Operation Tiderace

General Seishirō Itagaki signing the terms for the reoccupation of Singapore on board the heavy cruiser HMS Sussex. 4 September 1945

Date

4–12 September 1945

Location

Singapore

Result

Unopposed Allied victory

Liberation of Singapore
Establishment of British Military Administration

Belligerents

Empire of Japan

United Kingdom

British India

Australia

French Navy

Commanders and leaders

Seishirō Itagaki (POW)

Shigeru Fukudome (POW)

Lord Mountbatten

Robert Mansergh

Strength

77,000 infantry
2 heavy cruisers
1 destroyer
2 submarines

60,000 infantry
7 escort carriers
2 battleships
1 heavy cruiser
2 light cruisers
15 destroyers
3 Royal Fleet Auxiliary
3 hospital ships
14 merchant vessels
43 landing ship, infantry

Casualties and losses

300 suicides
76,700 captured

1 battleship damaged

Unopposed Allied victory

Empire of Japan

Operation Tiderace was the codename of the British plan to retake Singapore following the Japanese surrender in 1945. The liberation force was led by Lord Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander of South East Asia Command. Tiderace was initiated in coordination with Operation Zipper, which involved the liberation of Malaya.

With the Soviet invasion of Manchuria and an American planned invasion of Japan, South East Asia Command were also drawing up plans to invade Malaya, codenamed Operation Zipper. With over 100,000 Allied infantry, the plan was to capture Port Swettenham and Port Dickson, and would involve an airstrike of more than 500 aircraft of the Royal Air Force. The assault was scheduled for 9 September 1945, but was forestalled following the Surrender of Japan. Once the lodgement was secure, the Allies would have initiated Operation Mailfist, during which ground forces were to advance south through Malaya and liberate Singapore. It was expected that Operation Mailfist would begin in December 1945 and conclude in March 1946.

Operation Tiderace was planned soon after the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Emergency planning was put in preparation for the rapid occupation of Singapore at an early date should Japan agree to accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration of 26 July.

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