Java Routes

Abstract

There was no long-term, or even medium-term, plan to evacuate British civilians or troops from Singapore in the event of a military defeat. The speed of the Japanese advance down the Malay Peninsula and the subsequent invasion of Singapore ensured that, at best, only hastily improvised plans could emerge to help people leave the island . These plans, at a late stage, constituted the ‘official’ evacuation and, outside of this, individuals and groups, both from the services and from civilian life, made their own attempts to escape capture, especially towards the end of resistance on the island.