Military strength of the Imperial Amry

• In principle, air power was one of the key features of British defence, but it was woefully inadequate.
• On the day of the invasion , Malaya had only 158 plane - of which 24 were obsolete - whilst the Japanese possessed an air force of 3000 planes
• Within 24 hours, the Japanese had mastery of the air
• Japanese soldiers had high morale and determined fighting spirit compared to the British
• Japanese veterans and better weapons allowed the Japanese to defeat the British forces