( 2 )
-Several alterations will be necessary in order to protect the battery against a
a fire from the southward and also from Mount Serapong.
7.)--As a musketry fire from Mount Serapong might make it difficult to work the present No. 6 guu, a rifled howitzer should be placed so as to command the redoubt ou the momt. A mortar to be used until a rifled howitzer could be supplied.
By these changes, three armour piercing gus and nuc 6-4-pounder would be brought to bear over the South part of Blakang Mati Island, whilst at the same time two armour piercing guns and two 7-inch guns would direct their fire over the eastern ap- proaches to the New Harbour.
The approaches to Monut Scrapong, available for a force which had landed near Blakang Mati South would be commanded by two gums from Blakang Mati” East. but the redoubt on the mount should be strengthened.
9.-The tenu armour piercing gm" is used to douore a gun that will pierce 8 inches of armour at a distance of 3,000 yards.
10.-The following table will shew the proposed increase of gnus, &e, in Blakang Mari East.
64-ponuder. 7-inch. Armour piercing. Rifled Howitzer.
Dr.
At preseur, 2 Proposed,
&
1
Singapore, 28th December, 1880.
To Lieut.-Colonel H. Parnell, 0.B..
Commandant,
{
C. JOHNSTONE, Commander,
H.M.S. Egeria.
0
I
GEORGE G. HANNEN, Major, R.A.
E. F. RHODES, Lieutenant, Communding R.E.
President of the Stayapore Defence Committee.
Battery Blakang Mati South.
14. The scheme proposed to remove the dead angle off Terumbo Sileger without the construction of a fresh battery at Blakang Mati South, is as much as the existing batteries will admit of, but I cannot appreciate it as a satisfactory substitute, and looking to the opinion expressed by the authors in paragraph
5 of their Report, I still urge the construction of this new work (armed with the 7-ton guns from Tanjong Katong and with an armour-piercing gun) for the fol- lowing reasons:--
(a) That the command of Fort Siloso and its distance are too great for any strengthening of its artillery to be of much effect (vide paragraph 12 ante).
(b) That leaving the 64-pounder out of account as its effective range is too short, we have still only three guns bearing on the zone of attack; that one of these, No. 6, cannot fire when the enemy, as he probably will do (eide paragraph 53), lies to the East of a line to Middle Island, so that two guns only can be depended on; and that these guns fire at a long range and from an elevation which will cause the projectiles to have a rapid angle of descent.
(c) That the enemy can lie under Blakang Mati South or under Pulo Sikookur without being seen from Blakang Mati East, which could be then bombarded by high angle fire.
(d) That grauting the disadvantageous nature of Bla- kang Mati for landing, and the subsequent difficulties which a landed force would experience, that it would be a great thing to be in a position to prevent such lauding by guns bearing on a strip which is now unde- fouded and defiladed by the sea cliffs.
(e) That the position itself is a good one for a bat- tory; that it will close the gap between Forts Silosu aud Blakang Mati East; and that consequently all the advantages which collateral works and concentrated fire carry with them will be gained thereby.
That the position is no more isolated than Tan- jong Katong, or even Blakang Muti Fast itself, and that being but 1,000 yards distant from the latter battery can be supported by light guns mounted on the right flank thereof.
That the expense involved, say as a maximum £1,800 per gun, or £7,200, is little-if at all-more than that necessary to carry out the various alterations proposed to meet with the same object, which object, however, would be only partially obtained, and that in a less efficient manner.
533
H. E, McCALLUM, Caplain, x.F.
15th January, 1881.
346
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