Pertempuran Singapura

From Wikipedia

Pertempuran Singapura merupakan pertempuran yang berlaku di pentas Asia Tenggara dalam Perang Dunia II apabila Jepun menjajah kubu kuat Berikat di Singapura. Pertempuran di Singapura bermula dari 7 Februari 1942 – 15 Februari 1942 dan mengakibatkan kejatuhan Singapura ke tangan Jepun dan penyerahan diri terbesar anggota tentera diketuai British dalam sejarah. Sekitar tentera 80,000 India, Australia dan British menjadi tahanan perang, bergabung dengan 50,000 yang ditawan dalam penjajahan Jepun di Tanah Melayu.

Jepun mensasar Tanah Melayu kerana sebagaimana negara lain di Asia Tenggara, ia kaya dengan sumber alam yang boleh digunakan dalam Perang Sino-Jepun Kedua dengan Republik China. Singapura, yang terletak di selatan, disambung dengan Tanah Melayu melalui Tambak Johor-Singapura. Pihak Jepun melihatkannnya sebagai pelabuhan strategik yang boleh digunakan sebagai tapak pelancaran bagi menyerang kepentingan Berikat lain dikawasan tersebut, dan bagi mengukuhkan jajahan yang ditawan, dan juga sebagai cara menghapuskan sumber bantuan charitable aid dan kewangan dari Singapura yang menyokong penentang Cina. Bantuan dari penduduk Singapura dalam pelbagai bentuk menjadi perangsang bagi Imperial Jepun bagi menyerang Singapura melalui Tanah Melayu.

[Sunting] Pembabitan Singapura menentang Jepun

Cina di Tanah Melayu dan Singapura telah juga melalui cara bantuan kewangan dan ekonomi membantu Republik China menentang Jepun, walaupun kadang kala bantuan itu berpecah kerana ia disalurkan kepada beberapa kelompok di China, kerana Perperang Saudara Cina sedang bergolak ketika itu. Sungguhpun Peristiwa Xi'an sepatutnya menyatukan kedua pihak, iaitu parti Kuomintang dan Parti Komunis China agar bersatu menentang Jepun, pertempuran antara mereka masih menjadi pekara biasa.

Usaha bantuan penentang menggunakan kempen derma dan filanthropi sebagai cara mendapatkan dana dan makanan bagi kedua-dua usaha kemanusiaan untuk membantu penduduk awam China dan juga sebagai usaha patriotik di mana dana tersebut disalurkan secara langsung bagi pertahanan ketenteraan China, samaada melalui Kuomintang atau Parti Komunis Cina. Bantuan sedemikian telah membantu melewatkan kemaraan Jepun di China. Tan Kah Kee adalah philanthropist terkenal dikalangan masyarakat Cina Singapura dan merupakan penyumbang kewangan utama dengan banyak kegiatan mengutip derma dilaksanakan menggunakan namanya. Bantuan dari penduduk Singapura kepada negeri China menyebabkan Empayar Jepun meradang.

[Sunting] Penjajahan Tanah Melayu

Tentera Jepun ke Dua Puluh Lima menjajah Tanah Melayu melalui Indocina Perancis melalui utara Tanah Melayu dan Thailand melalui serangan laut pada 8 Disember 1941, sejurus sebelum Serangan Pearl Harbor, yang bermaksud bagi melengahkan Amerika Syarikat dari campur tangan di Asia Tenggara. Tentera Jepun di Thailand memaksa kerajaan Thai bagi membenarkan Jepun menggunakan pengkalan Thai untuk menjajah negeri lain di Asia Tenggara dan kemudian bergerak melalui darat menyeberang sempadan Thai-Tanah Melayu untuk menyerang Tanah Melayu. Pada masa ini, pihak Jepun mulai melaksanakan pengeboman strategik ke atas sasaran seluruh Singapura, dan serangan udara dilakukan terhadap SIngapura dari masa ini dan seterusnya, walaupun tembakan anti-pesawat memaksa kebanyakan pengebom Jepun menjauhi sasaran dan dari mengebom Singapura selama mereka mempunyai peluru.

Tentera Jepun ditentang di utara Tanah Melayu oleh Kor ke III dalam Tentera India dan beberapa batalion Tentera British. Walaupun Tentera ke-25 lebih kecil berbanding pasukan Berikat di Tanah Melayu dan Singapura, komander Jepun menumpukan pasukan mereka. Kelebihan tentera Jepun dalam sokongan udara dekat, perisai, kordinasi, taktik dan pengalaman. Walaupun Pasukan Udara Tentera Inperial Jepun mempunyai kurang kapal terbang, kapal terbang pejuang yang lebih baik seperti Mitsubishi A6M Zero, membantu Jepun memenangi penguasaan udara. Pihak Berikat juga tidak mempunyai kereta kebal, ini meletakkan mereka dalam kedudukan yang lemah.

Kapal tempur HMS Prince of Wales dan HMS Repulse, bersama dengan empat pembinasa - Force Z, sampai ke Tanah Melayu sebelum Jepun memulakan serangan udara mereka. Pasukan ini dianggap tidak boleh "ditenggelamkan" dan sebagai menghalang Jepun. Kapal terbang Jepun menengelamkan kapal utama, membiarkan pantai timur Tanah Melayu terdedah. Ini membenarkan Jepun bagi meneruskan pendaratan mereka.

Pasukan Jepun dengan pantas mengasingkan unit India yang bertahan di pantai, mengepong dan memaksa mereka menyerah. Mereka mara turun Semenanjung Tanah Melayu, mengatasi pertahanan, walaupun berhadapan dengan jumlah yang lebih ramai. Tentera Jepun turut menggunakan infantri berbasikal dan kereta kebal ringan, yang membenarkan pergerakan pantas melalui hutan.

Sungguhpun lebih banyak unit Berikat, termasuk dari Division ke-8 Australia, terbabit dalam kempen tersebut, pihak Jepun menghalang pasukan Berikat daripada bergabung semula, menawan bandar, dan terus mara ke arah Singapura. Bandar tersebut penting bagi Pemerintah Amerika-British-Belanda-Australia Command (ABDACOM), pemerintah pertama Berikat semasa Perang Dunia II.

Pada 31 Januari, pasukan Berikat terakhir meninggalkan Tanah Melayu dan jurutera Berikat meletupkan tambak yang menyambungkan Johor dan Singapura. Penyeludup Jepun — seringkali menyamar sebagai penduduk awam Singapura — melintasi Selat Johor menggunakan bot tiub tidak lama kemudian.

[Sunting] Persediaan

Gambaran tambak yang diletupkan, dengan ruang kelihatan di tengah, melewatkan pendaratan Jepun selama seminggu sehingga 8 Februari.

Komander Berikat, Leftenan-Jeneral Arthur Percival mempunyai 85,000 orang tentera, yang menyamai (di atas kertas) lebih sedikit dari empat division. Terdapat sekitar 70,000 tentera baris-hadapan dalam 38 batalion infantari — 17 India, 13 British, 6 Australia, dua Tanah Melayu/Singapura — dan 3 batalion mesingan. Division Infantari ke-18 British yang baru saja tiba, di bawah Maj. Gen. Merton Beckwith-Smith, berada sepenuh kekuatan tetapi kekurangan pengalaman dan latihan; kebanyakan unit lain berada bawah kekuatan sepenuhnya disebabkan kempen tanah besar. Batalion tempatan turut kekurangan pengalaman dan dalam sesetengah kes tanpa latihan.^[1]

Percival memberikan dua brigade Major General Gordon Bennett, dari Division ke-8 Australia, tanggung jawab bagi sektor barat pulau, termasuk titik pendaratan utamadi barat laut pulau Singapura. Ini adalah paya bakau dan hutan, dibahagi oleh sungai dan alur. Bridge ke 22 yang tidak berpengalaman diserahkan sektor seluas 16 kilometre (10 batu) di barat dan Brigade ke-27 — tanpa hampir satu batalion yang hilang semasa berundur melalui Tanah Melayu — zon seluas 3,650 metre (4,000 ela) di utara. Kedudukan infantari disokong oleh Regimen Mesingan ke-2/4 Australia yang baru tiba. Juga di bawah kawalan Bennett adalah Bridage Infantari ke-44 Indian.

Kor III Indian di bawah Lt Gen. Sir Lewis Heath, termasuk Division Infantari ke-11 India, (di bawah Major-Jeneral B. W. Key), Division ke-18 British dan Brigade Infantari ke-15 India, ditempatkan di sektor utara. Kubu Singapura, termasuk kawasan bandar utama di tenggara, di bawah pemerintahan Maj. Gen. Frank Keith Simmons, yang mengawal sekitar 18 batalion, termasuk Brigade Infantari Tanah Melayu 1, Brigade Pasukan Sukarelawan Negeri Selat ('Straits Settlements Volunteer Force') dan Brigade Infantari ke-12 India.

Daripada pengitipan udara, peninjau, penyeludup dan tanah tinggi di seberang selat, seperti Istana Sultan Johore, komander Jepun, Jeneral Tomoyuki Yamashita dan kaki-tangannya mendapat pengetahuan berguna mengenai kedudukan tentera Berikat. Dari 3 Februari, pihak Berikat di bedil oleh meriam Jepun. Disebalik penentangan oleh kontigen Pasukan Udara Diraja (Royal Air Force) yang terdiri daripada 10 pejuang Brewster Buffalo, serangan udara Jepun turut meningkat menjelang lima hari berikut. Pengeboman udara dan meriam meningkat. Ini mengganggu rangkaian perhubungan antara unit Berikat dan komander mereka dan memberi kesan kepada persediaan bagi pertahanan pulau Singapura. Pihak Berikat juga tidak mempunyai pasukan pengebom yang berkesan dan jumlah meriam yang terhad.

Rencana ini diterjemahkan daripada sebahagian rencana Wikipedia bahasa Inggeris. Bantulah Wikipedia menterjemahkan lagi seperenggan dua. Bahan-bahan boleh didapati di en:Pertempuran Singapura.   Terima kasih kerana membaca rencana ini.  Sumber bantuan: Kamus Dewan Bahasa

Meriam berkaliber besar SIngapura yang terkenal — yang termasuk satu bateri tiga meriam 15-inci dan satu dengan dua meriam 15-inci — dibekalkan dengan sedikit peluru (high-explosive (HE) biasa, dan sebaliknya kebanyakan pelurunya adalah peluru penembus perisai (AP). Peluru AP shells were designed to penetrate the hulls of warships and were ineffective against infantry. It is a myth that the guns could not fire on the Japanese forces because they faced south. Although placed to defend against enemy ships instead of the straits, most of the guns could turn northwards and they did fire at the invaders. Even if the guns were well supplied with HE shells, military analysts estimated that while the Japanese invaders would have suffered heavy casualties, they would have succeeded.

Yamashita had just over 30,000 men, from three divisions: the Imperial Guards Division under Lt Gen. Takuma Nishimura, the 5th Division, under Lt Gen. Takuro Matsui and the 18th Division, under Lt Gen. Renya Mutaguchi. The elite Imperial Guards units included a light tank brigade.

[Sunting] Penjajahan Singapura

[Sunting] Pendaratan Jepun

Blowing up the causeway had delayed the Japanese attack for over a week. At 8.30pm on February 8, Australian machine gunners opened fire on vessels carrying a first wave of 4,000 troops from the 5th and 18th Divisions towards Singapore island.

Fierce fighting raged all day but eventually the increasing Japanese numbers — as well as their superiority in artillery, planes and military intelligence — began to take their toll. In the northwest of the island, they exploited gaps in the thinly spread Allied lines such as rivers and creeks. By midnight, the two Australian brigades had lost communications with each other and the 22nd Brigade was forced to retreat. At 1am, further Japanese troops were landed in the northwest of the island and the last Australian reserves went in. Towards dawn on February 9, elements of the 22nd Brigade were overrun or surrounded, and the Australian 2/18th Battalion had lost more than 50% of its personnel.

Percival maintained a belief that further landings would occur in the northeast and did not reinforce 22nd Brigade. During February 9, Japanese landings shifted to the southwest, where they encountered the 44th Brigade. Allied units were forced to retreat further east. Bennett decided to form a secondary defensive line.

The 27th Brigade, to the north, did not face Japanese assaults until the Imperial Guards landed at 10pm on February 9. This operation went very badly for the Japanese, who suffered severe casualties from Australian mortars and machine guns, and from burning oil which had been sluiced into the water. A small number of Guards reached the shore and maintained a tenuous beachhead.

Command and control problems — and the failure to reinforce — caused further cracks in the Allied defence. Following a fatal misunderstanding — and in spite of its success — the 27th Brigade began to withdraw from Kranji in the central north. The Allies thereby lost control of the crucial Kranji-Jurong ridge, running through the western side of the island.

[Sunting] Kejayaan besar Jepun

Pembukaan di Kranji membolehkan Pengawal Imperial bagi mendaratkan kereta kebal dan maju dengan pantas ke selatan, memintas Division ke-18 British. Bagaimanapun, unit berperisai Jepun gagal mengambil peluang bagi maju kepusat Bandar Singapura.

Pada 11 Februari, mengetahui bahawa belakan tentera Jepun amat berkurangan, Yamashita decided to bluff and he called on Percival to "give up this meaningless and desperate resistance". By this stage, the fighting strength of the 22nd Brigade — which had borne the brunt of the Japanese attacks — had been reduced to a few hundred men. The Japanese had captured the Bukit Timah area after the Battle of Bukit Timah, including most of the Allied ammunition and fuel and giving them control of the main water supplies.

The next day the Allied lines stabilised around a small area in the south-east of the island and fought off determined Japanese assaults. Other units, including the Malayan 1st Infantry Brigade had joined in. A 42-strong Malayan platoon, led by a junior officer, Lt Adnan bin Saidi, held the Japanese for two days at the Battle of Pasir Panjang. His unit defended Bukit Chandu, an area which included a major Allied ammunition store. Adnan was executed by the Japanese after his unit was overrun.

On February 13, with the Allies still losing ground, senior officers advised Percival to surrender, in the interests of minimising civilian casualties. Percival refused but unsuccessfully sought authority to surrender from his superiors.

The following day the remaining Allied units fought on; civilian casualties mounted as one million people crowded into the area now held by the Allies and bombing and artillery fire intensified. Civilian authorities began to fear that the water supply would give out.

[Sunting] Pembunuhan beramai-ramai Hospital Alexandra

At about 1pm on February 14, Japanese soldiers approached Alexandra Barracks Hospital. Although no resistance was offered, some of them shot or bayoneted staff members and patients. One British corporal was on the treatment table receiving treatment when Japanese soldiers stormed in and bayoneted him. The following day, about 200 male staff members and patients, many of them unable to walk, were ordered to march about 400 metres. Some were carried and anyone who fell on the way was bayoneted. The men were crowded in a series of small, badly ventilated rooms and were imprisoned overnight, without water. The following morning they were bayoneted.^[2] The Japanese commanding officers were later charged with war crimes at the Tokyo Trials.

[Sunting] Kejatuhan Singapura

By the morning of Chinese New Year, February 15, the Japanese had broken through the last line of defence and the Allies were running out of food and some kinds of ammunition. The anti-aircraft guns had also run out of ammunition were also unable to repel any further Japanese air attacks which threatened to cause heavy casualties in the city centre. After meeting his unit commanders, Percival contacted the Japanese and formally surrendered the Allied forces to Yamashita at the Ford Motor Factory, shortly after 5.15pm.

Bennett caused controversy when he handed command of the 8th Division to a brigadier and — with some of his staff officers — commandeered a small boat.^[3] They made their way back to Australia.

The Japanese occupation of Singapore had begun. The city was renamed Syonan-to (Japanese: ??? Sh?nan-t?, literally Light-of-the-South Island). The Japanese sought vengeance against Chinese and to eliminate anyone who held anti-Japanese sentiment. Because of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Imperial authorities were suspicious of the Chinese. Many were killed in the Sook Ching Massacre. The other races of Singapore, such as the Malays and the Indians were not spared. The residents would suffer great hardships under Japanese rule over the following three and a half years. rious Japanese troops march through the City centre (Photo from Imperial War Museum)]]

Kebanyakan tentera Berikat yang ditawan kekal di Singapura, di Penjara Changi. Beribu yang lain dihantar menggunakan pengangkut tahawan yang dikenali sebagai "Kapal Neraka" kebahagian Asia lain, termasuk Jepun, untuk digunakan sebagai buruh paksa dalam projek seperti Landasan Siam-Burma dan lapangan terbang Sandakan di Borneo Utara — menyebabkan ramai yang maut.

[Sunting] Rujukan

[Sunting] Pautan luar

• S1942: Battle for Singapore!