My relatives who stayed in Loyang in the 50s and 60s told me many British constructions in Changi and Loyang. They fell into neglect during the Japanese occupations and soon overcame by shrubs and climbers. When I visited them I saw some such ruins covered with thick vegetation. No one dared ventured inside as it was believed to be haunted. I saw a huge construction which was bigger than the ordinary pill box that I saw. One of my relatives said that it was a British ammunition dump. The mystery unfolded in April 1991 when the Prisons Department rediscovered the British installations.
According to Wikipedia, the British had five 15–inch guns installed in Singapore - three in Changi and two in Buona Vista. The three guns in Changi formed the Johore Battery. It was called the Johore Battery because the sultan of Johore gave King George V £500,000 for his Silver Jubilee in 1935. The British used £400,000 of the gift to install to guns in Changi, which in 1942 was used to shell Johor Bahru.
Built by the British in 1939 for the defence of Singapore, the Johore Battery is a gun emplacement site consisting of a labyrinth of tunnels. The tunnels were used to store ammunition to support three large guns that could fire 15-inch shells.
The guns were the largest installed outside Britain during World War II. They were destroyed before the surrender of the British army and the tunnels were sealed up after the war. Today, replicas of the large gun and 15-inch shell sit at the Johore Battery.
Today, although there is a sign at the junction of Cosford Road and Upper Changi Road, few people ventured in most likely the road was wedge in between tall Singapore Ministry of Defence fencing.
I come to know about this site when Hougang Primary School organised a ‘Car Rally’ on 20.11.13 for the officers to wind down after a hectic year. This site was a part of the several places the participants had to visit and perform certain activities before they could proceed to another.
