Talk:Battle of Slim River

Suggested improvements

I have rated this article a B class as it seems to meet the criteria, however, I feel if it is to be taken further a few improvements could be made:

• Referencing and citation: page numbers could be included in the in-line citations to make it easier for verification purposes;
• Style: seems okay to me, but I am not a WP:MOS guru, so if you want to take this article to a GA nomination it will probably need a check against that first;
• Grammar: I've fixed up what I could see and what I could fix without changing too much, however, I think the article might need a copy edit for grammar if it is to go to GA review. Whilst it is generally good, some of the sentences don't seem to be as concise as they could be, used a 'passive voice' or sometimes the tense seemed confused. It is hard to narrow it down further as I am not a grammar guru, I just felt that when reading it some of the sentences seemed to stumble a bit. That is just a matter of personal opinion, though.

Anyway, just a few ideas for improvement. On the whole I feel it is good article. Well done. AustralianRupert (talk) 00:12, 8 April 2009 (UTC)

Complete Incompetence?

That is my reading of the article, and it would be good to have some commentary on this theme, if it is true. Questions:-

• Did the Allies at Slim River know that the Japanese had tanks? Just because they had made devastating attacks to the north does not mean that the message went south.

• How many anti tank 2 pounders did the Allies have? It reads like they had one or two for every ten thousand men, or something equally hopeless. Or were they all stock piled in Singapore? This seems to be the biggest issue. (I would assume that a Tank cost many times as much to build as a 2 pounder, and each well placed two pounder seemed to be able to destroy a couple of tanks.)

• How come we hardly ever hear of anti tank mines? Should have been everywhere.

• (My understanding is that the British thought that tanks were unsuitable for jungle warfare because they could be easily picked off from camouflaged anti-tank guns. This proved very true on the very few times that such guns were in place.)

• Why could the artillery not be used against the backed up Japanese forces? Just because a phone line was cut? How far away were they? Were runners/motor cycles sent?

• How could communications have been *so* bad? Did the British have any radios at all? (This is 1942, not 1914. There is no talk of Japanese Jamming.) Did they, like the Japanese, use motor cycles? (They were all lined up along a road!)

• Why would a marching column along a road with known tanks in the area not have scouts to warn of a possible attack? Especially as exactly the same thing had happened a few weeks earlier at Jitra!

• How could the Japanese have discovered a loop road unknown to entrenched defenders?

• How could none of the bridges have been blown?

• How could infantry be placed in open positions in front of a river without anti tanks weapons if tanks were known to be in the area?

Slim river should have been very expensive for the Japanese. The Jungle should have been the Allies friend, making useless Japanese tanks and aircraft. Generally, how could Malaya have been lost, when the defenders outnumbered the attackers? Nothing to do with the guns of Singapore, me thinks.

Also, Should we not call the forces Allies or Commonwealth rather than British, as it was mainly Indian and Australian troops.

Tuntable (talk) 01:50, 28 February 2013 (UTC)