Labrador Battery at Labrador Park.
Labrador Park was one of nine sites where British forces set up their batteries for the defence of Singapore before world war 2. This strategy was based on the belief that invasion of Singapore would not come from the north. These batteries would fire shells against naval invaders to Singapore.
The Labrador Battery included two six-inch 37-ton guns which were installed in 1938. These guns could fire 102 lb shells almost 10 miles.
In addition to these two guns there were searchlights to beam at enemy battleships.
In February 1942 these guns were traversed almost 180 degrees to fire upon the advancing Japanese Imperial Forces on Pasir Panjang Road towards Alexandra Road. However, they were not effective against land forces because of their very flat trajectory.
What we see today in Labrador Park are only the gun positions and not the guns. However, these remind Singaporeans that wrong military strategy can lead to disaster. Winston Churchill called the fall of Singapore 'the greatest disaster to British arms which our history records'.
Memorial Plague at the top of the hill .
3 comments:
wow, that's nice!
Looks like a great place to reflect on what happened and remember those lost.
Nice shots of this historic location. I remember visiting there long ago (1970's) when I was in Singapore.
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