February 20, 2017

February 15th 2017 marked the 75th anniversary of the Fall of Singapore. On this day, Singapore surrendered to Japan, marking the beginning of the Japanese Occupation which lasted nearly three and a half years.

Despite being called the ‘impregnable fortress’, Singapore surprisingly surrendered in a week. In his book “The Defence and Fall of Singapore 1940-1942”, Prof Brian Farrell (Dept of History) challenges the conventional wisdom that this military disaster was a result of inept commanders mismanaging the campaign on the ground. Instead, he blames the theatre strategy conceived prior to the Second World War. The strategy to defend the Far East was founded on the idea that Malaya and Singapore would hold out until reinforcements to relieve the siege arrived from Britain. Unfortunately, the British forces defending the Far East were compelled to abide by this ill-conceived strategy even though it was crumbling in the lead up to the Battle of Singapore. As a consequence, the defending British Army made the wrong battle plans, aggravating the military situation and turning military defeat into an embarrassing disaster.

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