The fall of Singapore is considered one of the most crushing failures of all the British Army's history. Also, it perfectly illustrates the destructive combination Japan used in 1942 in the Pacific: speed and cruelty. The impregnable fortress fell to the Japanese in less than a month. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, it was known that Singapore would be the next target, but the British command assumed that an offensive would be easily stopped. Churchill himself thought Japan would not attack before Spring. The attack on Malaya took the British by surprise; their troops were outnumbered by the Japanese army. Singapore fell one month after Kuala Lumpur, followed by an occupation of more than three years. The British lost a huge part of their
