The Fall Of Singapore And The Malaya Campaign - 1420 Words

The events of World War Two such as the failed Malaya campaign, the fall of Singapore, the bombing of Pearl Harbour and the stretched resources of Britain, led to Australia developing a more independent foreign policy however, independent of Britain. The changing of alliance between Britain, Australia and the United States of America has led to a substantial impact on shaping Australian society and where Australia are today. The fall of Singapore and the Malaya campaign brought the war extremely close to Australia even reaching Australian soil for the first time and generated new opinions and perspectives on the war for all Australians. Furthermore, with its greatest military defeat of all time, Britain had to recover and Australia had to†¦show more content†¦208). This led to the fall of Singapore which lasted from 8th-15th February 1942, which resulted in the surrender of all British and Empire forces in Singapore. This horrific event caused many Australians to fear for th e safety of the nation. A well-known newspaper at the time wrote: â€Å"Australia sent her best men and some of her equipment now sorely needed at home to relieve British needs elsewhere †¦ the United Kingdom turned deaf ears to every plea.† (‘The Fall of Singapore’ 1942, The Canberra Times) This article indicates Britain couldn’t provide assistance for Australia which was under threat by the Japanese despite Australia supplying its available resources to Britain which was in a desperate struggle to win against Nazi Germany (Mason, 2014 pg. 200). This was a significant issue for Australia as they saw Britain as their protector within Asia and counted on their strong military force which was weak in the Pacific due to the fall of Singapore as they were no longer able to use Singapore as a place for communication and supplies. This cartoon from the Daily Telegraph created towards the end of the fall of Singapore, corroborates with the newspaper quote above: Mahony, 1942, Daily Telegraph. This cartoon emphasises the relationship between Winston Churchill the British Prime Minister (Left) and the Australian Prime Minister John Curtin (Right). The