders his ships, which are then south of Penang, to head north again.
But they are soon spotted by Japanese aircraft (see Y Service report and Admiralty report).
At 14:15, a first attack by IJN planes is easily repelled by the anti-aircraft fire from the eight ships, and one of the destroyers even manages to shoot down a bomber. These attackers are 12 B5N1s bombing in horizontal flight: they had been sent to bomb Penang and were diverted from their original objective to attack the squadron when it was detected by a C5M2 reconnaissance. But despite a call from Phillips himself, belatedly informed of his subordinate's initiative, to get the Dutch Buffalo from Medan to provide fighter cover, the Japanese air superiority remains total.
At 1650 hours, as the squadron is heading towards the bridgehead of Alor-Setar, it is attacked by 17 D3A1. Despite frantic zigzags and the emission of a smoke curtain by the destroyers, the dive bombers manage to hit five of the eight ships and sink four of them! The Frobisher is hit by two 250 kg bombs, one at the level of the forward stack, the other on the main deck, at the height of the 7.5-inch Y turret, igniting a violent fire. A third one explodes just beside the hull, at the level of the aft engine room, on the port side, and opens a large waterway. Impossible to steer, pushed by the swell towards the enemy coast, the cruiser has to be abandoned and is scuttled at 18:40. The Despatch receives two 250 kg bombs: one penetrates the front engine room and the other causes the explosion of the 6-inch aft ammunition bay. This explosion condemns the ship, which sinks by the stern at 17:05. The Danae receives a 250 kg bomb just in front of the bridge. Its explosion kills most of the officers present and ignites a fire that destroys the two forward 6-inch gun ports and threatens their ammunition bunker, which has to be drowned.
A few minutes later, the ship is hit again, this time by 60 kg bombs, at the level of the rear chimney. In flames, but its engines still running, directed from the rear position by a young officer, the cruiser refuses to sink! The Cattistock, a Hunt class destroyer, is hit in the middle by a 250 kg bomb, which devastates the engine room and brings it to a halt. The Garth tries to tow her, but without success, and has to be scuttled at 17:50. The Holderness, of the same class, receives a bomb on the stern; this bomb causes the explosion of the 4-inch ammunition and depth charges and the and the destroyer, with its stern dislocated, sinks in twenty minutes.
At 18:05, a new Japanese formation is reported. This time, there are five D3A1 Val and nine B5N1 Kate. "While the Japanese were preparing for the attack, they were overtaken by four Hurricane IIs from GC IV/40. The Val's immediately discarded their bombs and threw themselves between the fighters and the Kate. Surprised, the French shot down two of the bombers in a dive but lost one of their own under the blows of a particularly lucky Val, before being able to attack the torpedo bombers, destroying three of them and knocking out a fourth.
But the last five Kate's persisted and executed a coordinated attack on the Hawkins.
The old cruiser received a torpedo in its boiler room, which left it out of action, unable to pump out the water that was gradually flooding her. At 20:50, the ship had to be abandoned and sank shortly afterwards. The last two destroyers, framing the severely hit Danae, were able to withdraw under cover of darkness. Without the desperate operation of the beginning of the afternoon the Hurricanes could have been eight, and would certainly have annihilated the fourteen bombers, saving the Hawkins... Preserved to cover the British squadron, the whole Group could have even broken the 16:50 attack. But the weak forces of the GC IV/40 - not enough, too late... - had been wasted on a charge that might have been glorious but was surely useless." (Pierre Clostermann, op. cit.).
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The air battle - In front of the photographs taken by the Spitfire PR and showing large concentrations of Japanese troops south of Singora, 18 Wellingtons from Sqn 40 and 104, based at Moulmein, attack the Hat Yai railroad junction. Launched in daylight, this raid is supposed to coincide with the attack of the light bombers against the Alor-Setar bridgehead. Unfortunately, bad weather prevents the Wellingtons from taking off in time. They arrive over their objective only around 17:30 and are greeted by 12 A6M2 Zero fighters, whose cannons do much more damage than the machine guns of the fighters of the Army. Five bombers are destroyed and seven others seriously damaged, three of them having to crash-land before reaching Moulmein. In exchange, however, the Wellingtons' machine gunners obtain the destruction of four fighters. As for the bombing, its effects are obviously reduced.
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Singapore, 06:45 - The slow tug Valeureux (speed: 8.5 knots!) is the last of the French ships evacuated from Cam Ranh to reach the great British port.
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