JAPANESE TACTICS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 March 1942, Page 4

JAPANESE TACTICS

OPERATIONS IN MALAYA. LACK OF MILITARY DRESS. The light personal equipment of the Japanese soldiers in Malaya is emphasised in a statement in the official journal of the Australian Army Education Service. Their dress often is non-military, commanders wearing a single sash at night and the non-com-missioned officers a white aimband. Troops have been captured wearing no unit insignia but a white strip bearing their name and number. Usually an advance is preceded by a forward screen, whose duty is to locate the position of defending troops. Frequently these forward parties are dressed in ordinary shirts, shorts, and running shoes. This helps them to mix with Asiatic refugees and assist the infiltration and flanking tactics that have been so successful. Wherever the forward screen reaches a defending position word is quickly passed back, and strong forces deploy in the rear and begin an outflanking move. When the forward screens meet counter-attacking forces they lie hidden until they can open fire on the rear of the attacking force that has passed through them. Just as German dive-bombers were provided with screaming devices to unnerve land troops and civilians, so the Japanese employ various means of producing noises. They use mortar bombs and bullets which make very loud explosions, the idea apparently being to persuade the defenders that they are being heavily bombarded. In some cases this ruse succeeded in causing premature withdrawals.

One observer has reported that junior officers and non-commissioned officers slavishly follow the instructions in their field service manuals, and have even been seen to consult it in battle when confronted with an unexpected situation. The old dictum that a soldier does not think, but just does as he is told is still maintained by the Japanese army. Here lies the strength and the weakness of the system.