samneanderthal , I have two questions for you.
1 : how old are you?
2 : where are you getting your information from?
Channel Islands were obvious, Singapore was called The Gibralatar of the East & big flaws apparently wern't quite as obvious, not to mention the loss of face if it was abandond.Just like the Brits surrendered the Channel Islands without a fight, because they were indefensible, shouldn't they have withdrawn from Singapore and Burma without a fight, instead of abandoning so many men without planes, ships or heavy field artillery to be certainly defeated and and then get mad about it and leave them in the worst emprisonment terms for years?
I'm 5 and get all my information from watching the Simpsons.
It would appear that the forum has acquired an "expert" whose vision only works in hind sight, and even then, only very poorly.
Gibraltar was strong because it had a fleet, Singapore didn't.
No more face can be lost than when 130,000 men are either killed or fall prisoners.
The Japs did in Singapore to the Brits what the Brits had done in Lybia to the Italians, on the latter occassion Atlee said never has so much been surrendered by so many to so few.
It was the first time in WW II that a huge British force was not only defeated but did not have any chance of evacuation, the British specialty.
It was fortunate that Churchill did not manage to send more men in, otherwise 200,000 would have been captured without means of escape.
Wasn't Prince of Wales quite new? yet it performed dismally. How can a newcomer in ship building design better ships that the brilliant RN?
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