Comments by "vk2ig" (@vk2ig) on "Historigraph" channel.

  1. That's exactly why the Australian PM, Jack Curtin, refused to allow Churchill to divert the Australian troops returning home from the Middle East to India - he could just see Churchill sacrificing them like he did the Australian 8th Division at Singapore. Instead, those troops went on to fight in New Guinea and helped stopped the Japanese advance there, eventually retaking the island.
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  2.  @mephisto5856  Somewhat off topic: your name is painted on the German WW1 tank captured by the Australians in France. It's on show at the Queensland Museum, in Brisbane, Australia.
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  3.  @polskanuddin2.04  That's an example of having to get it wrong to get it right. Teacher gets it wrong, you have to get it wrong in the exam to pass. But at least you know the right answer.
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  4.  @senakaweeraratna741  Arguably that's true. And after the war when the Allies tried handing those "colonies" back to the previous colonial powers, the colonies revolted in one way or another and one by one achieved independence.
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  5. Some comments: 1. Very good of you to mention the coordinated attacks on the Far East on 8th December and the attack on Pearl Harbor [US spelling] on the 7th. Many people think the East Indies attacks occurred the day after Pearl Harbor, but they don't realise that the International Date Line separates these two regions - the 8th West of that line and the 7th East of that line are the same day. 2. Singapore was doomed because SS Automedon was captured by the German commerce raider Atlantis (a.k.a HSK 2, Schiff 16, and Raider-C. ) The boarding party of Atlantis were able to get into the Automedon's strong room, and unfortunately for the British the Automedon's crew hadn't destroyed the highly classified material there. This provided incredibly valuable information regarding the disposition of British forces in the Far East - information of which Japan was unaware. Captain Bernhard Rogge, master of Atlantis, recognised the value of this information and sent one of his prizes (captured ship) to Japan with the documents. The Japanese were so surprised by this information that initially they suspected it to be forged. 3. Some years ago the Wikipedia entry on the loss of Repulse and Prince Of Wales carried a quote from a British admiral in London, who upon hearing of the loss, expostulated something akin to "I knew [admiral's name] would make a balls-up of it, and he has!" However; the entry has been edited since then, and there's no mention of this outburst. Unfortunately, I cannot recall which admiral allegedly said this, or to which admiral he referred. 4. I had a great uncle who served with 8th Division 2nd AIF in Malaya and ended up being a "guest" of the Japanese for effectively the duration of the Pacific war. Not much was said about it in my family, but my father did say once that Uncle Bob was awfully thin when he finally returned home. Edit: grammar and clarity.
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  6.  @veronicabalaga7008  HMAS Perth as well.
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