The Fall of Singapore

Abstract

Winston Churchill described the British surrender to the Japanese, which took place in Singapore in February 1942, as ‘the worst disaster’. This event had far-reaching consequences, both political and human, and it has sometimes been identified as a major turning point in the history of the British Empire, a beginning of the end. Highlighted at the time, and in subsequent debate, was Britain’s failure to protect both her own colony and the Malay States, to which the British government was treaty-bound. The limitations of the British over-all strategy, and of British naval and air power in the region at the time when it was most needed, have been repeatedly discussed. It has been widely recognised, too, that the spectacular success of the Japanese in a military campaign for Malaya which lasted only ten weeks represented great loss of prestige and a real humiliation for the British, especially in Asia.