|
The Battle of Singapore was a battle of the South-East Asian theatre of World War II, from January 30, 1942 – February 15, 1942. Japanese attacks along the Malay Barrier December 23, 1941 – February 21, 1943 The Japanese forces met stiff resistance from III Corps of the British Indian Army and British units in northern Malaya, but Japan's superiority in air power, tanks and infantry tactics drove the Allied units back.
The Japanese landed on Singapore on the night of February 7, 1942. By February 9, Allied troops had begun falling back from the north of the island to a secondary defensive line, and by February 10 the Japanese forces, under commander General Tomoyuki Yamashita, were outside Singapore City itself.
On February 11, knowing that his own supplies were running low, Yamashita called on Percival to "give up this meaniningless and desperate resistance".
The next day the Allied lines stabilised around a small area on the south side of the island and fought off determined Japanese assaults. However, the Allies lost more ground on February 13, and senior officers advised British commander Lieutenant General Arthur Percival to surrender, in the interests of minimising civilian casualties. Percival refused but unsuccessfully sought authority to surrender from his superiors.
The following day the remaining Allied units battled on; civilian casualties mounted as one million people crowded into the area now held by the Allies and bombing and artillery attacks intensified. Civilian authorities began to fear that the water supply would soon give out. Japanese troops killed 200 staff and patients after they captured Alexandra Barracks Hospital.
By the morning of February 15, the Japanese had broken through the last line of defence in the north and food and some kinds of ammunition had begun to run out. After meeting his unit commanders, Percival contacted the Japanese and formally surrendered the Allied forces to Yamashita, shortly after 5.15pm. About 130,000 Indian, Australian and British troops became prisoners of war. The fall of Singapore was largest surrender of British military personnel in history.
The fortress of Singapore had been the lynchpin of the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM), which was the first Allied joint command of World War II. With its fall the command unravelled. Within weeks the Dutch East Indies fell and the area under ABDACOM was physically split in two by the rapid Japanese advances. While the Americans took over the command of forces in the South West Pacific and Australia, British India Command took over military command of the other territories assigned to ABDACOM and which bordered the Indian Ocean.
See also
| 
Feeds |
Contact