Kranji Commonwealth War Cemetery, War Memorial and State Cemetery Visit

Memorial Plaque & Surrounding Areas

A couple of memorial plaques are placed just outside the steps to the cemetery and memorial. They are well maintained and are like works of art themselves as the plaque below illustrates. It is a tribute to the men of one of the failed operations during WWII.




National Heritage Board has a heritage trail which the Kranji War Memorial is a part of. For more information, visit their website.




Each historical spot has a sign board to mark it and one side explains the historical or cultural significance and the other side has a simplified map of the trail and the list of sites like below.




As you can see below, we have fought up to ELEVEN world wars! ROAR! why?! Also some of the other sites sound really boring like poultry farm, frog farm and fish farms.





Next: The Cemetery
Back:The Entrance

Kranji Commonwealth War Cemetery, War Memorial and State Cemetery Visit

The Entrance

The entrance to the cemetery is has the brown signboard like all places of interest. It is listed in English, Chinese, Malay and Japanese. Hey where is the Tamil folks? :)






Transportation into the Cemetery is slightly poor with buses 160, 170, 178, 960, 961 and 961C stopping at the Woodlands Road bus stop and one would have to walk a couple of hundred metres in.

Kranji MRT is somewhere in the vicinity too. Heh.




As you can see below it is a long lonely stretch of road in.




As you come up to the entrance you will see the War Memorial framed by this U-shaped gate and it is striking how perfectly aligned they are to each other.




Also for some reason part of this area is considered a State Cemetery as shown by the sign on the right hidden partially by a stubborn bush. I found out later that this is the Kranji State Cemetery which is maintained most likely by taxpayers' money unlike the Kranji Commonwealth Cemetery and Kranji War Memorial which is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC).





Next: Memorial Plaque 
Back: Prologue

Kranji Commonwealth War Cemetery, War Memorial and State Cemetery Visit

Prologue

After perhaps what was years of procrastination, I have finally made my way with my Dad to Kranji War Memorial to visit the Kranji War Memorial. These men and women who had sacrificed more than anyone of us and it is with no small sacrifice of these people whom I strongly believe that we owe a lot to, but somehow sadly seem to overlook often, that has brought our nation where it is today.

Perhaps more would come I hope in the future to pay tribute, look around those who are no longer here and just say in their hearts a simple "thank you" and to carry on their memory. A small thing to do no? for something as intangible and invaluable they gave up. Whether it was for us, for comrades, for someone else, for King or for country, they deserve a note of thanks and gratefulness from us.

Someone summed it up nicely with an epitaph inscription in The War Cemetery in Kohima, Burma which reads "When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say, For Your Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today".


Before we begin, for those who want a more in-depth background of the site and surrounding features, here are the recommended links below

1. Commonwealth War Graves Commission link about Kranji War Cemetery. A PDF of the layout can be found at the CWGC website in a linked "View Cemetery Plan" on the right side.
2. Wikipedia Page about Kranji War Memorial
3. Wikipedia Page about Kranji State Cemetery
4. YourSingapore a Singapore Tourism Board destination brand site about Kranji War Memorial
5. Wikipedia Page about Cross of Sacrifice

Next: The Entrance

Lego 6243 Brickbeard's Bounty

Final Thoughts

This set was bought second-hand on Bricklink and was quite a good price. It is a must get set if you like pirates. No pirates collection can be complete without this flagship of Brickbeard. It has the very cool shark as well which is quite rare. If offers cannons which shoot and the funky cargo net system with a monkey on it. My Imperial flagship would now have contemporary to be with. Chronologically in terms of release, this set was release first but no matter, these 2 sets got well together like peas in a pod. Pirates being red themed and Imperial Guards having blue. I leave this review with pictures of the whole set.

Back: The Build - Captain's Cabin, Bridge and the rest

Lego 6243 Brickbeard's Bounty

The Build - Captain's Cabin, Bridge and the rest

Here is the captain's cabin at 25% build. The dark red and pearl gold goes well with the reddish brown in the rest of the ship.

It is fantastic to see how well dark red, reddish brown and pearl gold all blends in to make the captain's cabin looking rather majestic. This is at 50% build.

At 75% build the captain's cabin looks pretty complete.

The fully complete captain's cabin adds a cannon, the lamps and rails at the bridge level.

Finally, we add the bridge and the captain's cabin together. We cannot leave the gold treasure chest behind. I do wonder whether real ships of that era had stern facing cannons though.

Mounting the bridge and captain's cabin together with the ship base. The ship looks quite empty at this stage and later additions would start to fill it up nicely. In fact at this stage the rear of the ship is nearly complete. As mentioned earlier, the colour scheme just looks great.

Now to the part of filling up the ship. At 25% build, we add on one of the mast with the pirate flag and the mermaid figurehead.

After that, at the halfway mark, we have the other mast and the cargo net system thing.

At 100% build, the sails are up and they are ready to sail and plunder the riches of the sea and world

And here is the rear shot view of the ship. Gorgeous.

Next: Final Thoughts
Back: Prologue