Fall of Singapore

February 8–15, 1942 · Pacific Theater

Phases

1. 1Feb 8 — Across the Johore StraitFebruary 8–9, 1942
2. 2Feb 9–13 — Collapse to the CityFebruary 9–13, 1942
3. 3Feb 15 — The Worst DisasterFebruary 15, 1942

February 8–9, 1942

Yamashita’s 25th Army has bicycled 600 miles down Malaya in 55 days; now 23,000 of his men cross the Johore Strait at night in armored barges against the island’s marshy northwest — exactly where the defense is thinnest, because Percival expects the blow in the northeast. The “fortress” of Singapore has its great naval guns facing the sea and almost nothing facing the land.

• ➤5th & 18th Divisions — Night crossing against the marshy northwest coast
• ➤Imperial Guards — The follow-up blow at the Causeway
• ●Australian 22nd Brigade — a mile of front per battalion