Singapore

The Fall of Singapore and the Bitter End Wavell left Singapore for the last time and decided to salvage what he could for the ongoing battles elsewhere. He ordered that the last of the RAF [more…]

The Battle for Singapore Island General Wavell, Commander of the American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command was shocked when he went to Singapore from Java on 20th January 1942. No attempts had been made to prepare contingency plans [more…]

The Battle of Muar 14th – 22nd January 1942 The Battle of Muar was the last major battle of the Malayan campaign and was centred around the Gemensa Bridge on the Muar River in Johore [more…]

The Battle of Kampar 30th December 1941 – 2nd January 1942 It was clear by now that the British and Commonwealth forces were facing an enemy that was adept in asymmetric warfare and the Japanese [more…]

The Loss of Northern Malaya By now the Japanese Army was deployed in Siam and Northern Malaya and the British decided to conduct an exercise akin to rearranging deckchairs of the Titanic. They formed the [more…]

Realisation of the Japanese Threat and the Landings On the declaration of war with Germany in September 1939, the Defence Committee, which co-ordinated Malaya’s defence became the War Committee. The group consisted of the Governor [more…]

On 15th February 1942, a British and Commonwealth Army that had consisted of 140,000 troops, 253 aircraft, 250 armoured fighting vehicles and 864 artillery pieces, surrendered to the Japanese in Singapore. The Japanese force numbered [more…]