Decoding the enigma of the fall of the Shing Mun Redoubt using line of sight analysis

Abstract

This paper explains the need for, the means to, and the findings of a re-examination of the fall of the Shing Mun Redoubt lost to Japanese forces during the early phase of the Battle of Hong Kong in December 1941. The methods of the re-examination were: (a) a comparative study of public documents and books in English, Chinese and Japanese and (b) the reconstruction of the battlefield, the defence structures and arcs of fire of the pillboxes and firing trenches at the Shing Mun Redoubt using information collected by an original on-site land use survey and generated by computer GIS techniques using a Triangular Irregular Networks (TINs) model. As the first professional mapping exercise for the Shing Mun Redoubt, the findings clarify two mysteries that escaped scrutiny by both a court martial in a Japanese POW camp and a postwar Cabinet inquiry into the rapid collapse of this bastion, guarded by 2nd Battalion of the renowned Royal Scots Regiment, which triggered a premature evacuation of the Gin Drinker’s Line. The key survey findings are that the Redoubt was not of a faulty design for day time fighting, particularly as the Jubilee Dam across which the enemy advanced in complete darkness, was well-covered by the defender’s positions; that the artillery observation post, which commanded the Redoubt, was physically isolated and un-connected by tunnels or trenches to any of the five pillboxes; and that despite certain exaggerations by the victors and missing links glossed over by the defenders, the general sequence of the actual fighting for the Redoubt recorded in the official war histories of parties to the battle was authentic.