Chapter 34 The weak will fall first

As far as Yamashita is concerned, not to mention that the set deadline on February 11 has passed, even the military rations have reached their limit and are beginning to be insufficient.Many soldiers could only take out a little bean paste powder left in their pockets and rely on sucking bean paste powder to maintain their lives. The mountain was in a hurry. After the small and medium-caliber artillery landed, they were all used immediately.From the 12th to the 13th, the city of Singapore was not defeated, and the artillery shells were exhausted. Among the front-line divisions, some even had only a few shells left.

On February 14, 1942, with the repair of the Johor Waterway Bridge, the Japanese heavy artillery unit finally reached the front line, but it was useless because the stored heavy artillery shells were running out. Yamashita felt a deep sense of fear, and he wrote in his diary: "I fear that if the British army realizes our numerical inferiority and lack of supplies, it will drag us into a tragic and bitter battle." Fighting hard means filling the well with snow, throwing ants like soup, and all the efforts since the landing of Malaysia will be in vain.He will fail and all his efforts will be wasted.

This is the reason why Yamashita asked the opponent to surrender immediately.But what if the British don't surrender, there is no other good way, just force them to death. On that day, Yamashita concentrated the few remaining shells and bombed the British artillery positions and even residential areas in Singapore.As another measure of mental oppression, he also cut off the water pipe from Johor to the island. But there was still no movement, and the staff couldn't bear it anymore. Even Masanobu Tsuji, who always liked to brag and boast, suggested that Yamashita suspend the attack.Yamashita ignored it, he knew that if he pressed the pause button, he might be the one who fell down immediately!

On the morning of February 15, Yamashita personally rushed to the headquarters of the 5th Division and issued an order: "There is no other way but to move forward." The soldiers of the 5th Division were almost exhausted and fell apart. As long as they sat on the ground, they might turn into a pile of mud immediately.Yamashita had no choice but to keep cheering his subordinates: "The enemy is also very difficult!" Things are often reversed, and so is war.The more you want the other person to collapse, the stronger they will be.The resistance of the British coalition forces was unusually tenacious. The Japanese army had never suffered such a violent shelling, and even the first-line foxholes lost their cover.Although the 5th Division sent tanks and chariots to support them, they couldn't support them until after 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and the battlefield fell into a stalemate.

This was a moment when Yamashita and his officers and soldiers could not advance or retreat. Suddenly, three British men and a white flag appeared in front of the vanguard of the 5th Division. The dreamed scene appeared.In fact, after the Japanese army landed on Singapore Island, Percival was already mentally prepared to surrender.The military ethic of the West is that as long as the situation is exhausted and resistance is no longer possible to turn the situation around, you can throw up your hands and surrender, which is not shameful. When Yamashita was pulling his collars in the headquarters of the 5th Division and pushing his soldiers onto the battlefield one by one, Parcival was doing another thing: he was in his own headquarters, soliciting the opinions of the commanders, Whether to surrender or continue to fight.

All unanimously voted for surrender.No matter how brave and brave Bennett was, he could only nod when he learned that the taps in the city were running out of water. The Japanese and British leaders met in a small room of an automobile assembly plant, and the negotiation scene was extremely dramatic. Yamashita hoped that the other party would surrender immediately. It can be said that he was more afraid of the failure of the negotiation than Percival, but he couldn't translate well. When he met an authentic Englishman with a London accent, it seemed that this buddy couldn't even speak English well.In fact, the level of English for translation is not too bad. He learned English in London, but he doesn't understand the military terminology of the armistice, let alone Yamashita's true psychology, so that he always stutters and stumbles.

Yamashita became more and more restless, and he called out to the translator loudly: "I don't understand your translation at all, you just need to ask me clearly, yes or no." A major general who was involved in the negotiation next to him saw that Yamashita lost his temper, and immediately replaced the translator and asked an English-speaking staff member Sugita Nakasa to replace him, but the process was still not smooth.Sugita understood military terminology, but his English was broken again.And Parcival's translator was also sweating profusely, looking up the English-Japanese dictionary sentence by sentence.

Seeing that Yamashita's face darkened again, Sugita simply threw the document away and shouted at Parcival: "Surrender or not? Yes or No, please answer!" Parcival's complexion changed suddenly, his facial muscles twitched non-stop, and he wanted to talk about the conditions again. Yamashita's tone became more and more blunt and arrogant, he kept tapping the floor with his saber: "Repeat, is it Yes or No? No, I will give you a night attack at night, with white knives in and red knives out. No If you like night raids, just say Yes." Don't catch up with others, and don't deceive others too much.Parcival had never seen this kind of robber-style negotiation before, he was terrified, and replied in a suppressed voice: "Yes!"

On February 15, 1942, a week after the Japanese army landed, Parcival signed the instrument of unconditional surrender, and Singapore was handed over by him. In the battles of Malaysia and Singapore, the Japanese army suffered more than 9,000 casualties, and the British coalition forces suffered a similar number of casualties.However, after the unconditional surrender, the Japanese army was able to capture 130,000 people, and seized various artillery, machine guns, rifles, and countless supplies.When viewing the trophies, some Japanese officers commented in surprise: "You can fight a battle with these trophies!"

What Yamashita got through negotiations was far more than simply fighting.He later said from his heart: "At that time, my infantry gun had only three rounds. In this case, I thought he must surrender no matter what, so I finally applied pressure." Parcival was in a gloomy mood. He was an administrator type general.The negotiating skills of haggling all over the sky and bargaining on the spot should be his strong point, but under the threat of the other party, he can only be stripped to nothing, which makes him feel more painful than losing a battle. It goes without saying that Yamashita, Tsuji Masanobu and others felt elated among the hill-like loot, the dark crowd of prisoners of war, and this magnificent oriental city.When they entered the city, tens of thousands of prisoners of war stood on both sides of the road to greet them. While showing off their might, they also used this to ruthlessly humiliate the prisoners.

Singapore has always been regarded as a symbol of Britain in the East, and taking down Singapore means Japan's victory over Britain.Churchill was deeply saddened: "The most painful catastrophe and the largest surrender in British history happened in Singapore." The fall of Singapore caused great psychological trauma to the British.A British historian described it this way: That night, the arteries of the ancient colonial empire were cut open, and centuries of rule and law began to spurt blood. This wound may not be healed. On February 16, 1942, Hirohito's military attache rushed to Singapore and conveyed the imperial decree of the emperor and the imperial decree of the empress to Yamashita. Strategically and tactically, the fall of Singapore represented the culmination of the Japanese Army's achievements in the Pacific War.Prior to this, Yamashita had only participated in the battle against North China, and had not established any great military exploits.With this battle, he was able to be as famous as Yamamoto, known as "Yamamoto of the Navy, Yamashita of the Army", and also got a nickname: Tiger of Malaysia. Just like Yamamoto's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the whole world knows the "evil tiger" under Yamamoto.The military history textbook of the German Army Officer Academy specifically added a section on the Malaysian operation, and regarded it as a classic of campaign command.