Comments by "doveton sturdee" (@dovetonsturdee7033) on "The Fall of Singapore 1942 Animated - The Largest Surrender in British History" video.

  1.  @bigbrain2178  You don't consider that the fact that the United States has now lost the trust of her allies, and won't regain it for years, if at all, isn't a setback?
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  2. Actually, his father was a Land Agent and his mother came from a Lancashire family. At the start of WW1, he was an office clerk working for an Iron Ore Merchant. He won the Military Cross in 1916. Whatever his many failings as a senior officer, he wasn't wealthy, and buying rank hadn't been possible since 1871.
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  3.  @captintinsmith3774  Churchill neither authorised nor planned Gallipoli. Asquith authorised it and the commanders on the spot planned it. All Churchill did was suggest it as an alternative strategy. Oh, and carry the can afterwards.
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  4.  @todortodorov940  How did he convince the Americans or the Russians to fight the war for him. America was attacked by Japan, and war was declared on her by Germany. Russia was invaded by Germany. How did Churchill bring either of those events about?
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  5. Nobody had heard of Montgomery in 1941 0r early 1942. Andrew Cunningham was rather busy already as C-in-C Mediterranean.
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  6.  @montecarlo1651  I am not an apologist for Churchill. Where did I say that 'Churchill made no mistakes, that somehow he was infallible?' I know about his insistence on 'Back Seat Driving.' I also know about the almost impossible military and strategic situation with which he had to cope. I am simply explaining why the pre-war Imperial Defence Policy became totally irrelevant after the collapse of France in 1940.
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  7. Most people don't call it anything. Do you think that the War of Jenkin's Ear is a major topic of conversation for anyone these days?
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  8. Why was that, pray?
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  9.  @tomasroma2333  On the contrary. Many are waiting to hear what leads you to believe that you are right, I expect.
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  10. You obviously don't know much about British defence policy between the wars, and in particular from the late 1930s, when a potential triple threat, of Germany, Italy, & Japan, emerged. The worst case assumption, of war with all three, still assumed to support of France. British (and French) planners expected that a western front, similar to that of WW1, would emerge, the small German fleet would be penned in the North Sea, and the Northern Blockade of WW1 would be re-imposed. The sizeable French fleet would support the British in the Mediterranean, and the Italian North African empire would be threatened by the French from Tunisia & the British from Egypt. This would enable a sizeable British fleet to be sent to the Far East. No-one at all anticipated the collapse of France. After June, 1940, the British found themselves needing to retain most of their fleet in Home Waters, whilst at the same time needing to maintain a powerful fleet in the Mediterranean, as well as reinforcing the Western Desert Force against attack from Italian Libya. Of course Churchill's main concern was events in the west. The one positive fact of 1941 was that Japan was still neutral. Even so, there were around 140,000 British & Commonwealth troops stationed there by the end of 1941. Singapore was not starved or neglected. There was a substantial army in Malaya already. After the Japanese attack, incidentally, the C-in-C Middle East offered to sent some of his light tanks to Malaya, only to be told that they were not needed as Malaya was unsuited to tank warfare. This decision was made from Singapore, not from London, by the way. Of course Churchill was more concerned about the situation in the west. Axis success in North Africa, and even the possibility of an invasion of Britain herself, would have a greater effect on the prospects of survival than the possibility of a Japanese attack in the Far East. You seem to forget that Britain and the Commonwealth & Empire were actively fighting two major military European powers. Resources were not infinite.
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