Singapore Naval Base

The Singapore Naval Base was a cornerstone of British Defence policy in the Far East between the Wars.

After the Great War, the British government devoted significant resources into building a naval base in Singapore, as a deterrent to the increasingly ambitious Japanese Empire.

Originally announced in 1923, the construction of the base proceeded slowly until the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931. When completed in 1939, at a staggering cost of GBP60 million ref|Morris2 (equivalent to £2,500 Million in 2006). The dock covered 21 square miles and had what was then the largest dry dock in the world, the third-largest floating dock, and enough fuel tanks to support the entire British navy for six months. It was defended by heavy 15-inch naval guns stationed at Fort Siloso, Fort Canning and Labrador, as well as a Royal Air Force airfield at Tengah Airbase. Winston Churchill touted it as the "Gibraltar of the East."

References

Morris, James Farewell the Trumpets, Penguin Books, 1979, p453