Australian anti-tank guns succeed in temporarily checking the Japanese advance down the Malayan peninsula in January 1942. Tanks halted by felled trees have been reduced to smouldering wrecks. A dead Japanese soldier lies in the foreground.

    Shortly after the outbreak of the Pacific War in World War II, on January 18, 1942 in the Greater East Asia War, Austrian anti-tank guns temporarily halted the advance of Japanese forces southward across the Malay Peninsula. Nine Japanese tanks were badly damaged by Australian anti-tank guns in front of Bakri. Near Bakri in the Muar area, Japanese tanks, blocked by fallen trees, were reduced to burning wreckage. In front of it lay the bodies of two Japanese soldiers killed by an Austrian anti-tank gun.

　After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 8, 1941, Japanese forces moved southward through Malaya, culminating in the occupation of Singapore in February 1941, and the Australian 8th Division, which was assigned to Malaya at the end of 1941, was already tragically lost, with most of its men taken prisoner by the Japanese. Singapore had been a cornerstone of Australia's security during the Greater East Asia War, but that cornerstone was shattered with the fall of Singapore to the Japanese.

　The Battle of Muar, the last major battle of the Malay campaign during World War II, took place from January 14-22, 1942, on the Muar River and around the Gemensah Bridge. Allied soldiers inflicted heavy casualties on the Japanese in an ambush at the Gemensa Bridge and in a second battle that took place several kilometers north of the town of Gemas. The Austrian 8th Division killed about 600 members of the Japanese 5th Division in the ambush at the bridge. In the battle north of Gemas, Austrian anti-tank guns destroyed several Japanese tanks. In this battle, the Japanese suffered the heaviest losses of the Malay campaign.

　The ambush attack was a success for the Allied forces, but the defense of Muar and Bakri on the west coast was a complete failure. The 45th Indian Infantry Brigade was almost completely wiped out, and two Australian infantry battalions suffered heavy casualties. Allied casualties reached about 3,100, while the Japanese lost about 700 killed in action and 800 wounded. In the Malaya campaign and the Battle of Singapore, more than 1,800 Australian soldiers were killed in action and about 1,400 were wounded. Approximately 15,000 Australian soldiers were taken prisoner of war at the fall of Singapore.