AOP at the summit of Jardine's Lookout [????- ]

Submitted by tngan on Tue, 10/21/2008 - 16:57
Current condition
Unknown

Hi there,

I found there is a white cube of rock at the summit, past the trigonomatrical station, right besides the fence.

I couldn't find any marks on it.   Does anybody know whether it is a natural rock formation or artificial?

Best Regards,

T

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Photos that show this Place

Jardine's observation post, roof diggings.
2004
Jardines observation post, destroyed window c.
2004
Jardines observation post destroyed window a.
2004
See more photos of this place

Comments

Hi T,

I had exactly the same question back in may when walking here. Luckily I was with a friend who was more persistent than me - he decided it was a ventilation shaft, and looked around for evidence.

If you look down over the front of the railing, the evidence is clear! Here's the view into the structure. You can see the square opening in the ceiling at the back, which leads up to the filled-in block you saw up on top.

Jardines Lookout Observation Post

Here's the view from the doorway showing the trench, then a little way along the trench there is a small trench  to the right, then there's the view looking back towards the door.

Jardines Lookout Observation Post
Jardines Lookout Observation Post
Jardines Lookout Observation Post

'Not the slightest chance' has an entry for 6:30am on 19 Dec 1941. It describes two platoons of the Winnipeg Grenadiers heading towards the summit of Jardine's Lookout. They fight the Japanese and take the hill, but are eventually beaten off by further Japanese attacks. It doesn't mention anything about who was manning this structure before that time though, which seems strange.

I'm guessing it was an observation post, like the one on the slope of High West.

MrB

The Royal Artillery's war diary mentions:

At about 0800 hrs [on 19th Dec] all communications with RA Central at Wong Nei Chong were cut. [...] Lt B E Platts who had been manning an Observation Post in the area of Jardine's Lookout was also killed in this vicinity.

This is also reported in the 08.00 entry for 19 Dec in Not The Slightest Chance. I wonder if the Observation Post mentioned here is the structure at the summit of Jardine's Lookout?

We walked past here last weekend, and stopped for a short while to take a few more photos. First is the view from inside, looking out. You can see that the original neat opening had been blown in:

Observation Post at Jardine's Lookout

Tom Marsh was one of the Canadian soldiers who defended this hilltop. Chapter 4 of his memoirs describe that time in detail, including the explosion that likely made the hole in the front wall shown in the photo above:

Suddenly there came a terrific explosion. They had scored a direct hit on the pillbox. I was blown into the connecting tunnel flat on my face. I felt someone rush over me as I crawled out into the main trench. When I reached the end of a small branch trench I lost consciousness.

[...] I again passed out and remembered no more until I awoke to a fine drizzle of rain in the darkness.

There was no movement from the pillbox. All was quiet. Only the dead remained. There was just enough light for me to see my way around. I sat up. It was cold. This and the rain had no doubt revived me. I found that I had little or no use of my left arm. Later I learned it had been broken when I was blown out of the blockhouse. After a while, when the sky became a little lighter, I struggled to my feet and made my way back into the pillbox. It was deserted and partly collapsed.

The layout he describes, including the exit trench and small side trench, are all still clearly visible today.

The other thing I noticed on this visit was the front corner:

Observation Post at Jardine's Lookout

Whereas the pillboxes have stones embedded in gravel as a form of camouflage, this building has raised bumps of concrete. The other place we've seen this is on the observation post at High West. I guess that the pillboxes and observation posts were either built at different times, or by different contractors. So in future if we see this 'raised bump' appearance, we can guess it is one of the Royal Artillery's observation posts we're looking at.

Hi all. Very interesting input.  I have been down the historical trail past JL01/2, but have never been to this AOP. To get to this AOP, do I just take a right at the fork past the old anti-aircraft battery, instead of going down the historical trail on Jardines Catchwater?

Thanks