Johore Battery | |
---|---|
Part of World War II-era Defence of Singapore | |
Cosford Road in Changi, Singapore | |
![]() One of Singapore's five 15-inch coastal-defence guns elevated for firing, probably some time in 1941 or 1942. | |
Coordinates | 1°21′55″N103°58′47″E / 1.365167°N 103.979667°E |
Site information | |
Owner | Currently Singapore Government |
Controlled by | Formerly British military; now Singapore Government |
Open to the public | Yes |
Condition | Originals demolished and gone after WWII and now replaced with a single replica |
Site history | |
Built | In 1939 |
Built by | British Government |
In use | Early- to mid-February of 1942 |
Materials | Concrete and steel |
Demolished | Mid-February of 1942 |
Battles/wars | Battle of Singapore (WWII) |
Events | Shelling of southern Malaya (Johor) where invading Japanese forces were at in early 1942 during the war |
Garrison information | |
Current commander | None |
Past commanders | Unknown |
Garrison | Formerly controlled by British military; now none |
Occupants | Formerly British naval artillery troops; now vacated |
The Johore Battery was a former British coastal artillery battery located in Changi on the easternmost side of mainland Singapore. [1] It consisted of three large BL 15-inch Mk. I naval guns installed on land by the British government in the late 1930s to defend the approaching path to the east of the island to their large naval base located at Sembawang in the north (accessed via the Johor Straits) from an attacking enemy naval force.
Five massive 15–inch naval guns were installed in Singapore by the British government before 1940, with three based in Changi to the east and two located in Buona Vista to the southwest. Collectively, the three naval guns in Changi formed the Johore Battery, named after the King of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim, who gave King George V of the UK a grand royal gift of £500,000 for his Silver Jubilee in 1935, of which £400,000 of the amount was used by the British government to fund the installation of the three large naval guns in Changi. In early 1942, the Johore Battery was employed in the Allied artillery bombardment of Johor Bahru, which at that time was under Japanese military occupation following the retreat of all Allied forces from British Malaya to Singapore. [2]
Built by the British government in 1939 for the naval defence of Singapore (in particular, to defend Singapore from an aggressive Imperial Japan, which had possessed a strong and a powerful navy by the later part of the 1930s and was expanding deeper and deeper into China), the Johore Battery is a large gun emplacement site consisting of a labyrinth of tunnels. These tunnels were used to store quantities of ammunition for the three 15-inch guns (most of which were of the armour-piercing (AP) type rather than the high-explosive (HE) type as these naval guns were intended to be employed against heavily armoured enemy warships).[ citation needed ]
These naval guns were the largest to be installed on land outside of Britain itself during World War II. They were all destroyed before the official surrender of the British Army on 15 February 1942 to the conquering Imperial Japanese military [2] and the related tunnels (for the storage of the ammunition for the guns and gun-crew quarters) were sealed up and almost forgotten after the war in 1945.
In 1948 one of the guns was demolished and returned to England as scrap. [3] In 1950 the Royal Army Ordnance Corps began an exercise to remove live gun shells that were buried at Changi during the British evacuation in 1942. [4]
The location remained unknown until the Singapore Prisons Service discovered them by chance in April 1991. [5]
The former site of the Johore battery now includes a replica of the large naval gun and a dummy 15-inch shell, placed upon a modern large lifting-lever; allowing visitors to have a feel of its 800kg weight by trying to hoist it up from the ground. The old, and still inaccessible, tunnels are marked out in a maze of above ground trails. A plaque detailing the history of the battery is present at the hut forming the entrance to the site.
Admission to the site of the battery is free with opening hours 09:00 to 17:00 Monday to Friday. The compound also includes a restaurant. [ citation needed ].
Sentosa Island, known mononymously as Sentosa, is an island located off the southern coast of Singapore's main island. The island is separated from the main island of Singapore by a channel of water, the Keppel Harbour, and is adjacent to Pulau Brani, a smaller island wedged between Sentosa and the main island.
Changi is a planning area located in the geographical region of Tanah Merah in the East Region of Singapore. Sharing borders with Pasir Ris and Tampines to the west, Changi Bay to the southeast, the South China Sea to the east and the Serangoon Harbour to the north. Changi, excluding the two water catchments and islands of Singapore, is the largest planning area by land size.
Sultan Sir Ibrahim Al-Masyhur ibni Almarhum Sultan Abu Bakar Al-Khalil Ibrahim Shah was a Malaysian sultan and the 2nd modern Sultan of Johor and 22nd Sultan of Johor overall. He was considered "fabulously wealthy."
Sook Ching was a mass killing that occurred from 18 February to 4 March 1942 in Singapore after it fell to the Japanese. It was a systematic purge and massacre of 'anti-Japanese' elements in Singapore, with the Singaporean Chinese particularly targeted by the Japanese military during the occupation. However, Japanese soldiers engaged in indiscriminate killing, and did not try to identify who was 'anti-Japanese.'
The fall of Singapore, also known as the Battle of Singapore, took place in the South–East Asian theatre of the Pacific War. The Japanese Empire captured the British stronghold of Singapore, with fighting lasting from 8 to 15 February 1942. Singapore was the foremost British military base and economic port in South–East Asia and had been of great importance to British interwar defence strategy. The capture of Singapore resulted in the largest British surrender in its history.
Fort Siloso is a decommissioned coastal artillery battery in Sentosa, Singapore. It consists of 12 such batteries which made up "Fortress Singapore" at the start of World War II, and saw action during the Battle of Singapore. The fort is now a military museum open to the public. The Surrender Chambers in Fort Siloso reopened in June 2017 with a refreshed exhibition and free admission.
Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications.
View Road Hospital was located at View Road, off Admiralty Road West, in Woodlands, Singapore. It was used to as a branch of Woodbridge Hospital used for occupational therapy for long term schizophrenia patients and was closed in 2001. The has been used on two occasions as a foreign workers dormitory known as View Road Lodge on two occasions from 2008 to 2017. It is now unoccupied.
Syonan, officially Syonan Island, was the name for Singapore when it was occupied and ruled by the Empire of Japan, following the fall and surrender of British military forces on 15 February 1942 during World War II.
Rail transport in Singapore mainly consists of a passenger urban rail transit system spanning the entire city-state: a rapid transit system collectively known as the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system operated by the two biggest public transport operators SMRT Trains and SBS Transit, as well as several Light Rail Transit (LRT) rubber-tyred automated guideway transit lines also operated by both companies. In addition, local specialised light rail lines are in operation in places such as the Singapore Changi Airport and Sentosa.
The Johor–Singapore Causeway is a 1.056-kilometre (0.66 mi) causeway consisting of a combined railway and motorway crossing that links the city of Johor Bahru in Malaysia across the Straits of Johor to the district and town of Woodlands in Singapore. It was the only land connection between the two from 1928 until 1998, when the Tuas Second Link opened.
His Majesty's Naval Base, Singapore, also Her Majesty's Naval Base, Singapore, alternatively known as the Singapore Naval Base, Sembawang Naval Base and HMS Sembawang, was situated in Sembawang at the northern tip of Singapore and was both a Royal Navy shore establishment and a cornerstone of British defence policy in the Far East between the World Wars. From 1921 to 1941 it was a China Station base, from 1941 to 1945 a repair facility for the Imperial Japanese Navy and from 1945 to 1958 a Far East Fleet base. Today, it is a commercial dockyard but British military activity still exists at the British Defence Singapore Support Unit (BDSSU).
Labrador Nature Reserve, also known locally as Labrador Park, is located in the southern part of mainland Singapore. It is home to the only rocky sea-cliff on the mainland that is accessible to the public. Since 2002, 10 hectares of coastal secondary-type vegetation and its rocky shore have been gazetted as a nature reserve and its flora and fauna preserved by NParks.
Fort Pasir Panjang or Labrador Battery is located within Labrador Park at the southern tip of Singapore island. It was one of the 11 coastal artillery forts built by the British in the 19th century to defend the western passageway into Keppel Harbour against piracy and foreign naval powers. During the 1942 Battle of Pasir Panjang, the fort played a supporting role but a limited one in defending the Malay Regiments against the Japanese invasion at Bukit Chandu. In 1995, the site was gazetted by the National Heritage Board as one of the 11 World War II sites in Singapore.
The BL 9.2-inch Mk I–VII guns were a family of early British heavy breechloading naval and coast defence guns in service from 1881 to the end of World War I. They were originally designed to use the old gunpowder propellants.
The 2nd Malaya Infantry Brigade was a regular infantry brigade formed in 1940 with its headquarters in Singapore following the wartime expansion and reinforcement of Malaya Command. The Brigade participated in the Malayan Campaign and the Battle of Singapore against the Japanese until the surrender of the garrison in February 1942.
135th Field Regiment was a Royal Artillery (RA) unit being formed in Britain's part-time Territorial Army (TA) on the outbreak of World War II. Spun off from an existing unit, it took over two batteries from Hertfordshire and Northamptonshire and was later granted the double subtitle '(East Anglian) '. As part of the 18th Infantry Division the regiment remained in the United Kingdom until 1941 when it was sent to India. The division was deployed to Fortress Singapore where it was captured by the Japanese. Some of the prisoners were murdered in cold blood, many of the others died working on the Burma Railway. The regiment was never reformed.
Tyersall Park is an estate in Singapore, bound by Holland Road and Tyersall Avenue, and near the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Previously a private land belonging to the Sultan of Johor from 1862, some portions of it had been acquired by the Government of Singapore in 1990 and in 2009 respectively.
The 5th Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery was a short-lived air defence unit of the British Army during World War II. Formed to defend Singapore in 1941, the regiment was captured less than a year later when the fortress surrendered to the Japanese.
The first fortifications of Singapore consisted of batteries built in the early 19th century to protect the harbour and city. After this there were two main phases of building.