Situated at the southernmost point of continental Asia, Singapore was one of the British Empire’s most significant overseas possessions. Its importance only increased with the entry of the Empire of Japan into World War II. Already a key port for the British Navy in Asia, it was now an integral part of the line of defense that connected Australasia to the British Empire in Asia.  

Despite being known as the ‘impregnable fortress’, and being integral to the Allied war strategy in South East Asia, Singapore was not properly resourced. Even though it was defended by a large land based contingent, a major part of the plan relied on British naval forces being able to reach Singapore before the enemy.  

The Japanese had to move their forces through more than a thousand kilometres of jungle that covered the Malay peninsula, and it was presumed this would give the British more time and limit the enemy advance. But the naval squadron assigned to reinforce the area, Force Z, had been defeated in late 1941. The Japanese solved the problem of the terrain too, famously using bicycles to move infantry quickly, and bringing light tanks through the inhospitable territory. By contrast, the British had no tanks, thinking them unusable. Once the Japanese reached Singapore in early 1942, the city defenses held for only two weeks before falling in mid-February. 

The British surrender at Singapore was described by Winston Churchill as the ‘largest capitulation in British history’, with over 80,000 Allied troops captured. A catastrophe for the Allied Forces, the fall of Singapore was also predicted to ‘prolong the Pacific war for two years’ by British newspapers, as it weakened the Allied control of the seas surrounding the island and removed the main point of opposition to the Japanese in Southeast Asia.¹

While Singapore was a crucial part of the Pacific campaign, New Zealanders played only a small role there. The importance of Singapore had long been recognised by New Zealand, yet the majority of the Forces there were British and Australian. New Zealand forces were instead committed to other theatres of war. The main New Zealand presence in Singapore was found in the Royal Air Force, where airmen and groundcrew from a number of Commonwealth nations were serving.  

One of the few first-hand accounts of a New Zealander in the fall of Singapore is that of Flying Officer Cecil Franks. Franks was an equipment officer with No. 488 Squadron (NZ) and his embarkation in 1941 took him from New Zealand to Singapore via Australia. He photographed much of his journey and compiled the pictures he took into an album which is now held at the National Library of New Zealand. 

Franks’ album illustrates the speed with which the situation in Singapore changed as the Japanese advanced. There is a period of relative calm depicted as his squadron settles into their new posting, with photographs of the aerodrome and airmen on leave in the region. When the storm broke, however, it broke quickly. Kallang Aerodrome, where Franks and No. 488 Squadron were stationed, was bombed. The rapidity of the Japanese invasion led to an evacuation, and as they went the squadron burned and demolished in their wake, leaving no resources for the incoming army. 

The next day, the ground crew of No. 488, along with around 2,000 other evacuees, boarded the Empire Star, a cargo ship with capacity for far less. Franks’ final photo of Singapore, taken from the ship as it drew away from the shore, is of an island on fire with great palls of smoke rising from the city like pyres. The Empire Star’s escape was fraught with danger, and it was harassed by Japanese aircraft during the four days it took to reach Java. The threat from the air demonstrated the importance Singapore had held – as soon as it was lost, the Allies also lost what little influence they had in the airspace. Franks’ photos show the tension on board the ship too. The hundreds of people who had evacuated had to bed down on deck in the open, while others watched the skies for warning of further attacks. 

Another New Zealander at the Battle of Singapore was Eustatius Griffiths, a doctor who had completed his degree in Dunedin in 1928, and joined the Royal Air Force shortly after. He was posted to the Far East station in Singapore in 1930 for a period of three years. Between 1933 and the outbreak of war, he travelled between the United Kingdom and New Zealand, furthering his medical training, eventually ending up working in Hastings as a surgeon. He remained on the Reserve of Officers during this period, and in 1939 was recalled to active service.  

When Flying Officer Griffiths was recalled, he was again posted to Singapore with his family. In 1941, he was promoted to Squadron Leader and was based at the Queen Alexandra Military Hospital as a surgeon. By January 1942, the threat from the Japanese was imminent, and his young family were evacuated by ship along with many others, making it out only weeks before the city fell. The location of the hospital next to a British supply dump and a barracks made it an important target for the Japanese, and it was consequently marked out as an early objective.  

The intensity of the Japanese assault on the island, by now crowded with refugees who had fled before the Japanese, had resulted in large numbers of wounded seeking shelter at the hospital, pushing it to capacity. When the Japanese reached the hospital, it was while they were pursuing a troop of Allied soldiers on the retreat. Brian Farrell wrote that the fleeing Allied soldiers took a moment to fire back upon the Japanese from a strategic location that was in the hospital grounds. Within minutes, the Japanese brought reinforcements up to face them, while the Allied soldiers had quickly moved on. 

Having lost sight of the group they pursued, the Japanese rushed the hospital. Once inside, they ignored the offer of surrender put forward by the staff and ‘rampaged through the overcrowded hospital in a killing frenzy’. Among the victims were staff, patients, and even a wounded soldier in surgery. In the following days the death toll reached 200 as wounded prisoners who had survived the initial attack were also killed. Farrell suggested that the attack on the hospital was among 'the most ominous’ atrocities in the fall of Singapore.²  

Among the victims were patients and staff, including some who were in the middle of surgical operations, and Squadron Leader Griffiths. The Alexandra Hospital Massacre is memorialised on a plaque at the site today, and the victims are remembered on the Singapore Memorial. Although Griffiths died, his family survived the evacuation, and the ship they were on docked safely in South Africa. Today, Griffiths is also remembered on a plaque on the gates of New Plymouth Boys High, along with the other old boys who gave their lives in service. 

While members of the New Zealand services played only a small role during the fall, their stories are reflective of the wider experiences of Allied servicepeople in Singapore. Stories of survival, of capture, and of tragedy were found throughout the campaign, and the stories of Cecil Franks and Eustatius Griffiths, of survival and death, remind us of the span of New Zealand’s contribution in all theatres of the war. 

REFERENCES

¹ "Woolly Politicians, Spineless Advisers” Imperil Singapore. Northern Advocate, 4 Feb 1942, p.3.

² Farrell, B. (2005). The Defence and Fall of Singapore 1940-1942. Tempus Publishing, p.404.