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Britain's Greatest Defeat: Singapore 1942
New in paperback, the pre-eminent history of a military disaster. A masterful analysis of events.
370 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 20, 2024
(revised November 2024).
My original estimation of this book was 'Good but no zing' which while very facile pronounced a truth, this was a sold narrative military history, but it was not a history of what happened in Singapore in 1942 because this was more then a military event and to concentrate on military aspects is to fail to tell the full story. What mattered was not why Britain failed militarily but why the story of the loss of Malaya and surrender of Singapore was such a shameful route that, despite promises of full investigation, the whole event was buried for years in lies and obfuscation. The true horror in 1942 was not a military defeat but a moral collapse. Eight days after the Japanese landed at Kosa Baharo in northern Malaya the British were in full retreat and the 'evacuation' of Penang is so ghastly that almost beggars description. Every white European was evacuated and everybody with a darker skin was left behind to fend for themselves. That particularly meant the Chinese population of Penang. Every civilian and military authority knew the Japanese would treat the Chinese barbarously, they just didn't care.
Only the monstrous cruelties of the Japanese invaders allowed the British to temporarily resume their empire (huge injections of American money and material played a not inconsiderable role as well). This admirable military history just ends up missing the point as far as I am concerned far better, if real understanding is what you want, is to read J.G. Farrell's 'The Singapore Grip' (please ignore the truly execrable tv adaptation - it is perhaps one of the greatest insults to a work of literature since thee 1956 film of War and peace with Henry Fonda as Count Pierre Bezuhov and Mel Ferrer as Prince Andrei Bolkonsy).
This doesn't mean that some people won't love this book - it is excellent for what it is, but I am not an aficionado of pure military history, so it wasn't my sort history.
My original estimation of this book was 'Good but no zing' which while very facile pronounced a truth, this was a sold narrative military history, but it was not a history of what happened in Singapore in 1942 because this was more then a military event and to concentrate on military aspects is to fail to tell the full story. What mattered was not why Britain failed militarily but why the story of the loss of Malaya and surrender of Singapore was such a shameful route that, despite promises of full investigation, the whole event was buried for years in lies and obfuscation. The true horror in 1942 was not a military defeat but a moral collapse. Eight days after the Japanese landed at Kosa Baharo in northern Malaya the British were in full retreat and the 'evacuation' of Penang is so ghastly that almost beggars description. Every white European was evacuated and everybody with a darker skin was left behind to fend for themselves. That particularly meant the Chinese population of Penang. Every civilian and military authority knew the Japanese would treat the Chinese barbarously, they just didn't care.
Only the monstrous cruelties of the Japanese invaders allowed the British to temporarily resume their empire (huge injections of American money and material played a not inconsiderable role as well). This admirable military history just ends up missing the point as far as I am concerned far better, if real understanding is what you want, is to read J.G. Farrell's 'The Singapore Grip' (please ignore the truly execrable tv adaptation - it is perhaps one of the greatest insults to a work of literature since thee 1956 film of War and peace with Henry Fonda as Count Pierre Bezuhov and Mel Ferrer as Prince Andrei Bolkonsy).
This doesn't mean that some people won't love this book - it is excellent for what it is, but I am not an aficionado of pure military history, so it wasn't my sort history.
November 12, 2015
Both this and his book on Burma are my favourite book on the subject
Old style narrative campaign histories and superb at that
Excellent read 1
Old style narrative campaign histories and superb at that
Excellent read 1
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews