Hello everyone. it has been quite a while since I did a post here and I do apologise for this. I have been working on a video production all about the Battle of Bukit Batok. I have also received many leads from you readers for new articles like photos of the former estate band, the Pest Infested, a series of of photos of the old HDB Hillview Estate, and I have also yet to publish the unseen photos of the Hillview Mansion interior. I will do this all later this year.
I would like to share with you my latest video production about the war that occurred in 1942 around the Hillview/Bukit Batok region.
While many of you may have learnt in school or heard about the Battle for Singapore, Bukit Timah is often mentioned. Yet many do not really know where in Bukit Timah the actual battles took place. There is a heritage marker on Bukit Timah Hill itself but it wasn't only on the hill itself that the British army fought the Japanese army.
So my video was to focus on one of the battles that took place here at Bukit Batok, a fact many people don't realise, and were shocked to learn that more than 1,000 British soldiers died around here, especially for those still living in the area.
Do enjoy the show, you are most welcome to give me your comments and please help to support my video channel by giving it a 'Like' and share the video with your friends. Wishing you all a happy and blessed new year 2022, and continue to stay safe.
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Recently, I was invited to lead a heritage tour for a group of Australians. They had one thing in common. All of them had a relative who either fought or died in Singapore during World War Two. They wanted to follow in detail the footsteps that their grandfathers or grand-uncles had taken during the war here. And remarkably, each of their relative had fought at Bukit Batok, then known as West Bukit Timah.
Without going into too much details, here in brief is what had happened at the battle for Bukit Batok.
(Photo source: Australian War Memorial)
On 8th February 1942, the Imperial Japanese Army invaded Singapore by landing at the beaches at Lim Chu Kang.
The following day, 9th Feb 1942, the British forces tried to set up a blockade at the Bulim area. This was called the Kranji-Jurong Line. The strategy was to prevent the invaders from going past the area between the Kranji and Jurong Rivers.
The planned blockade failed even before the opposing Japanese forces had reached this frontline.
Of the four groups sent to form the blockade, two withdrew far from the battle line, while another two units retreated back to the base of Bukit Batok hill to face the oncoming Japanese army there.
These latter two units were the 15th Indian Brigade and the Special Reserve Battalion.
The 15th Indian Brigade comprised the Jat Regiment, the British Regiment, the Punjab Regiment and the Leicestershire Regiment. Each regiment was deployed to defend the front-line which was basically along Jurong Road.
A further two expeditionary forces called X Battalion and Merret's Force were also sent to assist the 15th Brigade in defending Jurong Road. X Battalion was dug in to defend Hill 138, which was the Jurong I Trigonometry Station, just south of the 9th milestone Jurong Road. Merret's Force was unable to locate their planned defence position at Jurong Road but took up a new position south of X Battalion.
Just before midnight of 10th February 1942, the Japanese army confronted the defending British Forces along Jurong Road, and thus, the battle of Bukit Batok began.
First along the line was X Battalion that was caught off guard. They lost 280 men out of their force of 400, killed in battle that night. This was followed by the almost total decimation of Merret's Force at Toh Guan, losing a further 120 soldiers.
Skirmishes continued along Jurong Road with the Special Reserve Battalion who managed to hold off a few forward thrusts by the Japanese till morning.
By daybreak, the Brigade Commander, knowing that he was almost surrounded, decided that their forces would retreat south to Reformatory Road where their allies were. They began their retreat by going through the farmland and rubber estate south of Jurong Road. At a rubber estate called Sleepy Valley, the retreating British forces were ambushed by the Japanese soldiers.
You can follow the story of this ambush here at this link.
You may not be able to understand a battlefield map but here is an account of the battle at Bukit Batok from a Japanese perspective and how the Imperial Japanese Army moved through the region. Further to the Japanese map, I have included some illustrations below to explain the battle that took place at Bukit Batok on the night of 10th Feb 1942.
Extract from a Japanese map showing the battle at Bukit Batok.
This is the same area of Bukit Batok as mentioned in the Japanese map above.
The snaking 'white line' running across the picture is Jurong Road.
(click on the pictures for a detailed view)
Here I have superimposed the roads that are found today running through Bukit Batok New Town.
Please take the MRT Station for your reference to the 'blank' photo above.
(Click the picture for detailed view)
These were the areas that were defended by the British forces on 10th Feb 1942.
The area on the left from Jurong Road to Jurong River was the southern part of the "Kranji-Jurong Line"
This was defended by the 44th Indian Brigade which withdrew to Pasir Panjang before the battle.
The area on the right is at the base of Bukit Batok Hill (today called Hillview and Bukit Batok East)
This was where the 15th Indian Brigade, the Special Reserve Battalion and X Battalion
were entrenched to defend Jurong Road
The red arrows shows the movement of the invading Japanese forces through Bukit Batok.
(click on the picture for a detailed view)
This is the entire battlefield today as seen from the high-rise block at Skyline II.
The road in the foreground, Bukit Batok East Ave 6, would approximate the former Jurong Road.
In past articles, I described some interesting places found around Princess Elizabeth Estate.
I had also mentioned some places in the vicinity being famous as World War II heritage sites like Bukit Batok Hill and Ford Motor factory.
From historical records, we learned that Bukit Batok and Bukit Timah were the places where some of the fiercest battles were fought between the defending British forces against the invading Imperial Japanese Army.
Though there is a heritage marker at the top of Bukit Batok Hill and another at Bukit Timah Hill, most people today do not know exactly where these battlefields were. I will take you to one of the sites of a battle at Bukit Batok.
One of the most tragic events of the war in Singapore happened at a place called Sleepy Valley.
Sleepy Valley was a rubber estate in then what was called West Bukit Timah. Today the area is called Bukit Batok.
During a retreat from the enemy forces, a whole battalion comprising 1500 Australian, British and Indian soldiers was trapped and almost annihilated by the Imperial Japanese Army.
Of the 1500 men, only 400 eventually managed to escape from the ambush.
A little background of the war till that time:
At 10.30 pm on 8th Feb 1942, the Japanese Army crossed the Straits of Johor and invaded Singapore through the Lim Chu Kang Sarimbun area. These areas were defended mainly by British soldiers from the Australian regiments.
By 9th Feb, the British forces were pushed backed where they formed a defensive formation called the "Jurong Line". The Jurong Line covered the entire stretch from Kranji River in the north to the Jurong River in the south. Tactically, this blockade would contain the Japanese forces within the western sector of Singapore island.
However, the Jurong Line didn't hold, and by the afternoon, the British forces began retreating again.
(Photo; Old Ford Factory Museum)
In the above war movement map, you can see the Allied forces spread out along the Jurong Line.
The British 12th Brigade in the north retreated towards Bukit Panjang and defended its position there.
The British 44th Brigade located south at the Jurong River, retreated towards Pasir Panjang and the City.
In the centre, the British 15th Brigade and the Australian Special Reserve Battalion moved east towards Bukit Timah.
It is this last group of soldiers under the command of Brigadier Coates that re-grouped and fought the Japanese around Bukit Batok* area.
By the evening of 10th Feb, the commander realised that they were almost surrounded by the Japanese and made plans for his troops to retreat south through Sleepy Valley towards the British lines at Ulu Pandan. This was to be at first light in the morning of 11th Feb 1942.
(* I use the term Bukit Batok as a reference to the area found today. In 1942 the entire area was still called "Jurong/West Bukit Timah" . Bukit Batok region was named by HDB/MND after the 1970s.)
Unknown to the retreating British forces, the Japanese Army 18th Division, whom they had been fighting, had already bypassed them along the ridge line that borders today's Jalan Jurong Kechil. (See the black arrow movements above)
The British forces regrouped, in an area where today the Bukit Batok Nature Park and St Mary of the Angels Church lies, and was ordered to move in columns through Sleepy Valley.
AMBUSH !
This escape route was unfortunately open farmlands with little cover and the Japanese Army had them trapped when they closed the pincer movement at the end of the valley, a location where today's traffic turnoff from Toh Tuck Road to PIE lies.
The result was that 1100 men out of 1500 were killed at Sleepy Valley. By 10.30 pm, only 400 soldiers managed to escaped from the Japanese to the Australian defence line at Ulu Pandan.
An aerial view of the region where the British forces were caught in the open
Today, this former battle site, Sleepy Valley, is long forgotten. Very few now have heard of it, much less know about its tragic history.
Bukit Batok East Ave 3 runs through it with Yusof Ishak Secondary School and condominiums like Park View and Burgundy Hill occupying the site where the massacre of British forces took place.
A graphic representation of the final movements of 15 Brigade and Special Reserve Battalion
superimposed on today's street map showing the location of the Sleepy Valley battle ground.
If you live in Bukit Batok or will pass through it, do remember this unmarked heritage site where once men fought and died for their country.
The Bukit Batok area today where the tragedy took place on 10th & 11th Feb 1942.
(Click on photo for enlarged view)
An aerial view of the intended withdrawal of British Forces from Jurong Road to Reformatory Road. (click for a detailed view)
UPDATE: JANUARY 2022
I made a Youtube video about the Japanese Invasion of Singapore, more specifically about the Battle that occured at Bukit Batok and Sleepy Valley. Please watch the video at the link here for a better understanding of the entire battle. https://youtu.be/07CuvhZFOGc
