Fall of Singapore: Britain's Worst Military Defeat?
Warfare
History Hit
4.5 • 943 Ratings
🗓️ 7 February 2022
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the midst of World War Two, the 7th of February marks the beginning of the week long battle between the Japanese Empire and the British over the eastern stronghold of Singapore. The Fall of Singapore in 1942 is known as one of Britain's largest surrenders. Impeccable Japanese preparations, feeble British bureaucracy, and failures of communication - led to one of the bloodiest weeks of fighting known. This week James is joined by Professor Malcom Murfett of Kings College London to discuss this important part of global history.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone welcome back to the history hit warfare podcast I'm your host James Rogers and each week every week I bring you |
| 0:06.2 | brand new cutting-edge military histories from around the world we like to say we're on the front line of military |
| 0:11.8 | history now it was 80 years ago this month in |
| 0:15.5 | February 1942 that arguably the worst defeats of all time for British |
| 0:21.2 | led forces took place the fall of Singapore. |
| 0:25.1 | To talk us through this important yet infamous history, we have Malcolm Merfitt from Kings College |
| 0:31.8 | London. Malcolm is the author of Naval Warfare, 1919 to 1945 and he gives us an excellent |
| 0:39.1 | longer, broader historical geopolitical and strategic history of this pivotal moment. |
| 0:46.2 | He talks to us about the importance of Singapore as a jewel in the crown of empire, |
| 0:50.9 | the issues and the legacies of the uphold Singapore in the event of an emergency but no one saw that the Japanese |
| 1:06.6 | would attack Pearl Harbor and Malaya all on the same day. I know you're |
| 1:11.9 | love this one so drop as a five-star review on |
| 1:14.0 | Spotify or Apple Podcasts and just so you know we're now in the top 20 history |
| 1:18.7 | podcasts and the top 200 of all podcasts in the UK so drop us at five-star review and help us get up to the top 10 and top 100 |
| 1:28.8 | but now here is Malcolm Murfit on the fall of Singapore. Enjoy. Hi Malcolm, welcome to the History Hit Warfare Podcast. How you doing today? |
| 1:52.0 | And very well, thank you very much, James. |
| 1:54.0 | Good, where are you in the world? |
| 1:56.0 | I'm in Salzburg where it is snowing wildly. |
| 2:00.0 | Okay, and is that in Austria? It is indeed. Oh you lucky man it must be incredibly beautiful. |
| 2:06.8 | Well it is most of the time today it's been pretty dank but otherwise yes it's usually very agreeable. |
| 2:14.4 | Well I suppose Austria seems like a good place to be discussing the Second World War doesn't it? |
| 2:18.4 | Well, given the fact that Hitler was Austrian, yes. |
... |
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