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

SBE
32
Reconstructing The Early History of the Gin Drinker’s Line from Archival Sources
Except PB 414 and 419, the layout of
other pillboxes closely resembled the
design stipulated in the Manual of Field
Engineering of the Royal Engineers
(RE), issued in 1936 44 . Most of them
had a width of 5.5-6m and a length
of 2.5-4m and had two embrasures,
such as those found at the Shing Mun
Redoubt. Lawrence Lai et al. had
conducted detailed research on these
more standardised pillboxes, 45 with the
only difference being the absence of
the concrete wall within the pillboxes.
As the previous RE Manual was issued
in 1925, the two pillboxes illustrated
above were probably “experimental
pieces”. Currently, there is only
circumstantial evidence to prove that
they were the first British pillboxes
built across the British Empire during
the Interwar Period, but they certainly
predated the pillboxes built on the
British Isles in 1940. 46 Further research
is required to discern the ways in
which the Hong Kong pillboxes did
or did not influence the design of their
counterparts at home, or were linked
to late WW1 designs, or designs being
used in contemporary British India.
The Changing Purpose of the Line
The planned use of the Line changed
over time. In the Defence Scheme
of 1936, General Bartholomew saw
the Line as the final position of the
mainland garrison:
In the event of the enemy
achieving considerable successes
north and west or east of
the “Inner Line” – by sheer
weight of numbers or by the
synchronization of his thrusts –
it is the Fortress Commander’s
intention to delay the enemy
from every direction and finally
to fight the issue out to a finish
in the “Inner Line”
…even the smallest of foremost
defended localities must fight
out to the last man and the last
round...troops (will be) fighting
their way back steadily to the
“line of the Passes,” where the
final issue will be fought out to a
finish. 47
Throughout the Defence Scheme,
Bartholomew made no provision for the
withdrawal of troops from the mainland
to Hong Kong Island. The Kowloon
garrison was expected to be destroyed
in the attempt to impose maximum
delay on the advancing enemy in order
to prevent the capture of the Island.
As he had deployed three out of four
battalions of the garrison to Kowloon,
Bartholomew was seemingly confident
that the Line would enable the garrison
to resist until reinforcement arrived.
Nonetheless, sources suggested that he
was less sanguine about the possibility
of holding Hong Kong with the existing
garrison. When he was replaced by
Major General Arthur Grasett in 1938,
he urged the War Office to deploy at
least eight battalions in order to allow
44
War Office, Manual of Field Engineering, 2 vols., London: HMSO, 1933-36. Vol. 1, All Arms; Vol.2,
Royal Engineers, the design is in vol.2.
45
Lai LWC (2009), 16-41.
46
Lowry B, The Gin Drinker’s Line: Its Place in the History of Twentieth Century Fortification, 61-62.
47
Hong Kong Defence Scheme (1936), Hong Kong Public Records Office, 343.01 HON, 58-59, 63.