Battlefield Tours Singapore

15/02/2026

84 years later.
1,305 days of occupation.
129,850 recorded civilian deaths.

12/02/2026

Tumbler Ridge

19/01/2026

Marine Ginza waits to top up the bunkers of Diamond Princess, marine fuel sales for 2025 hit a new record for the port of Singapore last year, 56.77 million tonnes, which included 1.95 million tonnes of alternative marine fuels.

07/12/2025

The Yashukan, located next to the shrine became one of those places on the to-do list after I started Battlefield Tours Singapore, this was an extremely difficult museum to navigate, even the souvenir shop products seemed more Rising Sun than Hinomaru.

Considering this is one of the most visited shrines in Japan there must be a considerable number of Japanese who have passed through the museum’s doors and have thus taken in the narrative presented by the museum.

The comparison between Germany and Japan when it comes to their acceptance of their roles in The Second World War is stark and Japan does itself no favours if it doesn’t come to terms with its history.

24/11/2025

A quick check of rates as i’m standing here waiting for guests shows the cheapest nightly rate in the next 6 months to be S$1,665 per night (all taxes included).

19/11/2025

Lunch on tour is always an opportunity to talk about something besides death and destruction. This is a pet bird belonging to guests who went on tour with me earlier this month.

Tell me this doesn’t look like that psycho parrot from Rio

12/10/2025

Brought an ex-Gordon Highlander on tour today, he served during the Cold War and wanted to pay his respects to members of the regiment buried and commemorated at Kranji. There are 53 members of the regiment buried in the War Cemetery and 138 names on the walls of the Singapore Memorial.

2nd Gordons were sent here from Gibraltar in 1937 to form part of the garrison and would be surrendered with the rest of Malaya Command on 15 February 1942.

The Gordons will continue to have a presence here post-war, 1st Gordons deploy in Malaya (‘51-52) for the Malayan Emergency and then again from ‘73-75 as part of 28th Infantry Brigade. A small rear party would be among the last British troops to leave Singapore in late 1975 after handing over Nee Soon Barracks to the SAF.

20/09/2025

This was a tour with a difference, brought a bunch of RI students to visit places old and new and in the wee hours of the morning to boot.

18/09/2025

15/09/2025

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/burnt-japanese-wartime-literature-helmets-among-wwii-artefacts-found-at-alexandra-hospital?utm_campaign=stfb&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook

The artefacts were uncovered in a 2021 archaeological study and during redevelopment works later. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

15/09/2025

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20250911-the-island-remembering-britains-worst-disaster

Britain's surrender of Singapore has long been viewed as a "humiliation". Now, a series of exhibits and tours are revealing how this dark event shaped British and Singaporean identity.

02/09/2025

2 September 1945, the Empire of Japan will formally surrender to the United Nations (yes, that UN). This photograph shows General Douglas MacArthur signing the Japanese Instrument of Surrender in his capacity as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers on the deck of the USS Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay.

As he does this, 2 figures stand out from the mass of Allied officers and men who surround the space. They are Lt General Jonathan Wainright and Lt General Arthur Ernest Percival, one surrendered the Philippines to the Japanese in May 1942 and the other Singapore in February 1942.

This shot shows the moment after MacArthur had given the second of five pens he will use to sign the document to Percival, shown keeping the pen in one of dress pockets, Wainright has his in his right hand.

I’ve always found it significant that MacArthur ensures that these men would stand front and centre at this historic moment, I would like to think that he took the trouble to seek out these men (who were imprisoned in Manchuria when the war ended) and ensured that they would be present at this moment because he understood that these men would forever be linked to the early Allied defeats and the inevitable finger pointing that would come with it.

Another significant object in the background of this photograph is the 31 star flag of the United States that was flown from the flagship of one Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853 when he sailed into Tokyo Bay, bringing an end to 2 centuries of Japanese isolation (sakoku) the following year with the Convention of Kanagawa.

You can find a colourized clip of the Surrender and the moment captured in the photograph here
https://youtu.be/mxUk0STBRIU?t=159

Photo credit: IWM Catalogue number A 30426