The Defence And Fall Of Singapore
Shortly after midnight on 8 December 1941, two divisions of crack troops of the Imperial Japanese Army began a seaborne invasion of southern Thailand and northern Malaya. Their assault developed into a full-blown advance towards Singapore, the main defensive position of the British Empire in the Far East. The defending British, Indian, Australian and Malayan forces were outmanoeuvred on the ground, overwhelmed in the air and scattered on the sea. By the end of January 1942, British Empire forces were driven back onto the island of Singapore Itself, cut off from further outside help. When the Japanese stormed the island with an an-out assault, the defenders were quickly pushed back into a corner from which there was no escape. Singapore's defenders finally capitulated on 15 February, to prevent the wholesale pillage of the city itself. Their rapid and total defeat was nothing less than military humiliation and political disaster. Based on the most extensive use yet of primary documents in Britain, Japan, Australia and Singapore, Brian Farrell provides the fullest picture of how and why Singapore fell and its real significance to the outcome of the Second World War.

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The Defence And Fall Of Singapore
Shortly after midnight on 8 December 1941, two divisions of crack troops of the Imperial Japanese Army began a seaborne invasion of southern Thailand and northern Malaya. Their assault developed into a full-blown advance towards Singapore, the main defensive position of the British Empire in the Far East. The defending British, Indian, Australian and Malayan forces were outmanoeuvred on the ground, overwhelmed in the air and scattered on the sea. By the end of January 1942, British Empire forces were driven back onto the island of Singapore Itself, cut off from further outside help. When the Japanese stormed the island with an an-out assault, the defenders were quickly pushed back into a corner from which there was no escape. Singapore's defenders finally capitulated on 15 February, to prevent the wholesale pillage of the city itself. Their rapid and total defeat was nothing less than military humiliation and political disaster. Based on the most extensive use yet of primary documents in Britain, Japan, Australia and Singapore, Brian Farrell provides the fullest picture of how and why Singapore fell and its real significance to the outcome of the Second World War.

16.95 In Stock
The Defence And Fall Of Singapore

The Defence And Fall Of Singapore

by Brian Farrell
The Defence And Fall Of Singapore

The Defence And Fall Of Singapore

by Brian Farrell

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Overview

Shortly after midnight on 8 December 1941, two divisions of crack troops of the Imperial Japanese Army began a seaborne invasion of southern Thailand and northern Malaya. Their assault developed into a full-blown advance towards Singapore, the main defensive position of the British Empire in the Far East. The defending British, Indian, Australian and Malayan forces were outmanoeuvred on the ground, overwhelmed in the air and scattered on the sea. By the end of January 1942, British Empire forces were driven back onto the island of Singapore Itself, cut off from further outside help. When the Japanese stormed the island with an an-out assault, the defenders were quickly pushed back into a corner from which there was no escape. Singapore's defenders finally capitulated on 15 February, to prevent the wholesale pillage of the city itself. Their rapid and total defeat was nothing less than military humiliation and political disaster. Based on the most extensive use yet of primary documents in Britain, Japan, Australia and Singapore, Brian Farrell provides the fullest picture of how and why Singapore fell and its real significance to the outcome of the Second World War.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9789814423885
Publisher: Monsoon Books Pte. Ltd.
Publication date: 02/06/2018
Pages: 496
Sales rank: 868,356
Product dimensions: 6.12(w) x 9.02(h) x 1.45(d)

About the Author

Brian Farrell is Professor of History at National University of Singapore, where he has been teaching Military History since 1993. He is an authority on British Empire military history and in particular the fall of Singapore in 1942. His other books include The Basis and Making of British Grand Strategy 1940-1943: Was There a Plan?, Between Two Oceans: A Military History of Singapore From First Settlement to Final British Withdrawal (co-authored), Sixty Years On: The Fall of Singapore Revisited (co-edited) and Leadership and Responsibility in the Second World War (edited).

Table of Contents

Note on Citations 6

Introduction 7

Acknowledgements 11

Section 1 The Singapore Strategy 12

1 The Naval Key to the Far East 13

2 The Roads to War 35

Section 2 Preparing for War 67

3 The Bottom Falls Out 68

4 Great Expectations 89

5 Conceiving Defeat 117

6 Men and Arms 133

Section 3 The Four Crippling Blows 167

7 Plans Up in Smoke 168

8 The "Driving Charge" 193

9 Strategy by Default 200

10 The Poor Bloody Infantry 213

Section 4 The Main Battle Mirage 257

11 Stand and Fight 260

12 From Defeat to Disaster 279

13 The Price of Empire 320

14 End of a Mission, Death of an Army 335

Section 5 A Matter of Time 359

15 Siege 361

16 Invasion 389

17 Surrender 406

Epilogue: The Worst Disaster? 437

Maps 464

Appendix 1 Note on Sources 469

Appendix 2 Orders of Battle 473

Bibliography 478

List of Photos and Maps 488

Index 490

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