In 1939, the aircraft carrier deployed in the Royal Navy's Asian Fleet was the old Eagle, the third Aircraft Carrier built by the British, converted from a battleship originally built for Chile, which was first equipped with a starboard ship island. At the beginning of the war, the Eagle began to carry out escort missions, providing air cover for the Australian and New Zealand corps rushing to the European theater of operations, escorting them all the way through the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea into the Suez Canal.
In 1940, Britain and France decided to jointly prevent germany from invading Norway, and the British Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Glory (converted from a battlecruiser) deployed in the Mediterranean was ordered to be incorporated into the Home Fleet, but was sunk by the Germans during the retreat from Norway. At the same time, the Eagle was ordered to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations to guard against the possible entry of the Italians into the war, and would provide air support to the British Mediterranean Fleet. Everything that followed also confirmed this. The Eagle was succeeded by the smaller-tonnage but earlier-built Athletic, and unlike other later modified aircraft carriers, it was the first true aircraft carrier built by the British, which had a clear construction goal from the beginning of the laying of the keel.
The first task of the "Athletic" was to search for surface attack ships of the German Navy, because its air force was very limited, with only 12 Swordfish biplanes, so it was more suitable for escort transport missions in the North Atlantic. Australia's contribution to the British Empire's defence system consisted mainly of 2 heavy cruisers, 3 light cruisers, 5 destroyers and 2 dhows, with its fourth light cruiser deployed at the West Indies Naval Station in Bermuda. In contrast, New Zealand has 2 light cruisers and 2 dhows. Overall, in the early stages of the war, Britain's military presence in the Pacific Theater was second only to that of the United States, and was second to none among the colonial countries in the region, mainly used to deter war and stop aggression, unlike other countries, which deployed only some river gunboats and coastal patrol boats used to maintain colonial order.
In contrast, Australia's naval power far exceeded that of the Dutch deployed here. In fact, even New Zealand's naval power is comparable to that of the Netherlands. The main weakness of British military power was the severe shortage of naval aviation. In the Pacific Theater, this kind of spear is more prominent, mainly manifested in: First, the British Royal Navy has only 1 aircraft carrier in the Pacific region and lacks high-performance carrier-based aircraft suitable for aircraft carrier operations; second, the British Royal Air Force deployed in the region also lacks aircraft models capable of engaging in air combat, which further aggravates the disadvantageous situation of the British.
At that time, and even until 1940, the number of Spitfire fighters (produced by Ultra Marin) that Britain was able to possess was also pitifully small, and the task of "Battle of Britain" was mainly the Hurricane fighter produced by Hawker, which was flexible and easy to maintain, but the speed of flight was very low. Even so, the Royal Navy had few fighters of this type. However, there is another important factor that complicates the problem, and that is overconfidence.
As mentioned earlier, the British once believed that only 20,000 troops were needed to hold Singapore, even if the enemy gathered 50,000 troops. In addition, as mentioned earlier, the plan for the 556 aircraft originally planned for transfer to Singapore was repeatedly revised, and finally reduced to 336, the vast majority of which were not actually delivered. On the eve of the outbreak of the war against Japan, Singapore had only a few warships. Here, 48 infantry brigades and 2 armored brigades were planned to be stationed, but they were not deployed at all, and instead 33 infantry battalions were not well trained, let alone an armored unit. Of the 336 modern fighters planned for deployment, at most 158 were in place, and the best performers were only 41 Bison fighters, but they were not rivals of the German or Japanese fighters of the same era.
Other aircraft included the heavily aging Wildbeest biplane torpedo bomber produced by Wicks, the Blenheim bomber produced by Bristol, which had suffered repeated defeats in the European theater, and a small number of Handsome Warrior night fighters, a dozen Swordfish and Shark biplanes, and some Lockheede-produced Hudson River maritime reconnaissance aircraft. At the same time, at least 200 Hawker Hurricane fighters were given to the Soviets as aid, and if these aircraft could be equipped with Singapore, it would greatly improve the local defense capabilities.
In short, excessive optimism and self-confidence, coupled with pride and light enemy, failed to determine a set of scientific and rational defense plans in time, resulting in repeated mistakes by the chiefs of staff of the British military department in formulating the Singapore defense battle plan, and finally caused a big mistake.