|
|
The defence of Singapore was one of the great fiascos of World War II, full of so much deception and misconceptions about its impenetrable defence that many would much sooner forget it and erase it from history.
Whilst the Japs were victorious, they preferred to keep silent about their Singapore victory. It was a cover up for the thousands of Chinese civilians they slaughtered, and the brutal treatment they meted out to some 100 000 prisoners of war, many of whom died from their inhuman treatment. In their inscrutable manner, by never referring to the Singapore episode, their treatment of POWs and the plans they had to invade Australia, they hope all evidence of them would be erased from history.
They prefer to dwell on their higher motives of fighting to free bonded countries in the Pacific, from the yoke of the powerful British, Dutch and French Colonists. .
The British would be happy for the Singapore debacle to be forgotten, as it demonstrated upper class ignorance and a failing of Democracy. It was one of the greatest defeats in the history of British Colonialism. The failure of the Malayan Campaign is blamed on the ignorance, complacency and neglect of the British Parliament and the blunders of Singapore’s Chiefs of the Combined Services.
The English civilians in the Crown Colony of Singapore lived in a fool’s paradise, ‘Being British’ gave them a false sense of security. Living on Britain’s ‘Impregnable Fortress’, with its huge naval guns to protect them, made them indifferent to danger.
In the event of need, Mr Churchill would ensure their absolute protection. So they lived a life of luxury in delightful deceit, encouraged by its grandiose Military regime. Consequently little else was done to build realistic defences for the island. ‘After all, we’re British’.
Such was their attitude, that Australian troops there to help defend them, were refused entrance to the famous Raffles Hotel, and the numerous Government Rest Houses throughout Malaya.
The Imperial Japanese Army had demonstrated its military might by invading China, Manchuria and Korea and amassing enormous Naval and Air strength. Earlier in the century they had demonstrated their Naval power by defeating the Russians. Now their navy was more powerful than the combined strength of all other naval forces in the Pacific. Japan’s navy boasted 11 battleships, 10 aircraft carriers, and 39 cruisers. In contrast, Australia had 6 cruisers.
While Singapore possessed an aura of invincibility, based on its renowned Naval Base, unbelievably, the actual number of ships in the base was four derelict cruisers, several obsolete destroyers and three gun-boats.
The Imperial Japanese Army had demonstrated its brutality in the Rape of Nanking when their army slaughtered 200 000 Chinese men, women and children, in what they lightly referred to as the ‘China Incident’. This was a rattling of sabres to Australians, a potential threat to our freedom, and a slow awakening that maybe we should prepare to defend ourselves.
Australia had never been in this position before, Australians had fought in other wars, but always someone else’s, namely our Mother Country’s. Our participation had always been on a voluntary basis, and our men had earned a reputation for loyalty and courage. We developed a firmly entrenched, but misguided belief, that if ever our freedom was under threat, we could always count on help from an appreciative and powerful Mother Country.
Australia relied on Singapore as our first line of defence. As long as Singapore was perceived as an impregnable fortress and the most powerful naval stronghold of the Pacific, she remained a threat to any nation contemplating invading us. Japan’s supply lines to Australia would be in danger, and her drive south thwarted.
On the other hand, if Japan controlled Singapore, she could control the sea- lanes in the Pacific and cut Australia off from the rest of the world, forcing us into submission. Japan could then occupy Australia at will without the need for an armed invasion.
With our defence relying so much on Singapore, Australian forces were sent there to help stem any Japanese attempt to invade her.
On 2 February 1941, the first contingent of the 8th Division of the Australian AIF, under the command of Major General Gordon Bennett, sailed from Sydney on the Queen Mary bound for Singapore. Other contingents followed, finally totalling some 15 200 men. They joined the British garrison force of 19 000. In addition there were some 53 000 Indian troops. The strength of the combined Singapore – Malayan forces totalled some 88 000.
In all the Australian forces consisted of 2/18th, 2/19th, 2/20th, 2/26th, 2/29th, 2/30th, Infantry Battalions, 2/2 Pioneers, 2/10th, and 2/15th Artillery Regiments, 4th Anti Tank Regiment, 2/4th Machine Gunners and ancillary supporting regiments.
General Bennett was one of Australia’s outstanding brigadiers in World War I, He was tough, aggressive, resourceful and absolutely fearless. He remembered the fate of untrained men in France and was determined that his troops would never fall into this trap in the jungles of Malaya. Consequently he put a high priority on training and made sure his men could endure the vagaries of the jungle, were combat toughened, and aware of Japanese tactics and trickery. Up until now, Australians had looked on the ‘Yellow Peril’ as somewhat inferior little yellow men, who were short sighted and couldn’t see in the dark. Their recent advances indicated the opposite. General Bennett counselled his men not to look on them as inferior, and certainly not as superior, but as a brave, resourceful enemy to be faced with strong opposition. Consequently our infantry trained relentlessly until our men were highly skilled in bayonet assault and sharp shooting. While his men trained vigorously in the trying tropical conditions, they never doubted his concern to ensure they were more than a match for their Japanese adversaries.
Bennett’s approach was entirely the reverse of the British, and he was a perpetual source of annoyance to the British Commander General Percival.
Of the three forces under his command, General Percival allocated the defence of northern Malaya, about nine tenths of the territory, to the two weak divisions of inexperienced Indian troops from III Indian Corps. The AIF was allotted the task of defending Johore and Malacca, the states nearest Singapore, and the British, the Isle of Singapore. Experienced British Territorials were placed as a buffer between the Indians and the AIF.
The Allied forces in Malaya, were to be confronted by some 125 000 Japanese troops.
Yamashita’s men were among the best trained in the world. They were especially conditioned to endure extremes of heat and cold, fatigue and hunger. In 1941, Japan had been fighting China for four years and most of their men were seasoned and battle hardened. They were highly innovative, past masters at trickery, whether using fireworks to simulate gunfire to divert their enemy, or calling out in English to draw the Allied troops into the open.
They knew they were fighting to build a Greater East Asia, dominated by Japan, and believed that the plan included Australia. They were devoted and dedicated to their Divine Emperor, and firmly believed their highest honour was to die for him. Combined with their skilled use of weaponry, their philosophy produced competent, fanatical and brave fighters, who could at the same time, be callous and cruel. On Monday 8 December 1941, General Yamashita landed with 26 000 of his men at Khota Bharu in Northern Malaya, and in Singora and Patani inThailand.
To announce their invasion, Japanese aircraft raided the least suspecting city - Singapore. They forced the Allied Airforce to abandon all the airfields in the area and quickly established a strong foothold. The Allies, with inferior planes, were now left with some 50 aircraft against 550 superior Japanese planes.
As a show of strength, Churchill hastily directed two of Britain’s most powerful battleships to repel the invasion - the HMS Prince of Wales and the HMS Repulse together with the aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable. The Indomitable ran aground on the way out, and without air cover, Churchill insisted the two battleships proceed on their mission. No sooner had they arrived in the Gulf of Siam in readiness to attack the invasion troops, than Japanese dive- bombers and torpedo planes swooped on them. Without air protection, these two magnificent battleships were promptly blown up and sunk. One of the greatest tragedies in British Naval history had just occurred. Belief in Singapore’s invulnerability began to topple.
Yamashita and his warriors landed at Kota Bahru on the northern most coast of Malaya and proceeded on their relentless drive down the peninsula. They avoided the ‘impenetrable’ jungle simply by using the main trunk roads, conveniently provided by the British. They moved quickly riding their bicycles. Looking much like the local Malays, they were often in the midst of allied troops before they were recognised as the enemy.
British Military Headquarters decreed that rubber trees were sacrosanct and if cut down would be subject to heavy penalty, even during action. This made it difficult if not impossible to build roadblocks to stop the cyclist’s rampage down the peninsula.
The Indian resistance caved in quickly under the demoralising effect of the sudden appearance of wildly screaming Japanese soldiers charging straight at them from all directions with fixed bayonets.
In less than a month, the invaders had progressed well down the peninsula, and captured Kuala Lumpur and Penang.
General Sir Archibald Wavell Supreme Commander of the Combined Forces, visited the Far East to inspect the defence preparations. He was dismayed to find the Indian forces had taken their most crushing defeat. He was overwhelmed to discover that the much - vaunted defences which Singapore boasted and on which Britain’s reputation in the Pacific had been based, were nothing but a fabrication. Not one fortification or gun position existed north of Singapore.
Returning to the defences of Singapore Island, General Wavell found that the huge 15 inch guns designed to defend the island from the sea, while capable of firing north, across the Straits, were only supplied with armour piercing shells, deadly against warships, but useless against invading Japanese foot soldiers. High explosive shells would have had some effect, but none were available. The fixed defences, concrete pill boxes and artillery, barbed wire entanglements and anti landing devices had all been placed south of Singapore, to prevent a landing from the sea. Singapore City’s defence was tremendously dependent on protection from the air, but apart from a few antiquated planes, that did not exist either.
General Wavell then ordered the Australians to defend the centre of the mainland, including the main trunk road.
The Indian 111 Infantry Corps passed through General Bennett’s lines in hasty retreat with the Japanese close on their heels. The Australian forces readied themselves to block the enemy at Gemas.
Immediately after crossing a bridge, the trunk road led through a long high walled cutting, dense jungle covering both sides of the road. An ideal place for an ambush that General Bennett had long since recognised.
On 15 January 1942, the Australians had their first sight of the enemy. Geared up as they were, they heard a heavy rumbling of armoured vehicles and were about to open fire when they realised it was the armoured regiment of the Indian corps which had become lost in the melee of their withdrawal. A false alarm, but a lucky one.
Adrenalin racing and hearts pounding, our infantry lay concealed as the Japanese rode toward them. It all happened so quickly, as the column of Japanese infantry, six abreast on bicycles approached the ambush. Captain Duffy, commanding the Company, held their fire until the first 300 cyclists had passed through. When the remainder of the column, some 400, was on the bridge and packed into the cutting, the explosives under the bridge were detonated blowing the Japanese and their cycles sky high. Our awaiting platoons raked the cutting with machine gun fire and grenades, mowing the Japs down in hundreds, catching them completely by surprise.
Having annihilated those trapped in the ambush, the Company rushed off in pursuit of the troops they had let through, only to find themselves face to face with an enemy at bayonet length. Both sides suffered casualties from the conflict, but the Japanese had encountered their first real resistance that was hurtful.
The Japanese soon repaired the bridge and within a few hours tanks began to rumble down the road. Sergeant Ken Harrison of the 4th Anti Tank Regiment and his gun crew, waited with bated breath, concealed in readiness for their first contact with an enemy tank. After a protracted encounter, six tanks and two armoured personnel carriers smouldered, demolished on the road. In his book ‘The Brave Japanese’, writing about his first encounter with the Japanese, Ken referred to them as brave fighters, but stoutly maintained they were poorer shots than the Aussies.
When news of failure at Gemas on the West Coast reached Yamashita, he redirected his main thrust to the central trunk road, now defended by the Australians at Muar. It was here that Clarrie Thornton and his valiant gun crew demolished another eight tanks.
This story of the gun battle between the Anti-Tank guns and the Jap tanks is told by Sergeant Clarrie Thornton in ‘It Happened to Us’.
|
