Everything tagged: japanese tunnel

one of two tunnel systems I found skirting round Sai Wan Fort. This one has two entrances, one overlooking what was the bay of Sai Wan. Fairly extensive. The main entrance is easy to find (once you get there): on the road up to the fort,  head north around the hill from where there is some construction next to a resting area. There is a few minutes of bush whacking but there is a path created by workers who've been making the hillside safer.

Craig spotted this one on the 1945 photo shown below:

If you zoom toward the lefthand side of the photo, to where to roads bend out of sight towards deepwater bay, you should be able to see 3 massive Japanese Tunnel entrances.

I always suspected they were there as you can make out a very square looking bricked up section, but it has mostly been sprayed with concrete so its difficult to notice now.  You can also see where they tipped all of the dug out rocks and earth down the side of the hill.

Thanks to Craig for showing me these yesterday. There are three tunnels close to each other. The two outer tunnels are the usual shape and size for people, and the middle tunnel is larger. None of them go back more than a few feet into the hillside, as though they started digging then decided against it.

The map marker's location is approximate, but if you follow the concrete path around the 'giant golf ball', you can see these just a few feet away from the railings, down the slope.

Craig showed this one to me yesterday. It runs straight back into the rock for a short distance. It's bigger than the usual tunnels we see. Craig guesses it was for an Anti-Aircraft gun.

This is a tunnel system believed to be built by the Japanese in WWII, i first visited it back in 2004

The Location and Getting There

It is to the south-west from the summit of Jardine's Lookout, next to a footpath which leads down to the two PB JLO1 and JLO2.

To get there i started from the AA site of HKVDC in Wong Ngai Chung Gap and followed the catch water towards JLO2. Took the stairs up JLO2 then continue pass the summer cottage, which passes a small tunnel mentioned here http://gwulo.com/node/2560

In the video you'll hear me say there are two areas that mark the collapsed entrances to tunnels. Certainly the second area we can see shows a collapsed section of tunnel, but later Craig mentioned he believes the first area was the site for an anti-aircraft gun.

Along the slope we could see two entrances, one open and one blocked. Once inside we could see they were connected by this U-shaped tunnel:

After the two short tunnels we saw earlier, we didn't expect much from this. But the fact there was a breeze indicated there would be at least one other exit open.

A couple of collapses at the front of the tunnel. They are quite common, as the start of the tunnel was dug through earth. Once they hit the rock, the tunnels are usually in good shape.

This is a bit unusual, in that the first section into the hill is wider than usual. It soon narrows though.

The other thing that is unusual is that there's a mound of spoil from the excavation just in front of the tunnel. Typically there isn't much sign of the spoil, and I've assumed it they's moved it away so it didn't show up in aerial photos.

Perhaps this was dug by a different group, or dug very late in the occupation and was a work in progress?

Here's the view inside: