Nothing Forgotten, Nothing Learned: The Fall of Singapore by Andrew Wareham

Author:Andrew Wareham [Wareham, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PublishNation
Published: 2023-01-11T23:00:00+00:00

Singapore was carefree – life was good and the Depression was over and there was no such thing as a Japanese menace, and if there was, they had the RAF and the Navy and need fear nothing.

“Hitler cannot win in the West and the Japanese would be crazy to ally themselves with him now, except possibly to open an Eastern front against Russia while he attacked from the west. The Battle of Britain secured England and all is now well, as we always said it would be, Stark. A pity I was stuck out here in my country’s time of need. I am sure I could have contributed to our great victory.”

Noah had given Thomas a quick rundown on the senior RAF personnel in Singapore immediately before he sailed.

Group Captain Pettigrew, in command of Singapore and Malaya, had been an active supporter of Mosley and had pressed for further negotiations with Hitler in the spring of 1940, strongly suggesting that the aims of the war should have been to crush Russia in alliance with Hitler before turning in unison on the United States. France could have been sacrificed in order to provide Hitler with the colonies he wanted and to ‘tidy up’ the British Empire in Africa. Rather than prosecute him as a traitor, Chamberlain’s government had preferred to post him overseas.

“It was a stalemate, sir, not a victory. The figures given for kills were massively overstated in the first weeks of the Battle. Germany was unable to establish air superiority over Southern England, but only narrowly. When the Luftwaffe turned its attention to London, it gave the RAF a necessary breathing space to rebuild our airfields on the South Coast. Another week of raids on the sector fields and the RAF would have pulled all planes out of Kent, Sussex and Surrey and would have given up on the south and east of Essex. It was very close, sir.”

“Oh! I suppose the Air Chief Marshal told you that himself, did he?”

“Yes.”

Pettigrew had thought he was offering sarcasm.

“A number of squadron leaders were brought together to give their opinions on the Battle and to suggest the necessary improvements in our planes. We all accepted that we were at the end of our tether when the Battle ended. The bombing attack on London saved the RAF. In strict confidence, sir, that may have been why the RAF bombed Berlin first, to offer the provocation to Hitler and Fat Hermann.”

Pettigrew was horrified, had been unaware that Berlin had been raided.

“London is the centre of our civilisation, Stark! How did they dare place it in jeopardy?”

“It is too big to be destroyed, sir. The bulk of our industry is elsewhere. While the Luftwaffe is bombing London, it is not destroying our factories. The Army is being rebuilt by factories working seven days and nights a week, only a few of them located in London. I was told that British industry had already replaced the tanks lost in France when I sailed from England.”

Thomas knew that was not actually correct.

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