Defence

History

The fall of Singapore – devastation for Australia

From an Australian perspective, the fall of Singapore 65 years ago was arguably the Commonwealth’s most devastating military defeat in Word War II, placing Australia in a position of extreme vulnerability against an advancing Japanese Army storming south through Asia at lightning speed.

LTGEN Arthur Percival marches under a flag of truce in order to surrender.
Photo provided by http://en.wikipedia.org

The fighting in Singapore lasted from 7–15 February 1942 and resulted in the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history. Approximately 80,000 Indian, Australian and British troops became prisoners of war, joining 50,000 taken in the Japanese invasion of Malaya.

Preparations

The Allied commander, Lieutenant-General (LTGEN) Arthur Percival had 85 000 soldiers, the equivalent of just over four divisions. There were about 70 000 front-line troops in 38 infantry battalions and three machine gun battalions. The newly-arrived British 18^th Infantry Division, under the command of Major-General (MAJGEN) Merton Beckwith-Smith, was at full strength but lacked experience and training. The majority of the other units were under strength as a result of the mainland campaign. The local battalions also had no experience and, in some cases, no training.

LTGEN Percival gave MAJGEN Gordon Bennett’s two brigades, from the Australian 8^th Division, responsibility for the western sector of the island, including the prime invasion points to the north-west of the island – primarily mangrove swamp and jungle, broken by rivers and creeks. The inexperienced 22^nd Brigade was assigned a 16km wide sector in the west and the 27^th Brigade, minus almost a battalion lost in its retreat through Malaya, a 3650m zone in the north. The infantry positions were reinforced by the recently-arrived Australian 2/4^th Machine Gun Regiment.

From aerial reconnaissance, scouts, infiltrators and high ground across the straits, the Japanese commander, General (GEN) Tomoyuki Yamashita and his staff gained excellent knowledge of the Allied positions. From 3 February, the Allies were shelled by Japanese artillery. Air and artillery bombardment intensified, which severely disrupted communications between Allied units and their commanders and affected preparations for the defence of the island.

Singapore’s famous large-calibre guns were supplied with few conventional high-explosive (HE) shells and mostly with armour-piercing (AP) shells. AP shells were designed to penetrate the hulls of warships and were ineffective against infantry – it is a myth that the guns could not fire on the Japanese forces because they faced south. Although placed to defend against enemy ships instead of the straits, most of the guns could turn northwards and they did fire at the invaders. (Even if the guns had been well supplied with HE shells, military analysts estimate that while the Japanese invaders would have suffered heavy casualties, they would have succeeded.)

GEN Yamashita had just over 30,000 men from three Divisions: the Imperial Guards Division; the 5^th Division; and, the 18^th Division. The elite Imperial Guard units included a light tank brigade.

Invasion of Singapore

The Japanese landings

GEN Yamashita (seated, centre) demands unconditional surrender.
Photos provided by Imperial War Museum

Victorious Japanese troops march through the city centre.

Blowing up the causeway had delayed the Japanese attack for over a week. At 8.30pm on 8 February, Australian machine gunners opened fire on vessels carrying a first wave of 4000 troops from the 5^th and 18^th Divisions towards Singapore Island.

Fierce fighting raged all day but eventually the increasing Japanese numbers – as well as their superiority in artillery, planes and military intelligence – began to take their toll. In the north-west of the island, they exploited gaps in the thinly-spread Allied lines, such as rivers and creeks. By midnight, the two Australian brigades had lost communications with each other and the 22^nd Brigade was forced to retreat. At 1am, further Japanese troops landed in the north-west of the island and the last Australian reserves went in. Towards dawn on 9 February, elements of the 22^nd Brigade were overrun or surrounded, and the Australian 2^nd/18^th Battalion had lost more than 50 per cent of its personnel.

LTGEN Percival maintained a belief that further landings would occur in the north-east and did not reinforce 22^nd Brigade. During 9 February, Japanese landings shifted to the southwest, where they encountered the 44^th Brigade. Allied units were forced to retreat further east and MAJGEN Bennett decided to form a secondary defensive line.

To the north, the 27^th Brigade did not face Japanese assaults until the Imperial Guards landed at 10pm on 9 February. This operation went very badly for the Japanese who suffered severe casualties from Australian mortars and machine gun fire, and also from burning oil that had been sluiced into the water. A small number of Guards reached the shore and maintained a tenuous beachhead.

Command and control problems – and the failure to reinforce – caused further cracks in the Allied defence. Following a fatal misunderstanding and, in spite of its success, the 27^th Brigade began to withdraw from Kranji in the central north. The Allies thereby lost control of the crucial Kranji-Jurong ridge, running through the western side of the island.

The Japanese breakthrough

The opening at Kranji made it possible for the Imperial Guards to land tanks and to advance rapidly south, bypassing the British 18^th Division. However, Japanese armoured units failed to seize an opportunity to advance into the heart of Singapore City.

On 11 February, knowing that Japanese supplies were running perilously low, Yamashita decided to bluff and called on LTGEN Percival to “give up this meaningless and desperate resistance”. By this stage, the fighting strength of the 22^nd Brigade – which had borne the brunt of the Japanese attacks – had been reduced to a few hundred men. The Japanese had captured the Bukit Timah area after the Battle of Bukit Timah, including most of the Allied ammunition and fuel and giving them control of the main water supplies.

On 13 February, with the Allies still losing ground, senior officers advised LTGEN Percival to surrender, in the interests of minimising civilian casualties.

Fall of Singapore

By the morning of the Chinese New Year, 15 February, the Japanese had broken through the last line of defence and the Allies were running out of food and ammunition. The anti-aircraft guns had also run out of ammunition and were unable to repel any further Japanese air attacks that threatened to cause heavy casualties in the city centre. After meeting his unit commanders, LTGEN Percival contacted the Japanese and formally surrendered the Allied forces to GEN Yamashita at the Ford Motor Factory, shortly after 5.15pm.

The Japanese occupation of Singapore had begun. Many of the Allied soldiers taken prisoner remained in Singapore at Changi Prison. Thousands of others were shipped on prisoner transports known as ‘hell ships’ to other parts of Asia, including Japan, to be used as slave labour on projects like the Siam-Burma Railway and Sandakan Airfield in North Borneo. Thousands of those aboard the ships and in the camps perished.

Compiled by Alisha Welch, Editor, Defence magazine.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org; Australia and the Pacific War, Michael Andrews, Dreamweaver Books, 1985; Singapore Diary, ADF Journal, 1992.

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