Beginning of Japanese invasion of Malaya

Japanese forces commenced an amphibious invasion of northern Malaya at about 12.30 am, striking at the airfield at Kota Bharu on which No 1 Squadron of the RAAF was based. It was thus this Australian unit, equipped with Hudson bombers, which launched the first Allied blows against the Japanese. At 2.08am barely 15 minutes in real time after Japanese carrier aircraft appeared over Hawaii to begin the bombing of Pearl Harbor the first of seven Hudsons took off and commenced attacks on enemy ships located off the coast.