Matrix Games Forums

April 3, 1942

Main Body Sighted

Mike, showing what a great player he is, had a router meltdown a couple of days ago. While working with "tech support in India" [8|] he has been driving across town with his laptop to use a friend's wifi to get weekend turns out the door. Today I got both files at the same time, which may be a first for our game. So I'll be brief here, as the turn is burning a hole in my in-box.

Some heating up today; not sure what is up.

1) Almost all flyable CAP pulled from Singers. One unit of Cobras left, plus repairees. Cobras put at 1000 feet. Objective is to get the last ships unloaded. Most have left, putting base at 46,000 supply, but three remain at the pier. CAP is there to fight low-bombers. If there is a sweep they'll be meat on the table, but sweeps mean no low-bombing Oscars, so it's a wash. What comes are multiple sweeps. CAP takes about 2:1 losses. Not terrible considering. No hits on supply ships.

2) Palembang gets multiple sweeps and some bombing. Nothing too bad. Forts there are over 80% to 4; supplies a bit over 90,000.

3) Allies keep up the fast-dancing at Bataan, burning supplies from behind the walls. The bombardment results:

Japanese ground losses:
178 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 15 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Vehicles lost 1 (1 destroyed, 0 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
132 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 16 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 3 (2 destroyed, 1 disabled)

4) In the Himalayas and high foothills the Chinese stack on the roads in from the east grows. It is a very powerful stack once all arrive one hex NE of Tsuyung. In that besieged base, the base forces are ordered to Move mode to Paoshan. They are all at zero supply and can't help enough to justify liquidation. Paoshan needs the help. The combat LCUs are left behind Forts 1, very low on supply and fairly disrupted. Question of whether Japan will wait for the tanks to rejoin is answered. They rejoin, and Japan attacks. Once again it is a Deliberate. Once again it fails to take the city, and Japan suffers widespread disruption even though KIAs are low. Forts evaporate. Regardless, these two days are much more than Allied high command could have hoped for from a base with low forts and no supply. The remaining defenders begin to write letters to their future ressurected selves at Chungking.

Ground combat at Tsuyung (68,46)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 100932 troops, 1097 guns, 146 vehicles, Assault Value = 3488

Defending force 40316 troops, 231 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 988

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 0

Japanese adjusted assault: 461

Allied adjusted defense: 880

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 0)

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), leaders(+), preparation(-), experience(-)
supply(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
2517 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 230 disabled
Non Combat: 1 destroyed, 25 disabled
Engineers: 58 destroyed, 32 disabled
Guns lost 26 (1 destroyed, 25 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
3781 casualties reported
Squads: 86 destroyed, 110 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 56 disabled
Engineers: 2 destroyed, 10 disabled
-----------------------

China also takes vacant Kienko, east of the northernmost China bastion city. Four armor units are used.

5) Allies probe bomb Mergui and find no planes. Oil bombing at Samarinda yields 1 Oil hit. 3 more are scored at Djambi.

6) More LCUs are detailed to FUDD and begin moving to embarkation ports. Intel shows a stiffening of Japanese land power on the Burma south coast, and a Royal Thai division in Rangoon now. This unit has not been seen in aerial recon.

7) At sea SW of Soerbaja, in the islands between Timor and Java, the "main body" radio alert is heard twice. IJN TFs containing at least two BBs, two CAs, and a CL are attacked by Beests and B-26s from Soerbaja, with no hits. This could be a raid, it could be a move on Timor or Darwin. Given the amount of recon and search I think Darwin is more likely. Japan may be looking for a psychological blow, and they should know there is no real Allied power on Timor. Air and sub responses will be mounted. Surface forces available are four cruisers at Townsville and Force Z, with medium fuel, just to the SW of the sightings.

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Kangean at 59,106

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid spotted at 6 NM, estimated altitude 9,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 1 minutes

Allied aircraft
DB-7B x 3
B-339-23 x 2

Allied aircraft losses
DB-7B: 2 damaged

Japanese Ships
CL Naka

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Kangean at 59,106

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid spotted at 11 NM, estimated altitude 6,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 6 minutes

Allied aircraft
Vildebeest III x 6

Allied aircraft losses
Vildebeest III: 2 damaged

Japanese Ships
BB Kirishima
BB Fuso

Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Kangean at 59,106

Weather in hex: Light cloud

Raid spotted at 5 NM, estimated altitude 12,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 1 minutes

Allied aircraft
B-26 Marauder x 5

Allied aircraft losses
B-26 Marauder: 2 damaged

Japanese Ships
CA Kinugasa
CA Aoba

8) USS Seawolf goes into the harbor at Nauru and torpedoes AMC Awata Maru, unloading. Three fish are duds. Decent chance this ship will sink.

9) Taung Gyi AF goes to 2. First Seabee unit begins long trip to SE Asia.

Are you starting to think that you might be able to hang on in Palembang and Singapore?

ORIGINAL: Encircled

Are you starting to think that you might be able to hang on in Palembang and Singapore?

I've been "thinking" about that since the first turn. [:)] Believing it is another thing.

Niether place has enough combat power to hold if Japan wants it. My objective is to make it expensive and slow, and lowest cost to me. Palembang has additional issues with landing up-river and lack of BB access. Most players come in through Oosthaven. I've taken minimal steps to make that a bit more expensive and slow too.

But holding Palembang, which can certainly be done, would take investing more there, and I don't want a static defense with the British or Indian armies. The USA has other jobs to do elsewhere. My hope is that the large numbers of engineers at Palembang will succeed in wrecking the place when it falls, and that Japan will only have it 12-18 months before my modern 4Es are back in range.

I put the odds of Singers lasting to May 1 at about 30%. I expect he will move the engineers from the PI when Bataan goes, and that will be that.

April 4, 1942

Main Body Runs Away Like A Little Girrrrrrl!!

[:)]

A bit of an "arrrghh" day, and not in that pirate sense. Perfect ambush laid for boo-coo IJN heavies and they decline.

1) SE of Soerbaja the heavy BB TF is seen by multiple assets. Force Z ordered to sprint north to intercept in the day phase in the bight east of Soerbaja. The duty surface TF at Soerbaja is held locked and cocked to clean up, bt it never happens. Force Z is changed to homeport at Soerbaja to fully refuel and reload, and may pick up an extra cruiser or two. Her replenishment Tf was left south of Java and is making for Cocos.

The Soerbaja PTs do sortie, mostly in an attempt to eat ops points and main battery ammo. Yamishiro complies, using the big guns to obliterate one balsa wood soda cracker. Several Soerbaja air units also attack, including the Beests and Albacores brought in from Batavia, but there are no hits.

The BB TF heads east. Still don't know what this guy is for. No landing forces seen by air or sub assets. Maybe it is just a raid after all. Nothing on NG needs it for sure, and it's a long haul there and a circular route to take. So, stay tuned.

One xAKL coming out of Soerbaja with fuel is sunk by it in the midst of the PT action. To document the composition of the TF:

Japanese Ships
BB Kirishima
BB Fuso
BB Yamashiro
CA Mogami
CA Aoba
CA Kinugasa
CL Naka
DD Kawakaze
TB Sagi
DMS W-2

Allied Ships
xAKL Wollongbar, Shell hits 7, and is sunk

2) Singers forts go back up to 3. Yay.

3) Sixty Oscars sweep Singers and find open skies.

4) Probe bombing and small AF strikes continue all over the map in an attempt to hide the true info-gathering. I'm not very good at this aspect of PBEM. I want to know what 's up at Rangoon, Pegu, Prome, and Baselin. The rest are fluff.

5) In northern China the large stack NE of Tsuyung is seen and bombed. Perhaps Japan is seeing its strategic situation here now. The mountains are a bad place to bomb troops who have been there awhile. 27 Sallys and 16 Lilys do not kill or disrupt even one Chinese squad. This stack is still growing. In total it will be much larger than the defenders of Tsuyung.

That base falls to a Shock attack. All of the defenders retreat except one. The base forces and three corps at zero supply had a head start. The KIA figures are bad, but I console myself by halving the VPs due to the Chinese-Japan ratio rule, and by considering again what this base has cost Japan in disruption and supply draw. The total VP change for the day, all in, is 100 VPs exactly. These LCUs will move to Paoshan. The air bridge from Ledo will shift as well. 75 transport aircraft come into Aden either today or tomorrow. They will be at Ledo in a week.

Ground combat at Tsuyung (68,46)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 99257 troops, 1094 guns, 258 vehicles, Assault Value = 3334

Defending force 37821 troops, 230 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 742

Japanese adjusted assault: 2113

Allied adjusted defense: 832

Japanese assault odds: 2 to 1 (fort level 0)

Japanese forces CAPTURE Tsuyung !!!

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), preparation(-), experience(-), supply(-)
Attacker: shock(+)

Japanese ground losses:
1630 casualties reported
Squads: 3 destroyed, 180 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 31 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 22 disabled

Allied ground losses:
12356 casualties reported
Squads: 579 destroyed, 90 disabled
Non Combat: 291 destroyed, 42 disabled
Engineers: 67 destroyed, 2 disabled
Guns lost 91 (78 destroyed, 13 disabled)
Units retreated 12
Units destroyed 1

6) On the Chungking plain, Japan bombs Neikiang and then attacks with Yokosuka Assault SNLF /3. Clearly a probe attack. This base is there only to feed Resources to Chungking, and is not strongly held. The attack fails (gives info though) and the Japanese evaporate in attrition at the end of the turn.

Ground combat at Neikiang (75,44)

Japanese Shock attack

Attacking force 175 troops, 4 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 14

Defending force 13978 troops, 108 guns, 0 vehicles, Assault Value = 439

Japanese adjusted assault: 0

Allied adjusted defense: 211

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 99 (fort level 2)

Combat modifiers
Defender: preparation(-), experience(-)
Attacker: shock(+), leaders(+), leaders(-)

Japanese ground losses:
206 casualties reported
Squads: 15 destroyed, 0 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 3 (2 destroyed, 1 disabled)

Assaulting units:
Yokosuka Assault SNLF /3

Defending units:
3rd Chinese Cavalry Corps
51st Chinese Corps
2nd Chinese Cavalry Corps
7th Construction Regiment
3rd Group Army
39th Group Army

Did Japan leave enough on the plain to deal with this? A couple of tank regiments won't get it done.

7) At Bataan the bombardments must be working. All air attacks target the AF rather than troops. All supply is organic to the LCUs and can't be hurt by hitting the AF. In Japan's defense, sometimes an AF strike does say X Supply is hit along with runways and AF proper even when the AF has no supply, perhaps a code decision which shold be included in FOW judgments. The Allies rest today here. No bombardment. The Bataan Rope-a-Dope continues.

8) Three USN CVs leave San Diego for Pearl with a storng escort and more in-coming DDs stripped from convoys to meet and merge. The icons at Palmyra still read as four CVEs and assorted others. If this is the KB it's showing as CVEs for four days now in recon from Christmas. If it's the MKB then it's not near Soerbaja waiting to pounce. Either way I still don't understand Palmyra.

What is going on at Christmas Island? Are you building up? Is he marshaling to evict you? What are your thoughts on the success of the operation?

ORIGINAL: desicat

What is going on at Christmas Island? Are you building up? Is he marshaling to evict you? What are your thoughts on the success of the operation?

Christmas has about 40,000 supply. Forts are over 2; AF is 1 and building. The only planes there are the Cats, but a Wildcat unit is on the water coming from San Diego. LCUs are an infantry unit of medium-small size, an arty unit and a base force. If he wants it back he'll need more than an SNLF or a Naval Guard unit. I don't think he wants it back.

Right now its only function is to watch Palmyra.

April 5, 1942

Back On-Line

Mike is back with new Net hardware and we're in business. A couple of days off has allowed me to read lots of AARs I have not been following, and to contemplate our game without needing to get 2nd Lt. Jones his teddy bear and therefore increase his morale at Palembang.

Stepping back, I think I can say that all of Japan's efforts around Hawaii since Dec. 7th have succeeded in throwing me off and giving them breathing room to develop the SE corner of the map from Tarawa to the new bases, dot and otherwise, being established on that vector. Atolls, once established, are no fun to take back. I don't send a lot of convoys that way, but even so having Bettys in that map area prevents the Allies from quickly responding to anything going on at Luganville or the Solomons. Despite an invasion of Hawaii not coming off I am still dinking around over Palmyra and Johnson in April, and I wish that were not the case.

1) Singers is swept three times, twice by Nates alone. I assume this is the coordination issue currently under discussion in the Tech sub-forum. No CAP is present, so it doesn't matter either way. Low-Oscars attack the MLs, the only vessels in port now, the supply ships having finished and left for Palembang. Light damage on one ML.

Japan Deliberate attacks Singapore, not waiting for full restoration of the combat engineers I think. Not sure Japan understands how fast Forts can be restored when previously they had been much of the way to Level 4. Regardless, once again Forts are knocked down to 2, but the attack fails. The Allies take big losses to KIA again. But they hold, and they are in good supply.

Ground combat at Singapore (50,84)

Japanese Deliberate attack

Attacking force 94326 troops, 1134 guns, 476 vehicles, Assault Value = 3015

Defending force 41886 troops, 575 guns, 367 vehicles, Assault Value = 1006

Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 2

Japanese adjusted assault: 2274

Allied adjusted defense: 2289

Japanese assault odds: 1 to 2 (fort level 2)

Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), leaders(+), experience(-)
Attacker:

Japanese ground losses:
6739 casualties reported
Squads: 25 destroyed, 416 disabled
Non Combat: 11 destroyed, 119 disabled
Engineers: 94 destroyed, 51 disabled
Guns lost 33 (8 destroyed, 25 disabled)
Vehicles lost 64 (12 destroyed, 52 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
2518 casualties reported
Squads: 78 destroyed, 162 disabled
Non Combat: 17 destroyed, 93 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 49 disabled
Guns lost 91 (18 destroyed, 73 disabled)
Vehicles lost 28 (1 destroyed, 27 disabled)
Units destroyed 1

2) Air activity is thick in China. The stack NE of Tsuyung is bombed again by about 45 bombers, and once again suffers no effects. The retreating scraps from the battles of Tsuyung are road-bombed on their way to Paoshan, for 11 casualties. Neikiang, after the probe attack revealed the force there, is hit, doing a few points of supply damage.

Ledo's air supply op is shifted to Paoshan, where the LCUs will vacuum up incoming supply for quite awhile. 75 transports enter Aden and are loaded for Karachi. I will try to fly them to Ledo rather than train them over. This is the only big transport injection in the OOB for quite some time.

3) In Burma, the Chinese corps across the river from Prome is bombed in the open, incuring unacceptable casualties. There is an LCU in Prome now, but my recon still shows nothing in Rangoon. Intel, however, reported a Royal Thai division in Rangoon. The Prome guests might be them. I will ground bomb for a turn or two to try to get some firm intel. Another Chinese LCU is headed to the cross-river hex to backstop the single corps. I may cross the river unopposed to the SE and get on the road in the jungle. Operation FUDD is coming together, but I'm not ready to tip my hand.

4) Allies bombard at Bataan again. This tap-dancing is pretty sweet, given they're shooting bamboo shells by now.

Ground combat at Bataan (78,77)

Allied Bombardment attack

Attacking force 36392 troops, 748 guns, 311 vehicles, Assault Value = 1533

Defending force 45843 troops, 472 guns, 524 vehicles, Assault Value = 1297

Japanese ground losses:
81 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 5 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 4 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 2 disabled
Vehicles lost 4 (1 destroyed, 3 disabled)

Allied ground losses:
65 casualties reported
Squads: 10 destroyed, 5 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 1 (1 destroyed, 0 disabled)

5) Naval matters. The BB TF near Soerbaja last seen heaidng east. Force Z pulls into Soerbaja for some long-needed upkeep, but POW is not put on upgrade, even though the January is much needed for AA reasons. Soerbaja has a CAP of over 75 good fighters, so I think, I hope, I can afford a few days of repairs here.

Half of the US Navy is upgrading at Pearl and San Diego. The ASW upgrades here are really needed. The 3-CV TF coming to Pearl links up with extra DDs and proceeds.

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58


... 4) Allies bombard at Bataan again. This tap-dancing is pretty sweet, given they're shooting bamboo shells by now...

Heh, bamboo splinters are quite nasty.

Alfred

ORIGINAL: Alfred

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58


... 4) Allies bombard at Bataan again. This tap-dancing is pretty sweet, given they're shooting bamboo shells by now...

Heh, bamboo splinters are quite nasty.

Alfred

Very true. Pretty soon the guys in Bataan are going to be just heaving them across the lines. Not a lot of velocity there.

On another topic, last night I watched the Singapore Falls episode of the classic "World at War" documentary series. Put the game's compromises with fortifications into better perspective for me. And the visuals of the POWs being forced to line the parade route after the surrender was painful to see. I knew the numbers were huge, but I had not known that Singapore was the largest surrender in the history of Great Britain. Perceval was presented as a fumbler who even at the surrender conference didn't understand the gravity of his failures. Not sure that's fair given how little of the promised support he recieved, but he was in charge and so gets much of the blame. The documentary was made in the mid-70s too. A lot of scholarship since then.

Ah, in that case, rather than throwing them over the parapets with low velocity, recommend you embed upright slivers of bamboo into the ground so that the IJA steps on them when it crosses no mans land.

Alfred

Perceval was presented as a fumbler who even at the surrender conference ,,,

Perceval is clearly no Chesty Puller or Lt Bromhead/Chad [:D]

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

Perceval was presented as a fumbler who even at the surrender conference ,,,

Perceval is clearly no Chesty Puller or Lt Bromhead/Chad [:D]

I know the first name. [;)]

I think in the mid-70s the surrender itself was still the preeminent thing in the British mind. It was only 30 years before and many were still alive who experienced it. (The episode also featured interviews with Genda and Fuchida, then men still in the prime of life.) In the decades since, from my limited Web poking about, I see a lot more weight given to the utter failure of the Empire establishment to fill out the defense plans for the base/city in all respects. The lack of aircraft, the lack of AA, the lack of RN present, etc. Yes, there a lack of appreciation for how fast light infantry (on bicycles!) could move down Malaysia. Yes, there was hubris in thinking the jungle was impassable to armor. But the main fault was the defense plans, which looked great on paper, not being funded and executed from London. The thought of losing Singapore was unthinkable, unitl it wasn't and good troops were fed in mere days before the surrender, lost for nothing. Singapore would have fallen at some point, but it could have lasted many more months if properly prepared. The whole history of the war in Burma might have been different if that had happened, not to mention the Solomons.

But neither was Percival the incompetent which he is commonly portrayed. He was a scapegoat for the failures of the British military system, his superiors and his predecessors. Most people who comment on him on the forum really know very little about Malaya, relying on the usual sources which scapegoated Percival.

A great commander he was not, a gentleman he was and that intruded into his performance. Let down by subordinates he most certainly was. Hamstrung in carrying out his military orders by the civilian administration he most definitely was, a point which AE players who don't have to worry about political or social real world conditions in their games fail to understand. Percival was a first rate chief of Staff who lacked the ruthlessness which the absolute top field commanders have. However there was no one else in the British military system who would have performed better at the strategic level.

Only at the very end, when the causeway was blown up and all that was left was Singapore island itself, can one really find some poor decisions which were self inflicted. But by then the position was hopeless unless all of a sudden his subordinates improved their own performance 100% and that would almost certainly have only gained a little more time.

Alfred

That portion of the documentary was told/supported by the Japanese commanding general's (Yamashita?) former COS. There was also quite a bit of film from the surrender meeting at the Ford plant. Apparently the staff-level negotiations had been unclear if Percival intended to surrender when they would meet. He also wanted the Japanese to come to him, which probalbly wasn't helpful face-wise.

At the meeting the COS related that Percival concentrated on a request that he be allowed to keep 1500 troops under him to ensure civil order in the city, as the civilians had been bombed and shelled to a degree that rioting was feared when the Japanese entered. Yamashita kept asking if Percival intended to surrender and kept not getting an answer. He finally said he would attack that night with his full force unless he recieved an immediate surrender, and Percival relented. I'm sure the Japanese treatment of Nanking was in his mind.

In the film Percival looks haunted. Understandable.

Looking over Tracker results from the last turn. The good news at Singers is every LCU supply is in the green, Forts are 2 + 27%, and base supply is 47,800. The bad news is the majority of the KIAs were from the 6th Aussie Brigade. Was AV of 82, now 6. Also a lot of disabled squads, and nothing in the pool. Both Indian divisions are over 300 AV each, and the other Aussie unit is OK, but this one hit bone, not fat.

I'm sure the Japanese treatment of Nanking was in his mind

Which I contend should have brought up the idea that it would be better to go down fighting than to surrender . at least get to a stage closer to Stalingrad 1942 - 1943 .. Bromhead/Chad had an inkling of Isandlwana and decided to to resist at all costs .. At least if they put up a fight there would be VC's for everybody and starvation, rather than just simple starvation in some labor camp ..

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

Looking over Tracker results from the last turn. The good news at Singers is every LCU supply is in the green, Forts are 2 + 27%, and base supply is 47,800. The bad news is the majority of the KIAs were from the 6th Aussie Brigade. Was AV of 82, now 6. Also a lot of disabled squads, and nothing in the pool. Both Indian divisions are over 300 AV each, and the other Aussie unit is OK, but this one hit bone, not fat.

Do you think Johor Bahru has the 2X supplies to reverse the IJA disabled squads? If he has stuff there that measn less supplies to propagate to Singers .. I think Alfred posted an excellent discussion on supply propagation in this thread, but I think unless the IJ have set to horde they are not going to get to X2 supplies .. I have to think he has to pull some units back and rest, otherwise his AV/Firepower is not coming back in the near future. Thoughts?

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

I'm sure the Japanese treatment of Nanking was in his mind

Which I contend should have brought up the idea that it would be better to go down fighting than to surrender . at least get to a stage closer to Stalingrad 1942 - 1943 .. Bromhead/Chad had an inkling of Isandlwana and decided to to resist at all costs .. At least if they put up a fight there would be VC's for everybody and starvation, rather than just simple starvation in some labor camp ..

And yet the Japanese did very well with prisoners during the Russo-Japanese war and also I believe in WW1 where they captured a few Germans.

So, I am not sure that the British leadership foresaw the harsh treatment they would get based on past practices.


BTW, this is a great AAR. I am reading both and it is fascinating.

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

I'm sure the Japanese treatment of Nanking was in his mind

Which I contend should have brought up the idea that it would be better to go down fighting than to surrender . at least get to a stage closer to Stalingrad 1942 - 1943 .. Bromhead/Chad had an inkling of Isandlwana and decided to to resist at all costs .. At least if they put up a fight there would be VC's for everybody and starvation, rather than just simple starvation in some labor camp ..

Problem is come 15 Feb, he didn't have anything left to fight with.

1. The water supply was cut off. That meant only days before the large civilian population (not to mention the military) would have been in a dying situation. Nanking or no Nanking, one could not be certain it would be replicated in Singapore (different Japanese officers, different circumstances) but there is no need to second guess the effects of no water and the certainty of what would result. As it was the treatment of the civilian population (with the exception of the local Chinese) and the POWs, harsh as it was, was still better than the outcome in Nanking, or for that matter the Bataan Death March.

2. The remaining perimeter meant that Japanese artillery and aircraft would continue to be non discriminatory in hitting civilian targets. Cessation of hostilities meant not only an end to casualties but also retention of infrastructure which would be needed for the surviving population.

3. Bennett had practically positioned the Australians away from providing mutual defence support to the rest and were therefore essentially out of the fight. People forget that when Bennett escaped to Australia he became a persona non grata, not just because he abandoned his command but because his overall performance in Malaya had been poor, both in terms of co-ordinating his actions with his superiors but also his subordinates, and in sheer tactical terms. Almost all of the local military successes achieved by the 8th AIF were due to the separate battalion commanders, not Bennett.

There was desperate fighting in the last two weeks. Stalingrad is just not a relevant comparison.

* Singapore was cut off logistically, Stalingrad never was

* the Singapore defenders had suffered three months of almost continuous defeats and were worn out whereas the Soviets kept on feeding fresh troops into Stalingrad

* everyone knew there was going to be no rescue, Wavell had already made it clear beforehand so the point of fighting for 2-4 more days was not obvious whereas Chuikov's 62nd Army knew otherwise

* Singapore was full of civilians, IIRC about a million by then, whereas Stalingrad did not have civilians and in any case the Soviet view of them was completely different

By January, when Churchill realised that he had been misled regarding the true status of the "fortress", he knew the command to fight to the last man was purely rehetorical and would not be the end result. Which is why at the end it was in everyone's interest to scapegoat Percival to cover their own part in the disaster, which in the case of Churchill's own contribution to the disaster going back to his time as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the 1920s.

Alfred

To me the loss of the water supply was the key point.

Without water, the battle was over.