On the 14th and 15th there was fighting at Gurun; on the 16th, the island of Penang was evacuated; and the same day Murray-Lyon withdrew behind the Krian River. The army no longer had air protection and had given up on receiving tank reinforcements. On 17 December Percival decided to fight on the Perak River line and gave the 12th Brigade to Murray-Lyon to reinforce his division. The 15th Brigade absorbed the remnants of the 6th.
the next day, in Singapore, Duff Cooper held a conference of military leaders; it was decided to inform London of the seriousness of the situation and to urgently request four squadrons of fighters and as many bombers, as well as four brigades of infantry. Percival's strategy was to stop the Japanese as far north as possible:it was adopted.
The Japanese, who now had two divisions in the field, could not be contained. On December 26, they crossed the Perak River without encountering serious opposition, and Yamashita ordered the 4th Guards Regiment to march on Ipoh. The British, he felt, were now completely demoralized and would only fight intermittently. The momentum of the Japanese advance would prevent any prolonged resistance, and risks could be taken which, with a more aggressive adversary, would have been inconceivable. The Japanese were so optimistic that the head of the Imperial Guard, Nishimura, committed only a third of his troops to an attack from the front, while the rest would attack from the rear.
This tactic was employed, each time, with success, for the British were now almost exhausted. General Paris, who had replaced Murray-Lyon, was greatly worried about the state of the troops. As one of his officers said:“Men and officers act like automatons and often fail to understand even the simplest order. Night after night they had to retreat and establish new defensive positions; day after day they were harassed by the air force and grounded. Percival pinned his hopes on a strong defense of Kampar, but after three days of fighting on 2 January the Japanese overwhelmed him and he withdrew his forces to the Slim River. There, on January 7, another disaster. By the end of the day, nothing was left of the 12th Brigade and the 28th was reduced to a third of its strength. The Japanese had once again charged boldly down the road with their tanks, broken through the British lines before the anti-tank guns had time to intervene, and then overrun the infantry positions on both sides, still with very light casualties.
The defeat of the Slim meant that central Malaya was now open to the enemy and the defense of Johore was badly compromised.
The desired pretext was offered on July 3, 1870, by the candidacy of the Prince of Hohenzollern to the throne of Spain. To the French, it seemed that Prussia was updating traditional Habsburg politics. France, having rejected for dynastic reasons the candidacy of a Frenchman, the Duke of Montpensier