Strong Eagle wrote:You may also recall that the British had guns pointing seaward, at Labrador Park, to repel the expected Japanese invasion from the south. Only, they came from the north and the British high command refused to turn the guns northward, leaving Singapore a sitting duck for the invading forces. Not much to celebrate, and the image of British 'invincibility' was forever shattered.
That is a myth.
The issue with the guns was not the direction, but rather the type of ammunition available.
The guns were firing on Japanese positions in the north (e.g. Johor, etc.), but they were not very effective because the shells were armour piercing (for ship armour) rather than the high explosive (HE) type that would have been more effective against land based forces.
Percival was arrogant, dismissing the warnings about a land based attack from the north, hence the lack of suitable ammunition. He also ignored the recommendations to fire on the Japanese forces amassing on the other shore, which could have had a real impact on their preparations for crossing.
A final irony is that the Japanese commander later confessed that if the forces in Singapore had held out just a few days longer that the Japanese would have run out of supplies and would have had to withdraw.
It was an extremely tough time for those that lived in Singapore during that time, and in light of what really happened, perhaps unnecessarily so. We'll never really know.
It is something most of that generation would like to forget.
So, please, do forgive them for not wanting to celebrate with you all what happened on the other side of the world 70 years ago.
It was a very painful memory.
Edited to acknowledge the similar post by curiousgeorge earlier.