Battle

Fall of Singapore

8 Feb 1942 – 15 Feb 1942 · Singapore

Japanese troops under Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita established a beachhead on Singapore Island on 8 February 1942. On 15 February the commander of the Allied garrison of about 85,000 troops, Lt-Gen. Arthur Percival, surrendered, ending the Malayan Campaign. About 80,000 British, Indian, Australian and local soldiers were taken prisoner. Churchill called it the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history, and Japan held Singapore until the end of the war.