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Before dawn on the 13th February Yamashita moved his headquarters into the Ford motor factory on the Bukit Timah Road. He knows that Percival has set up a perimeter defines of Singapore he fears that this will develop into the street fighting which he has not the resources to deal with. He also tells the Navy to keep searching the approach to Singapore for a British relief convoy. He gives the orders for the final assault this will be a two pronged attack against the defences of Singapore City, the 18th Division is to attack along the south coast towards Alexandra Barracks and the Imperial Guard is to capture the Reservoirs, again Nishimura will not comply with the order to move his Guards but a swift letter of instruction from Yamashita again gets them into action. At Pasir Panjang on the south road, the 1st and 2nd Battalions Malaya Regiment are quickly into action and this resulted in the Malaya troops lying in the open on the road between Ayer Rajah Road and the Pasir Panjang Ridge, with just short shrubs for cover.
General Percival mentioned the men at Opium Hill in a dispatch: ‘After two hours of heavy shelling and mortaring, the Japanese attacked the Malay Regiment, which was holding the feature Pasir Panjang Ridge. The latter fought magnificently, but suffered heavy casualties, and by the afternoon the enemy had reached the Gap, a dominating position where the Buona Vista Road crosses the bridge.’ By the 14th February the Japanese 18th were pressing along the Ayer Raja Road towards Alexandra Barracks and the Imperial Guard had captured the reservoirs and had pressed towards the parameter defences at Lornie, Adam and Farrer Roads, these were held by the British 53rd, 54th and 55th Brigades. Percival knows the water situation is desperate with the Imperial Guards holding the reservoirs and shows his plans to counterattack but his fellow commanders think this is futile and with over one million people in the three mile radius of the city, they insist the only thing to do is surrender. Singapore City is bombed throughout the day and many casualties are among the civilian population.
The defending troops had fought well but there was little ground now left to defend and food and water was now in short supply. |
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“C” Company of the 1st Battalion was defending a hill on the Pasir Panjang Ridge and fought with great bravery, Captain H.R.Rix took over command of “C” Company when their commander was killed and with no food or cover fought a courageous battle which held the Japanese up for 48 hours. In the early afternoon of the 14th February, the Japanese were getting desperate to dislodge the Company from the ridge and sent in some soldiers disguised as Punjab troops, Lieutenant Adman was not fooled and opened fire on them killing them all. The Japanese then went all out to capture the hill, later known as the Battle of Opium Hill. Rix and his men fought till they fell and after a fierce battle were overwhelmed, the Japanese took their revenge and Rix was killed together with 12 of his soldiers and Lieutenant Adnan was shot, bayoneted and hung up in a tree, six of his men were also tied up and bayoneted to death. The fight continued along the ridge with Lieutenant Abbes now in command and fought till only six men remained he then led them on a withdrawal with only himself and three off his men making it back.
At 1330 hours that afternoon Japanese troops are pressing along the Ayer Rajah Road pushing back some Indian troops, some Japanese Imperial Guards from the Chrysanthemum Division were seen to approach the back of Alexandra Hospital at 1400 hours, Lieutenant Western, who was a medical officer approached them with a white flag, he was bayoneted to death. The Japanese then went on a brutal reprisal rampage, killing doctors, patients and even the surgical staff and patient in the operating room. The rest were tied together and pushed into small rooms measuring 10 feet by 12 feet, at about seventy to a room. Many of them were wounded and could not sit down, throughout that night the nurses were abused, then the rest were taken out in small groups to be killed in the hospital grounds. By the next morning dead littered the hallways and the grounds were full of the bayoneted victims, the hospital had a large Red Cross outside which measured forty feet square and the doctors and nurses all wore red cross brassards, the incident cost the lives of about 340. When Yamashita heard about this atrocity he had the Japanese responsible killed in the hospital grounds.
