The Battle Box is the popular name of the Fort Canning Bunker, formerly known as Headquarters Malaya Command Operations Bunker, constructed under Fort Canning Hill, Singapore, as an emergency, bomb-proof command centre during the Malayan Campaign and the Battle of Singapore. The Battle Box is currently a museum and tourist attraction. History Given its position in the western Pacific ocean, Singapore had long been recognised as being strategically important for the Royal Navy to counter the growing influence of the Japanese, who were regarded as being the logical threat to Britain's interests in the Far East and the Pacific. To counter this, the Admiralty devised the Singapore strategy, which required a well equipped naval base. Accordingly, the Singapore Naval Base was constructed on the north shore of Singapore Island. The base, and its associated defences, required a large British military presence on the island. Fort Canning Hill was used by the British Army as their headquarters in Singapore, with a number of buildings built for this purpose in the 1920s. However, the lack of a headquarters combining all three services present in Singapore – the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force – was appreciated in 1936 by the then Colonel Arthur Percival, the Chief of Staff to General Dobbie, 'General Officer Commanding, Malaya'. To remedy this, a Combined Operations Headquarters was proposed for Fort Canning. Construction Fort Canning Hill is a small hill in the Central Area of Singapore Island. Stamford Raffles had built a residence there in 1823, but when the Straits Settlement, which included Singapore, became a crown colony in 1867, a fort was constructed on the hill. However, by the turn of the century, the construction of other defences around Singapore rendered the Fort Canning fortifications surplus to requirements. Located nearly 30 feet beneath the hill, the Fort Canning Bunker, also known as the Headquarters Malaya Command Operations Bunker, was constructed in 1936 and completed by 1941. Sources vary as to the number of rooms in the bunker; one states 22, while another, authored by the journalist who rediscovered the Battle Box, claims 29 rooms. The bunker was constructed with one metre thick (3 feet) reinforced concrete walls to withstand direct hits from bombs and shells. The complex included a telephone exchange connected to all military and most civilian switchboards in Malaya, various signals and operations rooms, sleeping quarters and latrines. The bunker also included a