Battle of Singapore
From Freepedia
| Battle of Singapore | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Image:Singaporesurrender.jpg Lt Gen Arthur Percival, led by a Japanese officer, marches under a flag of truce to negotiate the capitulation of Allied forces in Singapore, on February 15, 1942. It would be the largest surrender of British-led forces in history. | |||
| Conflict: World War II, Pacific War | |||
| Date: January 31 - February 15 1942 - | |||
| Place: Singapore, Straits Settlements | |||
| Outcome: Decisive Japanese victory | |||
| Combatants | |||
| Indian Army; British Army; Australian Army; Malayan forces; Straits Settlements forces | Imperial Japanese Army | ||
| Commanders | |||
| Arthur Percival | Tomoyuki Yamashita | ||
| Strength | |||
| 85,000 | 36,000 | ||
| Casualties | |||
| about 8,700 killed; about 70,000 POWs | 1,715 dead, 3,500 wounded | ||
| |||
The Battle of Singapore was a battle of the South-East Asian theatre of World War II, from February 7,1942 – February 15, 1942. The fall of Singapore represented the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history. About 80,000 Indian, Australian and British troops became prisoners of war, joining 50,000 taken in the Malayan campaign.
Contents |
Background
When the 25th Army invaded Malaya in December 1941 it was resisted by III Corps of the Indian Army — including the Australian 27th Brigade and several British Army battalions. Japanese forces held a slight advantage in terms of numbers on the ground in northern Malaya, but were superior in close air support, tanks, infantry tactics and experience.
Japanese air superiority also enabled the destruction of the supposed Allied trump card: the battleships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse. Japanese forces advanced steadily down the Malayan peninsula toward the supposedly "impregnable fortress" of Singapore Island, a lynchpin of the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM), the first Allied joint command of World War II.
On January 31, the last Allied forces had left Malaya, and Allied engineers blew a hole, 70 feet (20 metres) wide, in the causeway linking Johore and Singapore. However, Japanese raiders and infiltrators — often disguised as Singaporean civilians — began to cross the Straits of Johor in inflatable boats soon afterwards. Image:Singapore causeway blown up.jpg
Preparations
The Allied commander, Lieutenant General Arthur Percival had at his disposal 85,000 soldiers, the equivalent (on paper) of just over four divisions. There were about 70,000 front-line combat troops in 38 infantry battalions — 17 Indian; 13 British; six Australian, two Malayan/Singaporean — and three machine gun battalions. The newly-arrived British 18th Division, under Maj. Gen. Merton Beckwith-Smith, was at full strength but lacked both combat experience and suitable training; almost all of the other units were under-strength as a result of the mainland campaign. The local battalions also had no combat experience, and in some cases no combat training.[1]
Percival gave Maj. Gen. Gordon Bennett's two brigades, from the Australian 8th Division, responsibility for the western sector of the island, including the prime invasion points on the north-west side of the island. This was terrain dominated by mangrove swamps and jungle, broken up by rivers and creeks. The inexperienced 22nd Brigade was assigned a daunting 10 mile (16 kilometre) wide sector in the west, and the 27th Brigade — minus almost a battalion lost in its retreat through Malaya — a 4,000 yard (3,650 metre) zone in the north. The infantry positions were reinforced by the recently-arrived Australian 2/4th Machine-Gun Regiment. Also under Bennett's command was the Indian 44th Infantry Brigade.
Lt Gen. Sir Lewis Heath's Indian III Corps, including the Indian 11th Division (under Major-General B. W. Key), the British 18th Division and the Indian 15th Infantry Brigade, was assigned the northern sector. Singapore Fortress, including the main urban areas in the south-east, was commanded by Maj. Gen. Frank Keith Simmons, who officially controlled about 18 battalions, including the Malayan 1st Infantry Brigade, the Straits Settlements Volunteer Force Brigade, the Indian 12th Infantry Brigade.
From aerial reconnisance, scouts, infiltrators and commandeered high points across the straits, such as the Sultan of Johore's palace, the Japanese commander, General Tomoyuki Yamashita and his staff gained excellent knowledge of the Allied positions. From February 3, the Allies were shelled by Japanese artillery. In spite of a Royal Air Force contingent of 10 Hawker Hurricane fighters, Japanese air attacks also intensified over the next five days. Air and artillery attacks intensified to the point that they were compared to the notorious barrages of World War I. These preliminary attacks severely disrupted communications between Allied units and their commanders, and affected preparations for the defence of the island. The Allies had no bomber force to speak of, and limited artillery.
Singapore's famous large-calibre stationary guns — which included one battery of three 15-inch guns and one with two 15-inch guns — were supplied only with armour-piercing shells. These were designed to penetrate the hulls of warships and were relatively ineffective against infantry. It is a myth that the guns could not fire on the Japanese forces because they could only face south. The guns could turn northwards, and they did fire at the invaders.
Yamashita had just over 30,000 frontline personnel, from three divisions: the Imperial Guards Division under Lt Gen. Takuma Nishimura, the 5th Division, under Lt Gen. Takuro Matsui and the 18th Division, under Lt Gen. Renya Mutaguchi. The elite Imperial Guards units included a light tank brigade.
The battle
The Japanese landings
Blowing up the causeway had delayed the Japanese attack for over a week. However, they could not be held off indefinitely. At 8.30pm on February 8, Australian machine gunners opened fire on vessels carrying a first wave of 4,000 troops from the 5th and 18th 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 tell. 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 22nd Brigade was being forced to retreat. At 1am, further Japanese troops were landed in the north west of the island and the last Australian reserves went into position.
Towards dawn on February 9, elements of the 22nd Brigade were being overrun, cut off and/or surrounded, and the Australian 2/18th Battalion had lost more than 50% of its personnnel. Percival maintained a belief that further landings would occur in the north east and did not reinforce the beleagured 22nd Brigade with Indian or British units. The focus of Japanese landings shifted to the south west, where they encountered the 44th Brigade. During the course of the day, Allied units in the west were forced to retreat further east. Bennett decided to form a secondary defensive line.
The 27th Brigade, to the north, did not face Japanese assaults until the Imperial Guards landed at 10pm on February 9. This operation went very badly for the Japanese, who suffered severe casualties from Australian mortars and machine guns, burning oil which had been sluiced into the water, and drowning. A small number of Guards reached the shore and maintained a tenuous beachhead.
Command and control problems — and the failure to reinforce front line units — caused further cracks in the Allied defence. Following a fateful misunderstanding — and in spite of its success — the 27th 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 southward, by-passing the British 18th Division. However, Japanese armoured units failed to seize an opportunity to advance into the heart of Singapore City itself.
On February 11, knowing that Japanese supplies were running perilously low, Yamashita called on Percival to "give up this meaningless and desperate resistance". By this stage, the fighting strength of the 22nd Brigade — which had borne the brunt of the Japanese attacks — had been reduced to a few hundred personnel, and it was all but destroyed. The Japanese had captured the Bukit Timah area, including most of the Allied ammunition and fuel stores, and giving them control of the main water supplies.
The next day the Allied lines stabilised around a small area in the south-east of the island and fought off determined Japanese assaults. Other units, including the Malayan 1st Infantry Brigade had now joined the fray. A 42-strong Malayan platoon, led by a junior officer, Lt Adnan bin Saidi, held the Japanese for two days at the Battle of Pasir Panjang. His unit defended Bukit Chandu, an area which including a major Allied ammunition store. Adnan was executed by the Japanese after his unit was overrun.
On February 13, with the Allies still losing ground, senior officers advised 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.
Alexandra Hospital massacre
At about 1pm on February 14, Japanese soldiers approached Alexandra Barracks Hospital. Although no resistance was offered, some of them shot or bayoneted staff members and patients. The following day, about 200 male staff members and patients, many of them unable to walk, were ordered to march about 400 metres. Some were carried and anyone who fell on the way was bayoneted. The men were crowded in a series of small, badly ventilated rooms and were imprisoned overnight, without water. The following morning they were systematically bayoneted.[2]
Fall of Singapore
- Main article: Japanese occupation of Singapore
By the morning of February 15, the Japanese had broken through the last line of defence, 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 at the Ford Motor Factory, shortly after 5.15pm.
Bennett created an enduring controversy when he handed command of the 8th Division to a brigadier and — with some of his staff officers — commandeered a small boat. They made their way back to Australia.
The Japanese occupation of Singapore had begun. The city was renamed Syonan-to (昭南島 Shōnan-tō, or "Light-of-the-South Island" in Japanese. The residents would suffer great hardships under Japanese rule over the following three and a half years, during which the Sook Ching Massacre occurred.
The Allied soldiers taken prisoner were badly treated: many remained in Singapore, at Changi Prison. Thousands of others were shipped all over Asia, including Japan itself, to be used as slave labour on infamous projects like the Siam-Burma Railway and Sandakan airfield in North Borneo — most of these men never saw their homelands again.
See also
Categories: History of Singapore | Conflicts in 1942 | World War II operations and battles of the Southeast Asia Theatre | Battles of Japan | Battles of the United Kingdom | Military of Singapore under British rule
