I once said on this board that I considered General Percival the worst British Commander of WW II. After studying at the Royal Naval College in 1930, he became an instructor at the Staff College in 1931-1932. On February 15, Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival, the British commander in Singapore, called for a ceasefire and decided to surrender. In 1948 he was induced to have the bulk of his report published. And a limited number of copies were published by Eyre& Spottiswood. General Percival has, with some justification, been made the scapegoat of the Singapore disaster - certainly by the Australians. Percival, Commanding chief of the last garrison of Singapore is on his way to sign the deed of its surrender in 1942 Christine read it to Ruth. Less than five months after the fall of Singapore, he was posted to remote northern Manchuria as commander of the First Area Army by General Hideki Tojo, the then Prime Minister and Minister of the Army. In fact although General Percival went into captivity with his men and cannot be considered anything but a failure in battle, General Cunningham had been extremely successful before his sacking, and General Ritchie became even more successful after his sacking. After the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor and their subsequent expansion the British believed that Singapore would be next, but the military located in Singapore assured them that there is no reason for alarm and that they could handle any Japanese attack. Back to Previous Page. search results for this author. With the surrender of Singapore at least 80,000 Allied troops were captured, including nearly 15,000 Australians. November 2020 Allgemein Allgemein Lieut-General A.E. He and General Wainwright (who surrendered to the Japanese at Corregidor) stood directly behind MacArthur at the signing. He signed the surrender document that evening at the Ford Factory on Bukit Timah Road . When Lieut.-General Arthur Percival, the GOC of British forces in Malaya, ordered his troops to lay down their arms and cease resistance at 8.30 p.m. on 15 February 1942, the Pacific War was just ten weeks old. World War II - World War II - The fall of Singapore: Meanwhile, on February 8 and 9, three Japanese divisions had landed on Singapore Island; and on February 15 they forced the 90,000-strong British, Australian, and Indian garrison there, under Lieutenant General A.E. Three of the four divisions of the Second AIF raised in 1939-40, after all, were deployed not to Malaya and Singapore but to the Middle East. Hard fighting continued but on 15 February General Percival, the British commander in Singapore , called for a ceasefire and made the difficult decision to surrender. It was Percival who had to sign the surrender document to General Yamashita after Singapore surrendered in February 1942. The Battle of Singapore was fought from 8 to 15 February 1942 between Allied (mainly British Commonwealth) and Japanese forces. This figure alone is more than the number quoted by Churchill! Percival, to surrender. Singapore could have had the best commander in the world but it would have fallen inevitably. In the evening of Feb 15, 1942, Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival signed the unconditional surrender of Singapore after one week of intense fighting. The first Japanese troops landed in Singapore via the northwestern coastline on 8 February 1942. Nothing would have changed at all. Nov 26, 2012 Trinity rated it liked it. The signal also marks Total Defence Day, and serves as a sobering reminder that Singaporeans are responsible for the defence of Singapore. Clifford Kinvig (Author) 4.0 out of 5 stars 2 ratings. On 15 February 1942, which was the first day of the Lunar New Year, Lieutenant General Arthur E. Percival, who was then the General Officer Commanding (Malaya), signed the surrender documents before Lieutenant General Tomoyuki Yamashita, Commander of . Close. He even had to be overruled by Wavell after he took over Far East Command late into the Malayan Campaign to commit reserves in Singapore to the front despite Percival's continued fears of a direct landing in Singapore. The Fall of Singapore represented the collapse of British influence in South East Asia, and severely diminished the British Empire’s Asia-Pacific clout. Some folks defended Percival and I have done some research into him and his Command. Amazon Price New from Used from Hardcover "Please retry" £38.18 . After the fall of Singapore: Horror and, today, peace On the morning of Feb 15, 1942, the British raised the white flag of surrender. 2. After Singapore fell, a tally of Allied losses revealed 5,000 killed and wounded or missing. According to a cached Google link which never works when I try to post it, Percival retired with pay the following year and held a number of honorary commands. Yet the man was not a coward, and had won the MC and DSO in the battlefields of France in the First World War. Perhaps that was his main failing: fighting a mobile battle of the Second World War with the trench-bound mentality of the First. I found a rough copy in Singapore in 1973. Lieutenant General Sir Lewis Heath's Indian III Corps was assigned to cover the northeastern part of the island while the southern areas were defended by a mixed force of local troops led by Major General Frank K. Simmons (Map). After his promotion to colonel (1936) he was put on 'general staff'. With the assistance of his mentor, General Sir John Dill, Percival was given command of a battalion of the Cheshire Regiment from 1932 to 1936, becoming a full colonel in 1936. That is because Singapore did not fall on 15 February 1942, nor even the 8th when Singapore was invaded. On his return to England after the war, General Percival was requested to provide a report on the war in Malaya and Singapore, Most of his report was published in Hansard. As a prelude to my story about why Tom Barry failed to shoot Major Percival, I must point out that Barry was much fatter than he appears in photos - and not very fit, as we shall see. See all formats and editions Hide other formats and editions. He wrote a book on the Singapore campaign in 1949 and died in 1966. Percival's reluctance was purely due to his belief that "Defences are bad for morale – for both troops and civilians". The Fall of Singapore was the climax to the Malayan campaign in the Far-East which lasted from the 8th December 1941 – 31 January 1942. what happened to percival. He and General Wainwright (who surrendered to the Japanese at Corregidor) stood directly behind MacArthur at the signing. 27. Percival surrendered in a futile attempt to prevent further loss of life. He wrote a book on the Singapore campaign in 1949 and died in 1966. Many of them would die in captivity. Finally, after Japanese troops landed on Singapore island and closed in on the city, Percival … The Battle of Singapore was fought January 31 to February 15, 1942, during World War II (1939-1945) between the British and Japanese armies. SCAPEGOAT: General Percival of Singapore (Brasseys Biographies) Hardcover – 31 Dec. 1996 by Clifford Kinvig (Author) › Visit Amazon's Clifford Kinvig Page. Percival is far right Just seven days later, on 15th February 1942 Singapore fell to the savagery and tenacity of the Japanese army. After days of desperate fighting, all British Empire troops were to lay down their arms at 8.30 that night. Some historians view the loss of Singapore, where 136,000 men surrendered to the Japanese, as one of… see review. To defend Singapore, Percival deployed three brigades of Major General Gordon Bennett's 8th Australian division to hold the western part of the island. The Fall Of Singapore Happened On 15 Feb 1942. Singapore falls to the Japanese 15 th Feb 1942. Posted by 4 years ago. Shelves: singapore. Effectively, Tojo demoted Yamashita whom he perceived as a threat, Yamashita belonging to a different military faction to his own. TIL Singapore fell to the Japanese in World War II, after British General Arthur Percival refused to construct fixed defenses in key locations. On the Japanese side - more than 10,000 were killed in Malaya and Singapore, and more than 25,000 were wounded or missing. The British army of 85,000 men was led by Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, while the Japanese regiment of 36,000 men was headed by Lieutenant General Tomoyuki Yamashita. Every year on 15 February, a siren rings out loud across the little red dot, a reminder of Singapore’s fall to the Japanese in 1942. 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