The Southern Front, also called the Malayan Front, is generally described as being the theater of the Pacific War contested by the Japanese and Oceanians throughout the Malayan archipelago and in northern Australia. This front tends to blend with campaigns in the eastern Oceanic Front. Fighting in the Malayas began in October of 1924 with the Japanese surprise attack against the Oceanian First Fleet in the Malayas during the Hallowe'en Raids and continued with the all-out invasion of Sumatra and Java from Japanese bases in Borneo and Sarawak. The Oceanians were forced to abandon Batavia on Christmas Day after the Oceanian general Lord David Hall reached an agreement with the Japanese 3rd Imperial Army to allow his men to retreat peacefully back to Australia, ceding the strategic city.