#228 . . . ..
Stanwell
I won't mention our Air Force losses in the Singapore rout (as well as nearly all of our Army's 8th Division) but the pathetic and futile sacrifice of our good fighting men generally, at that time, made a lot of people angry.
It was bloody obvious that we weren't going to stop the Japs, nor even slow them down.
While I am no student of military history relating to the fall of Singapore, there is a school of thought that the Jap push down the Malaysian Peninsula to Singapore could have been checked and perhaps turned round had General Percival been other than he was . .. a commander lacking highly developed tactical skills . . . unable or unwilling to use the intelligence to hand to act decisively. He dispersed his defences when he would have been far more effective mounting a pincer tactic to cut off the Japs supply lines which by then were desperately strung out. (This is the view of old mate, a Vietnam vet, one who has read widely on Australian military history pertaining to the war in the Pacific. )
CN Trueman - 'The Fall of Singapore.' -
Only the army could stop the Japanese advance on Singapore. The army in the area was led by Lieutenant General Arthur Percival. He had 90,000 men there – British, Indian and Australian troops. The Japanese advanced with 65,000 men lead by General Tomoyuki Yama****a. Many of the Japanese troops had fought in the Manchurian/Chinese campaign and were battle-hardened. Many of Percival’s 90,000 men had never seen combat.
RE: fall of Rabaul
After 'scramble' and as they were climbing out, a radio message was received by the 'tower' ... "We, who are about to die, salute you."
That was the last that was heard of them.
The RAAF squadron leader, John Lerew ,who uttered that immortal Latin tag survived the war to later become Australia's chief delegate to ICAO in Montreal.
from a 1945 Sydney Morning Herald article -
John Lerew, whose name has
become a legend for laconic
humour, A literally classical ex-
ample of this was the signal he
sent to R.A.A.F headquarters on
January 21 1942— the eve of Rabaul's fall
— "Morituri te salutamus " (We who
are about to die salute you)
Actually they did not die. The
Japanese landed in force at Rabaul
on the night of January 22-23 and
the R.A.A.F. personnel there were
evacuated by Empire flying-boats
after a long trek down the coast to
a secret rendezvous.