In just ten weeks, Malaya was overrun and the 'fortress' of Singapore surrendered to a Japanese army that found itself outnumbered by the 100,000 plus British and Commonwealth prisoners. Written at a time when he could still interview many of the senior officers as well as ordinary soldiers caught up in this disaster, Noel Barber's account reveals how peacetime complacency prevailed in Singapore up to the very moment the Japanese onslaught began.