Memories of the Fall of Singapore

The contributor's father, Anthony McLoughlin, saved citizens in the Fall of Singapore. He hated Winston Churchill for the Fall. The British Army were massively outnumbered. It's not talked about by the army because they surrendered. Anthony was one of the few senior RAF members. He said it was madness, with hardly anybody to organise.

They all ended up in the Dutch East Indies; at that time, they were still operational.

The contributor's family did not receive medals because it was a defeat; they received consolation prizes instead. He got malaria and was starved and tired after being in the tropics. He lost friends and colleagues. Many were sent to Japanese internment camps, and there was a lot of survivor's guilt. Even civilians couldn't expect money from the Japanese.

He didn't speak about this but the contributor's mother, Joyce Doreen McLoughlin, did because she was proud of him. He didn't blow his own trumpet. He went to the final invasion of France as well. He met Joyce on his return from Singapore and France.