Sec 1 History September Assignment " How did World War 2 affect Singapore"

1. British military preparations before WW2 and during WW2?

1.1. British military preparations before WW2 and during WW2 ?

1.2. " Main fleet to Singapore" strategy

1.3. Installation of 15 inch- guns facing the sea

1.4. Building of military airfields and underground bunkers

1.5. Building of the Naval Base in Sembawang

2. Japanese military strength that led to their victory in Malaya and Singapore?

2.1. The Japanese soldiers were also better trained in jungle warfare.

2.2. Besides using tanks, they also used bicycles as their means of transport to move swiftly down Malaya.

2.3. The Imperial Japanese Army had a large modern airforce and naval fleet.

2.4. The Japanese 'Zero' fighter planes destroyed about half of the British planes, which were old and outdated

3. British military weakness that led to their surrender to the Japanese?

3.1. The British felt that there were too many problems and the soldiers were tired

3.2. Furthermore their supplies of food and water were running out.

3.3. British priority to war in Europe.

4. Reasons for Japan's attack in the East

4.1. 1. Yes, the Malacca Strait is a confined and crucial commercial sea lanes of vital importance to all. 2. Capturing Singapore was a crushing blow to British prestige in Asia and showed that Asian could defeat their European "masters". Thus it had the potential to spark revolutionary movements across Asia which the Japanese could harness, as they did with the "Indian National Army". 3. The port facilities at Singapore would, and did, enable the Japanese to launch attacks against Ceylon. This threatened supplies to India and also threatened a Japanese naval flanking move against the Arakan and Burma. 4. Singapore was a key part of the Japanese "outer defence chain" for the Asian Greater Co-prosperity Sphere. 5. Capturing Singapore denied the Allies its port facilities, its repair capacity and using it as a base to attack the Japanese in the western Pacific. It effectively pushed the Brtish entirely out of the Pacific, to Trincomalee in Ceylon. Port facilities and capacity in Darwin was limited and nothing near Singapore -- the next naval base in Australia was virtually Brisbane. 6. By clearing Commonwealth forces out of Malaya, Singapore and the Dutch East Indies, to Japanese could focus on reinforcing its two critical battle zones in the SW Pacific -- Kokoda and Guadalcanal. 7. Capturing Singapore would be a huge morale boost to the Japanese people and its armed forces.