1941: Singapore

Defense Preparations.

One of the few great naval bases in the world, Singapore was the keystone of British Empire strategy in the Far East and the center of British power throughout southeastern Asia and Oceania. Its importance was due primarily to its position commanding the passages between the Pacific and South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. It stood as a bastion protecting the East Indies from hostile forces to the north and west. Ships from ports the world over called at Singapore; 15,000,000 tons a year cleared the harbor, and the trade moving in and out of the port each year amounted to $750,000,000.

Singapore's strategic value to Britain and her Allies increased immeasurably as Japan's imperialist ambitions became more apparent and the Mikado's forces pushed irresistibly southward. Japan's demands on the government of French Indo-China, culminating in the 'protective occupation' of that country in July 1941, placed the Nipponese within a few hundred miles of valuable sources of raw materials in Malaya and the Dutch East Indies. Singapore island was the foundation on which the Allied defense structure was based. It appeared to be a formidable fortress protected by all the military devices known to man. In 1938 the naval base was formally opened after twenty years of work in the mangrove swamps on the northern part of the island opposite the mainland, and after the expenditure of $400,000,000. Twenty square miles of anchorage provided space sufficient to accommodate the entire British and American navies. Around the harbor basin were acres of repair shops, warehouses, power plants, and oil tanks. There was a huge graving dock and a floating dock, each capable of handling the largest battleships. The defenses of Singapore were said to be impregnable. Giant 18-inch guns with a range of 50 miles guarded the channels leading to the base. Anti-aircraft guns were concealed in the hills of Singapore island, and pursuit planes were stationed at four major and other secondary air fields.

Realizing that defense installations without troops to man them and a naval base without ships were not unassailable against attack, Air Chief Marshal Sir Robert Brooke-Popham, Commander-in-Chief of Britain's Far Eastern forces, demanded early in 1941 that reinforcements be sent. The British, with few troops to spare, managed to send out some regiments. India and Australia sent more; an Australian contingent which landed on Feb. 19 was called the largest ever to arrive in Singapore. Two hundred Brewster Fighter planes were shipped from the United States in March. By May, Sir Robert was more confident of his position, declaring, 'We're ready for anything and anyone, and we're actually growing stronger every day.' But when Japan occupied Indo-China and began to take over the harbors at Saigon and Cam Ranh Bay, construct air fields, and pour troops into the area, the British had to face the possibility that Singapore would be under attack by land rather than by sea. In the short time available to meet this new menace, a part of the Singapore garrison was sent northward into the jungles of the Malay peninsula. Roads were hurriedly laid out, air stations built, and pill boxes established along the frontier. Then in the early days of December, it was announced that the new 35,000-ton battleship, the Prince of Wales, had arrived at Singapore and would be the flagship of a strong British Far Eastern fleet.

Japanese Attack.

Tokyo's grand strategy had as one of its principal objectives the conquest of the Malayan peninsula and the East Indies archipelago, with their rubber plantations, tin mines, oil fields, and other valuable resources. Singapore stood directly in the way of the invaders, and their main attack was therefore directed against the 'Gibraltar of the East.' The Japanese assaults on Pearl Harbor, Wake and Guam were designed to prevent the United States from sending aid to the Orient. The American forces in the Philippines were attacked and surrounded so that they could not interfere with Japan's sea routes to the south, and the British base at Hongkong was surrounded and forced to surrender for the same reason. These preparations assured the lines of communication to Indo-China, the jumping-off place for Singapore. When the signal for the advance was given on Dec. 7, Japanese troops immediately moved by land and sea into southern Thailand, meeting little resistance from the Thai army, which capitulated within eighteen hours. The Japanese then took up positions along the border of British Malaya.

Under the cover of intense air bombardment, the Japanese began the next move in the Battle for Singapore when they seized the British airfield at Khota Baru and sent landing parties down the east coast of the Malay peninsula. The Prince of Wales and the battle cruiser Repulse, sent out from Singapore to intercept enemy transports, were caught without air protection off the coast of Malaya on Dec. 10. Japanese torpedo and high-level bombers from nearby aircraft carriers sank the ships within a few hours, accomplishing what the Germans had been unable to do in two years. Thenceforth the British defenders of Singapore were without naval assistance. The Japanese commander, with five to eight divisions at his disposal, sent the main body of his forces down the west coast of the peninsula and kept up a steady pressure on the eastern side. The British, with two or three divisions scattered along the peninsula were outnumbered five to one in local combats. They suffered severely for lack of air support, and they were outmaneuvered by soldiers better-led and better-trained in the tactics of jungle warfare. Desperate appeals were made to Britain and the United States for reinforcements of all types, especially planes to deal with the Japanese dive-bombers, but assistance did not arrive in time.

The Japanese pressed irresistibly southward, until by Jan. 30, 1942, the British had been pushed to the end of the peninsula and withdrew to Singapore island. The weary veterans of the Malayan campaign took up positions along the 74-mile coastline of the island, which is 26 miles long and 14 miles wide. There were only 50,000 men left, after losses in the jungles, to face the invaders with several times as many troops. The British were given some protection by Johore Strait, varying in width from half a mile to a mile and a half, which separated Singapore Island from the mainland. The only causeway crossing the strait was blown up when the defenders retired to the island. The narrow strip of water was not enough, however, to prevent the Japanese from sending heavy shells at the island's defenses and raining aerial bombs on the beleaguered garrison. There were insufficient troops on the island to hold the perimeter strongly at every point, and the lack of good communications made it difficult to rush reserves to any sector which was under attack.

In the night of Feb. 8-9, the japanese broke the siege and began the final phase of the Battle for Singapore by establishing a beach-head on the northwestern part of the island. The defenders were gradually thrown back toward the port of Singapore, losing valuable air fields and the reservoirs containing the water supply on which the city of 750,000 persons depended. As they retreated, the British blew up the naval installations, fired the oil tanks, and made certain that the Japanese obtained nothing of military value. Greatly outnumbered, exposed to continuous air attack, and suffering for lack of water, the defenders of Singapore faced the prospect of ultimate defeat, but held on as long as they could in the hope of gaining time and destroying some of the enemy's power. Finally, on Feb. 15, four hours less than one week after the first Japanese landing on Singapore Island, Lieut. General Arthur E. Percival, the British commander, surrendered to Lieut. General Tomoyuki Yamashita at the Japanese headquarters on Timah Hill, the highest point on the island. With the capitulation of Singapore, the United Nations lost the key point in their Far Eastern defenses and faced the prospect of Japanese advances south into the East Indies or west toward Burma and India. See also JAPAN; GREAT BRITAIN; WORLD WAR II.