If in the Iberian Peninsula the British controlled the Rock of Gibraltar, since the 18th century during the War of Spanish Succession, at the beginning of World War II they controlled Eastern Gibraltar, Singapore , in Southeast Asia.
On December 8, 1941, the Japanese began the Malay Campaign , at the same time they bombed Pearl Harbor , which would lead to the occupation of Thailand and Malaya, and the expulsion of the British from Singapore in February 1942.
After losing Malaya, the British Army withdrew to its base in Singapore. Although they had lost the air battle, due to the overwhelming majority of Japanese aircraft, they still felt safe in the impregnable fortress of Singapore (more than 80,000 soldiers, anti-aircraft defenses, heavy artillery to repel a maritime attack from the South and protected by jungles and mangroves in the North) . All forces and artillery were directed to the south, in theory the only point from which they could be attacked. The Japanese knew that through the mangroves and the jungle they could not advance with artillery or battle tanks... but they could with infantry on bicycles .
Moving around on bicycles, they quickly spread out and attacked on several fronts. When the British wanted to react it was too late, the Japanese had broken the northern defensive lines…. In seven days the impregnable fortress had fallen. They made more than 80,000 prisoners (Indians, British and Australians).
The words of Churchill :
Worst disaster in British history.
Sources and images:History learning site, Historynet, Battle of Singapore