Flashback 1931 - Adopting Convent Children

[From Aug 2018]

An application to adopt a young English girl whose father has abandoned her and her brother, and whose mother has passed away due to "consumption" (Tuberculosis).

Singapore's First Tanks... and the story behind them

 

(Photo: Yusof Ishak Collection, Courtesy of National Archives of Singapore)

Why Did Singapore Fall (1942)

On the 15th of February 1942, Lt General Arthur Percival signed the largest surrender in British history at Singapore. The city was supposed to be a fortress, but his force of 85,000 men had been defeated by just 35,000 Japanese troops.

Little over 2 months earlier Japanese forces had invaded Northern Malaya. Thanks to their advanced tactics and training, the Japanese advanced with incredible speed pushing the unprepared British back to Singapore in a so-called 'bicycle blitzkrieg'. When they crossed the Johore straits and captured the Bukit Timah heights above Singapore itself, Percival was forced to surrender.

So how did the Japanese defeat a numerically superior force? Why wasn’t Singapore an impregnable fortress? And could the British have held out?