83 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

This morning when I went to the office, I found that the situation had worsened.  I don’t really believe that anyone thinks that it will come to anything.  We have had so many flaps and lived in a state of tension for so long that we have become blasé.  We live only for the day when the rather annoying precautions that interfere with our private amusements are once more considered unnecessary.  This is more serious than most.  The Hong Kong Regiment have been ordered to get their ammunition onto their mainland positions.

I will here attempt to outline the plan for the defence of the colony.

((For General Maltby’s account of the defences of HK and the battle go to http://www.britain-at-war.org.uk/WW2/London_Gazette/hong_kong/index.htm))

For the past two years the intention had been merely to deny the use of the harbour to the enemy and to hold the island at all costs.  It was realised that it was impossible to hold the colony in sufficient strength to enable it to be used as a Naval Base.  No attempt was to be made to hold the mainland or Kowloon.  A small force consisting of Bu of infantry (Punjab Regt) with some armoured cars of the H.K.V.D.C. (Hong Kong Volunteers Defence Corps) were to cover the demolition parties and fight delaying actions on the Taipo and Castle Peak roads, eventually withdrawing more or less intact to the island.  A company of the Rajputs were to fight a delaying action on the Devil’s Peak Peninsula.  No artillery was to be deployed on the mainland.  The infantry would get such artillery support as was possible from the C.D. ((Coastal Defence)) guns (Stanley Battery could reach targets a little beyond Shatin Station) and, in the latter stages during the withdrawal from Kowloon, from the 6” Hows ((Howitzers)) of the Hong Kong Regt. 

On initial deployment all the guns of the Hong Kong Regt. went to prepared positions on the island.  The Rajput Regt. occupied the N.E and S.E sectors, the Royal Scots occupied the S.W sector while the N.W or city sector was to be occupied by the Punjabs on withdrawal from the mainland.  There was a very small general reserve, consisting, so far as I remember, of two companies, one from the Scots the other from the Rajputs.  They were also responsible for internal security!  The Middlesex Regt. a Machine Gun Battalion, occupied pillboxes built on the beaches all round the island.  In addition there were the Coast and AA Artillery Regiments who manned positions already prepared and finally the Hong Kong volunteers, who provided the officers and men for four improvised C.D. Batteries, one section of heavy A.A., numerous light A.A. machine guns, armoured cars, various pill boxes, local defence platoons, medical and engineering units.

The arrival of the Canadians entailed great changes in this plan.  In addition to the island, Devil’s Peak Peninsula was now to be held at all costs.  The “inner line”, a great belt of pill boxes and wire, constructed in the time of General Bartholomew, on the northern slopes of the ring of hills encircling Kowloon, was to be held in force by three Battalions for about six weeks, whilst the island would be held against any attack from the sea by the Coast Defences in which I include the B.D Bty and the two Canadian Battallions.  For artillery support on the mainland there were two four gun 3.7 How Btys in pack; one four gun How Bty with so negligible a quantity of M.T. that it was almost immobile and one four gun 6” How Bty which was in a somewhat similar state.  Some 60 pdr guns of a very old mark and some ammunition was found in the ordnance depots.  These were emplaced on Stonecutters Island but came under the orders of H.Q. mainland R.A.

The little notebook that became Mrs Grace Smith’s diary of her time in Stanley Internment Camp was not shiny and new. We might surmise that it had once belonged to a teacher. It appears to show part of their weekly timetable, teaching Forms 3A and 3B.

It is believed that Mrs Smith was completely blind, which poses the unanswered question, “Who wrote it for her?”

On Sunday morning I had to go over to Kowloon railway station to move all the heavy camp equipment, which had come in by rail from Fanling, out of the railway trucks onto lorries and take it to the store;  the lorries were loaded and just about to move off when I received an urgent phone message from the Adjutant to the effect that I was to put the stores back in the railway trucks and return to Hongkong with my lorries immediately.  This looked like the real thing, as they were not going to waste time and money on unloading and loading stores unless there was some real urgency.

I therefore immediately rang up Percy Cox, at his bungalow at Fanling and was lucky in finding him still home – it was 10 a.m. and he was usually on the links by that time.  I asked him to please take a message to Uncle Pat, who had no phone, to come back to Hongkong immediately and stay with me;  I explained my reason to Cox and advised him to return to Hongkong also.  Cox went across to the bungalow and he and Uncle Pat discussed the situation.  They decided that if there was any real urgency a warning would have been issued by the police and elected to stay on and enjoy their Sunday at Fanling, one on the links and the other in his garden, and to return to Hongkong on Monday morning.

HKVDC have been mobilised since this morning.  ((Mabel and Sid were having lunch at Dairy Farm in town when some one called for silence and said that Army & Navy personnel should return to their barracks immediately.))

Lots of people think there will not be things happening here (HK) at first.

Mum, Olive and I played tennis with Mr Bendall in afternoon, then to his house for dinner.

Methodist minister Joseph Sandbach is conducting a service in the middle of the defence line in the New Territories. He notices the continual activity of runners carrying messages and realises something's about to happen.

The new Colonial Secretary, Franklin Gimson, arrives. He finds a Colony preparing to be attacked.

A State of Emergency is announced. Troops are ordered into position, and the Volunteers are called up.

An afternoon radio broadcast alerts some civilians to the call up of the troops and of the workers in Essential Services. But some people continue 'the usual social round, unaware or uninterested in the fact that the soldiers were proceeding to their battle stations'.

American oilman Norman Briggs doesn't notice anything unusual in the morning - 'it was just an ordinary Sunday'. But in the afternoon he takes his dog for a walk around Lugard Road 'which encircles the Peak and (gives) an excellent view of the harbor'. He notices that there are fewer ships there than usual, and he remembers a conversation yesterday about ships going to Manila and Singapore; but as Hong Kong is a busy port he still isn't overly concerned. 

Hilda Selwyn-Clarke, wife of the Director of Medical Services, and her friend Margaret Watson are planning to have dinner at Shatin with Dr. Isaac Newton, chief surgeon at the Kowloon Hospital. Watson rings up Newton and says that Hilda had decided she must leave Kowloon for Hong Kong Island. Watson accompanies her. Newton is aware of the Volunteer call up but doesn't feel that the Japanese will act before the result of the Moscow fighting is known.

Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation employee M. G. 'Mike' Carruthers tells the Chief Manager Sir Vandeleur Grayburn that he, as a Volunteer, has been called up. Sir Vandeleur looks at him in horror and tells him he can't go - 'this is going to blow over'.

Director of Medical Services Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke has told Hong Kong University biologist G. A. C. Herklots to devise a 'siege biscuit' that will provide the population with basic nutrition during a siege of three months or so. Herklots, as part of a broader programme of nutritional preparation, set about his work:

With the enthusiastic co-operation of a master baker ((Thomas Edgar)) and after about thirty trials, it was found possible to make a hard siege-ration biscuit from this meal and whole wheat flour.

The biscuit is thoroughly tested and proves palatable to all sections of the population. Today an improved version is devised, presumably at Lane, Crawford's Bakery in Stubbs Rd:

On the day before the Japanese attacked, a satisfactory biscuit was made which contained added calcium carbonate and shark liver oil.

Production will stop on December 15 when the Bakery has more urgent tasks.

New Zealander James L. Anderson is in charge of the Kowloon radio station. He's living with fellow Hong Kong Telephone Company employee Les Fisher. During the course of the day they realise that war is about to start, so in the evening they go to the Majestic to cheer themselves up:

The picture we saw was 'The Long Journey Home', very good but most depressing.

In the evening New Zealand writer James Bertram returns from Lantau Island where he's been visiting a well known Buddhist businessman, 'Hermit Yen'. With him are Norman France, a lecturer at Hong Kong University, and his neighbour Stephen Balfour:

{Balfour was} one of the few good Chinese scholars the colonial service had produced. France and Balfour between them summed up what was for Hong Kong a rare combination of culture and intellectual interest; both of them were to be casualties of the war.

Missionaries Mr. and Mrs. H. F. Collier have come to Hong Kong to get dental treatment and buy supplies for their station at Yeung Kong. It's getting close to the time of return, and they're spending the day with Chinese Christian friends:

We were a happy party together, and the day passed quickily without our having any thought that it was the last day of quietness and comfort that we should see for many years.

Sources:

Sandbach: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80004743

Gimson: Tony Banham, Not The Slightest Chance, 2003, 15

Emergency, Social Round: Tony Banham, Not The Slightest Chance, 2003, 17; John Luff, The Hidden Years, 1967, 14

Afternoon broadcast: Bernard Tohill, 'Some Notes From A Diary Of The Years 1941-1942'

Briggs: Norman Briggs, Taken In Hong Kong, 2006, Kindle Edition, Location 491

Selwyn-Clarke, Watson, Newton: Alan Birch and Martin Cole, Captive Christmas, 1979, 5

Grayburn: Frank H. H. King, History of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Volume 111, 1988, 569

Herklots: https://jonmarkgreville2.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/thomass-work-1/

Fisher: Les Fisher, I Will Remember, 1996, 11

Bertram: James Bertram, Beneath The Shadow, 1947, 69-70

Colliers: F. D. and H. F. Collier, Covered Up In Kowloon, 1947, 16

Notes:

1) M. G. Carruthers was seconded to the Middlesex Regiment to provide local knowledge and ended up being told to carry the white flag around the line after the surrender. He was awarded the Military Cross for 'this and related activities'.

Frank King, History of the HKSBC, Volume 111, 1988, 571

2) See for more on:

death of Balfour: http://gwulo.com/node/11602

death of France: http://gwulo.com/node/13841

the siege biscuits: https://jonmarkgreville2.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/thomass-work-5-the-si…

((Note: Staff-Sergeant Sheridan's task if war breaks out will be to evacuate the Queen's Rd. Bakery and set up a Field Bakery on the Deepwater Bay Golf Course - hence his interest!))

Today is a beautiful sunny morning, we start off early on the same work as yesterday and keep going until darkness fell. All troops are ordered to standby. We see the Canadians marching to their positions on the Island defences. The Royal Scots and the two Indian Regiments are in position on the Mainland near the border with China. It is obvious they will catch the brunt of any attack. As I pass by Deepwater Bay golf club the golfers are on the lovely green in front of the club house, while others are sipping their drinks on the verandah. Some people are enjoying a swim with no thought of war being imminent. There must be something in the wind, G.H.Q. staff are preparing to move into Battle HQ, a huge underground structure just behind the Garrison Sgts. Mess.

S/Sgt. Merrifield, my room mate who now works in the transport office has had a very tiring day. We both turn in early, I am sound asleep as soon as my head touches the pillow.