Japanese Tunnels, Devil's Peak, Below the Gun Batteries. [????- ]

This is only the second set of tunnels (after the ones below Jardines Lookout) where there is something larger than a man-shaped tunnel. Could they have been used for storing ammunition for the emplacements above? Let's hope your book sheds some light on them.

Came across 3 of them on 15/5/2020, we didn't have an idea that there were such sheer drop. Fortunately, no one fell into any of them.

There's another one by the side of the path on the other side facing east, which was blocked already.

I recall looking for these once and ending up on a rough sloped hillside. Is the marker accurate? Are these right off the path?

The first pit we came across just off the path was this one :

22.2903494, 114.242148

Then heading further downhill, there were at least 2 more pits close together, so I only took one GPS reading for them :

22.2903828, 114.2423088

There maybe more scattered in that area, so better move on with great care.

Cheers!

Appreciated the help, I had always been looking in a slightly wrong area. Went down here with Lawrence a week or so ago. The coordinates show a cluster of pits a number of meters in the brush. If you push past these pits down the slight slope East (which appear to be dug as if the Japanese were probing for a proper tunnel location), you come next to a electrical tower and a (barely visible) embankment. Below the embankment is a slight clearing, hidden under dense ferns  there are two tunnels with steep drops craig mentioned. I have never seen tunnels with such sheer openings, they both go about 4-5 meters straight vertical to the first level.

Me and Lawrence came back a few days later with ropes. We explored one of these tunnels, which we thought might link with the other. The tunnel had mysterious depth markings inside and alot of trash at the bottom (as usual). After the entrance portal down there was a split leading about 10 meters off to one side and doubling back under the entrance was another vertical portal to a lower level. The lower level depth was estimated at ~10 meter vertical depth. At the bottom of this portal were two splits going each way. Silted up quite a bit and filled with trash, they continued on for a number of meters each way with only one having an end in sight. In the other, Lawrence found a bamboo pit viper which had slipped into the tunnel. In light of this, we decided not to explore the other tunnel after we got out.

Worth also noting that below the area of these two tunnels, further down the slope to the East was another (smaller) tunnel that also had a vertical portal (but after the entrance). This one seemed completely undiscovered, in a swamp of brush. I might make a different thread for it.

Thanks for the report. I've often wondered what they were like inside.

Any video or photo?

You've got such an adventure in those shafts ... Can't figure out how come there's so much rubbish inside while the vegetation nearby is so dense, it should be able to stop the rubbish from rolling into the shafts.

very nice, i am quite curious about what is inside this tunnel, but i guess i will not go as it seems quite dangerous...

Hi all,

According to the Industrial History of Hong Kong Group, there was beryl mining at Devil's Peak (https://industrialhistoryhk.org/devils-peak-beryl-mine/). The location shown on their website is very close to this one. How do you distinguish Japanese/military tunnels from mining tunnels? What are the common features that Japanese tunnels will have?

Thanks loads!

Good question!

When we started documenting the various tunnels & shafts found around the countryside, we thought that everything was a 'Japanese tunnel', but there were clearly many dug for mining too. How to distinguish them?

One feature I've seen is when a tunnel goes in a short way, then makes a 90-degree turn right, then a 90-degree turn left (or left then right), then continues into the hill. This wouldn't make any sense for a mining tunnel, but was useful to reduce the damage caused if artillery or flame-throwers were fired in to the tunnel. So this is one suggestion for an indication of a Japanese tunnel.

If tunnels start from a British military structure, eg a pillbox or an Artillery Observation Post, I'd count that as a Japanese tunnel.

Vertical shafts seem an unlikely choice for a structure that troops would use, so to me the Place shown by this page seems more likely to be connected with mining.

As others have noted, it can be hard to distinguish between military and mined tunnels. The shape, location and site history can help, along with small details such as a location to store a lamp near the tunnel entrance. But there are other tools, look at the old aerial images from before and after the war at hkmaps.hk to see if the workings are shown or use the new background map 'Red Relief Image Map" that provides an enhances Lidar survey making it easy to spot ground features and excavations. Good hunting and take care.