Empire of Japan The Bombing of Singapore (1944–1945) was a military campaign conducted by the Allied air forces during World War II.

Most of these raids targeted the island's naval base and dockyard facilities, and minelaying missions were conducted in nearby waters.

After the American bombers were redeployed, the British Royal Air Force assumed responsibility for minelaying operations near Singapore and these continued until 24 May 1945.

The minelaying campaign disrupted Japanese shipping in the Singapore area and resulted in the loss of three vessels and damage to a further ten, but was not decisive.

The Allied air attacks were successful in raising the morale of Singapore's civilian population, who believed that the raids marked the impending liberation of the city.

[2][3] The Commonwealth forces allocated to Malaya and Singapore were swiftly defeated in the months after the outbreak of the Pacific War, however, and the island was surrendered to the Japanese on 15 February 1942.

[4] Singapore was bombed by Japanese aircraft on a number of occasions during the Battle of Malaya and subsequent fighting on the island itself; these raids caused many civilian deaths.

[6] As was the case under British rule, many locally recruited civilians worked in the base, though the Japanese Navy subjected them to harsh discipline which included physical beatings for minor mistakes as well as imprisonment or execution for theft and leaks of information.

In early 1945, Japanese air defences for the island included only two Army companies equipped with automatic cannon, some IJN anti-aircraft units, and a small number of fighter aircraft.

[9][10] The effectiveness of what was already an inadequate air defence force was hindered by a lack of coordination between the Army and Navy, shortages of fire control equipment for the guns, and no fire-control radar or barrage balloons being available.

[12] Although the Command's primary role was to attack industrial targets in the Japanese home islands, approximately 50 percent of its missions were undertaken to support other Allied operations in the Pacific.

[16] On 27 October, Arnold suggested to LeMay that the Japanese defeat at Leyte might have increased the importance of Singapore's naval facilities and asked whether XX Bomber Command could attack targets on the island.

Only 27 of the attackers struck the docks, and due to heavy anti-aircraft fire from Japanese warships in the Straits of Johor the bombers did not cause any damage.

As there were few industrial targets within range of Kharagpur, the highest priority was given to attacking shipping in major ports such as Rangoon, Bangkok and Singapore as well as smaller harbours.

[22] XX Bomber Command conducted a major conventional bombing raid on Singapore Naval Base on 1 February.

This was a commercial dock, and was considered by XX Bomber Command planners to be "the only suitable primary target free of stipulations left in this theatre".

The bombers were armed with incendiary bombs, and the 105 B-29s which reached Singapore succeeded in burning out 39 percent of the warehouse area near the dock.

The 49 B-29s which reached Singapore bombed this area and added to the damage caused by earlier raids, but the results of the attack were again limited by anti-aircraft fire from Japanese warships.

[11][31] The final two raids conducted by XX Bomber Command before it deployed to the Marianas targeted oil storage facilities on islands in the Singapore area.

[32] As part of its campaign against shipping, around each full moon from late January 1945 XX Bomber Command conducted minelaying missions.

[33] On the same night other B-29s laid mines off Saigon and Cam Ranh Bay as part of the largest single aerial minelaying effort in the Pacific up to that time.

[38] The Japanese established observation posts on islands in the Singapore Strait to spot minefields, but these were not effective and generally the fields were not detected until a ship struck a mine.

[39] The surviving crew members of the American bombers that were shot down met varying fates; a small number linked up with resistance movements such as the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army, while others were captured by the Japanese and held in harsh conditions.

They were seen as heralding Singapore's liberation from Japan's oppressive rule, though civilians were generally careful to hide this belief from Japanese occupation personnel.

[43] Another factor which contributed to public support for the raids was that the policy of targeting military installations meant that only a small number of civilians became casualties, and the American bombing came to be seen as highly accurate.

[44] The expectation of further attacks caused the prices of food and other commodities to rise, however, as people stockpiled necessities; Japanese attempts to stop this hoarding and profiteering were not successful.