![\"Singapore](\"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Warpic1-e1392257441240-198x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Singapore 1942: Britain’s Greatest Defeat—–by Alan Warren (Talisman, 2002) [Photograph by Edith-Mary I. Smith]<\/p><\/div>This week in the war, Singapore—often described as Britain’s ‘Gibraltar of the East’—fell to the Japanese. The British commander, Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival, signed the unconditional surrender document on 15 February 1942.<\/p>\n
Over 120,000 British, Indian and Australian troops became prisoners-of-war. Percival was eventually liberated and he returned to Britain. Others were less fortunate.<\/p>\n
The story of the fall of Singapore is ably told in the book Singapore 1940: Britain’s Greatest Defeat<\/em>—by Alan Warren (Talisman, 2002). The front cover of the book shows Lieutenant-General Percival carrying the Union Jack en route to surrendering to the Japanese commander, Lieutenant-General Tomoyuki Yamashita<\/a>.<\/p>\n If poor decisions on the part of British commanders were partly to blame for the defeat, so too were the lack of air cover, the lack of naval support [HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse<\/a> having been recently sunk], and Britain’s inadequate resourcing of her far-eastern empire [with the more crucial Middle-Eastern and Russian theatres understandably having precedence for supplies].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This week in the war, Singapore—often described as Britain’s ‘Gibraltar of the East’—fell to the Japanese. The British commander, Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival, signed the unconditional surrender document on 15 February 1942. Over 120,000 British, Indian and Australian troops became prisoners-of-war. … Continue reading