Battle for Singapore Hb [Hardcover]

Thompson Peter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 11, 2005

The Fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942 was a military disaster of enduring fascination and seemingly unshakable myth.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An enthralling and perceptive account, which never loses sight of the human cost of the tragedy" - Yorkshire Evening Post "An insightful and dramatic analysis" - The Good Book Guide" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Peter Thompson was a Fleet Street journalist for twenty years, deputy editor of the Daily Mirror, editor of the Sunday Mirror and a director of Mirror Group Newspapers. He has written numerous biographies including those on Jack Nicholson, Princess Diana and Robert Maxwell. Recent books co-written with Robert Macklin include The Battle of Brisbane (0733308961) and Keep off the Skyline (2004). He lives in London where he runs Mayfair News Service.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Portrait (August 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0749950684
• ISBN-13: 978-0749950682
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,137,907 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Disaster Daily......, March 2, 2007

By 

Rankbajin (Scotland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Battle for Singapore: The True Story of the Greatest Catastrophe of World War II (Paperback)

To truly understand a nation you need to understand how it reacts in defeat as well as victory. This is an excellent study of the former by Peter Thomson. Details of the adversaries on all sides of the conflict help to crystalise the thoughts and pervading attitude and atmosphere that both led to and propagated the greatest catastrophe and capitulation in British military history. The author's description of events, of the fighting retreat, tactics (especially of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, Australian regiments and the Anti-tank and Artillery regiments) ,of the mistakes , mis-handling, bungling and lack of foresight, as well as some of the all too short successes is exilarating reading. The many atrocities covered make the ordinary mortal question the inhumanity of the Japanese Army. More balance might have been achieved by expressing more of the enemy military strategy and better maps would have help in the understanding, but this is nevertheless an outstanding historical read. I chose to read the book in parallel with Colin Smiths book Singapore Burning which developed my understanding . The culpability for the debacle was easily discernible through the narrative and politicians in Britain, Australia and Singapore play their part in this. The desertion, at the end , by the Australian commander General Bennett, all bull and bluster, was only counterbalanced by the extreme bravery of Australian and many other nationalities. It's also fair to say that others deserted Singapore by dereliction and were not brought to book. I strongly recommend this book to anybody interested in WW2 history and the fall of an Empire.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Defenses Are Bad For Morale, October 7, 2007

By 

Robert Derenthal "bucherwurm" (California United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Battle for Singapore: The True Story of the Greatest Catastrophe of World War II (Paperback)

The Japanese have landed in Malaya and have started their 400 mile trek south to Singapore. When various officers suggested building defense works on the north side of Singapore Island General Percival vetoed the idea saying that defense works would be bad for morale. Later when the Japanese army initiated its crossing of the narrow straits separating Singapore Island for the Malayan peninsula it was determined that General Yamashita was coordinating the attack from the top of a five story tower attached to the Palace of the Maharajah of Johore. When asked permission to fire on the tower in order to destroy this unique observation post permission was denied. The reason? If the Maharajah's palace was damaged the British government would have to reimburse the Maharajah for the damage after the war.

This book provides a detailed account of that desperate attempt to keep the Japanese from reaching Singapore. Lacking air and naval cover, and led by general officers of questionable ability the British, Indian, and Australian troops fought valiantly, but ultimately lost. It is interesting that Churchill insisted that the army fight to the last man. That directive resulted in about 10,000 casualties for the Allied Forces.

Then follows the account of the brutal occupation of Singapore. Another interesting point is that Korean soldiers in the Japanese army were even more brutal than the Japanese soldiers. While it is inspiring to read of the many heroes who fought hard and endured deprivation and torture at the hand of their conqueror, it is also sad that these men were so poorly led by their generals.


The author has written this historical drama in a fine narrative style. My interest in books like these may differ from the interests of others. I am interested in the psychological and social impact of war, how soldiers and civilians cope with the stresses of war. Why do people make the decisions that they do, and why are some people heroic while others lose their humanity. This book provides this sort of information in some detail. At times I became a bit weary of the detailed account of each battle and skirmish, but then again that is what some readers are looking for. All in all a well rounded account of a great disaster of World War II.

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Journalism not serious history, September 21, 2008

By 

Tom Munro "tomfrombrunswick" (Melbourne, Victoria Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Battle for Singapore (Paperback)

This book was written by a journalist which is the reason it has the rather sensational sub title "the greatest catastrophe of world war 2". The loss of Singapore led to the British losing an army of 150,000 and about 150 aircraft. The battle of France resulted in something like 300,000 casualties and an army of over a million men going into captivity. In addition the factories mines and people of France were lost to the allied cause. That was a catastrophe. The suggestion that the loss of Singapore was even in the top ten of Second World War catastrophes is doubtful. (The main problem was the loss of strategic materials tin and rubber. The Singapore Naval base could not be used by Britain as it had to keep its navies at home to counter the Germans and Italians)

The book shows a journalistic approach. It looks at the bar bones of various battles but instead of trying to explain what happened by examining the comparative strategies of both sides it relies on anecdote. The writer has combed primary material of the period and comes up with the stories of individual caught up in the various battles and their aftermath. The difficulty of quoting the diaries of individual soldiers is of course they have very little idea of the big picture and why events run out as they do. It is mildly interesting to hear that the Japanese attacked at such a point and then hear the memoirs of an anti tank gunner but it does not give you the total picture.

The interesting thing about the campaign was how 70,000 poorly supplied Japanese troops were able to defeat 150,000 well supplied British troops. The Japanese did have the advantage of some 200 light tanks and air superiority. However they had very little artillery and they even had run out of ammunition by the time of the allied surrender. The British had plentiful supplies of ammunition and artillery. They had a numerical superiority of 2:1. With moderately competent leadership they should have won. This of course was the problem. The British leadership was not only not competent it was laughably incompetent.

The way that the campaign progressed was that the British for irrational reasons distributed their army through the Malayan Peninsular. The Japanese were able to concentrate their forces and to defeat the allied divisions one by one. As the Japanese moved down the peninsular panic began to spread in the British Armies. In fact the casualties inflicted on the Japanese were minimal as the British were so ineffective. Later in the war the British learned that if they stood and fought for a while in these situations the Japanese would run out of ammunition. Once this happened the inability of the Japanese to supply their troops led to high death rates through starvation and disease. (Burma and Kokoda)

The British commander Percival was delusional. He deluded himself that he was defeated. In reality even when he had lost the mainland he still had a advantage of numbers over the Japanese who were running desperately short of ammunition. He failed to coordinate any meaningful counter attacks when the Japanese came ashore in Singapore and ended up simply giving in.

The book fails to illustrate the reality of the campaign simply describing the events as if it were a chronicle. The book is moderately readable but does not give you a real insight of why the events that occurred did occur.