In a last-gasp attempt to stall the Japanese invasion of Singapore, a hastily assembled force of newly-arrived British troops was pitched into action. Steve Snelling tells a story of desperate defiance and a bloody baptism of fire on the road to inglorious defeat 75 years ago.
Defending Singapore: 1942
Great clouds of smoke billowed from a blazing oil depot as the remnants of a dispirited army mingled with bewildered refugees in a trail of misery that stretched for miles across the embattled island of Singapore. Everywhere reeked of defeat and despair, from the flood of Chinese, Indian and Malays fleeing eastwards on foot and aboard a weird collection of trucks, buses, carts and trishaws to the steady stream of Australian troops straggling dejectedly away from an unseen but rapidly advancing enemy. It was hardly encouraging for the hundreds of British soldiers headed in the opposite direction, but no amount of persuasion could stop the flight.
Lieutenant Colonel Alfred Knights, whose battalion of the 4th Royal Norfolks was part of a hastily assembled reserve reassigned to a counter-attack role in a desperate effort to turn the tide, later wrote: “I ordered the men to remain where they were and render …
