127 - Fortress Singapore Stands Alone! - WW2 - January 30, 1942 

First reply

Im from singapore btw

What is the situation of New Caledonia? Shouldn't it be under Vichy control? How do Americans manage to send troops there?

I should be doing more language drills (all day, every day...) And yet here we are again

@@stoopidphersun7436 A fan of Brawl Stars I see :)

Man, I haven't heard/seen that meme for like ten years! Good for you, telling outdated jokes! =)

Funny meme > new meme.

Oh the irony.

@@Zen-sx5io You took the words out of my mouth.

Be careful of what you wish for, you might get it

Clark Gable was worried the Germans would do that to him if they captured him (he took part in some bomber missions over Germany). He thought they might put him in a cage.

Talked too soon, jinxed themselves.

your transmission can't break if you can't even turn on the tank

@@HipFire1 you've won the internet.

The pros about not having fuel is that you can not retreat your panzer forces

Maybe not too much later

@@ottovalkamo1 Festung Panzer 🤔

Fellow Singaporean here too, most of our knowledge on the Malayan Campaign is pretty condensed actually. Like for example, they do not cover anything on the Japanese spy Patrick Stanley Vaughan Heenan, a Captain in the British Indian Army who was executed just before the Fall of Singapore.

@@gunman47 ayy same here as a Malaysian

Japanese come up, British unprepared, thus PAP the best because they can take care of us. The whole point of lower sec hist was just to say that, but graded.

same here

@@gunman47 So far nobody explained how was possible that a small Japanese force managed to defeat such a big UK army. I guess UK army was more than 100 000 men strong when surrounded to 25-30000 men Japanese army.

Actually... they were related. Distant cousins from the same noble family. Rómmel changed spelling of his name and some other relatives that fell more related to Poland then any other country followed him.

@@PobortzaPl Wasn't Rommel Swabian?

@@PobortzaPl where did you get this information? Erwin Rommel was born in southwest Germany, and had no noble name and title like "von Rommel". The Juliusz's name and Title was Freiherr von Rommel, he was born in the Baltic's. The name could be pure coincidence.

@@mrunseen3797 Rommel was from that part of the family that lived in Germany. There's nothing strange in Central Europe for German(or Polish, or Czech, or Hungarian) families to have its branches all over the region. Rómmel himself was claiming distant relation to Rodmell, either they grandfathers or grangrandfathers were brothers.

@@lukalisjak2106 Your point being? Even if he had been born in late medieval times it still would only mean he was born in Swabia. Early to mid medieval it would mean a slightly different kind of German than someone from Westphalia.

@-Umut Deniz- At the time of the Battle of Singapore, most areas were actually jungle, swamps or small villages / kampungs, unlike now where the entire island is almost fully urbanised and built up. Only the Town areas near the Singapore River on the south of the island were fairly urbanised with streets and roads. There are actually beaches as possible landing points on the north of the island, such as Sarimbun and Punggol Beaches, for example.

@-Umut Deniz- also Singapores north has a ton of huge crocodiles. (Still does, it's where Louis Vuitton get their crocodile skin from. They farm them in Singapore.)

@@porksterbob Oh yeah? They do? I thought using crocodile skin was illegal.

@@Rahulrao2576 No adoration here. You obviously missed my point.

@@Rahulrao2576 then maybe just say that in a normal way instead of writing a poem

@@Rahulrao2576 no we're just appreciating the events that happened we all know about the bad stuff especially on this channel goofball

My Mom's uncle missed that death march by two weeks. He was severely wounded by an artillery shell and somehow was shipped out. Lost total hearing in one ear and couldnt hear much out the other.

This is interesting and not something I was aware of. Do you have a website link where I could find out more? And for one of your commenters re water boarding I would recommend they watch the Railway Man film about British POWs and finding Peace. Plus John Le Carre (recently deceased novelist) many RU-vid clips about the stupidity of torture.

@Layman Gallagher The Japanese should have written back and pointed out the atrocities committed by the United States against the Native Americans, if McCain and Abraham were going to play that game. The fact that the Japanese committed atrocities does not mean the US gets to use "enhanced interrogation techniques". The reason Japan has a self-defense force, and Germany doesn't, obviously has nothing to do with atrocities, and everything to do with the fact that the main theater of the Cold War was predicted to be in Europe, not the Pacific. NATO needed Germany to have a fully-fledged military, and it did not require this of Japan.

@Layman Gallagher Sadly the US and Russian forces raped as well You will hear more of the rapes the Russians did, But during the occupation Especially in Okinawa it was common to find US soldiers breaking into homes and committing rape I remember one testimony from a US soldier He was driving along when he spotted a group of soldiers bunched up on the side of the road upon closer inspection they were gangraping a local woman, He asked his officer to stop it and his officer said no And if you don't believe me just look it up. To this day the Okinawans wants the US base there gone Also Vietnam, If you wanna hear about war crimes well the US committed so many there Agent orange Napalm Desecration of Religious sites Rape The killing of non-combatants The Japanese in WW2 may of revelled in it But the US ignored there own soldiers doing it and before you go at me, All Armies commit some horrible shit be it by necessity for victory or simple revenge or joy But I am sick of people from the US acting all high and mighty and saying that there the fucking golden boys when they are not To this day the US army has one of the highest rates of crime , Crime rates around US bases are nearly always higher than the local area. Exceptions are the one in the UK but when it comes to areas that are extremely "foreign" aka Okinawa the US soldiers seem to think there better than everyone else and that they can get away with shit For example The 1995 Okinawa rape incident. three soldiers Kidnaped and raped a 12 year old girl And the US instantly got them out of the country as soon as allegations were made It took a shit ton of effort to EVEN get one man to justice The fucking country that can apparently do NO EVIL tried to protect these men If it was not for other countries intervening these men would of got off scot free It took international pressure for the US to let these men face justice. The same shit happened during the occupation and the US policy on it was just let it happen Out of mind out of sight Willingness to ignore crime makes you just as complicity ESPECIALLY if said country denounces there very ACTS there are allowing I am British , My country committed some of the worst shit ever we learned from our mistakes it took a long time we also put it out of mind out of sight But we did learn and its time the US gets of its high horse and look inwards. By stooping to levels of the enemy are you any better?

@@mk_gamíng0609 Some of the problems of this happening is the nature of the recruits. Some army types admit that they mostly get thuggish volunteers. The kind who are often lawless and might be criminals in civilian life. It is the same in every army in the world. No country can claim innocence.

In war having better propaganda is often a key to mobilizing the homefront for victory. For examples of poor propaganda: Vietnam, Iraq. You have to sell war, and to do it you can’t admit to your populace that you are not going to reinforce a segment of your troops, remember the enemy is listening as well.

@@TheLocalLt that's true, but it still stinks if you're one of the guys that's getting screwed. Just a sad situation.

My Filipina American wife appreciates this too.

Back when he was covering the Great War, he had to correctly pronounce Przemysl.

Now, if he would only make a greater effort with some of the Russian names...

@@morskojvolk Is he pronouncing them with a bad accent or just pronouncing them wrong? If it's a bad accent, there isn't much you can do other than hiring him an accent coach. If he's pronouncing them wrong, contact the team directly.

@@ScottyShaw I was being somewhat facetious. The pronunciation errors are largely syllable stress and occasionally mispronouncing letter combinations that are often difficult for a non-russian speaker. Nothing important to the vast majority of viewers.

Actually Rommel's reckless advance and trying to hold an over extended supply line will bite his rear very badly at Alamein at the end of 1942

@@merdiolu Pff the British will never lose Cyrenaica, you're delutional if you think Rommel can advance.

And Mussolini thought Hitler was a clown who copied him, but Rommel told him to talk to the hand!

Insert "Call the cops, I don't give a f--k" llama meme here.

Yeah, a lot of people dying an agonising death in the desert due to the whim of a General is so funny...oh...wait.

How long has this been going on if he’s only in 42?

@@Noone-jn3jp Over 3 years now. They started coverage Sep. 1, 2018.

Your not the only one.

@@howardbrandon11 thanks. I’m going to look for that one. This is amazing.

@@Noone-jn3jp here's the whole weekly episode playlist: ru-vid.com/group/PLsIk0qF0R1j4Y2QxGw33vYu3t70CAPV7X

Why, what's happening in Stalingrad?

How do you know this series will last another three years? Are you a psychic or a time traveler or something?

@@markanderson3870 Nothing. The Germans aren't anywhere near there, so Muhammad must be having a fit.

What are you? A omniscient?

check TIK's stalingrad stuff

Well there is not much he could do about it... he was outgunned, outnumbered and surrounded... with most of his defences facing the sea There was no help that could arrive in time from anywhere. And if need be - he could have been just starved to death by Japanese air supperiority. Evacuation by sea... well - the battleships british sent to interecept japanese were sunk by planes before firing a shot... He had no chance of winning. I would not be too hard on the general. He could have made a stand a made japanese bleed... but - they would not bleed to death.

@@Paerigos Well said, mate

@@Paerigos Wasn’t Yamashita bluffing to Percival since Yamashita was running out of supplies?

@@tigertank06 Well yes, but Yamashita could "live of the land" for a while, and had chance of some ressupply... Percival had no hope of any help coming for months. And its not like he had stockpiles to last that long. hell british loggistics already went to hell by Japanese just taking indochina... (because indochina was main source of food to supply India...)

@@tigertank06 That would be correct. Yamashita was actually on a time schedule. He needed to conquer Malaya & Singapore in a certain amount of time and by a certain date. The Japanese were expecting a cake-walk in Malaya, but they encountered unexpected heavy resistance from the defenders, which also caused delays. Think he accomplished his mission with about a week left in his time schedule - do not remember the exact schedule. IF am correct in memory of everything that have read for the fight for Singapore, the British actually OUTNUMBERED the Japanese before they surrendered but, the British were just as exhausted & short of everything that the Japanese were.

Thank you for your story and comment. We're glad you like the videos.

Thank you and thank you for sharing

I hope my country of Singapore will hold out too, at least past Lunar New Year on February 15 1942 yeah? :)

@@gunman47 i believe singapore would held out just like sevastopol ;)

But Borneo has already been invaded. I wonder how the KNIL will fight the Japanese

I hope the Germans don't poison our beloved Tsar Boris in Bulga- he's dead? The bastards ;-;

@@briantarigan7685 Spolier alert: Singapore fell in 7 DAYS.

Why do you say that, they are about to win in the eastern front. Just a couple of good offensives and all good.

I have a bad feeling about this "Case Blue". I wonder what will happen

@@principalityofbelka6310 Something other than cold weather, I'd hope...

@@averyhandsomechilean3218 Exactly. They’ve practically got Moscow in the bag, as the Reds are completely finished

Kriegsmarine will still be partying in the Atlantic and Caribbean.

I'm sure my country of Singapore will do so, when there is nowhere else left to go but the sea. They will hold the line steadfast!

Why do I hear whistling?

I thought it was the River Kok.

@@photoisca7386 only if Colonel Clarkson decided to give in after a few minutes in the brig.

Colonel Bogey intensifies

It is mentioned next week actually. In exactly the capacity you describe. Insane that the British didn't known it down.

@@Southsideindy Oh cool Indy, will be looking forward to that. Seems like I jumped the gun a little too early lol. I think even if the British had known this, I doubt this would still change things much though in my opinion. They would still not have bombarded the palace due to fear of offending the native Malay population and morale as well. Oh by the way, I have shared the link for this week's episode on our r/Singapore reddit as well, so hopefully more of us Singaporeans might get introduced to the channel too :)

Nah mate, the Japanese are going to sink it. I'm sure of it. You can't come back from being sunk in the Pacific.

"The Enterprise...no bloody A - B - C or D!"

@@yourstruly4817 Interestingly enough the fictional USS Enterprise from Star Trek was named after the famous carrier from the Second World War. Gene Roddenberry, the guy who created Star Trek, confirmed it in an interview in the 1970s. It was also referenced in the TV show Enterprise. In Captain Jonathan Archer's ready room there was a display of the historical lineage of his ship, feauring the USS Enterprise from the Second World War and the space shuttle of the same name.

@@lycaonpictus9662 It isn't really a surprise, the Enterprise was a legendary ship

@@lycaonpictus9662 I'm not surprised the USS Enterprise was named after it.

Grow up

@@paulgenovy5977 What does that even mean? Being a dead serious person with no sense of humor?

@@paulgenovy5977 Oh fuck off

They'd rather cut their losses and counterattack later.

@@KaiserFranzJosefI Franz?! What are you doing here? Is Conrad here with you?

Churchill sounds a whole lot like Uncle Joe in that dispatch. Guess he's been taking notes on how the Soviets do things.

Occasionally, Churchill was as prone to giving maniacal orders as Hitler or Stalin.

at Trenton von Rall was ordered to fortify the place, so he scheduled work to begin the week after Christmas ...

@@Raskolnikov70 He's always been like that since before Germany invaded Soviet Union. He ordered The Calais garrison to fight to the death as part of operation Dynamo in 1940. He doesn't need to take notes from Soviet Union.

Churchill did specialise in jingoistic balderdash that got people killed to no purpose.

Well... the fortress fell rather quick so I would not use Singapore as a life guide

I don't think it's them forgetting, but rather using a pronunciation that doesn't confuse the target audience.

I think the correct pronunciation was pointed out to him.

Sure, but when quoting a rhyme that only works when said wrong, it sounds funny

To me the problem is that the Americans reciting the "Battling Bastards of Bataan" doggerel wouldn't pronounce Bataan that way It's a bit misleading.

On the Scottish side of the family a relative of mine survived capture in Singapore - possibly he was in the Argylls. I never met him - I was told his experiences left him with a hatred of the Japanese.

Glad he survived and his health recovered.

It's not so bad. Here in Minnesota we just break out our heavier scarves before going ice fishing.

Napoleon: the bad weather and cold in Russia Hitler: the unexpected Russian winter Soviets: YESSSSSS!!!

It’s so cold that if you have throw boiling water into the air, it will immediately turn to snow

It is a temperature my mom allways asked me to put hat and cloves on when going to play football with my friends when I was a kid

It must have been a frozen hell for both sides fighting in that weather, even if the Red Army was better clothed for it.

The problem is British defences both in Malaya and Singapore island were neglected too long. Even while Japanese were advancing down Malay peninsula during December and January there was plenty of time to organise and construct /build up defences on northern shores of Singapore. However both Singapore governor Thomas Shelton and Malayan Army commander General Arthur Percival did not do anything about it for "morale reasons"

Part of the issue was that British troops morale was terrible. Many of the units were of colonial troops and they were not very impressed by the behavior of the native British in the crisis leading up to the defense.

The Japanese could not have taken Hawaii without a decisive blow against the US Pacific Fleet. The Hawaiian Islands were well garrisoned and fortified, much closer to the US mainland than the Philippines and thus easier for the US to defend and more difficult for Japan to attack, and the strategic importance of Hawaii combined with the fact that it was actually part of the United States would have meant the US would have mounted a colossal effort to retain it, unlike the Philippines, which by this point had been written off as a loss. Japan could also strike the Philippines with land based bombers, while Hawaii was out of range of anything that wasn't on an aircraft carrier.

@Ann Onymous That would have been impossible given the political climate and lack of resources in the United States before Pearl Harbor. The United States Army was decimated by budget cuts before 1940 so they had nothing to send to the Philippines. The War Department made the brutal and unofficial decision that the Philippines were indefensible. Roosevelt's executive order on July 31, 1941 to defend the Philippines was too little and too late to provide the equipment and men to defend the Commonwealth. Congress voted down the funding in committees forcing Roosevelt to scrap up emergency funding from other departments which he was only able to do September to October 1941. On December 7, 1941, the majority of the US Army was still doing field maneuvers with broomsticks for rifles, fence posts for machine guns and mortars, sawed off telephone poles for artillery, and Model-T Fords with the word tank painted on side to preserve scarce World War 1 equipment from being damaged. The vast majority of military equipment in the US was being shipped out through lend-lease. The overwhelming majority of the men and equipment scrapped up by the US Army for the Philippines were still sitting in the barracks of the Presidio of San Francisco, warehouses in San Francisco, and parking lots in San Francisco when Pearl Harbor happened. Congress was adamantly opposed to spending a single penny on the defense of the Philippines and on the financing of equipment and resources for the Philippine Army. There were actively aided in their opposition by the US State Department and Philippine High Commissioner Francis Sayre. To give an example, the Philippine Division was supposed to have a paper strength of 19,997 officers and enlisted men, the reality was that the Philippine Division only had 9,716 officers and enlisted men on November 30, 1941. The only reason this number was so high was because former Philippine Department Commander Major General Grunnert had recalled every US Army reservist and retiree under the age of 55 back into active duty.

It will not really matter. The Fezzan is mostly desert. The Libya that mattered in military operations was the coastal area. Even Rommel's drive for Mechili was taking a risk by going some way from the coast.

@@stevekaczynski3793 It does matter because to link with the British in the north and enter Tunisia, the French forces in Tchad have to go through the Fezzan. So in order to do that they need to defeat and capture the several Italian garrisons in the area. What you or anyone may think of its usefulness is no concern because what's matter is it happened anyway so those events merit we talk about them, especially in this channel.

@@oOkenzoOo Well, in theory both sides could outflank each other by going through the desert, in practice it was liable to turn into a death march. One part of the Libyan desert actually recorded the hottest temperatures known on earth back in 1962, according to one issue of the Guinness Book of World Records. Not a great place to fight.

We'll just have to hope the tide turns in favor of the Allies.

@@Zen-sx5io It’s not looking good. Best learn German, Italian, and Japanese just to be safe

@@dr.lyleevans6915 I'm already am 2-4% proficient in Japanese, I have family in Germany and have Italian ancestry, maybe I can be hired as an Axis spy?

The Indian Army prevented the Japanese from going west beyond Burma and Assam

and no one ever asks the bricks or the soviets how it was for them

As one German general said that it gets cold in the winter in the USSR is elementary knowledge.

@@kleinweichkleinweich I'll do you one better. Why are the Soviets?

Although, to be fair, the rainy season came early and was one of the worst on record. This was abruptly followed by what was at the time *the* worst winter on record, in terms of snowfall and absolute cold. That said, I mean come on now. It’s Russia.. in winter

It isn’t Germany’s fault that those “bricks” were harder than average bricks lol

Sad that they left him behind.

Japan has really good planes with the best pilots on earth in 1942. They couldn't replace these when they were lost, but they have them now.

The quality and technology of planes is important.

Yeah, Nazis trying to conquer the world and murder millions of people is really funny....oh...wait....

Thank you

Thank you for your kind words Joe!

Thank you Matthew. We really appreciate your comment.

Thank you

Thank you

Thank you very much Michael

We're glad you like it!

Thanks

Happy birthday!

Thank you!

Thank you for your kind words

As a Malaysian, I get annoyed whenever the politicians rattle sabers bout Singapore cause I really don't get the point at all.

@@LAIHOCKCHUNi have no idea also were just nuetral like swiss and sweden

@@atouhoufan607 Yeah I get what you mean.

Hope the guns point in the right direction these days :)

@@LAIHOCKCHUN it's all to score political points. Both countries knew that there is no strategic benefits if Singapore n Malaysia went to war with each other. None whatsoever. Whoever won will be cast as an international pariah and will suffer the same fate as Saddam Iraq. So no worries of isolated war between Singapore n Malaysia. That said, if it's part of a world war, then it's different.

Thanks a lot Robert!

Speak for yourself. Most people I know can understand both just fine.

@@ScottyShaw ...agree

Thanks a lot mice, usually we get comments complaining about pronunciation, so this was really uplifting to read.

Thanks!

You should probably rephrase or someone’s going to read this the wrong way.

Spartacucs comes off as too left wing tho imo

@@simeoncolby1972 did so

@@B727X When you're talking about authoritarian governments committing atrocities it's kind of hard not to.

They need to do more logistics posts. I really want one on Chinese logistics as people don't understand how bad it was there. Also, one on British imperial logistics and how they coordinated across the colonies would be great.

@@porksterbob Agreed. A series on the logistics of WWII would be great (indeed, Imperial logistics could be a series unto itself). However, as things stand, they still do a far better job than most.

Thanks for the kind words guys we appreciate it! Yep a lot of people have been asking for more logistics specials and we enjoy making them anyway. When the team next sits down to plan content we'll definitely see what we can do in this regard.

@@WorldWarTwo The logistics in Burma would be a fun one and also super relevant... But I don't think the production cycle would allow it to be done in time.

@@WorldWarTwo That's sure to be awesome! But I also wanted to reiterate that in terms of a general overview of WWII that is the main weekly series run by Indy, y'all are already do a great job and doing any more than that would've likely led to losing out on the other details... unless you wanted to do hour long episodes every week... which I wouldn't say no to... but I shouldn't say yes (for y'all's sanity)... Keep up the great work as always... or else Comrade Stalin send you to gulag! ;)

Thank you Nick, always glad to have you with us

There seems to have been more use of the Soviet parachute arm than I expected.

Thank you for sharing that with us!

He shouldn't have been. What other outcome did he expect from telling a surrounded and isolated garrison to stand fast against the Japanese?

@@Raskolnikov70 the British had more than enough troops and equipment to stop Japan had they been willing to treat the Japanese as a real threat. The problem was that the british spread their troops out, negating their numerical advantage, and they tried to hold up the Japanese in equal engagements. The Japanese armies in Malaya were five year combat veterans who had extensive experience in operating in a low infrastructure environment. The Chinese had been telling anyone who would listen how to fight the Japanese when the troops you have are less experienced, less equipped, less trained, and less motivated, but the British hadn't listened.

@@porksterbob they also underestimated Japanese air power. Once they secured air supremacy on the peninsula, they controlled the seas too (bye bye Repulse and Prince of Wales). The loss of water supplies made the siege untenable. The defenders had the numbers but were demoralized by that point and Percival wasn't the most inspirational leader at that moment.

Look up Rómmel

@@WorldWarTwo I do know about Juliusz Rómmel, just thought you would mention him for some reason in the main part of the episode :)

Touching the metal parts of a rifle without gloves on will cause the skin of the fingers and hand to peel off in such temperatures.

Thank you!

Thank you!

Of course we should expect nothing more than the Tiger of Malaya of course :)

We try our best to give attention to China. We try to follow where the action is, and at this point in the timeline the front in China itself had somewhat stabilized, with most of the major fighting happening before the outbreak of the European war. If you're interested we did cover China more often in our earlier WW2 weekly episodes as at that point it was where most of the action was.