Read The Whale Has Wings Vol 3 - Holding the Barrier for Free Online Page A

to buy time for the British to stiffen their defences, particularly around Jitra which was seen as the key to the northwest part of Burma. In the east, Blamey was moving up elements of the 9th Australian division to reinforce the line between the 7th Australian in the west, and the 11th Indian Division (which was mainly spread down the eastern coast in case of landings). Reports had already reported the presence of Japanese tanks, so 2nd Armoured Brigade was used to reinforce the defence lines. It was known from exercises that the large-scale armoured manoeuvres of the desert would not work nearly so well in the jungle. The Brigade had been split - half remaining as a heavy armour force in case an opportunity for a counterattack emerged, the other 50-odd tanks used to stiffen the troops. While this was seen as somewhat of a return to outdated 'infantry-tank' tactics, in the jungle if the tanks were not close and ideally visible to the infantry they were of far less use. For their part, the tank crews were eager to see how good the Japanese tanks were - reports had indicated that they were on a level with the early Italian armour, which left the Brigade with few worries.
     
    Park and his commanders (and a selected few senior pilots with earlier combat experience) were analyzing the initial performance against the Japanese. In general, they weren't too displeased, but there were a number of issues giving Park concern. The main one was the performance of the Japanese fighters, which was far better than had been anticipated. Preliminary reports from some of the squadrons indicated that the two most dangerous planes, the Oscar and Zero, were extremely manoeuvrable, even more so than the Italian planes some of them had experience fighting in the Mediterranean. If that was the case, then his pilots needed to avoid dogfighting and adopt other tactics. At least one senior pilot had noted that so-called boom and zoom worked well, and that allowed them to use their own advantages, tougher planes and a much heavier armament. There wasn't really sufficient data yet to decide on the best tactics, but it was pointed out by a couple of the squadron commanders that the pilots who got into dogfights tended to not have come back, while those who avoided them (or escaped out of them) had got back. Instructions to try these new tactics and to avoid a dogfight if at all possible would go out to the squadrons that evening, and they would be reviewed in some days to see if they worked. The experience of Park and some of his senior officers in such 'on the fly' evaluations and alterations during the Battle of Britain would be invaluable here.
     
    Consideration was also given to the possibilities of supporting the Army, but in view of the heavy aircraft losses so far, Park had to reluctantly inform Blamey and Alexander that he did not think this feasible until he received reinforcements. At the moment, his main aim was to try and stop the Japanese getting command of the air. The good news was that they had recovered quite a few pilots, and that if they could get more aircraft they should have the pilots for them.
     
    Late in the morning, the squadron from the Eastern Fleet under Admiral Somerville rendezvoused with Force Z west of Singapore. The fleet had added two more KGV-class battleships (Prince of Wales and Anson), the French battleship Richelieu, the two fleet carriers Implacable and Illustrious, plus four cruisers and another eight destroyers. It was Somerville's intention to be off the coast of Sarawak in two days. The fleet would be covered for the first day by Goshawks operating out of Singapore, as well as by its own fighters. Somerville had hoped to leapfrog some Goshawks forward to give extra fighter cover, but lack of suitable airfields had made this impractical.
     
    In the jungle of northern Malaya, the Japanese had started to push south towards the airfield at Kota Bharu. This was the part of the line where it hadn't been possible