Evening star., 1942-02-11
Counferdtfdcks
Believed Made
As at Dunkirk
Bitter Fighting Goes
On in Face of
Overwhelming Odds
Earlier Story on Page A-1.)

Earlier Story on Page A-1)
The Singapore radio, heard in
London this afternoon, reported
heavy fighting continued on the
island this morning, with the
Japanese attempt to advance
still meeting with strong re-
sistance," according to the As
sociated Press.
The announcer described the
situation as very serious" but
said it had mot deteriorated in
any way"
Toxic reports from the battle lines
said japanese troops were fighting
hand-to-hand tonight with British
troops in Singapore.
Earlier, British sources in London
announced that Singapore's Defend
ers had slashed back at the Japan
ese with two violent counterattacks
in the face of overwhelming odds in
men, guns and planes.
Like the counterattacks which
erupted from the British perimeter
at Dunkirk, however, these Brit
ish counterstroKes perhaps were
merely designed to gain time while
little Dutch and British ships ran
a gantlet of fire to evacuate women
and children.
Fall Believed Near.
The report of these desperate de-
fensive attacks was the only word
from the island fortress to reach
the War Office. There had been no
communique from Singapore since
early yesterday. However, cable
companies continued to accept mes
sages to Singapore.
These counterattacks were said
even to have scored some measure
of success" leaving the defenders
no worse of and in some ways in
better position.
Axis radio stations gave several
versions today of an oficial jap
anese announcement that japanese
troops had entered the city area of
Singapore" at 8 am. today local
time 70 pm. Tuesday, E. w. t..
As relayed by the Berlin radio, the
announcement took this form:
japanese troops which at 8
o'clock Wednesday morning pene-
| trated the town of Singapore, now
are occupied with mopping up the
last remnants of British troops"
Toxic Makes No Claim Of Capture.
Meanwhile the Toxic station. up
to l:20 pm, E. w. T., had made no
claim of the citys capture. At that
time it had just completed broad
casting an advance story for use
when Singapore falls"
A Toxic dispatch to the offlcial
German news agency DNB.. and
broadcast from Berlin. reported:
Now that Japanese troops have
reached the town of Singapore, the
island has been divided into two
parts for the final operations"
Authoritative sources in London
said there was no information to
indicate that the Japanese had
entered any part of the city.
The fall of the stronghold ap-
peared to be only matter of days
at the most, however, and already
there was discussion of future STRAIT
egy when the base is in Japanese
hands.
Burma May Be Main Base.
Australians were arguing hard for
their country as center of the war
effort, with Batavia as an opera
tional outpost.
However, 1t seemed more likely
Burma would be the handspring of
Allied efforts against the Japanese
in Malaga. with the British and
American Navies based on Trinco-
malice in Ceylon.
There was no tendency in London
to regard the Singapore counter-at
tacks as more than checking the sit
uation for q short time and COM
mentators were silent on the ques-
ton of reinforcements.
The Japanese already are at a
point where they threaten Singa-
pores reservoirs, its food supplies
and vital services.
One counterattack was said to be
aimed against the Japanese line
from Sungei Kranji, on the Johore
Strait northwest of the city Of
Singapore, south to the village of
Jurong, and the other against the
line southeast from Sungei Kranji
| to the midisland village of Mandai.
I'm Batavia it was reported
that the British had blown up all
stores and installations in the
(See SINGAPORE, Page 2-X0