- Hardcover: 628 pages
- Publisher: Viking; First edition (28 April 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0670913413
- ISBN-13: 978-0670913411
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16.4 x 6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
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- #52 in Books > History > Countries & Regions > Asia > South East Asia > Singapore
Singapore Burning: Heroism and Surrender in World War II
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More About the Author
Product Description
Sunday Times
'Smith succeeds brilliantly in weaving hundreds of individual stories into a coherent whole'
Daily Telegraph May 21,2005
...beautifully told, shrewd and fair in its judgments and on occasions wryly funny...the definitie book on this extraordinary drama
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cowardism and incompetence, balanced by heroism and loyalty.,
By Mike Mac "Ethelwulf" (Northumbria, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Singapore Burning: Heroism and Surrender in World War II (Hardcover)
Colin Smith has produced an excellent, extremely readable account of what Churchill described as ' the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British History'. Always interesting, beautifully written, with, at its core, a compelling narrative based on individual, first-hand accounts of the impact on 'ordinary' (though many are most extra-ordinary) people, this book is hard to put down. As regards the behaviour of the Japanese, once again we are left struggling to understand how an enemy, often courageous in the extreme, could also display such heartless cruelty towards those captured. In the Author's own words, 'perhaps even the Japanese do not know the answer to this'. Although the book does contain a significant amount of 'behind the scenes' detail related both to contemporary political machinations and to military strategy, the account is never boring, and is always enlivened by frequent reference to the relevance of such data to subsequent events in Singapore. This is, in essence, the compelling story of a unique period in our Colonial history, and of the individual men and women involved. The tale is all the more remarkable when one considers that these events took place a mere 63 years ago. A superb read.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
SINGAPORE - THE HUMAN FACE OF DEFEAT,
By Hugh McLeod (Rotherfield, East Sussex United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Singapore Burning: Heroism and Surrender in World War II (Hardcover)
This is so much more than military history. Smith has established a style of bringing individual players to life - brave and cowardly, brilliant and incompetent, or just plain ordinary - while driving forward his plot remorselessly. You know how it is going to end, but you are desperate to know what is going to happen to the individuals whom Smith has brought to life so vividly. Some of these people are fascinating: the Australian sheep-farmers who turned their weekend soldiering into military competence and bravery; the Indian professionals who had their loyalty so severely tested by the Japanese; the Japanese officers at the pinnacle of their careers; the dour Scottish sergeant-major who led his soldiers out of danger; several women who show their courage in different ways - and so on.Smith takes an analytical and challenging look at the sheer awfulness of what happened, and it makes sobering reading. Our strategic assumptions were wrong, and we assembled the wrong force, giving them the wrong orders. A bad hand can be played well, yet, with some honourable exceptions, we failed to do even that. You read with equal fascination the story of the officer who stems the tide with his inspired leadership and the story of the officer who made the culpable decision to withdraw when there was no need to. It is an achievement to turn a well-documented defeat into a page-turner, and Smith has achieved this in spades.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Singapore, 1956,
This review is from: Singapore Burning: Heroism and Surrender in World War II (Hardcover)
I went to Singapore as a 9 year old with my parents (Father with 25 Company RASC). Both father and mother were keen amateur historians and set about tracing the lines of fighting on the islands and later, down Malaya from Kuala Lumpur south. There was still plenty of evidence to see. So the names I learned, from Muar to Parit Sulong and the barbarity dished out were reinforced by Colin Smiths book.
A brilliant read and I'm reading it again, just to take it all in! Peter Laidler
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