| Original caption: “A heavy oil tank north of Singapore burns with flames, drawing black smoke that stretches for miles.” Smoke billows from the oil tank farm at Singapore Naval Base after its destruction by Allied personnel to prevent it from falling into Japanese hands. This photo was printed by the Imperial Navy Press Department, in “Photographic Records of the Greater East Asia War,” published in December 1942. After the invasion of Manchuria in 1931, the construction of the Singapore Naval Base was accelerated, eventually costing 60,000,000 pounds (3 1/2 1,000,000,000 pounds in 2025, or 4.7 1,000,000,000 United States dollars). It was formally named HMS Sultan on January 1, 1940, reflecting the 9 sultanates of the Malay Peninsula. The tank farm contained enough oil for the United Kingdom Royal Navy for 6 months’ operation. The failures of the defense of Singapore were compounded by the shortcomings of the Malay Peninsula defense. United Kingdom Royal Army Lieutenant General Arthur E. Percival (December 26, 1887 – January 31, 1966) did not allow the Singapore garrison to effect defensive measures or training for a land invasion from the Malay Peninsula because he worried it would be bad for civilian morale. While the Allies had superior numbers of soldiers, the Japanese used heavy shelling to compensate. Percival didn’t believe the shelling preceded the landing. Critically, the Australians at the beach facing the peninsula were not reinforced. After the battle, recriminations went all around. The destruction of the tank farm at the Singapore Naval Base was carried out in stages, rather than being completely effected. The naval base was closed on January 30, 1942, the day before the last forces evacuated the Malay Peninsula; the floating docks were scuttled, and equipment and oil tanks were demolished. The next day, the causeway to the Malay Peninsula was blown, and there was a “sensation as after Dunkirk.” Throughout the campaign, the denial system was rarely appropriately implemented. Airfields were not blown effectively, and neither were bridges. On Singapore Island itself, many installations at the mighty Naval Base were left virtually intact. This may not always have been the fault of the people engaged in the denial process. When Maurice E. Adams (August 20, 1901 – January 23, 1982), Superintendent Civil Engineer at the Singapore Naval Base, made his report at Colombo on February 28, 1942, he said: “It was exceedingly difficult to get decisions concerning denial. Both RAMY [Acronym for ‘Rear Admiral Malaya,’ held at the time by United Kingdom Royal Navy Rear Admiral Ernest J. Spooner (August 22, 1887 – April 15, 1942)] and myself were seriously concerned after the fall of Batu Pahat and pressed the War Council for decisions…but they were always reluctant to assume the worst, and neither then nor very much later was the impression given that the island would fall.” Percival had specifically asked Rear Admiral Spooner not to fire the oil reserves at the Naval Base because the sight would depress morale. During the 10 days before the end, the sky over Singapore was black from the smoke of burning oil installations, from those in the north around the deserted naval base, down to those on the islands to the south of Singapore. The air was so full of oil smuts that they sometimes fell like black snow. Muriel M. “Molly” Reilly (April 27, 1893 – November 1989) was the cipher clerk to Sir Thomas S. W. Thomas (October 10, 1879 – January 15, 1962), Governor of the Straits Settlements on the Malay Peninsula, and Duff Cooper (February 22, 1890 – January 1, 1954), United Kingdom Minister in Singapore. She escaped on February 14, 1942, on 1 of the last transports to leave before the capitulation, her ship sustaining damage as it fled Singapore. She recorded in her diary, “I would awaken up at night, almost choking on the smoke and oil-laden atmosphere. At times, the entire blue sky was obscured by this pall, and on one occasion, when some rain fell, our house was covered with a black, oily film. When the stocks of rubber in the godowns of Keppel Harbor were put to the torch, this added to the pall of smoke and brought with it such a distinctive and acrid stench that some people who were there are still able to ‘smell’ it. Singapore was a glowing inferno — the sky was one huge black pall of smoke from the oil fires. As night came on, it looked even worse, with the sky ablaze from the huge fires that were everywhere. To add to the nightmare, the big fifteen-inch [381 gun from Blakang Mati kept firing over our heads.” Steamship Félix Roussel, which would escape Singapore with 1,100 men, women, and children, arrived with reinforcements on February 5, 1942; the ship was damaged from Japanese air attacks. The 1st thing the soldiers and sailors aboard the Felix Roussel saw was the thick pall of black smoke hanging over the island from the burning oil tanks at Singapore naval base. Imperial Japanese Army Colonel Masanobu Tsuji (October 11, 1902 – circa August 24, 1962; declared dead on July 20, 1968) wrote a memoir of the fall of Singapore. He was an architect of atrocities across Asia and the Pacific, including the Bataan Death March. He recorded Japanese artillery strikes on the Singapore Naval Base to prevent using the oil as a weapon: “The fuel stored in Singapore was a quantity equivalent to six months’ supply for the whole British Fleet. If, after we commenced the channel crossing, the enemy deliberately and without warning opened the oil-feed pipes onto the streams inside the island and onto the waters of the strait and then ignited it, the battlefield would be transformed into a sea of fire. From the commencement of the operation, this possibility had greatly worried General Yamashita, who, during his visit to Germany, had been told of such an occurrence by a German general. Staff officers repeatedly experimented with drums of oil thrown into the water of a small pond behind our lines. On the smooth water, it certainly appeared possible that the surface of the water could be set afire. On Johore Strait, however, with the rise and fall of tide and the strong current, it would not be easy to cover the whole surface with oil, so we did not consider seriously how to cope with the situation; nevertheless, to lessen the possibility of the enemy’s attempting to set the waters of the strait afire, the oil tanks were immediately attacked and destroyed by heavy artillery bombardment. The whole island was hidden in black smoke, which hampered us to a great extent, for it prevented observation of the fall of our shells either from the ground or from the air.” On February 8, the Royal Australian Army 27th Brigade defended the beach against the Imperial Japanese Army 4th Guards Regiment, which was landing near the Kanji River. An officer was ordered to destroy the oil tanks near the landing zone, but a Japanese shell destroyed the demolitions truck. So he opened the tank valves and let the oil run out. When he returned with explosives and set them off, the oil turned into a sea of flame. The oil flowed in Johore Strait, swamping landing craft and Japanese troops. Reports reached Imperial Japanese Army Lieutenant General Takuma Nishimura (September 12, 1889 – June 11, 1951) that the British were using flaming oil as part of a large-scale effort to cover all of Johore Strait with fire. He immediately requested permission to call off the landing. Imperial Japanese Army Lieutenant General Tomoyuki Yamashita (November 8, 1885 – February 23, 1946) sent his own observers, who reported that the fires had died out, and the Australians had withdrawn. There wasn’t any reason to hold back landing. The Guards Division and the 5th Division resumed landing at 0430 Hours. The Japanese were firmly established on Singapore Island, and Allied collapse was a matter of time. The black smoke from the burning oil tanks framed the surrender. Major Tony Ferrier (January 13, 1920 – November 3, 2016), then a Company Commander with the 5th Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment, recalls, “All around I could see the oil tanks burning and great palls of smoke. The whole island seemed to be in complete desolation, and I could hear firing going on all around. When I returned to my company, I had to inform my platoon commanders of the bad news. I had had very little sleep for a fortnight, but for the past three days, I had had virtually only catnaps because I had been in action continuously, and I felt extremely emotional that we had to lay down our arms and surrender. It was a very emotional moment, and I was almost in tears at the very thought of it. But those were the orders, and they had to be obeyed.” | |
| Image Filename | wwii1491.jpg |
| Image Size | 1.42 MB |
| Image Dimensions | 2601 x 4133 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | Imperial Japanese Navy |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | January 30, 1942 |
| Location | |
| City | |
| State or Province | Straits Settlements |
| Country | Singapore |
| Archive | Japanese National Archives |
| Record Number | Publication 1880797, page 67 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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