Why Japanese army invade Malaya before heading towards s'pore?

Why Japanese army invade Malaya before heading towards s%26#039;pore? why don%26#039;t they just directly strike on S%26#039;pore and they will directly control the rest of the Malaya because the capital of the British empire in the south east Asia at the time is in S%26#039;pore.|||A good question - you see I have a preference for the one%26#039;s that seem to be driven by genuine interest, rather than doing people%26#039;s homework for them.





Singapore was heavily defended, it was - as you say - Britain%26#039;s chief military base in South East Asia. Even if it%26#039;s defences weren%26#039;t in fact very good - as was revealed later - it%26#039;s REPUTATION was a disincentive to a direct attack. Any attacking force around Singapore would also be vulnerable to British air bases established along the length of the Malayan peninsuala, as would Japanese supply and troop ships travelling down from Japanese territories in China.





Essentially Air Forces based in Malaya could interfere with any attack on Singapore, while the Naval Forces in Singapore itself, and the shore based defences, could be expected to hold out long enough to expose any attacking Japanese naval force to a dangerous British air bombardment.





Also (and this is speculation), the Japanese had very good intelligence, and would likely have known that while the air force was established in Malaya, the air bases were not well defended by ground troops, and were vulnerable to ground attack. They would have also known that the bulk of Singapore%26#039;s defences were oriented towards defending against an attack from the Sea, and not from one coming from Johore on the Malaysian mainland.





In the event the British crumbled on all fronts. Their naval forces were spectacularly destroyed in a single day, their air force was under-manned and largely innefective, and their ground troops , though fighting heroically during the retreat down the Malayan penisuala, were constantly outflanked by Japanese working down both sides of the peninsuala, utilizing small native boats, and of course the ubiquitous bicyle.|||The Bristish had their big coastal guns facing southwards which could had caused severe damages to any invading fleet.





When the Japs attacked from the north from Thailand, they had land based air support from Thailand and Ho Chi Minh city and the British resistance at the rear was weak, disorganised and poorly armed to withstand the onslaught.





The Jitra line fell and the Brits commenced a series of delaying battles and retreated southwards. Its only at Johore where the Australian troops managed a good fight and gave the Japs a good run for the money.





By then, without crucial air support and any resemblance of a navy, the Japs were fre to land at any point to outflank the Aussie position and all forces that escaped the dragnet were withdrew to the island and through another series of blunders by the British...all was lost.





Last note, the Japs concentrated their attack on the North Wester end of Singapore held by again the Australians, somewhere during the battle another stupid of a mistake order came for the Aussies to abandon their position after a communication wire got cut!!!