On Wednesday February 15 another significant memorial to our history will open in Ballarat as the Garden of the Grieving Mother is dedicated.
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It will be a potent reminder of the enduring suffering of the parents who sent sons and daughters overseas –of the fear and unknowing while they are separated, the relief when they are returned, and the grief when they did not.
On the same day a major commemoration will be held at Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial to acknowledge the many thousands of Allied servicemen and women who became prisoners of the Army of the Greater Japanese Empire at the fall of Singapore in 1942.
Singapore was the largest British military stronghold in Southeast Asia. It was known as Fortress Singapore, or ‘Gibraltar in the Far East’, and garrisoned by 85,000 troops, including six Australian battalions.
But its defences were fatally flawed, focussing on its ocean frontage to the south. As the Japanese army swept through Malaya, encountering only pockets of Allied resistance and overwhelmingly stronger in the air and sea, Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, commander at Singapore, could not bring himself to believe the enemy would not attack from the south, via the water.
The war was in a precarious position on all fronts, and to add to the sense of impending disaster, the two capital ships Churchill had sent to defend Singapore, the Prince of Wales and the Repulse, lay at the bottom of the ocean off the coast, destroyed by Japanese bombers.
A series of mistakes in tactical defence, inexperienced troops and infighting among the Allied command meant that although the Japanese invading force was outnumbered by over 50,000, within a week they had overtaken Singapore.
Australian troops numbered 15,000 among the 130,000 prisoners taken by the Japanese. Many of them were among the 8,000 to die of disease, neglect and outright brutality in captivity.
The national service commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Fall of Singapore and the service and sacrifice of all Australian prisoners of war will be conducted in the presence of the Governor-General on Wednesday, 15 February 2017 at 11.00am, at the Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial in Ballarat, Victoria.
Eighteen ex-prisoners of war will be present, including Ballarat resident David Manning, who was a naval officer trainee onboard HMAS Perth when it was lost in the Sunda Strait in the actions immediately after the fall of Singapore.