THE TRUTH ABOUT THE NUMBERS IN SINGAPORE !

Recently, I watched a historical documentary on the Pacific War. The show was produced by a reputable filmaker and was shown on a prominent channel.

Not far into the film they highlighted the Battle for Singapore and I was shocked at what I heard. Once again, as so many times before, the statement was made that the British “lost” Singapore to a Japanese force that numbered one third that of the British forces defending the island fortress. I was outraged that after all this time and with so much accurate information available, such a blatant mistake would be aired.

However, this is not surprising, for in the words of one of my American researcher friends, “many ‘so-called historians’ today never bother to really dig into the stories or check the facts for themselves. They just use information already published and repeat it again, thus perpetuating the errors of those who have gone before.”

This is what I have found to be the case with many of the the Allied intelligence reports on the Taiwan POW camps, and a great deal of other information supposedly ‘documenting’ the war in the Pacific. In the interests of truth and to hopefully help stop the continued perpetration of this myth, I have researched the numbers involved in that famous battle and submit them here for our readers to draw their own conclusions.

First of all, it should be emphasized that the British army did not “lose” Singapore. If General Percival had not surrendered, then thousands more would have died - including innocent civilians. The Japanese army had overrun most of the island, captured the water reservoirs and surrounded the main city itself. The British were very low on ammunition, food and other necessary supplies, so it would have been suicidal to have fought on as the Japanese would have killed all the soldiers and most likely many of the civilians too. The fault for the “loss” of Singapore lies squarely with Winston Churchill and the British government!

The poorly equipped RAF had been ordered out of Malaya and Singapore, and without adequate air support, the navy’s only two ships that could have made any difference were easily sunk by the Japanese Navy Air Arm. The Japanese had complete mastery of the air and could bomb and straffe at will. The land forces could not hope to win any kind of battle as they had little equipment to fight with. They had no tanks, and much of the equipment that accompanied the ill-fated 18th Division was never unloaded but was returned to England or other theatres. Churchill and his advisors knew that Singapore could not be defended but ordered that the army ‘fight to the last man’. Of course, that way there would be no one left to tell of their betrayal. It was fortunate indeed that General Percival had the good sense to surrender!

As to the numbers - by the first of December 1941, the Japanese had amassed more than 250,000 trained soldiers in Indo-China. On December 7 the landing force at Kota-Bahru, Malaya numbered 12,000 men, and as well, 50,000 troops had been secretly moved across Thailand to launch a simultaneous invasion on the west coast near Alor Star and Jitra.

A detailed breakdown of Japanese forces in Malaya on December 7, 1941 reveals that - the 25th Army under General Yamashita and Count Terrauchi had 83,000 men, the 15th Army commanded by General Lida had 55,000 men, the 26th Infantry Division led by General Mataguchi had 28,000 men, the Imperial Guards under General Nishimura had 38,000 men and they were re-inforced by 50,000 Korean soldiers. In addition, the Japanese forces had one armoured division with 500 tanks, two regiments of artillery, 500 aircraft with 80 in reserve, ten destroyers, two aircraft carriers, five submarines plus other support vessels. In total the Japanese had more that 265,000 men plus the 50,000 Korean conscripts - totalling more than 300,000 trained soldiers.

In his report to parliament after the fall of Singapore, Churchill concocted the figures - which seem to have remained in many historians’ books until the present - that a mere force of 30,000 Japanese defeated the 120,000 British and Allied forces on the island - implying a shameful defeat of the British army.

But even the figures he attributed to the Allies were incorrect. Allied forces in Malaya and Singapore on December 1, 1941 were as follows - 19,000 British, 15,000 Australian, 37,000 Indian Army - including the 11th Division which was largely made up of British soldiers trained in India, and 17,000 Malay Volunteers.

Approximately 25,000 Allied soldiers were killed, wounded, escaped or were listed missing in the Battle of Malaya. On January 29, 1942 approximately 20,000 green troops of the 18th Division arrived in Singapore, bringing the total Allied strength up to around 85,000 men. After Singapore fell, a tally of Allied losses revealed 7,000 killed and 2,000 wounded or missing.

On the Japanese side - more than 25,000 were killed or wounded in Malaya, while on Singapore the total reached more than 20,000 men killed and 5,000 wounded or missing. This figure alone is more than the number quoted by Churchill! It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the numbers cited by Churchill were pure lies and fabrication.
So why did he do it? At the time, with things not going well for Britain, Churchill’s image and position were on shaky ground. Had the British public known that he and his government had betrayed thousands of young British servicemen and sacrificed them to the Japanese, it would have likely caused his political downfall. Better to distort and cover up the truth to save his own skin. (Sadly, it’s still the same today!)

The sad part is that many of those old soldiers have died believing that what Churchill said was true, and also that subsequent generations have been deprived of the knowledge and the truth about the Battle of Malaya and Singapore. It’s time to let the facts speak for themselves, and to correct the fallacies of history!