How did the people escape from Singapore during WWII?

Question

Did they stowaway on Steamships or.....
and where did they escape to

I heard that the Krait from Operation Haywick was once a refugee ship too

Answer 1

The only escape was Southwards and by sea only. North was Malaya which was already secured by the Japanese. So there were no mountains to cross.

Many took the same steamers which brought in reinfocements for the shrinking British perimeter. The lucky ones were in the steamers that got to India or to Australia. Those on fishing boats and smaller crafts only got to Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) and were recaptured afterthe Dutch capitulated weeks after the fall of Singapore.

Many of the Allied garrison were sent to build the death railway under harse conditions and thousands died.

We will need to note that more than a million Asian slaves workers died on that railway too. These were mainly Indians, Thais, Burmese and Malays, either decieved and forced into slave labour by the Japanese. For these Asians, they were forced into the jungle with their entire families.

A correction here for Yankee, it was Lord Lois Mountbatten who accepted the Japanese surrender at the Singapore Padang. General Percival (the Bristish General who surrendered Singapore was in captivity in Tokyo then) and was on the USS Missouri on VP Day when Japan surrendered.

General Wavell was never captured by the Japs, he was in Australia when Singapore fell and he recalled MacArthur to Australia before Correigidor fell two month later.

Answer 2

A few trekked out, some went by various boats ofcourse, and a very few hid in the jungle. It was actually fairly easy to escape from Jap POW camps due to the jungle. But Japanese reprisals against the remaining prisoners was horrible. Something like 10 prisoners executed for every individual who escaped. So to resist or escape brought even harsher treatment to one's fellow prisoners. A real living hell for the captured allies.

Answer 3

"walked across the mountains to India? You're thinking of Burma, cause Singapore is ( roughly) 1000 miles from India........

a few thousand got out on ships and small boats to Australia.

most of the British garrison didn't make it out and, without hope, Gen Wavell surrendered; it still stands as the biggest surrender in English history.
They spent 4 years of hell as Japanese POWs......go see the movie "The Bridge on the River Kwai" ...with over 1/2 dying in the camps.

When the Japanese surrendered, Douglas MacArthur as Supreme Allied Commander insisted the Japanese bring General Wavell out of the POW camps to accept their surrender on behalf of the British Empire

Answer 4

Yeah,the fortunate ones escaped by fishing boats or boats that transported goods. One example is a member from Force 136.His companions and him managed to escape by a fishing boat and returned a few years later to fight in Force 136. :)

Answer 5

I don't think they could escape. It wouldn't do much good to stowaway and thus end up in Yokohama, and where ships are bound is kept hush-hush during wartime.

Answer 6

The lucky ones got away by boat. Some boats were sunk by the Japanese. A lot a people were taken prisoner

Answer 7

I dont know, but I am interested to know the answers.

Answer 8

they walked through the mountain

Answer 9

a lot of them left in what we today call {body bags] or they were placed in mass graves

Answer 10

many of them walked acroos the mountains into india. many died.