This video has been also dubbed into Spanish using an artificial voice to increase accessibility. You can change the Audio track language in the Settings menu. Este video se ha doblado al español utilizando una voz artificial para aumentar su accesibilidad. Puede cambiar el idioma de la Pista de audio en el menú Configuración. Pacific War Podcast: thepacificwar.podbean.com Pacific War #1 - Attack on Pearl Harbor: th-cam.com/video/ZzS1ZAulpoY/w-d-xo.html Pacific War #2 - Japanese Invasion of Malaya: th-cam.com/video/mpBGUC8OjE4/w-d-xo.html Pacific War #3 - Japanese attack on Guam, Wake and the Philippines: th-cam.com/video/MZ4d7Qeyivk/w-d-xo.html Pacific War #4 - Japan Continues Attacking: Borneo, Philippines: th-cam.com/video/MhQrv82HHn8/w-d-xo.html Pacific War #5 - Fall of Wake Island: th-cam.com/video/tgtagewcqKo/w-d-xo.html Pacific War #6 - Battle of Kampar: th-cam.com/video/AGYaghICqkY/w-d-xo.html Pacific War #7 - Battle of Slim River: th-cam.com/video/meWALqmsXxs/w-d-xo.html Pacific War #8 - Battle for the Dutch East Indies: th-cam.com/video/lBwjgesFsFU/w-d-xo.html Pacific War #9 - Invasion of New Britain: th-cam.com/video/rUL538i8Oms/w-d-xo.html Pacific War #10 - Fall of Malaya: th-cam.com/video/z7KaNtn2sFo/w-d-xo.html Pacific War #11 - Battle of Makassar Strait: th-cam.com/video/XJMxr7ED8tI/w-d-xo.html
General Yamashita admitting the bluff is boss level flex. He had the British at such a psychological defecit. He could practically choose where he wished to attack and defeat their minds rather than through attrition.
Churchill was devastated by the loss, and couldn't understand the lack of fighting spirit. Read a book by an officer that was in Singapore then (Escape From the Rising Sun) and he said that, basically, a sort of country-club atmosphere prevailed there amongst the officer class during the pre-war years, with horse racing, tea times, parties, ect., and this bred a lack of general toughness that didn't automatically disappear when the war clouds started to gather. And this, of course, filtered down to the lower ranks, who picked up on the vibe that they were a peacetime force for the most part, and did nothing to fire up the Indians and other assorted new arrivals who may already have been kicked around up north. Now compare that to the harsh Japanese samurai-spirit training! Really, I guess the place needed a Montgomery or Patton to assume command and shape things up aforehand, or it was a disaster in the making as you said.
There is a little known fact on the Battle of Singapore that is not even well known to us Singaporeans and Malaysians. On 13 Feb 1942, Captain Patrick Stanley Vaughan Heenan of the British Indian Army is executed with a shot to the back to the head by the British and his body dumped at Keppel Harbour for treason and espionage. He was a spy for the Japanese (most likely happened during his six month long leave in Japan from 1938 to 1939) and helped to assist the Japanese to coordinate air raids on British airfields in Malaya by likely giving useful information to them before the war, destroying a lot of British aircraft in the process. He was caught during a Japanese air raid on 10 Dec 1941 in Northern Malaya and sent to Singapore in Jan 1942 and court-martialed. As the Japanese rapidly approached the Town area of Fortress Singapore, Captain Heenan had become very cocky and taunted his guards that he would soon be free and they would become prisoners. This may have been why the British military police likely took matters into their own hands and hastily executed him. These events were suppressed by British Commonwealth military censors, which is possibly why even till today, his name is not even mentioned in local history texts and not many are aware of him.
Given the fact that he betrayed both his mates and his country, I can understand why the British MP did what they did. I probably would have done the same thing under those circumstances.
@@beepboop204 Seriously, if you have to project either your nationalism or contrarianism into a story that has nothing to do with you, it says more about you lol
It is good that some care has been taken to use a pre war / colonial era map of Singapore, not the post independence era Singapore map with the land reclamations at Tuas in the west, Changi in the east and the coastline areas at the south of Singapore. This was often an error we Singaporeans noticed with other videos and documentaries.
To hear my grandfather's version of the fall of Singapore, this video doesn't quite do justice to the absolute mess of an overall strategy, the ignoring of battlefield intelligence, and seemingly random decision-making from the British command. My grandfather was in the 18th Battalion of the 22nd Brigade, and lost so many friends over the course of this battle as they received changing, often contradictory orders, many of which just didn't make sense from a strategic standpoint and showed no understanding of what was happening It isn't accurate to say the defense fell because they didn't have enough men, as this video states at the start; the defense of Singapore didn't have a hope because of the monumental stupidity of those in charge. They could have opposed the landings properly then fallen back to hold the lines, could have prepared those lines and the boundary of the city itself, and they would not have fallen to this attack (granted they would likely have fallen to later attacks but this would have provided time to evacuate more people or to have possibly even gotten reinforcements) My grandfather held a strong dislike for the Japanese after the war (to put it mildly after his time at Changi), but that was nothing next to the utter hatred he held for the British for this mess.
My Grandmum was half British, Half ethnic Chinese in Malaya. Her brothers were with the resistance army. She was captured with her sisters in the last year of the war and taken to Changi. She always hated the Japanese.
@@numbawan9527 MacArthur was the only early war commander who not only wasn't sacked for inevitable failure but who was rewarded for it. I've always wondered about that.
Wanna know the messed up part? Our grandparents hated and had a phobia of Japanese folks. Then come to their Descendants: Omg the anime is so good, that character is sooo kawaii!! Ahahaha
18:00 On 14 Feb 1942, C Company commanded by Lieutenant Adnan bin Saidi under the 1st Malaya Brigade clashes with the Japanese during the Battle of Pasir Panjang at Bukit Chandu. The Japanese attempted to send in a group of men dressed in captured British Indian troops' uniforms in order to present themselves as allied Indian soldiers in the British Indian Army. However, soldiers of the British Army typically marched in a line of three columns while the supposed allied Indian soldiers in front of their lines were moving in a line of four columns. C Company saw through this deception and opened fire once the disguised Japanese reached their defensive lines, killing many and causing the remainder to retreat. The Japanese would return a few hours later to launch an all-out charge, overwhelming the defensive lines and resulting in fierce hand to hand combat. Lieutenant Adnan encouraged his men not to retreat or surrender, which was best illustrated in his motto: Better Death Than Dishonour. Eventually he was captured and executed by the Japanese. Today, Lieutenant Adnan is considered a local national hero in both Singapore and Malaysia for his actions at Bukit Chandu.
@@oddballsok Reflections at Bukit Chandu is a World War Two interpretative centre that commemorates the battle of Pasir Panjang and the men of the Malay Regiment who fought in it, as well as the history of Bukit Chandu itself. Housed in a bungalow that is closely connected to the site's history, the interpretative centre uses immersive experiences and contextual artefacts to present a multi-faceted look at Bukit Chandu and Pasir Panjang, while inviting visitors to reflect on our nation’s wartime experience and the brave sacrifice of the soldiers.
Lt. Adnan's actual words in Malay were "Biar Putih Tulang, Jangan Putih Mata" (direct translation means "Better being white in the bones, rather than white in the eyes"). But it does mean "Better Death Than Dishonour".
Something that isnt talked about in this episode is that the British Government called Singapore a fortress city when describing their defense of the region when the fighting broke out. However, it was mainly a bunch of high up military officials that coined the term "fortress" for an island/city that they had never seen, and the idea picked up steam as a rumor mill tends to do. So when the Japanese are on Singapore's doorstep after the horrendous missteps of the Malaya defense, Churchill was suddenly struck with the fact that Singapore was a fortress "without walls" or other defensible things that one would look for in a fortress, and was incredibly understrength. Basically Singapore fell because the British wildly underestimated the Japanese and fell victim to their own propaganda
Singapore was a murphy's law case. Nothing went the Brits way. There were already people disputing the strategy many years before the invasion but because they spent so much on the naval base, they fell into the sunk cost fallacy.
One of many reasons for the fall of Singapore was the mass desertion of hundreds of panicking Australian soldiers casting away their arms before the Japanese attacked. But nobody from Australia talks about that.
@@theawesomeman9821 that doesn't hide the fact that it was the Australians who cast away their arms and ran. The British and Indians largly stayed put and fought
I'm from Singapore, and I'm grateful for all Indian, Australian, British, Malay, Chinese and other Commonwealth forces that defended us even through they were fighting and dying in a foreign land 80 years ago.
Fun fact: When Singapore surrendered, there was one country that was happy, even though it was not an Axis power. That was Ireland. At a reception held at the Japanese Embassy in Dublin in 1964, the politician Thomas Mullins told those present that after hearing the news that Singapore had fallen, IRA activists were so pleased that they invited the Japanese consul to join them in a grand celebration.
Perceivel was despised in Ireland especially in Cork. He was in command of the black & tans as well as the auxiliaries in munster and they conducted a campaign of terror during the Irish war of independence. Hearing of that bastard's humiliation was a delight to everyone who suffered at his hand.
My Grandfather was a PoW after the Battle of Singapore and held in Changi. He was brave/fortunate enough to keep a diary (disguised as an address book) and my Mother and Aunt have published a book about his and fellow soldiers tales (Captured In Singapore). I've just started reading it and that brought me to find out more.
@@Nineteenstarsabove I mean, not much? However, I do think MacArthur could win if only Wake didn't fall and the reinforcements he counted on actually arrived.
Well, intelligence is difficult when you don't have planes to reconnoiter, like the Japanese had, and you don't have a few spies on the Japanese side. Remember that communications could be intercepted, especially radio signals, and there were far more Japanese who could understand English than there were Englishmen, Australians, Indians and Malays who could understand Japanese. I feel that's how Yamashita was able to know that Percival expected the Japanese to hit the northeast, so he organized the distraction in the northeast while concentrating all his best forces in the northwest.
My granduncle was taken away by the Japanese after the fall of Singapore, tortured for a month, before he surprisingly was returned to the family. He was disabled, barely conscious, barely alive. His suffering did not last long and he died shortly after. To his dying day, my grandfather hated the Japanese, which was an irony given the fact that most millennial and Gen Z Singaporeans have good impression of Japan - a clear sign that Singapore has mostly moved on from the horrors of that era. Almost every 3rd or 4th generation Singaporean has a unique family story about the Japanese invasion and occupation thereafter. Dig deep, and one will find out how much had been lost at that time.
@@Dita000 yet they make no attempts to apologize what so ever. Pretty much says a lot since they tried to distract young generation with bread and circuses or in this case (sushi and anime)
@@Dita000 an average japanese won't even know and clueless as to what the hell happened in ww2 anyway. (They can't even recognize nazi symbol) Not sure why, but you get the idea Tell me, how come Germany had to issue apologies to Europe for their warcrimes but this giant bread and circuses of a country able to get away free?
I remember reading in Churchill's memoirs about his reaction to the Fall of Singapore. He was absolutely distraught, more so than at perhaps any other British defeat in the entire war.
Hi K&G, as a born and bred Singaporean, I thank you for this video on the Battle of Singapore. I would like to mention that there were also local volunteers of the Straits Settlements Volunteer Corps and Dalforce involved in the fighting. In addition, Feb 13th (the day of the massive British evacuation) was known as "Black Friday", as most of the evacuating ships were sunk by a Japanese naval blockade in the Bangka Strait to the south (in the Dutch East Indies). There are horror stories of survivors being captured, raped and tortured by enemy forces after being cast ashore on Sumatra.
@@mutttaaaz9165 Yes we had food shortages. The biggest problem during the susbequent Japanese Occupation was hunger. People had to buy limited amounts of food using ration cards. Towards the end of the war the Japanese relocated some locals to Endau and Bahau in Malaya, to set up farming settlements. These were a failure.
@@far_centrist Yup. These things did happen. One of my favorite books on the subject is the late Eric Lomax's autobiography, The Railway Man (which was adapted into a film in 2013 starring Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman). Mr Lomax was a British army officer who was serving in Singapore when it fell to the Japanese. He was later sent to a POW camp in Thailand and forced to work on the Death Railway. His experiences caused him severe trauma which haunted him for decades. Finally, in the 1990s, he met and forgave his torturer (with immense emotional support from his second wife) before passing away in 2012. A very touching story.
@@royouyong2131 My father was 7 during the war. He said that He ate sweet potato most days. This was complimented by vegetable grown at home. Rice was bought at high price to eat maybe once a month with birthdays have the ability to add some soya sauce. However, rice was often stolen by others if not the Japanese. He remembers how once my grandfather had put a thick layer of sand above the rice to keep it safe. He remembers eating the rice with small pieces of sand that could not be washed away.
The British General, Percival was unbelievably incompetent. He told a Churchill representative he'd decided NOT to entrench Singapore's defenses because it would DEMORALIZE the City's British civilian population. Then he SAT THERE for over a month as the Japanese moved towards the City. "Percival's Posts" were doomed to fail but the unforgiveable blunder was not shoring up defenses for urban warfare at the city's perimeter. He had the manpower & TIME to do it, & simply sat there.
Before the war, Percival tried to persuaded the government to have extensive defense networks built in northern Malaya, but thanks to the bureaucrats and the politicians, the work never got started. One of the major problems faced by Malaya command, was the fact that they were continually being given low priority when it came to supplying them with the very latest tanks and aircraft. There were plans to have 350 older model tanks shipped to Malaya during 1941, but when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June, those tanks were shipped to Stalin instead. I also used to think of Percival as an incompetent fool, but that has changed after I looked into the matter more carefully. And many have concluded that he has been unfairly scapegoated, both by his government and the public in general ever since the fall of Singapore.
@@wolfu597 The criticisms of Percival are not unfair at all, considering how he commanded the defense of Malaysia. It's shown in this very series how incompetent he was. Singapore should have been evacuated, yes, but that doesn't make Percival any less bad at directing the defense of Singapore.
on one end yes..but on the other end: with an ALMIGHTY ENEMY air dominance and bomber power..there is REALLY no HIDING... not during preparing..not during the street fights.. the conditions to surrender would be just the same.. water ? food..? motivation ? relief forces ? if yes, only THEN invest in city barricades...
@@weirdofromhalo From a general perspective, you're right. But when you take a closer look, it paints a very different picture of Percival. In 1937, Percival and his superiors at the time, general Dobbie, made a detailed analysis of Singapore's vulnerability, not from the sea, but from the Malay Peninsula. But they looked at it from a Japanese perspective, and predicted that the Japanese would land on the eastern coast. They also conducted exercises that showed that landing was possible during the monsoon (october - march). And that the Japanese might established advanced airfields in southern Thailand. But this report, and it warnings were ignored by the politicians. In 1938, Dobbie warned that the jungle in southern Malaya, (Johore region) contrary to belief, were not impassable to infantry. Once again, the warning was ignored. In 1939, Dobbie and Percival, managed wiggle 60 000 pounds from the government, most of which were spent on building machine gun bunkers on the southern coast of Singapore island. As we can see, Percival and his superiors tried several times to warn the British government that the Japanese might invade and that jungle were not imprenetrable, especially to an enemy that has been hardened in battle, such a IJA. But as we can see, bureaucracy and inherited assumptions made everyone deaf and blind.
@@wolfu597 the jungle comment reminds me of the european front during WWI and WWII. Ardennes Forest surprised the French the 1st time and then the Allied forces again during WWII.
Great video. Really shows just how much the British military disrespected the Japanese forces with poor strategic planning and worse tactical command decisions
@@lucks4fools978 oh sir that goes without saying! Race was the driving force of the british's disrespect, and the consistency of being disrespected drove the Japanese. Treat others the way you want to be treated. I guess the Brits back then didn't care to much about themselves
@@jarrodbright5231 yeah, I guess the highest rating allowed on TH-cam is"R". To fully explain war stories, you're probably going to need to do it on a porn site to cover for all the rape and other horrors
The british really had only the c-team in east asia (not talking about the brave soldiers, but their incapable commanders). They had more than three times the troop numbers than the Japanese, but blundered so hard.
they stationed their weakest units and assets here in malaya tbh..they thought it would be enough to handle the japanese while the more important assets and battalions were all in britain fighting against the germans.
not much you can do with 100 men with rifles against 5 tanks and 20 bombers and 20 strafing fighters.. even in singapore they got the tanks shipped over...(!!!!!!!!).
@@oddballsok While Singapore was probably doomed from the start, the entire Malay campaign and the defense of Singapore was badly bungled by Percival and his generals. It certainly could have lasted much longer than it did. Contrast it with the defense of the Philippines, where the American & Filipino defenders had many of the same disadvantages and much less of a numerical advantage over their foe, but still managed to stubbornly hold on for three months longer than British & Commonwealth forces in Malaya. The principle difference is that while MacArthur largely committed similar blunders in the first half of the Philippines campaign, he also largely got his act together by the second half of it. While the events that led to retreat to & defense of Bataan were humiliating, that retreat & defense brilliantly handled.
@@Bullet-Tooth-Tony- They were probably always doomed to defeat yes, but it could have held out much longer. That it didn't was due to the poor way in which the Malay campaign & the defense of Singapore were handled by the Allied commanders.
As a Singaporean and war history enthusiast, I really appreciate this animated version of battle of Singapore. One thing I'd like to point out is that Buona Vista is indeed an area in Singapore, yet it's not located at the east of Pasir Panjang. Anyway, thanks K&G and looking forward to more videos on Pacific War Series!
Churchill once said something to the effect that he could rule the world if he had Canadian troops, American weapons, and British officers. I'm sure I've got that a bit wrong, but I've always thought that it was a rather odd thing to say. I know Churchill couldn't really go saying bad things about the British army, but for the duration of the war, in every theater and on every level, British officers proved to be almost impossibly incompetent in every imaginable way. This is probably due to the most important qualification for officers and for promotion being who your daddy was, and how wonderfully noble your noble ancestry was.
@@cmachinist "British officers proved to be almost impossibly incompetent in every imaginable way" Not true read up on Richard O Connor, Auchinleck and Bill Slim
As a Singaporean, it's little wonder that my secondary school history teacher who herself is eurasian with British ancestry had absolute disdain for the British rulers and military. They were arrogant, over-confident and in her words - "bloody useless". Most disgustingly, they cared only for themselves - the British. Oh, how our ancestors suffered at their leadership, or rather the utter lack of it.
Blame the British leadership, not the men who fought. But i understand your anger, we shouldn't have been there to begin with, it was not ours to take. Different times.
I've never looked into the Fall of Singapore before now. I was however aware of the fact that it was considered to be an absolute embarrassement for the British. I didn't expect it to be THIS embarrassing though.
Singaporean here. Kind of funny to me on hearing the difference between your pronounciation of our place names and the way we say it (Tanglin, Bukit, Timah, Panjang and Paya Lebar to name a few). Not the main point of this comment. Very well made video. Very detailed. Thank you! I took history in my secondary school days. The anniversary of the invasion happened just a few weeks ago. Reminded me of the situation between NATO / US / Ukraine and Russia. Will keep this video in my favourite and rewatch it every year on Feb 15th. Will show this to my children when they grow older to remind them of self defense and not depending on foreign powers for help when the time comes. Thank you!
Fall of Singapore is the historical event that symbolizing not only the end of the British Empire but also the end of the Western colonialism against Asian which had been followed since the Age of Discovery,16th century.
I love that K&G is doing this to the actual timeline of the war. It makes me really feel how long these events took to unfold. Every week I keep telling myself I can't wait till the battle of midway only to realize it isn't for months.
10 MONTHS AGO! wow feels like yesterday when these first came out. I look forward to these videos every week and and consider it a highlight of the week. Keep up the great work!
@@jessicalacasse6205 battle of France was a combined allied loss and can mostly be blamed on French commanders. It was a German victory but not a decisive victory over the British since they were able to evacuate so many British troops keeping British spirits alive. Singapore was a total disaster.
@@jessicalacasse6205 There was absolutely nothing British forces could do to save France. The defense of France was primarily the responsibility of the French, who were fielding the bulk of the forces & doing the lion's share of the planning. It was a humiliating defeat but one in which most of the responsibility for that defeat lay with their ally. The Malay campaign & the fall of Singapore on the other hand were entirely a British failure. There was no one else to blame. As ChrisKip pointed out the British were also able to save a large part of their army with the evacuation from Dunkirk, while with the fall of Singapore the majority of the army marched into Japanese prison camps. Moreover the British & Commonwealth forces in the Malay campaign had significantly outnumbered their foe, while the Germans & Allies fielded a roughly equal number of men across the front at the start of the Battle of France. The fall of Singapore was unquestionably the most humiliating defeat Britain suffered during the war.
My father was a member of the 2/19th Battalion AIF He was injured in the defence of Singapore and taken prisoner and was sent to the POW camp at Sandakan North Borneo He escaped from the extermination camp at Ranau to become one of only six survivors from an original total of more than two thousand four hundred British and Australians at Sandakan
My mums uncle was 2/30th but was taken to Changi then moved on to Japan, never got the chance talk to him as he died less than a month before I was born
As a singaporean our history lessons were never in depth enough and I had to search up about it myself when I was young Im glad the younger ones get these videos to learn more about our fall to the japanese
In this episode,we heard that you tell about Lieutenant Adnan Bin Saidi Lieutenant Adnan Bin Saidi was a Malayan military officer of the 1st Infantry Brigade who fought the Japanese at the Battle of Pasir Panjang in Singapore during World War II.
We used to believe that no one could beat the Brits. But they left us in the hand of the Japanese after the fall of Singapore. But i never blame them cause our hero Lt. Adnan Saidi once said "why would an outsider had to die just to protect the land that they didn't born to?".
There's a saying from alexander the great that goes by: "I fear an army of sheep led by a lion more than an army of lions led by a sheep" The siege of singapore confirms his saying
This series taught me the extent to which south Asians participated in the battles of Malaysia and Singapore. I have a different, newfound respect for Malaysia and Singapore now.
@@yousseph777 also, during this time they would learn millions of them would starve to death in their homelands in Bengal through British incompetence. You still have hundreds of comments here excusing away all sorts of atrocities to defend colonialism really.
MacArthur was bipolar in his generalship. He could commit staggering blunders (as he did early in the Philippines campaign, or later in the Korean War), but he also could be absolutely brilliant. The retreat to Bataan & it's defense were largely brilliantly handled, though several blunders by MacArthur had set the stage for it. He's a bit like Stonewall Jackson in that respect, a similarly overrated general who fluctuated between brilliant & poor performances. Percival on the other hand was just a poor general. He had no flashes of brilliance and the entire conduct of the campaign from start to finish was embarrassing.
@@reynanlamsen2007 Patton was actually very much like Sherman in that he was low key really good at logistics. they both have an uncanny ability to keep troops moving.
Thank you for the coverage. Coincidentally, here in Singapore, we're going to commemorate Total Defence Day on 15 Feb as a remembrance of the British surrender in Singapore.
The British incompetence at many early stages of war is astonishing. They were so ill prepared all over the world and made a number of tactical blunders. They had skilled commanders that made up for these losses in time, but humiliating defeats often overshadow less significant/less 'cool' victories
Lt. Adnan heroism and sacrifice seems inconsequential given how the Japanese would have won Singapore anyway. But he will be a legend forever. "What we do in life echoes in eternity"
@@benjamindavidovichwaals2899If you ask France people about The legend of Joan of arc, France people can tell you how legendary Joan of Arc was. But for Malaysian and Singaporean, we feel nothing about Joan of Arc. We knew her but we dont have any emotional attachment. For us, she is just another video game character. If you ask Malaysian and Singaporean about Lef. Adnan. He always be a legend in our heart. A name to be remembered to eternity. A noble warrior who gave his life to protect our people.
10:29 To add on, the Japanese Imperial Guards troops were also surrounded with Oil Slick from the Woodlands Oil Depot which were deposed by the Commonwealth troops in-order to prevent its capture by the Japanese. While the firefight was going on, the Australian troops set the oil alight, 'causing many of the Imperial Guards troops to suffered severe casualties from the fire and the attack was almost repelled due to Nishimura requesting permission to withdraw but instead, was denied by Yamashita.
yeah..but he got NO MATERIAL to do defense.. Tanks ? Antitank guns ? Heavy artillery and heavy mortars (like in Stalingrad ????) ? SPitfires and hurricanes ? More submarines ??? Bunkers ? ...no penny was spent on Malaya defenses and military...
@@oddballsok They spent a lot of money shoring up the naval base and big guns pointing towards the sea because they was expecting a naval invasion. Problem was the pre-war defence strategy did not take into account war in europe which tied up resources to reinforce Singapore. Also tanks were assumed to be useless in the jungles of SEA. Japanese navy was also one of the strongest in the world.
He was also comprehensively failed by his navy and airforce, but it does beggar belief that he managed to lose on good defensive ground against a force one third the numbers of the enemy.
@Emil Fontanot all losing battles are disasters in the end. The real counter point is Bataan was 10 miles Wide and the Malay Peninsula about 100 miles Wide.
Percival had a much more chance than mac arthur, he even had a chance to scout the nothern part. He knew the key points but he never bothered keeping them.
@@YasserMaghribi one of the malayan heroes who led some troops that fought against the japanese invaders until the end. Guy was such a problem to the japanese, when they finally got him, they had each soldiers present stab him with their bayonets to make sure he suffered and truly died.
@@khalduras784 just read he was thrown in a bag, attached by the legs to a branch tree before being beaten and stabed by bayonets. He said the Shahada before passing away. May God have mercy on him
That is quite shocking..... turns out the supposedly "epic" battle of Singapore never really happened. All the climactic buildup only to capitulate before the big fight. Looks like the sacrifice of the Australian and Malay soldiers came down to nothing...... Edit: The Indian soldiers fought bravely too
Well Germany was a bigger threat at the time and tanks were needed for Africa. And probably better they didn’t have tanks there since the loss would’ve been even worse.
My English great uncle was captured here and made to work on the railway of death in Thailand. My mother is Thai and I am half Thai but unfortunately we were never close to him because of this.
The best news that Hirohito could announce to his ancestors' shrine just a few days after National Foundation Day. The Alexandra Hospital massacre was the brainchild of Strike South planner Col. Tsuji Masanobu, and was intended to demonstrate to the British what would happen if they continued to resist, and he apparently led it in person.
The British have such a large force on the island, but at the front it's always battalions against divisions. It's not only an issue of dispersion. Half the force is out of action somewhere. I think the Japanese are amalgamating depleted units on an ad hoc basis, while the British pull any unit below 80% strength out of the line until it can be replenished with fresh troops.
This is the best documentary I’ve seen so far on the Fall of Singapore. The only part that was missed was that the British Civilian Govt refused to prep fortifications despite the Japanese landings so as “not to panic the civilian population” which was of course completely ridiculous.
It was Brigadier Ballantyne of the 44th Indian Brigade @12:22, (not Brigadier Archibald Paris) who together with Brigadier Taylor of the 22nd Aust Brigade, who both mis-read Percival's Instruction No.40 regarding moving to the final perimeter formation in case the Jurong Line couldn't hold. That started the dominoes falling at the Jurong line. Brigadier Paris with his 12th Indian Brigade did indeed remain on the line as rear guard from Tengah to Bukit Panjang until his unit disintegrated on the 11th Feb, just before the taking of Bukit Timah.
15 February, Fall of Singapore, that ended the British dominance is Malaya, which also happens to be my birthday is the first step towards liberating Southeast Asia from Colonial Parasites. For uploading this video, I would like to wish you Danke Gozaimashta!
Should probably mention that General Bennett, a veteran of Gallipoli and the commander of the 8th Division, rather than stay and surrender with his men, immediately booked it on a sampan with some junior officers and local europeans and successfully got out. Becoming the Commander of III Corps, which was based out of Perth and he never held an active command again. After the war there would be inquiries into his decision to flee Singapore, he even wrote a book titled "Why Singapore fell", while the war was still going.
Most Americans don’t realize that Pearl Harbor was a secondary objective. The primary objective of this major offensive by the Empire of Japan was dislodging the UK stronghold in Singapore.
They were both key objectives. Singapore was vital for holding Malaya and the Dutch East Indies along with their abundance of raw materials. Pearl Harbour was pivotal to the US military response to Japan's attack on the Philippines.
Pearl Harbor was no secondary objective. It was absolutely vital to Japanese offensive plans in the Pacific, because the U.S. was the only nation with sufficient naval power committed to the region (the British Navy was largely drawn away to the North Atlantic & Mediterranean) to throw a wrench in Japan's plans. As Truth Grenade noted, crippling the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor was also a necessary step for successfully invading the Philippines. U.S. plans for the defense of that nation called for the fleet to sail out of Pearl Harbor & counterattack.
@@cornwallforever5305 The victory in the Second World War was an allied one, and it is true that some Americans forget that. However the OP's assertion that Pearl Harbor was a secondary objective was incorrect.
Not sure you'll like the real version, since the British officers in that movie are really substitutes for French collaborators. Or maybe you already know that.
When asked about the best generals of the second world war, Yamashita's name is hardly mentioned. That's a pity because his Malaya campaign was strategically and tactically brilliant.
yeah but over here in south east asia, his name was both hated and feared, he had many nicknames, the tiger of malaya , the beast of batam or simply the "the king of killing"...also legend has it that he has stashed a large amount of gold which he looted from his campaigns across asia somewhere but so far no one has found it yet..
@@lyhthegreat I'm not making excuses for Japanese brutality during the war, or his part in it. The list of crimes against the people the Japanese subjugated as well as the enemy combatants they captured is long and well documented. I was merely commenting on his ability as a general in the sphere of tactical and strategic warfare. Regardless of how one feels about the individual, you can't deny that his planning and execution of the Malayan campaign was masterful.
Hmm and The Final Solution was elegantly efficient? Hitler was well dressed? There are good aspects in everything but some are rightfully overshadowed by the scale of evil.
it is important to remember that many of the Indian Troops were green and inexperienced not expecting to fight in Malaya and Singapore, The Better Indian Divisions were at this very moment we were in North Africa or in Iraq hence this lack of cohesion Also, it is important to note that Many Britsh officers had little to no Knowledge of the men under their command leading to more issues In fact, it was the Jemadar or the Subedar(Seniormost NCOs) who usually had experience led the men
14 Feb is not for us to celebrate Valentine’s Day but to remember the great sacrifices of Leftenan Adnan Saidi and the Malay Regiment in the Battle of Pasir Panjang.
This video has been also dubbed into Spanish using an artificial voice to increase accessibility. You can change the Audio track language in the Settings menu. Este video se ha doblado al español utilizando una voz artificial para aumentar su accesibilidad. Puede cambiar el idioma de la Pista de audio en el menú Configuración.
Pacific War Podcast: thepacificwar.podbean.com
Pacific War #1 - Attack on Pearl Harbor: th-cam.com/video/ZzS1ZAulpoY/w-d-xo.html
Pacific War #2 - Japanese Invasion of Malaya: th-cam.com/video/mpBGUC8OjE4/w-d-xo.html
Pacific War #3 - Japanese attack on Guam, Wake and the Philippines: th-cam.com/video/MZ4d7Qeyivk/w-d-xo.html
Pacific War #4 - Japan Continues Attacking: Borneo, Philippines: th-cam.com/video/MhQrv82HHn8/w-d-xo.html Pacific War #5 - Fall of Wake Island: th-cam.com/video/tgtagewcqKo/w-d-xo.html
Pacific War #6 - Battle of Kampar: th-cam.com/video/AGYaghICqkY/w-d-xo.html
Pacific War #7 - Battle of Slim River: th-cam.com/video/meWALqmsXxs/w-d-xo.html
Pacific War #8 - Battle for the Dutch East Indies: th-cam.com/video/lBwjgesFsFU/w-d-xo.html
Pacific War #9 - Invasion of New Britain: th-cam.com/video/rUL538i8Oms/w-d-xo.html
Pacific War #10 - Fall of Malaya: th-cam.com/video/z7KaNtn2sFo/w-d-xo.html
Pacific War #11 - Battle of Makassar Strait: th-cam.com/video/XJMxr7ED8tI/w-d-xo.html
Hi Kings and Generals, for the Bataan campaign I believe the Philippine Flag should have the red color on top of the blue since the nation is at war.
0:10 - 0:11
2:32
3:05 - 3:06 - 5:00 - 6:58
Tremendo detallazo para tus audiencias que hablan español! Thanks!
General Yamashita admitting the bluff is boss level flex. He had the British at such a psychological defecit. He could practically choose where he wished to attack and defeat their minds rather than through attrition.
Churchill was devastated by the loss, and couldn't understand the lack of fighting spirit. Read a book by an officer that was in Singapore then (Escape From the Rising Sun) and he said that, basically, a sort of country-club atmosphere prevailed there amongst the officer class during the pre-war years, with horse racing, tea times, parties, ect., and this bred a lack of general toughness that didn't automatically disappear when the war clouds started to gather. And this, of course, filtered down to the lower ranks, who picked up on the vibe that they were a peacetime force for the most part, and did nothing to fire up the Indians and other assorted new arrivals who may already have been kicked around up north. Now compare that to the harsh Japanese samurai-spirit training! Really, I guess the place needed a Montgomery or Patton to assume command and shape things up aforehand, or it was a disaster in the making as you said.
There is a little known fact on the Battle of Singapore that is not even well known to us Singaporeans and Malaysians.
On 13 Feb 1942, Captain Patrick Stanley Vaughan Heenan of the British Indian Army is executed with a shot to the back to the head by the British and his body dumped at Keppel Harbour for treason and espionage. He was a spy for the Japanese (most likely happened during his six month long leave in Japan from 1938 to 1939) and helped to assist the Japanese to coordinate air raids on British airfields in Malaya by likely giving useful information to them before the war, destroying a lot of British aircraft in the process. He was caught during a Japanese air raid on 10 Dec 1941 in Northern Malaya and sent to Singapore in Jan 1942 and court-martialed.
As the Japanese rapidly approached the Town area of Fortress Singapore, Captain Heenan had become very cocky and taunted his guards that he would soon be free and they would become prisoners. This may have been why the British military police likely took matters into their own hands and hastily executed him.
These events were suppressed by British Commonwealth military censors, which is possibly why even till today, his name is not even mentioned in local history texts and not many are aware of him.
And this is why treason needs to be punishable by death
he must had a good reason in doing so....
good riddance
Given the fact that he betrayed both his mates and his country, I can understand why the British MP did what they did.
I probably would have done the same thing under those circumstances.
@@beepboop204 Seriously, if you have to project either your nationalism or contrarianism into a story that has nothing to do with you, it says more about you lol
It is good that some care has been taken to use a pre war / colonial era map of Singapore, not the post independence era Singapore map with the land reclamations at Tuas in the west, Changi in the east and the coastline areas at the south of Singapore. This was often an error we Singaporeans noticed with other videos and documentaries.
I didn't know there was an airstrip at Paya Lebar in 1942. I thought we only had Tengah, Sembawang, Seletar and Kallang then.
Theres one error in which there is the bedok Reservoir that didn't exist during the 40s
This battle looks like Japanese were playing single player campaign against AI, that most of the time does nothing.
and on 'easy' mode .. with save points
LOL
Sounds like a regular hoi4 game
You play call of war?
Okey dokey
And thank you for the brief mention of Lt Adnan and the heroic resistance of his company at the Battle of Pasir Panjang!
He should deserve to be history. Malay Regiment is a war hero in both Malaysia and Singapore
@@squadcode71 Nah, He’s an inspiration for every south east asians.
@@reynanlamsen2007 Yeah you're right
Don't forget his other 42 soldiers too. Most of them is brave enough to fight until end against one of the most evil and immoral army with outnumbered
@@reynanlamsen2007 all south east asians?
In your wet dream lol
To hear my grandfather's version of the fall of Singapore, this video doesn't quite do justice to the absolute mess of an overall strategy, the ignoring of battlefield intelligence, and seemingly random decision-making from the British command. My grandfather was in the 18th Battalion of the 22nd Brigade, and lost so many friends over the course of this battle as they received changing, often contradictory orders, many of which just didn't make sense from a strategic standpoint and showed no understanding of what was happening
It isn't accurate to say the defense fell because they didn't have enough men, as this video states at the start; the defense of Singapore didn't have a hope because of the monumental stupidity of those in charge. They could have opposed the landings properly then fallen back to hold the lines, could have prepared those lines and the boundary of the city itself, and they would not have fallen to this attack (granted they would likely have fallen to later attacks but this would have provided time to evacuate more people or to have possibly even gotten reinforcements)
My grandfather held a strong dislike for the Japanese after the war (to put it mildly after his time at Changi), but that was nothing next to the utter hatred he held for the British for this mess.
Major respect for your grandfather for his service. May God grant him place in heaven
My Grandmum was half British, Half ethnic Chinese in Malaya. Her brothers were with the resistance army. She was captured with her sisters in the last year of the war and taken to Changi. She always hated the Japanese.
@@numbawan9527 MacArthur was the only early war commander who not only wasn't sacked for inevitable failure but who was rewarded for it. I've always wondered about that.
Indian troops were fighting but corward British ran away
Wanna know the messed up part? Our grandparents hated and had a phobia of Japanese folks.
Then come to their Descendants: Omg the anime is so good, that character is sooo kawaii!! Ahahaha
The fact that Duncan Maxwell got away with actively deserting with his “saving my men” excuse was just mind blowing.
Maxwell was captured, it was Gordon Bennett who escaped leaving his men behind
Lt. Adnan was a freaking legend, such a badass.
yeah...but i guess if you look at it as a whole, his noble feats had little impact on the trajectory of how the battles went..
@@lyhthegreat sad but true
18:00 On 14 Feb 1942, C Company commanded by Lieutenant Adnan bin Saidi under the 1st Malaya Brigade clashes with the Japanese during the Battle of Pasir Panjang at Bukit Chandu. The Japanese attempted to send in a group of men dressed in captured British Indian troops' uniforms in order to present themselves as allied Indian soldiers in the British Indian Army.
However, soldiers of the British Army typically marched in a line of three columns while the supposed allied Indian soldiers in front of their lines were moving in a line of four columns. C Company saw through this deception and opened fire once the disguised Japanese reached their defensive lines, killing many and causing the remainder to retreat. The Japanese would return a few hours later to launch an all-out charge, overwhelming the defensive lines and resulting in fierce hand to hand combat. Lieutenant Adnan encouraged his men not to retreat or surrender, which was best illustrated in his motto: Better Death Than Dishonour. Eventually he was captured and executed by the Japanese.
Today, Lieutenant Adnan is considered a local national hero in both Singapore and Malaysia for his actions at Bukit Chandu.
o7
where is there a plaque to commemorate this ? (exact street?)
@@oddballsok Reflections at Bukit Chandu is a World War Two interpretative centre that commemorates the battle of Pasir Panjang and the men of the Malay Regiment who fought in it, as well as the history of Bukit Chandu itself.
Housed in a bungalow that is closely connected to the site's history, the interpretative centre uses immersive experiences and contextual artefacts to present a multi-faceted look at Bukit Chandu and Pasir Panjang, while inviting visitors to reflect on our nation’s wartime experience and the brave sacrifice of the soldiers.
Lt. Adnan's actual words in Malay were "Biar Putih Tulang, Jangan Putih Mata" (direct translation means "Better being white in the bones, rather than white in the eyes"). But it does mean "Better Death Than Dishonour".
@@ZeroSOFInfinity yes, better died trying defend the country rather then taken as POW.
Something that isnt talked about in this episode is that the British Government called Singapore a fortress city when describing their defense of the region when the fighting broke out. However, it was mainly a bunch of high up military officials that coined the term "fortress" for an island/city that they had never seen, and the idea picked up steam as a rumor mill tends to do. So when the Japanese are on Singapore's doorstep after the horrendous missteps of the Malaya defense, Churchill was suddenly struck with the fact that Singapore was a fortress "without walls" or other defensible things that one would look for in a fortress, and was incredibly understrength.
Basically Singapore fell because the British wildly underestimated the Japanese and fell victim to their own propaganda
I would argue that the defenders knew the dangers but didn't have adequate support from the motherland due to the Europe first strategy.
Singapore was a murphy's law case. Nothing went the Brits way. There were already people disputing the strategy many years before the invasion but because they spent so much on the naval base, they fell into the sunk cost fallacy.
The seaward defences were very strong. The defences facing mainland Malay existed on paper only.
One of many reasons for the fall of Singapore was the mass desertion of hundreds of panicking Australian soldiers casting away their arms before the Japanese attacked. But nobody from Australia talks about that.
@@theawesomeman9821 that doesn't hide the fact that it was the Australians who cast away their arms and ran. The British and Indians largly stayed put and fought
I'm from Singapore, and I'm grateful for all Indian, Australian, British, Malay, Chinese and other Commonwealth forces that defended us even through they were fighting and dying in a foreign land 80 years ago.
Fun fact: When Singapore surrendered, there was one country that was happy, even though it was not an Axis power. That was Ireland.
At a reception held at the Japanese Embassy in Dublin in 1964, the politician Thomas Mullins told those present that after hearing the news that Singapore had fallen, IRA activists were so pleased that they invited the Japanese consul to join them in a grand celebration.
@@pasofino9583 You again! trolling. what is it that you dislike about the British? I am guessing by your name you maybe Spanish. hold a grudge do we?
Little did they know the irish government was about to sort them out.
Lol
Perceivel was despised in Ireland especially in Cork. He was in command of the black & tans as well as the auxiliaries in munster and they conducted a campaign of terror during the Irish war of independence. Hearing of that bastard's humiliation was a delight to everyone who suffered at his hand.
@@MbisonBalrog there was irish people in the british armed forces since they had the right to serve.
My Grandfather was a PoW after the Battle of Singapore and held in Changi. He was brave/fortunate enough to keep a diary (disguised as an address book) and my Mother and Aunt have published a book about his and fellow soldiers tales (Captured In Singapore). I've just started reading it and that brought me to find out more.
What's the name of the book?
I am from Malaysia, this video about fall of singapore is very sad. Malaysia and Singapore share common history during WWII.
The fact that Percival surrender without knowing Yamasita's running low on supply and manpower is mind-boggling to this day
You answered it yourself, mate.
failed intelligence?
McArthur and The USAFFE is far better than Singapore defenders.
@@Nineteenstarsabove I mean, not much? However, I do think MacArthur could win if only Wake didn't fall and the reinforcements he counted on actually arrived.
Well, intelligence is difficult when you don't have planes to reconnoiter, like the Japanese had, and you don't have a few spies on the Japanese side. Remember that communications could be intercepted, especially radio signals, and there were far more Japanese who could understand English than there were Englishmen, Australians, Indians and Malays who could understand Japanese. I feel that's how Yamashita was able to know that Percival expected the Japanese to hit the northeast, so he organized the distraction in the northeast while concentrating all his best forces in the northwest.
My granduncle was taken away by the Japanese after the fall of Singapore, tortured for a month, before he surprisingly was returned to the family. He was disabled, barely conscious, barely alive. His suffering did not last long and he died shortly after. To his dying day, my grandfather hated the Japanese, which was an irony given the fact that most millennial and Gen Z Singaporeans have good impression of Japan - a clear sign that Singapore has mostly moved on from the horrors of that era.
Almost every 3rd or 4th generation Singaporean has a unique family story about the Japanese invasion and occupation thereafter. Dig deep, and one will find out how much had been lost at that time.
Good impression of Modern Japan not Imperial Japan
Im pretty sure some still bear hatred against the Imps
@@Dita000 yet they make no attempts to apologize what so ever. Pretty much says a lot since they tried to distract young generation with bread and circuses or in this case (sushi and anime)
Amazing.. Family history is so often forgotten
@@haziqfarhan1369 That may be so but why blame its people and the businesses that they provide certain good to other nations?
@@Dita000 an average japanese won't even know and clueless as to what the hell happened in ww2 anyway. (They can't even recognize nazi symbol) Not sure why, but you get the idea
Tell me, how come Germany had to issue apologies to Europe for their warcrimes but this giant bread and circuses of a country able to get away free?
I remember reading in Churchill's memoirs about his reaction to the Fall of Singapore. He was absolutely distraught, more so than at perhaps any other British defeat in the entire war.
probably my most awaited episode. thank you K&G!
Hi K&G, as a born and bred Singaporean, I thank you for this video on the Battle of Singapore. I would like to mention that there were also local volunteers of the Straits Settlements Volunteer Corps and Dalforce involved in the fighting. In addition, Feb 13th (the day of the massive British evacuation) was known as "Black Friday", as most of the evacuating ships were sunk by a Japanese naval blockade in the Bangka Strait to the south (in the Dutch East Indies). There are horror stories of survivors being captured, raped and tortured by enemy forces after being cast ashore on Sumatra.
How do Singapourian
Eat in Japanese invasion
I thought you Don't have enough land
Even Malaysian can't eat rice
@@mutttaaaz9165 Yes we had food shortages. The biggest problem during the susbequent Japanese Occupation was hunger. People had to buy limited amounts of food using ration cards. Towards the end of the war the Japanese relocated some locals to Endau and Bahau in Malaya, to set up farming settlements. These were a failure.
@@mutttaaaz9165 Sweet potatoes was the diet of the day and of course there is still smuggled rice.
@@far_centrist Yup. These things did happen. One of my favorite books on the subject is the late Eric Lomax's autobiography, The Railway Man (which was adapted into a film in 2013 starring Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman). Mr Lomax was a British army officer who was serving in Singapore when it fell to the Japanese. He was later sent to a POW camp in Thailand and forced to work on the Death Railway. His experiences caused him severe trauma which haunted him for decades. Finally, in the 1990s, he met and forgave his torturer (with immense emotional support from his second wife) before passing away in 2012. A very touching story.
@@royouyong2131 My father was 7 during the war. He said that He ate sweet potato most days. This was complimented by vegetable grown at home.
Rice was bought at high price to eat maybe once a month with birthdays have the ability to add some soya sauce. However, rice was often stolen by others if not the Japanese. He remembers how once my grandfather had put a thick layer of sand above the rice to keep it safe. He remembers eating the rice with small pieces of sand that could not be washed away.
The British General, Percival was unbelievably incompetent. He told a Churchill representative he'd decided NOT to entrench Singapore's defenses because it would DEMORALIZE the City's British civilian population. Then he SAT THERE for over a month as the Japanese moved towards the City. "Percival's Posts" were doomed to fail but the unforgiveable blunder was not shoring up defenses for urban warfare at the city's perimeter. He had the manpower & TIME to do it, & simply sat there.
Before the war, Percival tried to persuaded the government to have extensive defense networks built in northern Malaya, but thanks to the bureaucrats and the politicians, the work never got started. One of the major problems faced by Malaya command, was the fact that they were continually being given low priority when it came to supplying them with the very latest tanks and aircraft.
There were plans to have 350 older model tanks shipped to Malaya during 1941, but when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June, those tanks were shipped to Stalin instead.
I also used to think of Percival as an incompetent fool, but that has changed after I looked into the matter more carefully. And many have concluded that he has been unfairly scapegoated, both by his government and the public in general ever since the fall of Singapore.
@@wolfu597 The criticisms of Percival are not unfair at all, considering how he commanded the defense of Malaysia. It's shown in this very series how incompetent he was.
Singapore should have been evacuated, yes, but that doesn't make Percival any less bad at directing the defense of Singapore.
on one end yes..but on the other end: with an ALMIGHTY ENEMY air dominance and bomber power..there is REALLY no HIDING...
not during preparing..not during the street fights..
the conditions to surrender would be just the same..
water ? food..? motivation ? relief forces ? if yes, only THEN invest in city barricades...
@@weirdofromhalo From a general perspective, you're right.
But when you take a closer look, it paints a very different picture of Percival.
In 1937, Percival and his superiors at the time, general Dobbie, made a detailed analysis of Singapore's vulnerability, not from the sea, but from the Malay Peninsula. But they looked at it from a Japanese perspective, and predicted that the Japanese would land on the eastern coast. They also conducted exercises that showed that landing was possible during the monsoon (october - march). And that the Japanese might established advanced airfields in southern Thailand.
But this report, and it warnings were ignored by the politicians.
In 1938, Dobbie warned that the jungle in southern Malaya, (Johore region) contrary to belief, were not impassable to infantry. Once again, the warning was ignored.
In 1939, Dobbie and Percival, managed wiggle 60 000 pounds from the government, most of which were spent on building machine gun bunkers on the southern coast of Singapore island.
As we can see, Percival and his superiors tried several times to warn the British government that the Japanese might invade and that jungle were not imprenetrable, especially to an enemy that has been hardened in battle, such a IJA.
But as we can see, bureaucracy and inherited assumptions made everyone deaf and blind.
@@wolfu597 the jungle comment reminds me of the european front during WWI and WWII. Ardennes Forest surprised the French the 1st time and then the Allied forces again during WWII.
Great video. Really shows just how much the British military disrespected the Japanese forces with poor strategic planning and worse tactical command decisions
Don’t forget good old racism.
@@lucks4fools978 From both sides. The Japs were way more racist
@@lucks4fools978 oh sir that goes without saying! Race was the driving force of the british's disrespect, and the consistency of being disrespected drove the Japanese. Treat others the way you want to be treated. I guess the Brits back then didn't care to much about themselves
Actually, from my grandfather's version of events (he was there on the Western front of this battle) this understates it fairly significantly
@@jarrodbright5231 yeah, I guess the highest rating allowed on TH-cam is"R". To fully explain war stories, you're probably going to need to do it on a porn site to cover for all the rape and other horrors
Was looking for this yesterday.....this is by far the best WW2 series I have seen
The british really had only the c-team in east asia (not talking about the brave soldiers, but their incapable commanders). They had more than three times the troop numbers than the Japanese, but blundered so hard.
they stationed their weakest units and assets here in malaya tbh..they thought it would be enough to handle the japanese while the more important assets and battalions were all in britain fighting against the germans.
not much you can do with 100 men with rifles against 5 tanks and 20 bombers and 20 strafing fighters..
even in singapore they got the tanks shipped over...(!!!!!!!!).
@@oddballsok While Singapore was probably doomed from the start, the entire Malay campaign and the defense of Singapore was badly bungled by Percival and his generals. It certainly could have lasted much longer than it did. Contrast it with the defense of the Philippines, where the American & Filipino defenders had many of the same disadvantages and much less of a numerical advantage over their foe, but still managed to stubbornly hold on for three months longer than British & Commonwealth forces in Malaya.
The principle difference is that while MacArthur largely committed similar blunders in the first half of the Philippines campaign, he also largely got his act together by the second half of it. While the events that led to retreat to & defense of Bataan were humiliating, that retreat & defense brilliantly handled.
@@lycaonpictus9662 Without air support and tanks the British were screwed
@@Bullet-Tooth-Tony- They were probably always doomed to defeat yes, but it could have held out much longer. That it didn't was due to the poor way in which the Malay campaign & the defense of Singapore were handled by the Allied commanders.
As a Singaporean and war history enthusiast, I really appreciate this animated version of battle of Singapore. One thing I'd like to point out is that Buona Vista is indeed an area in Singapore, yet it's not located at the east of Pasir Panjang. Anyway, thanks K&G and looking forward to more videos on Pacific War Series!
Incredible how inept the british commanders and troops where in this campaign. An enemy should never be underestimated.
the battle of singapur and the Anglo-Afghan war are regarded as the biggest military humiliation in british history.
Churchill once said something to the effect that he could rule the world if he had Canadian troops, American weapons, and British officers. I'm sure I've got that a bit wrong, but I've always thought that it was a rather odd thing to say.
I know Churchill couldn't really go saying bad things about the British army, but for the duration of the war, in every theater and on every level, British officers proved to be almost impossibly incompetent in every imaginable way. This is probably due to the most important qualification for officers and for promotion being who your daddy was, and how wonderfully noble your noble ancestry was.
@@akiogood4712 Battle of Isandlwana and the First Boer War as well.
@@akiogood4712 dont forget the first battle in anglo-zulu war
@@cmachinist "British officers proved to be almost impossibly incompetent in every imaginable way"
Not true read up on Richard O Connor, Auchinleck and Bill Slim
The Brits defended Singapore just as well as I wrote my 2000 word college essay 15 minutes from its deadline.
Chat GPT didn’t exist in the 1930s
@@ethanchapman969 Point is, both the essay and British defense failed miserably.
i like your attention to detail, like using the old singapore map before all the reclamation... great stuff!
generalship of the japanese during campaign was outstanding to achieve victory over such odds
quality over quantity
Yamashita was a superb general and probably the best of Japan's army commanders during the war.
@@lycaonpictus9662and they still lost.
Lieutenant Adnan from 1st Malayan Brigade fight until last breath at Pasir Panjang. He is one of the hero that day. 😢
No body ask
As a Singaporean, it's little wonder that my secondary school history teacher who herself is eurasian with British ancestry had absolute disdain for the British rulers and military. They were arrogant, over-confident and in her words - "bloody useless". Most disgustingly, they cared only for themselves - the British. Oh, how our ancestors suffered at their leadership, or rather the utter lack of it.
Blame the British leadership, not the men who fought. But i understand your anger, we shouldn't have been there to begin with, it was not ours to take. Different times.
@@Britishwolf89 "We"??
You didn't do shit bro.
they literally conquered half the world once... u just mad because ur country was weak to defend themselves from the british lmao
@@lifeuncovered6188 They are mad that those same conquerors gave them up easily to the Japanese.
you from china bro not singapore eat bat more stupid corona
This is the best war history Channel in youtube by far
I've never looked into the Fall of Singapore before now. I was however aware of the fact that it was considered to be an absolute embarrassement for the British. I didn't expect it to be THIS embarrassing though.
Singaporean here. Kind of funny to me on hearing the difference between your pronounciation of our place names and the way we say it (Tanglin, Bukit, Timah, Panjang and Paya Lebar to name a few). Not the main point of this comment.
Very well made video. Very detailed. Thank you! I took history in my secondary school days. The anniversary of the invasion happened just a few weeks ago. Reminded me of the situation between NATO / US / Ukraine and Russia. Will keep this video in my favourite and rewatch it every year on Feb 15th. Will show this to my children when they grow older to remind them of self defense and not depending on foreign powers for help when the time comes. Thank you!
Fall of Singapore is the historical event that symbolizing not only the end of the British Empire but also the end of the Western colonialism against Asian which had been followed since the Age of Discovery,16th century.
Thank you sharing this wonderful history, as many comment stated, as Singaporean myself don’t even know this much. Really thankful for this.
I love that K&G is doing this to the actual timeline of the war. It makes me really feel how long these events took to unfold. Every week I keep telling myself I can't wait till the battle of midway only to realize it isn't for months.
The Fall of Singapore is by far one of the worst military disaster in the British history
This is the greatest history series on TH-cam! No cap!
10 MONTHS AGO! wow feels like yesterday when these first came out. I look forward to these videos every week and and consider it a highlight of the week. Keep up the great work!
I remember learning about this in class. One of the greatest defeat of British Army and probably Britain’s worst defeat in World War Two.
Britain’s most humiliating defeat.
the battle of singapur and the Anglo-Afghan war are regarded as the biggest military humiliation in british history.
Definitely the most humiliating defeat from a supposedly inferior race.
@@jessicalacasse6205 battle of France was a combined allied loss and can mostly be blamed on French commanders. It was a German victory but not a decisive victory over the British since they were able to evacuate so many British troops keeping British spirits alive. Singapore was a total disaster.
@@jessicalacasse6205 There was absolutely nothing British forces could do to save France. The defense of France was primarily the responsibility of the French, who were fielding the bulk of the forces & doing the lion's share of the planning. It was a humiliating defeat but one in which most of the responsibility for that defeat lay with their ally.
The Malay campaign & the fall of Singapore on the other hand were entirely a British failure. There was no one else to blame. As ChrisKip pointed out the British were also able to save a large part of their army with the evacuation from Dunkirk, while with the fall of Singapore the majority of the army marched into Japanese prison camps. Moreover the British & Commonwealth forces in the Malay campaign had significantly outnumbered their foe, while the Germans & Allies fielded a roughly equal number of men across the front at the start of the Battle of France. The fall of Singapore was unquestionably the most humiliating defeat Britain suffered during the war.
Been watching most of your videos here. As a Singaporean, thanks for this.
My father was a member of the 2/19th Battalion AIF
He was injured in the defence of Singapore and taken prisoner and was sent to the POW camp at Sandakan North Borneo
He escaped from the extermination camp at Ranau to become one of only six survivors from an original total of more than two thousand four hundred British and Australians at Sandakan
My mums uncle was 2/30th but was taken to Changi then moved on to Japan, never got the chance talk to him as he died less than a month before I was born
FINALLY! THANK YOU SO MUCH, KINGS & GENERALS!
As a singaporean our history lessons were never in depth enough and I had to search up about it myself when I was young Im glad the younger ones get these videos to learn more about our fall to the japanese
In this episode,we heard that you tell about Lieutenant Adnan Bin Saidi
Lieutenant Adnan Bin Saidi was a Malayan military officer of the 1st Infantry Brigade who fought the Japanese at the Battle of Pasir Panjang in Singapore during World War II.
During the whole campaing i was believing japanese has the numbers... Incredible
Yup Japanese used force concentration attacking which defeated spread out defenders.
simple japanese trickeries that fooled the brits lol..shamfur dispray
@@johnl.7754 divide and conquer when outnumbered, very smart..
@@lyhthegreat Very smart when the Japanese do it but when the British do it to the Indians they call us cowards and weak? Lolll
@@JJaqn05 caused the indians had inferior weapons..as a matter of fact when you have overwhelming firepower, you don't even need strategies.
Big Thank you to Kings and Generals for making this history video!
ive waited for this episode. the narration is godly. would be epic to do a series for the eastern front!
Waited for this vid since Tuesday 😡😡😡
Love this series guys ✌️❤️❤️
We used to believe that no one could beat the Brits. But they left us in the hand of the Japanese after the fall of Singapore. But i never blame them cause our hero Lt. Adnan Saidi once said "why would an outsider had to die just to protect the land that they didn't born to?".
There's a saying from alexander the great that goes by: "I fear an army of sheep led by a lion more than an army of lions led by a sheep"
The siege of singapore confirms his saying
Amazing as always! love this series
Great video, always remain in anticipation for the next episode.
👍👍👍
This series taught me the extent to which south Asians participated in the battles of Malaysia and Singapore. I have a different, newfound respect for Malaysia and Singapore now.
@@bb2866 poor training and leadership, second rate weapons, low moral and a capable opponent -
Hindsight from the confront of home.
Come on, we in South Asia, Malaya, Singapore and Borneo. We served the British... We fight fir the empire...
@@yousseph777 also, during this time they would learn millions of them would starve to death in their homelands in Bengal through British incompetence. You still have hundreds of comments here excusing away all sorts of atrocities to defend colonialism really.
@@bb2866 battle of imphal /battle of kohima. Broken the entire Japanese westward expansion. This were the battles with the most Japanese casulties.
@@bb2866 add to that the horror when japanese were eaten by saltwater crocodiles in ramree island in burma.
A lot of people have trashed MacArthur for his command, but Percival is a masterclass in incompetence.
Macarthur was overrated, while Perceval was just bad.
MacArthur was bipolar in his generalship. He could commit staggering blunders (as he did early in the Philippines campaign, or later in the Korean War), but he also could be absolutely brilliant. The retreat to Bataan & it's defense were largely brilliantly handled, though several blunders by MacArthur had set the stage for it.
He's a bit like Stonewall Jackson in that respect, a similarly overrated general who fluctuated between brilliant & poor performances.
Percival on the other hand was just a poor general. He had no flashes of brilliance and the entire conduct of the campaign from start to finish was embarrassing.
@Emil Fontanot Patton?
@Emil Fontanot I fully agree with that statement.
@@reynanlamsen2007 Patton was actually very much like Sherman in that he was low key really good at logistics. they both have an uncanny ability to keep troops moving.
Thank you for the coverage. Coincidentally, here in Singapore, we're going to commemorate Total Defence Day on 15 Feb as a remembrance of the British surrender in Singapore.
6.00pm+ i dunno the sirens go maomaomaomaomao
@@kandam5517 I believe so
It's not a coincidence LOL. This channel is covering the Pacific War week by week.
@@lucaslimo Man, how did the Middle Ages end?
This series follows the Pacific War events on the same week when it happened, thus its not coincidental.
The British incompetence at many early stages of war is astonishing. They were so ill prepared all over the world and made a number of tactical blunders. They had skilled commanders that made up for these losses in time, but humiliating defeats often overshadow less significant/less 'cool' victories
Check the hundreds of deserting Australian soldiers and General Gitdon Bennet. The British and zindizn troops stood firm
Lt. Adnan heroism and sacrifice seems inconsequential given how the Japanese would have won Singapore anyway. But he will be a legend forever.
"What we do in life echoes in eternity"
No he won't be a legend lol
@@isyraf9989 well, look at why British trying to not talk about that 😂😂😂😂😂
@@benjamindavidovichwaals2899 he is still a hero in Malaysia and Singapore.
@@benjamindavidovichwaals2899If you ask France people about The legend of Joan of arc, France people can tell you how legendary Joan of Arc was. But for Malaysian and Singaporean, we feel nothing about Joan of Arc. We knew her but we dont have any emotional attachment. For us, she is just another video game character.
If you ask Malaysian and Singaporean about Lef. Adnan. He always be a legend in our heart. A name to be remembered to eternity. A noble warrior who gave his life to protect our people.
@@benjamindavidovichwaals2899 Says the armchair general.
Video released at a good time. Fall of Singapore happened 80 years ago on the 15 Feb 1942.
10:29 To add on, the Japanese Imperial Guards troops were also surrounded with Oil Slick from the Woodlands Oil Depot which were deposed by the Commonwealth troops in-order to prevent its capture by the Japanese. While the firefight was going on, the Australian troops set the oil alight, 'causing many of the Imperial Guards troops to suffered severe casualties from the fire and the attack was almost repelled due to Nishimura requesting permission to withdraw but instead, was denied by Yamashita.
Wow! This has been an amazing series! Thanks, can't wait til the next installment.🙏
Lt Gen AE Percival was the worst commander in this theatre of the war.
yeah..but he got NO MATERIAL to do defense..
Tanks ?
Antitank guns ?
Heavy artillery and heavy mortars (like in Stalingrad ????) ?
SPitfires and hurricanes ?
More submarines ???
Bunkers ?
...no penny was spent on Malaya defenses and military...
@@oddballsok and yet the Pilipino/American forces on Bataan held out far longer with worse force ratios.
@@oddballsok They spent a lot of money shoring up the naval base and big guns pointing towards the sea because they was expecting a naval invasion. Problem was the pre-war defence strategy did not take into account war in europe which tied up resources to reinforce Singapore. Also tanks were assumed to be useless in the jungles of SEA. Japanese navy was also one of the strongest in the world.
He was also comprehensively failed by his navy and airforce, but it does beggar belief that he managed to lose on good defensive ground against a force one third the numbers of the enemy.
@Emil Fontanot all losing battles are disasters in the end. The real counter point is Bataan was 10 miles Wide and the Malay Peninsula about 100 miles Wide.
Percival had a much more chance than mac arthur, he even had a chance to scout the nothern part. He knew the key points but he never bothered keeping them.
Al-Fatihah, Lt Adnan. May God bless his soul.
Amen.
In memory Lieutenant Adnan Sardi (1918-1942) Al-Fatihah
Who was he ?
@@YasserMaghribi one of the malayan heroes who led some troops that fought against the japanese invaders until the end. Guy was such a problem to the japanese, when they finally got him, they had each soldiers present stab him with their bayonets to make sure he suffered and truly died.
@@khalduras784 just read he was thrown in a bag, attached by the legs to a branch tree before being beaten and stabed by bayonets. He said the Shahada before passing away. May God have mercy on him
Rip
woo Posted less than one minute ago, IM HERE YEAAAAAH
U are just so excited 😊
no one cares
@@Sourav-p9b I DO
That is quite shocking..... turns out the supposedly "epic" battle of Singapore never really happened. All the climactic buildup only to capitulate before the big fight. Looks like the sacrifice of the Australian and Malay soldiers came down to nothing......
Edit: The Indian soldiers fought bravely too
Risking more lives for an inevitable defeat and slaughter wouldn't have been what they wanted. None of their scrifices were in vain.
@@theblackswordsman9951 well becoming POWs of the Japanese is even worse....
I love this series. Keep up the good work.
The problem of Battle of Malaysia and Battle of Singapore is that there is very few British tanks and airplanes deployed there.
Well Germany was a bigger threat at the time and tanks were needed for Africa. And probably better they didn’t have tanks there since the loss would’ve been even worse.
@@Christian-mt5jx In fact they had been sent to the Soviets to keep them in the war.
My English great uncle was captured here and made to work on the railway of death in Thailand. My mother is Thai and I am half Thai but unfortunately we were never close to him because of this.
General Yamashita at the gates of Singapore:
HERE's Johnn--I mean JAPAN!!!
General Percival:
Screams in Fear*
i see uploaded 50seconds ago i click immediately. Thanks!
The best news that Hirohito could announce to his ancestors' shrine just a few days after National Foundation Day.
The Alexandra Hospital massacre was the brainchild of Strike South planner Col. Tsuji Masanobu, and was intended to demonstrate to the British what would happen if they continued to resist, and he apparently led it in person.
They must be so proud killing sick people.
@@nunyabiznes33 that's what Japanese thinking before Hiroshima. Now they're civilized.
the japanese were kinda like the mongols, surrender and we will kill less, resist us and we kill everyone we get our hands on..
@@yojan9238 u mean the 2 bombs changed them?
@@lyhthegreat definitely did
I'm going back to watch every video in this series and enjoying it.
The British have such a large force on the island, but at the front it's always battalions against divisions. It's not only an issue of dispersion. Half the force is out of action somewhere. I think the Japanese are amalgamating depleted units on an ad hoc basis, while the British pull any unit below 80% strength out of the line until it can be replenished with fresh troops.
Thank you.
Can’t believe Singapore has changed so much since then to a very modern country as we’ve seen today😍
Wonderful video! Thank you for making it and upload it.
Hope you guys are okay! I thought something bad happened since it didn’t come out on tuesday
Same here
Same :C
same :)
This is the best documentary I’ve seen so far on the Fall of Singapore. The only part that was missed was that the British Civilian Govt refused to prep fortifications despite the Japanese landings so as “not to panic the civilian population” which was of course completely ridiculous.
Will the formation of INA with the surrendered Indian Soldiers and their subsequent campaign against British Raj be covered as a part of Pacific war??
Could I know the Background music at 19:07 ?
It was Brigadier Ballantyne of the 44th Indian Brigade @12:22, (not Brigadier Archibald Paris) who together with Brigadier Taylor of the 22nd Aust Brigade, who both mis-read Percival's Instruction No.40 regarding moving to the final perimeter formation in case the Jurong Line couldn't hold. That started the dominoes falling at the Jurong line. Brigadier Paris with his 12th Indian Brigade did indeed remain on the line as rear guard from Tengah to Bukit Panjang until his unit disintegrated on the 11th Feb, just before the taking of Bukit Timah.
I'm a fan of your coverage! Great work Mr Tann!
15 February, Fall of Singapore, that ended the British dominance is Malaya, which also happens to be my birthday is the first step towards liberating Southeast Asia from Colonial Parasites.
For uploading this video, I would like to wish you Danke Gozaimashta!
( Bukit Chandu ) Rejimen Askar Melayu, Leftenan Adnan 💪❤
Should probably mention that General Bennett, a veteran of Gallipoli and the commander of the 8th Division, rather than stay and surrender with his men, immediately booked it on a sampan with some junior officers and local europeans and successfully got out. Becoming the Commander of III Corps, which was based out of Perth and he never held an active command again. After the war there would be inquiries into his decision to flee Singapore, he even wrote a book titled "Why Singapore fell", while the war was still going.
Most Americans don’t realize that Pearl Harbor was a secondary objective. The primary objective of this major offensive by the Empire of Japan was dislodging the UK stronghold in Singapore.
They were both key objectives. Singapore was vital for holding Malaya and the Dutch East Indies along with their abundance of raw materials. Pearl Harbour was pivotal to the US military response to Japan's attack on the Philippines.
Pearl Harbor was no secondary objective. It was absolutely vital to Japanese offensive plans in the Pacific, because the U.S. was the only nation with sufficient naval power committed to the region (the British Navy was largely drawn away to the North Atlantic & Mediterranean) to throw a wrench in Japan's plans. As Truth Grenade noted, crippling the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor was also a necessary step for successfully invading the Philippines. U.S. plans for the defense of that nation called for the fleet to sail out of Pearl Harbor & counterattack.
Most Americans have but 1 narrative: USA saved the world alone and for FREE. Lmao.
the aim of the whole first phase was the DEI
@@cornwallforever5305 The victory in the Second World War was an allied one, and it is true that some Americans forget that. However the OP's assertion that Pearl Harbor was a secondary objective was incorrect.
Amazingly detailed video
Video sugestion: the real story of the "Bridge over the river Kwai"
Not sure you'll like the real version, since the British officers in that movie are really substitutes for French collaborators. Or maybe you already know that.
@@thekinginyellow1744 nothing beats real history, ugly or not.
@@jlvfr I absolutely agree!
Another excellent episode
Could you please put the Pacific War series in the right order on your Playlists section? I'm sure it's cool watching it in reverse too.
Mind blowing video 📹 😳
When asked about the best generals of the second world war, Yamashita's name is hardly mentioned. That's a pity because his Malaya campaign was strategically and tactically brilliant.
yeah but over here in south east asia, his name was both hated and feared, he had many nicknames, the tiger of malaya , the beast of batam or simply the "the king of killing"...also legend has it that he has stashed a large amount of gold which he looted from his campaigns across asia somewhere but so far no one has found it yet..
@@lyhthegreat I'm not making excuses for Japanese brutality during the war, or his part in it. The list of crimes against the people the Japanese subjugated as well as the enemy combatants they captured is long and well documented. I was merely commenting on his ability as a general in the sphere of tactical and strategic warfare. Regardless of how one feels about the individual, you can't deny that his planning and execution of the Malayan campaign was masterful.
Hmm and The Final Solution was elegantly efficient? Hitler was well dressed? There are good aspects in everything but some are rightfully overshadowed by the scale of evil.
@@chinesesparrows blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
We can say for sure that when the list of worst WWII generals is discussed, Percival makes the short list
it is important to remember that many of the Indian Troops were green and inexperienced not expecting to fight in Malaya and Singapore, The Better Indian Divisions were at this very moment we were in North Africa or in Iraq hence this lack of cohesion
Also, it is important to note that Many Britsh officers had little to no Knowledge of the men under their command leading to more issues
In fact, it was the Jemadar or the Subedar(Seniormost NCOs) who usually had experience led the men
I live Singapore
and I visited Changi war museum
Such a great video!
Will you make video on free indian army that was with japan and germany
finally, been waiting for this since #01
14 Feb is not for us to celebrate Valentine’s Day but to remember the great sacrifices of Leftenan Adnan Saidi and the Malay Regiment in the Battle of Pasir Panjang.
Just read about the Bangka Island Massacre I'm Australian and didn't even know about it..