The Greatest Disaster in British Military History
The fall of Singapore to the Japanese on 15 February 1942 was the greatest disaster in British Military history and hastened the Japanese thrust south towards Australia. Half a century later the fall of the "impregnable fortress" is still hotly debated in military and political circles. How did it happen and why did it happen?
Gilbert Mant saw most of the Malayan Campaign, first as a private with 8 Division AIF and later as a war correspondent. In this book he gives a graphic account, first, of the epic Battle of Muar in which a small force of fewer than 2000 Australian servicemen held at bay the crack 1st Imperial Guards Division for five important days. It was a battle from which the British commanders at Singapore could have learnt much, but didn't.
In the second part, Mant gives a frank and honest account of his experiences, as a soldier and war correspondent, of contemporary Australian attitudes to the war, and of the trials and tribulations of soldiers and civilians as the Japanese army ignored Singapore's sea defences and took the poorly organised city by the back door. The whole disastrous campaign took only seventy days and left more than 15,000 Australian troops prisoners of the Japanese.
This book is a reissue of two wartime bestsellers: 'Grim Glory', and 'You'll Be Sorry'.
