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This dissertation, Towards the Conservation of Hong Kong's Military Heritage: the First Survey of the Surviving Military Features at Wong Nai Chung Gap, Hong Kong Island by Siu-tong, Ching, 程肇堂, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: During the Battle of Hong Kong fought in December 1941, Wong Nai Chung Gap was a major battlefield as it was a strategic location. Like almost all battlefields in this Battle, however, the defensive military installations within the subject area, most in ruins nowadays, have never been professionally surveyed with the purpose of mapping the military buildings of the battlefield apart from those reported in Lai et al (2011) to better fathom the flow of battle. Indeed, the only professionally surveyed military relics were those by Lai and Ho for Devil's Peak and Lai, Davies, Ching, Tan and Wong (2011) for Shing Mun Redoubt. All existing historical researches suffer from a lack of accurate mapping information, if at all, essential for understanding the conduct of military hostilities. This thesis illustrates how an accurate exercise locating and mapping of three pillboxes (PB 1, PB2 and PB3), among other war relics in the vicinity, near Wong Nai Chung Gap in Hong Kong Island was performed; and addresses historical and conservation issues using direct on-site measurement by professional mapping techniques. GIS was used as the key tool for analysis and interpretation. The survey results were then used to identify the configurations and distribution of the war relics in Wong Nai Chung area and to verify the authenticity of war diary records provided by the defender on the battle. Precise arcs of fire of key permanent defence structures in relation to the surrounding topography were accurately determined. They help explain and reconstruct a prominent battle that took place some 70 years ago. It should provide a solid referent for war historians, relics' enthusiasts as to how the state-of-art GIS technology can be used in probing key intriguing historical questions. Those addressed in this thesis, in relation particularly to three pillboxes, the observation post (OP) on the summit of Jardines' Lookout and Stanley Gap, are: (1) Did PB 1 really kill that many enemies?(2) Why didn't PB2 report to have fired at enemies along the Ride or Wong Nai Chung Gap?(3) Why didn't PB 3 fire at all?(4) What were the daylight vision of the three PBs and the OP on the 18/19 December 1941?(5) What was the defence philosophy of the pillboxes?(6) Was the Japanese portrait on the battle correct in terms of details?(7) What was the role of the OP on the summit of Jardine's Lookout?(8) Were Brigade Lawson's Headquarters protected by any PB?(9) What were the locations of the military installations now destroyed or buried?(10) What were the locations of the military installations near Stanley Gap? To address the ten questions above, three working hypotheses are established for questions (1) to (3) while accurate on site measurements could be applied in finding the rest of the questions. For question (1), the hypothesis is: PB1 could not kill that many enemies because of faulty or unsatisfactory design. It would be refuted if the beaten zones of machine guns mounted inside the pillboxes could cover the major military strongholds of Wong Nai Chung Gap area. The hypothesis for question (2) is: PB2 did cover all routes of attack but only no information about fires was reported in the war diary. It would be refuted if PB2 had any blind-spot in shooting. The hypothesis f

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