an invasion of Singapore and bitter fighting ensued; Singapore, which had once been perceived as impregnable, fell on 15 February 1942 with 130,000 British, Australian and Empire troops, including men of the 2nd Battalion, taken prisoner by the Japanese. In Burma, a similar situation occurred, the Allies—having come under intense attacks from the Japanese who had begun their offensive in December—had to commence a retreat to India from February 1942 which was completed in May. Later, the battalions of the Regiment saw heavy fighting again in 1944 in the Arakan campaign and during the Japanese offensive against north-east India where two important battles, Kohima and Imphal, took place from March to June 1944. Imphal was besieged by the Japanese until the Allies achieved a decisive victory at Kohima in June and the Japanese fled back into Burma. The Regiment subsequently took part in the successful Allied offensive into Burma and on 3 May 1945 the Burmese capital Rangoon was liberated by British forces. There were still Japanese forces present in Burma but the fight against the Japanese was now ostensibly a mopping up operation. The war concluded with the formal surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945 on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay; the Allies had prevailed after nearly six years of fighting. In French Indochina that same day the Viet Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh, declared their independence from France as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Shortly afterwards the British began to send units of the 20th Indian Infantry Division, which the 1st and 3rd Battalions were part of, to occupy the south of the country while the Nationalist Chinese occupied the north; the deployment was completed by October. The force was intended to disarm the Japanese forces and help in their repatriation back to Japan. The force, however, soon became embroiled in the fight against the Viet Minh and was soon helping in the restoration of French-control over the country. The British were, due to a lack of sufficient manpower, ironically forced to have the Japanese forces working alongside their own in Indochina in order to maintain peace and stability. The operations against the Viet Minh gradually became more intense and after substantial French reinforcements arrived the British and Indian forces departed by May 1946, and the First Indochina War would begin shortly afterwards. On 25 October, a Japanese patrol captured a Russian