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248

SINGAPORE.

Appendix No. 4. good solid traverses between the guns some 8 feet higher than the platform levels, it would require much indirect firing to render the guns inoperative for the front defence. A cruizer would prefer to engage at longer range off Terumbo Sileger (see chart), and take the guns in reverse, whilst a squadron would, first of all, silence Mount Siloso Battery and then stand in nearer Blakang Mati for the same purpose.

manoeuvres;

Effects of this course 54. This is a serious consideration, for Blakang Mati East once silenced, two manoeuvres are as regards subsequent open to the attacking squadron. By the first, a gun-boat would cautiously pass through the reefs and

the narrow channel between Buran Darat and the shore-removing any obstructions on the way- whilst the rest of the squadron would move to a position between the outer shoal and the White Beacon to prepare the way for the gun-boat and help her mission of destruction by engaging the three guns of Mount Palmer Battery bearing on the entrance (see p. 245).

Attack by squadron.

After operations.

Occasion for relative manœuvres.

Condition of eastern defences.

Inherent defect of

battery Blakang

Mati East.

Defects of batteries

Mount Palmer and Tanjong Katong.

General indications of

strengthening defences.

Strengthening the western defences.

Strengthening the eastern defences.

Limit of extension.

6 inches of iron at

Gun to penetrate

3,000 yards.

55. By the second manoeuvre, the whole squadron would move to the position in the roadstead marked in the chart by the western anchor, where, as I have shown (p. 245), the fire of Tanjong Katong becomes ineffectual, and that of Blakang Mati East (now silenced) operative. Here the squadron would have to engage one 7-inch gun and two 64-pounders, and the data of the problem become similar to that of the silencing positions of Mount Siloso Battery, except that, in this case the ships do not have a choice of range, as they are kept off by the shoals from engaging nearer than 1,250 yards. Mount Palmer is a good position, and the battery is at a much more convenient height above the sea than Mount Siloso Battery, so that the squadron will suffer more in fighting it. These three guns being silenced, an oblique indirect fire would be concentrated on the two lower 7-inch guns, which could not reply, the ships being out of their lateral range. Then, when these guns were disabled (or, if time were an object, even before), the squadron could stand off the entrance, and steaming in a circle, pour a fire from both broadsides alternately on Blakang Mati East and Mount Palmer, whilst a gun- boat crept through the Buran Darat passage, and so get behind the submarine mining field ready for grappling and countermining operations.

56. The latter manoeuvre would probably be the action of the wooden squadron, whilst the former could be undertaken by that which had the addition of two iron-clads, for these would not be penetrated even immediately in front of the submarine mining field, the centre of which is 2,000 yards away from either battery. Thus we see that, as regards the eastern defences of Singapore, they are in a position to defend the New Harbour from the attack of cruizers, unless there was time to make that attack in a systematic manner and by successive operations; that the guns are not heavy enough to resist an attack by the given squadron of six wooden ships and two iron-clads; that, for the defence of the harbour, the weak point is the absence of guns bearing on the zone to the south-east of Blakang Mati; and that, for the defence of the town, the weak points are the insufficiency of works and armament at Tanjong Katong and the distance of that point from Mount Palmer, so that the centre of the roadstead is defended by long-range fire only.

57. A few remarks on the batteries themselves, and I will then consider what should be done to strengthen the defences.

58. The ditches of battery Blakang Mati East are not provided with any means of flank defence, and the escarp is unrevetted. "The steep ground in front of the battery is swept by musketry fire from a covered way in connection with a parapet which is traced round the unoccupied part of the hill referred to on p. 244, and which commands the valley between the hill itself and the Mount Serapong ridge. This covered way and musketry parapet is, however, of too long a perimeter to be properly manned by the normal garrison of the work, and could, no doubt, be carried by a rush. Like Mount Siloso Battery, there is no main magazine, laboratory, and artillery accessories generally; there is no drawbridge and no barrack. The battery as designed, however, is of a very solid character, and only requires the further development presently recommended to be very strong.

59. Batteries Mount Palmer and Tanjong Katong, as designed and constructed, are of a permanent character. They require, however, good masonry escarps, more formidable caponiers and flanking arrangements generally, tanks for the storage of water, artillery stores, &c., as well as barrack accom- modation.

IV.

60. The considerations of Section III clearly indicate the direction which should be taken to strengthen the defences of the harbour.

61. On the western side they point to the provision of an armament superior to the present, both in quality and quantity, and so disposed, with wide lateral range, that they have the power of mutual support and of concentrating their fire. This indicates the construction of a small work on the cliff towards Passir Panjang, where, as I have shown, a squadron can take up a good silencing position.

62. On the easter side they point to the construction of a new work (which I will call Blakang Mati South), armed with medium and an armour-piercing gun, to form a link between batteries Mount Siloso and Blakang Mati East, and thus eliminate the dead angle, and deprive an enemy of his power to take the latter work in reverse. Also to the provision of a heavier armament in the works bearing upon the channel, but 2,000 yards distant from its centre, at which range the 7-inch guns with which they are now armed would not pierce a 6-inch plate.

63. I am not disposed to recommend that any extension should be given to the present defences beyond that just indicated, as I consider, with the improved armament and disposition, that the situation and power of the works would secure them a victory over the assailants. Important every- where, it is particularly important at a tropical station like Singapore that works of defence should not be given an undue extension, but that they should be minimised to a degree demanded only for the proper fulfilment of the object in view-in this case the defeat of half-a-dozen corvettes and gun- vessels and a couple of iron-clads.

64. Penetration at long range (say 3,000 yards) is a desideratum in the case we are considering, and this is a condition not contained in the ordinary tables. Let us try if a 9-inch gun of 12 tons will

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