History, they say, is written by the victors. That so few people have heard about what Churchill called Britain’s “greatest disaster” proves the point. Until I visited Singapore, even I, a confirmed history geek, only had the faintest idea about the importance of the island state’s wartime defeat.

To save the British Empire’s honour, Churchill demanded that Singapore be defended to the last man.

Skyscrapers and cricket

In some ways, Singapore has changed a lot since 1942. Now there are shiny skyscrapers and huge shopping malls. You hear Mandarin spoken as much as English. Technology rather then rubber drives the economy. Yet, in some other ways, Singapore hasn’t changed at all. There are still the same very English street names, the old colonial buildings, Raffles and Singapore Slings, the cricket grounds.It doesn’t take much to imagine life there during World War Two.

An impregnable fortress

At that time, Singapore was considered an impregnable fortress. Its two huge guns pointed out towards the ocean, guarding against Japanese invasion. 130,000 empire soldiers were ready for action. Then the Japanese invaded, but rather than arrive by ship, they came on bikes– through the Malay Peninsula.

Defended to the last man

Churchill said Singapore must be defended to the last man, but he sent no aircraft and only a couple of ships. This impossible defense was conducted from the Battle Box, an underground headquarters in Canning Park, in the middle of Singapore. Today this warren is a museum, which provides an amazing insight into what it felt like to stare defeat in the face.

Inside the Battle Box

As you’d expect from high tech Singapore, the most sophisticated technology has been used to transport you back to those dark days. The 22 bombproof rooms of the museum recreate the events of February 15^th, 1942, the day when Singapore finally surrendered. The 24 life-sized robotic officers make phone calls in panic, authentic radio news broadcast the impending doom, and sounds of air raids and bomb blasts add to an atmosphere of despair.

Of the 130,000 soldiers the Japanese took prisoner on that fateful day, 9,000 died building the Thailand-Burma railway. Many of the rest were mentally and physically scarred for life.

The greatest defeat. A greater victory

It’s hard to appreciate the scale of this defeat when you leave the Battle Box for the clean, glitzy streets of today’s Singapore. But it’s worth keeping in mind that this greatest of defeats was part of an even greater victory. And we should be happy that this was the case. Otherwise, Singapore, and our own lives, would doubtless be very different indeed.