Operation Jurist: Difference between revisions

| caption = [[Imperial Japanese Navy]] Rear Admiral Jisaku Uozumi signs the surrender of [[Penang]] aboard {{HMS|Nelson|28|6}} on 2 September 1945. He fainted shortly afterwards and was rushed to hospital.<ref>"After some delay, and a failure to attend an earlier meeting, the Japanese local commander, Rear Admiral Jisaku Uzumi, came aboard HMS ''Nelson'' on the evening of 2 September, wearing the DSC he had earned as Britain's ally in the 1914-18 war, and surrendered the garrison. He fainted and was rushed to the hospital; the military policemen who carried him there took his sword as a souvenir." Bayly & Harper, page 49</ref>

| place = {{flagicon|Straits Settlements}} [[Penang]], [[Straits Settlements]]

| strength1 = 42,651 infantry<ref>[https://www.flickr.com/photos/tianyake/3927890884/sizes/l/ 46 Indian Beach Group, Morib]</ref><br />2 escort carriers<br>1 battleship<br>1 light cruiser<br>3 destroyers<br>3 [[Landing ship, infantry|landing craft]]<ref>[http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-01BB-Nelson.htm HMS NELSON - Nelson-class 16in gun Battleship]</ref>

| strength2 = 26,000 infantry<ref name="The real Japanese surrender">{{cite news| title = The real Japanese surrender| url = http://staff.science.nus.edu.sg/~sivasothi/blog/pdf/jap_surrender-st04sep2005.pdf| archive-url = httphttps://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20080119210334/http://staff.science.nus.edu.sg/~sivasothi/blog/pdf/jap_surrender-st04sep2005.pdf| url-status = dead| archive-date = 2008-01-19| work = The Sunday Times| date = 2005-09-04| accessdateaccess-date = 2009-12-09}}</ref>

'''Operation Jurist''' referred to the [[British Empire|British]] recapture of [[Penang]] following [[Empire of Japan|Japan]]'s [[Surrender of Japan|surrender]] in 1945.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Penang At War : A History of Penang During and Between the First and Second World Wars 1914–1945|last=Barber|first=Andrew|publisher=AB&B|year=2010|isbn=|location=|pages=|via=}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/25/a4109825.shtml|title=BBC - WW2 People's War - Operation Jurist and the end of the War|website=www.bbc.co.uk|access-date=2017-03-11}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.colonialfilm.org.uk/node/2340|title=JAPANESE SIGN THE SURRENDER OF PENANG ABOARD HMS NELSON (3/9/1945) {{!}} colonialfilm|website=www.colonialfilm.org.uk|language=en|access-date=2017-03-11}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=War and Occupation in Penang, 1941–1945|last=Kratoska|first=Paul|publisher=National University of Singapore|year=|isbn=|location=Singapore|pages=|via=}}</ref> Jurist was launched as part of [[Operation Zipper]], the overall [[British Armed Forces|British]] plan to liberate [[British Malaya|Malaya]], including [[Singapore in the Straits Settlements|Singapore]].

Operation Zipper, therefore, had to be reduced in scale; while the bulk of the Allied forces would be allocated for the liberation of Singapore under [[Operation Tiderace]], a detachment of the [[Royal Navy]] fleet and the accompanying [[Royal Marines|Royal Marine]] commandos were tasked with the liberation of Penang instead, codenamed Operation Jurist. The liberation of Penang, which was to be carried out prior to Operation Tiderace, was intended to test Japanese intentions; up to that point, it was still unclear whether the [[Japanese Seventh Area Army|Japanese forces in Malaya]] would surrender or continue resisting the Allies.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=Forgotten Wars: Freedom and Revolution in Southeast Asia|last=Bayly; Christopher Alan|first=Harper, Timothy Norman|publisher=Harvard University|year=2007|isbn=9780674021532|location=United States|pages=|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/forgottenwarsfre00bayl}}</ref>

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The Japanese Seventh Area Army, which was responsible for the defence of Malaya (including Singapore) and [[Japanese occupation of British Borneo|Borneo]], included about 26,000 soldiers stationed in Malaya. Meanwhile, the port facilities in [[George Town, Penang|George Town]], which had been used by the submarine fleets of the [[Axis powers|Axis]] navies, were by then heavily damaged by the repeated [[Bombing of South-East Asia (1944–45)|Allied aerial bombardment of the city]].<ref name=":2" /><ref>[http://www.rquirk.com/159oper/records159.html Form 540] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324023424/http://rquirk.com/159oper/records159.html |date=2016-03-24 }}, October 1944, retrieved 8 August 2016</ref><ref name="wrecks2">[http://www.pacificwrecks.com/date/1945/1-45.html#11 Thursday, 11 January 1945 - HQ AAF], retrieved 8 August 2016</ref><ref name="wrecks2"/> The [[Penang Strait]] was also mined to impede Japanese merchant shipping passing through Penang.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bePxcx7BFLEC&pg=PA296|title=The Japanese Occupation of Malaya: A Social and Economic History|publisher=C. Hurst & Co. Publishers|year=1998|isbn=978-1-85065-284-7|pages=296–|author=Paul H. Kratoska}}</ref>

File:Reoccupation of Penang (5315445771).jpg|left|Japanese [[Prisoner of war|prisoners of war]] being marched through the streets of George Town on 3 September 1945

File:The Surrender of Penang (5315432815).jpg|left|A Royal Navy officer inspecting the Japanese soldiers at the seaplane base at [[Gelugor]]

[[Category:World War II operations and battles of the Southeast Asia Theatre|Jurist]]

[[Category:Battles and operations of World War II|Jurist]]

[[Category:Battles and operations of World War II involving the United Kingdom|Jurist]]