130 - Britain's Worst Defeat - Singapore Falls - WW2 - February 20, 1942 

Japan takes Singapore, a huge prize, and one more in a series of humiliations for the British. The Japanese are also pretty public about the atrocities they commit against civilians, already from the beginnings of their offensives and occupation. To learn more about that dark aspect of an already dark war, check out our War Against Humanity subseries, which deals with that in depth. It comes out twice a month; the playlist is right here: ru-vid.com/group/PLsIk0qF0R1j4cwI-ZuDoBLxVEV3egWKoM For more depth about individual dates and events, follow our day by day coverage on Instagram: instagram.com/WW2_Day_By_Day/ And please read our rules of conduct before you comment, saves everyone headaches (and loads of time): community.timeghost.tv/t/rules-of-conduct/4518

"Welcome to the Great Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. Please do not resist."

Person: “I am from Hainan.” Japan: “That’s a weird way to say ‘communist’.”

I wonder how long Singapore would've held out if the Allies knew how the Japanese treated their POWs. I'm also looking forward to the final episode in 2053 (1974), after the last Japanese soldier surrendered.

My grandad was taken POW at Singapore. Ended up in Changi and on the infamous Thai-Burma railway. He survived, at least physically. Had a lot of issues due to his time there. After the war he only worked for a short time before being pensioned off No one but his wife knew he had actually been there. We didn't find out until the early 90s when my sister did a school project on the Thai-Burma railway, which helped us understand why he was the way he was.

Japan to Portugal: "No problem, we'll recognize your neutrality." Manuel Quezon:"Wait, what?"

I can't even tell who's encircling who anymore.

Should've mentioned the Singapore hospital incident, was even more gruesome than the hospital ship one.

GK Chesterton once wrote: "The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people"

In the west: “I got wounded, at least I get to go on leave.” In the east: “I got wounded, now I have to lie here and find out whether it’s a Japanese bayonet or a disease that gets me.”

A footnote: Percival surrendered to Yamashita at Singapore. Wainwright of the US Army surrendered the Philippines. Yamashita was moved to the Philippines. Before the Japanese surrender of the Philippines Percival and Wainwright had been released from a POW camp in China. They were both flown to the Phillipines. Yamashita was shocked to see Percival standing there as he signed the surrender of Japanese forces.

My in-laws are Singaporean, and my father-in-law was a child when the Japanese took the island. He has described seeing severed heads strung from street lights. His father had to hide among the Malays to avoid being captured.

My grandfather, then in his early twenty, resided in Sarawak when the Japanese occupied Borneo in Dec 1941. Seemed like a painful experience for those who went through the wartime. He seldom talked about his feeling about this period. I believe many Chinese were killed. Some hid in local Dayak long houses for years to avoid being rounded up by Japanese.

There were 65 air raids over Darwin in WWII the last one in November 1943 lots of people think there was only one for some reason .

The story of the survivors and nurses is just heartbreaking how did Japanese soldiers justify these actions to themselves? How can you just go on living after carrying out such acts..

I suppose this will likely be covered in the next episode of the War Against Humanity (February 1942 Part 2), but after the Japanese broke through at the Battle of Pasir Panjang on 14 Feb 1942, they would go on to conduct the Alexandra Hospital massacre where wounded soldiers, doctors and nurses were killed by the Japanese, many by bayonet. This has disturbing similarities to the St. Stephen's College massacre during the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong in December 1941.

You forgot to mention that on this week, 15 February, was the start of German U-Boats campaign to bombing Brazilian merchant and citizens naval convoys. Which led to the break of relations with the Axis forces and later, on August 1942, Brazil joining the war on the allied side. On this week ,15 and 18 February, they sunk two convoys. During the year of 1942 there would be more 23 Brazilian naval convoys sunk. Also, in 1942 the U.S would set strategic military bases on Brazil in Belém, Natal and in the island of Fernando de Noronha. If you are curious you can check the list here: pt.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_de_navios_brasileiros_atacados_na_Segunda_Guerra_Mundial

As an aussie I think it's important to mention how much of events in signapore and Darwin was censored from the Australian public. Great series BTW enjoy it and look forward to each episode

When Andy says the kill to wounded ratio is an indication now brutal the fighting is, that's a polite way of saying that the Japanese would shoot or bayonet the wounded to finish them off

The American Destroyer sunk by the Japanese at Darwin, was USS Peary (DD-226) a Great War vintage Clemson-class destroyer. She served in the U.S Asiatic Fleet, being present at Cavite on December 10th 1941 when the American naval depot was bombed. She was struck well alongside the pier, and had eight men killed as fires aboard forced her crew and other sailors to battle the blaze and the enemy. Her Captain was wounded, his XO killed. With a new Captain, Cmdr John Bermingham (Who Jeffery R. Cox in his book "Rising Sun, Falling Skies" explains was given command "...by virtue of the Asiatic Fleet's personnel commander running into him on the dock as he watched the repairs on the Peary...") she was tasked on December 26th alongside USS Pillsbury with withdrawing south to join Admiral Hart and U.S Task Force 5 at Soerabaja. (These vessels would soon become the American contingent of ABDA) Both ships split up, steaming the gauntlet across the Sulu and Celebes seas alone, less likely for both to be sunk if they were caught together by Japan warships or planes. At Negroes island, Cmdr Bermingham anchored close to the shore, and had Peary covered in foliage and her decks hastily painted green, in the hopes that Japanese aircraft wouldn't spot them. On the 28th, after entering the Celebes sea she was attacked by Japanese medium bombers and seaplanes, dropping torpedoes and bombs that Peary only barely manage to evade. Nearly Celebes island, she was again attacked, this time by Allied aircraft that mistook her for a Japanese vessel, as Australian Hudson bombers, seemingly ignored her signaling and made attack runs on her, one bomb striking aft, killing a man, and damaging a rudder and propulsion, defending herself the Pearly damage one Hudson with machinegun fire, the bombers leaving at sundown. (The Australians and Dutch were expecting two U.S Destroyers in a group, and didn't realize the lone American vessel was in fact, not Japanese, the green paint scheme didn't help either) Putting into a nearby port at Maitara, the crew made what repairs they could, refueled and, after almost three days, made radio contact with the T.F 5 to give a report of the situation. When American floatplanes arrived at her position (Dispatched since Bermingham was worried that the Japanese might track him via radio signal, he hadn't replied to T.F 5 after his initial report), they took three passes to spot the camouflaged Peary. When the PBY Floatplane landed , Bermingham was less then pleased with orders to head to Ambon (On the South coast of Indonesia) replying with some indignation: "I've been bombed by everyone else, and i'm not about to let you guys have a shot at me too." However, those were their orders, like them or not. With what little fuel remained, the Peary steamed for Ambon, outside the harbor being quickly halted by signaling. She had almost sailed into the port's minefield. She stayed for only a day before being ordered to Darwin, arriving on the 3rd of January, 1942. Where in six weeks time, she would be sunk, many of those who had crewed her through those three weeks of danger in the opening month of the war, would follow her to the grave, including Bermingham. In less then three weeks, the Peary’s crew had endured three bombings by the Japanese and one by the Australians, fought a fire aboard, spent three nights as an island, and narrowly sailed into a Dutch minefield, and this is only the beginning of her story. Of one vintage destroyers, in the Asiatic Fleet, soon to be ABDA. The Peary's story is ABDA in microcosm. Old ships crewed by old hands, far from their homelands, fighting with all their tenacity to halt the Japan drive south. They, the Americans, British, Dutch and Australians fought like tigers, but tigers with dulled claws, with shells that wouldn't detonate, ships that were as old as their crews, for colonial holdings some men amongst them viewed more as home then their own home countries from having so long served there. Though history little remembers them, only footnotes in those dark terrible months of defeat and disaster, they fought for their flag, fought for time, but above all, they fought for each other. Today the "4" inch gun of the Peary stands on the shore of Darwin harbor, a memorial to her crew.

I'm always reminded by the tales of veterans I had met about this campaign. Australian, British, Japanese, Indonesians, Singaporeans, Dutch soldiers as well as civilians who endured the war were either in prison or went about their ways to survive. My parents were teens on Java who told these tales and introduce me to others. Kudos to the Time Ghost team for these episodes. 👍✌

When looking at Percival, he looks like the most uncharismatic commander ever...

The day of the surrender and Fall of Singapore, 15 February, is now commemorated in Singapore through *Total Defence Day* . Every year, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) blares sirens island-wide with the Important Message signal through its Public Warning System (PWS) at 6.20pm. This is to remind us Singaporeans of what could happen if we cannot defend themselves, and to strengthen our resolve to keep Singapore safe, secure and independent. A memorial service is also held at the Civilian War Memorial near the Padang on the same day to remember the victims of the war.

Interestingly, Adolf Hitler reportedly had mixed views about the Fall of Singapore, seeing it as a setback for the "white race", but ultimately it was still something in Germany's military interests. He did not allow Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop from issuing a congratulatory communique to the Japanese.

The story of what happened to the Purple Machine in Singapore could be a great plot idea for a semi historic novel

The Purple Machine part is where other channels would sneak a VPN sponsorship in. But this channel doesn’t do sponsorships and I love them for that.

This is a very difficult episode to watch for me. My grandfather was captured at Singapore, and held in Changi jail, ironically across the road from his own house. He survived the hellships and was imprisoned in what is now North Korea. He was maltreated, and saw several of his comrades executed. Eventually he was liberated by the Red Army, kept alive by food and medical supplies dropped by the US Army Air Force and repatriated by the US Navy in Operation Magic Carpet. Thanks guys!

Vivian Bullwinkle was born in Kapunda South Australia not South Africa

Funnily enough, Percival will get a retribution for his surrender of Singapore when he was present at Yamashita's surrender in the Philippines in 1945.

Fuchida had an interesting life. Nearly killed at midway, he happened to be at hiroshima the day before the bomb. Called back to Tokyo, he and a fact finding group were sent back the day after. Everyone but him died of radiation poisoning. After the war he was forced to testify against jaoaneese war criminals and was infuriated what he percieved must be the allies hypocricy. He made it his mission to find jaoaneese pows and expose the allies had done the same things. He was shocked to find not only were the jaoaneese pows treated well but that a friend he thought died at midway was still alive. Still he didn't understand the Americans ability to treat their enemies well. He actually expected them to reciprocate the atrocities. A few years later he read a book by and later met an american pow who introduced him to christianity, which he converted to.. he once told admiral nimmets they made the right choice dropping the atom bombs as the toll to both sides from an allied invasion of the mainland would be catadtrophic. He eventually took up peanent residence in the united States though he never became a citizen

As well as Singapore and Darwin, on the 26th Feb 1942 Japanese recon plans launched from a submarine all the way down south were also spotted flying over Melbourne, further prompting fears of invasion.

I like how, despite him not being in this episode. Rommel still gets name dropped

"Somethings shouldn't happen,not even in war"

Singapore showed the issue of trying to fight a war on four fronts at the same time (Europe, North Africa, Singapore and Australia).

This is SUCH an important video! For most of my life I never could understand WHY the Brits were unable to stop Imperial Japan in SE Asia.

This is already covered in the IG day by day of the channel, but on 14 Feb 1942, C Company commanded by Lieutenant Adnan bin Saidi under the 1st Malaya Brigade clashes with the Japanese during the Battle of Pasir Panjang at Bukit Chandu. The Japanese attempted to send in a group of men dressed in captured British Indian troops' uniforms in order to present themselves as allied Indian soldiers in the British Indian Army. However, soldiers of the British Army typically marched in a line of three columns while the supposed allied Indian soldiers in front of their lines were moving in a line of four columns. C Company saw through this deception and opened fire once the disguised Japanese reached their defensive lines, killing many and causing the remainder to retreat. The Japanese would return a few hours later to launch an all-out charge, overwhelming the defensive lines and resulting in fierce hand to hand combat. Lieutenant Adnan encouraged his men not to retreat or surrender, which was best illustrated in his motto: Better Death Than Dishonour. Eventually he was captured and executed by the Japanese. Today, Lieutenant Adnan is considered a local national hero in both Singapore and Malaysia for his actions at Bukit Chandu.

Von Kluge - You're surrounded! Zhukov - Nuh-uh, you're surrounded. Von Kluge - Not if I surround you first! Zhukov - How are you gonna surround me if you're already surrounded? Von Kluge - No u.

Really puts into perspective Japan's ultimate fate in the war.

My late father in law was captured and survived after Changi and Burma Railway. He was released after the dropping of the atom bomb. All allied prisoners would have been executed if the Japanese mainland had been invaded.

16:10 to quote M*A*S*H 4077: "War isn't hell. War is war, and hell is hell, and of the two, war is a lot worse."

Just before Singapore fell a large amount of glass plate slides were secretly taken out of Singapore to Australia by submarine. These plate slides were all or most of the property ownership and bank account details for Singapore and the southern Malay Peninsula. They were taken to the Australian Army Survey Corps at Fortuna Mansion in Bendigo, Victoria (near my home - I can see it on the next hill). The slides were all copied then taken again by submarine to the USA for the duration of the war.

A side note to the fall of Singapore is the story of RCAF pilots Howard Pilmore Low of Vancouver BC and Russell Charles Smith of Kamsack Saskatchewan. Low was captured by the Japanese on February 10 while leading a ragtag group airmen attempting to defend their airfield. Smith had been shot down over Singapore possibly on the 9th. The two squadron mates were reunited at the Boei Glodock PoW camp where together they would escape and attempt to steal a twin engine Japanese aircraft from the neighboring Kamarjam aerodrome. They managed to get one engine started before being re-captured. Two days later they were summarily executed by firing squad. The bravery and tenacity of these two young men (Smith was just 21) so far from home is something worth remembering.

Where was Gondor when Singapore fell?!

I wish all the schools and colleges would watch War Against Humanity it's so hard to watch and in hopes that it will never happen again, but it's war and in war, bad things always happen. I"m just terrified that it will happen again because we are slow to learn, or we don't learn history at all. Look at what Japan teaches about WWII they only teach it at a 100,000-foot view and they try to make themself look good.

Thus ends my most anticipated part of WW2, the invasion of my homeland. Looking forward to more coverage of the war.

Allied troops at Singapore: We surrender Geneva Convention: Exists Japanese: I’m gonna pretend that never existed...

Imagine being an Indian soldier in that fight and surrendering, it wasn't even their fight and they are caught up in it. Plus, the US troops in the Philippines must have started sweating nervously when they saw that report.

The japanese were not punished for their war crimes and they should have been. The emperor, every japanese military commander and most of their officers should have been hung for what they did throughout the war. Many of their crimes we didnt even know about because the allies intentionally didnt investigate them.

Malayan: I'm from Hainan Japanese: SO YOU HAVE CHOSEN DEATH!

Would be interesting that, given previous subjects on events like the Warsaw Uprising and partisan activities in Europe, if an episode about resistance against the Japanese in Malaya can looked into; we’ve heard and learnt about personalities like Lim Bo Seng, Adnan and the whole Force 136 in school but that was about it: piecemeal bites.

What really gets me about all of the surrender was the bit about those people the Japanese executed surviving the execution and then surrendering a second time. Dead if you don't surrender, if your first encounter is any indication you are probably just as dead if you do. It's kind of like choosing how to die; on your terms or by your enemy's whim. Under those circumstances I'd choose to not surrender and die being as annoying as possible. Got to be better than their prison camps.

Great take on Singapore's importance to China, and the What If about the almost captured Purple Machine. And as always, great writing.

Vivian Bullwinkle was South Australian, not South African. She was later the Matron at the hospital in Melbourne where my Father was a doctor. I think she babysat me when I was really little, but I can't be sure.

'Winston seemed in a daze. Nothing seemed to remove his despondency, which was apparent to us all... He was downcast, over-tired, and sleeping badly, and he seemed more worried than at any time since I became his bodyguard. He asked me to stop all telephone messages to his room and to see that he was not disturbed. I asked him what had happened in Singapore, and he shook his head and said, "I really don't know."' Walter Thompson, Churchill's bodyguard (quote taken from the TV doc series based on his book), witnessing the master of the English language reduced to four grim words... ... Tobruk coming soon. The darkness deepens.

Fun fact, censorship was strong in Australia at that time, my now 90 year old grandmother only learned that Darwin was bombed over 100 times not just once in 1995 until then she thought it was a once off. Also the Japanese should be forced to learn their own war crimes the way the Germans are forced.

finally....singapore..i love to hear about leftenan adnan heroic story in defending singapore at bukit chandu..

In defence of the RN; It could not have a "china fleet" equal to that of the home or Mediterranean fleets due to the naval treaties. it was a general desire of the RN to have 3 battlefleets, Americans poo pooed the idea however. Nor would it be sensible to move the med fleet to Asia given the circumstances in the Med. In pure military terms the Japanese really earned the capture of Singapore, the "he who dares wins" really played out for them. Roll on the catastrophic advance of Burma.

When i look to this new thumbnail i don't only feel nostalgic because it resembles a bit the old Great War series, but also proud to be a part of supporting indirectly this project and to see it becoming a success of it's own. Great and wonderful work as always, even it is about something awful as war.

"See Hans, Ivan seems to be dropping in on these fields with bonfires on them. If we lit bonfires ourselves, they would be dropping in exactly in front of our muzzles."

"Not far from Japan". Well, Singapore is further away from Japan than, say, Teheran is from London ...

The comments on this channel are more interesting, more knowledgeable, and just generally better than comments on most RU-vid channels. Which is to no small extent because of the quality of the channel itself. I'm a relatively new Time Ghost member.

It has reminded me of a movie, Paradise road, about the nurses of Singapore. Great movie, I think underrated. Impressive testimony told by Indy.

Forgive but never forget. It is the fall of Singapore that taught us Singaporeans a very important lesson; never depend on others to defend you. To us, Singapore is home. To the British, it is merely a symbol of pride, a boast to their counterparts.

Indy, Thank you for your deeply felt, humanitarian, and poignant statement toward the end of this video.

A few years ago at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, capital of Australia, I got to touch the table upon which the surrender of Singapore was signed. My grandfather on my father's side was in the 8th Division (Australia) and spent the rest of the war in Changi.

It used to be 3 British crown colony in Malayan Peninsula, Penang, Malacca and Singapore.

I love watching your videos when I have lunch. for a week now, you upload your videos after I have just finished eating and I get the big sad and regret for not eating later :(

12:50 Indie, Vivien Bullwinkle was South Australian, not South African.

I'm sure, this will blow over by summer. Stop worrying so much.

It seems to me that describing the question of the quality of the British Imperia Troops involved and its role in Singapore's fall as "nonsense" is a rather glib and ahistorical approach to the question. A great majority of the Indian troops taken prisoner would collaborate and would form the backbone of the INA. This alone should cast a large shadow on the issue of their reliability in a fight against the Japanese. As for the Australians, the casualty rates would seem to come to defense of the commons soldier- but when your Divisional commander runs off in a boat during the surrender abandoning his men KNOWING the way the Japanese treated prisoners of war, the question of how well led they could have been overall is a fair one.

“And Oil is the major reason the Japanese went to war.” USA: Nani?

"Only access to China is now the Burma Road" Here we go, time for the CBI theater. Alexa, play Welcome to the Jungle.

"It was the illusion that a Two-Hemisphere Empire can be defended by a One-Hemisphere Navy that sealed the fate of Singapore" ~ Admiral Herbert Richmond RN, 'Statesmen and Sea Power' (1946) In a similar vein, I've seen another good statement (the source of which, unfortunately, I cannot recall) to the effect that Britain was trying to fight a five ocean war with, at best, a two ocean navy.

Lieutenant Commander Edward Henry O'Hare was an American naval aviator of the United States Navy, who on February 20, 1942, became the Navy's first flying ace when he single-handedly attacked a formation of nine heavy bombers approaching his aircraft carrier. NOT A GD MENTION OF IT. EDIT: Do you not do events that happen on the day you upload? Poor research or poor scheduling.

There a few building still in use at RAAf Base Darwin from ww2 mainly the officers mess and we are told that there are still bullet holes in the building. I have not seen them myself.

They held on as best they could, but Singapore was always going to fall. Now for 4 brutal years of captivity, or fleeing to the jungles. Neither option sounds promising...

Really glad you guys are using Tower of Skulls as a source. It does a really good job of emphasizing just how brutal the Asia-Pacific War really was.

That story on the japanese killing those innocents on the beach sickened me. I... I don't have words right now. I know there are many stories like it, but the brutality, the needless murder... I have never felt more strongly than I do right now that war is the worst thing humanity has ever discovered.

12:51 now that's interesting considering here in South Africa all what where thought about the war is the Germans bad and our military invaded Madagascar and Jan Smuts, from what I know most of our hero's of the war where taken during apartheid by our former commonwealth nations and the UK and we allowed it to happend since they where in a British war and the British conquered us (Boer history where thought a lot and all bad where pinned on the natives or the Britsh)

14:45 ".. to try to destroy the worker's houses.." - I think you mean destroy the workers

In Australia there is something of myth or perception that the Fall of Singapore was the moment that the British Abandoned Australia to the Japanese and why we threw ourselves into the arms of the USA for protection.

I had two great uncles captured in Singapore. One survived, while the other died on the railway two days before the rest of his detail were relieved. One of their other brothers had been killed by a sniper during the defense. Yet there are Japanese that still deny POWs were used on the railway.

BATTLE OF SINGAPORE: 35,000 Japan capture 80,000 Enemy combatants alive lol. what a burden.

“Britain’s worst defeat” George Washington: “And I took that personally.”

Drawings by Ronald Searle are included in this. He was a British soldier captured in Singapore and he survived three and a half years of captivity, and post-war he became a well-known artist and satirical cartoonist, dying in 2011. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Searle

15 February 1942, General Leclerc assembled a mobile motorized force strong of 500 men and a hundred of vehicles, divised in several patrol groups supported by 11 planes of the Bretagne group, at the little village of Zouar in the Tibesti mountains near the Chad-Libya border. The objective of this motley force is to cross the border, travel through 600km of desert and launch lightning raids against the Italian forts and outposts scattered in the vast region of the Fezzan, harrass and disorganize the enemy and then come back. On 17 February, the 1st Fezzan campaign starts and the Free French forces set off on several axes to attack the Italians. www.histoire-et-philatelie.fr/images/002_2eme_guerre/08_libye/carte_fezzan.jpg

My great-granduncle was captured at Singapore and was then transported on the hell ship Kenkon Maru to Rabaul with 599 other members of his regiment. After this, he and the remaining healthy people had to get on another hell ship to Balalae Island where they were forced to build an airstrip. I'm not sure how he died specifically but it would have been from a beating, tropical disease, US bombing, or the massacre of POWs the Japanese did on June 30th, 1943. Thank you TimeGhost for producing these videos.

QUESTION: So the Japanese citizens of the U.S.'s West Coast were only interned if they lived in a "military zone"? I had been led to believe that ALL Japanese on the West Coast had been interned. Are you saying otherwise? If so, what percent of the total Japanese population there were interned?

The Japanese conduct during the 2nd world war is baffling to us today, and to Western soldiers then, but when you consider the time leap Japan went through in such a short period of time it becomes less confusing. In many ways, the Japanese military mindset is not much different than if you handed Genghis Khan's Mongol army machine guns and airplanes. They received the benefit of modern weaponry without modern sentiments towards humanity.

Canada is a lost cause but Australians/New Zealanders still have adult males in senior positions. They would both be wise to not allow the English in leadership of their military. Singapore should be a lesson well learned. The English person (don’t know rank) Montgomery wanted US military under his command at during the invasion of Europe, not a hope in hell, never!

Indy Neidell: "Britain's worst defeat!" Homer Simpson: "You mean Britain's worst defeat, so far!"

Great episode- thanks again!👍👍👍

This bieng late ruined the routine I've had for almost 2 years

I can see why my grandpa never forgave Japan post WW2, I mean seriously they behave like villains you see in propaganda films.

I always forget just how ruthless Japan was.

Patrick Stanley Vaughan Heenan (29 July 1910 - 13 February 1942) was a captain in the British Indian Army who was convicted of treason, after spying for Japan during the Malayan campaign of World War II.[1][2] Heenan was reportedly killed by his wardens while in custody during the Battle of Singapore. According to Heenan's biographer, Peter Elphick, these events were suppressed by British Commonwealth military censors. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Stanley_Vaughan_Heenan

Significantly the first enemy attack on Australian soil (of course not including 1788 to Indigenous Australia) and the defeats in Singapore and Asia have another effect. You could call it the shock birth and awakening of Modern Australia. Curtin stated "the dependence of Australia upon the competence, let alone the readiness, of British statesmen to send forces to our aid is too dangerous a hazard upon which to found Australia's defence policy". Hello America and a subtle switch of allegiance.

WTF ARE YOU DOING WITH THOSE MASSACRES JAPAN?!?!? Japan: uwu 🥺 👉👈

As worst the defeat as isandlwana? By the way you didnt mentioned the Alexander hospital massacre and thr battle of bukit Chandu

My grandfather was apart of the Air Force regiment which guarded the airfields he was able to avoid capture and along with his unit fled into the jungle where they lived for 8 months or so I have pictures of their camps. Eventually they made it to Burma where they where arrested for deserting which I must say is a bit unfair. They where pardoned though and where used as instructors for the Australian and New Zealand troops going into Burma as they had "survived" in the jungle. He told me and my father than all they really had to tell the men was to steal from the locals for food if possible the Chinese immigrants as the locals didn't like them and neither did the Japanese army so they're theft wouldn't go noticed. Not exactly sporting but needs must. Sorry for any spelling mistakes dyslexic commenter here.