United States naval experts today expressed the opinion that Japan would be unable to capture Singapore, Britain's naval stronghold in the Far East, without a long and costly engagement, even if Britain had no warships in the vicinity.
That's a little eerie to read from 21 Feb 1941. That opinion will be put to the test in just under a year from now, even to the detail of no warships in the vicinity. They might be surprised at how that last condition comes about. Though now that I think about it, by February 1942 U.S. naval experts may have reached the point where bad news doesn't surprise them any more.
This is true. December and January of 41-42 didn’t give the U.S. or Royal navy any good news at all. The British army and commonwealth forces aren’t going to have it good either. Singapore is a hard nut to crack from the sea which I think is adding to this sense of confidence in the article.
“They might be surprised at how that last condition comes about.”
16 B-25’s bombing Japan in April 1942?