Episodes
Thursday Feb 10, 2022
- 12 - Pacific War -Fall of Singapore , February 8-15, 1942
Thursday Feb 10, 2022
Thursday Feb 10, 2022
Since the start of the Pacific War, we’ve been following one of the major theaters of the Japanese offensive: the Malayan Campaign. Two weeks ago, the campaign came to its near-end with the final retreat of the Allied soldiers towards the British fortress of Singapore. The Malayan Peninsula had been invaded back on December 8, and the defense of the colony had shown a total lack of readiness on the side of the British government. Suffering defeat after defeat and making a critical string of blunders, the Allied forces had rapidly been conceding territory; and only after two months since the invaders first landed at Kota Bharu, they had been thrown back to the island settlement, which had been transformed into a fortress. But the British would see that their belief that Singapore was an impregnable fortress was as much a lie as their idea that they could intimidate the Japanese by employing a small naval force in the Pacific. Now, the campaign is finally coming to its end, as the Japanese prepare to execute one of their most important operations of the war.