Just a week ago, the National Parks Board announced that one of its projects – the Battle Box at Fort Canning Park, was given a $300,000 makeover.
The National Parks Board hopes that the revamp will attract more people to visit. Visitors will learn about this important place where critical decisions were made for Singapore. Before you pay this monumental site a visit, here’s 10 Facts You Didn’t Know About Singapore’s Battle Box.
(Image credit: Lim Sin Thai)
1. Back in World War 2, the Battle Box was built as the headquarters of the British Military Operations
The Battle Box was constructed to serve as the headquarters of the British Strategic Command during World War 2. More simply put, this was the place where all activities pertaining to the war in East Asia were controlled and managed. Decisions made in this emergency, bombproof command centre affected countries like Malaya and Hong Kong.
2. No battles took place at this bunker
The soldiers of the war termed this underground commander centre the ‘Battle Box’ even though no battle actually occurred here.
3. On 15 February 1942, the grave decision to surrender to the invading Japanese Forces was made at the Battle Box
On Sunday, the 15th of February 1942, at 9:30am, Lieutenant General Arthur Percival held a conference in this very bunker to discuss the war situation with commanders of the Northern, Southern and Western areas. During this conference, the decision to surrender to the Japanese was made. The alternative choice, a counter attacking option, was deemed impractical.
4. The roof of the bunker conceals a secret exit
A simple search on Google reveals that there are only two entrances into the Battle Box Bunker – one on Cox Terrace and another on Dobbie Rise. What most people don’t know about is the third entrance located on the roof. Back in the past, the secret entrance was a guarded secret that has evidently lived on well till today.
5. The bunker is fully camouflaged
Despite its huge size (44 by 48.6 meters large, and 9.1 meters deep), the entire Battle Box remains camouflaged. As it is hard to spot, the place was spared from attacks. The top of the hill appears to be an area of greenery surrounded by the buildings on Dobbie Rise and Cox Terrace.
Only selected individuals knew of the Battle Box’s existence and were allowed access to it. Those who knew about it were made to swear to strict secrecy about their knowledge of the place. Even until today, many of them still refuse to talk about their experience at the site. Talk about loyalty!
6. There are a total of 29 rooms in the Battle Box Bunker
The Battle Box served a host of functions with 29 rooms. There was the signal room (also known as the post office). Here’s where messages were picked up or sent off. Signals received here were usually with regards to troop movements and new dispositions on the ground.
There’s the cipher room where all messages were decoded and encoded using various military codebooks and enciphering equipment. Messages received here are destroyed after 3 days using a large shredder machine located in the Battle Box.
Finally, there’s the signal control room. It was where people in the base would communicate with those in countries like Hong Kong, India and Indonesia. Messages would then be relayed to the base in London. Complete silence was essential in the room in order to take down the Morse code received, before sending it to the cipher room to be decoded.
7. Vacuum suction message tubes were used to send messages within the complex
Using a small container wrapped in rubber, an officer would place a document in a capsule and insert it in the tube. It would then be sucked to the other end of the pipe (the destination of the document). These tubes lined the entire complex, and gave a loud thud sound when it reached its destination – a fact recalled by many. This was also the system that massively inspired Elon Musk’s revolutionary Hyperloop.
8. Officers in the Battle Box communicated through the Telephone Exchange
Although the officers in the various rooms communicated with one another, most of them rarely saw their colleagues in the other rooms. They more often than not communicated through telephones routed through the telephone exchange system in the complex.
9. The soldiers stripped all but one room in the Battle Box when they surrendered and left the command center
(Image credit: Lim Sin Thai)
When the soldiers left the command center back in 1942, all but one room in the bunker was stripped. All items were burnt in a bonfire by the British a day before the surrender. The bunker remained abandoned until it was investigated on 23 February 1988 for possibilities of reconstructing World War II events.
10. Before the bunker’s reinvestigation, a journalist and her rookie photographer snuck into the bunker without official permission
In an attempt to get first hand exclusive scoop on the place, a journalist and her rookie photographer snuck into the bunker after being denied entry into the place by officials.
Upon entering, they found a number of things including:
- An empty blood stained stretcher that had been abandoned in the G Clerk’s room
- Toilets that were yellow stained and filled with fungus growth
- The remains of a dog that possibly got lost in the maze of rooms and died of starvation or disease.
The exclusive story eventually got published. More history on the bunker can be found at the 26th July 1988 edition of the Straits Times (we are still trying to get our hands on a copy)!
Tour details:
The Battle Box will open in March 2016. Tours will cost $18 for adults, and $9 for children. For more information, You may call +65 6338 6133 or email [email protected].
So here’s your official scoop on 10 Facts You Didn’t Know About Singapore’s Battle Box! Let us know in the comments if you will be paying this interesting place a visit!
