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(Sunday, February 8, 1942, shortly before 8:30 p.m. MALT; during the Fall of Singapore, part of the Malayan campaign, the Pacific War and the Second World War) — The Fall of Singapore, also known as the Battle of Singapore, began tonight when the first wave of Japanese troops from the 5th Division and 18th Division began crossing the Johor Strait towards the island city-state nicknamed Britain’s “Gibraltar of the East.”

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The main weight of the Japanese force, about 13,000 men, from 16 assault battalions, with five in reserve, attacked the 22nd Australian Brigade on the northeast side of the island.

The Feb. 15, 1942, capture of Singapore, the foremost British military base and economic port in Southeast Asia and was the key to British interwar defense planning for the region, would result in the largest British surrender in history.