Coastal Gun, Changi, Singapore

Changi Changi Penisula, Singapore – Coastal Gun

“On February 3, Japanese artillery began hammering targets on Singapore and air attacks against the garrison intensified. British guns, including the city’s heavy coastal guns, responded but in the latter case their armor-piercing rounds proved largely ineffective. On February 8, the first Japanese landings began on Singapore’s northwest coast. Elements of the Japanese 5th and 18th Divisions came ashore at Sarimbun Beach and met fierce resistance from Australian troops. By midnight, they had overwhelmed the Australians and forced them to retreat.”

Source: http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/worldwarii/p/World-War-Ii-Battle-Of-Singapore.htm

“When, before the war, a Government official, now Lord Llewellyn, queried Major – General Dobbie about the complete absence of fortifications on the north coast of Singapore, though the east and the west and the south bristled with armaments, the General replied simply: ‘The north needs no fortification. No one could get through the jungle that leads to it’
Unfortunately, the Japanese were never informed of this fact!”
(Sir John Dill, May 6th, 1941)
Source: The Naked Island by Russell Braddon; 1955 edition Pan Books Ltd, Pg 284

“My grandfather, Gunner William Charles Edward Nash was with the 9th Coastal who manned the heavy 15 inch gun battery, one of which your your father painted.”
Source: Thank you to Justin Nash, grandson for this information

‘One of today’s deaths was an officer whom we all knew, not very well on a personal basis, but well enough to exchange occasional chitchat. He was (for the British army) a somewhat unusual man, a regular soldier who joined the ranks of the heavy coastal artillery regiments manning the fifteen – inch guns that defended Singapore. Rumour has it that every man in these units has a criminal past and has served time in prison, either as a civilian or in army detention centres, and indeed that is why they are stationed in Singapore, which had been regarded during the 1930’s as the place to which bad boys could be posted, well out f everyone’s way. I really don’t know the truth of that, but the rumour persists and never seems to be denied.’
Source: One Fourteenth of an Elephant, by Ian Denys Peek, 2005, Pg 187

Extracts from One Fourteenth of an Elephant by Ian Denys Peek reprinted by permission of Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd. Copyright © Ian Denys Peek 2003

“When, before the war, a Government official, now Lord Llewellyn, queried Major – General Dobbie about the complete absence of fortifications on the north coast of Singapore, though the east and the west and the south bristled with armaments, the General replied simply: ‘The north needs no fortification. No one could get through the jungle that leads to it’
Unfortunately, the Japanese were never informed of this fact!”
(Sir John Dill, May 6th, 1941)
Source: The Naked Island by Russell Braddon; 1955 edition Pan Books Ltd, Pg 284