Saturday, February 16, 2013

War Has Started...

In September 1939, war broke out in Europe. Japan, in September 1940 signed a treaty of friendship with Germany and Italy, which called themselves the Axis Powers. While Germany wanted to be master of Europe, Japan wanted to be master of Asia and the Pacific region.

In 1941, more Indian, British and Australian troops arrived in Singapore to defend both Malaya and Singapore from a possible Japanese attack. ON 2 December 1941, the battleships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse arrived in Singapore. However, the British could not send more naval and air reinforcements because of its involvement in the war in Europe and North Africa.

On 7 December 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii to destroy the American Pacific fleet. At the same time, the Japanese began their attacks on Malaya and other parts of Southeast Asia by air,sea and land. On 10 December, 1941, HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse were sunk off the coast Kuantan.

HMS Prince of Wales attacked and going to sink down. 


On 8 December 1941, slightly after 4 a.m., the people of Singapore were rudely awakened by the sounds of explosions  Japanese warplanes had flown over Singapore and bombed the city. Meanwhile, Japanese soldiers also landed in northern Malaya. In less than 70 days, Singapore fell to the Japanese.

Source: CPDD Ministry Of Education. (2007).Singapore From Settlement To Nation Pre 1819 To 1971. Singapore. Marshall Cavendish Education.



After looking at this, I feel that the Japanese came more prepared in attacking Singapore and other countried as they formed allies with Germany. They are better than the British as they did not plan out accordingly to where the Japanese were attacking even though they called out for reinforcements from India and Australia but it is still not enough to defend and fight of the Japanese.



No comments:

Post a Comment