Author(s): Alan Warren

Military

The surrender of Singapore on 13 February 1942, with the capture of over 120,000 men, was the greatest and most humiliating defeat in British history and the high point of Japanese expansion in South-East Asia. It graphically expressed the military weakness of the British Empire and its inability to defend its Far Eastern colonies. The defeat left Australia exposed to Japanese invasion, its protection in future dependent on American arms. Based on original records, "Singapore 1942" shows what went wrong and how an outnumbered and poorly equipped Japanese invasion force swept to victory against a mixed army of British, Australian and Indian soldiers, changing Britain's imperial destiny and the course of the Second World War. First published 2002.