How Bicycles Caused the Downfall of the British Empire

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Sources:

Moynahan, Brian, Forgotten Soldiers, Quercus, London, 2007

Bayly, Christopher & Harper, Tim, Forgotten Armies: Britain’s Asian Empire and the War With Japan, Harvard University Press, 2005

Tsuji Masanobu (1901-1961?), The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia, http://pwencycl.kgbudge.com/T/s/Tsuji_Masanobu.htm

Oosterhuis, Harry, Cycling, Modernity, and National Culture, Taylor Francis Online, June 13, 2016, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03071022.2016.1180897

Headrick, Alan, Bicycle Blitzkrieg: The Malayan Campaign and the Fall of Singapore, U.S. Naval War College, February 8, 1994, https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/PTO/RisingSun/BicycleBlitz/index.html

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Off the first month by going to fubotv.com forward slash brain food that’s fubotv.com forward slash brain food and let’s get into today’s video Of all the forms of transportation among the most overlooked is the humble bicycle yet since its introduction in the 1890s this simple vehicle has made an outsized impact on history serving as an instrument and symbol of technological progress and personal liberation filling many of the roles previously taken by horses for the

First time the bicycle allowed the less well-off to cover long distances cheaply and efficiently bicycles also found useful roles in the military unlike horses bicycles didn’t need to be watered fed rested or conditioned against the noise of battle and in the early days of the first world war bicycle troops were effectively used

As rapid highly mobile scouts but the bicycle’s greatest triumph would come in december 1941 when it played a key role in the greatest defeat in british military history if india was the crown jewel of the british empire malaya was its industrial diamond occupying what is now modern day

Malaysia and singapore in the late 1930s british malaya produced 40 percent of the world’s rubber and 60 of its tin these rich natural resources made the colony a tempting target for the expanding japanese empire starting in the 1920s japan came increasingly under the sway of an ultra-nationalist military clique who

Sought to expand the nation’s power and influence secure economic independence and take their rightful place among the great powers of the world the japanese came to view themselves as a superior race and the natural masters of asia destined to unite the asian peoples under a to quote greater east asia co-prosperity sphere

But following japan’s brutal invasion of china in 1937 the western nations imposed an embargo on oil and other raw materials cutting japan off from the resources that it needed to fuel its expansion japan therefore began to either west’s resource-rich asian colonies such as the dutch east indies french indochina and british malaya

But there was a problem as the linchpin in britain’s east asia strategy the malay peninsula was heavily defended by 130 000 british australian and indian troops and over 250 aircraft at the southern tip of the peninsula the island of singapore housed one of the royal navy’s largest overseas bases

Depended from attack by a chain of 12 forts and gun batteries two of these mounted massive 15-inch guns which could easily send any japanese invasion fleet to the bottom from the outside fortress singapore looked all but impregnable the task of masterminding the invasion of malaya fell to an eccentric 5-foot 2-inch imperial

Army kernel named masa nobutsuji even by the standards of japanese officers suji was an extremist a man so racist so xenophobic so ultranationalistic and unpleasant that his commanding officer referred to him as that crazy man who lives in a filthy little room behind the staples all right then born to a poor peasant

Family suji managed to win i don’t know why that cracks me up so much born to a poor peasant family suji managed to win born to a poor peasant family suji managed to win a place at the prestigious yonen gekko military academy in nagoya and rose rapidly through the ranks and

By the way i’m absolutely guessing today’s japanese pronunciations haven’t even looked up a single one you’re welcome his cruelty and fanaticism were on full display during the 1937 invasion of china when as a captain he led the massacre of thousands of chinese civilians in the shangsi province same thing for the chinese

Pronunciations by the way but you’re welcome but his extreme focus on orthodox thinking and single-mindedness made him an excellent military strategist and the perfect man to crack the malaya problem his devotion to the cause of overthrowing the western imperial powers was also beyond reproach as evidenced by a

Pamphlet he later wrote for the invasion force where he stated 450 million asians of the far east live under the domination of less than eight hundred thousand whites six million millions to a few ten thousand british fifteen million filipinos by a few ten thousand americans these white people may expect from the

Moment the issue from their mother’s wombs to be allotted a score or so of natives as their personal slaves if this really god’s will sick not like sick i approve like sick but as in sick as in if this really god’s will apparently in english not top notch in meeting the

White enemy regard yourself as an avenger come at last face to face with his father’s murderer here before you as the man whose death will lighten your heart on july the 2nd 1941 the imperial conference in tokyo set the date of december the 6th as a secret deadline for going to war

With britain and the united states if a diplomatic solution to the oil embargo could not be found shortly thereafter suji was sent to saigon in french indochina to start planning the invasion of malaya here with a small staff of researchers he began collecting intelligence on the british colony at the time japanese

Civilians were a common sight in malaya japanese merchants ran small pharmacies and tailor shops japanese merchants sailors plied the gulf of siam and japanese engineers consulted for british din mines these nationals formed a convenient spy network for the japanese military and by interviewing them tsuji was able to piece together a comprehensive

Picture of the situation on the ground the first key piece of intelligence suji obtained was that most of malaya’s formidable shore defenses faced outwards towards the sea while the beaches of the northeast coast which faced indochina across the gulf of siam were completely undefended furthermore the troops just across the

Border in thailand were so poorly equipped and organized that they would yield to a japanese invasion force without a fight once landed however that invasion force would have to cover nearly a thousand kilometers to reach johor and singapore at the southern tip of the peninsula and do so before the defending

British empire forces could regroup and repel them as the imperial army possessed relatively few trucks or other motor vehicles suji first considered using horses to rapidly cover ground to determine whether they could survive the arduous voyage from indochina to malaya tsuji crammed a company of men and

Horses in the hot hold of a ship and kept them there for a week the experiment was a failure for while the men could cope with the stifling conditions the horses could not but soon tsuji faced another problem organizing air cover for the invasion though the british had plenty of

Airfields their obsolete brewster buffalo fighters and bristol-blenheim bombers were hopelessly outclassed by these sleek mitsubishi zeroes and other modern aircraft fielded by the japanese nonetheless to achieve their superiority the japanese needed air bases much closer to malaya than indochina and the officer in charge was making little progress finding any so

Tsuji simply waited until the officer was away in tokyo and took off on a reconnaissance flight over the islands southwest of indochina he quickly spotted an island suited to the task and without contacting tokyo for authorization dispatched a work party to construct a forward airfield but the problem

Of rapidly covering 1 100 kilometers of terrain still remained so suji decided to have a look for himself on october 19th 1941 he approached a young pilot named captain akida and asked if he could fly him over british malaya akita agreed and after painting over the rising sun emblems on

Their aircraft the bear took off from saigon at 5am the next morning two hours later they reached the malayan coast near kotabaru where the invasion force was to land immediately tsuji was struck by a particular feature of the landscape the roads in order to get the colony’s mineral and agricultural wealth to

Market as efficiently as possible the british had built thousands of kilometers of wide well-paved roads stretching the whole length of the peninsula furthermore the side roads leading to the tin mines and rubber plantations extended only a short distance on either side of the main highway creating upfront barely a kilometer wide this

Suji realized would completely negate the more than two to one numerical advantage the british held over the japanese as the thick jungle on either side of the road made flanking maneuvers impossible if the invasion force could pick up enough momentum to keep the british off-balance and constantly retreating

They could race down the length of the peninsula in less than three months but the british still had an ace up their sleeve the bridges malaya is crisscrossed by hundreds of rivers and streams including the mighty pirak and each bridge across these rivers was a potential choke point the british could

Blow up as they retreated halting the japanese advance in its tracks it was a problem that weighed heavily on tsuji as captain akida turned the plane around and headed back towards indochina they landed in saigon at 11 pm having exceeded the aircraft’s maximum certified endurance by 10 minutes

A few minutes more and they would have crashed suji immediately threw himself into his work sitting cross-legged on the floor maps spread out all around him he worked day and night meticulously planning the invasion with the devotion of an ascetic monk he stated of this i abstained from wine and tobacco i forgot

Instinctive desires and worldly possessions to say nothing of lust and appetite and even life and death my whole mind was concentrated on gaining the victory i even became conceited feeling that it depended on me whether we would win or lose the war that would determine age and destiny of the nation it was

Then that suji came up with his most brilliant insight a singular left field idea that would prove key to the success of the entire operation bicycles unlike trucks or horses bicycles required no fuel or food and were perfect for use on malaya’s well-paved roads they were also reliable easily repaired and light

Enough for a soldier to carry across a river in the event of a bridge being blown up what was more the invasion force wouldn’t even need to bring its own bicycles on the landing ships cheap bicycles were one of japan’s biggest exports and there were millions already in malaya the troops

Only had to steal them from the local population like hoodlums to lighten their load and speed their progress the troops would carry a minimum of food and water living off the land as they advanced with suji’s plan complete an invasion force of 60 000 men was assembled under general tomoyuki yamashita

Drawn from the 25th army the force included the battle hardened 5th and 18th infantry divisions tank regiments and 3 regiments of engineers on november 30th 1941 yamashita received a message from tokyo confirming the date for the invasion december the 8th the attack was timed to coincide with the imperial japanese

Navy’s attack on pearl harbor which would knock the u.s navy out of action and severely delay the allied naval response the next day december 1st the 20 ship invasion fleet left samar harbour on hainan island and sailed into the gulf of siam while british intelligence had noticed

Warning signs of invasions such as the buildup of japanese troops in indochina and malayan printers being awarded contracts to print large numbers of maps and japanese malayan dictionaries they were completely unprepared for what came next just after midnight on december the 8th the invasion fleet arrived at kotabaru and

Began offloading troops as part of his invasion strategy tsuji had come up with an elaborate deception called the dream plan whereby a special detachment of troops in thai army uniforms would cross the border and convince the thai garrison to switch sides and join in the japanese crusade against british imperialism unfortunately this

Rather half-baked scheme resulted in only a handful of skirmishers with the thai police and after a few wasted hours suji abandoned the deception and carried on with the main invasion plan that plan proved more successful than tsuji could ever have imagined supported by low-flying ground attack aircraft the lightly equipped japanese bicycle

Troops steamrolled their way down the length of the peninsula overcoming every obstacle with frightening speed suji later wrote with the infantry on bikes there were no traffic jams or delays wherever bridges were destroyed the infantry continued to advance wading across the rivers carrying their bikes on their shoulders or crossing log

Bridges held on the shoulders of engineers standing in the stream we could maintain hot pursuit without giving the enemy time to rest or reorganized even long-legged englishmen couldn’t escape our troops on bicycles though better equipped and superior in numbers the british imperial troops were caught completely off guard the

Relentless japanese advance keeping them permanently on the back foot their calamitous retreat was further hastened by a curious and unfortunate coincidence while tsuji had equipped his troops with plenty of repair teams to fix punctured tires it was quickly discovered that on malaya’s well-paved roads the bicycles ran just fine without

Them at night these bicycles running on their rims made it sound like the squeak of a tank tread causing many allied troops to flee in terror the situation in the air and at sea was even worse within hours of the landings the royal air force had been all but

Destroyed on the ground while on december the 10th the british battleships repulse and prince of wales sent to singapore to counter the invasion plate were sunk in only 90 minutes by japanese aircraft and the japanese kept coming penang fell on january the 7th kuala lumpur on the 11th finally at 7am on january

31st 1942 the last british and australian troops retreated across the causeway connecting johor and singapore and blew up the bridge behind them in only 55 days the japanese invasion force had traveled more than 1100 kilometers in that time they had fought 95 large and small engagements repaired more than 250 bridges

And covered an average of 20 kilometers per day an advance virtually unprecedented in the history of warfare now only the one kilometer span of the straits of johor stood between general yamashita’s men and total victory singapore’s defenses were formidable with all but three of its massive guns capable of shelling japanese forces

Across the straits but with the garrison cut off and without a means of escape or reinforcement their fate was already sealed on february 15 1942 the singapore garrison surrendered the malaya campaign had cost the british over 7500 dead 10 000 wounded and 120 000 taken prisoner most of whom would

Perish under brutal conditions in japanese prisoner of war camps meanwhile the japanese suffered only 1 800 dead and 3 300 wounded in the words of churchill it was the worst disaster and largest capitulation in british history i was thankful to be alone when i heard about it

In all the war i never received a more direct shock as i turned over and twisted in bed the full horror of the news sunk in on me over the next six months the japanese would continue their relentless sweep across southeast asia and the south pacific their advance only being halted in

August 1942 during the battle of guadalcanal colonel masanobutsuji’s unorthodox malaya campaign was a stunning success and a master class in lateral thinking but like many armies before and since the japanese came away from the victory having learned all the wrong lessons rather than adapting their strategy to match each specific environment the

Imperial japanese army blindly embraced the doctrine of lightly equipped fast-moving troops living off the land but while this worked well in agriculturally rich malaya on south pacific islands where food was scarce this policy proved disastrous leading to hundreds of thousands of japanese troops succumbing to starvation disease and cannibalism and while the

British would ultimately retake malaya the defeat of their armies and the japanese occupation had sparked nationalist sentiments among the malayan people that would ultimately result in britain losing most of asian colonies within a decade when those first japanese troops landed on the beaches of kotabaru that december night in 1941 it signaled

The beginning of the end for the british empire so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do smash that like button below don’t forget to check out our fantastic sponsor fubu tv link below and thank you for watching