130,000 British troops raised their hands and surrendered, the humiliating battle of the Empire that never set, the British Empire was no longer majestic
In the nineteenth century, Britain had the most powerful fleet in the world, and by virtue of its superiority in force, Britain seized a large number of colonies. By the mid-to-late nineteenth century, British colonies spread all over the world, known as the "Empire of the Sun Never Sets". After the second industrial revolution, Britain's world hegemony was threatened by emerging powers, but with years of accumulation, Britain is still a world-class power. At the end of the nineteenth century, Japan began to rise from the Asian region, in the process of Japan's rise, britain gave Japan a lot of help, the British at that time probably would not have thought in any case, the former "little brother" Japan, will beat the British army during World War II.
After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, they began to send large armies south to fight for Southeast Asia, when most of Southeast Asia was under the control of Britain and France, and Japan was bound to fight a war with Britain in order to seize the territory of Southeast Asia. Before japan launched the Battle of Malaya, the British army had just defeated the Italian army in North Africa, showing people the remnants of the British Empire, but the Battle of Malaya had disgraced the British, and the British Empire was no longer majestic. The Battle of Malaya began on December 8, 1941, when the famous Japanese general Fumifumi Yamashita led 110,000 Japanese troops from Sanya, Hainan Province, to provoke the Battle of Malaya between Britain and Japan.
The Battle of Malaya was divided into two parts: naval warfare and land warfare, and the British Navy, which could force Asian countries to sign unequal treaties by sending a few ships, was caught in the Malay Naval Battle, and there were many reasons for Britain's defeat at sea, on the one hand, because of The problem of British tactical applications, on the other hand, because the number of British naval ships was small, and Japan had an absolute advantage in strength. Sea supremacy was crucial in the battle for the islands, and after the total destruction of the British Z Fleet, the British army in the Malay Islands became the turtle in the urn.
In terms of land warfare, the British army in the Malay Islands numbered as many as 140,000 people, but these people were all colonial troops and their combat effectiveness was very weak. The Japanese army led by Yamashita Fengwen is selected from the elite of the First Class Division, the First Class Division is the division with the strongest combat effectiveness in Japan, and the 110,000 troops led by Yamashita Fengwen belong to the elite of the Japanese Army. After the start of the Battle of Malaya, the British put up stubborn resistance in the early stages, but the Japanese offensive momentum has been very strong, and air and sea supremacy are in the hands of the Japanese. A month after the start of the war, the British had suffered a total rout, and the Japanese drove the British to Singapore, capturing more than 50,000 British troops.
The British trapped in Singapore had neither reinforcements nor sufficient supplies, and eventually more than 80,000 remaining British troops surrendered to the Japanese, and the Battle of Malaya ended in a complete Japanese victory. The Japanese army was able to defeat the British army in the Battle of Malaya, on the one hand, because the equipment and weapons of the British army were not superior, and the troops stationed in Malaya belonged to the second-rate and third-rate troops of the British army, but they faced the elite troops of the Japanese army, and there was a gap in strength between the two sides.
On the other hand, the British Empire has declined, and in the nineteenth century the British Empire was able to dominate the world by relying on advanced weapons and equipment. In the Malaya Campaign, the equipment gap between the British army and the Japanese army was not large, the British army's will to fight was far inferior to that of the Japanese army, if it was surrounded by 80,000 Japanese troops, as long as the emperor did not announce surrender, there would be absolutely no problem of 80,000 people surrendering en masse. The Battle of Malaya, with fewer than 20,000 British casualties and 130,000 prisoners, was a humiliating battle for the Empire. A country that once boasted of global might, but was defeated at the hands of a second-rate power, the defeat in the Malaya Campaign also confirmed the decline of Britain.