The Fall of the Fortress (Singapore 1942)

In December 1941, the British naval base in Singapore—costing sixty million pounds and taking nearly two decades to build—stood without a fleet. Within seventy days, a smaller Japanese force advanced down the Malayan Peninsula using bicycles and flanking maneuvers, catching the defenders unprepared on the landward side. Following the sinking of the battleship Prince of Wales and battlecruiser Repulse, the Allied forces retreated across the causeway to the island. When the causeway was blown, the water pipes were cut, starting a critical countdown. As Japanese troops landed in the northwest mangroves, the defenders were pushed back into a tight ring around the town. With Bukit Timah's supply dumps captured and the reservoirs running dry from broken mains, the garrison faced a catastrophic water failure. On February 15, 1942, facing Yamashita’s bluff (as the attacking forces were nearly out of ammunition) and with only a day of water left, Percival surrendered. About eighty thousand men passed into captivity, marking one of the most significant defeats of the campaign.