Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Changi Coastal Defense – Answers to questions raised (by Peter Chan)

In which part of Changi Airport do you think does the end of Tanah Merah Road meet Nicoll Drive?




Which part of the Changi Airport vicinity looks exactly like the RAF Changi era?

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3 comments:

JollyGreenP said...

Thank you Peter,as you know I often used to walk down to the beach from Lloyd Leas Waddington Road along Tanah Merah Besar visiting the cove just to the right of Nichol Drive and Tanah Merah Besar corner by the WWII machine gun post. On our visit to Tanah Merah Besar with you last November I was able to make out the kerbstones marking the entrance into Waddington Road which can seen on yesterday's maps. It is the horseshoe shaped section coming off Tanah Merah Besar. At the junction we found at Waddington Road and Tanah Merah Besar was a shop run by Keng Wah Heng. Behind the shop was a kampong and a track that ran past a sewerage works and led to the prison fence. In the kampong was a concreted area with a well in the middle where you could see catfish swimming about. I presume the catfish were in there to indicate the quality of the water. My younger brother tells stories of going into the Kampong area with some other lads and using the sewage works sprinkler as a roundabout ride. I'm sure he never told mother that he had done that, otherwise I am sure he would have been in trouble. He always had the knack of a younger brother who could shift the blame for anything wrong onto his elder brother even if I was not there!

06 August, 2008
Anonymous said...

I imagine that the west runway for Changi is pretty much the same as the original RAF runway - but much extended in length to the south which in my days was very much open countryside.

As you say the Western Dispersal area is much the same - it was the main dispersal area in the RAF days and would contain an array of aircraft including Hastings, huge Beverleys, visiting Britannia's and Comet 2s (I left on the last one in 1962) and a lot of visitors from other bases in the region. It was an interesting place for aircraft spotters like me! Aircraft would then taxi across the Upper Changi Road to the one runway.

Across the one runway and towards the sea was a smaller dispersal area - this contained the Shackletons of 205 Squadron. This area is now of course under the main airport hub which has been greatly extended by land reclamation to add a second runway and a further RSAF base - all completely new!

06 August, 2008
Lam Chun See said...

John. What you narrated about your younger brother reminds me of an interesting tale by Tom O'brien when I emailed him some photos of the railway bridge at Bukit Timah Road and Dunearn Road, which was near to his home at Hua Guan Ave. He said, his mother almost got a heart attack when one day, the police came to his house becos his younger brother was caught throwing pebbles from that bridge at the cars below. Fortunately for the boy, their father was out of town.

07 August, 2008

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