Labrador Park

In 1864, a fort complex with concrete bunkers, underground tunnels, and gun batteries were built and embedded on this coastal cliffside, for defence purposes. Completed in 1878 and called Fort Pasir Panjang, the location overlooked the harbour and was part of an extensive network of coastal defences built by the British colonial rulers of Singapore. With the possible outbreak of war in the region in 1938, the Labrador Battery was upgraded. Thus on the eve of World War II, Fort Pasir Panjang had the addition of 2 six-inch 37-ton guns that could fire 102 lb shells to a distance of almost 10 miles. Added were also searchlights which could beam at enemy ships and track them. This defence position was part of a strategy based on the popular belief that an invasion of Singapore would probably come via a coastal attack, and so the placements of these guns fixed facing the sea. However they could be turned around. In fact this was the case in February 1942, during World War II, when the guns were reversed almost 180 degrees to fire the advancing Japanese Imperial Forces in the Pasir Panjang/Alexandra Road area, but they proved ineffective against invading land forces because of their very flat trajectory.