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Britain's Greatest Defeat: Singapore 1942 Paperback – January 15, 2007

by Alan Warren (Author)

4 customer reviews

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Britain's Greatest Defeat: Singapore 1942

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Book Description

The surrender of Singapore on February 15, 1942, was the greatest and most humiliating defeat in British history and the high-point of Japanese expansion in Southeast Asia. It graphically exposed the military weakness of the British Empire and its inability to defend its Far Eastern colonies. Based on original records, Singapore, 1942 shows what went wrong and how an outnumbered and poorly equipped Japanese invasion force swept to victory against a mixed army of British, Australian, and Indian soldiers, changing Britain’s imperial destiny and the course of World War II.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Alan Warren is a lecturer in history at Monash University, Australia. He is also the author of Wazirista, The faqir of Ipi and the Indian Army.

Paperback: 456 pages
Publisher: Hambledon Continuum (January 15, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1852855975
ISBN-13: 978-1852855970
Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.1 x 9.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
Average Customer Review: 4 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,868,784 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #31693 in Books > History > Military > World War II
- #38910 in Books > History > Asia
- #77850 in Books > History > Europe

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Unprepared.

BySteven Daedaluson March 23, 2012

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Well, it's a thorough, precise, and dispassionate examination of the retreat of British and colonial troops down the Maylay peninsula, the inept defense of the island of Singapore, and the ultimate capitulation. It's 377 pages long and reflects an enormous amount of research.

The impression it leaves is that of an army unprepared for attack by the Japanese in early 1942. Not so much that they were complacent because their chief artillery defenses faced the harbor and the sea, but rather that the army itself was a rag-tag ill-organized melange of British, Australian, Indian and Maylasian troops who were, by and large, poorly led and more trained in military drills than combat. Some of the Indian reenforcements in particular had had only a few weeks of training.

The book details the retreat down the peninsula, village by village, crossroad by crossroad. The terrain was terrible. Men fell ill. Guns bogged down in the mud. And the Japanese had light tanks, while the infantry stayed on bicycles on the roads. Some of the units put up a spirited defense. Most did not. Some disintegrated under fire from an inferior Japanese force. Many of the British officers were killed and it was inevitable under these conditions that the Allied forces found themselves hemmed within a small perimeter around Singapore City, which collapsed. The streets were filled with stragglers and runaway soldiers breaking windows, looting shops, getting drunk, and refusing direct orders to reform. There were a few summary executions. It was about as bad as it gets.

The Japanese were delighted when General Percival offered to discuss surrender. Yamashita was unyielding in his terms and slammed the table with his fist, an incident I think was caught on Japanese newsreel film. The conquerors were hardly less brutal. Soldiers bayoneted wounded men on the hospital's operating table. The heads of decapitated prisoners were left on fence posts and poles to frighten the civilians into obedience.

It's curious that both the Japanese invasion of Southeast Asia and Hitler's invasion of Russia was at first seen as a move to liberate the conquered peoples from some domineering alien power -- Europeans in Asia, the Soviet Union in Western Russia. The Ukranians cheered the arrival of German troops. Both victorious armies blew it by treating their civilians like so many animals.

I said this was a dispassionate book and it is. The facts are starkly presented but with little drama. The arrival, movement, and fate of the Repulse and Prince of Wales takes only two or three pages. There were times when I was completely lost in the jungle, the swampland, and the isolated rubber planations. Nor could I keep all the military units and their locations straight. I didn't know the 18th Garhwal Rifles from the Gurkhas from the 17th Dogras. It was even worse when the author began referring to the 1/18th and the 2/12th. Alan Warren could have submitted this as a doctoral dissertation if he'd peppered it with more footnotes.

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An accurate account

ByBrianon February 5, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is an excellent account of the complete balls up by the British command in Singapore during late 1941 and early 1942. The Australians emerge from this account very well of course. It is amazing that the British General, Percival would not heed Australian warnings about where the Japanese were likely to invade Singapore Island. And they did of course, exactly where the Australians were defending. This book has very good maps, which guide the reader's imagination as the story is told.
Digger's Story: Surviving the Japanese POW Camps Was Just the Beginning

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This is indeed a very informative book

ByPeter motykaon June 28, 2013

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I found this book to be well researched. Mr. Warren also did a fine job explaining the underlying reasons for such a massive defeat. I feel that the maps lacked some vital information but otherwise were of great help.

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Singapore, 1941 Britain's Greatest Defeat

ByChristopher F. Nelsonon September 22, 2013