Singapore Falls: Stay or Go?

Henry Gordon Bennett commands the 8th Australian Division, the backbone of the Commonwealth troops who have fallen back from Malaya to the island of Singapore. A prickly officer, openly at odds with his British superiors, he has come to believe he understands Japanese tactics better than anyone in the high command.

For weeks, the Japanese army has been breaking through the defences. Deprived of water, ammunition and ground, the garrison is cornered within the city itself. On this 15 February 1942, the British command opens surrender negotiations: tens of thousands of Commonwealth men, including about 15,000 Australians, are about to pass into enemy hands. Bennett knows what Japanese captivity promises.

In the final hours before capitulation, Bennett weighs three paths. To stay with his men and share their captivity, as custom demands of a commander; to hand over command quietly to a subordinate and attempt to escape with a few officers in order to bring the tactical lessons learned against the Japanese back to the authorities; or to flee the island more openly, at the risk of being seen as nothing but a commander deserting his troops at the moment of disaster.