Surveying & Built Environment Vol. 22 Issue 1 (December 2012)

it proposed holding a line along the
Kowloon Range north of the ceded
Kowloon Peninsula, using infantry
detachments and mobile artillery to
defend the passes over those hills. This
plan remained unchanged until 1910.
THE 1911 dECISIoN To
BuIld
A review of the situation in 1911
still considered any attack on the
Island likely to come through naval
bombardment, naval attacks into
Victoria Harbour, or landed raiding
parties. The attacks on the mainland
would probably come from either
a Chinese Army or a raiding force
of one of the European powers,
Japan still being part of the Anglo-
Japanese Alliance until 1921. Defence
against either would be along the
Kowloon Range, “but this has been
much strengthened by a series of
Blockhouses”. Thirty blockhouses were
Surveying and Built Environment Vol 22, 8-18 Nov 2012 ISSN 1816-9554
built along the ridges, numbered from
1 at Devils Peak in the east, to 30 at Lai
Chi Kok Pass (Tai Po Road) in the west,
divided into five sub-sections. Their
object was to be a base for infantry
carrying out observation duties and
patrols, protect the guns of the movable
(mobile) artillery, and afford protection
to places of importance e.g. the railway
tunnel at Beacon Hill. (CAB 11/58) 6 .
THE loCATIoNS of THE
30 BloCKHouSES
Subject to subsequent confirmatory
ground survey, most of the blockhouse
ruins can be identified on 1963 aerial
photos locations of 30 were plotted
in figure 1. 7 It can be seen that their
general alignment was close to that of
the pillboxes (PBs) of the Gin Drinker’s
Line though even the highest PBs were
seldom found as close to or on ridge
lines.
6 CAB 11/57 and CAB 11/58 are large boxes containing bound copies of the Hong Kong Defence Plan
for various years from about 1894 to 1920 found in the National Archives, Kew.
7 Editor’s note: the only BHs the locations of which have not yet been identified from aerial photos
are those of BH 2, 4, 14, 27, 28 and 30. Those clearly identified were marked precisely in Figure 1.
Courtesy: Mr. Ken S.T. Ching and Mr. Y. K. Tan.
SBE
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