In the meantime, the mutineers were laying siege to the bungalow of thecommander, Colonel Martin, which was effectively blocking the way into SingaporeTown. The Colonel and some men held out all night until they were relieved atdaybreak by armed volunteers and civilians. They were so successful that theycaptured a fair amount of the mutineers' artillery. This action cost one killedand five wounded. The mutineers scattered and despite heavy sniper fire from themutineers, the general population stayed calm as the militia fought sporadicbattles with the mutineers.
On Wednesday 17th February, the French cruiser Montcalm followed bysmaller Russian and Japanese warships arrived. They immediately unloaded a largenumber of Marines who immediately advanced on the mutineers. A sharp battleensued in which the mutineers came off second best. A large number of themsurrendered immediately, the rest scattered into the jungle. A large numbertried to escape across the Strait of Johore but were immediately rounded up bythe Sultan of Johore's army. In the meantime, the mutineers who had scatteredcontinued to wage a sniping war on the allies.
On Saturday 20th February, six companies of the 5th Shropshire Territorialarrived from Rangoon, relieving the sailors and Marines. They rounded up thelast of mutineers in a short time.Monday 22nd February saw the opening Courts Martial. These resulted in alarge number of the mutineers being shot in public. The largest of theseexecutions saw a firing party of 110 shooting 22 mutineers. The mutineers whosurrendered early were sent to fight in Africa against Von Lettow Vorbeck. Aleading Indian merchant was implicated in the plot and was proved to have sentmessages to the Turkish Consul in Rangoon offering him help by encouraging theIndian garrison in Singapore to mutiny. He was shot for his actions.
Final casualties were:-
British:- 33 military, 14 civilians (dead & wounded)
French:- 1 wounded
Russian:- 3 wounded
The mutiny lead to the compulsory military training of all Britons aged 18 to55 in Singapore. The source....
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