Operation Tiderace
Operation Tiderace was the codename of the British plan to retake Singapore following the Japanese surrender in 1945.[4] The liberation force was led by Lord Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander of South East Asia Command. Tiderace was initiated in coordination with Operation Zipper, which involved the liberation of Malaya.
Background[edit]
With the Soviet invasion of Manchuria and an American planned invasion of Japan, South East Asia Command were also drawing up plans to invade Malaya, codenamed Operation Zipper. With over 100,000 Allied infantry,[5] the plan was to capture Port Swettenham and Port Dickson, and would involve an airstrike of more than 500 aircraft of the Royal Air Force. The assault was scheduled for 9 September 1945, but was forestalled following the Surrender of Japan on 15 August 1945.[6] Once the lodgement was secure, the Allies would have initiated Operation Mailfist, during which ground forces were to advance south through Malaya and liberate Singapore.[7] It was expected that Operation Mailfist would begin in December 1945 and conclude in March 1946.[8]
Operation Tiderace was planned soon after the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August. Emergency planning was put in preparation for the rapid occupation of Singapore at an early date should Japan agree to accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration of 26 July.[9]
While Operation Zipper was executed ahead of schedule, it did so on a much smaller scale, having quickly transferred a proportion of its original strength to Operation Tiderace. The convoy consisted of about 90 ships,[3] which included two battleships, HMS Nelson and the French battleship Richelieu.[10] The heavy cruiser HMS Sussex served as the flagship.[11] HMAS Hawkesbury was the sole Australian warship during the Japanese surrender, escorting the repatriation transport Duntroon.[12] A smaller British naval force was given the task of liberating Penang under Operation Jurist, a component of the overall Operation Zipper.
There were a total of seven escort carriers: HMS Ameer, HMS Attacker, HMS Emperor, HMS Empress, HMS Hunter, HMS Khedive and HMS Stalker.[13]
The Japanese naval fleet in Singapore consisted of the destroyer Kamikaze[14] and two cruisers, Myōkō and Takao, both of which had been so badly damaged before that they were being used as floating anti-aircraft batteries. Two ex-German U-boats, I-501 and I-502 were also in Singapore.[15] Both were moored at Singapore Naval Base.[16] Air strength in both Malaya and Sumatra was estimated to be a little more than 170 aircraft.[17]
A convoy of landing craft carrying Indian troops entering the bay at Singapore, 1945.
Ships of the occupation convoy en route to Singapore, August 1945
Mountbatten gives a public address in Singapore during the surrender ceremony
Instrument of Surrender signed by Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten for the Allies and General Itagaki for the Japanese
Chinese community holding preliminary celebrations through the city streets, with liberation banners
Union Jack is hoisted during the formal surrender of all Japanese southern armies
Japanese POWs are taken to work where they were made to clear up the city
Three of the indicted Japanese war criminals are led to their cells underneath the Supreme Court in Singapore
Itagaki had met his generals and senior staff at his HQ at the former Raffles College in Bukit Timah and told his men that they would have to obey the surrender instructions and keep the peace. That night, more than 300 officers and men killed themselves by falling onto their swords in the Raffles Hotel after a farewell sake party, and later, an entire Japanese platoon killed themselves using grenades.[18]
About 200 Japanese soldiers decided to join the communist guerrillas whom they were fighting just days before in a bid to continue the fight against the British. But they soon returned to their units when they found out that the MPAJA, which was funded by the Malayan Communist Party, did not plan to fight the returning British.[18]
Nonetheless, some stayed hidden in the jungles with the communists, and when Chin Peng and remnants of the Malayan Communist Party ended their struggle in 1989, two former Japanese soldiers emerged from the jungle with the communists and surrendered.[18]