- 8 hours ago
Singapore was captured from the British by the Empire of Japan in February 1942 during the Second World War. The Fall or Battle of Singapore took place in the South–East Asian theatre of the Pacific War, with fighting lasting from 8 to 15 February 1942.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:01December 1941. War rips through Southeast Asia.
00:06Two generals go head-to-head in a battle for a tiny island in the South China Sea
00:12that will shake the very foundations of the British Empire.
00:17British General Arthur Percival and Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita may be kilometers apart,
00:24but in their minds, they stand over the same table.
00:28Two modern-day generals will get inside their heads to unpick their tactics and strategy,
00:35while a team of military experts compare their equipment and their firepower
00:42to reveal just how the Battle of Singapore was won and lost.
00:56December 7th, 1941. Japan is about to enter the war with a bang.
01:04She plans to attack the Americans at Pearl Harbor
01:08and invade the Philippines and British colonies in the Far East in the same night.
01:15Her ultimate goal, to push the Western powers out of Southeast Asia
01:20and grab its rich natural resources.
01:24The man chosen to lead the Japanese invasion of British-held Malaya and Singapore
01:29is General Yamashita.
01:31He is an unusual figure in the Japanese military.
01:33He wasn't the traditional Japanese general.
01:37He didn't fit into the box in a comfortable way.
01:41He was questioning.
01:43He wasn't part of the establishment, if you like,
01:48and therefore he was the odd ball out.
01:51He was too clever by half.
01:53Major General Julian Thompson is a former Royal Marine Commando.
01:57He is fascinated by Yamashita.
02:01He was the son of a village doctor.
02:03He went to a military academy to get an education.
02:07So he's not from the traditional aristocratic Japanese background.
02:12And he's actually a quite senior chap before he starts battle fighting.
02:18When he's actually confronted with battle, he's out there leading from the front.
02:22And this, I think, is very good preparation for what he's about to do.
02:27Yamashita wants to kick the British out of their wealthy colonies in Malaya and Singapore.
02:33His plan relies on speed and surprise, so he will travel light with a slimmed-down army.
02:39He is offered four divisions, but decides to launch his attack with just two.
02:44An indication of his intelligence as a general was he resisted the temptation to have more just in case
02:53because he knew that it would create a great strain on his logistic resources
02:58and might end up in disaster because he was actually half-starving everybody in order to cover the whole lot.
03:07As Yamashita plots his first move, his adversary takes charge in British Singapore,
03:13the newly promoted Lieutenant-General Arthur E. Percival.
03:20Singapore, I think, was probably one of the more exotic and the more comfortable of the imperial stations.
03:26When he was told that he was to be promoted Lieutenant-General,
03:32he must have thought, great, this is marvellous.
03:35Singapore was golf, tennis, bridge, the club in the evening, the sundowners, wonderful.
03:43Lieutenant-General Sir Alistair Irwin is a top-ranking British general
03:47with many overseas postings under his belt.
03:51And then he thinks to himself, hang on, Singapore.
03:56This is either going to be something where I'm going to be drinking drinn for the next two years
04:01with nothing happening at all, or it's going to be a pretty difficult business.
04:08Percival fears the island may prove a tempting prize for the Japanese,
04:12but he is up for the fight.
04:14He's already proved himself in World War I and against the IRA in Ireland.
04:19Nobody doubted his courage and his character when things were rough.
04:24A man who knew his business.
04:27I think that, generally speaking, he was thought to be what we might in Britain call a good egg.
04:33But he does, in appearance, not exactly fit the mould
04:37of what you might think a sort of commander might look like.
04:42And instinctively, soldiers follow people who look good,
04:46people who just look the part.
04:48And I think that that was a slight Achilles heel of poor old Pasovel,
04:53that, to put it bluntly, his mother and father didn't do a great job on the design.
05:02Arriving in Singapore, Percival finds a complacent population.
05:06We, in Britain, had been allies of the Japanese,
05:10and so we regarded them as friends.
05:13And the idea that slowly they might be becoming expansionist,
05:18and that that expansion would be at our expense,
05:20didn't really dawn on people.
05:24What the British don't know is that the Japanese
05:27have been preparing their invasion for a year
05:29under Yamashita's chief planner, Colonel Masanobu Tsuji.
05:37Colonel Tsuji, who later gains a taste for eating his enemy's livers,
05:41plots a tropical war down to the last detail.
05:46He's a sort of fascist character.
05:48Masanobu Tsuji doesn't like all that much.
05:51But he's an ace staff officer, highly enthusiastic,
05:55a driving character.
05:58Just the sort of chap you need as a chief of staff,
06:01provided you have a hand on the back of his neck
06:03from time to time and pull him back.
06:06Tsuji wants Yamashita to launch his invasion
06:09in the rainy season.
06:10He believes,
06:12Westerners, being very effeminate and cowardly,
06:15have an intense dislike of fighting in the rain,
06:18or the mist, or at night.
06:21Yamashita takes his advice.
06:22He'll attack at night, in the monsoon.
06:27Percival's men are not properly equipped for such a fight.
06:32Military historian Andy Robertshaw explains why.
06:35The uniform that we see here on our representative British soldier
06:39is based on what was worn, really,
06:41at the end of Queen Victoria's reign in the 1890s.
06:43So it's old-fashioned, even by the style of the 1940s.
06:48British soldiers have been wearing shorts for a long time,
06:51and they're great for desert environments.
06:54In a jungle, your legs are very exposed,
06:56they get cut and scratched.
06:57You're very, very vulnerable to mosquitoes that carry malaria.
07:01Boots he's wearing.
07:03Ammunition boots.
07:04Developed, really, for long-distance marching,
07:06on nice, dry roads, in a jungle environment.
07:09If these things last ten days, then you're lucky.
07:12Really, this whole uniform is not ideal
07:16for what we're going to ask him to do when he fights the Japanese.
07:20Japanese soldier here is wearing a uniform
07:22that's based on recent experience fighting in China.
07:26So whereas his uniform is based on what was happening
07:29at the end of the 19th century, this is modern.
07:32It's light, quite comfortable to wear, designed to combat the heat.
07:36These are puttees, basically they're bandages that go under your legs.
07:40These stop mud and dirt getting into your boots, protect your legs.
07:43These things are really good for jungle warfare.
07:47Frankly, we couldn't cope with this level of sophistication.
07:50We had nothing to match the Japanese.
07:59The Japanese preparation was so thorough
08:02that the troops knew what to expect.
08:04And, of course, it gives a soldier huge confidence
08:07if he thinks his leaders have done the homework.
08:09And when he arrives there,
08:11it's exactly as he's been told it's going to be.
08:15But Yamashita's plan is still fraught with risk.
08:18He wants to put troops ashore in neutral Thailand
08:21and British-held Malaya at the same time.
08:25His air force will attack British airfields
08:27and destroy Percival's planes.
08:30Yamashita will use the captured bases
08:32to launch his own bombing raids.
08:35Then he will push his main force 800 kilometers
08:38down the west coast of the peninsula
08:40to attack Singapore Island,
08:43the key British naval base in the Far East.
08:49Percival gets wind of Yamashita's force heading for Thailand.
08:53He considers striking first.
08:55But attacking the Japanese in Thai territory
08:57will amount to a declaration of war on neutral Thailand.
09:01So he hesitates.
09:03While he dithers,
09:05Yamashita lands.
09:13Yamashita's invasion is on track.
09:15He has caught the British on the back foot
09:17with the speed and sheer nerve of his first move.
09:25Yamashita comes ashore
09:27with over 20,000 troops in neutral Thailand,
09:30fights off the Thai military police
09:32and quickly heads south to the Malay border.
09:36Yamashita felt no compulsion
09:38about invading through a neutral country.
09:41I don't think that was rated very high
09:43on the Japanese radar.
09:47But his attempt to land another strike force
09:50in British-held Malaya
09:51immediately hits trouble.
09:57Here his men face soldiers
09:59from the British Indian Army
10:01who are defending Malaya
10:02alongside regular British and Australian troops.
10:09Percival knows that the odds
10:10of stopping Yamashita landing
10:11are stacked in his favour.
10:15If you can catch an invading force on the beach,
10:18you have a pretty good chance
10:20of pushing him back into the sea.
10:23The enemy is at his weakest
10:25when he's putting people ashore.
10:28They haven't established themselves on the ground.
10:30Their commanders are still afloat
10:31and so on and so on.
10:32They are vulnerable.
10:35To exploit this advantage,
10:37Percival bombs Yamashita's launchers
10:39as they attempt to put troops ashore.
10:41Many go down.
10:43But Yamashita runs the gauntlet.
10:46He manages to land over 5,300 men
10:50on the Malay beach.
10:55Then his soldiers have to fight
10:57through three lines of barbed wire,
11:00past ranks of dug-in infantry
11:02and cross a network of waterways
11:04under constant artillery and machine-gun fire.
11:11The Japanese are forced to crawl on their hands and knees
11:14through a hail of bullets.
11:18Over 800 are killed or injured,
11:20but they don't give up.
11:25Yamashita's determined men
11:27force their way through Percival's defences
11:29and overrun the airfield.
11:32For the first time,
11:33the British realize what they are up against.
11:37The Japanese soldier was taught
11:38that obedience to the emperor was everything,
11:41that death was as light as a feather,
11:44that surrender was disgraceful,
11:47that being a prisoner
11:47was the lowest thing you could be.
11:49Very tough, frugal, ruthless,
11:54very well-trained,
11:55and the Japanese soldier
11:56was a very, very superior, fine soldier.
12:05Despite his heavy losses,
12:08Yamashita's plan is on track.
12:10Now he has captured his first air base,
12:12he opens his bid to win the air war.
12:19Yamashita has twice as many planes as Percival,
12:22and it isn't just a matter of quantity,
12:24but of quality.
12:27Well, he had the Zero,
12:28which was a very fine fighter
12:30and was probably, in its time,
12:33the best fighter around.
12:35His pilots were experienced,
12:37they'd fought in China,
12:38and so he had a huge card in that sense.
12:44General Percival is at a distinct disadvantage.
12:48The Royal Air Force had quite a large fleet
12:50of very second-11 aeroplanes
12:52which had been procured
12:53during the interval
12:55between the First and Second World Wars,
12:56and which really weren't fit
12:58for any kind of service
13:00other than just sort of looking good
13:01on flying displays.
13:04All that wouldn't have mattered
13:06if the Japanese themselves
13:07had had old-fashioned aeroplanes,
13:09but they didn't.
13:11Yamashita uses his superiority in the air
13:13to launch attacks
13:14on other British airfields
13:16in northern Malaya.
13:17He drops bombs designed
13:19to damage aircraft and kill soldiers,
13:21but which leave the runways intact
13:23so he can use them later.
13:26Within four days,
13:27Yamashita captures all the airfields
13:30in northern Malaya
13:30and destroys most of Percival's planes.
13:38And there is more disappointment for Percival.
13:42As news of Yamashita's invasion comes in,
13:45battleships sent by British Prime Minister
13:48Winston Churchill
13:49set sail from Singapore
13:50to help defend Malaya.
13:53Japanese bombers sink them within hours.
14:00With the navy and air force decimated,
14:03the defence of Malaya
14:04now rests solely with the army.
14:10General Percival has two choices.
14:13Pull his troops out of Malaya,
14:16abandoning the people to their fate,
14:18and regroup to defend Singapore.
14:20Or fight every inch of the way
14:23for the Malayan peninsula.
14:25Belaya had great importance to Britain.
14:28It had two particularly vital commodities,
14:32rubber and tin.
14:34This was not just a stretch of jungle.
14:36This was a highly productive,
14:40highly desirable stretch of territory.
14:46And Churchill piles on the pressure.
14:49To give up any part of the empire without a fight
14:52will undermine Britain as an imperial power.
14:55Percival must hold his ground,
14:57whatever the cost in blood.
15:04The fate of the island is now
15:05in the hands of his infantry.
15:07But they fight with a handicap.
15:09They are saddled with rifles
15:11left over from World War I.
15:14Bob Podesta served in the British Special Forces.
15:17He has fought in the jungle with modern guns.
15:20He wants to see how effective
15:22one of these cumbersome antiques could be.
15:26A lump of clay represents a human body.
15:50He's gone straight through.
15:57He's gone straight through.
15:58Where the bullet has entered the body,
16:01okay?
16:01And where the bullet has exited,
16:03you've got this massive wound,
16:05open wound,
16:05where all the gubbins has come out, yeah?
16:08I mean, this is a .303 rifle, okay?
16:11And a .303 bullet is a very large bullet.
16:15It's a big round, big old round.
16:19The and the full, you know?
16:23Right, what we're about to do here
16:25is to see what has happened
16:27in the center with the bullet.
16:28It's just, I think it'd be better
16:29if I did this, isn't it?
16:35You can see where the bullet
16:37has entered the body, look,
16:39and it's caused this massive amount of damage.
16:42The bullet has tumbled and fragmented
16:44inside the clay before exiting.
16:46The whole of this,
16:47the man's internal organs
16:49would have been absolutely smashed.
16:52I'm very impressed with the rifle.
16:54The guy definitely wouldn't have survived
16:56if that bullet had hit this body.
17:00Armed with their old-fashioned
17:02but effective guns,
17:03Percival's infantry dig in
17:05and wait for the Japanese.
17:09Yamashita has a dilemma.
17:11Consolidate his position
17:13or take the initiative.
17:16The temptation is to stop
17:18and draw your tail up behind you
17:20and get ready for the next bit
17:22and have a quick breather.
17:23And he did not fall into that trap.
17:25He kept going.
17:27The risk he was facing
17:29was that he'd come up
17:29against some really serious opposition
17:31which would hold him up
17:32and that he'd be eating
17:34through his ammunition,
17:35he'd be eating through his food.
17:37So he was banking on
17:39capturing what the British had
17:41in order to keep his momentum going.
17:43But it's a highly risky strategy
17:46because if you don't win,
17:48if you don't get those supplies,
17:49you are completely banjaxed.
17:51You come to a grinding halt.
17:53So he did take a risk.
17:56Huge risk.
17:59Yamashita wants to reach Singapore in weeks,
18:02but it is 800 kilometres
18:04down the Malayan peninsula
18:05to the island.
18:06How can he move
18:08his 30,000 foot soldiers
18:09so far, so fast?
18:12Could he learn a lesson
18:14from Percival's troops?
18:16The British have been a Malaya for years.
18:19To march long distances
18:20along jungle tracks,
18:22they have learned to travel light.
18:26What we've got here on the floor
18:27is the complete set of equipment
18:30as carried by a British soldier
18:31in the Singapore campaign.
18:33Got his rifle,
18:34his gas mask,
18:35his respirator,
18:36boots,
18:37spare equipment,
18:38ammunition,
18:38the lot.
18:39The whole lot,
18:40they suggested,
18:41should be about 18 kilos.
18:43No more than that.
18:44And in fact,
18:45this is 18 kilos
18:48in water bottles.
18:52It's worth saying
18:53that a unit of the Argylls
18:54marched 90 kilometres,
18:5730 kilometres a day
18:58with that kind of weight on.
19:00In fact,
19:01if we put my volunteer here
19:02into 18 kilos
19:04of real weight,
19:06on it goes,
19:08buckle it all neatly into place,
19:10give you your gas mask,
19:12your respirator,
19:13on it goes like that,
19:15and then give you
19:15a rifle to go over your shoulder,
19:18you should be able
19:19to march through jungle.
19:20And in this case,
19:21this is our jungle,
19:23and you're going to do
19:24not 90 kilometres,
19:27you're going to do
19:27just a brief section
19:30to try it out.
19:31On you get.
19:32Okay.
19:33And, uh,
19:35start marching.
19:37Happy?
19:38Very happy.
19:39Yeah, very happy.
19:40Feel comfortable?
19:41Yeah, it's fine.
19:42Well, let's say you're doing
19:42a few kilometres time.
19:44Okay.
19:45Yep, no, it's fine.
19:49You're going to march now
19:50for an hour.
19:51At the end of an hour,
19:52you've got ten minutes break,
19:53you can have a drink of water,
19:54and back on the treadmill.
19:56All right.
19:57I see you do.
20:00But Yamashita
20:01wants his men
20:02to carry more
20:03so they can survive
20:04for longer
20:04without being resupplied.
20:07What we've got here
20:08is what a Japanese soldier's carrying.
20:10He's got at least
20:10ten litres of water,
20:12he's got six kilograms of rice.
20:13The whole weight
20:14is 36 kilos.
20:16Bring it in.
20:16Dump it there.
20:19That's twice as much
20:21as what our British soldiers
20:22are carrying.
20:23But to move it,
20:24you need a secret weapon.
20:26June!
20:27This is the secret weapon.
20:28This is the bicycle.
20:30The Japanese had two divisions.
20:32That's 30,000 men,
20:33and in those two divisions,
20:34they had 12,000 of these.
20:36That means that you can carry
20:38vast amounts of weight.
20:40Downhill, you can cycle.
20:41Uphill, you can push them.
20:43It's not a problem.
20:44Kate, you happy?
20:49It's not a problem.
20:50With 12,000 troops
20:51on bicycles,
20:52Yamashita plans
20:53to storm down
20:54the Malayan peninsula
20:55in weeks.
20:56Speed and surprise
20:57was the key.
20:59Yamashita's infantry
20:59was so good at
21:00keeping the momentum going
21:02using bicycles
21:03that he was able
21:03to have a sort of
21:04foot equivalent
21:05of blitzkrieg.
21:08Bicycle blitzkrieg, yes.
21:13The British are left floundering
21:15by the freewheeling Japanese.
21:20How are you doing?
21:22Feeling it now.
21:23It's very tough.
21:25You're doing very well.
21:26Just coming up
21:27to an hour,
21:27you get your
21:2910-minute break.
21:31That's it.
21:32Take it easy.
21:33Take it easy.
21:34Just put your rifle down
21:35first.
21:36Okay?
21:37That's it.
21:38Okay, I got it.
21:39Okay.
21:40Respirator.
21:41Yeah, you've
21:42undone the string.
21:42Put your cap down.
21:44That's it.
21:44Good.
21:44And under your waist belt.
21:45And then just sit down.
21:47Just sit down.
21:47Yeah, just sit down.
21:48Sit down.
21:50Okay?
21:51Yeah.
21:54Oh, exhausted.
21:58You eventually
21:59get the rhythm.
22:04With the Japanese
22:05setting the pace,
22:06Percival is forced
22:07on the defensive.
22:08Once again,
22:09his Indian soldiers
22:10find themselves
22:11in the front line.
22:18Percival orders
22:19them to dig in
22:19and defend the road
22:21down which the
22:21Japanese are
22:22pouring south.
22:24It is a strong
22:25defensive position.
22:26It should hold out
22:28for weeks.
22:32The young Indian
22:33recruits expect
22:34an infantry attack.
22:35But the Japanese
22:36have another surprise
22:38in store.
22:40Tanks.
22:43Imagine the scene.
22:45Monsoon rain
22:46absolutely pouring
22:47down.
22:47And suddenly
22:48down the road
22:49comes this.
22:49Well, you can hear
22:50it from a distance
22:51amongst the rain,
22:52the clanking
22:53of the tracks
22:55and the squeaking
22:56of the turret.
22:59And suddenly
22:59they're there
23:00and they're going
23:00through you.
23:02You know,
23:03it's not a happy
23:03position to be in.
23:05It's not surprising.
23:06People began to
23:07wonder what was
23:08going on,
23:08wonder what to do
23:09next.
23:10As the Japanese
23:11tanks charge ahead
23:13of Yamashita's
23:13bicycle army,
23:15terrified Indian
23:16soldiers break
23:17ranks and
23:17flee into the jungle.
23:22The Japanese
23:23were not expected
23:24to have tanks.
23:25They were hopeless,
23:27pathetic tanks,
23:27but they were
23:28more than equal
23:29to the task
23:30because we had
23:30none.
23:31The British
23:31had no tanks.
23:34Very dismayed.
23:36They were very
23:37upset about the tanks.
23:41Percival has not
23:42got any tanks
23:43because the chiefs
23:44of staff in London
23:45thought they would
23:46not work in the
23:46Malayan terrain.
23:49Now, with his troops
23:51fleeing into the jungle,
23:52he is forced to
23:53withdraw.
23:54He has lost the first
23:56major land battle.
24:00in their hurry to retreat,
24:02his men leave behind
24:03hundreds of prisoners
24:04and huge amounts of
24:06ammunition, fuel, and food.
24:09Yamashita's gamble on
24:10capturing British supplies
24:12has paid off.
24:13His delighted men
24:14christen the booty
24:15Churchill supplies.
24:18But can his luck hold?
24:22To hold the enemy up,
24:24Percival orders his
24:25engineers to blow up
24:26steel bridges
24:27in Yamashita's path.
24:29But with stocks
24:30of British explosives
24:32falling into Japanese
24:33hands, they need to
24:34find a method that
24:35makes their dwindling
24:36supplies go further.
24:41Sidney Alford
24:42advises the military
24:43on demolitions.
24:45Now, the obvious way
24:47to blow up a bit of
24:48steel with some
24:49explosive is simply
24:50to take the explosive
24:52and stick it on the
24:53steel and tape it on.
24:54That is a relatively
24:56inefficient way of
24:58blowing things up,
24:59simply to apply an
25:00enormous pressure,
25:01like a hammer blow
25:02to one side.
25:03The engineers discover
25:05they can make a small
25:06piece of explosive
25:07do more work if they
25:08position it properly.
25:10What I've done is to
25:12take some explosive.
25:14I have divided that
25:16into two equal amounts
25:17and I place one amount
25:19here and one amount
25:20here.
25:21Now, if they're initiated
25:22at the same time,
25:24this component is going
25:25to push this part of the
25:27steel very hard in that
25:29direction.
25:30This explosive is going
25:32to push this part of the
25:33steel very hard in that
25:34direction and you're going
25:36to get a most enormous
25:37shearing effect in this
25:40zone here.
25:41Swirling!
25:43Four, three, two, one.
25:56I think we've achieved
25:57success.
25:58I heard a bit come down.
26:00Done indeed.
26:01Here is half.
26:02Now, one half would have
26:03been blown down.
26:04This is the half that
26:05would have been blown down.
26:08Here it is.
26:09You can see the indentation
26:11in the surface.
26:12The other bit would have
26:13gone, I expect, in this
26:15direction.
26:16Oh!
26:18Hee-hee.
26:20Oh, that's good.
26:21The end's out, so it's
26:23not going to rust.
26:23That's remarkable.
26:25It's already dry.
26:27Ooh!
26:28It's, um...
26:29They sheared like that.
26:33By eking out their
26:34explosives to demolish as
26:36many bridges as they can,
26:38Percival's engineers gain
26:39him vital time to dig in.
26:42More reinforcements are on
26:43their way, but they won't
26:45arrive for two weeks.
26:46Percival must hold
26:47Yamashta until then.
26:54The ace in his hand is his
26:56superior artillery.
26:58At Kampar, halfway down the
27:00Malayan peninsula, he finally
27:02manages to get his big guns
27:04into a defensive position and
27:06trains them on Yamashta's
27:07charging army.
27:12For the first time, General
27:14Percival is calling the shots.
27:16With the help of his artillery,
27:18he holds up the Japanese
27:19blitzkrieg for six days.
27:23Yamashta is outgunned and
27:25outnumbered.
27:27His chief of staff recommends
27:29pause, bring up more people,
27:32and then mount a set-piece
27:33attack, you know, what we used
27:35to call hey-diddle-diddle and
27:37straight down the middle.
27:38Like that.
27:39He doesn't want to do that.
27:46Percival's artillery is well
27:47dug in among the hills of Kampar
27:49in central Malayan.
27:53Yamashta decides not to wait
27:54for reinforcements, but to
27:56immediately employ the scorpion
27:58maneuver.
28:01He sends one column forward to grip
28:03the British in its claws.
28:07Then he sends another column
28:09through the jungle to attack them
28:11from behind.
28:13This is the lethal sting in the
28:16scorpion maneuver.
28:18And it totally banjaxed and
28:20threw the British who hadn't come
28:21across this sort of attack.
28:22It was cheating.
28:23What he was attacking was the
28:26psychology of the enemy.
28:28And the enemy, the British,
28:31were surrendering or giving up
28:33when they were outnumbering their
28:36enemy by ten to one.
28:38They had mentally run away from
28:42the battle.
28:49Percival decides to withdraw,
28:51giving up the central Malayan states
28:53and the capital, Kuala Lumpur,
28:55to Yamashta.
28:56He wants to concentrate his
28:58defenses in the south, where new
29:00troops are waiting to hold the
29:01line.
29:04As Percival retreats, Yamashta
29:07chases him.
29:08Yamashta was actually leapfrogging
29:10his people.
29:10He had no reserves.
29:11So there wasn't much let up or rest
29:14involved.
29:15There was no question of taking a
29:16division out of the line for a week
29:18to have a kip.
29:19They were pretty tired.
29:21And, of course, time is not on his
29:24side, in the sense that he doesn't
29:26know what reinforcements are coming.
29:29Control of the bridges is vital as
29:32they race south.
29:35Yamashta has to take them before
29:36Percival can blow them up.
29:39He relies on his soldiers to take the
29:41initiative.
29:4422-year-old Sadanobu Watanabe rises to the challenge.
29:49In one morning, he leaves his tank four times to cut
29:53explosive charges on bridges with his saber.
30:00Then, he leads a cavalry charge against the enemy, all guns blazing, virtually wiping out two
30:06companies, about 250 men.
30:10At the next bridge, he shoots through the fuse wire with a machine gun.
30:14He has captured five bridges in six hours.
30:20But such heroics are not enough.
30:25Yamashta fears Percival's bridge demolitions could delay the attack on Singapore by six months.
30:32Impatient for victory, he also turns to his engineers for help.
30:36How can he cross rivers fast if the bridges are down?
30:43Captain Bob Stork of the Royal Engineers wants to improvise a bridge quickly with the
30:48materials the Japanese had in the jungle.
30:50He's asked a local rugby team to help.
30:53Okay guys, the Japanese engineers have got to come up with some kind of rapid solution
30:57to cross all the gaps that the British are making.
31:01The gap itself just behind you is about waist high of water.
31:06Here, close your eyes and picture the scene.
31:08You've got two minutes to come up with a solution, starting from now.
31:11Go!
31:13Come on then guys, it's looking good.
31:14Bob's team start by building piers to support their bridge.
31:19Guys, remember you're in a fast flowing current, right on the river, your logs are floating
31:23away.
31:30It only takes 15 minutes, but it's not quick enough.
31:33In a fast moving battle, every second counts.
31:37Okay, well done.
31:38That was very, very good.
31:39Okay.
31:40But it was over time and it was over engineered.
31:43The Japanese come up with a novel way to speed up their work.
31:47They use humans as bridge props.
31:49The way the Japanese did it was just using the engineers, the actual sappers, as the piers
31:55themselves.
31:56So what we're going to try and do is lash two of these logs, the large logs together.
32:02Once they're actually lashed together, we're going to pick them up on our shoulders and
32:06then position ourselves in stream.
32:08And we're going to do that in two minutes.
32:10Right, let's go.
32:11Come on then guys, let's show it.
32:13We can prove it.
32:15Come on now.
32:16We can't keep them growing.
32:16Come on now.
32:19Chrissy, step to the right Chrissy.
32:21Step to the right.
32:22Let's have some good tight bindings guys.
32:24Hold it, stay there.
32:24Yeah, hold it.
32:25Let's hold it.
32:26Nice and tight.
32:27Nice and tight.
32:34Hold it.
32:38Take the pain.
32:39Hold it.
32:50Okay, guys, that was two and a half minutes.
32:53Well done.
32:54Good teamwork.
32:55Okay, well done.
32:56Thanks.
32:58Improvising like this, Yamashita crosses river after river.
33:02Soon only a thin line of Percival's defenders stands between him and Singapore Island.
33:10Now Percival's Australian troops enter the fray.
33:20They immediately make their mark.
33:22They ambush and kill 700 cyclists, most with their guns still tied to their handlebars.
33:34It is a good start, and in a further boost, Percival's reinforcements are beginning to
33:40arrive.
33:41When you send troops to a new theater of war, it's terribly important to give them time,
33:48literally, to acclimatize.
33:49But it wasn't like that in Singapore.
33:51Therefore, Percival's new recruits are thrown straight into battle with no time to adapt
33:56to fighting and surviving in tropical conditions.
33:59Some pay a heavy price.
34:03At Muir, the newly arrived 45th Indian Division faces a deadly variation of Yamashita's scorpion
34:09maneuver.
34:10The Japanese Imperial Guards attack them from the front as Yamashita lands more troops
34:15by boat 30 kilometers to their rear, cutting off their retreat.
34:21The 4,500-strong brigade is wiped out.
34:25Only 900 men manage to escape through the jungle to safety.
34:32Now, Yamashita's fanatical soldiers reveal a darker side.
34:40His Imperial Guards torture captured enemy soldiers and then massacre them, cutting off
34:47their heads with their samurai swords.
34:52It is one of several atrocities where Yamashita does not step in to punish his troops.
34:58If soldiers get out of hand, they need to be brought back underhand very sharply and
35:03very quickly.
35:04And he had the power to do it.
35:06In the Japanese army, you could have a chap executed just like that.
35:08And he could have made an example of these guys in a way that he didn't.
35:13And I think he was morally at fault in that sense.
35:21A worried Percival writes to his superiors.
35:25January 26, 1942.
35:29Consider general situation becoming grave.
35:33May be driven back into the island within a week.
35:38Singapore Island sits at the bottom of the Malayan Peninsula and is linked to it by a causeway.
35:45On the last day of January 1942, a piper leads Percival's troops in a final retreat onto the island.
35:52They blow up the causeway behind them, turning the island into a fortress.
35:57The battle for Malaya is over.
36:00The battle for Singapore is about to begin.
36:04There you are.
36:05You've closed up.
36:06You've got everybody that you own and you've got a very specific and clear task to defend
36:11Singapore now until you get reinforced again.
36:15You have no more major decisions to make, really.
36:19Now you have to fight the battle for the defense of Singapore.
36:23In just eight weeks, Yamashita's forces have advanced over 1,000 kilometers, fought 95 battles,
36:30and repaired 250 bridges.
36:33It is an extraordinary feat.
36:36But he has only 30,000 troops.
36:38And Percival has three times as many men holed up on Singapore Island.
36:44The British had a huge base in Singapore, and it was stocked with ammunition, food.
36:49It was a massive base.
36:51Yamashita has a couple of options, which is stop here, bring up my tail, regroup, rest,
36:58get everyone ready, collect my kit together, and then either sit there and starve them out,
37:04you hope, or mount an attack.
37:08A lot of the cards were stacked against him.
37:10So it's a formidable undertaking.
37:17Yamashita decides to strike fast, but where?
37:22To the east, where Percival is stronger, but the beaches are easier to land on?
37:27Or to the west, where British troops are thinner on the ground, but landings would have to be
37:32made in treacherous mangrove swamps.
37:36The mangrove swamps had all the elements of potential disaster because of the inability
37:43to control what's going on with guys wandering around in the mangrove in the dark, being fired
37:48on.
37:49All the elements of potential disaster are to land in the mangrove swamp.
37:54It's the most difficult thing to do.
37:57It's the least obvious thing to do.
37:59Therefore, it's the right thing to do.
38:01Yamashita decides to launch a diversionary attack to the east to confuse Percival,
38:07then send his main force across the straits in small boats to attack through the thick mangrove.
38:17Under cover of darkness, he readies a flotilla of boats for his secret invasion.
38:24Percival is daunted by the challenge facing him.
38:29How was he going to defend Singapore against an attack from a direction that he couldn't possibly
38:37predict with certainty?
38:39He had 70 miles of coastline to defend, and by this stage, he couldn't in any way be certain
38:46that the Japanese wouldn't load troops into ships and come round the bottom.
38:52So he had to defend the whole perimeter.
38:55And he didn't have enough troops for all this.
39:00But in London, Winston Churchill is unsympathetic.
39:04He sends this message.
39:05I want to make it absolutely clear that I expect every inch of ground to be defended.
39:12Every scrap of material or defenses to be blown to pieces to prevent capture by the enemy.
39:18And no question of surrender to be entertained until after protracted
39:22fighting in the ruins of Singapore city.
39:27Percival spreads troops around the entire coast.
39:30By trying to defend everywhere, he may not be strong enough anywhere.
39:37On February the 5th, 1942, Yamashita launches his diversionary attack.
39:50Then, while Percival is distracted, he mounts his main invasion,
39:55sending his boats across the Johor Strait under cover of artillery fire.
40:01Within an hour, Yamashita's troops have come ashore
40:04to surprise the defenders in the mangrove swaps.
40:09The British are overwhelmed and begin to fall back.
40:15Yamashita pushes on towards Singapore city.
40:22Again, the Japanese have got inside the decision loop,
40:26have totally discommoded the British and are rampaging towards Singapore city.
40:39As Yamashita breaks through his lines, Percival loses control of his troops.
40:45British and Australian soldiers desert en masse, head into town and riot.
41:00There is panic, chaos and confusion.
41:07Percival considers surrender, but Churchill is adamant.
41:11There must be no thought of saving the troops or sparing the population.
41:16The battle must be fought to the bitter end at all costs.
41:21Commanders and senior officers should die with their troops.
41:25The honour of the British Empire and the British Army is at stake.
41:29These are the sort of messages that, if they were going to be said at all,
41:32would have, you know, been opening gambits,
41:34the sort of battle cry at the beginning of the campaign,
41:37you know, charging people up with the notion
41:39that they're going to be victorious from the outset.
41:41But by this stage, even the most optimistic people know that the game is up.
41:49Percival is on the ropes, but Yamashita is also worried.
41:54He is running out of bullets and fears a street-by-street fight
41:58for Singapore City, which he might lose.
42:02It's not a totally foregone conclusion.
42:04He is clever enough and wily enough to recognise that.
42:08You know, he's not stupid all the time.
42:10He's thinking, maybe they're going to pull something off.
42:15Maybe I'm going to run out of ammunition.
42:19And my guys are going to get massacred or bled white,
42:23fighting in a built-up area.
42:28Percival attempts to counterattack with tired and confused Australian troops.
42:33The attack fails.
42:39After five days, all Percival's troops are now trapped in Singapore City.
42:44They have enough food for a week,
42:46but Yamashita's planes have bombed pipelines and reservoirs,
42:50and they are running out of water.
42:56General Percival faces the hardest decision of his life.
43:00Fight to the death or surrender.
43:05As Yamashita's troops besiege Singapore City,
43:08the lifelines of Percival's army are strangled.
43:13He sends his last signal to his superiors.
43:17Owing to losses from enemy action,
43:18water, petrol, food and ammunition practically finished.
43:23Unable, therefore, to continue the fight any longer.
43:26All ranks have done their best.
43:30Percival decides to surrender in defiance of Churchill.
43:34I think any fighting man, when he's done what he can,
43:39doesn't like, in the end, to know that he's lost
43:42and that he's had to put his hands up.
43:44It's not something that you want to do,
43:46and you do feel ashamed about it.
43:50Percival agrees to meet Yamashita to discuss terms.
44:04Now, Yamashita needs to pull off one final bluff.
44:10At the end, he was down until the last few rounds.
44:13I mean, he was actually balanced on an eye fit.
44:16He thinks that when Percival suggests surrender,
44:21that Percival's going to demand his surrender.
44:24At the negotiations, when Percival is sort of havering
44:27and trying to sort of cut deals,
44:29he says, are you going to surrender or not?
44:31Inside, you can just imagine the tension building up.
44:34Are these guys going to talk me out of it?
44:36And so he's got to bring this to a stop.
44:39This hard, large, overbearing guy who's saying,
44:46give in or we'll just wipe you off the face of the earth,
44:49must have been quite alarming.
44:52It's very interesting to speculate what would have happened
44:54if Percival said, well, I'm not going to surrender,
44:56you better fight for it.
45:00Now, Percival is surrendering at the end of his first
45:05and only senior command in battle.
45:10He would have been internally wondering what he did wrong,
45:16what could he have done better to have stopped it?
45:18Poor man must have been dismayed that he had lost Singapore for Britain.
45:25After an hour, Percival signs an unconditional surrender.
45:31Yamashita has taken the island and the whole of Malaya
45:33with the loss of only 9,600 men.
45:36The Japanese fate him as the tiger of Malaya.
45:41His morals may be questionable, but his generalship is not.
45:46It was a fantastic achievement in my view.
45:50I can't think of any mistakes or bad decisions that Yamashita makes
45:56throughout the campaign.
45:58I mean, it's a faultless performance.
46:00I really can't think of any mistakes that he makes, actually.
46:06Churchill calls it the worst disaster
46:08and the largest capitulation in British history.
46:12120,000 British troops are killed or captured.
46:17Percival clearly did make mistakes,
46:19but show me a general anywhere in military history
46:22who does not make mistakes
46:24and I'll show you someone who's got delusion.
46:26Because, you know, we all make mistakes, generals, all the time.
46:33And it's certain that a different general would have done it differently.
46:37Would the outcome have been substantially different?
46:39Who can tell?
46:41General Percival spent the rest of the war as a captive of the Japanese
46:45before returning to a quiet life in England.
46:50General Yamashita went on to fight in the Philippines.
46:54After the war, he was tried for atrocities committed by his soldiers.
46:58He was found guilty and hanged.
47:17I told him he was pretty poor,
47:20and bring him up.
Comments