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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2013 18:58:52 GMT -5
The Empire managed to get their arse kicked by and Army one third their size , Japanese General Yamashita with 30,000 men marched down the Malay Peninsula flogging the Empire every inch of the way , General Percival the Empires C in C , brought everyone together on Singapore and blew the causeway , Singapore is an Island , Percy had about 90,000 men in his command , the Japanese down to their last rice cake and bullet bluffed Percy into surrendering , was Percey the wrong man for the job ? .
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Post by Sir John on Mar 9, 2013 19:57:33 GMT -5
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Post by boxcar on Mar 9, 2013 20:56:07 GMT -5
They gave him the shaft.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2013 21:05:58 GMT -5
The Wales and Repulse were just a footnote .
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2013 21:44:36 GMT -5
One can only imagine what would have been the results if General MacAuthur ( Big Mac ) had been in charge . But I agree that it is every mans duty to escape , but who would have built the bridge over the river Kiwi if every body escaped .
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Post by Swampy on Mar 9, 2013 22:22:36 GMT -5
I've said that the British should have turned Singapore and/or Johore into a kill zone, like Stalingrad.
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Post by Sir John on Mar 9, 2013 22:42:31 GMT -5
"But I agree that it is every mans duty to escape"
Yes it is, but it is NOT a Generals duty to desert his men just PRIOR to going into captivity. (Like MacArthur?)
And the 'Prince of Wales' and 'Repulse' were a terrible lesson in sending out capitol ships without air cover.
A bloody disaster all round.
SJ
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2013 23:12:42 GMT -5
Bennett had a mission that he couldn't put off and Big Mac had to leave so he could return . But all in all it was not a good day for the Empire
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Post by boxcar on Mar 10, 2013 0:23:40 GMT -5
Had the man waited until the surrender was signed and then attempted his escape, he would have been doing the honorable thing, but by then it may have been too late to attempt an escape.
It is all in the timing. His actions in leaving before the surrender was signed may be considered to came close to desertion.
As for as MacArthur’s leaving the Philippines, he was ordered to do so by Roosevelt.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2013 11:03:04 GMT -5
Sitting here on my recliner I find Percivals move absured , he had plenty of resourses to hold out , even to counter attack , Yamashita had out run his supply line and was nearly out of everything by the time he reached Singapore , in retrospect Percy was just not up to the job .
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Post by Swampy on Mar 10, 2013 11:08:41 GMT -5
Sitting here on my recliner I find Percivals move absured , he had plenty of resourses to hold out , even to counter attack , Yamashita had out run his supply line and was nearly out of everything by the time he reached Singapore , in retrospect Percy was just not up to the job . Of course. That's why Churchill was so disappointed.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2013 12:16:24 GMT -5
Churchill was not the person to cast stones , he was the arthur of that balls up at Gallipoli , but what General did the Empire have at that time that could have turned things around at Singapore ? .
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Post by Sir John on Mar 10, 2013 13:15:13 GMT -5
I think from memory the Singapore water supply was piped from the mainland, and the japanese had turned that off.
A long siege was impossible, and would only have cost more lives for no strategic gain.
SJ
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2013 14:24:49 GMT -5
Correct about water supplies Sir John.
Regarding Hong Kong I spent half a day exploring the WW2 defences a few years ago and where the Japanese had fooled the Allies by climbing a cliff and crossing a dam with folding boats to attack the covered trenches that faced the sea and then dropping grenades down ventilation shafts. t
I understand that the Japs constructed an identical model for their soldiers to practise the HK assault on.
Why the Allies did not prepare all round defensive positions is a mystery, more British bungling?
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Post by Sir John on Mar 10, 2013 14:54:55 GMT -5
Probably the most famous and revered Australian in Changi Prison on Singapore was a doctor called Capt Edward "Weary" Dunlop. They gave him a State Funeral when he died, and put up a statue of him in a park.
His assisting chemist was a bloke called Lt Keith Boundy, the brother of my wife's step father. (her step-uncle?)
He related the story of the British, knowing that defeat and imprisonment was inevitable, dumped a truck load of British 'Marmite' yeast extract into a channel that ran just outside the Changi prison walls. The Singaporeans risked their lives to toss a jar over the wall every day to be collected by the POWs.
In the makeshift hospital, every patient was given a teaspoon of this every day and it helped save many lives.
So when Americans say YUCK!!! every time they see a jar of Australian 'Vegemite', you will know how good it really is.
SJ
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