The Battle for Hong Kong 1941-1945

by Oliver Lindsay

Thereafter the Battalion was withdrawn to positions on Mount Nicholson, from where it could overlook the Gap and prevent any movement to the west.

  The Japanese were finding the fighting more difficult than they had anticipated. The six battalions ashore by dawn on the 19th had become uncoordinated due to the initial Rajput resistance and the unfamiliarity of the ground. Colonel Shoji’s 3rd Battalion, short of ammunition, had suffered the heaviest casualties and was still unable to capture the Gap, where D Company of the Winnipeg Grenadiers was holding out. Shoji sent his apologies to the Divisional Commander at Tai Koo Docks. Colonel Doi’s left battalion had been delayed by heavy artillery fire; many of the Japanese wounded had not been evacuated because the medical units had not arrived. The dying and wounded of all combatants were lying abandoned in the rain and darkness.

  * * * * *

  The map of Hong Kong Island shows the Allied front line on 19th December. It ran south of Causeway Bay to Mount Nicholson and on towards Deep Water Bay and was held by the Middlesex, Volunteers, Royal Scots and Punjabis.

  In the south, Brigadier Wallis, with the Royal Rifles, Middlesex, Volunteers and Gunners, was holding the line from Repulse Bay to the east.

  * * * * *

  The Gloucester arcade in the centre of Victoria was packed day and night by Chinese sheltering on the cold concrete. Trash and ruin littered the streets, crumbled stone blocked the pavements. Fifth columnists, gangsters and thieves were busily at work, looting, murdering and sniping, adding to the chaos as best they could.

  Government stocks of rice were being sold in Victoria at ten cents-worth per person. Chinese University students tried to keep the crowds in orderly lines.

  Air raid sirens screamed while the heavy rumble of guns gradually became louder. Numb despair crept over Europeans and Chinese alike. Most British families thought it too dangerous to stay in their houses; those who could fled to the leading hotels, although their servants were loath to see them go. All were now committed to war work. Americans and other foreigners had joined one or other of the various Volunteer Defence Auxiliary services. Nurses, air raid wardens, food and transport workers grimly stood to their posts.

  * * * * *

  Ten days earlier it had all been very different. The Americans had entered the war; the Chinese were said to be advancing south to relieve the Colony; encouraging reports were coming from the Mainland; a string of stirring, optimistic messages from Churchill, Brooke-Popham, Sir Mark Young, Maltby and others were eagerly relayed around the Crown Colony.

  “The city carried on as usual,” recalls John Harris of the Royal Engineers. “The shops and offices were all open. It was as if Hong Kong for centuries had seen these flaps before. The story still prevailed that the Japanese could neither move nor see at night! The very first morning that the enemy bombed Kai Tak, my watch broke so I went in uniform into Victoria, to Lane Crawford, the Asprey’s of Hong Kong, to replace it. The staff there were in morning coats. The head of the department, an Englishman, asked me why I had chosen a cheap replacement. ‘Oh!’ he said. ‘You can have any watch in the shop you like. And there’s no need to pay.’ Then he added the prophetic words, ‘None of our watches will be here in a few weeks’ time.’ At least one man knew what was going on; they were all looted.

  “Then I drove back in my Morris car to my position at the Dairy Farm near Mount Davis in the northwest of the Island.

  “My job, as already related,” (continues John Harris), “was to carry out engineering tasks of any description, with about a dozen others, in the northwest – keeping the water pumps going, repairing bomb damaged equipment, keeping the roads partly destroyed by shells open and so on.

  “I particularly remember the night of 18th December. It was exceptionally dark; the sky was overcast, with frequent showers of rain. Thick black smoke was blown across the harbour from the burning oil tanks at North Point which the Japanese artillery had set alight to obscure their crossing. Occasionally there was a brilliant red flash across the sky as the enemy hit another strategic point, which burnt fiercely. It was like daylight for a minute; I could almost read from the glow.

  “I was very close to Mount Davis, the Royal Artillery West Fire Command Headquarters, with its massive 9.2-inch guns, its Fire Command Post, Fortress and Battery Observation Posts, Plotting Rooms, encoder and much else. Learning later of the heavy casualties inflicted on the enemy by our artillery, I took great pride in their success, not that I really knew what was going on,” remembers John Harris.

  The Mount Davis gun position was clearly a key enemy objective to destroy at the first opportunity. At 4.00 p.m. on 13th December, the position was heavily shelled. The battery’s top gun, which had been particularly useful for landwards firing, was hit by a dud shell which damaged the inside of the bore; if the gauge – a standard measure to which things must conform – would not pass, then a shell could not be fired.3

  “Fortunately about one in three of the Japanese shells, throughout the battle for Hong Kong, failed to explode. A 9-inch shell had entered the Fortress HQ plotting room – the holy of holies – and did not go off. Eventually the shell was dislodged. Very plainly on the case were stamped the words ‘Woolwich Arsenal, 1908’.

  “On 14th December I could see that Mount Davis was being heavily shelled: the anti-aircraft gun site was severely damaged and nine men killed. One gun was demolished and the other could only fire over open sights with no assistance from height or range finding instruments,” continues John Harris.

  “Two days later the Mount Davis Battery Plotting Room was hit by another dud: it worked its way through a ventilation shaft and finished up covering the 20 men there with dust and debris, all lucky to be alive. Forty-eight hours later all communications with Royal Artillery Central at the Wong Nei Chong Gap were cut when Brigadier Lawson’s HQ was overrun. Major G E S Proes was amongst the many Gunners killed there. (Some 40 years later Oliver Lindsay took Proes’s son to the precise spot: the tragedy and sorrow can be imagined.) Attempts were made at Wong Nei Chong Gap to bring artillery fire onto the Japanese whom the Royal Scots were attacking but it proved impossible to support them with effective fire owing to the mountainous terrain.

  “In due course the Mount Davis gun position was so heavily bombed all the guns were put out of action and the Gunners were swept up in the fighting elsewhere. This is typical of what happened to other artillery locations.

  “During this period, I and the few other Sappers with me all slept as best we could on the concrete Dairy Farm floors by day in order to spend each night patrolling between Mount Davis and the Naval Base at Aberdeen. Our mission was to prevent the Japanese landing on the northwest shoreline and infiltrating through our lines. They had already tried an unsuccessful landing on Aberdeen Island,” recalls John Harris.

  “The Winnipeg Grenadiers, who had been there, and many Royal Navy personnel from their base, had all been committed to the battles to the east, and so our rather forlorn Royal Engineer patrol seemed to be the only one patrolling the area. The road running through the Wong Nei Chong Gap and centre of the Island was held by the Japanese, making the busy road we patrolled in the west important, for it was now the only one connecting the south of the Island – Stanley and Repulse Bay – with the north – Victoria and the Wanchai.

  “On 19th December, after receiving a lot of contradictory orders, about ten of us under command of Major Parsons were ordered to climb the hills above Aberdeen, leaving our transport there. An officer told us to lie in a broad line amongst the scrub and rocks there. Our position gave no protection from the continuous shelling. We could see several fires and parts of the road which led from Repulse Bay to the Wong Nei Chong Gap. Clouds descended upon us from Victoria Peak; it was a miserable cold day. I felt helpless. I reflected on my life for I could see no way that I could survive the next few hours.

  “At 6.00 p.m. my group was ordered to move to the Ridge which lies just south of the Gap. (It is marked on the map of Hong Kong Island and a photograph of t
he Ridge is at No. 7.) There were about five big houses there, all in a state of defence. It was under occasional heavy mortar bombardment because it was in a fairly important place, blocking any Japanese approach from the Gap.

  “After a two-hour hard march we reached the Ridge and found up to 200 people running and firing in all directions. Some Japanese fired back from a catchwater 100 feet above us, inflicting some casualties. The position was being strengthened by barricades connecting one house to another and by stragglers, isolated from their units, drifting in.

  “I saw quite clearly the attack on the Wong Nei Chong Gap police station, part of which was on fire. In the darkness amidst the chaos we didn’t know what to do. I was carrying a large, heavy revolver which was awkward to manage and did not fill me with confidence. You must remember that we Sappers were not really intended to act as infantry; we were cold, wet and had had no food since early morning. To our relief the officer in charge, Lieutenant Colonel E C Frederick of the Royal Army Service Corps, told us that the Ridge was full and ordered us to ‘get out’ and return to the Dairy Farm and man the shoreline below it. We retraced our footsteps back down the narrow road cut through the rock, under cover of the rocks on the north side of the road, and eventually picked up our transport at Aberdeen; all the buildings were without light and there was no movement in the streets. We reached the Dairy Farm at about 2 a.m., lay down on the concrete floor and fell asleep instantly.

  “I will describe what happened at the Ridge after we had gone because it was typical of the muddle which was going on at the Repulse Bay Hotel and elsewhere.

  “Lieutenant Colonel R A P Macpherson had no confidence in the Ridge’s defences and ordered a mixed group of Royal Navy and RASC to leave. On moving south they came across two crashed trucks which had been ambushed. The Japanese were beneath the vehicles firing at the group, some of whom returned to the Ridge. ‘We were reduced to drinking water from the fire-buckets and what rain water we could catch,’ reported Captain A H Potts.4 ‘The Japs had cut off the water supply. The stench was awful because the lavatories could not be flushed, and some of our foolish troops continued to use them instead of going outside.’ Night came with pouring rain. The following morning, Sunday 21st December, was brighter. The Japanese had grown so confident that they had erected a tent within sight of the Ridge; their reconnaissance aircraft circled overhead. On Mount Nicholson they had spread out their flags to mark their positions.

  “That afternoon Major C A Young of the Royal Rifles arrived, amidst cheers, at the Ridge with A Company after an unsuccessful attempt to break through to the Gap from Repulse Bay. Towards dusk two ambulances made the perilous run to evacuate wounded but the Japanese fired on them. Even so, after dark they were removed, apart from Macpherson who refused to leave despite himself being wounded.

  “The telephones were still largely working; Macpherson was told by Maltby that he could abandon the position. Messages were relayed to Repulse Bay in French in case the Japanese were listening.

  “The enemy decided to assault and surrounded the buildings, losing men in the process. Macpherson decided to surrender and went out with a white flag but was shot at so returned indoors. Captain Strellett of the Volunteers waved a white sheet fixed to a handle. He could feel the bullets hitting it so left the flag by a window. Macpherson went outside to hail the Japanese but fell wounded a second time. Fortunately some did succeed in escaping through a nullah later that night.”

  A Company of the Royal Rifles remained at another house called Altamira on the other side of the road. Major Young remembers that “The enemy closed in on us but we held them off for three hours until darkness came. I had the men remove their noisy boots, and we cut our way through 28 barbed wire entanglements trying to reach the Repulse Bay Hotel. I told the Company that from then on it was each man for himself and to filter through in small parties; it was almost daylight so we had to hide among rocks until the following night. Eventually four parties started out, each under an officer. Two of these officers were later found with their hands tied behind their backs – killed by bayonet wounds.”

  The Japanese hunted down those who had left the Ridge and other areas. One British officer was about to be executed when a Japanese noticed that he was wearing the First World War Victory Medal, which they had also received. “Ah! Japanese decoration! Let him go,” they cried.

  The prisoners were taken to Eucliffe, a Chinese millionaire’s castle on the north shore of Repulse Bay. Having been beaten up by rifle butts, their hands were tightly bound behind their backs and they were prodded forward with bayonets to the edge of the cliff. They were then forced to sit facing the sea with their feet dangling over the edge. “We knew that we were going to be shot because on top of the bank were pools of blood and at the bottom of the cliff there were dozens of bodies,” stated Company Sergeant Major Hamlon of the Royal Rifles at the post-war War Crimes Trial. “It was evident that they had been shot on top of the cliff and fallen down. Then a firing squad came forward and we were all shot. Owing to the fact that I turned my head to the left as I was being fired at, the bullet passed through my neck and came out of my right cheek. I did not lose consciousness and the force of the bullet hitting me knocked me free from the others and I rolled down the cliff.” He lay at the cliff’s foot bleeding all day until dark when he moved “a mess of blood” into a dank cave where he remained shivering as Japanese sentries patrolled above.

  Later 54 bodies were found in the area. Many had been shot, others bayoneted to death and the rest beheaded.

  The Japanese were to commit other horrifying atrocities elsewhere.

  Notes

  1. Garneau, Grant, 1st Battalion The Royal Rifles of Canada, Bishop’s University, 1971, p. 90.

  2. Muir, A, The First of Foot, Edinburgh: The Royal Scots History Committee, 1961, p. 71.

  3. Rollo, Denis, The Guns and Gunners of Hong Kong, The Gunners’ Roll of Hong Kong, 1991, p. 132.

  4. Luff, John, ‘The Hidden Years’, South China Morning Post, 1967, pp. 99–105.

  CHAPTER 13

  Slaughter and Manoeuvre:

  The Japanese Advance

  West and South

  20th-24th December 1941

  By dawn on 20th December Western Brigade was holding an ill-defined and confused line. In the north was Z Company of the Middlesex at Leighton Hill with Rajput survivors. The Royal Scots held the centre including part of Mount Nicholson. D Company of the Winnipeg Grenadiers, isolated and unsupported, were still hanging on at the Wong Nei Chong Gap. The line then swung south through Little Hong Kong and Shouson Hill. Most of the Winnipeg Grenadiers, less D Company, had withdrawn to reorganise on the slopes of Mount Cameron.

  That morning the Japanese began to force their way west, first in the direction of the Naval Base at Aberdeen. Meanwhile, they continued to ferry troops across the harbour from Kowloon. The British shelled the likely crossing places, but direct observation of the landing points was now impossible.

  Brigadier A Peffers, Maltby’s senior staff officer, tried to encourage Lieutenant Colonel Sutcliffe commanding the Winnipeg Grenadiers, who had been ordered that night to clear all Mount Nicholson. The Battalion “had earlier withdrawn from its position somewhat precipitately. I spoke to Sutcliffe. He seemed tired, discouraged and distressed, saying his men were exhausted, as indeed they and everyone else were,” Peffers stated. “I told him he could have six hours rest and that his Battalion must be ready after that to take its place again in the line. It did so and put up a grand show in the final days.”1

  Maltby’s staff officers in the Fortress HQ battlebox were getting equally exhausted. The General Staff Officer Grade 1 (GSO1) there was Colonel L A Newnham MC, the former Commanding Officer of the Middlesex Battalion. He had a long record of outstanding service; in the First World War he had been twice wounded and later served in Egypt, the Rhineland and Bermuda. “Colonel Newnham was constantly everywhere seeing for himself what was happening,” recalls a Warrant Officer of the Mid
dlesex who was aware that Newnham had visited Wallis up on the Mainland during the fighting there. “He was very reserved and conscientious, a strict teetotaller, non-smoker and a man who kept himself fit with golf and tennis under normal conditions. A first-class soldier, in fact,” wrote Captain Freddie Guest in his book, Escape from the Bloodied Sun.2 Guest came across him in the battlebox; Newnham “had been at it for five days and nights without a minute’s rest and was practically out on his feet. He simply refused to let up and the General was distinctly worried about him,” recalled Guest, who offered Newnham a light ale. He drank it reluctantly, being a teetotaller, looked surprised and immediately flopped into a chair and was asleep. Guest had laced the drink with a stiff measure of neat whisky!

  The temptation for Maltby’s staff officers in Fortress HQ to survive the bitter fighting by remaining in total safety at their posts 20 feet underground was resisted by one and all.

  On the 20th Major Charles Boxer took a staff car and drove, presumably by the western road patrolled by John Harris, to the Repulse Bay Hotel. He found that the celebrated cocktail bar had become an emergency hospital filled by many wounded, including sailors from the abandoned destroyer Thracian, which had been heavily damaged and deliberately grounded.

  Boxer saw a company of Punjabis falling back in disorder after trying to attack Japanese Gunners on Brick Hill, to the southwest of the Ridge. The Company’s officers had all become casualties. Impulsively, Boxer tried to lead them out of a gully but was shot in the back by a sniper. Boxer’s biographer states he was wounded near Brick Hill, but this action could have taken place farther northeast. He lay seriously wounded for hours before he was rushed to a hospital’s morgue.

  Others on Maltby’s staff who became casualties included Captain T M Pardoe, a brilliant Chinese and Japanese linguist; he was killed by a shell when visiting units. Major G E Neve with two other staff officers had been ambushed when on a reconnaissance. As they got out of the car grenades were thrown at them; Neve died a few days later.