Pinewood Battery

1. The Pinewood Battery

Built in the early 1900s, the Pinewood Battery was originally one of the many coastal batteries on the two sides of the Victoria Harbour. The life of Pinewood Battery as a coastal battery, however, was short, as it was decommissioned soon after it was put into service. From 1923 to 1925, the site was used by The Boy Scouts as a training campsite. In 1936, it was reused as an anti-aircraft gun battery because of the realization of the vulnerability of Hong Kong under air attack. When Hong Kong was invaded by the Imperial Japanese Army in December 1941, Pinewood Battery came under intense bombardment and was put out of action. Throughout the Japanese occupation, Pinewood Battery was no longer used, and the site was not reused by the British after the war.

You are now at the parade ground of Pinewood Battery. There was a “caretakers quarters” in front of you called Pinewood Bungalow, which was demolished in 1948. It was used as the mess of the gunners that stationed here. According to the floor plan of the structure drawn in 1905, the caretakers quarters was a single-storey colonial bungalow built with bricks, with separate rooms for officers, NCOs and the gunners. It had a kitchen, a scullery, a living room and two bathrooms. The front of the house had a small veranda of the typical Victorian colonial style. The foundation of the structure can still be seen.

2. No. 1 Gun Platform (as Coastal Gun Battery)

You are now at the No. 1 Gun Platform of Pinewood Battery. The Battery, at the time

when it was used as a coastal gun battery, consisted of a pair of gun platforms, one underground magazine for shells and cartridges, one battery command post and one flag staff. The gun platforms are of circular shape, with the forward half protected by an apron made of a cement surface filled with earth. Each platform consisted of two cartridge and two shell recesses to store cartridges and shells for the guns.

The Battery was installed with two BL 6-inch Mark VII guns. The guns were mounted on a carriage fitted on a Centre Pivot Mounting Mark II, bolted on the gun platform. The mounting incorporated a hydro-pneumatic system to absorb the recoil of the gun when it fired. The gun could fire a shell of 50kg (110 pounds) to between 10,973m and 12,802m (i.e. 12,000 yards and 14,000 yards) at the theoretical rate of eight rounds per minute.

The Battery was situated 307m high above the sea level, as its guns were meant to engage targets at great distance rather than at close range through plunging fire. To aim, the gunners used a device called Depression Range Finder, assisted by the four Position Fining Cells at the north of the Battery, to establish the range between the guns and the target by measuring a difference in vertical angles. The firing arc of No. 1 gun was 180 degrees, while that of the No. 2 gun was 120 degrees, so the two guns could cover an area from Penny’s Bay (modern-day the site of Hong Kong Disneyland) at the west to the waters of the Royal Naval Dockyard at the east. To the north, it could cover both the southern entrances of Ma Wan and Kap Shui Mun channels. As it could also fire landwards, its shells could reach as far as Shatin.

3. Battery Command Post (as Coastal Gun Battery) and Magazine

This is the Battery Command Post of Pinewood Battery when it was built as a coastal defence gun battery. The gun at that time was usually manned by a crew of thirteen who were responsible for training and loading the gun and elevating the barrel for range. The range finder behind the guns would feed the necessary data on the target to the gunners, while the magazines would feed the gunners with propellants (packed in silk bags) and shells.

The underground magazine, which was linked by the staircases at the back of the gun platforms, had two separate chambers for shells and cartridge (propellants). It was equipped with two lifts each side (one Band Lift and one Ladder Lift) that could pass the shells and propellants to the gunners at the gun platforms. The underground structure was protected by a thick shell-proof concrete wall. Behind the magazine were separate shelters for gunners and officers.

4. Battery Command Post (as Anti-Aircraft Gun Battery)

This is the Battery Command Post of Pinewood Battery when it was rebuilt as an anti-aircraft gun battery around 1936. At that time, as the existing facilities of Pinewood Battery were not enough to host an anti-aircraft gun section, the British built a number of facilities including a command post, an observation post, splinter-proof bunkers and several war shelters along the roads around the Battery. The two guns were centrally directed by the command post. In the defence scheme of 1941, Pinewood Battery was listed as one of the fixed anti-aircraft gun batteries, manned by a section of 17th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery of the 5th Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Hong Kong Singapore Royal Artillery (5HAA HKSRA).

The anti-aircraft gun batteries in Hong Kong were, by the late 1930s, centrally controlled by Anti-Aircraft Command who directed the fire of the batteries. The batteries were all connected to Anti-Aircraft Command via underground telephone lines, and the system was considered very modern in Asia at that time. The batteries were expected to create an anti-aircraft gun barrage that could disrupt a formation of enemy aircraft or even destroy them.

5. No. 2 Gun Platform(as Anti-Aircraft Gun Battery)

You are now at the No. 2 Gun Platform of Pinewood Battery. In around 1936, Pinewood Battery was rebuilt as an anti-aircraft gun battery. When the Battery was rebuilt, the gun platforms were considerably modified. The aprons were removed, and the two platforms were then surrounded by two octagonal cement ramparts. Each position contained eight shell lockers built with bricks. The shell lockers had two layers of brick to protect them from blasts and shrapnel. Next to this gun platform was a small bunker with a distinctive feature of a funnel sticking out from the roof.

Pinewood Battery as an anti-aircraft gun battery was equipped with two QF (quick-firing) 3-inch 20cwt guns. The gun was first introduced in 1914 and saw extensive service in the British Army and the Royal Navy throughout the two world wars, because of its reliability.

This weapon was relatively light in weight, (only 1,021kg, including barrel and breech – hence the “20cwt”, 20 hundredweight), and could be easily installed on lorries, ships and static platforms. The length of the barrel was 3.58m (11 feet 9 inch), making it easy to transport on tow. The range of the weapon was around 7,162m (23,500 feet), and it used a 7.3kg (16 pounds) high explosive shell, with a muzzle velocity of 610m per second. The gun was manned by a crew of 11 and could maintain a rapid rate of fire (as many as 18 rounds per minute) because of its simple breech-loading mechanism and the QF round that put the shell, the detonator, and the propellant together.

6. Observation Post (as Anti-Aircraft Gun Battery)

This is the Observation Post of Pinewood Battery as anti-aircraft gun battery. The two 3-inch guns of Pinewood Battery were supported by an altitude and range finder and a Sperry (No. 2) Predictor. They were located behind the Battery, with the predictor mounted on top of this structure; the trace of the predictor mount can still be seen.

The altitude and range finding and predicting equipment were essential for an  anti-aircraft gun battery to work effectively. The altitude and range finders would give gunner the position of the enemy aircraft, while the predictor would then calculate the necessary bearing and elevation of the guns and the fuse timing for the shells. The point was not to actually hit a plane with the shell, but to have the shells exploded sufficiently near the plane to cause damage. It takes around 11.7 seconds for a shell of a 3-inch 20 cwt QF anti-aircraft gun from leaving the barrel to the maximum range. A contemporary Japanese Army light bomber can travel at 423 km/h; in 11.7 seconds it will have travelled 1,375m if it travelled in the same speed. One can easily imagine the amount of lead needed for a gun to hit an aircraft, or have its shells exploded near enough to cause any damage. At night, the guns would be supported by Anti-Aircraft Searchlights (AASL) of the Island, and the nearest searchlight position was at Mount Austin.

7. The Latrine (as Anti-Aircraft Gun Battery)

You are now at the top of the staircase leading to the latrine of the Battery. From its construction style, the latrine was probably built in the 1930s, when the site was being rebuilt as an anti-aircraft gun battery. This concrete structure had two squatters and a separate compartment with a trough sink installed. The latrine

contained no drainage system (no flush toilet) so the waste had to be collected daily manually. At that time, night-soil was widely used as manure, so it was seen as valuable and many competed for the government’s contract for night soil removal. In September 1941, it was planned that during wartime, night-soil removal of the city would become the duty of the Auxiliary Conservancy Corps. For Pinewood Battery, it would be the duty of Royal Army Service Corps. During the war, some conservancy personnel were fired by nervous sentries or attacked by robbers when they carried out their work at night as usual. This led to a change of routine as the conservancy personnel worked during daytime instead.

8. Splinter-Proof Bunker (as Anti-Aircraft Gun Battery)

These two structures were the splinter-proof bunkers of the Battery built in the 1930s. As they were protected by earth on the other side, they were least exposed and thus the safest structures of the Battery. These structures were also protected by blast walls. Thus, they were used as accommodation and storage by the unit that  stationed at the Battery.

When it was active, the site was occupied by a section of the 17th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery of the 5th Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Hong Kong Singapore Royal Artillery. A typical A.A. Battery had around 105 officers and men, but it would be divided into four sections and only one manned Pinewood Battery. Thus, it was estimated that fewer than 30 officers and men would have been at the Battery when the war started. Besides officers, most of the gunners, including some of the non-commissioned officers, were Indians. A group of Chinese gunners also served in the 5th Anti-Aircraft Regiment, but it was not sure whether they served at Pinewood Battery.

9. War Shelters (as Anti-Aircraft Gun Battery)

This structure, and the nearby two structures of the same specifications, were the war shelters of Pinewood Battery built in the 1930s, when the site was converted into an anti-aircraft gun position. The war shelters were positions for the gunners when they were in “stand to” status, that means to be ready for action, or when the Battery was under heavy bombardment.

The war shelters consisted of chambers protected by “splinter-proof” walls and a bomb-proof roof with earth on top for protection and concealment from air observation. As its name suggests, the walls could protect inmates from splinters or shrapnel, but not a direct hit of a shell (thus it is not “shell-proof” walls that would be much thicker). To provide additional protection, the structure had an outer layer of “blast wall” to absorb the explosion.

There were some attempts to conceal the war shelters in order to provide additional protection. The structures were painted in camouflage colour, and stones were added in irregular pattern on the edge of the roof in order to blend in the land feature. Camouflage net might also be employed. However, the effectiveness of these attempts was questionable, as the Battery would still be easily spotted from the air as by then the hills in Hong Kong were largely bare. In a map used by the invading Japanese Army dated November 1941, Pinewood Battery was already marked on the map, although the Japanese had no idea whether it was an anti-aircraft gun battery, a coastal gun battery, or a heavy field gun position.

10 Pinewood Battery during the Battle of Hong Kong, 1941

At around 8am of 8 December 1941 (Hong Kong Time), 34 Japanese fighters and bombers attacked Kai Tak aerodrome and the British barracks at Sham Shui Po. Japanese forces then crossed the border into the New Territories. The garrison had little chance to hold the city as they were vastly outnumbered (13,500 versus 40,000) and outgunned. The Japanese Army occupied Kowloon after taking the Shing Mun Redoubt in a night attack and started to shell the defences of Hong Kong Island as early as on 13 December. In the following days, much of the defences, especially those on the northeastern part of the Island, were damaged or destroyed. In the evening of 18 December, the Japanese Army landed on the Island. After seven days of intense fighting the garrison surrendered during the afternoon of 25 December.

During the battle for the New Territories and Kowloon, Pinewood Battery served as part of the anti-aircraft defences of the Island and helped to fend off air attacks against the facilities on the Island as well as shipping in Victoria Harbour. The smallness of the Island and the terrain, however, did not help the A.A. defences. The commander of the Royal Artillery noted after the battle that the Sperry Predictor was not fast enough in tracking enemy aircraft, as they usually passed through Hong Kong Island overhead and quickly disappeared behind a hill. When the Japanese were established in Kowloon, the position of the Battery became untenable. It was under direct observation from the hills on the Kowloon side, and was within the range of the heavy guns of the Japanese Army. On 15 December, the Battery was heavily shelled by the Japanese 14th Independent Heavy Field Artillery Regiment (six Type 4 15cm Howitzers) stationed at Ho Man Tin (about 6,300m from Pinewood Battery) from around 8:15am to 12:25pm, forcing the gunners to abandon the position.