Hi all, I had a questions here regarding the event on 8th December 1941, the Japanese bombing of Singapore. As we all know, Japanese made a bombing strike on Singapore harbor, a few hours after the air raid on Pearl harbor. My questions are:
1. What was the Japanese objective of the attack? Is the attack was part of a diversion for the main landing in Thailand?
2. Who was involved in the plan for the attack in Singapore?
3. Which units involved in the attack? who was in command?
4. and lastly, how does the attack proceed, does the Japanese achieve their objective?
and I thank you for your time.
Bombing of Singapore 1941
Re: Bombing of Singapore 1941
The raid took place at around 0415. The first Japanese troops had started coming ashore at Kota Bharu around 0200, and at Singora and Patani from around 0400. The island remained fully lit up throughout the raid on what was a clear moonlit night over Singapore.
The bombs fell mostly on the Chinatown area of Singapore town killing 61 civilians and injuring 133. But others were scattered over the whole island, taking in Keppel Harbour, the Naval Base, and the airfields at Seletar and Tengah, where 3 Blenheims of 34 squadron were severely damaged.
The first wave of attackers were 34 G3M of the Genzan Kokutai from bases at Saigon which took off “late evening” on 7th Dec to fly the 600-700 miles to Singapore. But these were forced to turn back after encountering bad weather en route. 2-3hrs later another 31 G3M of the Mihoro Kokutai based north of Saigon took off but again encountered bad weather so only 17 arrived over Singapore again because of bad weather en route. They were picked up on radar at 0320 when 75 miles from Singapore. The latter unit was under the command of Lt COmmander Yagoro Shibata.
RAF Buffalo pilots of 453 squadron were refused permission to take of to attempt an interception.
Information taken from “Bloody Shambles” Vol 1. It should answer some of your questions.
The bombs fell mostly on the Chinatown area of Singapore town killing 61 civilians and injuring 133. But others were scattered over the whole island, taking in Keppel Harbour, the Naval Base, and the airfields at Seletar and Tengah, where 3 Blenheims of 34 squadron were severely damaged.
The first wave of attackers were 34 G3M of the Genzan Kokutai from bases at Saigon which took off “late evening” on 7th Dec to fly the 600-700 miles to Singapore. But these were forced to turn back after encountering bad weather en route. 2-3hrs later another 31 G3M of the Mihoro Kokutai based north of Saigon took off but again encountered bad weather so only 17 arrived over Singapore again because of bad weather en route. They were picked up on radar at 0320 when 75 miles from Singapore. The latter unit was under the command of Lt COmmander Yagoro Shibata.
RAF Buffalo pilots of 453 squadron were refused permission to take of to attempt an interception.
Information taken from “Bloody Shambles” Vol 1. It should answer some of your questions.
Re: Bombing of Singapore 1941
I would suggest that the objective of the raid was simply to tell Singapore that the Japanese are coming and we can even strike you here in the Gibraltar of the East. It is possible they hoped to damage aircraft on the airfields and maybe damage Force Z in harbour, but, a night attack on individual targets is unlikely to produce good results, so to frighten Singapore would seem the obvious objective.
Re: Bombing of Singapore 1941
Orders for Genzan AG--who were veteran fliers & who had already been training against naval targets at sea since October 1941--were to bomb military installations at Seletar Naval Base. These were issued on Dec. 7. (Genzan AG had been briefed on Dec. 4 that "X-Day" would be Dec. 8.)
Next day each plane in the AG (27 G3M medium bombers in 3 sections of 9 planes each) was loaded with 2x250kg and 4x60kg bombs.
They took off from the Saigon-area airfield [located in the northern suburbs of that city] at midnight; within an hour the WX deteriorated, and in another hour or so heavy clouds reached up so high that the formation was flying above 5,000 meters altitude. Turbulent air increased along with intense rain that limited visibility and station-keeping...units became separated, and soon they were ordered to return to base.
This was a great disappointment, of course, and they later learned of the success of the Mihoro AG's attacks. Those planes also noted how brightly illuminated the city of Singapore remained...
HTH
Next day each plane in the AG (27 G3M medium bombers in 3 sections of 9 planes each) was loaded with 2x250kg and 4x60kg bombs.
They took off from the Saigon-area airfield [located in the northern suburbs of that city] at midnight; within an hour the WX deteriorated, and in another hour or so heavy clouds reached up so high that the formation was flying above 5,000 meters altitude. Turbulent air increased along with intense rain that limited visibility and station-keeping...units became separated, and soon they were ordered to return to base.
This was a great disappointment, of course, and they later learned of the success of the Mihoro AG's attacks. Those planes also noted how brightly illuminated the city of Singapore remained...
HTH
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Fatboy Coxy
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Re: Bombing of Singapore 1941
Both the battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Repulse (Force Z) were anchored in the Johore Straits, off the naval base, and provided AA fire. No ships were damaged, but neither any Japanese bombers shit down.