Churchill called it 'the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history.' This description of the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942, after Lt-Gen Percival's surrender led to over 100,000 British, Australian and Indian troops falling into the hands of the Japanese, was no wartime exaggeration. The Japanese had promised that there would be no Dunkirk in Singapore and that was so - no one was spared and its fall led to imprisonment, torture and death for thousands of allied men and women. In this extraordinary book, using much new material from British, Australian, Indian and Japanese sources, Colin Smith has woven together the full and terrifying story of the fall of Singapore and its aftermath. Here, alongside cowardice and incompetence, are forgotten acts of enormous heroism; treachery yet heart-rending loyalty; Japanese compassion as well as brutality from the bravest and most capricious enemy the British ever had to face.
Singapore Burning: Heroism and Surrender in World War II
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About the Author
Colin Smith is an author and award-winning journalist. He covered many wars for the Observer and served terms as its Defence, Middle East, Asia and Washington correspondent. His previous books include The Last Crusade and (with John Bierman) Alamein: War Without Hate.
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"Colin Smith, a veteran war correspondent, has built an impressive reputation as a military historian, chronicling the fall of Singapore, the desert campaign, the life of Orde Wingate and now France's minor-key war with Britain," noted Sir Max Hastings in an enthusiastic Sunday Times review of Smith's 'England's Last War Against France'. The author, who covered trouble spots from Saigon to Sarajevo for the Observer, writes a similar vein of narrative history as Hastings and Antony Beevor though his subject matter is sometimes less familiar. In 'Singapore Burning' he concentrates on the hard fought retreat down the Malay peninsula which preceded the fall of Singapore itself. In his latest book, 'England's Last War Against France', he tells the story of the war within a war between the British and Pétain's Vichy French including the little known Madagascar campaign. His work has been praised by a wide range of reviewers including Andrew Roberts in the Literary Review, Sir John Keegan and Patrick Bishop in the Telegraph, Neal Ascherson in the Observer, Alan Mallinson in the Times, Don Anderson in the Daily Mail, Robert Chesshyre in the Times Literary Supplement, Carmen Calill in the Guardian, Charles Glass in the London Review of Books and Philip Ziegler in The Spectator. Smith lives in Nicosia where he was once based as the Observer's award winning Middle East reporter. Readers wishing to contact this author or find out more about him and his work should visit:www.colin-smith.info
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"Colin Smith, a veteran war correspondent, has built an impressive reputation as a military historian, chronicling the fall of Singapore, the desert campaign, the life of Orde Wingate and now France's minor-key war with Britain," noted Sir Max Hastings in an enthusiastic Sunday Times review of Smith's 'England's Last War Against France'. The author, who covered trouble spots from Saigon to Sarajevo for the Observer, writes a similar vein of narrative history as Hastings and Antony Beevor though his subject matter is sometimes less familiar. In 'Singapore Burning' he concentrates... Read more
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Probably the best book on the campaign,
This review is from: Singapore Burning (Hardcover)
Among contemporary accounts, this is probably the best book on the campaign. Its analysis of the individual actions down the peninsular is fair and judicious. There is a pernicious tendency in writing about the Malayan campaign to either define the heroes and the villains, and then build the story around that; or to tilt in favour of either the Australians or the British. This book does neither: it unpacks the facts and lets the reader decide. In that way it does justice to all the protagonists, including the Indian army and the Japanese.
A book which everyone interested in this campaign should read is 'Phoenix from the Ashes' by Daniel Marston, which is an excellent account of what the Indian army learned in terms of the tactics of jungle fighting from its experiences in Malaya and Burma and how it responded. There are a few technical errors (e.g. Nelson was not of the same class of battleships as Prince of Wales), but overall Smith's research seems equally sound as it affects the air, land and sea elements of the campaign.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fire !Fire! Fire! call for the big steam engine....,
By Rankbajin (Scotland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Singapore Burning (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 case by Colin Smith. The author provides great detail of individual actions throughout the campaign and highlights all to many of the deficiencies. Details of the adversaries on all sides of the conflict help to crystalise the thoughts and pervading attitude and atmosphere that both led too 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 makes exilarating reading. The many atrocities covered make the ordinary mortal question the inhumanity of the Japanese Army. I chose to read the book in parallel with Peter Thomson's book Battle for Singapore which helped developed my understanding. Both books are equally good. Maps of Singapore were good but the overall Malaya maps could be more detailed. The culpability for the debacle was easily discernible through the narrative with politicians in Britain, Australia and Singapore playing 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 ignorance and dereliction of their own particular duty and were not brought to book. I strongly recommend this book to anybody interested in WW2 history and the fall of an Empire.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Substantial work on a largely overlooked piece of military history,
By Dusty Punch (McKinley, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Singapore Burning (Paperback)
At first glance, "Singapore Burning" took me aback. The sheer comprehensiveness of the coverage made me think that this book would cause me to lose interest a third of the way in (I'm have an admittedly short attention span when it comes to lengthy books). I was very pleased to find that this wasn't the case at all. Author Colin Smith does, in fact, pour on the details, but it does nothing but add to the inherent drama to this remarkable account of the fall of Signapore. Having not known much about the furious fight for Signapore prior to picking up the book, the story came to me as a complete and shocking surprise. While I was aware of the battle's result, I was astonished by both the bravery and incompetence displayed by Allied forces on Signapore. Smith's precise writing style lends itself to this largely overlooked story (at least in the US). His passion for the subject comes shining through from beginning to end. A pleasant surpise of a read.
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