File:BL 9.2-inch Mk IV & BL 8-inch Mk VII Guns, Fort Siloso (171304).jpg

English: BL 9.2-inch Mk IV & BL 8-inch Mk VII Guns, Fort Siloso, Sentosa, Singapore.

Left to Right:

• BL 9.2-inch Mk IV
• BL 8-inch Mk VII
• BL 9.2-inch Mk IV

BL (Breech Load) 8-inch Mk VII GUN

Year of origin of gun: 1885

Manufactured at Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne in England, at the Armstrong Works, the 8-inch BL gun was constructed entirely of steel and could be fired by percussion or electrically.

Four Mark VII 8-inch BL guns were mounted in Singapore. Two were at Fort Tanjong Katong, where they replaced the dated 7-inch RML guns, as their efficient breech-loading mechanism made them quicker to load. The other two formed a new coast defence battery atop Mount Serapong, on the eastern end of Sentosa, where they were also found buried.

This gun was mounted at Fort Siloso in 1974. The other gun is presently on display at the Museum of Artillery, Woolwich, England.

BL (Breech Load) 9.2-inch Mk IV

Year of origin of gun: 1890s

The 9.2-inch BL gun was produced in response to the German Krupp 24 cm gun of 1879. They were more powerful than the older RML guns they were replacing and could be fired three times as fast. It quickly became the standard British heavy-coast artillery gun.

One Mark IV gun on a Mark I mounting was placed at Fort Siloso from about 1890 to 1909. Fort Connaught, on the eastern side of the island, was similarly armed and in 1936 was upgraded with three Mark X 9.2-inch guns on Mark VII mountings.

During the war, the Connaught guns fired on Japanese troops at Tengah Airfield. The guns were destroyed by the British on 14 February 1942 to prevent them from falling into Japanese hands. These two 9.2-inch BL Guns were salvaged from Woolwich Loop near the Fort Connaught site and mounted at Fort Siloso in 1974.