There is a book titled 'The Unpeneratable Jungle' which you can borrow in the Aus library.
This book described the ways UK Pommies moved their battle ships to Ceylon (Sir Lanka) from Singapore to standby fight against Hitler. This left Singaore venerable to Jap invasion. Then the UK Brit dragged any young Ozzies males in Sydney Streets to fight in Malaysia and Singapore without any military trainings. Some never seen a Jap or what a Jap solider look like. So they are fed with girls to fuck first then send them to hell to be killed by Japs. What you seen on TV was half the story from Oz point of view.
Cant blame the UK Pommies when their own motherland was under threat in wars with Hitler.
From OZ point of view, mother UK took away all its soldiers leaving the country defenseless.
The Aussies sent to Singapore were untrained. (Those Aussies, sent from England, diverted from Burma were)
The program did highlight about the the good time these soldiers had in Singapore with the dance hall, "taxi" dancers (nice term) and about this female Aussie journalist who was shocked at the great time the men were having, and reported this back to Australia - angering the countrymen.
It also show a coward Aussie troop captain who escaped in a sampan leaving his troops behind for POW. "He never lead another troop again!"
You want the truth behind the fall of Singapore to Japan? Can you handle the truth? Here it goes.
It was a strategic surrender. The British did abandon Singapore and Malaya, so did the Americans abandon Phillipines, so did the Dutch abandon Indonesia, so did the French abandon Vietnam. Why? How could a cartel of colonial powers lose a whole subcontinent (SEA) to one single Japan at the same time? The answer is still strategic. It was to stretch the Japanese forces so far and wide that there wouldn't be any possibility of swift regrouping and US would finish Japan off in one stroke when time came. The Dutch and French had their domestic problems too, being under German occupation at that time. There was no other way out for them except to play along with the US-UK strategy. They could bear to do that because we're not their people. They wouldn't do that with Australia or NZ.
If what you said is correct, the colonial masters made a lousy decision! Singaporeans
these days live under the fear of PAP. In
Those days, they live knowing that the Angmos are superior humans. The surrender broke the myth!
Basically, surrendering was not an option then. Britain had no resources left, Pearl Habour was destroyed, leaving the US helpless in the Pacific theatre.
I would say that Japan over-extend itself.
There are more bombs dropped in the Bombing of Darwin than in Pearl Habour, but the news blackout in Australia downplayed the seriousness of the attack. Because Australia was defenseless at that point in time.
Churchhill and Roosevelt were furious that the Aussie want their trained soldiers back.
At the end of the day, the Brits were in denial over Fortess Singapore and dumb Japs who cannot shoot. This was not unexpected, given the good lives of the British masters, each of them a mini King/Queen/Prince/Princess over in the Empire. It had to be done to show that the Angmos are masters. How can asian Japs be their equal.
Watch the programme to know more.
