Overcrowding in Alexandra Military Hospital on 14 Feb 1942

Alexandra Military Hospital (today’s Alexandra Hospital) was unusually overcrowded with twice as many patients as there were beds #OnThisDay (14 February) in 1942.

Opened in 1940, it was the main hospital for British military personnel in Singapore. But it did not matter that the place was clearly marked as a hospital — in the morning on this day, it was heavily shelled. Then, three platoons from a Japanese battalion appeared and launched a brutal rampage.

They bayoneted 50 unarmed patients and medical staff in the wards. Even people in an operating theatre were not spared, including a patient undergoing surgery. About 200 patients and staff were rounded up and marched out to another building some distance away. The gravely injured were killed when they fell. Deprived of food and water and locked up in rooms with no ventilation overnight, many died. The suffering survivors were brought out the next day — and shot dead.

Caught between the advancing Japanese troops and retreating British forces, the hospital's men and women were massacred, with no mercy. #neveragainSG #TotalDefence

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