When the Imperial Japanese war machine advanced into the Pacific in December 1941,
it was nothing new for the Chinese. They had already been fighting the Japanese for four years
and trying to eject them from China for a further six. Chinese people were beyond
DONE with Japanese expansionism, and this included Chinese living overseas.
When the sizeable Chinese diaspora in Singapore found out their age-old enemy was on the way,
they formed a volunteer unit to fight them. This is the story of Dalforce, or Dalley’s
Desperados: the Chinese volunteers who fought tooth-and-nail against the Japanese in Singapore.
Singapore has a long history of Chinese settlement, with 76% of the country’s current
population claiming Chinese ancestry. Some of these ancestors escaped to Singapore following
the repeated Imperial Japanese invasions of China in the 1930s. This meant there was a ready
supply of Japanese-hating Chinese men and women willing to take up arms and defend their homes.
Just as divisions existed in China, divisions existed in the Chinese-Singaporean diaspora.
Namely between nationalists who supported the incumbent Koumindang government, and communists
who supported Mao, the future Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party. Although these factions
occasionally fought against each other back home, they got along well enough in Singapore.
Since early 1940, Lieutenant Colonel John Dalley of the Federated Malay States Police Force had
pestered British officials in Singapore to incorporate a unit of Chinese volunteers
into the British colonial garrison. He knew they would prove to be good fighters, but so did the
high-ups, who worried what might happen if they armed the communists. On Christmas day in 1941,
they finally accepted Dalley’s proposition. Prominent Chinese businessman Tan Kah Kee took
charge of recruiting nationalist-aligned Chinese for his newly-organised
Singapore Chinese Mobilisation Council. But after a glut of communist volunteers appeared,
the colonial office permitted them to join too. They even released a few members of the
Malayan Communist Party who had been imprisoned for terrorism so they could join the force.
This motley unit was put under Dalley’s command and henceforth became known as “Dalforce.”
Between 3,000 and 4,000 Chinese volunteered for service in Dalforce, but only 1,250 were
trained before the Japanese invasion. They were organised into eight companies of about 150 men
and split along political lines. Nationalist companies generally got better equipment:
all wore khaki uniforms and carried modern rifles as well as grenades. Each unit also
had a Bren machine gun and plenty of ammunition. For the communists, it was a different story. They
were to specialise in close assault and were each meant to be given a combat shotgun along
with seven cartridges and a bayonet, though this didn’t always happen. Also, it was BYO uniform.
Right from the outset, Dalforce’s situation was desperate. After the lucky Nationalist units were
armed, there was little left for everyone else. Additionally, few British officers could be spared
to train the volunteers. The situation took a turn for the worse when, on February 5th, Japanese
dive-bombers attacked the supply ship RMS Empress of Asia, setting her ablaze. She carried vital
weapons and equipment destined to arm the Dalforce fighters, but these never made it to Singapore.
The volunteers had to make do with whatever they could scrounge. Frank Brewer, one of the
British training officers, noted “There weren't enough ordinary rifles to be handed out to them.
I know one company had as many as three different types of sporting guns,
this made it very difficult to try and teach [the men] how these things operate
in a very short time." Many of the communist close assault units didn’t even have the shotguns they
were promised and were instead armed with parangs they’d picked up at the market.
Training lasted between three and 14 days. Volunteers were taught to shoot,
take cover, and fight with bayonets. If they could hit the target, they passed the course and
were designated combat-ready. When the media found out about Dalforce’s desperate supply situation,
they furnished them with a new nickname: Dalley’s Desperados.
Of the eight Dalforce companies, only four were combat-ready when the Japanese invaded on February
8th 1942. Lieutenant-General Percival, the overall British commander, believed the Japanese attack
would come from Singapore’s northeast and therefore placed Dalforce, his second-line troops,
in the northwest. Dalforce Company Number Two was stationed in the modern-day district
of Lim Chu Kang. Percival got it wrong, and they faced the brunt of the initial Japanese attack.
Fighting with shotguns, hunting rifles, and bayonets, the communists of Dalforce Company
Number Two threw all their weight into delaying the Japanese advance.
In front of them was General Yamashita’s 15,000-strong Imperial Guards Division. They
had no hope of victory against such a force, but the Chinese volunteers battled on anyway.
After nearly four hours of hard fighting, Dalforce Company Number Two retreated. They had suffered 60
per cent casualties and had only one officer left. They retreated with a neighbouring Australian unit
along Lim Chu Kang Road and swam across the Kranji tributary to take up position on Choa
Chu Kang Road. They didn’t need to worry about their ammo getting wet, as they had none left.
Meanwhile, another Dalforce company was deployed at the Causeway alongside
an Australian unit and an Indian unit. Rather than engage in battle directly,
this company was ordered to act as scouts for the better-equipped Australians and Indians. They were
at the very front of Allied positions and were the first to engage the Imperial Guards Division
as they crossed in rubber boats. Choo Kim Seng, a Dalforce veteran of the battle at the Causeway,
remembered firing on the Japanese with his shotgun as they approached, while his comrades
reported the Japanese movements. Further up the Johor Strait, oil was poured onto the water
and left to float downstream to where the Japanese were crossing. While they engaged
the Dalforce company on the shoreline, the oil was set alight and the fire incinerated
Japanese boats. The Japanese were forced to fall back and regroup, and Yamashita considered
postponing the attack at the Causeway to deal with the Imperial Guards’ substantial losses.
He didn’t postpone it, however, and the Japanese continued to steamroll over the Allied defences.
Due to their positions ahead of the Allied front line, Dalforce suffered higher than average
casualties during the invasion. But they inflicted their fair share of casualties in return. At
the strategically important Bukit Timah supply base, Captain Richardson regrouped the surviving
members of Dalforce and formed them into a new unit designated D Company. These men had been
baptized in blood and were fully committed to halting the relentless Japanese advance.
D Company formed part of X Battalion—a scratch force comprising Australian, British,
and Indian soldiers pulled together to halt the Japanese on the Choa Chu Kang Road. It
was here that Dalley’s Desperados made their final stand. After running out of ammunition
and facing a determined Japanese attack, the Chinese volunteers drew their knives
and engaged the Japanese in hand-to-hand combat. Bayonets were crossed,
and katana met parang as Dalforce made one final effort to push the enemy back.
A valiant effort, but the Japanese had far greater numbers. Those who weren’t cut down were routed.
Lieutenant-General Percival surrendered Singapore to the Japanese on February 15th, but that wasn’t
the end of Dalforce's story. Isolated stragglers from the four frontline companies buried their
weapons in secret caches around Singapore and posed as local Malays. While the Japanese were
focused on mopping-up operations, the communist fighters joined the underground Malayan
Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army. They were joined by untrained volunteers who had yet to see combat.
The blooded ex-Dalforce volunteers became the nucleus of the prolonged insurgency against the
Japanese in Singapore and Malaya. They remained a thorn in the enemy’s side until the war’s end.
After the war, the returning British were eager to rapidly demobilise the guerrillas,
as they still saw communists as politically unreliable.
No compensation was given to those who had continued the fight for roughly four
years with the guerillas. Angry at this slight after their years of hardship,
many Chinese communists joined ex-services associations, which would eventually form the core
of the insurgency Commonwealth forces battled during the Malayan Emergency of 1948 to 1960.
Dalforce has been frequently commemorated in Singapore as one of the most dedicated units
to fight against the Japanese invasion. The founding father of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew,
described the unit in his memoirs as “a legend, a name synonymous with bravery.”
THAT was the story of Dalforce, the Chinese volunteers who battled the Japanese
despite their lack of weapons and training. But what do YOU think?
Did YOU know Chinese volunteers saw combat during the invasion? Do YOU think the Brits should have
spread the weapons between communists and nationalists more evenly? Why do YOU think
some Dalforce men kept fighting when everyone else surrendered? Let us know in the comments!