Chapter 140
< World War II - Bonaparte Operation (5) >
October 3, 1940
Malay Peninsula, Singapore
Commander of the Japanese Imperial Forces for the Malayan Campaign, Lieutenant General Yamashita Tomoyuki, sat at the negotiation table, watching the White general across from him tremble as he held a pen.
Singapore had finally fallen.
Though Australia and New Zealand belatedly entered the war and attempted a rescue, there was little they could do after the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyed the British Far East Fleet and seized control of the seas.
Commander of the British Malayan Army, Lieutenant General Lionel Bond, had fought a desperate battle under Churchill's orders despite being outnumbered, but unlike in the original history, defeat was a foregone conclusion with no hope of help from the US Army or the home country.
The only reason Lieutenant General Bond and the British forces held out longer than the 60 days of the original history was that this was not an offensive launched after the meticulously prepared attack on Pearl Harbor, but one the Japanese Empire had planned only after seeing the success of France's surprise attack on Britain.
As Lieutenant General Bond just sat there with his hand trembling, a fed-up Lieutenant General Yamashita spoke.