Fall of Singapore original newspaper

At the recent Singapore Heritage Society fund raiser this original newspaper was donated by two journalists from their personal collection of historic newspapers, It is a framed original copy of a newspaper dated 12 February 1942, reporting the Fall of Singapore. The newspaper is The Star of Guernsey, an island in the English Channel that was then under German occupation. The newspaper was used as a mouthpiece of the Nazi occupiers – hence the triumphalist tone in reporting the defeat of the British. The fate of The Star foreshadowed what would happen to the Straits Times in Occupied Singapore. It, too, would be commandeered as a mouthpiece of occupying forces, under the Synonan Shimbun/Times masthead.

Old Malayan Railway

Last year the historical Malayan Railway that crossed Singapore was dismantled as part of a deal between Malaysia and Singapore to move Malaysia's station and customs control from Tanjong Pagar located adjacent to the old Empire Dock where a lot of the evacuation ships left Singapore. Sad to see it go with a lot of the old infrastructure demolished. This photo shows some remnants recovered and preserved. One of the bolts has 1928 stamped on it. The old line crossed several old battle sites.

BBC News - Prince William and Kate remember Singapore's WWII dead

BBC News - Prince William and Kate remember Singapore's WWII dead

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge remember war dead in Singapore - Telegraph

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge remember war dead in Singapore - Telegraph

Now reading

The Real Tenko by Mark Felton. Well written so far and the start of the book relating to the fall of Hong Kong is fascinating. Look forward to getting through the rest of the book.

Gas mask unearthed by the Adam Park (TAPP) project team

The Adam Park project excavations continue to make amazing discoveries as part of their investigative work around one of the last  battle sites in Singapore. The latest find being gas masks as seen in the photos below from Jon Cooper's Adam Park Facebook page. It is a fascinating story and encourage taking a look at the photos and videos he has posted on facebook

70th Anniversary Remembrance Walk Saturday 3rd November 2012

Great to see this initiative being organised in Singapore!

WW2 maps Singapore

This was a fascinating map being a Japanese reprinted map captured in Rabaul in 1946 but the map re printed in 1939 before the attack on Malaya includes the area where the Japanese made their main thrust on Singapore island on the 8th of February 1942 .

WW2 maps Singapore

Fascinating presentation tonight showing a number of maps including Japanese German and Italian maps of Singapore. One interesting story was that as the invasion of Singapore started the command HQ ordered all the Singapore maps to be destroyed (numbers unknown) and then the day before the surrender apparently requested maps to be provided to HQ but of course there were none available to provide! Considering the confusion of the time it would not surprise me if there was some element of the truth in in this story. This is the first known presentation of Singapore WW2 maps so well done to the presenter and good to see a full house at the Singapore History museum.

WW2 maps of Singapore

Photo of Major Gordon Bennett presenting to the press in January 1942 the month before Singapore fell. Questions around what map was used inspired the speaker's research