The photograph shown above is of the Station Flight at Kai Tak in 1939 in front of one of its Vildebeeste torpedo bombers. It was found in the wallet of a former member of the Flight who died in Japanese captivity and it is interesting to reflect that these are the faces of some of the men destined to defend the Colony in 1941. Scraps of information gleaned from various sources, including his sister who recently visited Kai Tak, have enabled the following cameo to be produced of the fitter from whose wallet this photograph was taken.
Sergeant George Brass: a name you have never heard of and there is no reason why any of the present inhabitants of Kai Tak should be familiar with it. Yet George Brass lived and worked at Kai Tak in those supposedly halycon pre-war days when Kai Tak was in the country and one could canter on horseback down Nathan Road. It is not that there is a great deal to say about George but what we do know helps to bring alive the bricks and mortar of pre-war and war-time Kai Tak.
George Brass was a Scotsman, born in Inverness, who had been trained as an aircraft apprentice at Halton. He was posted to Kai Tak in October 1938 as a Fitter I and travelled out on the same ship as a well-known resident, Ralph Hardy. He lived in the present "B" Block and worked at Station Flight on the obsolete Vickers Vildebeeste torpedo bombers which formed the Colony's only air defence. When war came to Kai Tak with such crushing finality on 8th December 1941, George Brass was on duty at the machine gun mounted on the roof on top of the present Station Headquarters (SHQ). He saw the thirty-one Japanese aircraft sweep over Lion Rock, machine gun and bomb the three Vildebeestes parked immediately in front of SHQ on the site currently occupied by the tennis and basketball courts. He saw the newly arrived Station Commander, Wing Commander H. G. Sullivan, vainly trying to extinguish a burning Videbeeste and in those few minutes witnessed the demise of British air power in the Colony. However, he was one of the few in a position to return the Japanese fire - but without success.
Following demolition at Kai Tak and the withdrawal to the Island on 10th December, he was finally captured when Hong Kong surrendered on 25th December. The next year was spent in the prisoner of war camp at Shamshuipo - the buildings which housed the POWs still exist - and then in January 1943 he sailed on the MV Tatuta Maru. Little of the rest is known: a year of work in a Japanese mine killed George Brass. But he is not forgotten; for each year at 2 pm on 2oth October a service of remembrance is held in the Pagoda of World Peace at the Junganji Temple, Osaka for all British servicemen who died in Japan.
Source:
The photograph and article appeared in "Gau Lung" - official magazine of RAF Kai Tak, Vol. No. 10 dated March 1969. Some of the information contained therein may no longer be current due to the passage of time.
Notes:
(1) MV Tatuta Maru was previously known as the Tatsuta_Maru
(2) Five obsolete aircraft were stationed at RAF Kai Tak on 8th December 1941: three Vildebeeste torpedo bombers (K2924, K2818 and K6370) and a pair of Walrus biplane amphibians (L2259 and L2819).
Comments
RAF Kai Tak - LAC George Brass
The photograph shown above is of the Station Flight at Kai Tak in 1939 in front of one of its Vildebeeste torpedo bombers. It was found in the wallet of a former member of the Flight who died in Japanese captivity and it is interesting to reflect that these are the faces of some of the men destined to defend the Colony in 1941. Scraps of information gleaned from various sources, including his sister who recently visited Kai Tak, have enabled the following cameo to be produced of the fitter from whose wallet this photograph was taken.
Sergeant George Brass: a name you have never heard of and there is no reason why any of the present inhabitants of Kai Tak should be familiar with it. Yet George Brass lived and worked at Kai Tak in those supposedly halycon pre-war days when Kai Tak was in the country and one could canter on horseback down Nathan Road. It is not that there is a great deal to say about George but what we do know helps to bring alive the bricks and mortar of pre-war and war-time Kai Tak.
George Brass was a Scotsman, born in Inverness, who had been trained as an aircraft apprentice at Halton. He was posted to Kai Tak in October 1938 as a Fitter I and travelled out on the same ship as a well-known resident, Ralph Hardy. He lived in the present "B" Block and worked at Station Flight on the obsolete Vickers Vildebeeste torpedo bombers which formed the Colony's only air defence. When war came to Kai Tak with such crushing finality on 8th December 1941, George Brass was on duty at the machine gun mounted on the roof on top of the present Station Headquarters (SHQ). He saw the thirty-one Japanese aircraft sweep over Lion Rock, machine gun and bomb the three Vildebeestes parked immediately in front of SHQ on the site currently occupied by the tennis and basketball courts. He saw the newly arrived Station Commander, Wing Commander H. G. Sullivan, vainly trying to extinguish a burning Videbeeste and in those few minutes witnessed the demise of British air power in the Colony. However, he was one of the few in a position to return the Japanese fire - but without success.
Following demolition at Kai Tak and the withdrawal to the Island on 10th December, he was finally captured when Hong Kong surrendered on 25th December. The next year was spent in the prisoner of war camp at Shamshuipo - the buildings which housed the POWs still exist - and then in January 1943 he sailed on the MV Tatuta Maru. Little of the rest is known: a year of work in a Japanese mine killed George Brass. But he is not forgotten; for each year at 2 pm on 2oth October a service of remembrance is held in the Pagoda of World Peace at the Junganji Temple, Osaka for all British servicemen who died in Japan.
Source:
The photograph and article appeared in "Gau Lung" - official magazine of RAF Kai Tak, Vol. No. 10 dated March 1969. Some of the information contained therein may no longer be current due to the passage of time.
Notes:
(1) MV Tatuta Maru was previously known as the Tatsuta_Maru
(2) Five obsolete aircraft were stationed at RAF Kai Tak on 8th December 1941: three Vildebeeste torpedo bombers (K2924, K2818 and K6370) and a pair of Walrus biplane amphibians (L2259 and L2819).