Fall of Singapore

Singapore was captured from the British by the Empire of Japan in February 1942 during the Second World War. The Battle of Singapore took place in the South–East Asian theatre of the Pacific War, with fighting lasting from 8 to 15 February 1942. Singapore was the foremost British military base and economic port in South–East Asia and had been of great importance to British interwar defence strategy. The capture of Singapore was therefore a major loss for Britain and resulted in its largest surrender in history.

Before the battle, Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita had advanced with approximately 30,000 men down the Malayan Peninsula in the Malayan campaign. The British erroneously considered the jungle terrain impassable, leading to a swift Japanese advance as Allied defences were quickly outflanked. The British Lieutenant-General, Arthur Percival, commanded 85,000 Allied troops at Singapore, although many units were under-strength and most units lacked experience. The British outnumbered the Japanese but much of the water for the island was drawn from reservoirs on the mainland. The British destroyed the causeway, forcing the Japanese into an improvised crossing of the Johore Strait. Singapore was considered so important that Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered Percival to fight to the last man.

The Japanese attacked the weakest part of the island defences and established a beachhead on 8 February. Percival had expected a crossing in the north and failed to reinforce the defenders in time. In addition, Percival had spread his forces across a thin perimeter along the entire Singaporean coastline and failed to maintain a suitable reserve force. Communication and leadership failures beset the Allies and there were few defensive positions or reserves near the beachhead. The Japanese advance continued and the Allies began to run out of supplies.

By 15 February, about a million civilians were crammed into a tight area remaining under Allied control, 1 percent of the island. Around 7,000 of Singapore's civilians had died in the fighting by this point, not including the hundreds killed in earlier bombing raids. Japanese aircraft continuously bombed the civilian water supply which was expected to fail within days. By this point, Allied supplies were nearly empty, with sections of the city descending into chaos. The Japanese were also near the end of their supplies and Yamashita wanted to avoid costly house-to-house fighting.

For the second time since the battle began, Yamashita demanded unconditional surrender and on the afternoon of 15 February, Percival capitulated. About 80,000 British, Indian, Australian and local troops became prisoners of war, joining the 50,000 taken in Malaya; many died of neglect, abuse or forced labour. The Japanese held Singapore until the end of the war. About 40,000, mostly conscripted, Indian soldiers joined the Indian National Army and fought with the Japanese in the Burma campaign. Churchill called it the worst disaster in British military history. The fall of Singapore, along the fall of Hong Kong and the sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse, both two months earlier, and other defeats in 1941–1942, both severely and permanently undermined British prestige in Asia, which contributed to the end of British colonial rule in the region after the war.