General Tomoyuki Yamashita; Wikimedia Commons

General Tomoyuki Yamashita; Wikimedia Commons

On December 8, 1941, Lieutenant General Tomoyuki Yamashita led his 25th Army into British Malaya from Indochina. Against larger British forces, Yamashita utilized skills learned in earlier campaigns to repeatedly flank and drive back the enemy, earning the nickname of the “Tiger of Malaya.”