@@MikeJones-qn1gz Pretty much, yeah! Plus those Japanese tanks were small so I imagine they might have of had a bit of an easier time maneuvering through dense foliage then their European counterparts.
Yeah, how did they think it was a good idea to wear shorts in the bush? Anyone whom has ever walked through a bush/jungle like environment in shorts knows not to do it a second time.
Well all the troops in Singapore are there as a holiday posting, not defence. Only when war was declared they started to realise how unprepared were they
"When he has penetrated into hostile territory, but to no great distance, it is facile ground. On facile ground, halt not."- Sun Tzu The Japanese demonstrated that beautifully
actually, Yamashita asked Percival NICELY if he's willing to surrender or not. But the Japanese translater didnt know how to translate that, so he said it furiously "yes or no". yamashita is not the worst generals, but infact one of the best in the world.
@@jooz_brawlstars4731 Mind you, when he got word of the Alexandria Hospital Massacre (this happened before the British surrender) he had the 650 troopers responsible for that outrage executed.
It was a matter of intelligence. Perceval knew Japanese planes hit the water reservoir in Singapore, so his troops had only 96 hours before they all perished en masse. With that in mind, there wasn’t much choice.
Blame Percival and the politicians Britain knew the likelihood of one was a virtual certainty. What did they need? The 5 squadrons of Buffalo should have been supplemented or replaced by Hurricanes, P-39, P-40, or Hawk 75's. The last were in India. A simple swap putting Buffalo in India and the Hawk 75's in Malaya would have been a big improvement. They could have stepped up pilot training numbers in Australia and New Zealand and provided more flight time for those pilots flying in operational squadrons. Maybe retain the Buffalo in addition to the Hawk 75 and simply fly the Buffalo until worn out to give the pilots hours. A squadron or two of SB2U Vindicator (Chesapeake) could have been sent, they were available. At least one or two squadrons of something heavier than a Hudson or Blenheim should have been sent as a bomber. Second, the command there should have prepared installations and potential invasion sites with full wire, obstacles, mines, etc. regardless of what the civilian authorities wanted to the contrary. Some batteries of obsolescent, even obsolete, heavy artillery should have been sent. There was stuff lying about in England that had been pulled out for use against Seelöwe that could have been better used covering beaches in Malaya. A single battery of BL 6" Mk XIX guns at Kota Bharu would have given the Japanese shipping off shore fits. Yes, they were all but obsolete, but they were used on anti-invasion duty in England in 1940 so, they were available. The divisions in Malaya should have been brought up to 3 brigades each. A brigade, or at a minimum, a regiment, of tanks could have easily been sent. Britain had the Covenanter in large numbers in Britain for training and nothing else. While it had issues, it would have been acceptable for use in Malaya against Japanese armor and the IJA. The same goes for some second-line armored cars. Training should have been realistic and arduous instead of as if it were still peacetime. The RN should have had a carrier at Singapore, any carrier even the Hermes. The RN should have fully known what the dangers of sending ships into areas that potentially had enemy air power capable of attacking them were. They'd dealt with it at Greece, Crete, the Malta convoys, and earlier off France at Dunkirk, etc. There was really zero excuse for this failing. With units that had trained hard, air crew that spent a lot of time flying to get experience, and thorough preparations for defense on the ground, it is very likely the Japanese invasion would have failed.
churchill telling him to fight "until the ruin of Singapore" is rather stupid, a real murderer. He himself made the wrong decision during WW1 where he sent Australian and NZ troops to their death in the Gallipoli campaign.
Percival use the life of British n the singapore local to change for his life...he is not a general he is a pure coward go n ask the ppl in singapore they will tell u this
@@bill6278 well he failed his role only because he was at a disadvantage. Though if he did not surrender early and continue with street fighting, things could drag on longer. Still if such things were to happen, the civillian casualties would have been far greater.
@@bill6278 Wdym "change" for his life? Everything can be argued in hindsight. If he actually was successful in defending Singapore while using the same plans and defences as he was in 1942, no one would have put the blame on Percival. Its not really Percival that should be blamed, its soley the British, who had not strategise their defences even from the start of '37 when Japan was seeking to expand beyond China and threatening the Straits Settlement. Besides, the surrender terms was 'unconditional surrender' and he was subjected to be a prisoner and was jailed by the Japanese meaning that he might have been a bit unwise in surrendering, but he aint a coward or selfish for that matter.
@@bill6278 i am a singaporean and i believe he tried his best. he was at a disadvantage and his main purpose was not kill Japanese but defend Singapore which he did try to do
To be fair, everyone lost everywhere to the Japanese during the beginning of the pacific war. Then US started cranking out a new fleet every other month.
The British enjoyed military success in Asia for about 92 years before this epic battle. There came a complacency amongst the British military and civil authorities that Asia was their exclusive stomping ground. Any Brit no matter how lowlife could go to a British colony in Asia and be Number 1. They took over the schools, municple govt and media and educated the population in their colonies to believe that the British were superior in every way. This style of thinking became the norm for the colonist and this style of thinking exists even today, though not in such vast quantities, thank goodness. Though I am no fan of the Japanese in WW2, as I have ancestors that actively fought against them, I am delighted they trounced the arrogant British who are making excuses for the loss even today nearly 74 years later. The recennt BBC episode about the 'lord spy' causing the downfall of the Singapore battle for the British is a perfect example. The British have been saved by the Americans more than once and have not been able to hold their own for over 70 years. The 'British Steel" melted a long time ago.
The British had no tanks in Malaya. The Matilda II and the Cruiser Mk III were superior to the Japanese tanks and could have made a big impact in this campaign.
Thank god this wasnt bias. I have watched too many war strategic documentaries with America or its allies winning. Its nice to see the other side strategies.
The British barely had enough tanks for home defense and to fight in the deserts of North Africa. They had none to spare to fight in Malaya which is poor tank country.
Has anyone seen the comments the below eveyome talking about hitler and the holocaust explanation and the video is about the pacific ww2 not Europe ww2 lol stick to the point then debate
The aircrafts were not Mitsubishi zeros, rather, the zeros were part of the Japanese Navy. Yamashita was in the Japanese army, which used a similar plane that was the zero's equal or even better: The Nakajima Ki-43, accompanied by the type 95 Ha-Go light tank for jungle warfare
Love every episode of Generals At War that I've watched - great job, National Geographic! I've learned a new word - banjaxed. "Bicycle blitzkrieg" is another good term. Thai "neutrality" - bah! The Thais worked against both the French and the British during the war; Thai neutrality was a fraud. The British should have gone into Thailand. The Japanese "human pontoon" bridges were amazing improvisation. Glad that you didn't gloss over Japanese atrocities. Percival resembles a mouse, and he acted like one, too..
During that time, Thailand was neutral until the Japanese invade them as well. There were 2 factions. The Thai government was Pro Japanese and the other Pro Allies. The government want their land (Cambodia, Laos, and a few land north) back from the French. That's why the government went for Pro Japanese. However the Pro allies took the country back and replace the government, but that is pretty close to the end of WW2. Most of the Oriental want to kick the Westerners out of their countries in the mid 1800 to the cold war. This include India as well.
Japanese would have been singing Queen’s ‘Bicycle Race - I wanna ride my bicycle ... i wanna ride my bike. They won the bicycle race all the way down to Singapore!
An interesting way to present the battle of Singapore by focusing on the generals and equipment and interviewing some former senior British commanders for their analysis. It put the focus on challenges facing Percival and Yamashita, their troops and their equipment. Admittedly, for an almost 50-minute video, not all aspects of the battle could be covered to explain the battle and fall of Singapore. This includes the larger historical, geo-strategic, geo-political, economic, psychology, intelligence, other military and civilian factors that influenced the outcome of the battle. These factors collectively exerted a more considerable weight than the quality of the British general (Percival) in defending Malaya (including Singapore). While the battle and fall of Singapore will always be a shameful chapter in the annals of British military history, its fall was only a matter of time after the imperial Japanese Army (IJA), supported by the air force and navy, conquered peninsular Malaya in 55 days. This may look fatalistic or defeatist, but the British high command in Malaya, the Far East and London have long concluded by 1938 that the defence of Singapore was inextricably bound to the defence of peninsular Malaya. Britain had relied on the Singapore strategy and Operation Matador to defend Malaya. The Singapore Strategy assumed that the RAF and British army must hold out Malaya long enough before the Royal Navy ships could sail from thousands of miles away to reinforce the naval base in Singapore. Operation Matador included keeping the Japanese from capturing the British airbases in northern Malaya, lest they be used by the Japanese airforce to reduce warning and flying time to fly to Singapore to bomb it. These defence plans, and the men on the ground tasked to implement them, were compromised by the following: Factors that hamstrung the British included, though not exclusively: (1) Due to WWI, the British lost over 700,000 troops and incurred a heavy national debt. The British public mood was one of popular revulsion against participating in another war but in favour of welfare spending. So their civilian governments in the inter-war years significantly cut defence expenditures; (2) As early as 1920, Britain already knew that it would not be able to maintain sufficient forces in the Far East to match Japan's growing naval strength. Churchill, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, reinforced this prophecy by making deep budget cuts to the Royal Navy in 1924 and opposed the construction of the Singapore naval base in 1926; (3) By WWII, Churchill's wartime cabinet prioritised limited resources to defending the British homeland and home waters from the Nazi threat, keeping its Atlantic lifeline from the USA free of the German U-boat menace, keeping the Mediterranean and Middle East free of fascist control, hitting Hitler's "soft" underbelly in southern Europe, giving token support to Russia, defending subcontinent India and Burma over Malaya's defence; (4) As a result of his global strategic priorities mentioned in (3), Churchill time and again deprived Malaya of adequate defence resources, despite appeals by his military commanders in London, Far East and Malayan Commands to reinforce Malay's defences adequately; (5) Churchill's priorities meant that the RAF planes were mostly obsolete and inferior to Japanese Zeros, Nates and Oscars; inferior not just in speed and maneuverability but also in numbers. Only two RN ships; Prince of Wales and Repulse were sent without air cover. The Malayan Command assumed that tanks were unsuitable to Malayan tropical conditions and so Churchill diverted them and some 200 Tomahwak planes to aid Russia as token support. (6) in the years leading to the Japanese invasion, the British consideration not to alarm the public and civilian population and to keep up the morale of the troops in Malaya, by not stepping up defence preparations for war, despite occasional British intelligence briefings about the skill and tenacity of Japanese troops in China; (7) notions of racial superiority of white men over "inferior" Asians, causing the British to underestimate the Japanese capabilities; (8) the negligence and complacency of the British military commanders in the years leading up to war, from training, operational doctrine, tactics, etc. Having witnessed the German blitzkrieg in 1939-1940, the British still emphasized set-piece battles, operating procedures, making the situation fit the plan, had no answer to the quick and fluid tempo of mobile warfare. (9) Churchill's insistence that the British armed forces must not pre-emptively occupy the Kra Isthmus (including Songkhla) as foreseen landing points of IJA, so as not to give the Japanese and the Thais an excuse that the British fired the first shot. Churchill's directive was part of the Sir Brooke-Popham's excuse not to launch Operation Matador in time; (10) there was inter-service rivalry among the British army, RAF and Royal Navy (RN), which undermined a coordinated inter-service British defence; (11) the colonial civilian administration in Malaya stuck to their London office directive to keep the economy going; thereby depriving the military from requisitioning sufficient civilian resources and mobilising the entire population for total war. They feared that by doing so, the mobilisation would undermine public morale; (12) It didn't help when the former Chief of Imperial General Staff, General Sir John Greer Dill, promoted his protege Arthur Ernest Percival, to LTG as the General Officer Commanding (GOC) Malaya. Percival lacked the personality to command respect and confidence among his senior allied commanders. He was also a staff officer who lacked field experience to inspire his men during a crisis. His personality and lack of credentials contributed to bickering and mutual blame shifting among his senior commanders that undermined morale down the allied ranks. However, Percival was the not the most crucial factor that led to Singapore's fall. Commenting in a BBC interview many years after WWII, LTG Sir Ian Jacob, who once served as Military Assistant Secretary in Churchill's wartime cabinet, said that "If we had our best general out there it would have made no difference (to the outcome of the Battle for Singapore); (13) except for a minority of battles, the majority was mostly one of a fighting retreat by defenders. In holding their defensive positions, the infantry easily their fell back to more defensible positions instead to fighting to the death; Factors that aided the Japanese included, though not exclusively: (1) prior detailed intelligence gathered by visiting Japanese "tourists" who were really army officers, aided by some longer-term residents in Malaya. These spies included not just Japanese and local sympathisers, but also Captain Patrick Heenan, a British officer-turned-traitor who provided his Tokyo spymasters with vital intelligence on the RAF dispositions in northern Malaya that enabled the Japanese take them out in the early stages of the Malayan campaign; (2) the fighting spirit of the 25th IJA; (3) the battle-hardened experiences (from China) especially of the 5th and 18th divisions of the 25th IJA, who were some of the best in the entire IJA; (4) 25th IJA led by an experienced and inspirational field commander in LTG Tomoyuki Yamashita, (5) the Japanese blitzkrieg adapted to Malayan tropical conditions, employing speed, surprise, sudden frontal attacks in force, outflanking tactics day and night without giving defenders time to regroup; (6) dedicated Japanese detachments to supply, repair and steal cheap bicycles to take advantage of bitumen roads down the Malayan peninsula paved by the British before the invasion; (7) dedicated bridge repair detachments who trained in Taiwan, Hainan and southern Indochina to blow up and then to repair bridges quickly, who made use of timber from captured sawmills in Malaya; (8) rapid advance down the peninsular Malaya enabled the 25th IJA to capture stockpiles of fuel, ammunition, food, medical and other "Churchill" supplies left behind by the hastily retreating RAF and British army. These supplies helped to ease the 25th IJA's logistical problems created by the speed of its advance.
10-1 and still ran away. 3-1, failed to hold (40:36,so they did the next thing), Brits and Aussie soldiers deserted on mass, went into town and rioted.
Yeah Japanese won this battle because they had better boots, good try 🤥 Equipment of Japanese soldiers was almost at level of WW1 and it was equivalent to British equipment. This documentary is just full of excuses which have to justify incompetence.
At least nobody is pretending that the British lost Singapore because the guns of fort Sentosa pointed the wrong way. We were taught this lie at school.
Interesting! ...a "fascination" with a guy like Yamashita, who was (as far as I remember) - after the war - executed by the allies... but the military analysis was quite accurate. Yamashita WAS a TRUE "FOX" - probably the BEST Commander-on-field the IJA ever had...
It was officially adopted as a United States military bolt-action rifle on June 19, 1903, and saw service in World War I. It was officially replaced as the standard infantry rifle by the faster-firing, semi-automatic 8 round M1 Garand, starting in 1937. However, the M1903 Springfield remained in service as a standard issue infantry rifle during World War II, since the U.S. entered the war without sufficient M1 rifles to arm all troops.
Percival wasnt totally at fault. The underestimating of asians in general by colonists coupled with the lack of support by churchill (focusing on the war in europe) are.
The Japanese bridge scene was bloody brilliant no wonder they were the toughest bloaks in ww2 they never gave up at first sight always bled you white before they die respect to 🇯🇵 want them with the allies rather then 🇨🇳
I would say this is my favourite episode too. It's an more "exotic" battle, and probably unkown to the most people (beside the UK). And it's an japanese victory, what is also a little bit uncommon in the most US or British documentaries.
Langsung tak disebut nama rejimen askar melayu atau nama leftenan adnan..sembang pum pang padahal british awal2 dah cabut lari bukan british yg lawan jepun tapi rejimen askar melayu..biasalah siapa yg menang perang dia yg tulis sejarah..
My grandma's brother was captured on the 15th Feb, 1942 and died over a year later in Dec 43 at a Malai camp. If anyone has anymore info about what they did with prisoners after the 15th please get in touch. I'm trying to trace what happened.
Hello, I am a Singapore museum Assistant to your question about what the Japanese did to the British Prisoner of War? The answer is Slave labour, the Japanese begin to ship the British Soldiers to Malaysia and Indonesia to build railways and others. The Japanese also seek to slowly starve and abuse the prisoners to death. Mainly to prevent uprising and resistance.
AT LAST! A documentary where they ACTUALLY pronounce the guy's name properly! His name is Yamashita (山下) which in Japanese is pronounced Ya-MUSH-sta. I can't tell you how annoying it is to hear narrators say Yamma-SHITTA, which is insultingly wrong! Props for NatGeo!
41:02 - Wow Hitler sure was unreasonable demanding Paulus fight to the end in Stalingrad even though the situation was hopeless and no breakout possible.
Mark Harrison he did. He was told to fight to the last man. Hitler promoted him to field marshal believing that no German field marshal would ever be taken captive. Well palus not only surrendered he turned on Germany.
I believe it was Napoleon I that said "You cannot manage an army without feeding it", Without the merchant ships the brought raw materials to England you would never have even survived. Yet as of right now Europe has almost very little in the way of natural resources such as steel. In fact, I don't believe Britain has barely any mines left to harvest metals and materials needed for producing anything of military importance.
In the first point I exceptionally agree with you. The treaty of Versailles was definetly one of the courses that led to WW2 and to the powership of Hitler also. And the British and the Frenchs aim was clearly to destabilize Germany for a long time or forever with that treaty. But you can´t really blame them because they couldn´t imagine that it will turn out that badly the next time.Especially the French knew that the Germans will be back on them so they built the Maginot Line.
I still don’t understand why the Brits surrendered. Running out of food and water? So was the Japanese. It’s the tropics, it rains every other day. Scour the city for food, boil your boots if you have to. Better than slaving away building railroads in the jungle. The Japanese are in the bush. They will run out of boots before you. I can’t imagine the Japanese, Soviets or Chinese surrendering under similar circumstances. In this battle the British fought like the Italians on a bad day.
Agreed. Percival was a coward who consigned his men to a fate far worse than a fight to the end when the Japanese were at the end of their resources and could've been beaten.
Nice series! but i'm confused.. Isn't this episode talking about battle of Singapore, a more in-dept on the battle in singapore itself then talking about the battle in malaya? i've seen 30min+ of that and about 10mins of Actual battle of singapore and it's only just a run throught of the battle.. hmm..
The Short Magazine Lee-Enfield No1 Mk3* was the finest bolt-action rifle ever made! It's Japanese Type 96 rival was definitely inferior - to say the Lee-Enfield was outdated is complete bollocks, it soldiered on into the 1980s with the Indian police - and it's WW2 replacement, the No4 was just as effective! What doomed Singapore was Percival's ineptness and the fact the British had still not learnt about a combined arms war!
Percival was probably the worst general of WW2, he wrote the war plans stating that the most probable attack on singapore would be over land from the north before the war yet refused to believe the Japanese would be able to carry it out and thus failed to deploy his superior numerical advantage to counter it, as a Singaporean we learn this at school.
Marco Polo That is a very simplified version and it was more complicated then that. He did fail but to understand what made him make a series of bad decisions is more important then simple blame.
compared to china's victory of changsha 15 thousand men from the chinese 10th corps fight the 50 thousand men of the Japanese 3rd and 6th division the best of the japanese, pinning them in changsha until the other forces attacked the japanese supply lines,
Marco, your remarks on training are true. If the Brits, Indians, and Aussies were trained and the UK high officials weren't stupid in their preparations for the defense then Singapore might have survived. The official bastards were incompetent in their jobs, including Percival. He should have ground Yamashita down in the city fighting, like what the Russians did to the Germans. Then, maybe help might have gotten early in the form of air support, a few more men and etc.
Joachim Rives Once the Japanese bombed the water supply pipes, they only had one weeks worth of water. Singapore was a large city too and there would be problems with civilians needing water. British could have fought for a week, assuming that they got their rioting troops back under control.
Joachim Rives That's what the Japanese commander Yamashita said. "My attack on Singapore was a bluff, a bluff that worked. I had 30,000 men and was outnumbered more then three to one. I knew if I had to fight long for Singapore I would be beaten. That is why the surrender had to be at once. I was very frightened all the time that the British would discover our numerical weakness and lack of supplies and force me into disastrous street fighting."
I have prussian blood meaning I am called was most germans say 'deutsch amerikaner' German-american. In fact, I often feel alienated by the stupidity of most americans. America used to be great now I feel like the politicians only goal is to destroy it from the inside -_- but yes most of the war was 1 sided up untill pearl harbor the alliance was losing to the axis powers like it did in ww1 another indication of America once possessing large military forces.
Americans had over 5000 planes. They were all made out of steel. Not like your spitfires which were comprised of wood. Currently, Britain is buying our f-35 stealth Ground attack fighter-bomber from Lockheed martin USA. Nearly, 68 years later and we are still supplying your Armies.
i like these series but why is it only focused on ally victories? Id love to see some of the genius wins of the axis..after all its about the strategies
There were of course many Japanese officers who not only condoned killing of both civilians and POWs but took part in it. But did Yamashita leave the soldiers unpunished because of lack of empathy like Cromwell at Drogheda and Wexford or was it because he simply didn't have enough soldiers to spare like General Taylor in Mexican-American War?
precisely no one in the imperial army was giving a lone. solitary f*** about how soldiers behaved with prisoners and civilians. atrocity was regarded as a necessary side of war because they were evil soulless dickheads from the dark ages. just like now
[1/2] Owe YOU? The British stood against Nazi Germany alone in 1940 and you even DARE to ask for some kind of repayment for the material aid? Want to put a price on not having Einsatzgruppen murdering American civilians and Soldiers goose-stepping down Pennsylvania avenue. When someone else is fighting your fight you don't go whining about payments, highlights the sick way in which America viewed the war. As one big money-maker.
What are you talking about? US Forces arrived to face the Axis 1943 - Tunisia Campaign. US arrived on the winning side, typical american tactic. The British Forces had crushed the Axis in Africa, Mediterrean,etc The USSR had turned the Axis invasion and were on full offensive. You talk about a large industrial base, USSR had the second biggest industry in the world and British Industry procued MORE Aircraft, Trucks, Ships, Mortars,etc than Germany and its Axis Allies.
What kind of a documentary is this? Lots of little polystyrene toys, panning several times over someones face that is decorated with a bit of black shoe creme, that really is informative. A shame that it seems to be fashionable to make documentaries at a pre-schoolers level. Guess the makers think the viewers are all rather stupid?
The British could not win at Singapore. At best they could drive the Japanese out of Singapore. However the Japanese would blockade the Island by Air-Sea and 1942-1945 Singapore would starve to death and be destroyed. You talk about sending supply to Singapore? HOW? The Japanese had total control over the Air-Sea. Without Air-Power the British could do nothing.
that would solve all the wars for sure. And they should fight with very rusty shitty weapons like tea spoons and nail clippers. The rest of us (professional civilians) would get to live in peace and every now and then watch the televised show of generals spooning/clipping the shit out of each other.
Diaoyu Islands: The Truth 720P The documentary titled "Truth Diaoyu Islands", produced by Monotype Rex Hollywood film company, is the director of Christie - libido (Chris D.NeBe) works on March 11, 2014 Video
I'm amazed that both the British, Dutch and American military didn't pay close enough attention to what was going on in 1937 /38 during the invasion of China by the Japanese and the type of warfare they waged. Also once Hong Kong fell the British especially should have known the type of opposition they could be facing in South East Asia.
Singapore is an Island, The British destroyed the bridges that connects Singapore to the mainland. However the Japanese invaded by Sea. Many Japanese Soldiers did not even have Uniforms, The British thought they were Civilians.
I was born in Singapore. Now I'm became France civilian. It all happen because ww2.im disgust with the cowardice and foolish of our master, British Empire. So, when I'm big enough in don't want to stay and live in the land full of bullshit and fantasy.,like Singapore. So I'm move on.
Wouldn't 36 kilograms weigh down the bike? I mean, I imagine it be difficult to not only pedal, but lift in rugged terrain. Other than that, a bike really saves much on strain and fatigue.
4:54 "his mother and father didn't do great job on the desing."
This line is way more brutal than the battle.
lol..
*design
Appearance sells, the germans understood that much with their uniforms
Ouh oh.....
my teacher made my class watch this for history and at first i thought it would be boring but it ended up being a very interesting video!
Wish I had your teacher my teacher made ww2 look so bland
Same
It was a very good show!
I fell asleep 😩
i had to do it for history too it was a very good show
"They (the British) we're upset that the Japanese had tanks"
Well I would too
But its jungle, you cant use a tank in jungles?
Japanese: Tanks go vroom
@@MikeJones-qn1gz Pretty much, yeah!
Plus those Japanese tanks were small so I imagine they might have of had a bit of an easier time maneuvering through dense foliage then their European counterparts.
@@LegendaryKazooMann1936 moreover they could be easily repaired in the field with Lego’s
@@NT-to3fd Thought those were the Danish prototypes? 😆
You know, its been years and this is still one of my favorite documentaries of ALL TIME 👍
If I was a Japanese soldier I would be screwed cuz I can't ride a bicycle for shit
+bleushift ja
they'd beat you until you did lol
Yeah, how did they think it was a good idea to wear shorts in the bush? Anyone whom has ever walked through a bush/jungle like environment in shorts knows not to do it a second time.
Tutmos Sankara I was thinking that too. Shorts are OK for the desert but not the jungle.
Exactly
Well all the troops in Singapore are there as a holiday posting, not defence. Only when war was declared they started to realise how unprepared were they
Experience is the key.
21:48 Bicycle Blitzkrieg lol
i love how percival just stares into space.
BTW thanks u guys for keeping the comment section clean and peaceful as possible.
i appreciate it ; )
"When he has penetrated into hostile territory, but to no great distance, it is facile ground. On facile ground, halt not."- Sun Tzu
The Japanese demonstrated that beautifully
actually, Yamashita asked Percival NICELY if he's willing to surrender or not. But the Japanese translater didnt know how to translate that, so he said it furiously "yes or no". yamashita is not the worst generals, but infact one of the best in the world.
Best in the world intellectually, morally one of the worse.
@@jooz_brawlstars4731 You’re like 5. You understand the world, inbred kid
@@jooz_brawlstars4731 Mind you, when he got word of the Alexandria Hospital Massacre (this happened before the British surrender) he had the 650 troopers responsible for that outrage executed.
It was a matter of intelligence. Perceval knew Japanese planes hit the water reservoir in Singapore, so his troops had only 96 hours before they all perished en masse. With that in mind, there wasn’t much choice.
Never knew the Battle of Singapore until I've seen this show! Well done NatGeo.
How could you????
Singapore was the Crown Jewel of the British Empire.
And my home country.
HOW COULD YOU?????????????????????
The day Singapore fell was the day the sun set on the British Empire.
Bryan Lim India was the jewel in the British Crown. Singapore was their great fortress, the Gibraltar of the east
@@kelvinktfong no not really the british empire pretty much dissolved of threats of revolution by india or actual revolution by countries in africa
Lets be honest, 90% of the story is about battle of Malaya not Singapore
this was an awesome series.They need to make 6 more of these.Only 6 of these were made in 2009 on the military channel.
All those forgotten soldiers of indian army,gone with the dust.
humans are easy to exploit, my friend.
@Radical Muslim madarchod ka bachha!!
Radical Muslim how stupid can you get?
@@azzlaird5541 The name says it all.
In the UK we never forget them they are remembered in the british army museum over here
Blame Percival and the politicians
Britain knew the likelihood of one was a virtual certainty.
What did they need? The 5 squadrons of Buffalo should have been supplemented or replaced by Hurricanes, P-39, P-40, or Hawk 75's. The last were in India. A simple swap putting Buffalo in India and the Hawk 75's in Malaya would have been a big improvement. They could have stepped up pilot training numbers in Australia and New Zealand and provided more flight time for those pilots flying in operational squadrons. Maybe retain the Buffalo in addition to the Hawk 75 and simply fly the Buffalo until worn out to give the pilots hours.
A squadron or two of SB2U Vindicator (Chesapeake) could have been sent, they were available.
At least one or two squadrons of something heavier than a Hudson or Blenheim should have been sent as a bomber.
Second, the command there should have prepared installations and potential invasion sites with full wire, obstacles, mines, etc. regardless of what the civilian authorities wanted to the contrary.
Some batteries of obsolescent, even obsolete, heavy artillery should have been sent. There was stuff lying about in England that had been pulled out for use against Seelöwe that could have been better used covering beaches in Malaya. A single battery of BL 6" Mk XIX guns at Kota Bharu would have given the Japanese shipping off shore fits. Yes, they were all but obsolete, but they were used on anti-invasion duty in England in 1940 so, they were available.
The divisions in Malaya should have been brought up to 3 brigades each. A brigade, or at a minimum, a regiment, of tanks could have easily been sent. Britain had the Covenanter in large numbers in Britain for training and nothing else. While it had issues, it would have been acceptable for use in Malaya against Japanese armor and the IJA. The same goes for some second-line armored cars.
Training should have been realistic and arduous instead of as if it were still peacetime.
The RN should have had a carrier at Singapore, any carrier even the Hermes. The RN should have fully known what the dangers of sending ships into areas that potentially had enemy air power capable of attacking them were. They'd dealt with it at Greece, Crete, the Malta convoys, and earlier off France at Dunkirk, etc. There was really zero excuse for this failing.
With units that had trained hard, air crew that spent a lot of time flying to get experience, and thorough preparations for defense on the ground, it is very likely the Japanese invasion would have failed.
churchill telling him to fight "until the ruin of Singapore" is rather stupid, a real murderer.
He himself made the wrong decision during WW1 where he sent Australian and NZ troops to their death in the Gallipoli campaign.
Why is Percival made the scapegoat when the general British were to blame!?
Percival use the life of British n the singapore local to change for his life...he is not a general he is a pure coward go n ask the ppl in singapore they will tell u this
@@bill6278 well he failed his role only because he was at a disadvantage. Though if he did not surrender early and continue with street fighting, things could drag on longer. Still if such things were to happen, the civillian casualties would have been far greater.
@@bill6278 Wdym "change" for his life? Everything can be argued in hindsight. If he actually was successful in defending Singapore while using the same plans and defences as he was in 1942, no one would have put the blame on Percival. Its not really Percival that should be blamed, its soley the British, who had not strategise their defences even from the start of '37 when Japan was seeking to expand beyond China and threatening the Straits Settlement. Besides, the surrender terms was 'unconditional surrender' and he was subjected to be a prisoner and was jailed by the Japanese meaning that he might have been a bit unwise in surrendering, but he aint a coward or selfish for that matter.
@@bill6278 i am a singaporean and i believe he tried his best. he was at a disadvantage and his main purpose was not kill Japanese but defend Singapore which he did try to do
lose without a fight is a shame
@@azzlaird5541 what about pearl harbor?
@@lyhthegreat Pearl Harbor was before Singapore
He tried his best...He just didn't have enough resources.
@@hongpengwei 130000 British forces surrender the local 4000 chinese fight the Japanese till last man this is call try surrender 130000 is not trying
@@chownful Actually both battles happened the same day. The siege of Singapore was 2 months after Pearl Harbor.
To be fair, everyone lost everywhere to the Japanese during the beginning of the pacific war. Then US started cranking out a new fleet every other month.
4:55 why they do him dirty like that , our boii got roasted 😂
The British enjoyed military success in Asia for about 92 years before this epic battle. There came a complacency amongst the British military and civil authorities that Asia was their exclusive stomping ground. Any Brit no matter how lowlife could go to a British colony in Asia and be Number 1. They took over the schools, municple govt and media and educated the population in their colonies to believe that the British were superior in every way. This style of thinking became the norm for the colonist and this style of thinking exists even today, though not in such vast quantities, thank goodness.
Though I am no fan of the Japanese in WW2, as I have ancestors that actively fought against them, I am delighted they trounced the arrogant British who are making excuses for the loss even today nearly 74 years later. The recennt BBC episode about the 'lord spy' causing the downfall of the Singapore battle for the British is a perfect example. The British have been saved by the Americans more than once and have not been able to hold their own for over 70 years. The 'British Steel" melted a long time ago.
Tobius Onthebrink
The British steel industry is being destroyed by China too.
Great statement! Splendid points shared... Nothing more than to just agree with you Mate...!🙂
The British stabbed Japan in the back after World War I.
Wow your totally ignorant to the facts
The definition of BANJAXED in the dictionary is English slang meaning destroyed or ruined. I had to look it up.
The British had no tanks in Malaya. The Matilda II and the Cruiser Mk III were superior to the Japanese tanks and could have made a big impact in this campaign.
3001st “tAnKs WoN’t WoRk in Malaya” if only the Chief of Staff realized how wrong he is
Most of the Allied tanks were deployed in Europe & North Africa as they had to deal with Rommel.
There were some allied tanks in the Malayan campaign. They were vintage, but they were there.
Wow, Chuchill's message sounds like Hitler's message when Erwin Rommel wanted to withdrew.
Thank god this wasnt bias. I have watched too many war strategic documentaries with America or its allies winning. Its nice to see the other side strategies.
They executed the wrong general.
The English invent the tank in WW1 but in WW2, 1941 they equipped their Armed forces in Asia with 0 tanks...NONE! What's going on son.
I read somewhere that Churchill ordered 200 tanks from Malaya to Russia for the defence of Moscow. Can anyone confirm this?
no that is pure bullshit.
The British barely had enough tanks for home defense and to fight in the deserts of North Africa. They had none to spare to fight in Malaya which is poor tank country.
They underestimated the Japanese, if the Germans had been threatening Singapore the British would have sent modern planes and tanks
churchills letters reminded me of berlin 1945
Has anyone seen the comments the below eveyome talking about hitler and the holocaust explanation and the video is about the pacific ww2 not Europe ww2 lol stick to the point then debate
HMS Prince of Wales Sunk on 10 December 1941 by Japanese air attack off Kuantan ( in singapore i think ) , South China Sea
The aircrafts were not Mitsubishi zeros, rather, the zeros were part of the Japanese Navy. Yamashita was in the Japanese army, which used a similar plane that was the zero's equal or even better: The Nakajima Ki-43, accompanied by the type 95 Ha-Go light tank for jungle warfare
It's just full of excuses to justify incompetence.
Love every episode of Generals At War that I've watched - great job, National Geographic! I've learned a new word - banjaxed.
"Bicycle blitzkrieg" is another good term. Thai "neutrality" - bah! The Thais worked against both the French and the British during the war; Thai neutrality was a fraud. The British should have gone into Thailand. The Japanese "human pontoon" bridges were amazing improvisation. Glad that you didn't gloss over Japanese atrocities. Percival resembles a mouse, and he acted like one, too..
During that time, Thailand was neutral until the Japanese invade them as well. There were 2 factions. The Thai government was Pro Japanese and the other Pro Allies. The government want their land (Cambodia, Laos, and a few land north) back from the French. That's why the government went for Pro Japanese. However the Pro allies took the country back and replace the government, but that is pretty close to the end of WW2.
Most of the Oriental want to kick the Westerners out of their countries in the mid 1800 to the cold war. This include India as well.
Weird but Percival himself pioneered bicycle troops in Ireland but was defeated by similar troops in Singapore.
Japanese would have been singing Queen’s ‘Bicycle Race - I wanna ride my bicycle ... i wanna ride my bike. They won the bicycle race all the way down to Singapore!
An interesting way to present the battle of Singapore by focusing on the generals and equipment and interviewing some former senior British commanders for their analysis. It put the focus on challenges facing Percival and Yamashita, their troops and their equipment.
Admittedly, for an almost 50-minute video, not all aspects of the battle could be covered to explain the battle and fall of Singapore. This includes the larger historical, geo-strategic, geo-political, economic, psychology, intelligence, other military and civilian factors that influenced the outcome of the battle. These factors collectively exerted a more considerable weight than the quality of the British general (Percival) in defending Malaya (including Singapore).
While the battle and fall of Singapore will always be a shameful chapter in the annals of British military history, its fall was only a matter of time after the imperial Japanese Army (IJA), supported by the air force and navy, conquered peninsular Malaya in 55 days. This may look fatalistic or defeatist, but the British high command in Malaya, the Far East and London have long concluded by 1938 that the defence of Singapore was inextricably bound to the defence of peninsular Malaya.
Britain had relied on the Singapore strategy and Operation Matador to defend Malaya. The Singapore Strategy assumed that the RAF and British army must hold out Malaya long enough before the Royal Navy ships could sail from thousands of miles away to reinforce the naval base in Singapore. Operation Matador included keeping the Japanese from capturing the British airbases in northern Malaya, lest they be used by the Japanese airforce to reduce warning and flying time to fly to Singapore to bomb it. These defence plans, and the men on the ground tasked to implement them, were compromised by the following:
Factors that hamstrung the British included, though not exclusively:
(1) Due to WWI, the British lost over 700,000 troops and incurred a heavy national debt. The British public mood was one of popular revulsion against participating in another war but in favour of welfare spending. So their civilian governments in the inter-war years significantly cut defence expenditures;
(2) As early as 1920, Britain already knew that it would not be able to maintain sufficient forces in the Far East to match Japan's growing naval strength. Churchill, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, reinforced this prophecy by making deep budget cuts to the Royal Navy in 1924 and opposed the construction of the Singapore naval base in 1926;
(3) By WWII, Churchill's wartime cabinet prioritised limited resources to defending the British homeland and home waters from the Nazi threat, keeping its Atlantic lifeline from the USA free of the German U-boat menace, keeping the Mediterranean and Middle East free of fascist control, hitting Hitler's "soft" underbelly in southern Europe, giving token support to Russia, defending subcontinent India and Burma over Malaya's defence;
(4) As a result of his global strategic priorities mentioned in (3), Churchill time and again deprived Malaya of adequate defence resources, despite appeals by his military commanders in London, Far East and Malayan Commands to reinforce Malay's defences adequately;
(5) Churchill's priorities meant that the RAF planes were mostly obsolete and inferior to Japanese Zeros, Nates and Oscars; inferior not just in speed and maneuverability but also in numbers. Only two RN ships; Prince of Wales and Repulse were sent without air cover. The Malayan Command assumed that tanks were unsuitable to Malayan tropical conditions and so Churchill diverted them and some 200 Tomahwak planes to aid Russia as token support.
(6) in the years leading to the Japanese invasion, the British consideration not to alarm the public and civilian population and to keep up the morale of the troops in Malaya, by not stepping up defence preparations for war, despite occasional British intelligence briefings about the skill and tenacity of Japanese troops in China;
(7) notions of racial superiority of white men over "inferior" Asians, causing the British to underestimate the Japanese capabilities;
(8) the negligence and complacency of the British military commanders in the years leading up to war, from training, operational doctrine, tactics, etc. Having witnessed the German blitzkrieg in 1939-1940, the British still emphasized set-piece battles, operating procedures, making the situation fit the plan, had no answer to the quick and fluid tempo of mobile warfare.
(9) Churchill's insistence that the British armed forces must not pre-emptively occupy the Kra Isthmus (including Songkhla) as foreseen landing points of IJA, so as not to give the Japanese and the Thais an excuse that the British fired the first shot. Churchill's directive was part of the Sir Brooke-Popham's excuse not to launch Operation Matador in time;
(10) there was inter-service rivalry among the British army, RAF and Royal Navy (RN), which undermined a coordinated inter-service British defence;
(11) the colonial civilian administration in Malaya stuck to their London office directive to keep the economy going; thereby depriving the military from requisitioning sufficient civilian resources and mobilising the entire population for total war. They feared that by doing so, the mobilisation would undermine public morale;
(12) It didn't help when the former Chief of Imperial General Staff, General Sir John Greer Dill, promoted his protege Arthur Ernest Percival, to LTG as the General Officer Commanding (GOC) Malaya. Percival lacked the personality to command respect and confidence among his senior allied commanders. He was also a staff officer who lacked field experience to inspire his men during a crisis. His personality and lack of credentials contributed to bickering and mutual blame shifting among his senior commanders that undermined morale down the allied ranks. However, Percival was the not the most crucial factor that led to Singapore's fall. Commenting in a BBC interview many years after WWII, LTG Sir Ian Jacob, who once served as Military Assistant Secretary in Churchill's wartime cabinet, said that "If we had our best general out there it would have made no difference (to the outcome of the Battle for Singapore);
(13) except for a minority of battles, the majority was mostly one of a fighting retreat by defenders. In holding their defensive positions, the infantry easily their fell back to more defensible positions instead to fighting to the death;
Factors that aided the Japanese included, though not exclusively:
(1) prior detailed intelligence gathered by visiting Japanese "tourists" who were really army officers, aided by some longer-term residents in Malaya. These spies included not just Japanese and local sympathisers, but also Captain Patrick Heenan, a British officer-turned-traitor who provided his Tokyo spymasters with vital intelligence on the RAF dispositions in northern Malaya that enabled the Japanese take them out in the early stages of the Malayan campaign;
(2) the fighting spirit of the 25th IJA;
(3) the battle-hardened experiences (from China) especially of the 5th and 18th divisions of the 25th IJA, who were some of the best in the entire IJA;
(4) 25th IJA led by an experienced and inspirational field commander in LTG Tomoyuki Yamashita,
(5) the Japanese blitzkrieg adapted to Malayan tropical conditions, employing speed, surprise, sudden frontal attacks in force, outflanking tactics day and night without giving defenders time to regroup;
(6) dedicated Japanese detachments to supply, repair and steal cheap bicycles to take advantage of bitumen roads down the Malayan peninsula paved by the British before the invasion;
(7) dedicated bridge repair detachments who trained in Taiwan, Hainan and southern Indochina to blow up and then to repair bridges quickly, who made use of timber from captured sawmills in Malaya;
(8) rapid advance down the peninsular Malaya enabled the 25th IJA to capture stockpiles of fuel, ammunition, food, medical and other "Churchill" supplies left behind by the hastily retreating RAF and British army. These supplies helped to ease the 25th IJA's logistical problems created by the speed of its advance.
Bloody brilliant man
even with the chinese weakening and destroying the 21st brigade of the 5th division the japanese destroyed the british
@@Huben57
'British' meaning 3 quarters Indian and 1 quarter Australian
War is a matter of life and death for the state. You on the other hand are not. War is also a thing of deception. Guess who keeps falling for it.
10-1 and still ran away. 3-1, failed to hold (40:36,so they did the next thing), Brits and Aussie soldiers deserted on mass, went into town and rioted.
It's called one last fling.
Yeah Japanese won this battle because they had better boots, good try 🤥 Equipment of Japanese soldiers was almost at level of WW1 and it was equivalent to British equipment. This documentary is just full of excuses which have to justify incompetence.
His mother and father didnt do a great job on the design. Lmao
At least nobody is pretending that the British lost Singapore because the guns of fort Sentosa pointed the wrong way. We were taught this lie at school.
Interesting! ...a "fascination" with a guy like Yamashita, who was (as far as I remember) - after the war - executed by the allies... but the military analysis was quite accurate. Yamashita WAS a TRUE "FOX" - probably the BEST Commander-on-field the IJA ever had...
2serveand2protect yamashita was a great General. He was executed for war crimes committed when he fought through Americans in the Philippines
44:22 asian angry eye or to show force kind of eye :) seen it so many time when some one try to threat some one :)
inoue jerry true asian have that eye, even my mother
It was officially adopted as a United States military bolt-action rifle on June 19, 1903, and saw service in World War I. It was officially replaced as the standard infantry rifle by the faster-firing, semi-automatic 8 round M1 Garand, starting in 1937. However, the M1903 Springfield remained in service as a standard issue infantry rifle during World War II, since the U.S. entered the war without sufficient M1 rifles to arm all troops.
Percival wasnt totally at fault. The underestimating of asians in general by colonists coupled with the lack of support by churchill (focusing on the war in europe) are.
The Japanese bridge scene was bloody brilliant no wonder they were the toughest bloaks in ww2 they never gave up at first sight always bled you white before they die respect to 🇯🇵 want them with the allies rather then 🇨🇳
I would say this is my favourite episode too.
It's an more "exotic" battle, and probably unkown to the most people (beside the UK).
And it's an japanese victory, what is also a little bit uncommon in the most US or British documentaries.
Langsung tak disebut nama rejimen askar melayu atau nama leftenan adnan..sembang pum pang padahal british awal2 dah cabut lari bukan british yg lawan jepun tapi rejimen askar melayu..biasalah siapa yg menang perang dia yg tulis sejarah..
My grandma's brother was captured on the 15th Feb, 1942 and died over a year later in Dec 43 at a Malai camp. If anyone has anymore info about what they did with prisoners after the 15th please get in touch. I'm trying to trace what happened.
Hello, I am a Singapore museum Assistant to your question about what the Japanese did to the British Prisoner of War? The answer is Slave labour, the Japanese begin to ship the British Soldiers to Malaysia and Indonesia to build railways and others. The Japanese also seek to slowly starve and abuse the prisoners to death. Mainly to prevent uprising and resistance.
Im Malaysia and i just want to say 'What the f*ck, British'
We really loved your video!
NOT YAMASHITA EATING CUP NOODLES WHILE PERCIVAL IS WORRYING ABOUT THE WAR 💀💀 25:34
arent we all here bc our history teacher forced us to watch this
AT LAST! A documentary where they ACTUALLY pronounce the guy's name properly! His name is Yamashita (山下) which in Japanese is pronounced Ya-MUSH-sta. I can't tell you how annoying it is to hear narrators say Yamma-SHITTA, which is insultingly wrong! Props for NatGeo!
41:02 - Wow Hitler sure was unreasonable demanding Paulus fight to the end in Stalingrad even though the situation was hopeless and no breakout possible.
Paulus should have requested to withdraw from Stalingrad when the Soviet counteroffensive began in November.
Mark Harrison he did. He was told to fight to the last man. Hitler promoted him to field marshal believing that no German field marshal would ever be taken captive. Well palus not only surrendered he turned on Germany.
I believe it was Napoleon I that said "You cannot manage an army without feeding it", Without the merchant ships the brought raw materials to England you would never have even survived. Yet as of right now Europe has almost very little in the way of natural resources such as steel. In fact, I don't believe Britain has barely any mines left to harvest metals and materials needed for producing anything of military importance.
In the first point I exceptionally agree with you. The treaty of Versailles was definetly one of the courses that led to WW2 and to the powership of Hitler also. And the British and the Frenchs aim was clearly to destabilize Germany for a long time or forever with that treaty. But you can´t really blame them because they couldn´t imagine that it will turn out that badly the next time.Especially the French knew that the Germans will be back on them so they built the Maginot Line.
thank you for the vid been looking everywhere for it.
This is what used to be on history channel, before ABC bought it.
yeah thats true but the feeling i got was that they just chose battles that had strong generals and they were only gonna do a couple...
I still don’t understand why the Brits surrendered. Running out of food and water? So was the Japanese. It’s the tropics, it rains every other day. Scour the city for food, boil your boots if you have to. Better than slaving away building railroads in the jungle. The Japanese are in the bush. They will run out of boots before you. I can’t imagine the Japanese, Soviets or Chinese surrendering under similar circumstances. In this battle the British fought like the Italians on a bad day.
Agreed. Percival was a coward who consigned his men to a fate far worse than a fight to the end when the Japanese were at the end of their resources and could've been beaten.
Go look up the "thatch weave" our planes were so heavily armored we started toying with the Japanese.
You nation by the end of ww2 had done the least amount of work after France. Yet France was conquered.
32:31 one of the Japanese soldiers gets shoved out of the way by another soldier.
Japan, outnumbered 2 to 1, neutralized 14 British for every one of their own.
Nice series! but i'm confused.. Isn't this episode talking about battle of Singapore, a more in-dept on the battle in singapore itself then talking about the battle in malaya? i've seen 30min+ of that and about 10mins of Actual battle of singapore and it's only just a run throught of the battle.. hmm..
Kesselring would have been good but besides that they gave a good feel for how the commanders shaped the battle with there personalty and decisions
I forgot this series even existed - thanks for uploading.
The Short Magazine Lee-Enfield No1 Mk3* was the finest bolt-action rifle ever made! It's Japanese Type 96 rival was definitely inferior - to say the Lee-Enfield was outdated is complete bollocks, it soldiered on into the 1980s with the Indian police - and it's WW2 replacement, the No4 was just as effective! What doomed Singapore was Percival's ineptness and the fact the British had still not learnt about a combined arms war!
love this series so much!!!
Winston speech before this ,lol.
British was just a epic fail
the guy acting as percival looks like he doesnt know what hes doing, but he real percival guy looks like a poor guy who just miscalculated.
Without Malaya Singapore was indefensible and Malaya was lost by the Indian's and Australian's NOT the British
Just saying 🥱
Percival was probably the worst general of WW2, he wrote the war plans stating that the most probable attack on singapore would be over land from the north before the war yet refused to believe the Japanese would be able to carry it out and thus failed to deploy his superior numerical advantage to counter it, as a Singaporean we learn this at school.
Marco Polo That is a very simplified version and it was more complicated then that. He did fail but to understand what made him make a series of bad decisions is more important then simple blame.
compared to china's victory of changsha
15 thousand men from the chinese 10th corps fight the 50 thousand men of the Japanese 3rd and 6th division the best of the japanese, pinning them in changsha until the other forces attacked the japanese supply lines,
Marco, your remarks on training are true. If the Brits, Indians, and Aussies were trained and the UK high officials
weren't stupid in their preparations for the defense then Singapore might have survived. The official bastards were incompetent in their jobs, including Percival. He should have ground Yamashita down in the city fighting, like what the Russians did to the Germans. Then, maybe help might have gotten early in the form of air support, a few more men and etc.
freebeerfordworkers You explained it very well. Well done.
freebeerfordworkers Omg. I was laughing too bad about General Alanbrook's comet for Churchills. lol.
Joachim Rives Once the Japanese bombed the water supply pipes, they only had one weeks worth of water. Singapore was a large city too and there would be problems with civilians needing water. British could have fought for a week, assuming that they got their rioting troops back under control.
Joachim Rives
That's what the Japanese commander Yamashita said.
"My attack on Singapore was a bluff, a bluff that worked. I had 30,000 men and was outnumbered more then three to one. I knew if I had to fight long for Singapore I would be beaten. That is why the surrender had to be at once. I was very frightened all the time that the British would discover our numerical weakness and lack of supplies and force me into disastrous street fighting."
I have prussian blood meaning I am called was most germans say 'deutsch amerikaner' German-american. In fact, I often feel alienated by the stupidity of most americans. America used to be great now I feel like the politicians only goal is to destroy it from the inside -_- but yes most of the war was 1 sided up untill pearl harbor the alliance was losing to the axis powers like it did in ww1 another indication of America once possessing large military forces.
Americans had over 5000 planes. They were all made out of steel. Not like your spitfires which were comprised of wood. Currently, Britain is buying our f-35 stealth Ground attack fighter-bomber from Lockheed martin USA. Nearly, 68 years later and we are still supplying your Armies.
i like these series but why is it only focused on ally victories? Id love to see some of the genius wins of the axis..after all its about the strategies
+Kaloyan Pavlov such as the Battle of Gazla line in North Africa and operation Harpoon, a naval convoy battle in mid june 1942
Romney ring a bell??
+Lalitaditya Muktapida oops romel
+Kaloyan Pavlov You are literally commenting on a video where the allies lost.
Dude they lost this battle
Damnit, i hate spoilers!....owh wait, i knew this already...
There were of course many Japanese officers who not only condoned killing of both civilians and POWs but took part in it. But did Yamashita leave the soldiers unpunished because of lack of empathy like Cromwell at Drogheda and Wexford or was it because he simply didn't have enough soldiers to spare like General Taylor in Mexican-American War?
MsDjessa He condoned the killing.
precisely no one in the imperial army was giving a lone. solitary f*** about how soldiers behaved with prisoners and civilians. atrocity was regarded as a necessary side of war because they were evil soulless dickheads from the dark ages. just like now
You really should read history about Cromwell as there are many versions of his time in Ireland ?.
Everybody had bolt actions @ the start, it was a even playing ground, huh!!!!!
YAMA-SHE-TA get it right before you start,disrespectable
Love this wish was more episodes but happy they on here used to watch this kind of stuff as a kid watched this multiple times
Play boy tulisan pra sejarah melayu
So don't give me no bullshit about how somehow your equal to America when you still owe us large sums of money.
[1/2] Owe YOU? The British stood against Nazi Germany alone in 1940 and you even DARE to ask for some kind of repayment for the material aid? Want to put a price on not having Einsatzgruppen murdering American civilians and Soldiers goose-stepping down Pennsylvania avenue. When someone else is fighting your fight you don't go whining about payments, highlights the sick way in which America viewed the war. As one big money-maker.
What are you talking about?
US Forces arrived to face the Axis 1943 - Tunisia Campaign.
US arrived on the winning side, typical american tactic.
The British Forces had crushed the Axis in Africa, Mediterrean,etc
The USSR had turned the Axis invasion and were on full offensive.
You talk about a large industrial base, USSR had the second biggest industry in the world and British Industry procued MORE Aircraft, Trucks, Ships, Mortars,etc than Germany and its Axis Allies.
What kind of a documentary is this? Lots of little polystyrene toys, panning several times over someones face that is decorated with a bit of black shoe creme, that really is informative. A shame that it seems to be fashionable to make documentaries at a pre-schoolers level. Guess the makers think the viewers are all rather stupid?
The British could not win at Singapore. At best they could drive the Japanese out of Singapore. However the Japanese would blockade the Island by Air-Sea and 1942-1945 Singapore would starve to death and be destroyed. You talk about sending supply to Singapore? HOW? The Japanese had total control over the Air-Sea. Without Air-Power the British could do nothing.
that would solve all the wars for sure. And they should fight with very rusty shitty weapons like tea spoons and nail clippers. The rest of us (professional civilians) would get to live in peace and every now and then watch the televised show of generals spooning/clipping the shit out of each other.
I'm so glad Japan's army isn't like what it used to be.
It’s not technically called an army, but a “self-defence force”
wow japanese were about to kick a bug empire.
Fazal Khan "A bug Empire " The United States didn't do so well during the defence of the Philippines.
Chris Holland fuck you.we did well reclining the pacific,and liberating most of Western Europe
Diaoyu Islands: The Truth 720P
The documentary titled "Truth Diaoyu Islands", produced by Monotype Rex Hollywood film company, is the director of Christie - libido (Chris D.NeBe) works on March 11, 2014 Video
I'm amazed that both the British, Dutch and American military didn't pay close enough attention to what was going on in 1937 /38 during the invasion of China by the Japanese and the type of warfare they waged.
Also once Hong Kong fell the British especially should have known the type of opposition they could be facing in South East Asia.
90% of the documentary is about battle of Malaya yet the title is battle of Singapore #facepalm
Singapore is an Island, The British destroyed the bridges that connects Singapore to the mainland. However the Japanese invaded by Sea. Many Japanese Soldiers did not even have Uniforms, The British thought they were Civilians.
The mighty Spongebob Squarepants is singing Doodle..
I was born in Singapore. Now I'm became France civilian. It all happen because ww2.im disgust with the cowardice and foolish of our master, British Empire. So, when I'm big enough in don't want to stay and live in the land full of bullshit and fantasy.,like Singapore. So I'm move on.
And the French gave up in 6 weeks against Germany, with French leaders declaring the was lost within the first week.
Wouldn't 36 kilograms weigh down the bike?
I mean, I imagine it be difficult to not only pedal, but lift in rugged terrain. Other than that, a bike really saves much on strain and fatigue.
5:56 Human livers are like potato chips: one is just not enough.
Colonel Tsuji like Pringles huh..?